grenache | Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews

Tasting South Australia: 11 Wines of the Region

Apr 4, ’13 6:30 AM

We were able to gather 11 wines total from South Australia for a tasting bringing together a few of the smaller boutique labels, with a few of the more established ones. The vintages also varied between 2003 and 2012.

This Monday several of us got together to taste, enjoy, and talk through the wines. I retasted everything again the next day, and then once more the day after. The wines were not tasted blind because part of the interest was talking through the different regions and age of the wines. Here are the tasting notes.

Tasting South Australia

Much of South Australia has warmer temperatures bringing wines with a softer structural presentation. However, Clare Valley is one exception represented in the tasting, offering a moderate continental climate with cool nights. It is also one of the oldest wine regions in the country, and with its cooler nights and elevation is known for its Riesling.

General insight states that South Australian wines age less long than those from cooler climate areas, such as Victoria or Tasmania. However, to give us some glimpse at exceptions, Torbreck sent two older vintage wines, both also made partially from older vines.

The whites presented strongest overall in the tasting with the Kilikanoon Riesling, and the Torbreck Semillon showing best to the group in the tasting overall. The Torbreck Steading, and Ochota Barrels Grenache Syrah blend were the most pleasing of the reds. Details follow.

Flight 1: The Whites

Kilikanoon Clare Valley 2009 Mort’s Reserve Watervale Riesling, Kanta Egon Muller 2010 Riesling, Torbreck Barossa Valley 2004 Woodcutter’s Semillon

* Kilikanoon Clare Valley 2009 Mort’s Reserve Watervale Riesling 12.5%
Opening with classic petrol in nose and palate, that lifts to some degree with air, the Kilakanoon gives green apple notes with gritty texture coming through on a distinct mineral tension through the throat, vibrant acidity, and a tang finish. The wine starts high and lifted in the mouth, with lots of juiciness, followed by a grabbing finish full of tension and length. I vote yes.

Kanta Egon Muller 2010 Riesling 13.5%
Where the Kilakanoon comes in fresh and lifted, the Kanta has more weight. The nose is floral, and more candied, moving into a tart opening on the palate with a driven apple tang rise that grips the mouth for a gritty tart close all with a polished sand texture. The acidity here is juicy. If you prefer more of a fruit focus and slightly wider palate to your Riesling, you’ll like the Kanta better. It’s a nicely made wine but not my style. The weight of the wine and breadth of the palate work against me.

* Torbreck Barossa Valley 2004 Woodcutter’s Semillon 14.5%
The Woodcutter’s Semillon was my favorite of the entire tasting. It gave delicacy with depth, drinking (interestingly enough) like a nicely aged Rhone white. The nose was pretty and light, balanced with both a floral-herbal lift and a mid-range breadth of light marzipan on the nose. The palate carried through without sweetness, offering clean delicate flavors adding in light beach grass notes and a long saline finish. This wine offered good presence, with a delicate presentation, and nice weight.

Flight 2: Grenache Reds

d’Arenberg the Derelict Vineyard 2009 McLaren Vale Grenache, Ochota Barrels 2012 the Green Room Grenache Noir Syrah

These two wines come from starkly different styles giving an interesting contrast on treatment of Grenache.

d’Arenberg the Derelict Vineyard 2009 McLaren Vale Grenache 14.5%
d’Arenberg offers a rich focused presentation that is comfortable using oak to integrate spice with the fruit. The Derelict Vineyard Grenache serves as a nice example of a wine committed to this style and doing a fine job of it. It gives a layered presentation of flavors including lightly sweet fruit, lightly sweet baking spice, primarily clove and ginger, and an earthy groundedness. The fruit is juicy without being overly extracted. The wine shows best on its first day as it showed its oak more than its fruit as it stayed open longer giving stronger pencil elements–both the wood and graphite–as it got more air. It did not drink well on day 3.

Ochota Barrels 2012 the Green Room Grenache Noir Syrah 13.8%
The Ochota is quaffable and fresh, all about lifted fresh drink-now fruit. It drinks like a cool climate grenache with those slightly under-ripe elements alongside fruity varietal expression. The wine is fun, and lively, meant to be enjoyed while cooking and laughing with friends. It gives pink flowers, strawberry, orange peel, cardamom, and fennel seed on the finish. There are stem chewing elements that provide interest on what would otherwise be an ultra light fruit driven wine. This wine is pleasing and very much about varietal character, rather than about showing off the soil or site in which it’s grown.

(I was joking with Amy during the tasting that where the Ochota is meant to be gulped with friends at the start of a bbq while the meat is cooking but not yet ready, the d’Arenberg is the wine a slightly old school man would pour for you in front of a fire at night when he’s getting up the guts to make his first move.)

Flight 3: Shiraz and blend

Adelina 2010 Clare Valley Shiraz, John Duval Entity 2010 Barossa Valley Shiraz, Torbreck 2003 The Steading Barossa Valley GSM

Properly speaking the Torbreck should have been placed in the previous flight. The Shiraz didn’t impact the flavor of the Torbreck. It would simply have suited the Grenache flight better.

Unfortunately, both the Adelina and the John Duval Wines were not pleasing here. Based on the texture and flavor composition of the wines I believe the bottles had been heat effected. With that in mind I cannot provide proper notes here as I believe what we tasted does not represent how the wines were made.

* Torbreck 2003 The Steading Barossa Valley 14.5% Grenache 60% Shiraz 20% Mataro 20%
The wine opens with a bretty sense that blows off and becomes animal musk on forest floor. The nose carries into the palate layering in an enlivening iodine element alongside porcini and seaweed umami with a long tingling finish and polished tannin. The alcohol is lightly hot here but palatable. The wine holds strong on day 3 bringing in a smoked cherry element and a touch more of the alcohol heat. This wine may be a year or so past its prime but that said I enjoyed it and was impressed by how well it showed on day 3.

Flight 4: Other Reds

Alpha Box & Dice 2007 Blood of Jupiter, Samuel’s Gorge 2011 Tempranillo McLaren Vale

Alpha Box & Dice 2007 Blood of Jupiter 15.5% Sangiovese 85% Cabernet 15%
The label Alpha Box & Dice is known for their commitment to experimentation and trying new blends to see what works. That is the sort of interest I appreciate, and in trying such wines some levity has to be allowed in the risk. This is all by way of saying I appreciate the work done here while at the same time am not a fan of this particular blend. The wine is drinkable while singular. It focuses primarily on fruit and spice without enough layered flavor.

