Some Random Thoughts

The Crystal Symphony was a seriously intensive food and wine exploration. It was so serious that I have been on detox since I came home so I have not had much to share with you. However, there are some thoughts that crossed my mind.

1. Several weeks ago I attended an interesting trade event at Sterling Vineyards where attendees had the opportunity to sample almost all of Diageo's California wines. They had Acacia covering Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Sterling with its moderately priced and widely available portfolio; Bealieu with its Napa Valley product line and Provenance with its Single Vineyard wines. To cap it off, Rosenblum provided zins and syrahs.

It is apparent that Diageo is attempting to cover all bases from simple varietal wines to sophisticated single vineyard reserves. The wines themselves ran from OK to something potentially special. I really liked the BV 07 Georges de LaTour Cab, as well as the Provenance 07 cab reserve. Another interesting point was that Acacia's two wines were made from Winery Lake Vineyard, formerly Sterling's pride and joy cool climate estate in the Carneros. Interesting.

2. Yesterday my Williams Selyem fall offering arrived in the mail. Having many wines in our house, including a lot from WS, I will only be ordering 6 bottles. The  return of the Olivet Lane vineyard to the WS lineup is the highlight of this offering. Up until 1995, this was one of their top vineyards, and then they lost the contract. At WS pick up weekend last fall, I tasted a barrel sample last year and I can't wait to taste it in the bottle.

3. In the WS newsletter, there is a discussion about how long to age the wine. Interesting as the Wine Spectator had an opinion piece from Matt Kramer on exactly that topic. I agree with Matt Kramer that most California wines peak at around 10 years. As for WS, I recently had the 99 Russian River Pinot Noir and it was spectacular with great cherry fruit, baking spices and some smokey funkiness that I just loved.

4. Speaking of Pinot Noirs, tomorrow I am attending the Pinot Noir shootout being held at Allen Farms and Vineyards. I have no idea what this is about, but hey I'm game.

5. My lull in events to attend ends tomorrow with the aforementioned Pinot Noir Shootout. This weekend Russian River Valley Winegrowers Hog In the Fog BBQ makes its annual appearence and Monday is Family Winemakers in San Francisco. Tough slog ahead, but someone has got to do it. And if that's not enough on August 29 I will be attending a Tempernillo Day Cookout.

Thanks for checking in, and if you can think of anything to add, please feel free to get in touch with me.