Kath and I headed south again to the Livermore Valley, this time to pick up baby’s first wine club “shipment” from La Rochelle. It’s our first and only club membership down here, and we were sold on their Pinot club program upon a visit, avec coupon, to their neighboring sister winery Steven Kent.
But clubs have gotten so complicated now. Used to be, the only choices one had re: clubs was red v. white (or a combo of the two) or the number of bottles per shipment. The amount of discount sometimes varied as well: 20- to 25% off the shipment, and maybe 30% off if you reorder any of the selections. Now, we’re discovering everything from “Here are your selections, but you can swap anything out for anything else available, at the same discount” to even more convoluted club algorithms.
Which, unfortunately, seems to be the case at La Rochelle. Don’t get me wrong; the wines are awesome. The Pinot Noir program, especially, is dedicated to Pinot (Meunier, too) sourced from up and down Cali. Tasting a few in the Steven Kent Barrel Room tasting facility, hosted by Jim, is what drew Kath to sign up for the club. However, the wines are somewhat spendy, the club discount is a mere 15%, and the Rochelle stand-alone venue offers only a wine-and-bites menu, no wine-only card. Off of which, club members get to save a whopping 50%.
To me, it smacks of paying your annual dues to the country club and then, when entertaining out-of-town guests, being charged a cover at the door. Let’s be honest: There are not a whole lot of advantages for you to a winery having your credit card on file.
But #1 is that you should be able to walk into the tasting room without even thinking about fees: There shouldn’t be any.
Kath and I picked up our allotment, inquired about additional tasting at our club facility (“Half off for members!”), and asked if a bottle of a particular variety was open for pouring (“No, sorry, only the four that we’re pouring for the release.”)
Need I say that we bailed?
Bailed to the wine route that we’ve traveled a lot before. Kathy and I were not on a Livermore Valley Port Run this time, but we managed to hit a few joints off Tesla Road that merited a little more of our attention; some that we hadn’t visited in a while. And a new discovery too.
A couple of years ago (Gawd, have we been in CoCo County that long that we can use that phrase now?), we’d stopped in at Bodegas Aguirre, off Tesla. The tasting room sitch was a bit odd: Dr. Aguirre was our genial host, pouring us top shelf when we showed particular interest; the wrath of god ensued when another usurped ring-up duties. Tasting fees! Oh no, grl, she din’d!
And this is how a new adventure begins. We stop at Bodegas and are greeted by Norm and Kenna, not to mention one of the two winery kitties that do or do not want to be in the picture. I rant about this all the time, but man, the people behind the bar determine whether or not you want to come back.
Sometimes kitties have something to do with it, too. Just a wee.
Norm and Kath talked at length about the relatively new-ish tasting rooms in the Valley; we were going to head east to Fenestra, and Norm wrote his name on a Bodegas Aguirre cork, saying, “Ask for Meredith.”
Meredith wasn’t there, and Fenestra was hosting another of their monthly events. Sigh. We’re ready to close the day.
The Livermore Valley Wine Map is good, man. We could actually close out the day at the upper right part of the paper.
We pull into the address and are met by Rich, of Tenuta, just bidding Shalom to a limousine. He welcomed us, and was the coolest host.
Now, we’ve visited this site in the past, and loved the juice. But, wait’ll you see what the boys in the back room will have!
En Garde: a super-small producer with, no surprise, no estate. You do this stuff on a handshake, maybe a fountain pen. Maybe you get the fruit next year, maybe it gets sold to someone who offered more. That would be wrong; C knows how to do the do.
Csaba Szakál
Proprietor/Winemaker
En Garde Winery
http://www.EnGardeWinery.com/
633 Kalthoff Common
Livermore, CA 94536
Dude has nice price-point. Doesn’t hurt that his juice is outrageously good.
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