Wine Travel and Tasting in California (March 2004)

    Lil and I used our spring break to go out to Sonoma and visit a couple of our favorite wineries. This time, we were lucky enough to Have Lil's family join us for a greating afternoon of tastings. We started off at Siduri. We had meet with Adam in December, but this time we were tasted by Mark Zengilowski (we first met Mark a couple of years ago). Mark poured for us the '02 Central Coast, '02 Garys', '02 Keefer as well as the Novy line including the '02 Carlisle Zin. Normally, this can be a very cold place to taste, but given the heat wave hitting the Bay area in March, the facility was at an ideal temperature to taste. The Central Coast is a belnd of fruit including some Garys' and Pisoni and is a typical large-scale Central Coast pinot. For the money, a great value. While I really enjoy the Garys', the surprise for me

After the three pinots, Mark opened a couple of the Novy label syrahs. Novy is a joint partnership between the Lees and Dianna's family. We had never tasted the syrahs from Novy so we were quite curious. We tried the '00 Napa and the '00 Garys Vineyard (of Gary Pisoni and Gary Franscioni). The Napa was lighter than I like in syrahs but the Garys was quite intense with great black fruit and a long finish. For the money, I would go with the Garys.
 

    We started out at Carlisle located in a rented warehouse facility in Santa Rosa. Mike Officer, the owner, wine maker and head guru, was kind enough to taste us on a number of barrel samples of the '01 zins, and his '01 Rhone wines. The zins were uniformly excellent! We tasted a number of zins that were just about to be bottled (including the '01 Sonoma County and the first ever release of the Carlisle Vineyard) as well as some that will appear in the fall mailer. What is amazing about the wines is that the high alcohol is hidden by a wealth of gorgeous red and black fruit--none of the "hot finish" that you so often get with these big zins. The wines are balanced and drinking well right now out of barrel. We particularly liked the Sonoma (especially at the pre-release price point) and the Carlisle Vineyard was simply tremendous. Another zin to look out for is the Ribly scheduled for release in the fall.

As you can see from the photos, Mike and I had a wide-ranging conversation, and he was kind enough to spend a couple of hours talking about his philosophy and his wines. Mike still has a day job, and Carlisle is a night and weekend operation (amazing!!). He hopes in the next couple of years to go legit and do the gig full time. While he has a deft touch with zin, he is building his bones on his Rhone wines. Having recently spent time in Australia, Mike admits that he is still learning how to handle syrah and make a GSM. His "three birds" GSM scheduled for release now is to my palate very similar in style to the Brunel Somelongue '00 (he even talks about the wines having a Les Cailloux quality). We were tasted on the '01 syrah, and wow it looks stunning. Unfortunately, he was all out of the '01 petite syrah so those on the mailer should get their orders in fast in the fall for the syrah. What is amazing about Carlisle is that there is such quality and care in the bottle at such a reasonable price. Other Cali wineries could learn from Mike.

 

    The next day, Lil and I made our way north to Healdsburg and a now routine stop at Belvedere/Bradford Mountain. We first tried the Bradford Mountain '99 Grist zin at a tasting held in Champaign and were blown away. The Grist vineyard (of Turley fame) is planted to zin, cab and syrah. The first vintage of the Bradford Grist was '98 (we have not tried this vintage). We retasted the '99 back in August at the winery and found it to be humming (we still have about 3/4ths of a case left in our cellar). Once again, we were tasted by Larry (the then Assistant Tasting Room Manager who has now left to take his comedy act to LA). While Belvedere on the outside might look like a typical corporate winery, Alyson Aase (Tasting Room Manager) makes sure that those with an interest in the Bradford wines are treated very, very well. Larry was kind enough to pour a vertical of the Grist zin from '99, '00 (not yet on the market) and a barrel sample pulled for us of the '01. Unfortunately, the '02 had just had a sulfur treatment and could not be tasted. As you see from the first photo, Larry also poured a couple of the Belvedere zins for comparison. The '00 still has a few months before release, and I found that it and the '01 still had not yet absorbed all the French oak (at least 50% up to 100% is new). The '00 and '01 had a waxy, vanillin nose and entry dominated by butterscotch. Much of the flavor profile was still dominated by the new oak and should be more integrated in a year or so. If the '99 is any indication, the fruit will eventually come out!!!

