Guest Blogger: Brynn DeBarr

Livermore Valley

 

 

My three girlfriends and I met my sister, her boyfriend, and their two friends at Page Mill at about ten to noon on Saturday, May 4^th. We had just completed the Hike for Hope, which profits a local hospice organization. It was a gorgeous 4.4 mile hike at Del Valle Regional Park which was just a short 10-15 minute drive from the local Livermore wineries. We had planned on changing into flip flops and cute summer dresses, but we were pretty tired, and really just ready for some relaxation…and wine. As I was the designated driver, I decided to taste at just one winery. We puttered around in the Page Mill parking lot for about 10 minutes until about 11:59, and then walked inside. We were surprised to see a few other couples already tasting as we thought the winery opened at noon, but we quickly found a nice spot at the counter. My sister had said that most wineries don’t care for large groups, so we pretended that we were two groups of four (I don’t really think they cared either way, perhaps because it was early enough in the day.)

Page- Our first stop

I’m really not a wine aficionado, I pretty much like any chardonnay you put in front of me, and I know that wines are typically served white to red, and lighter to more bold. We started with a Sauvignon Blanc, not my favorite varietal, we then moved on to their Pinot Grigio, which I believe the server said was an award winner. I enjoyed their Chardonnay, especially as it had an oaky flavor.  Red wines and I are just becoming friendly, although I do tend to radiate toward a Zinfandel. Their Zin did not disappoint, however, it is only available for purchase by wine club members.  The tasting room was small, but intimate, they had the typical knick knacks you find at most tasting rooms, as well as some pretty funny cocktail (wine) napkins. There was a cute covered porch which I thought would be a darling place for a private tasting or to have lunch. The servers were all friendly ladies who probably couple their passion for wine (as evidenced by their bedazzled tee-shirts) with pleasant attitudes. Additionally, they had powdered sugar dusted, homemade brownie bites, and a few olive oils to sample. The tasting fee is a very reasonable $5. I wouldn’t come to this particular tasting room with a large crowd, but it would be perfect for a two or foursome.

Art at Big White House

We were in route to the Crooked Vine; I was following behind my sister’s boyfriend. I saw it on my right, but they passed it. We ended up at the end of the road at a winery called Big White House. The tasting room was neither big, nor white, but it had ample parking and some cute wine barrels carved like Jack-o-lanterns, so we decided to go in. This tasting room was more warehouse like, but had awesome artwork blanketing the walls. They also had a house dog, I think his actual name was “Alfie,” but we were told that this dog loved nothing more than rolling in the dirt, so he had received the nickname of “Dusty.” We were greeted warmly by the staff. After taking in the paintings, and taking a few pictures of the art that resembled some of my friends, the seven of them paid the meager $5 tasting fee. I was starting to feel the effects of the hike, as well as what would later be a pretty gnarly cold. I listened as they started talking to the servers. It turns out that one guy was a Cal Poly grad, like my sister, her boyfriend, and my friend Ashley. It was a hot day, so I decided to take a seat on one of the several Adirondack chairs outside. My friends followed and they were super stoked when one of the servers came out and refilled their glasses as we basked in the sun- that’s top notch service! To be honest, I’m not even sure what they tasted. I know that they had an opportunity to try two barrel tastes from wine that was going to be bottled sometime in the near future. We were alone initially, but a large group of late-twentysomethings showed up on their bikes. Next came a few couples, and then the first limo we’d seen all day. I love people watching, and I had a front row seat for all the action. I think we were at Big White House for about an hour and a half. We were getting pretty hungry so we asked for nearby restaurant recommendations. As it was such a nice day, we wanted something with outside dining. The server made a couple recommendations that were just up the road.

 

Tents at Garre Winery

We separated from my sister and her friends as they were going to do more wine tasting. We opted for a winery called Garre. They had a tasting room, as well as a café with indoor and outdoor dining. I also think that the space is used for weddings and other special occasions as we saw a large white tent set up. We were told to seat ourselves, which we did, under the cover of a few shady umbrellas outside. The menu was of decent size. I decided on a chicken chipotle sandwich; my friends had a pulled pork sandwich, and salmon salads. I opted for unlimited Diet Cokes and the girls got ice cold pale ales. They did have an extensive wine list as well. The food was good, and the service was too. I think that the Livermore valley has a lot to offer in the way of wineries. I had been here once before for a friend’s birthday. We had a limo and visited a few of the larger wineries, Wente and Concannon. Both of those wineries are very nice, and much larger. I think that they are more accustomed to catering to the larger parties, so I really think that you can customize your wine excursion to any size group. Tasting fees in Livermore rarely exceed $10, and it is a quick drive from most parts of the Bay Area. Plus, the weather is hard to beat in the springtime; then again, I like it hot!