Samuel’s Gorge 2011 McLaren Vale Tempranillo 14.5%
This was one of the harder wines for me as it comes in with big fruit and collapses into leather. The structure is soft collapsing in quick stages on the palate with a semi-long finish. There is more fruit than this wine’s spine carries. The varietal character does not show.

Flight 5: Dessert

Dandelion Vineyards Legacy of the Barossa 30 year old Pedro Ximenez

Dandelion Vineyards Legacy of the Barossa 30 year old Pedro Ximenez 19%
The Pedro Ximenez enters with a fresh, delicate nose that is lightly nutty, turning into black walnut and baking spice on the palate with a long juicy finish. The flavors are pleasing but I’d prefer more acidity to help wash the palate. Without the higher acidity it gets heavy in the mouth. This wine demands cheese.

***

Thank you to each of the importers that provided these wines as samples.

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Tasting the Sonoma Coast with Pax Mahle, Wind Gap Wines

Feb 13, ’13 2:02 PM

Thank you to Eric Asimov for recommending this post in The New York Time’s Diner’s Journal “What We’re Reading,” February 15, 2013.

***

Focus on the California Coast

When I arrive at Wind Gap Winery, Pax Mahle is working on blending components for his Sonoma Coast Syrah. When he’s finished a stage of his work, we begin barrel tasting various small lot experiments that characterize the depth behind Wind Gap Wines. While maintaining focus on his label’s overall quality and central expression, from the beginning Mahle has nurtured his wine through side projects with experimental techniques.

Wind Gap began with a central goal of expressing California Syrah unique to a particular site–the Western rim of the Sonoma Coast. The definitive wine for the label, then, is the Sonoma Coast Syrah, made with a blend of wines from three different vineyard sites within a few miles of the ocean. Though Mahle explains he is invested in an appellation focus, he knows people enjoy vineyard specific bottlings as well. As a result, Wind Gap also offers component bottlings from the Sonoma Coast blend.

Majik Vineyard carries a wild, heady top note that surprises me right out of the glass with its aromatic intensity. Nellessen Vineyard gives everything I love about Syrah–cool, lean, focused fruit, all backbone. “It gives the freshness and attitude of the blend,” Mahle explains. Finally, the Armagh brings the meat. “Armagh is the guts, the bacon, the bones.”

I nod in agreement and comment how much I love Syrah.

Mahle responds, “What I love about these wines is it would be very hard to confuse any of them for anything other than Syrah.”

Each of the four wines come in around 12% alcohol. “Yes, it is low alcohol,” Mahle tells me. “But that is not the point. The site gives that result. These wines could not be more representative of this part of California.” Nellessen Vineyard, as an example, Mahle explains is picked at the very end of the season, the grapes not ripe enough to harvest until November.

In 2000, Mahle and his wife began the label Pax Wine Cellars, along with an investor, with the intention of focusing on site specific Syrah from various parts of Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. The methods used on each bottling were the same–whole cluster, foot tred, with similar duration of elevage. In keeping the techniques basically identical for each site, the wines expressed gave a view of the uniqueness offered from various parts of this portion of the California coast. Some of the wines came in regularly light bodied and around 12%, while other sites easily ground out 15% alcohol. The model made sense to Mahle who saw it as analogous to enjoying Northern Rhone from Hermitage, versus Cornas, for example. If one wine had higher alcohol, and another lower, it was because that was what the site naturally generated.

The wines that gained press attention for Pax Wine Cellars turned out to be the big hoofed work horse wines with higher intensity and higher alcohol. The range of offerings, however, generated some confusion among consumers that would come in expecting each of the wines to offer similar expression–those from the rim of the coast were sometimes taken by the bigger bodied wine lovers to be green. So, to offer greater brand clarity, Mahle started Wind Gap with the intention of carrying those leaner bottlings from the edge of the coast under the new label. Soon after initiating the beginnings of Wind Gap, changes occurred in the original winery partnership at Pax Wine Cellars, leading to Mahle’s attention diving full-time into his newer label, and its expansion beyond Syrah.

Wind Gap Wines arise from a focus on site expression, and the commitment to letting more delicate techniques provide a view into this portion of California. In thinking about the idea of California wine, and the oft referenced perception of more fruit focused, large bodied wines, Mahle turns again to France as a counter-example. “No one would say Languedoc wines should taste like Rhone or Bordeaux. California is much larger, a very big place [larger than France],” Mahle remarks, “so why can’t we have wines as varied?”

Two old vine bottlings showcase well-established plantings found in Sonoma County. The old vine Mourvedre draws fruit from vines planted in the 1880s at the Bedrock Vineyard of Sonoma Valley. The wine is impressively expressive while light in presentation. It’s a good, enjoyable wine. “The Mourvedre is fun to drink. I like to have fun.” Mahle remarks.

The old vine Grenache celebrates bunches grown in Alexander Valley in a vineyard entirely dry farmed in sand (an impressive feat). The vines are 70-80 years old. The wine is made partially carbonic with two different picking selections at two different levels of ripeness–the combination offering greater dimensionality to the final wine. It’s style echoes that of the Mourvedre while carrying the zest and red fruit zing of Grenache.

Two Chardonnays show other aspects of the history of California wine. The Brousseau Vineyard in Chalone grows 38 year old vines in granite and limestone offering incredibly small berries, impressive concentration and that limestone-zing finish. The Yuen blend brings the Brousseau fruit in concert with 50 year old vines from James Berry vineyard in Paso Robles, only 10 miles from the coast. The combination lifts the intensity and seriousness of the Brousseau, into a balance of juicy citrus and blossom vibrancy with an under current of nuttiness and bread crust.

The Pinot Noir surprises me. (I hadn’t realized they were making one, to be honest.) It’s an intriguing and inviting wine, with a belly of dark fruit carried on a savory expression. It’s light with still great presence.

What is common through the Wind Gap label is clean wines with strong lines. The structure is impressive throughout, the fruit allowed to speak for itself. These wines do not insist upon themselves, or demand you to listen. Instead, they compel your interest, leaving you happy to give it. There is great complexity here, and confidence. Wind Gap Wines carry intelligence dancing through a core of joy.

***

Thank you to Pax Mahle for taking time with me.

