Friday, March 23, 2012

What Is Black Sears Vineyard, And Why Should You Care?

One of my biggest complaints about California wines, and Napa cabs in particular, is that they have no sense of place. With that in mind, I ventured to the Howell Mountain AVA Spring Tasting earlier this week. It was a revelation. These were wines that not only had tremendous flavor profiles, but they all had a definite sense of place, they could only come from Howell Mountain.

What are the characteristics of this AVA? First is vibrant dark fruit with some very interesting earth notes. This is a result of being on a mountain and the fruit taking much longer to ripen. As a result, these wines are very big with some big and chewy tannins. But what I found to be the most defining marker in all these wines were their juicy acidity, they made you want to come back for more.

Did I say acidity in cabernets. You betcha! And when mixed with these huge tannins you had a delightful combo that led to long finishes. I found this combination in all the wines I sampled, cabs, zins and the petit sirah.

So what is Black Sears Vineyard? It is perhaps the most incredible zinfandel vineyard in California. That's a really outlandish claim, but I have been tasting wines from this state for over 20 years and I have never come across zins like the three I tasted from this vineyard. The first, Black Sears Estate Zinfandel was luscious with lots of plum fruit, but not jammy. And then the acidity, rare for a zin took over. Wow!

Next was a vertical of zins from this vineyard made by V. Sattui. I work at this winery, and it was their 2009 that alerted me to the uniqueness of this vineyard location. Their 2008 was special, with jammy fruit and the mouth watering acidity. The 1997 was still youthful, very unusual for a 15 year old zin.

The final zin was from the Robert Craig Winery. This was an elegant wine, nuanced and very restrained. It had well developed tannins, and again, that stunning acidity. All of these wines sell for between $40 and $50 per bottle.

All these wines from Howell Mountain were truly special, yet the zins made from the Black Sears Vineyard are truly worth seeking out. They are unique wines that scream a sense of place.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Italian Wine Masters

This event has left me speechless. Great wines, well presented.

A little background. While studying wine at the Culinary Institute of America, I fell in love with Italian red wines, particularly Brunellos and Vino Nobiles. The fruit, acidity and herbal characteristics make for a great food and wine pairing experience. So when an invitation arrived announcing The Masters of Italian Wines, concentrating on the wines of Tuscany, I was sold.

This event had three parts, an introduction to Procseco, A Master Tasting of of Chianti, Vino Nobiles and Brunellos, and a walk around tasting of over 114 Italian wineries. In the words of an old Cstore commercial, there was too much good stuff, actually great stuff.

I am only going to extensively comment on the master tasting as there was just too much to keep track in the walk around tasting. The first flight were Chianti Classico Riservas. The 2008 from Fontodi was extremely fruit forward with hints of balsamic and oak, with some very nice aromatics and oak. The finish was smooth and long with some kick ass tannins. The second wine,  also a 2008, from Rocca had a radically different nose. This one was very herbal, almost mushroom like, with fruit and balsamic as supporting characteristics and a smooth and long finish with chewy tannins. Both wines were outstanding, and I would happily serve them.

The last wine of the flight, a 1993 from Felsina, was the most interesting, but ultimately, not my favorite wine. I do not have the opportunity to taste aged Sangioveses, and found it to remarkably youthful. Very large tannins, but the fruit kind of gave out in the mid pallet. A facinating study, and I would have loved to had some food to match this wine. In general, these were not your father's Chianti, they were all very well made and downright tasty.

We then moved on to the Vino Nobiles. This flight was a revelation. Full of fruit, herbal scents, dark red fruit, great acidity, very integrated tanins and a finish that went on forever. My favorite of the flight was the Poliziano 2007 which was a from a single vineyard calle d Asinone. I could just smell this wine and be happy. On the pallete it was lush, with loads for fruit, a tremendous acidity on the mid pallet and it screamed to have a great braised dish served with it. Some Osso Bucco would have been perfect.

Then came the Brunellos. Again, we had two recent releases, which were very young, and an aged selection from 1994. The Vill Poggio Salvi 1994 was spectacular with hints of tar, carmel and leather and surprisingly young tannins. The herbal/Balsamic edge on the nose was still there, even with the fruit having recessed into the the wood and herbal tones. It was a great wine that demanded food, particularly a braised game dish.

My personal favorite of the Brunellos was the Fanti 2008. Great fruit, great body, smooth and well integrated tanins, just wonderful, yet young. I'd like to revisit this wine in 5 years.

The walk around tasting was just overwhelming. There was just too much wine to take notes. Just suffice it to say, the quality of these wines were just over the top. For those who are not really up on Italian wines, may I suggest the web site Wines Till Sold Out, which features at least one Italian selection per day at a great price. It's a way to introduce yourself to these wines at really great price points.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Forgive Me Father For I Have Zinned

Last weekend saw the circus know as the ZAP Festival celebrating all things Zinfandel, come to town. One of the nice things about living in Northern California is that ZAP is one of five wine festivals that allow people to try almost every important wine produced in this state. March will see Rhone Rangers featuring all things Syrah, GSM, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussane. May is California Cabernet Society, June is Pinot Days, and August is Family Winemakers of California.

There are other really interesting geographical festivals as well. Paso Robles and Sonoma are the big ones that come to mind. Next week both the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Lucia region will have tastings. Later next month Howell Mountain will host and event. So you can see, if you live in this area, you have many opportunities to sample the bounty of CA.

As last week was the Zinfandel Festival, lets concentrate on this enchanting grape. Originally from the Croatia area, this grape originally came to this country as a hot house variety grown back east for table grapes. It took Italian immigrants to realize that this grape can make great wine. It was extensively planted in California, usually in field blends with Allicante Bouchet, Petit Sirah, Carrignae and anything else they could put their hands on. These vineyards are now very rare. Several wineries make some exquisite blends from these very old vineyards. If you can find them, I recommend Edgewood Vineyard from Rudd, and Icon from Ravenswood. Great stuff.

For a very funny take on the history of this grape see the Paso Man Video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R3EnZdhYok.

There used to be a saying about the three Rs in Zinfandel: Ridge, Ravenswood and Rosenblum. Two of the three are now owned by large companies, but are Ravenswood and Rosenblum still making great wine. As stated above, Icon is a great wine from Ravenswood. And at the Grand Tasting I had the opportunity to sample Rosenblum's Monte Rosso Vineyard zin. It was very nice indeed. So these two icons appear to still be in very good hands.

Kent Rosenblum, one of the founders of ZAP is now consulting with Rock Wall Winery, which is owned by his daughter Shauna. I tasted two of their wines and they were quite good. Their version of Monte Rosso zin was particularly good.

Zinfandel usually does not age well. 5-7 years is about all you can expect to get out of a bottle. This is a function of how the cluster ripen in a very uneven fashion. You'll have green grapes and raisins all in the same cluster. Dr. Bernard Seps, owner and winemaker at Storybook Mountain, believes that a strict sorting regimen will give you a Zin that can age up to 20 years. Last year, while I was in the CIA's Wine Immersion Program, we had the privilege to taste some older vintages of his Eastern Exposures zinfandel. They were magnificent. I ended up purchasing several bottles of the 2000 and 1997 vintages for my cellar. This year, Dr. Seps was pouring his 2009 Eastern Exposures and it was clearly best in show. Great jammy fruit and brambles, and a hint of acid made this a great wine to drink now, and one that may age as well.

All in all, ZAP is a great show, and worth going to. I already have next years show on my calendar.