May 5 & 6 Hopland Passport preview and 2 FREE Passport tickets to be won!

The 21^st annual spring Hopland Passport wine weekend will be celebrated on Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6, from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm each day. Guests may buy a ticket for $55 at any of the 16 participating Hopland Passport wineries, or for $45 when purchased online at www.DestinationHopland.com by noon Thursday, May 3, 2012.  Upon check in at any winery, you’ll receive a commemorative glass, a wristband, and a new-this-year multi-page passport to collect stamps from each winery and make note of favorite wines for later purchase.

Each winery will pour delicious wines served up with amazing foods; plus many will offer tours, host live music, or other entertainment.

Each Passport has a tear out page for entering a drawing where over 30 fantastic prizes will be awarded.

A Shuttle Pass, good for Saturday only, is available for $20.  Shuttles will pick up and return guests from designated Ukiah hotels.

Designated driver tickets are available at no cost online.

Heading south from Ukiah, the first winery stop is at Nelson Family Vineyards, located almost midway between Ukiah and Hopland, a good half mile west of Hwy 101 down Nelson Ranch Road.

Nelson Family Vineyards will be serving up estate wines paired with delicious pizzas made with fresh and local ingredients including chevre and sun dried tomatoes, prosciutto and arugula, Gorgonzola and artichoke all atop the most incredible crust you’ve ever had from Mendough’s Wood-Fired Pizza. Enjoy frangipane (almond custard tart) by Cousteaux Bakery paired with a delectable dessert wine to finish your tasting.

A short drive north, a big old farmhouse sits on a hill overlooking the highway. You’ve reached Jaxon Keys Winery, where “I Wanna be a Rock Star” is the theme. You might run into Jimi Hendricks, Jim Morrison, or Elvis; with live music provided by The Felt-Tips. Forget the rock ’n roll lifestyle of “we’ll all stay skinny ‘cause we just won’t eat” as the “green room” at Jaxon Keys will be fully stocked with delicious wine and food pairings fit for a star.

Up next is Saracina Vineyards, offering gourmet carne asada “blossoms” in celebration of Cinco de Mayo from food truck Street-eatz to accompany award-winning Saracina and Atrea wines. Resident crooner, Ramon will serenade guests with festive Cinco de Mayo music, and Saracina tasting room hosts will offer wine cave tours on Saturday.

Neighboring vineyard and winery Jeriko Estate will be serving Mexican inspired pizzas along with chips and homemade salsa in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Daniel Fries and Trio Paz will be providing live musical entertainment. Guests may also enjoy barrel tastings, current releases, library wines and special deals on case sales.

When you first hit town, you’ll find three tasting rooms in the big two story yellow Vintage Marketplace building on the left side of the road.

First up, Weibel Family will offer Korean braised pork belly tacos, lamb and pinenut meatballs, hanger steak on crostini and Mexican chocolate brownies by Sarah Piccolo and her fabulous Fork Catering food truck to pair with delicious wine and bubbly offerings including the release of our inaugural Mendocino Brut – a limited production sparkler composed of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from our estate vineyards. Club Weibel members will enjoy a 30% discount on cases.

Mere steps away, Graziano Family of Wines will pair their Italian and old world-style wines with imported Italian cheeses, including Reggiano and Pecorino, and imported sausages, as well as pate, Trudi Graziano’s famous tapenade, pork tenderloin marinated in and served with Stroh’s Ranch Marinade and fresh strawberries.

McFadden Farm Stand & Tasting Room is the last of the three Vintage Marketplace stops.

McFadden will pour all their wines, made from organically grown grapes, and owner Guinness McFadden will be signing bottles as they are purchased.

Out the back door, McFadden will be cooking up grass fed beef steaks, served up with 100% pure wild rice & artichoke heart salad, and a delicious green salad, with local Schat’s Bakery sourdough  – everything seasoned with herbs and herb blends – all family farmed and organically grown at McFadden Farm.

Everything at McFadden will be discounted with McFadden Wine Club Members enjoying an enormous 40% discount on cases of wine at the McFadden Farm Stand & Tasting Room.

Across the street and half a block down in a rustic barn wood sided, metal roofed building, McDowell Valley Vineyards will have music and the delicious Mexican food that has become a much treasured tradition for Passport weekend visitors, prepared by friend of McDowell Leticia Gonzalez, spilling out of the tasting room and onto the side street.

Cesar Toxqui Cellars is three buildings down, on the next block. Asia meets Mexico with delicious tacos filled with roasted pig meat, served with a side of classic Filipino lumpia, and a traditional dessert of flan. New releases include a new wine, the 2010 Viognier; a new label, the 2010 Immigrant Zinfandel; and a Barrel Tasting of a new Dolce Paloma Port. Cesar and his wife Ruth recommend pairing Zinfandel with pork, Viognier with lumpia, and Port with flan.