After the vertical, Larry took Lil and I down to do some barrel tasting. We have been fortunate enough to do quite a bit of barrel tasting, but this was the first time that we tried such young wine. Some of the wine had just been put into barrel ten days before we tried it. Larry tasted us on the syrah from Bradford Mountain as well as some cab franc, cab and pinot. At this young age, it is very difficult for us to judge the wines. The oak was so dominate that the flavor profiles of the individual varietals was difficult to ascertain (except for the cab franc which was tight as a drum). The only problem with barrel tasting is that afterwards your teeth are so black, that you really should go to the dentist to have them whitened!!!
    A few days later, Lil and I braved the horrible Bay area rain to drive to Napa and meet with Barbara Richards of Paloma. Generally, I am not a big fan of Cali merlot, but like Pride, Paloma's merlot is not whimpy (not surprising since they are neighbors on Spring Mountain). We met Barbara at Paloma's tasting room (also known as the Richards family kitchen!!!). The view outside the kitchen of the 15 acres of planted merlot and syrah is incredible (although the mountain rain and fog really obscured our view). Barbara told us that sadly the vines that they had planted in the mid-1980s are suffering from phylloxera and will probably be pulled out in a couple of years. We tried the '00 merlot which is much more tame than some of the other Paloma vintages (the first release was the '94). Barbara feels that the '00 is much like the '98, but that the '99 is a huge, monster merlot that will last for at least a decade.

    A few days later, Lil, my brother-in-law Pablo and I drove down to Paso Robles for the first time. Paso is still a sleepy town with a number of wineries near the downtown area as well as west of town. The major reason we drove to Paso was to go to our Grace land, Turley Winery. The tasting room for Turley has only been open a year and is a great place for those not on the mailing list to pick-up bottles at almost the mailer cost (plus 10%). The tasting room and wine facilities are located at the old Pesenti Winery. Turley must have bought the Pesenti stock of wines in the deal because at the tasting room they were pouring Pesenti (pre-Turley) as well as Turley wines. We tried the '98 and the '99 Pesenti. The '98 reflected the vintage. It had high acidity and a pinched finish. Even at $10, I would not buy the wine. The '99 was much more generous. The fruit was more forward and a good value at $15 (although, Carlisle on pre-release priced their '01 Sonoma at $18 which is a steal!!!). What was so impressive was to follow-up these wines with the first Turley-made and labeled Pesenti ('00). Same vineyard, same fruit--completely different wines. The '00 Pesenti was more extracted and much more fruit forward. The wine was well balanced and the fruit and wood completely integrated. Just shows what Jordan can do with good fruit. We also tried the '00 Dogtown and '00 Moore Earthquake. Frankly of all of Turley's bottlings (and there are many), I have never been that big a fan of the Dogtown. The first release of this Lodi fruit was the '97. We had this along with every '97 zin and '97 petite syrah Turley released at a tasting conducted in New York City by Acker Merrall. The Dogtown was my least favorite. Well, the times are a changin'! The '00 Dogtown was incredible. Intense nose of blackberries, cherries and  a hint of mocha. The wine was brambly and had a long finish. One of the best zins we tried during the two weeks. The Moore '00 is usually one of my top three or four Turley zins, but the '00 is much more restrained than previous vintages. Great fruit and very seamless but not the power that I am looking for in a Turley zin. We finished off with the '98 Delinquent. This is a fortified zin port. They took the '94 Tofanelli zin and made it into cognac and then blended the cognac into portions  of the '98 Tofanelli zin. Unlike cab-based Cali ports, the Delinquent is much more subtle and lighter and to my palate a better desert wine. The wine has great black fruit intermixed with a boat load of coconut.

    We also made other stops in Paso (including Garreteson Wine Company), but I want to finish with another small operation, Windward Winery. My father-in-law is a big pinot fanatic, and Windward produces only one estate grown pinot (very unusual for Paso). Marc Goldberg (the owner, wine maker and as he would put it "vineyard sheppard") was kind enough to pour us a vertical of the '97, '98, '99, '00 and '01 and barrel taste the '02. All of the wines were excellent, especially to my palate the '97 and the '99. These are not highly extracted, intense pinots like what you might find at Siduri but more restrained. The '97 showed that these wines are built for cellaring as it still had years to go and the additional age brought out more secondary characteristics. We highly recommend a stop!!

    Along the way, we bought a ton of wine at some of our favorite stores. Shockingly, we only bought one bottle of Cali wine (a sign of the times???). We bought almost exclusively Bordeaux. There are some great deals out there for the '97s and '99s. I know that '97 was a mediocre vintage, but Las Cases at $60 and Pichon Baron at $29??? You can't go wrong at those prices. Oh well, until next time.