Barrel Tasting Weekend along Highway 128

John on Wine – Barrel Tasting Weekend along Highway 128

This piece originally ran in the Ukiah Daily Journal weekly wine column on Thursday, July 16, 2015

Barrel Tasting 128, or BT128, the Anderson Valley and Yorkville Highlands Barrel Tasting Weekend is coming up on Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26, from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm each day. A $20 ticket gets you advance tastes of wines, primarily but not exclusively Pinot Noir. I was a guest, last year, of the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association, and heartily recommend the event to anyone wanting to enjoy a great weekend of wine. Tickets are available online at http://www.avwines.com

Here is what each participating winery is offering ticket buyers:

BALO – Join our Winemaker in the Barrel Room for samples of our 2014 Estate Pinot Noirs including the critically acclaimed, Avenging Angel.  Enjoy gourmet pizzas from our wood fired oven and play a game of Bocce or walk the vineyard, glass in hand. Enjoy 20% savings on your wine purchase and sign up for our Wine Club to reserve futures.

BAXTER – Claire Baxter (winemaker’s wife) will guide you through barrel samples of upcoming wines, including her personal favorite. Taste current vintage Pinots and sign up for futures with complimentary shipping. Our mid-century modern tasting room is on the West side of 128 in downtown Philo. (707) 895-3173.

BINK is offering barrel samples of 3 different Pinot Noir clones and a daily raffle for a bottle of Reserve Thomas Vineyard Pinot Noir.  There will be summer wine specials as well.  Join the Wine Club and receive 25% off.

BRUTOCAO invites you to be a “king for the day”. All tickets holders will receive a 25% discount on wine purchases. Taste a barrel from the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Contento Vineyard.

DOMAINE ANDERSON WINERY – Join us for an exceptional opening of the Domaine Anderson French Art-Deco tasting bar with small bites and a special 15% discount on select wines. Lounge on the patio, picnic in the gardens, or stroll through the vineyards at our certified organic Dach vineyard surrounding the winery.

EDMEADES and CHAMP de REVES – Explore the amazing flavors of Mendocino County shaped by winemakers Ben Salazar of Edmeades and Eric Johannsen of Champ de Reves. Begin the journey with a barrel sample of Pinot Noir from Champ de Reves high elevation vineyard. Then discover the diversity of Edmeades with three single vineyard Zinfandels. We will also be offering small bites and special wine pricing.

ELKE VINEYARDS – Look for special offers.

FOURSIGHT will offer a special preview of the fantastic 2014 estate Pinot Noirs out of barrel, alongside current releases and small bites. Futures of the 2014 Pinots will be available at a special barrel tasting price.

GOLDENEYE WINERY invites you to sample 2 different blocks of Estate Grown Pinot Noir from our Confluence Vineyard.  We will be offering small nibbles and a special tasting complimentary for Barrel Tasters.

GREENWOOD RIDGE – In addition to 2014 barrel samples, we will pouring our 2012 Hundred Point Pinot Noir along with other current releases and a selection of local cheeses.

HARMONIQUE – Meet Winemaker Bob Klindt and owner Moira Conzelman. Preview 2013 Vintage Pinot Noirs and taste the newly released 2009 un-oaked Chardonnay. Karina Lyons of Heritage Oak Barrels will also be on hand to discuss the art of the barrel. Finger foods served.

HUSCH VINEYARDS is excited to preview a barrel sample of our 2014 Estate Pinot Noir. We will also be offering an additional 10% case discount on all current vintages of Pinot.  Enjoy a complimentary tasting from our collection of award-winning wines paired with home-made olive tapenade on the back deck. Relax at one of our picnic tables amongst the vineyard and winery.

KNEZ will be tasting 2014 Estate Cerise and Demuth Vineyard Pinot Noir.  10% off all purchases.  25% off all purchases upon joining the Knez Wine Club.  Artisanal cheeses and local breads.

LAZY CREEK – Look for special offers.

LICHEN ESTATE will be offering up to 20% savings plus free shipping (on full case purchases) on 2014 Pinot Noir from the barrel.