McNab Ridge Winery is in a new location, the bright yellow former schoolhouse right next to Cesar Toxqui Cellars. Savory pork spareribs, so tender they fall off the bone, served with delicious homemade red potato salad, over a dozen of our gourmet dips and spreads, and fine handmade truffles by Mike Miller of Decadence; all served to showcase different wines being poured.

Bottle Painting by local artist Leslie Bartolomei, and much, much more will be sure to captivate at McNab Ridge.

Across the street in the building McNab Ridge used to pour from, the new Piazza de Campovida will offer visitors an Inn, a Taverna, and Pizzeria de Campovida – a thin crust wood fired handmade pizza experience. Pizza and porter at the Piazza, plus a place to spend the weekend right in town! If you want a room, call (707) 744-1977 for reservations.

Brutocao Cellars will be pairing wines with different exotic wood fired pizzas. Fun is guaranteed with bocce ball, other games, and contests to participate in. Live music is also a much loved Brutocao tradition at Hopland Passport, so bring your boogie shoes.

Parducci Wine Cellars’ Hopland tasting room at the Real Goods & Solar Living Institute campus is where you’ll find fresh succulent oysters paired with Sauvignon Blanc and Sustainable White. Red wine lovers will enjoy gold medal winning small lot blend Pinot Noir paired with pork medallions with a raspberry balsamic glaze over creamy polenta. Wine and oysters, wine and pork…..who could pass this up?

The southernmost winery on Highway 101, operating out of a hop kiln, Milano Family Winery will be serving scrumptious tri-tip marinated and smoked over red wine barrel staves & mesquite with rolls, an abundance of yummy vegetables and dips, and aged to perfection, delicious Cabot Creamery cheeses.

Performing Saturday at Milano Family Winery is the rockin’ band BLIND SPOT – a group of friends who enjoy playing rock & roll, blues and pop. On Sunday, Oscar Calderon will be singing and strumming on his guitar.

Milano Family Winery is always busy with fabulous wines, delicious food, art & craft vendors, and terrific music.

To the west of Hopland, up Mountain House road, you’ll find two wineries. The first, Rack & Riddle, is a large facility set back off the road a bit. Rack & Riddle is home to many of the great bubblies poured in Hopland and beyond. During Passport, Rack & Riddle will feature festive, gourmet Mexican cuisine, serving lime & shrimp ceviche, warm tri-tip sliders, and chips & guacamole, pairing perfectly with their award-winning sparkling wines and newly released still wines! Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style with Rack & Riddle!

Terra Savia will pair medal winning wines and bubbly with Papa Darrell’s deliciously scrumptious tri-tip with bordelaise sauce, mushroom caps stuffed with walnuts and herbs, Candida DeLorenzo’s baguette pudding with fresh spring cherries, orange infused olive tapenade on crostini, and honey & lavender baked walnuts. Music by the highly entertaining and original local brother & sister duo, The Avery’s, will have you swinging your hips and stomping your feet.

To the east of Hwy 101, on Old River Road, lies Campovida, a gorgeously peaceful retreat that you have to set aside some time to explore. Campovida will be serving up authentic Mexican street faire – soft, warm corn tortillas topped with your choice of steak, chicken or vegetables, with a splash of spicy salsa, and a shower of sweet onion and fresh cilantro, which will accompany a lineup of sustainable, organic and biodynamic wines. A tour with master gardener Ken Boek of the famous Campovida gardens is an absolute must.

For more information, or to purchase Hopland Passport tickets and/or Shuttle passes, visit online at www.DestinationHopland.com

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Okay, I’ll be honest, this was a piece written by committee with owners and managers  from each of the 16 wineries providing a blurb for the “wineries and menus” page under the Hopland Passport tab on the Destination Hopland website, then me taking those blurbs and stringing them together with edits as needed into a single post…not my best but the piece above will appear next week with a photo or two in the Ukiah paper and will serve both to remind folks to pick up last minute tickets and to provide a possible order for winery visits.

Anyway, I promised tickets, and I’ve got a pair of tickets to Hopland Passport to giveaway. Leave a comment before midnight on Thursday, April 26, not on facebook or twitter, but to this post on my blog and show me that you’ve read my post – or found the poorly hidden answer to the following question: which winery owner will be signing bottles during Hopland Passport? I’ll pick a winner and contact them on Friday, April 28.

