Spotlight Winery: Simaine Cellars

John On Wine – Spotlight Winery: Simaine Cellars

Note: This is an expanded version of the column that ran on September 4, 2014 in the Ukiah Daily Journal newspaper.

John Cesano of John On Wine

Picture a winery, set amidst endless acres of rolling grapevine rows, more a castle than an ordinary structure, covered in ivy, with European supercars parked in front, fountains spraying water with misted droplets creating rainbows, trees carefully carved into topiary wine bottle shapes, a helicopter tied down beside the castle, and a sign welcoming visitors inside to enjoy a wine tasting for a nominal $20 tasting fee per guest. Haughty hosts judging your worth with practiced eye, pouring perfect half ounce pours with practiced hand. The wines, too often ultimately disappointing, unsurprisingly each an extension of style over substance. Not for me, thanks.

Simaine Cellars Wine Tasting & Gift Shop is gloriously the opposite of that; located at 3001 South State Street in the Redwood Square industrial park on the south end of Ukiah, one property north of the Redwood Health Club, in the rear row of businesses, where the Simaine signage at units 41 and 42 let you know you’ve arrived at the right place.

Stepping through the door, you enter the gift shop, filled with colorful, handmade jewelry. Both Victor Simon, owner and winemaker, and Max, the winery dog, greeted me, and we walked through the gift shop and into the winery.

Simaine Cellars is all about function, and is a local example of a growing movement where wineries locate in urban industrial parks rather than in rural vineyard settings. Victor buys his grapes, then crushes, ferments, barrel ages, bottles his wine, pours it at tastings, and sells it, all from an intimate ‘no frills’ environment. The focus is squarely on the wines and with reduced overhead, they are made more affordable.

The large one room winery has barrels stacked high, wide and deep along one wall, a tasting bar on another wall, and cases of wine for tasting and sale on a third wall. The fourth wall is where a roll up door allows grapes to be delivered at harvest time. In the center, a table or two are available to sit, and if your timing is good, Victor will share a homemade lunch with you as you wine taste.

While you can find Simaine in shops and restaurants in Mendocino County, “the best wine sales happen in tasting rooms. Stores allow bigger sales, but tasting wines is always better, that’s why I do my special events” shared Victor. Once a month, Victor hosts a dinner concert in his winery, with a local restaurant providing the food. On September 13, Paula Samonte will sing before traveling to Rome, Italy to perform. Paula’s concert is called “Leaving Notes” which she literally does as a singer.

Victor generously poured through all of his wines. I believe all of the wines I tasted were made from grapes that came from Venturi Vineyard.

2012 Simaine Sauvignon Blanc, Venturi Vineyard, $18, 14.6% alc. – Served pretty cold. White peach, pear, apple, vanilla instead of oaky, nice acid.

2010 Simaine Sangiovese, Venturi Vineyard, $25, 15.0% alc. – Dark color. Plum, coffee, dark rich cherry, chocolate. Lush, anise herb, all spice. The tart cherry on a cheesecake or jubilee dessert.

2010 Simaine Zinfandel, Venturi Vineyard, $25, 16.3% alc. – Dusty cocoa, Lush fruit, fruit, fruit. These wines are the exact opposite of light wines, but no high alcohol flavor. Balanced ripeness. Cherry. jammy berry, pepper spice.

2010 Simaine Syrah, Venturi Vineyard, $25, 15.7% alc. – Coffee and cherry and raspberry and bright cherry fruit meet purple dark plum and cassis fruit.

2010 Simaine Primitivo, Venturi Vineyard, $150, 16.4% alc. – Available only to wine club members and in the tasting room. Deep dark cherry, berry. Remarkably smooth. I loved this wine; sadly it is nearly sold out.

2010 Simaine Carignane, Venturi Vineyard, $40, 15.6% alc. – 105 year old vines, dedicated to grower Larry Venturi’s mom: Elvie’s Block on the label. Victor told me, “low yield, not too many tons per acre, gives so much character for the wines,” and I agree. Cherry, rose, and vanilla played really well against the notes of Victor’s salsa at lunch. Light, but full of flavor.