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Casa Dumetz: Wines with a focus on Care and Convergence, a conversation with Sonja Magdevski

Feb 11, ’13 10:35 AM

Tasting with Sonja Magdevski

The food has not yet arrived for dinner and Sonja Magdevski, winemaker of Casa Dumetz, has begun interviewing me, though we’ve met for us to talk about her wine. Her work history includes a Masters in Journalism, I discover, and she writes for Malibu Magazine, as well as her own site Malibu Grange. The questions she wants to ask center around the career change I’ve made from teaching and academic philosophy to writing about wine. It leads us through intensive conversation on ideas of faith, commitment, passion, and fear. We both turned from advanced training in one discipline to pursue something different, and it gives us a way to mutually interview each other, both of us getting to talk and listen.

When we meet again two weeks later I discover an interesting correlation in Magdevski’s fascination with journalism and her investment in wine. Both include, for her, a sense of responsibility in freedom.

She explains to me the connection by starting first to describe her work as a writer. “It’s always been fascinating to me, journalism. People spend time with me for an interview, like we are doing now, you and me. After, I get to take all this information, and write anything I want with it. There is a real trust there. I want to show in what I write that I understood and absorbed the conversation. I love the freedom in that but I always ask, what is my responsibility? Who am I responsible to?” Magdevski describes her experience with journalistic interviews like she is being given a gift. She takes an awareness to her work that people are sharing something valuable. The responsibility and freedom both show themselves in her asking what she will do to best recognize that.

Wine parallels journalism, for Magdevski, through a similar process of honoring what she has received and asking herself what she will do with it. “All these hands have touched these grapes in the progress [from vineyard to wine], but in the end the decision [of how to make the wine] is made by one.” In this way, the relationship Magdevski sees between so many layers of human help–nurseries that provide cuttings, vineyard workers that plant and tend vines then harvest the fruit, other winemakers that offer advice and insight, people that later sell and purchase the wine–fuels a passion for her work. Listening to her speak about the process makes clear too that Magdevski has a deep appreciation for what it means to be human, and the value of human life. “In wine I am being given all this time. The grapes, they are a gift of time, and a product, and an experience. People take the time to grow fruit, listen to what I want, and then I get to do whatever I want with that.” She continues, again acknowledging the responsibility of it. “That freedom is exciting, and it is also sort of a test of your character. How are you going to impose yourself or not? The freedom of that is fascinating to me.”

The Wines of Casa Dumetz

In considering how these ideas enter vinification, Magdevski again reflects on the idea of freedom. “I love the freedom of being able to take the wine and make whatever I want, and say, here I am. This is who I am.” She continues, “being able to say, this is what I did. I am open to you now, for better or worse.” What she loves most is letting the fruit character speak through the wine. Still, she gets excited about experimentation in the winery as a way of learning how the different sites show. When we meet the second time it is to barrel taste through her current vintage.

Putting her winemaking in context she tells me, “Viognier is why I started making wine. Grenache is why I keep making it.” We taste through multiple lots of Viognier, Gewurtztraminer, Roussanne, and Syrah. In the midst of the experience, she talks me through five different barrels of Grenache varying by clone and vineyard site. Her original Grenache comes from the Tierra Alta Vineyard in Ballard Canyon, a steep sloped site banded with limestone, but she wants to work with grapes from other locations as well. Her goal is both to see if she might find something else she likes as much, but also to consider more closely what it is she loves from Tierra Alta fruit. In learning about these differences in wine, she realizes she is also learning about herself. She discovers not only what her own preferences are, but also how she wants to express herself, and what she will or won’t do about how others may receive her and her work.

Magdevski describes Grenache’s character as she sees it. “I really love Grenache,” she tells me. “It has a peasant nature. I love the brightness of the fruit, yet it is super complex, and it can be really elegant. I think of Pinot Noir, and Cabernet as elegant wines, and I like that. But that isn’t why I drink Grenache. I am looking for more complexity and beauty of fruit than elegance.”

Talking through each lot with Magdevski I begin to zero in on the peasant nature she describes. The barrel she likes best right now offers a plush convergence of round fruit integrated with spice and stemy hints. The wine fills while floats in the mouth and tasting it I see pink. It’s texture is more rustic, less candied, and less dense than the other lots.

That plush lift characterizes the wines of her 2011 portfolio too. They are round in the mouth with a core of powder touched fruit. Both the Grenache and Syrah rush with complexity and lightness with an subtle edge of wild funk, while the whites–Viognier and Gewurtztraminer–drink with the warm feel of Grandma’s white tile and wood kitchen–clean, comforting, and familiar. The Gewurtztraminer she started as a tribute to her Grandmother and her family in Macedonia, where the grape is traditional.

With her 2012s, she is playing with not only differing clones and vineyard sites, but also varying techniques. Her whites use a blend of skin contact and straight to press juice that offers dimensionality and a multi-note flavoral echo in the mouth. She will also be bottling both a Syrah and a Syrah rosé again, alongside her beloved Grenache.

In considering what she loves about winemaking, Magdevski tells me it is the dance of going deep into “geeky winemaking talk” about science, the process, the fruit, and the numbers–again a recognition of sharing and learning–while striving to make “a bottle of wine that is approachable and not pretentious.” She reflects again, “I never want to take any of this for granted. This is a gift.” She continues. “The goal is to share this with as many people as possible.”

***

Thank you to Sonja Magdevski for sharing with me, and for pushing me too to reflect in conversation. Thank you for taking time to talk with me.

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Santa Barbara Wine Country 4: Photos from Day 3

Jan 17, ’13 8:00 AM

Santa Barbara Wine Country

Andrew Murray Wines

2011 RGB, Roussanne Grenache Blanc

Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray RBG, Syrahs, Esperance GSM blend

Andrew Murray’s new label, This is E11EVEN, Unplugged white blend, Pinot Noir, Big Bottom red blend

Andrew Murray

Fess Parker Vineyards & Winery, Santa Ynez AVA

Fess Parker Rodney Vineyard

Looking out over Fess Parker Ranch from the Mesa

Fess Parker Ranch’s Vino Vaqueros Equestrian Vineyard Tour Horses

Fess Parker Viognier, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Red blend

Epiphany Grenache Blanc, Syrah, Red blend

Riverbench Vineyards, Santa Maria Valley AVA

Riverbench Vineyards

Old Vines in the midst of replanting at Riverbench Vineyards

Santa Maria Valley Round Table Winemaker Tasting, hosted by Riverbench

Jenny Williamson Doré, Kevin Law, and Laura Mohseni

Dieter Cronje, Presqu’ile Winermaker

Richard Doré, Foxen Vineyards

Kevin Law, Luminesce Winemaker

Jenny Williamson Doré, Foxen Vineyards

Clarissa Nagy, Riverbench Winemaker

Presqu’ile Sauvignon Blanc, Luminesce Pinot Noirs, Riverbench Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Foxen Chardonnay and Pinot Noir

Dinner with Casa Dumetz Winemaker, Sonja Magdevski

Sonja Magdevski, Casa Dumetz Winemaker

Casa Dumetz Viognier, Grenache, Syrah, Gewurtztraminer

***

Thank you to Andrew Murray and Kristen Murray.