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Tune in to KSRO 1350 AM in Santa Rosa on Thursday, April 26 from 5:00pm to 6:00 pm – or go to KSRO.com and click the “Listen Live” button to listen online – when I join my good friend Steve Jaxon on his best-show-north-of-the-bay The Drive With Steve Jaxon to talk about Hopland Passport. We will taste wines from up to a dozen Hopland wineries live on air, talk about the offerings from each of the 16 participating wineries, and we’ll likely give away a pair of tickets (or maybe two pair) toward the end of the show. Steve will be attending Hopland Passport this year, and you’ll hear plenty of reasons to get your own tickets and join us all.
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Disclosure: I manage the McFadden Farm Stand & Tasting Room and provide marketing services to Destination Hopland.

 

Hopland Wine Notes, and three big wine events this week.

Local Hopland Wine Notes:

I had the opportunity to visit winery tasting rooms other than my own in the last week.

Right in Hopland, I visited SIP! Mendocino and Bernadette poured me some wines. Using a Jedi mind trick, she grabbed a bottle, and waving her hand at me said, “you’re going to like this.” Of course, I did like it, and bought a bottle of the 2008 Tahto Petite Sirah, Potter Valley. Deep rich dark berry, herb, chocolate and spice, nicely integrated.

The next day, I returned to SIP! and tasted with Angela, running into Gary Krimont and Hopland’s own Kit, co-owner of the Superette grocery store in Hopland. I tasted a couple of Rhone offerings, a Grenache and a Syrah, both were yummy, but really an appetizer for what came next.

We scooted next door to Cesar Toxqui’s tasting room. There is a big buzz surrounding Cesar and his wines. After having made wines for many local wineries, Cesar started making wines for himself as well. In a tasting room more relaxed than most, Cesar, with Gary’s help, poured his way through his wines. I tasted wines of depth, fullness, character. Starting with solid grapes, the fermenting juice is punched down twice a day by hand with extended maceration. If you don’t speak wine geek, that means Cesar wrings the grapes and skins for all the best flavor they will yield.

Everything I tasted was delicious, from Cesar’s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to his Zinfandel and Heirloom, a wine that has a little of the previous Heirloom blended into it, which itself had a little of the previous vintage blended in, and so on, so that the wine you taste is a wine of all time, a magic representation of everything Cesar has done from day one. There is a rumor that Heirloom III will be unveiled at this weekend’s Spring Hopland Passport.

After tasting the 2009 Cesar Tozqui Cellars Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley and 2009 Cesar Tozqui Cellars Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley side by side, I was surprised to find the Anderson Valley Pinot from Mendocino County was drinking more beautifully, was more velvety, than the Russian River Valley Pinot from Sonoma County grapes. I grew up on Dry Creek Valley Cabs and Zins and Russian River Valley Pinots, and developed a “house palate,” preferring the tastes of the wines grown in the places I grew up. If I had been asked to guess which wine was which, based on taste alone, I would have guessed wrong, because I am prejudiced to prefer Russian River Valley Pinots. My second favorite AVA for Pinot Noir is the Anderson Valley, so the side by side tasting was both a treat and instructive.

I bought a bottle of Cesar’s Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, forgetting that there is a generous reciprocal inter winery discount for the tasting room staff of the Hopland wineries. I was doubly thrilled with my purchase after the discount.

The next day, after closing up my tasting room, I headed to Jaxon Keys for an inter winery mixer.

Jaxon Keys is a Wilson winery. Ken and Diane Wilson own some premier winery properties in Sonoma County, and bought and renamed the Jepson winery and distillery, hired Fred Nickel, a knowledgeable and skilled local winemaker, to increase the quality of the wines, and moved the tasting room from a low shed like building to a huge, lovely old estate house on a hill overlooking the vineyards.

Vicki Milone played host to tasting room staff from several Hopland area wineries, with folks coming from Dry Creek Valley wineries in Sonoma County as well. Everyone brought food, and wine, and shared a nice two hours of relaxed fellowship.

The yummiest food treat, which I will be stealing without reservation, was cream and blue cheese with orange marmalade infused figs and toasted pecans on a round pastry. It turns out the round pastry was from Pillsbury giant crescent rolls, sliced while and remaining rolled. Thank you Bev for bringing the taste treat – for me – of the night and sharing where the recipe came from. I will be making these for a future Second Saturday in Hopland to pair with our wines at the tasting room.

I enjoyed a number of the wines Vicki poured and am looking forward to when more of Fred’s wines come on line.

At the mixer, I met Victor Simon, winemaker at Simaine in Ukiah. I will be visiting and tasting very soon.

I also had a bottle find me, instead of me going out to find it, last week. When I returned from a three day weekend, I found my dear friend Serena Alexi had brought a bottle of 2005 Wellington Vineyards Zinfandel, Sonoma Valley. I have not opened it yet, but I am sure to write nice things here when I do.