2010 Simaine Merlot, Venturi Vineyard, $40, 15.1% alc. – Soft mouth, dusty spice, blackberry, cherry, rhubarb. A touch of mint. The finish is long and lingering. Good acid, food friendly

2010 Simaine Petite Sirah, Venturi Vineyard, $40, 15.1% alc. – Nicely not overpowering. Smooth, soft tannins. Rich on palate. Tannins this soft on a wine this rich is remarkable. “All my wines are free run juice, so full body but smooth,” was Victor’s explanation. Dense blackberry, anise, pepper.

There was cherry accented or cherry leading the way notes in practically every red wine. They were all big wines, but smooth. They all were delicious, but would be made more so with food. I really liked the wines, and the overall style shown by Victor Simon at Simaine Cellars.

Simaine wines are made from fry farmed and organically grown grapes, using only free run juice, the juice that comes simply from the weight of grapes on top of grapes, and not pressed grapes for additional juice. Victor returns the skins to the vineyard they came from to be used as compost. Simaine wines are French oak aged and made from one varietal, not blended; and each wine is from one vineyard, which receives vineyard designation on the finished wine bottle.

Victor works at the winery every day, and to make that tolerable, enjoyable even, he makes himself lunch every day, and makes enough so he can share with you, if you are there at the time. If you miss lunch, there is always homemade fresh salsa and chips available because, as Victor explained, “I make salsa and beans every day, my wines are full body and go really well with spice.”

I enjoyed Tillamook peppercorn and crushed red pepper cheddar cheese quesadillas; fresh beans made with whole beans, red onion, jalapeno; and salsa made with Roma tomatoes, red onions, garlic, jalapenos, and cilantro – all made fresh by Victor.

Over and over again, one wine after the next, without exception, I found Victor’s Simaine wines to be rich, deeply flavored, but smooth and incredibly well integrated. These were wines of weight but remarkably soft tannin. Each wine delivered on the promise made in the smelling of it; the nose leads seamlessly to the mouth, and on to the finish. They also paired spectacularly with food.

Visit Simaine Cellars to taste and talk with Victor, or peruse www.Simaine.com for more information.

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I had a visit at work from a reader, not to taste wine, but to tell me that she reads my column each week and, even though she isn’t really much of a wine drinker, I write so everyone can understand what I am writing about and she likes the column. I wanted you to know I appreciate your kindness and was humbled that you sought me out to share it. Thank you, and thank all of you, my readers.

 

A Visit with Victor Simon of Simaine in Ukiah

Wine made in an industrial park? That could be the new focus of my wine writing, and provide endless material with great wine after great wine made and released by winemakers who would rather put limited resources into securing the best grapes or equipment instead of an architectural wonder, a castle, an imposing edifice created to humble or impress visitors.

The wine theme parks, with landscaped gardens and fountains, almost universally charge for tastings, and those fees can climb to well over $50 per theme park, um, winery. The winemakers who toil away in decidedly more modest industrial business parks almost never charge to taste their wines, and set low fees which are applied to a purchase when there is a charge.

Last week, I wrote a recap about the wineries of the Vinify Winery Collective at 3358 Coffey Lane in Santa Rosa. There are a number of individual winemakers using different spaces in the same business park, making some of my favorite juice, as different in style but similar in amazing quality as Kevin Kelley’s the NPA and Salinia to Carol Shelton’s eponymous winery.

More recently, I had the opportunity to visit Victor Simon at Simaine, his winery hidden away in the Redwood Square industrial park at 3001 South State Street #42, on the south east corner of the intersection of South state and Plant, at the south end of Ukiah.

Not in the front row of building spaces, but around to the back row, Simaine is an unprepossessing space, with a nondescript edifice, completely hiding the amazing winemaking going on behind the doors of the business park space.

Opening the door to Suite 42, I was stunned by the amount of colorful non wine merchandise that decorated the small retail tasting room space. Victor’s wife Brenda creates one of a kind shadowbox gifts, jewelry, necklaces, and earrings, which are available for purchase at Simaine.

The name Simaine is a contraction of Victor’s last name, Simon, and Brenda’s maiden name, Maine; Simon and Maine becoming Simaine.

Passing through the cozy retail space, visitor’s enter Victor’s work space, a full winery with a small kitchen space and a couple of tables for relaxed tasting and possible eating.