Thank you to Ashley Parker-Snider and David Potter.

Thank you to Clarissa Nagy and Laura Mohseni.

Thank you to Richard Doré, Jenny Williamson Doré, Kevin Law, and Dieter Cronje.

Thank you to Sonja Magdavski.

Thank you to Sao Anash, and Lacey Fussel.

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#GrenacheDay: Tasting Central Coast & Sonoma, California Grenache Blanc and Grenache Noir (in varietal and in blend)

Sep 24, ’12 5:40 PM

This previous Friday, September 21 marked International Grenache Day, an occasion celebrated worldwide with tasting parties and events. Though I am a fan of Grenache and Grenache Blanc from multiple locales, this year I chose to focus on California examples.

Following are hand drawn Characteristic Cards for both Grenache Blanc, and Grenache Noir, and tasting descriptions for Central Coast, and Sonoma County wines of both grape types, made as either a varietal bottling, or blend. The descriptions appear in alphabetical order by label.

California Grenache Blanc and Grenache Blanc Blends

click on comic to enlarge

BonnyDoon 2010 Le Cigare Blanc. 55% Roussane, 45% Grenache Blanc. Vibrant citrus blossom and saline nose. Beeswax, lily, dill, salt water palate. Wants age.

Bonny Doon 2010 Le Cigare Blanc Reserve. 56% Roussanne, 44% Grenache Blanc. Ultra juicy, and mineral-driven pushes through the mouth on a citrus textural love fest. How sexy and happy can we get? I am a fan.

Martian Ranch 2011 Grenache Blanc. Crushed Nut, light orange blossom, Meyer lemon zest and blossom, plus dill, with a long nut-candle wax finish. Round mouthfeel, pleasing texture. Well enjoyed.

Tablas Creek 2011 Grenache Blanc. Pit of black olives, salt water, dill, dust and musk. Delicate nose, light flavor presentation. Texturally focused with good mineral dance.

Tablas Creek 2011 Patelin de Tablas Blanc. 45% Grenache Blanc, 34% Viognier, 18% Rousanne, 3% Marsanne. Chamomile that opens to apricot, buckwheat flour and hazelnut skin. Chalky, with beeswax and mineral finish. I want a little more zip here. Curious to try it with age.

Two Shepherds 2011 Grenache Blanc. Creamy bay leaf nose. Palate of peach blossom, and salt water freshness. Dill, integrated pepper and jalapeno skin. Lightly metallic. Makes me want food. I very much enjoy this wine.

California Grenache and Grenache Blends

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Donelan 2010 Cuvee Moriah. 54% Grenache, 26% Mourvedre, 20% Syrah. Well integrated nose and palate presentation of light smoke and rare steak, violets and blue fruit, black and red cherries, light cranberry, pepper. Juicy fruit mouth. Very much enjoy this wine. Good drinking now showing good mouth weight. Will be brilliant in several years. Can’t wait to age it.

Martian Ranch 2011 Grenache Noir. Pomegranate, sugar snap peas and ultra-fresh green pepper nose. Palate of ripe cherry, plus cherry pit, bramble, dried rose petals and toast finish. Lightly mouth watering, no mouth grip. Interesting presentation of this grape with its cool climate green notes. It struck me as strange at first, but I grew to quite enjoy it.

Ridge 2008 51% Syrah, 49% Grenache. Smoked meat, date, molasses, bay leaf, dirt with just a touch of horse, exotic spice, and a red fruit finish. Each of the Ridge wines are the richest examples in this overall tasting collection.

Ridge 2006 Lytton Estate Grenache with 10% Petite Syrah, 10% Zinfandel. Bay leaf nose. Brazil nut and hazelnut, menthol, concentrated fruit palate, with long finish.

Ridge 2005 Lytton Estate Grenache with 6% Petite Syrah 6% Zinfandel. Nose of rhubarb pie, licorice root, figs, & almond extract. Concentrated fruit, soy, light smoke and integrated pepper. Juicy palate. Long finish of exotic spice and walnut with a pleasing grip. The darkest most date-plus-soy focused of the Ridge wines.

Sheldon 2011 Ceja Vineyard Grenache. Red cherry, herb, pleasing palate offering a textural pull leaning towards drying mouth grip. This wine has good meat-plus-sexy. I enjoy the light body and dance-y flavor presentation of this wine.

Sheldon 2008 Vinlocity Grenache. Starts at the intersection of cherry pit-almond-vanilla spreads into light wintergreen-and-pine. Good structure. Wants age.

Tablas Creek 2010 Cotes De Tablas. 46% Grenache, 39% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre, 5% Counoise. Tomato seed, fig, and wheat plant. Pungent berry high notes, carrying a devil musk and his leather jacket from forest fog. Wants age.

Tablas Creek 2010 Grenache. Weighty wild red berry, pepper, wet leather and wet earth, plus spice. Nice mouth grab with pleasing acidic, mineral zip. Like the texture and freshness here.

Two Shepherds 2010 GSM. 50% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 25% Mourvedre. Cold red berries and flowers, light smoke, meat, violets and just the right amount of wet mud. Vibrant, only lightly bloody (a little blood here is pleasing), herbal, and freshly green. Earthy, with hints of leather, and a fresh mouth grip.

***

Thank you to Bonny Doon, Tablas Creek, and Donelan for the wine samples. Ridge, Two Shepherds, and Sheldon Wines were tasted at the Rhone Rangers North Coast Chapter Grenache Day event.

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Lunch at Bell St Farm: Martian Ranch 2009 Santa Ynez Grenache, and No Sulfur Grenache

Jul 4, ’12 8:45 AM

Bell St. Farm, Los Alamos, California

Jamie at Bell St. Farm is a gem. They also have the tastiest meat loaf sandwich ever in the history of the world. And Katherine had some sandwich I can’t remember but it was good too. Plus, the bread was whoa.

Anyway, in the midst of waiting for our food, Jamie and I took to talking about the nice selection of local wines on their list, with offerings both by the glass and the bottle. Our conversation came around to Martian Ranch & Vineyard wines, made right there in Los Alamos.