The folks at Brown-Forman in Kentucky who own Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland sent me six bottles a couple of months ago, but only four were delivered as two were damaged in transit. Although Concha y Toro in Chile is buying Fetzer, Maria from Brown-Forman contacted me today to see about replacing the two bottles. It is a mark of class, of professionalism, that a company that has effectively sold Fetzer already is continuing their first class marketing efforts on behalf of the brand.

Parducci, located in Ukiah, is opening a satellite tasting room in Hopland at the Solar Living Center. John March, who poured the wines of Magnanimus Wine Group at Campovida in Hopland, will be the tasting room manager of the new tasting room facility. I wondered aloud how a Ukiah winery with their own Ukiah tasting room was going to be pouring at this weekend’s Spring Hopland Passport weekend, and why every Ukiah or Redwood Valley winery couldn’t pour. I thought that the collaboration between Parducci and the Solar Living Center was a weekend fling, but am thrilled to welcome Parducci, a winery I love, and John March, a terrifically talented brand ambassador, to Hopland full time.

The Solar Living Center does attract a large share of hippie, marijuana smoking, young folk, and I suggested jokingly to John that he find out which Parducci wine pairs best with weed. That said, my tasting room is the closest to the new medical marijuana dispensary opening up in Hopland, and may I suggest that the 2007 McFadden Vineyard Coro Mendocino would go wonderfully with a nice bong load of Mendocino County’s sticky icky. I have to start practicing saying that with a hand wave, in my own Jedi mind trick style.

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Three Big Events:

This coming weekend, April 30 and May 1, there are two big wine events going on; Spring Hopland Passport, and Passport to Dry Creek Valley; plus Hospice du Rhone will be held April 28-30.

Although I question the sense, or dollars and cents, of spending $125 to visit 46 wineries, tickets are pretty much SOLD OUT for the Dry Creek Valley Passport. There is just no possible way to visit that many wineries. It doesn’t matter what each is offering if you can’t possibly experience it. That said, pick and choose your favorites, get swept up in the traffic and crowds, and enjoy some very delicious wines, paired with the delightful food treats.

Last year, I attended Spring Hopland Passport, took two full days, visited all the participating wineries, enjoyed some very delicious wines (100 of them) from 21 labels, paired with delightful food treats. I wrote a Spring Hopland Passport recap last year. Visit the official Hopland Passport site, where tickets can be bought for just $35, which seems a far more reasonable cost considering the number of wineries that can be visited in one or two days.

A few highlights of what a $35 Spring Hopland Passport ticket buys: Cesar Toxqui Cellars will offer authentic Filipino cuisine to pair with vertical tastings and barrel tastings. Jaxon Keys will have tri-tip sliders and live music by the Felt-Tips. Jeriko Winery will be roasting pig and chicken and have live acoustic music. McFadden Vineyard will pour all of their wines, run big two day only sales, and cook up organic grass fed cube steak from the McFadden Farm seasoned with grilling herbs, lemon pepper and garlic powder also grown organically at McFadden farm, McFadden Farm Wild Rice and artichoke heart salad, and a green salad with McFadden Farm organic salad herbs. McNab Ridge will be pouring current releases, barrel samples and a Coro vertical while offering a selection of dips and speads, marinated chicken thighs with grilled pineapple, and jumbo shrimp with a zesty horseradish cocktail sauce. Mendocino Farms wine will be poured at Campovida while Ken Boek leads garden tours and Les Boek and his band provide music. Milano Family Winery will be serving tri-tip and have live music by Marc Hansen. Nelson Vineyards will be offering up organic Mendough’s wood-fired pizza with their estate wines. Parducci’s wines will be paired with Magruder Ranch grass fed pulled pork and lamb sliders with Asian slaw while The Dirt Floor Band plays at the Real Goods Solar Living Institute. Saracina Vineyards wines will be paired with smoked chicken and porcini crepes, grilled hanger steak tartines, and beet spoons catered by Janelle Weaver, exec chef of Kuleto Estate Winery. Terra Savia will be pairing wine and olive oil tastings with Hawaiian fare while Hui Arago’s band plays Hawaiian music. Weibel Family Vineyards will be pairing wines with treats from Fork Catering. Thanks to Heidi Cusick Dickerson and Hopland Passport for pulling all of this information together. Ticket prices rise $10 on the day of the event, so pre-purchase your tickets online or at any Hopland winery tasting room.

The 19th Annual Hospice du Rhone will bring together over 1,000 Rhone wines from over 130 Rhone wine producers for three days in Paso Robles, CA. There are several events, tastings, seminars, meals, and you can pick and choose which events to buy tickets to with prices ranging from $100-$155, or you can buy a weekend package ticket for $795, getting you into most of the events.