Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Occupy IKEA. And, Oh, Yeah, Alameda

Another Black Friday and another jaunt to IKEA in Alameda County, followed by a trip to Rosenblum with their parent’s umbrella current commitment to vineyard designated varietal juice from our ‘hood, St. George Spirits and their neighbor Rock Wall.

OK, a little bit disturbed to find IKEA culpable of using East German prisoner labor back in the day, maybe putting the “No” in “Nortorp.” I vass only following hors d’oevres (meatballs and lingonberry excluded).

So we get a couple of groovy pillows, then hit the trail for Rosenblum Cellars, where we know we can get juice made from Stan and Gertie Planchon’s fruit, as well as same from the late Rich Pato’s estate directly across Empire Avenue here in Oakley.

As noted in an earlier post, Rosenblum’s corporate parent, Diageo, maintains a commitment to Plato and Planchon fruit. It’s all we can do to keep our fingers crossed for this exquisite varietal Zinfandel, Mourvedre and Petite Sirah.

Believe me, there is no need to plough these ancient vines under in order to house the likes of me. Just saying.

On to St. George and the dragon net (Look up Stan Freberg, y’all).  Had a great distillery tour, hitting all the food groups from pear to potatoes; juniper to generics. As usual, the St. George tasting bar let their universe unfold as it should: concentrated flavors where appropriate; subtle notes otherwise. Sweet. And don’t let a chained link fence dissuade you: They finish painting the Golden Gate Bridge and they have to start all over again; across the Bay, we can just be cheerleaders.

Rockwall is a mixed bag, man. Staff at the tasting room is OK, and the view out the oversized windows toward San Francisco is outrageous. The wine is good, too. So I can’t put my name on what’s just a little off, but for Kathy to go for something completely out of the ordinary won big points from yours truly.

Yeah, she could have gone the Zin or Rhone route; Baby girls gots it goin’ on and and on with the funky varietal Tannat, from Solano and Yolo Counties.

Sight unseen, mouthfeel untasted, untested.

Yet.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Thirsty Thursday Two

So we had an opportunity to participate at home in another cool bout of “Thirsty Thursday,” the live Webcast winetasting from the gang at Naked Wines.

Broadcast from Naked HQ situated in beautiful downtown Napa, ThirsThurs features a predetermined lineup of vinous offerings shipped out to prospective participants nationwide, and then invites said sippers to imbibe along with staff and special guests, all the while typing in real-time questions, tasting notes and general roundtable silliness from all concerned.

Last week’s edition was decidedly Syrah/Shiraz-centric, and spotlighted a pair of diverse Central Coast Cali blends from that original Rhône Ranger, Randall Grahm; a Western Aussie Shiraz from Fletcher Wines; as well as a Mendocino County Syrah from venerable vintner Jim Olsen, a seasoned wine pro who, in a previous lifetime, tended the juice at La Crema, among other oaky haunts.

Jim was the onscreen special guest for this Naked Wines Thirsty Thursday Thanksgiving Special beginning with a sort of “happy hour”: his California Chardonnay hailing, too, from Mendo. It’s a tremendously elegant Chard, exhibiting Jim’s light but firm hand on the oak.

And then, sometime between the instructions for everyone to pour, taste and discuss the delicious Jim Olsen Syrah 2011, and then the very tasty 2010 Fletcher Western Aussie offering, things got downright giddy.

First, we watched as the first course of a full Thanksgiving meal was served to our on-camera hosts and guest in a sort of reverse 3-D: a disembodied hand delivering a steam tray of victuals from behind the camera to those in front of it.

Great: I get to watch them eat a catered dinner while trying to juggle the Riedel.

But the back-and-forth Instant Message repartée between us salivating coast-to-coast TT participants was a wonderfully raucous mélange of intelligent wine questions, perceptive tasting notes and good-natured round-robin smack talk. Some of Kathy’s wine pals from Naked Wine’s various online boards were logged on for TT, and, in a cool way, I found myself marveling at this community; it felt like Old Home Wine Week.