By the end of lunch I’d tasted two rose’s, and then a secret bottle of a Martian Ranch experiment–a no sulfur, low intervention Grenache from the 2011 vintage. Michael Roth, Martian Ranch’s wine maker, had just dropped off the Grenache experiment earlier that afternoon for Jamie to try, and he was kind enough to share a glass a piece with both Katherine and I.

By the end of the affair, I left with a bottle of the Martian Ranch 2009 Santa Ynez Grenache to taste later. The 2009 was actually made by the winery’s previous wine maker, Brett Escalera, and shows a different style, I’m told, from the newer (2011 and forward) wines by Michael Roth. Roth has been able to focus on developing wines that celebrate the spirit of the area from which they grow. The No Sulfur Grenache is a Michael Roth experiment though, and I count myself lucky to have tasted it.

As if Jamie hadn’t already been generous enough, it turned out too that I missed meeting Michael Roth by mere moments. We apparently passed each other in the doorway of Bell St. Farm. He left just as I was walking in. Perhaps the opportunity will represent itself.

Following is a wine review comic of Martian Ranch’s 2009 Santa Ynez Grenache, and their Low Intervention Grenache experiment as well.

click on comic to enlarge

Martian Ranch 2011 No Sulfur Grenache Experiment

The No Sulfur Grenache offers a fresh red cherry, light funk opening, with light cola notes showing alongside the lemoncella and lavender elements. The wine is lively in the mouth, showing as both drying and juicy, but with the tannin beating out the acidity slightly in the overall balance. This bottle had light stem bitterness that showed primarily in the medium-long finish. Fun wine! Katherine very much enjoyed it as well.

Martian Ranch 2009 Santa Ynez Grenache

The 2009 Grenache from Martian Ranch offers a clean, well-balanced, spicy and drying varietal presentation. The wine offers a foundation of red berries, alongside spice, pepper, and surprising smoke elements. The alcohol comes in here at 14%, with a balance of medium acidity and medium tannin showing with a medium finish.

The style here would be distinct from the more recent Martian Ranch wines that Michael Roth has made from 2011 forward.

***

Martian Ranch also bottles Grenache blanc, and a Grenache rose’. I’m curious about both, but particularly the Grenache blanc. I knew in advance that Whit, of Brunellos Have More Fun, carries Martian Ranch wines made by Michael Roth at the shop she buys for in L.A. After tasting their No Sulfur Grenache I contacted her online to hear quickly what she thought of the rest of the portfolio–she said Roth’s wines are solid throughout. She and I have an overlapping palate in regards to the style that Roth would be producing, so I look forward to tasting more.

***

Thank you to Jamie for your excellent food, good conversation, and generosity in wine.

Thank you to Whitney Adams for telling me quickly about the rest of the Martian Ranch portfolio.

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The First Complete Vertical Tasting and Review: A Tribute to Grace Grenache 2007-2010

Jul 3, ’12 5:52 PM

At the start of the drive through California, Katherine and I were lucky enough to share an evening with Angela and Jason Osborne, and enjoy with them the first full vertical tasting of their wine, A Tribute to Grace, that they’ve ever hosted.

Our meeting Angela and Jason arose from a lucky suggestion made by Steve Morgan of Tribeca Grill. He’d been kind enough to host me at Tribeca Grill for several hours. We toured the wine cellars, and then talked through his work with the restaurant, ultimately getting around to our mutual love for comics, and his history in wine (write up to follow). At the end of the afternoon he pointed to a bottle in the upstairs wine cabinet and said, remember this one–I think you’d like her, and her wine. It turned out Angela had visited Tribeca Grill a few months before, and they carry her 2009 Santa Barbara Highlands vintage. That evening I set out to find contact info for Angela, and we were able to arrange a meeting on Katherine’s and my first evening in the larger Santa Barbara area.

A Tribute to Grace Grenache: Santa Barbara Highlands 2007-2010; Vogelzang 2009

click on comic to enlarge

I count myself blessed to have tasted through each of the current incarnations of A Tribute to Grace. Together they present a beautiful familial resemblance sharing delicate balance and body, plus a fascinating combination of fruits with spice, floral and earth elements. These are wines that embody their attribute of Grace.

The complete tasting consisted of four vintages from the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard, along with one Grenache made from the Vogelzang Vineyard.

2007 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Grace Grenache

The 2007 vintage began with a 4-day fermentation, made from 50% whole cluster and 50% de-stemmed grapes. The two were fermented separately but then blended completely in the end.

The use of sulfur was very low, as is consistent across each bottling of Grace Grenache. In the 2007 vintage 5 barrels were used, 2 of which were new. The vintages are each generally larger than the previous, with an average of two new barrels integrated to each. All of the vintages were bottled at 17 months on the 3rd day of the 3rd month (also Angela’s birthday), except for 2010, which was bottled on the 4th day of the 4th month.

The 2007 Grace offers a beautiful nose that shows as fresh and also spicy, with red fruit and berry and a fascinating dance of ripe apricot. Mixed pepper touches the wine without too much heat. The palate follows. This is a nicely balanced structure, that wants to present as well integrated alongside the flavor profile. The wine’s character is compelling, giving a tart and juicy, lively sensation in the mouth, all with a softened yet vibrant presentation of surprising fruits. This is a wine that is excited about itself, without being pushy in its desire to share what it has to offer.

2008 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Grace Grenache

Picked on Halloween and a full moon, the 2008 vintage was foot tred in costumes, complete with Marie Antoinette helping by lifting up her skirts in the bins. The grapes were 50% whole cluster, 50% de-stemmed and foot pressed after being rained on by a surprise seasonal storm. The rain water was pressed into the juice.

2008 opens as a dainty vintage with a lighter and higher note profile than the previous year. Still, even with the delicate presentation there is a core of strength in the structure of this wine. It drinks as a wine that is clear, centered, and certain of itself without the need to try for more or other than it is.

Again, the unique fruit profile shows here offered through red fruit and berry, ripe apricot, and notes of cooked down rhubarb. The fruit here is more cooked than fruit, without sliding into jam. But along with the concentrated fruit elements there is a freshness and delicacy of rain water that really does dance in this glass. Of the vintages the 2008 most readily celebrates its name.

(If any of you doubt me on the rain water suggestion–my great grandparents used only rain water for drinking and cooking when I was growing up so I was raised familiar with the rounder mouth feel and fresher flavor profile of rain water, versus the steely, dirt qualities of tap water.)