 

 

 

Vitals-

Everything you need to know about Livermore area wineries.

http://www.lvwine.org/

 

Week 42 Update

The Weekend Wine Taster

Update

It has been a busy week so there is no official review of a particular winery or event.  But we did go 42 straight weeks and it is still our goal to make it 52 straight weeks with something to say.  I went back and looked at the posts for the past 42 weeks and although we did visit a lot of wineries we are still really just scratching the surface.  There were 60 wineries or events that we highlighted over the past 42 weeks.  These were not all of the wineries we visited either.  We only highlight tasting experiences that have been positive and there have been many that were not worthy of a positive review.  Also there are times when we have had a really good experience but then by the time you get around to writing about it your memory is a little thin.  Sometimes you are just so relaxed that you really are not thinking enough at the time to gather some needed facts.  For instance I see that there is only one post for a Mendocino County winery and I am sure when we did our last Anderson Valley trip we visited several wineries up there that we enjoyed.  I put together a recap of where we have gone and reviewed in the last 42 weeks which may factor into where we go and what we do over the next year or so. 

Sonoma County wineries were reviewed 18 times.  This may be because Sonoma County is so big and has so many wineries but also because it can be more affordable to taste in Sonoma in comparison with Napa and also because we made a couple of weekend trips where we were able to see several wineries in a day. 

Napa was next with 15 reviews including 2 dealing with food/restaurants and lodging.  Certainly the most impressive winery facilities are in the Napa area but with some tasting fees getting out of reach we tend to do a taste at one two in Napa wineries and are generally happy.  We do have 4 scheduled Napa tastings tomorrow and are going to a couple of new spots that look very impressive.

East Bay/Urban Wineries- We have become big fans.  We have reviewed 10 different East Bay wineries so far and for the most part really enjoy being fans of these establishments.  We hope there are more worthy of reviews.

 

The rest of the reviews have been scattered.  There is only one review of a Foothill winery so obviously we need to make a trip to Amador/Calaveras/El Dorado County.  The same goes for San Luis Obispo County since we have not mentioned a single Edna Valley winery.  We made only one trip to a ‘valley’ winery and this was Winters, not Lodi, where there are dozens of wineries.   No trips to Santa Barbara County or Santa Cruz either.  We did go to a couple of Festivals and plan on more of these (Rhone Rangers is next week) and possibly some more wine bars also.  We have lots to look forward to in2013 and beyond.

 

One way or another we will get the posts categorized by the time week 52 or 53 hits and then moving forward we’ll continue to add posts but probably not at a one a week pace.

The Weekend Wine Taster

Champagne Tasting

Champagne Tasting- 2013

(Domestic Sparkling Wine) 

Every January we host a Champagne Tasting at our house.  I know, it is not proper to call it Champagne (true Champagne only comes from France) but, come on, that is what most of us call it so that is  how we are going to refer to it in this posting.  Our invitations say to bring a Domestic Sparkling Wine and let’s face it, domestic pretty much means California right, because what else is there?   We have someone not involved with the tasting quickly cover the bottles as people arrive.  This year we used aluminum foil and it works great. Then we try to get the bottles equally chilled and while the bottles are coming to an equal temperature we offer the guests (tasters) appetizers and a beer or glass of wine to get their taste buds working. Nowadays we have some people that ask for water and I am not too hard on them.  I of course know that I am not going anywhere else the rest of the day so I am ready to party.  We try to start around 1 or 2 because Champagne after all is better earlier in the day.

About two hours prior to the start of the Tasting I remember that I have not put together any Evaluation Forms so I quickly crank something out.  The forms are generally not too tricky.  I list the tastes, one through however many we pour, maybe 10 or 11, and you record your impressions, give them a rating on a scale of 10, and then hopefully give them a ranking of all the Champagnes tasted (your favorite down to your least favorite).  Of course the ranking can be quite difficult because sometimes you do not clearly remember what you drank four or five tastes earlier. 

One of the key requirements of a successful Champagne Tasting event is good music at a listenable level for most of us that really enjoy the music but not too loud for those that really don’t care or just don’t get it.  A friend of mine and I usually introduce our new compilation CD on this day which is a broad mix of Folk, Rock and Roll, Americana and Pop dating from 1968 to present day.  We have usually worked for weeks narrowing down the CD to 16 songs (8 from each) with artist as varied as Glenn Campbell, to Adele, but almost always with a dose of one of our favorites (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Van Morrison, and so on).  The goal is to find tunes that sound good today and will sound good 10 years from now. So again, the music is important.