LULA CELLARS – This year we will be tasting barrel samples of our 2014 pinot noir.

MAPLE CREEK / ARTEVINO will be sampling out of barrel our 2014 Pinot Noir’s (Weir Vineyard, Yorkville and Anderson Valley vineyard) and our 2014 Estate Chardonnay along with various library wines. We will offer a 20% discount on all wines to the ticket holders and we will have some artisan cheeses to sample as well.

MEYER FAMILY CELLARS invites you to sample our latest barrels of Cabernet and Syrah. On Saturday we’ll have wood-fired pizzas from our earthen oven and on Sunday, local gourmet food-pairings in the tasting room.  Enjoy our grapevine shaded picnic tables, green grass lawn and bocce court. 15% discount.

PHILLIPS HILL – Join the winemaker for a tasting of 2013 barrel samples and current releases paired with some amuse bouche. Futures of 2013 Pinot Noir will be offered at a special price.

PHILO RIDGE VINEYARDS tasting room will be serving barrel samples of 2013 Pinot Noir, 2013 Zinfandel and 2014 Viognier. This weekend save 15% on 6 bottles, save 20% on 12 bottles or more. Wine club members will receive an added discount. Enjoy a cool watermelon gazpacho and crostini bites while you taste.

SEEBASS offers a discount of futures and two pairings: one with cheese and one with chocolate. Also all ticket holders will receive a 10% discount on purchases.

YORKVILLE CELLARS will be tasting barrel samples and offering discounted futures for 2013 Richard the Lion-Heart, our unique proprietors’ blend of the six Noble red grapes of Bordeaux, which we grow in our certified organic Rennie Vineyard: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Carmenere. You can also taste each of these wines as a separate varietal too and enjoy special pricing on selected current releases. Bountiful appetizers will be served.

WITCHING STICK will be barrel tasting our 2014 Zinfandel Port, 2014 Perli Vineyard Pinot Noir, and 2014 Durell Vineyard Chardonnay, with small plate appetizers.

 

Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival

John On Wine ­ – Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival

Originally published in the Ukiah Daily Journal newspaper on Thursday, May 22, 2014
By John Cesano

For me, this year’s Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival started last Thursday at Champ de Reves, which translates as Field of Dreams, in Philo. Dr. Edmeades planted the first Pinot Noir grapes in the Anderson Valley 50 years ago, and started making, selling wine from his grapes in 1972. In 1988, Jackson Family Wines, the empire Kendall-Jackson built, bought Edmeades and now it has been rechristened Champ de Reves. The location and the view of a big chunk of the valley was gorgeous. The wines were selected by winery owners from throughout the valley and the dinner of carved roast beef and plank salmon was made spectacular by both their wines and their company.

I was fortunate and sat with Allan Green of Greenwood Ridge; Mary Elke of Elke; Douglas Stewart of Lichen; John Osborne, an event volunteer; and Laura Barnard, who works in marketing for Jackson Family Wines’ West Burgundy Wine Group, of which Champ de Reves is just one winery. After dinner we were also joined in conversation by Paula Viehmann of Goldeneye.

Friday morning started early with coffee and a selection of quiches prepared by Julia Kendrick Conway, as winemakers, press, and consumers gathered at the fairgrounds in Boonville for a technical conference. Greg Walter, publisher of the Pinot Report, introduced the morning’s sessions, which featured The Nature Conservancy’s Jason Pelletier sharing the results of an incredibly detailed study on water flow and water use throughout the year. The study focused on grape growing water demands within the Navarro watershed and then segued into a similar talk by Jennifer Carah, but with a focus on marijuana growing water demands. Unsurprisingly, marijuana growths use much more water — 19 to 50 times more — for production, and do not share the same land and water stewardship ethos as many grape growers. This is especially significant in drought years ­ like this year.