2009 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Grace Grenache

Earthiest of the collection, the 2009 vintage immediately offers cooked caramel and light leather notes on the nose, and opens to show more smoke. The red fruit and berry carries forward here and offer too perfumed aspects as well as it opens.

This vintage is the most brooding of the group, drinking with a greater richness and also a bit of a frustrated note, the tannins show here as both stronger, but also tighter in the mouth. The 2009 vintage stands between the delicate earlier vintages and the dirtier style of a Chateauneuf du Pape.

It was made with a 4 day cold soak, then moved outside to soak in the sun.

2010 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Grace Grenache

First of the vintages to be co-fermented, the 2010 Grace Grenache was made by alternating whole clusters with de-stemmed grapes in the bins then foot stomping them together. The bottling seems to have gone through some carbonic in bottle as it gives a light fizz in the mouth after opening.

2010 presents as more concentrated than would be expected with its age. There is a rich, sassy presentation with distinctly perfumed notes alongside spice, ticked red fruit and berry, red fruit leather, and light caramel.

2009 Vogelzang Vineyard Grace Grenache

In the Happy Canyon area of Santa Barbara county is the Vogelzang Vineyard. The lowland area is vastly different from the rugged, moonscape of the Santa Barbara Highlands vineyard. In 2009 Angela Osborne was offered a small Grenache contract with Vogelzang, and chose to do a site specific bottling from there. Ultimately, Angela felt she had to choose to continue with only one vineyard for time management reasons and selected to stick with the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard she’d developed such a strong relationship with.

Osborne’s view of the Vogelzang varietal is that it offers a prettier, lighter version of the Grenache than the Santa Barbara Highlands bottling. As she describes it, Vogelzang is more of a girl next door, sweet girl sort of vintage compared to the greater range that shows in her sister bottles from the other vineyard. After spending the evening tasting through the vintages, and living with my nose in each glass for an extended time, I told Osborne that I could see how she came to that conclusion but I disagreed.

Years ago I had a friend that was quite frustrated in love. He wanted to get married but kept finding women that were a little too wild, without a consistent enough temperament. Often they’d seem nice up front, so he’d get more involved with them, but in the long run major issues would start to unfold unexpectedly. There had been several women that would have happily married him but in each case he’d ended up feeling he couldn’t trust the woman in the way he would need to love them long term. I told him it was clear what he needed to find a lifetime of love. There was only one sort of woman that would hold his fancy long term. She had to be dirty in bed, and sweet every where else.

The best version of a woman to take home to your mother is the one that gets along well with her potential in-laws, sets you at ease in shared company, but holds your attention just for her all night long. I described this to Angela and said that’s what she’s got in the Vogelzang–a pretty, graceful Grenache that shows first as sweet but pours you a glass full of phermones. This is a delicate and also sexy wine.

The 2009 Vogelzang offers red fruit and berry, with delicate rhubarb, spice, very light leather, and a feral earth muskiness. This wine comes to the dance in the prettiest dress, and bells on one ankle. The structure here is well-balanced, and pleasing with just enough tannin and grip to the mouth.

***

Thank you so much to Angela and Jason Osborne for hosting us, and sharing your story, and your beautiful wines. They’re honestly some of the favorite wines of any I’ve tasted. Sweet pets to Archer dog.

Thank you to Steve Morgan for pointing me in Angela’s direction.

To read Angela and Jason’s Life in Wine story click here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/07/03/a-life-in-wine-angela-and-jason-osborne-and-a-tribute-to-grace-and-faith/

To read more of Angela as a Wine Maker Superhero click here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/06/30/wine-maker-superhero-angela-osborne-as-viii-strength-tarots-major-arcana-woman-in-tune/

To see pictures of our visit with Angela and Jason click here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/06/21/driving-california-wine-pictures-day-1-visit-with-angela-and-jason-osborne-a-tribute-to-grace/

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A Life in Wine: Angela and Jason Osborne and A Tribute to Grace (and faith)

Jul 3, ’12 3:56 AM

Meeting Grace: Beginning a Life in Grenache with Angela Osborne

In the story Life Water for Chocolate, the young woman, Tita, channels her passion for life, and love through her cooking. The meals she makes for the ranch on which she lives become expressions of her feeling, received and experienced by those that eat. In this way, the dining table operates as a vessel for the elixirs that Tita generates–potions to reveal feelings of true love, and genuine grief, or to guide the recipient to the next stage of unfoldment on their life path. It is Tita’s devotion to the meals’ own fullest expression that generates such magic. Through Tita’s story, the reader witnesses the power that one woman’s attention may bring to the simple art of food; how an otherwise everyday process is opened into a case of fuller living.

So too Angela Osborne dedicates herself to cultivating the surroundings and conditions of the wine she helps bring to fruition. Her devotion is channeled through a grape she fell in love with in the United States–Grenache. Having been raised in New Zealand by a single mother, with the help of her grandmother, Osborne also traveled to the United States regularly to visit her father. However, it was not until into her 20s, after moving to California to live, that she witnessed the grape she fell in love with for the first time. Grenache does not grow in New Zealand.

In 2006 Osborne moved to California to shift from the rather citified life she’d had in London, England and instead get closer to more natural conditions along the California coast. The movie Like Water for Chocolate served as one of her inspirations–seeing the women living their passionate lives on a ranch made Angela ask what she was doing in such an urban environment. It was a lifestyle that did not so readily suit her. She’d worked at a wine retail shop in the southern portion of California several years prior and so, in moving back to the state, stepped in to help during their Christmas rush. The job was meant to simply be a short term jaunt while she readjusted to life in the States. Two weeks into her stint, they hosted a wine tasting celebrating the work of several small production Santa Barbara Grenache producers.

Osborne had tasted Grenache from Dry Creek Valley a few years before and was enthralled by the grape then, devising a long term goal for herself of making similar wine. At the time, she’d been unclear about how wine making operated in the United States, believing there to be far more necessary infrastructure than is actually required. As such, she’d expected that the idea of making Grenache really would be a life long project to pursue.

In 2006, while tasting Grenache in the wine tasting, Osborne took up a conversation with Russell P From, wine maker of Herman Story wines. In talking with From, Osborne discovered that much of California wine production actually occurs through what is called a Custom Crush facility–a wine making warehouse through which people essentially rent the space and equipment necessary to make wine. Additionally, she discovered that people rarely own their own vineyards, and instead contract a portion of grapes from which to then custom crush their wine. The information was an epiphany for her. Even better, however, From took to Osborne’s passion for Grenache and invited her to step in and try a vintage piggy backing, initially, on his already established vineyard and crush contracts. Within a few months of arriving back to the United States, then, Osborne was already taking the first steps to fulfilling her dream of making Grenache like she’d tasted from Dry Creek Valley, and starting her label A Tribute to Grace.