Over the years I have assembled quite a few champagne glasses. I like it that everyone is able to drink from a new glass for every taste.  It amazes me that you can find decent champagne glasses for as little as a $1.00.  Every year World Market has a sale on champagne glasses the week before New Years and that is my usual store but Ikea has some pretty good deals also.  Unfortunately the glasses available are rarely the exact same shape year after year so we have quite an assortment. At his point I certainly have enough glasses for a toast with a group of maybe 125 people.  But even this year at the end of the day there were only 3 glasses not touched.  The instructions to the pourer is that the same person gets the same style of glasses for each of their tastes but that does not always work out.

The first bottle is opened (without looking at the cork) and the bottle is marked #1.  Each of the participants are provided a glass and encouraged to make notes.  There are usually lots of comments initially and definitely lots of oohs and aahs. Subsequent bottles are opened and poured and marked with maybe 5-7 minutes between each pour.  This year I think we had maybe 10-11 different tastes.  There have been years when two participants have brought the same wine and I usually have a few extra bottles available but usually 10-11 is enough.  I think it is not uncommon for someone to forget to record their notes on a specific taste.  I know I did this this year. 

 

Nearly all the champagnes were good.  There was one that was voted a stinker by all of us and it was not a function of one person saying something bad and everyone jumping on the bandwagon.  It truly was below all the others.  What is typical though is there is rarely a single taste that stands way above the others.  Our group probably represents the common champagne drinker or maybe just a notch more sophisticated than the average drinker.  The champagnes tasted included the standard batch of champagnes that you see in the grocery store.  Represented were Domaine Carneros, Roderer, Mumm, Domaine Chandon,  Scharffenberger,   Gloria Ferrer and Piper Sonoma.  There was also a sparkling wine from New Mexico winery (yes there is champagne made outside of California) named Gruet.  Then there were two non domestic sparkling wines, one of them a Piper Heidsieck from France and the other a Prosecco from Italy. 

The champagne with the most first place votes was the Piper Sonoma but it was certainly was not a landslide.  Piper Sonoma is made in Hopland, CA  at a contract facility and is one of lower priced champagnes in the group.  It received more first place votes than the Piper-Heidsieck, (parent company of Piper Sonoma) made in France and priced at 2 to 3 times the price.  But all the champagnes were good with the one exception.  The Prosecco from Italy stood out as it was a bit sweeter than the others and the New Mexico champagne tasted just like the California version.  This year nobody submitted a Korbel into the tasting but I can tell you when we have included Korbel before it has fared well.

For those of you that have tasted champagnes side by side at one of the tasting rooms (Domaine Carneros, Mumm, Chandon) you are normally not tasting more than three at a time and you really get to study the color and bubbles and compare tastes.  This method might give you a little better results but when you are tasting 10 or 11 versions it can be a little difficult to pull off. 

So I guess the point I am trying to make is that if you stick with one of the premium brands of champagne, usually priced anywhere from $10.00 to $24.00 you are going to be pretty safe.  What the champagne tasting is really about is getting together and chatting with friends with good music while drinking some refreshing wine.  But that does not mean we won’t go through the whole process of organizing the blind tasting event because that is fun also.  And it is always a bonus when the particular wine or champagne you brought is the favorite of the group.

Turkovich Family Wines

Winters, CA

A couple of weeks ago we were driving up Highway 505 just north of Vacaville and we stopped in Winters.  Winters is a small little town set against the eastern side of the Vaca Mountains and just five miles from the Napa County line.  We have taken this route a few times driving over Highway 128 and coming from Napa over to the central valley and for anyone that has not done this it really is a very pretty ride.  Off the Silverado trail you pass some big time wineries such as Chappallet, Nichelini, Kuleto and Brown, then past a portion of Lake Berryessa and then down into Winters.  Winters is in Yolo County and parts of Yolo County, especially the Capay valley just north of Winters, look very much like Napa.

We only had time for a couple of stops and with three tasting rooms open we chose Turkovich and a cooperative called Rootstock.  The other tasting room in town, and probably the best known tasting room, is called Berryessa Gap.  We’ll stop here another time as it was a good looking stop.