I still find myself marveling, again, in a good way, the inclusion of Randall Grahm in the Naked Wines family. NW’s portfolio usually consists of the results of very talented winemakers, some with decades of experience making wine for “Da Man,” finally getting the resources to do it their way.

But Randall Grahm has done it his way for years, through good times and bad; he’s the very winemaking cat who puts the “icon” in “iconoclast.” With his 2011 Syrah-Viognier sporting a full 26% of the latter, we had to wonder if the juice was varietally co-fermented (usually a co-ferment job on these two limits the Viognier to a few percent, if that).

And his Central Coast 2011 “Close But No Cigare,” a blend of 76% Mourvèdre and 12 each Syrah and Grenache, is a lip-smacking second-label riff on his own “Le Cigare Volant.”

It’s nice to have both of these efforts, with which we regretfully toasted the conclusion of another Thirsty Thursday, in the Naked Wines fold.

But I still hope that Jim Olsen got the last piece of pumpkin pie.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Outlet Malls & Oenophilia

Oh gang, craziness!

Man, the biggest thing to hit Livermore was the grand opening, almost 2 years in the making, of the Paragon Outlets mall just west of Livermore wine country.

Dude, this joint is going to do nothing to alleviate any traffic on 580, an artery to Kali Klown Kar Kulture.

Prada, Armani, Kate Spade, Brooks Brothers, Saks 5-O, plus a host of the usual factory suspects ensured that this proverbial ribbon-cutting was the biggest thing to hit this burg since Interstate 580 was paved with Petite Sirah must (I’m kidding, Merv, I’m kidding).

So, Kath has Thursday, which just happens to coincide with the grand opening, off, and she heads off for some shopping. Apparently it was crazy, but she knows how to work the crowds, so it was relatively painless for her: parking and lines.

Now, on Saturday, not so much for me. The turnout for this super-premium retail joint made sure that mall officials had to find extramural parking for everybody. Man, this parking sitch, with overflow stationing relegated to unpaved environs surrounding the mall, was some ungawdly combo of Children of the Corn IV and Brentwood’s annual festival celebrating das cob. It had me wondering if I was banished to Billy Mumy’s “Twilight Zone” territory.

See, we were meeting for a Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association-sponsored event winetasting event, “Sunset Sip & Shop,” chez mall. Ten bucks, get your glass, visit the myriad barrels on the outside mall manned by Livermore vintner staff, and then make sure not to spill a Merlot on that sweet ETRO jacket lining.

Guys, it was coolo. Outdoor sipping at multiple stations of the cross, featuring many of our Livermore faves: Occasio, Nottingham, Longevity, to name only a literal few.

As mentioned, K had to work previously, and I had the heavy lifting of visiting, solo this time, Livermore’s Steven Kent/La Rochelle winery compound on a release day to taste and pick up our Pinot Noir allotment.

A mellow mood quickly turned to road rage when it was apparent that the mall exit ramp extemporaneously extended miles down the “free”way. Eventually parked amid Anthony’s cornfield scarecrows, and brushing the hay from mein togs, I promptly got lost as to Kathy’s and mine rendezvous spot.

Whether “in” Brooks Brothers or “at” Brooks Brothers (what we got heeeeeeah is a failyah tuh communicate), we did meet up in time for the sold-out wine event to provide our ID’ed wristbands in order to taste with abandon.

Almost every winery was pouring a red and a white/sparkling; Kath was on a red jones; me on a clear for some reason (downright thirst, ya think?).

Gotta tell youse guys that, despite all the parking access/egress stuff, this dusk sip and shop was really fun. Half the merch that Kathy bought on Thursday was gone by Saturday; and the wine event allowed us to be smug to see a line, a hundred souls long at Kate Spade, with nary a stem in hand to ease the anxiety.

‘Twas nice to see the local wine folk kickin’ it, though I wonder if the next Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association event will be a car wash & straw-detailing down the way at Charles R.

Because one never wants that bad mix of hay and spilled Touriga onto factory-installed leather. I hear that it messes up that new-car smell.

Sometimes for the better. So I hear.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Dungeons & Draconis

Our little youngster, the contradictorily named Old Sugar Mill, is really enjoying a growth spurt.