Cultivating Grace: Making Grenache

In making Grenache, Osborne dedicates herself to developing, and holding a conscious awareness of the wine’s surroundings, and also the wines particular needs. From this perspective, the wine is more than simply a chemical process arising out of grapes. It is also a sort of conduit through which expression and experience can be passed. More than simply a vehicle for the wine maker’s devotion, however, the wine carries its own presentation, larger than what the wine maker can predict or control. To honor the sort of life that the wine has, ultimately independent of the wine maker, depends on striking a delicate balance of making choices as a wine maker, on the one hand, while surrendering to forces beyond one’s control at exactly the same time. Osborne brings into her wine making practices a balance of this sort of surrender to the wine’s own processes, alongside her own grounded intuition for what the wine may need to come to fruition. Each vintage, as a result, has offered its own opportunity for Osborne to experiment and learn new techniques in wine making, while carrying a familial resemblance in the wine across vintages at the same time.

2008, for example, was a riper year. A wine maker friend and mentor checked the grapes with Osborne after she picked them. He warned her that she was going to need to use additives to control the juice or the resulting wine would simply be too alcoholic, and undrinkable. Osborne steers clear of chemical interventions with her wine, but his suggestion that she could add distilled water to the grapes did catch her attention. Panicked that she may lose her work for that year she rushed to the hardware store at the end of an already long day, looking for 42 gallons of distilled water to pour in with the grapes. The local shop of the small town, however, only had one gallon. Unsure of what to do, Osborne returned home to sleep, and find her solution in the morning. But, before going to sleep, she surrendered her worries to the powers that be. To find the answer to what she needed, Osborne said a kind of prayer. Aloud she announced the trouble she had–she needed to figure out how to deal with the problem of the potential alcohol levels in the wine, and with no distilled water in the area there were no apparent answers to her trouble. In admitting she didn’t know what to do, she also surrendered the concern, saying she gave the solution over to higher good–that whatever is for the best here be what happens. Then she went to sleep. In the middle of the night, Osborne woke up. The skies had opened up and a massive rainstorm was coming down through the entire region. She realized she’d left her freshly picked grapes outside in their foot stomping bins covered only with mesh. In the morning, when she went to check the fruit, about a foot of rain water had filled each bin. Having found what she needed, she pressed the rain water into the wine with the grapes. The resulting wine holds an alcohol level consistent with each of the other vintages Osborne has produced.

Osborne’s wine making also includes a great degree of sharing and celebration. She regularly invites friends to foot stomp the grapes with her (2008 the foot stomp even occurred on Halloween in costume), and she generally tends to the wine playing her music of that vintage. In addition to incorporating her friendships and musical tastes into her wine making process, Osborne also pays close attention to biodynamic practices, respecting lunar effects on the fruit when she harvests, presses, racks, or bottles. (We tasted the wines with her and Jason on a fruit day, for those of you wondering, and each of the wines was lovely–more on the tasting tomorrow.) While being closely involved in these aspects of the conditions that surround the wine as it is produced, at the same time Osborne seems to allow the wine its privacy in the barrel, refusing to impose techniques that would otherwise push the wine, rather than allow it to unfold on its own. This is not to say that she is entirely low-fi in her choices. Osborne generally incorporates two new oak barrels into her regime each year, thereby maintaining a low level of spice and tannin influence in the wine from oak. She also utilizes very low levels of sulfur to help the wine maintain stability at bottling.

Living Grace: Angela and Jason Osborne

Completing a degree in Film from the University of Auckland, Angela worked in a wine shop in the same city just to pay the bills. Though the space happened to be one of the best shops in Auckland, Angela’s interest with the work did not extend beyond a job at the time. She enjoyed selling wine, but it wasn’t a long term interest.

When she announced that she was leaving her job to seek out work making documentary films, Brent Maris, a wine maker from Marlborough paid Angela a visit. Disappointed she was leaving work in wine, he told her that the industry needed her. Passion like hers is rare, he said. To prove he meant it, he offered to help Angela find a job working for a winery over seas–perhaps she simply needed time out of New Zealand. Determined instead to pursue her film career, Angela put a deadline on the offer, and told Maris that if she hadn’t found a film job within six months she’d take him up on the suggestion. A week before the deadline was up Maris had found Angela a job with a winery in the United States working harvest, and she’d found a film job running errands for a filming crew. Putting the two offers side by side, she realized the wine opportunity made more sense, and so began what, without realizing it, would be a career in wine .

Prior to leaving New Zealand, another wine maker that Angela knew from the shop invited her to meet a friend of his on a blind date. Angela and the wine maker had talked often enough that he had a feeling his friend would suit Angela quite well romantically. Willing to take the leap, Angela agreed to the date and found herself happily involved in a relationship. She’d already decided to leave New Zealand with other plans, however, and so after two months of dating, Angela moved from the island, leaving her boyfriend to continue his already well established life there. After, they were able too to remain in loose contact as friends.

Five and a half years later, Angela returned to the island to accompany her mother during her mom’s wedding ceremony. Living in California at that time, Angela arrived in New Zealand without a date to the celebration, and so her mother offered to secure Angela a ‘plus-one’ with one of her old friends. Angela decided to go ahead and take her mom up on the offer. Arriving in New Zealand, Angela discovered, her old boyfriend, Jason, the blind date, was the person her mom had set her up with for the ceremony. Finding themselves happy to reconnect in person, Angela and Jason spent their time together during Angela’s visit in New Zealand. Within a year, their dating developed into them marrying, and Jason moving back to California. Now they work together in California in wine, where Jason also continues his cranio-sacral body work practice.

I asked Jason about the experience. He tells me that he’d known since the first time they dated that Angela was who he wished to spend his life with but that his only opportunity to be with her would come through his willingness to wait until they were both ready. The way he describes this, I have to say, I believe him.

Together, Jason and Angela now dedicate themselves to their Tribute to Grace. Their ultimate goals include continuing to cultivate their Grenache varietal from the Santa Barbara Highlands, while also taking advantage of the alternating harvest times between California and New Zealand. Their intention is to bring Jason’s cranio-sacral body work to a vineyard location to combine their life in wine and the healing arts with a space that people can visit and do retreat. In doing so, they’d like to begin to make a New Zealand wine, while continuing to make their Santa Barbara Highlands Grenache.