 

 

We first became familiar with Turkovich at last year’s Tapas (Tempranillo) Festival.  The Tapas festival had maybe 50 wineries pouring Spanish varietals and surprisingly Turkovich was one of our favorites.  The Turkovich tasting room is right downtown and easy to find as Winters only has a few streets downtown.  Winters is probably most famous for the Buckhorn Steakhouse and the tasting room is only two buildings down the road.  Winters also has a music venue called the Palms which gets great acts considering there just is not much to Winters.  The Tasting Room is in a cool old brick building with high ceilings and with the attached Winters Cheese Company.  In the late afternoon and early evening the room turns into a spot with some small plates and wines available by the glass.

 We sat at the bar and were initially the only guests so we were able to ask lots of questions regarding the cool spot and history of the winery and so on.  Christopher Turkovich is a third generation farmer who opened the winery in 2007.  Rhone varietals Syrah and Viognier are two of the key varietals along with Tempranillo, Petite Sirah, Grenache, and Mourvedre.   

We tasted the whole list which included a Viognier and Estate White Blend (Roussanne and Viognier) and three or four reds.  As always, when just starting off the whites always taste good.  It is really nice finding options other than Sauvignon Blanc, our favorite white wine, and Chardonnay.  The reds were all good.  We probably liked the GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre) best but still liked the Tempranillo that we had had several months earlier.  I think all the wines were priced from $18.00 to $26.00 or so.

 

We also stopped at Rootstock.  This is a cooperative tasting room and gift store featuring Yolo County products.  On this day there were six wineries represented.  My knock on cooperative tasting rooms is that you do not always meet the winery representative.  One of the wineries, Route 3 Wines, was represented by a family member the day of our visit.  Between the group of wineries there were probably 30 wines available for tasting.  We did find, on suggestion, a standout.  The winery was called Casey Flat Ranch and their two Red Wines, the Open Range Red at $18.00 and their CFR (Casey Flat Ranch) Red at $35.00 were excellent.    

So we were happy with our stop in Winters.  I think Turkovich is open late on some evenings and certainly if you have an hour on your hands when you are passing by or if you want to take a different route home from Napa I think Winters is a good stop.

What we liked:  Winters is a nice town and this may someday be a vibrant wine area.

What we bought: Turkovich Tempranillo, Open Range Red

Vitals:

Turkovich Winery

304 Railroad Avenue

Winters, CA  94694

(530) 795-3842

www.turkovichwines.com

Rootstock

22 Main Street

Winters, CA  94694

(530) 794-6013

www.rootstockgifts.com

 

 

Sierra Oro Farm Trail- Passport Weekend

Chico & Oroville, CA

We spent last weekend in Butte County.  For those of you who know us, we have a long association with Chico, CA and there has never been a year in the last 35+ years that we have not visited Chico. Even better, we now have family living in Chico, which gives us even more reason to visit.  We hardly go anywhere without searching out the wine tasting possibilities and when the opportunity to taste in the Chico area presented itself, we jumped at it.  2012 marked our third year at this event and I think it was the best so far. 

A non wine stop (But Sierra Nevada Beer)
 

 This is a Farm Trail event, so in addition to wineries, there is an array of other venues along the trail.  These include rice and rice products, a mandarin orange farms, olive and olive oil producers, nut producers and one of my favorites, The Worm Farm.  For the most part we stick to the wineries but we always make it a point to stop at Maisie Jane’s, which sells various locally produced food products but also samples a specialty made Passport Weekend beer produced jointly by Sierra Nevada Brewing.  The event runs both Saturday and Sunday and since there is a bit of distance between some of these stops two days is required to make a pretty good dent.  There are four wineries in the Oroville area and eight wineries in the Chico area including New Clairvaux which is actually a pretty good ride north of Chico.  Along with these twelve wineries there is about another fifteen of the non-wine businesses open.

The farmhouse at Emerald C

In general the wines are not going to be as good as the wines you are going to find in Napa and Sonoma.  I think there are probably a lot of factors and certainly weather is key.  Chico tends to run in the 90’s and low 100’s through much of the summer and does not get much of the cooling influences from the fog that you get in other areas.  The hillside vineyards of Oroville are really the northern extension of the gold country of Amador and El Dorado counties so I would think they probably have a lot of potential for creating good wine. I think partly because this area if off the main path of the wine industry, it may mean that the wineries do not get some of the same winemaking talent you are going to find in areas south.  Still we tasted some pretty decent wine.

This year we visited just two wineries in Oroville and most of us went to five wineries in the Chico/Valley area.  Grey Fox was our favorite Oroville stop.  We had last visited this winery two years ago and since then they have built a large tasting room and outdoor patio.  The Oroville wineries are in the hills at about 900-1,000 feet and have nice views of the central valley.  We liked the Sauv Blanc, Sangiovese and Cabernet ($16.00). 