Glenn McGourty gave a talk on best practices for grape growing during a drought year, or years. Winemakers in attendance were certainly leaning forward during this session. Lunch was delicious, prepared by Boont Berry Farm and paired with a huge selection of Pinot Noir from the Anderson Valley. After lunch, there were two tasting sessions. The first focused on the many faces of Pinot Noir and featured Arnaud Weyrich’s zero skin contact Pinot Noir, picked early, and briskly acidic for Roederer’s bubbly; Alex Crangle’s White Noir for Balo; the Dry Rose of Pinot Noir by Jim Klein of Navarro; the round, rich red Pinot Noir by Anthony Filiberti of Knez; and the purple dark version made by Michael Fay of Goldeneye.

Next, we looked at the fruit of Angel Camp Vineyard and how different winemakers used it to make distinctly different wines; the winemakers and wineries featured were Brian Zalaznik of Angel Camp, Dan Goldfield of Dutton Goldfield, and Anne Moller-Racke of Donum. The technical conference ended with a sharing of accumulated extensive knowledge by Clark Smith on the arcana of winemaking.

Friday night’s dinner was a barbecue at Foursight Winery with grilled lamb from Bone Daddy of Bones Roadhouse and music by Dean Titus & The Cowboys. Relaxed, fun, another delicious event with enough Pinot Noir to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool, I sat with folks from Southern California and Washington who heard about the event from someone they ran into in the Middle East. It turns out I knew who they were talking about, John Gaudette. The world of wine is close and doesn’t need a full six degrees of separation to connect us all, I’m convinced.

Saturday morning, Margaret Pedroni, Mendocino County wine personality, joined me at Balo in Philo for an early private press tasting. The Ukiah Daily Journal was represented beside tasters from Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, Wine & Spirits, Connoisseurs’ Guide, San Francisco Chronicle, Examiner, Pinot Report, Pinot File, and more. Heads down, no talking, serious tasting. I’ve done it before, but I preferred the fun and conviviality of the Grand Tasting that followed at Goldeneye.

Goldeneye has a breathtakingly beautiful tasting room and the Grand Tasting event was held behind the tasting room under the shade of a huge white tent in their vineyards. About 750 ticketed guests Pinot Noir based wines; bubblies, blancs, roses, and full on reds; from all of the producers in Anderson Valley and a few producers from farther away who make one or more wines exclusively from Anderson Valley Pinot Noir grapes. Not too big, not too small, but just right, with opportunities to place silent auction bids on donated Pinot-centric items to help the Anderson Valley Health Center, plenty of exceptional food bites, water and soda to remain hydrated, and the fermented juice of Pinot Noir grapes from 45 producers to experience.

I tasted more than 100 wines over the course of the weekend, one was corked ­ and poured at the press tasting ­ but I had tasted it elsewhere already, one didn’t really make me love it, but the vast majority of wines I tasted, over 99 percent, were good at least and great at best. The 2011 vintage wines were brighter and more elegant, coming from a cooler year and the 2012 vintage, being warmer, yielded wines of greater weight and intensity. All of the wines taste of cherry, that is Pinot Noir, but the expressions were varied: black cherry, red cherry, candied cherry, dried cherry, and the supporting notes ranged the gamut from rose petal to cedar, and mushroom to barnyard funk. Some of the Pinot Noir I loved included the 2012 Fel Wines, Ferrington Vineyard; 2007 Elke Pinot Noir, Donnelly Creek Vineyard; 2011 Witching Stick, Cerise Vineyard; 2011 Williams Selyem, Ferrington Vineyard; 2011 Donum, Angel Camp Vineyard; 2012 Baxter, Anderson Valley; 2011 Goldeneye, Gowan Creek Vineyard; 2012 Waits-Mast, Deer Meadow’s Vineyard; and both the 2012 Lichen, Estate and Solera Lichen, Estate. That’s my unordered top 10 for this past weekend.

I urge you to visit the Anderson Valley, taste their Pinot Noir, and their other wines, notably Alsatian varietals like Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, and Riesling, and find your favorites. Also mark the third weekend of May next year on your calendar and plan on attending the 18th annual Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival next year. Huge thanks to my hosts, the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association, and Janis MacDonald and Kristy Charles specifically, for the kind invitation and warm welcome. I had a terrific weekend because you present a first class festival.