Katherine and I were lucky enough to share an evening with Jason and Angela that included the first full vertical tasting of A Tribute to Grace that they’ve hosted. I am so grateful. Tomorrow I’ll post a write-up of the wines.

If you’re interested in seeing the previous post on Angela as the Wine Maker Superhero Justice VIII, you can view the post here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/06/30/wine-maker-superhero-angela-osborne-as-viii-strength-tarots-major-arcana-woman-in-tune/

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Wine Maker Superhero: Angela Osborne as VIII Strength, Tarot’s Major Arcana Woman in Tune

Jun 30, ’12 7:12 PM

Angela Osborne as Tarot’s Major Arcana VIII Strength

click on comic to enlarge

Understanding Tarot’s Major Arcana

In Tarot the Major Arcana present a series of archetypes representative of stages of spiritual and personal growth or development. While the Minor Arcana (the same cards, basically, that we find in a standard deck of playing cards) indicate subtle processes that we can happen upon in any particular aspect of everyday life, the Major Arcana instead show a significant stage of a person’s overall life. The stages offered through the Major Arcana are told as a kind of story of the Fool’s Journey–the Fool being the fully open person guided by intuition with still a range of life experiences from which to learn. As the Fool (traditionally represented as a young man) moves forward on his life path he moves naturally through the growth processes of the Major Arcana (not necessarily in order) brought through the complexities of human life by his own choices and intuitive guidance both.

From this perspective, then, each Major Arcana can be understood as a sort of Jungian Archetype through which any of us may come to better understand tropes of human life and experience.

Superhero Archetypes

North American comic book superheros operate as a form of mythical archetype of the American psyche offering insight into our aspirations, fears, and stages of ethical development: Superman may stand as our cultures’ desire for principled truth and goodness; Batman as recognition of our darker inclinations and our will to generate right action even in the face of them.

When considering comic book heroes and women archetypes, however, its easiest to just admit we’ve not done enough work to develop really rockin’ women superheroes. They’re often ridiculously big-boobed, cranky, or generally sexually problematic. (I do rather like Storm from X-Men, but notice she never really hooks up. Or, Phoenix Force, also from X-Men, but notice she just flat destroys the men she tries to love. It would seem it’s hard to be a woman superhero AND happily in love. Though it actually seems men superheroes tend to have relationship trouble too. ANYWAY…) The point being, it can be hard to find an interesting range of superhero archetypes for channeling our favorite women wine makers through. With that in mind, I chose to look outside comic books to find the right figure for presenting Angela Osborne in her excellence. I find her, then, in one of the Major Arcana of Tarot.

Angela Osborne as Tarot’s VIII Strength

Having moved through a discovery of his own passions and power to wield them, the Fool leaves his recent struggles journeying into the next stage of his life journey. Along the way he encounters a woman in the distance that would seem to be struggling with a lion. Determined to save her, the Fool rushes forward, bolstered by his own previous triumphes through struggle. He is certain he will wrestle the lion, risk his life and thus utilize his masculine bravery to save the beautiful feminine figure. As he approaches, the Fool discovers the woman merely petting the lion, the beast having calmed from her presence now still strong and wild but at peace with the woman’s ease.

The Fool is confused. How could the lion relax its ferociousness to commune with the woman? And why would the woman wish to be so close to a beast? Compelled by the woman he asks her to explain. Without moving, the woman turns to the Fool and looks directly into his eyes. The Fool sees in her expression a great gentleness coupled with a calm certainty. In the combination he recognizes what would make the lion respond to her–she is in tune with her self in a way that allows her too to be in tune with her surroundings. It is not that she dominated the lion, but that she knew how to read and interact with the lion in a way that set it at ease. The Fool wishes to know what she would want with a beast. The woman reminds him that the lion is a unique energy with which there is much to experience and share.

(This version of the tarot story is largely thanks to aeclectic.net.)

Focused on honing her conscious awareness of what surrounds the wine she makes–both in the vineyards, and in the wine making facilities themselves, Angela Osborne presents a lived presentation of Tarot’s Strength card. She cultivates her already deep respect for the wine through a commitment to bio-dynamic vineyard and wine making practices. Additionally, she relies on her own intuition of what the wine needs as it is being birthed in the barrel, along with a sense of surrender to what nature will offer beyond her own control. Together these elements show the grounded, centered, clarity of the feminine figure of Tarot’s 8th Major Arcana, the Strength card.

We’ll spend the next two days considering Angela Osborne’s beautiful wines A Tribute to Grace, first through A Life in Wine story of how she came to making grenache, now alongside her husband Jason, then through a review of a complete vertical of the full Grace history.

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Visiting New York City in Wine (pictures): Day 1: Tribeca Grill, Tribeca Wine Merchants, Tribeca, Clinton Hill

Jun 13, ’12 12:21 AM

Flashes of Heaven: Visit to Tribeca Grill’s Cellar, aka. Crazy Whoa Wine

the Chateauneuf du Pape Cellar underneath Tribeca Grill

one corner of the Riesling and Pinot Noir Cellar underneath Tribeca Grill

1998 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape

1990 Domaine Leroy Richebourg Grand Cru; 1949 Domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru

1990 Petrus Pomerol Grand Vin; 1961 Grand Vin de Chateau Latour Premier Grand Cru; 1900 (certified) Chateau Margat Lillet-Witt; 1990 Grand Vin de Chateau Latour Premier Grand Cru

Steve Morgan, Tribeca Grill Sommelier, with Sacrisassi Schioppettino-Refosco

(to be clear: Tribeca Grill has a *57-page* wine book with a brilliant vertical, great price collection focusing in especially on Chateauneuf du Pape, Riesling, Burgundy, and quirky California and Italian gems, along with a lot of incredible other things–write-up to follow)

Around Tribeca

the freedom towers disappearing into fog

Visiting Tribeca Wine Merchants

estate bottles

Tribeca Wine Merchants’ Wine Tastings

Evening in Clinton Hill

a jazz trio practicing in their first floor Brooklyn apartment during a rain

Thank you to Levi Dalton.

Thank you to Steve Morgan for being so generous with his time showing me the wine program at Tribeca Grill, and for sharing the Schioppettino-Refosco blend by Sacrisassi with me in response to my “Hunting Schioppettino” write up.

Thank you to Tara Carille, Stu, and Nick for hosting me at Tribeca Wine Merchants and for sharing such fantastic wines with me.

Thank you to Birk O’Halloran, and to Dan Petroski.

***

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