 

In the Chico area we visited-

 

Roney- Really the best wines to be found. Roney has a bit of an advantage as they tend to have great sources of outside grapes.  They were pouring a Cabernet made from Howell Mountain (Napa) fruit as well as a Stags Leap District Cabernet ($38.00) from the same vineyard Nickle and Nickle (a well-known Napa winery) sources from (and sells for about $100). They also had two Zins, one from Amador County and one from Butte Country.  We really liked the Butte County Foothills Zin and plan to open it side by side a Napa/Sonoma Zin because we think it will do just fine ($17.00). 

Bertagna- Specializes in Italian varietals.  We like the light bodied Sangiovese. Pretty consistent wines here.

Emerald C- We have become fans of Emerald C over the past year.  Steve and Ned are great guys and striving for quality wines and I think they are starting to get there.  The winery is located in the basement of a beautiful 30’s-40’s farm house and surrounded by 65 acres of Kiwi fruit and five acres of grapes.

In the heart of the valley at Gale Vineyards
 

New Clairvaux- Located on the grounds of a “Trappist” Monastery about a half hour north of Chico in Vina, CA.  In the late 1800’s this was the home of the world’s largest wine operation (seriously).  This winery has hired a professional winemaker and I think will be better and better wines.

 

Gale Vineyards- Gale is located in Durham just seven miles south of Chico and is located in an oasis of oaks, sycamore and bamboo (yes, smack in the middle of the Sacramento valley).  The owners are Steve and Creasia Gale.  When we visited, Steve was handing out food samples and Creasia was pouring the wine.  The wines include Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Primitivo, Cabernet and a blend and all were pretty good.  Even if you are not a wine drinker this is a good stop just to see the grounds.  This day there was a local artist displaying her paintings in one of the small rental buildings on the property.

 

Check out the website for information on all the wineries (and other spots)

www.sierraoro.org



Two Expiring Coupons, Two Wine Lovers, Two Wine Bars in Five Days

We are suckers for Groupons and Living Socials for local Wine Bars and had two that were expiring this week.  So we made an afternoon trip to Santa Cruz to the Vino Prima Wine Bar and a weekday evening trip to San Francisco to the Bin 38 Wine Bar Lounge.  And surprise, we liked them both.

Vino Prima is on the Santa Cruz Wharf pretty much at the far end.  Now you may need to know that we think Santa Cruz is one of the great places in the world, but I think nobody is going to tell you that this location is not cool.  We decided we would hit it in the early evening and hang through the sunset and that was a good choice.  We went from a packed beach in front of the Boardwalk to a scene with all the lights glaring on the Boardwalk.  Out the other side is a view to the north of the East Cliff area and the Dream Inn.  There was live music that started at 7:30 so it was a great scene which included the other customers.

 

We had a Pinot Flight and a Cabernet Flight.  The Pinot Flight had a definite standout, the Santa Lucia from Sonnet Vineyards.  Of the three Cabernet’s, probably the Titus stood out.  There are many wines available by the glass as well as quite a few beers.  The Wine Bar has been open three years and there seemed to be quite a few regulars.  The operation is run by an Uncle and Niece team.

Five days later we were at the Bin 38 Wine Bar in the Marina District of San Francisco.  We picked an evening where it was 98 degrees in the East Bay and 59 degrees and socked in fog in San Francisco.  The neighborhood was rocking with no less than five other drinking establishments on the same block.  We managed a seat at the bar and the wine tender was cranking out the wine. Our Living Social provided us two tasting options, a White and a Red.  The winning flight was the White which included a Long Meadow Ranch Sauv Blanc (see 7-13-12 review) and a Swanson Pinot Grigio.  The Red flight was less impressive with the T-Vine Napa Merlot being the standout.  After our flight I had a Horse and Plow Harvester Red which was excellent and reasonably priced.

Bin 38 appears from the street to be a small establishment but it has a couple of protected and well heated outdoor areas.  They have daily specials but one that we will be back for is their Classic Rock Brunch with bottomless Mimosas.

Go to Vino Prima anytime of the year. Sunsets are neat but probably cold foggy days are equally nice.  Go to Bin 38 during the midweek in the evening when you are more likely to get at seat at the bar or like us next time at bunch time during the weekend. 

Vitals:

Vino Prima

55 B Municipal Wharf

Santa Cruz, CA 95060

(831) 426-0750

www.vinoprima.com

Bin 38

3232 Scott Street

San Francisco, CA 94123

(415) 567-3838

www.bin38.com