I truly get the fact that no one wants to be the pioneer in a ‘hood “on the cusp of gentrification.”

But Sugar, Sugar, ahh Honey, Honey.

Winemaker Matt Cline and biz-savvy wife Erin Cline were some of the first folks in, turning potential into kinetic energy with 3 Wine Company:

 http://www.threewinecompany.com/

Matt works the juice. He sources some sites near, dear and clear to our particular hearts: Contra Costa County grape-er-age smack dab in Oakley.

The Cline fam has its rootstock here. This blog began as an experiment to try to figure out where these magnificent grapes went, and into whose bottles. Heaven forbid that Oakley would see a vineyard designate parcel on a wine label: Live Oak, Big Break, Bridgehead. These are all Oakley roads surrounded by 120-year-old vines.

Actually, Heaven forbade the forbidden: Cline Cellars, with its intensive holdings in the ‘hood, and hardcore brand recognition, stepped up the integrity. Highly sought-after vineyard Zins display character that I thought could only come from a Wine Spectator editor ransacking a thesaurus.

OK, so Matt at 3, after a decade, and an affinity for Oakley fruit, comes back to take a whack at Live Oak.

The charming and oh-so-knowledgeable Kelly at 3 poured Kathy and me a side-by-side of Matt’s Zinfandel from Live Oak and his Evangelho.

Folks, I wouldn’t know finesse if it punched me. Joke, that.

Matt, you must get more of that Live Oak; your take on it is stellar. Nicely done, doctor.

Wasn’t so long ago that that the Mill, trying to lure small tasting rooms into the fold, was hit or miss. Several pioneering tasting rooms, a couple of “coming soon” teasers, and a few empty storefronts. Today, there’s no room at the inn: winery outlets line the main indoor drag, and the development of phase II is actually proceeding.

Which brings us to Draconis, a new tenant just outside the building and becoming the vanguard of said second phase of Sugar Mill reno. That the wine is outrageously tasty is a bonus. Like Todd Taylor’s juice elsewhere in the building, Matt Powell’s Draconis bottlings eschew blending, opting for a 100% expression of varietal fruit. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, back at the 3 Company ranch, Matt’s 2010 Live Oak Zinfandel is an elegant counterpart to even his Evangelho Vineyard Zinfandel from up the street. Unlike his bro’s Cline Cellars bottling from the same site, this stuff demonstrates the winemaker’s touch: his take on extraction, oak treatment and ripeness are all evident. No need to take your jacket to the cleaners: nothing shakes your lapels limp on this wine.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Thirsty Thursday

Guys, I had the funkiest experience last week.

Sorry for yet another Naked Wines pimp-out, just like my VISA Signature schmoozefest last year, but this particular event rocked the Riedel.

OK, first, full disclosure: Tonight is Halloween, and, suburban as we are, we are getting the hell out of Dodge. Unlike in our former digs in the Seattle ‘burb of White Center (as the local sign shop printed, “Not So Center, Not So White”), we have run out of candy 3 years running.

But when the 12-year-old punk demanded, last year, that I put more swag into his pillowcase, I was done.

Dude, I lived in Beverly Hills on more than a couple of Halloweens, where it seemed that parents would bus their kids in, thinking that the residents were handing out Faberge Eggs or insured jewelry.

So, tonight, I’m turning the lights off. I hope that FedEx makes the scheduled delivery before dusk so that the now-13-year-old punk will not find our house as his gateway from theobromine to extortion.

But, I digress. Now, that funky-fresh thang I mentioned at the top of the page.

So, we’re doing a virtual-time tasting with the winemaker.

Matt Iaconis has spent time all around the globe, on his quest to make his own juice from the sources that presented themselves to his singular vision.

A Moscato from Lodi; Chard from Napa; and a Cab from Paso Robles: East, North and South. With Instant Messaging remarks from all over the country.

There’s video with our Naked Wines host, Adam, audio from same and Matt, and IM questions read onscreen by videographer extraordinaire Vanessa.

Great questions, and great wine.

Kath and I can’t decide which is better: hunched over a QWERTY or a quaff.