Open daily, from 10 until 5, Simaine is both a labor of love and an enormous time commitment for Victor. With summer heat in Ukiah often proving debilitating, Victor chooses to start work many summer days at 4:00 am, and there is plenty of work to do as Victor is a one man winery crew; owner, winemaker, and cellar rat all rolled into one.

Working with certified organic growers, Victor makes 100% unblended varietal, 100% unblended vineyard designate wines, treating the grapes and the wine as gently as he can, and chooses exclusively French oak barrels for the flavors they impart to his wines, blending neutral and newer oak held juice for his finished product.

I consider myself very lucky to have been invited by Victor to taste his wines at lunch time, with Victor preparing the fixings for Carne Asada tacos for a small group that had gathered. The reality is that Victor works every day, and long hours, so part of his relief comes in a daily preparation of lunch for himself and whoever happens to arrive at the winery at the right time. Limousine drivers, knowing Victor’s lunchtime habits, are known to deliver gleeful tasters to Simaine just after noon.

The first wine I tasted was the 2009 Simaine Sauvignon Blanc, Mendocino County, Larry Venturi Vineyard, $18. Grown in gravelly soil next to the Russian River, these certified organic grapes were dry farmed and come from 45 year old vines. Stainless steel fermentation, then French oak held seven month to add a vanilla note, this Sauvignon Blanc has beautiful melon, lemon, citrus, and a decidedly Mendocino grapefruit note. A truly lovely wine, it shows great balance of acidity and sweetness, fruit and oak.

The second wine tasted was Victor’s 2007 Simaine Syrah, Larry Venturi Vineyard, $25. Soft, silky, and Smooth. Chocolate, and a mix of red and dark fruit. Cherry meets plum, with nice smooth, tight grain, oak imparting a vanilla kiss.

Victor’s other lucky guests around the lunch table included a local musician Steve, Angela from SIP! Mendocino in Hopland, and neighbor Mark from Domaine Charbay. My luck grew as it turned out Mark had a Korean wife, they put up their own kimchi, and Victor had a jar that he opened for me to test Mark’s assertion that both Victor’s Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah paired wonderfully with kimchi.

Kindly described, kimchi could be called pickled cabbage. More accurate would be fermented, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say rotted. Kimchi is a powerfully pungent mix of cabbage, peppers, garlic, and fish oils, sealed in a clay vessel, and buried until ripe, very very ripe. I spent one year in Korea, love the country, and the food. I love kimchi, but my son’s mother used to scream when I brought any commercially available kimchi into the house. Hearing that not one, but two wines had been found, both delicious on their own, that paired with kimchi, did seem a little farfetched – I was sceptical.

Well, let me say here and now, Mark was completely correct. The Syrah was an OMG match for kimchi, and the Sauvignon Blanc though a completely different pairing was equally perfect.

Simaine produces just 2,500-3,000 cases of wine each year, small lots of high quality wine. Although the only wines available for purchase when I visited were the Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah, Victor has several wines in barrels, some so ready for bottling, and “if things work out,” there may be, ” a 4th of July Release Party,” for some of those wines currently in barrel, said Victor.

Coming soon will be releases of Sangiovese, a new Syrah, Petite Syrah, Carignane, Merlot, two Zinfandels, and a new Sauvignon Blanc.

Victor pulled barrel samples of his 2009 Carignane $35. Made from 65 year old vines, the wine is gorgeous, with lush fruit – red raspberry, cranberry, rhubarb, strawberry, cherry, hern, and spice. Nicely balanced by acid, very drinkable.

I also got to taste the 2009 Petite Sirah from barrel. Oh! Chocolate, round, ripe, smooth, incredibly soft tannins, rich fruit of blue berry, blackberry and plum. Well balanced.

Much of Simaine’s wine is allocated and goes directly to wine club members who receive four bottles four times per year. While Victor ships, most customers come and enjoy the big Pick Up Parties thrown at the winery with, “music, food, wine, everything.”

Asked what other Mendocino County wineries should be doing to bring positive attention to our wines and wineries, Victor said, “start making very premium wine – stop selling $48 cases – different styles, balanced, good wines. Just make Mendocino County wines popular because they’re good.”

I can attest that Victor Simon and Simaine are doing just that, and they’re doing it out of a little industrial business park space at the south end of Ukiah.

I applaud Simaine for keeping the notion alive that a wine writer covering just business park produced wines could write about great wines without end.

 

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.