Winery Review: Alfaro Family Vineyards

    

This past Saturday, we followed our own advice in Wednesday’s “Don’t Miss” posting and decided not to miss the Pathway to Pinot Paradise in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  Our first stop, of a total of four wineries visited, was Alfaro Family Vineyards.  This past summer, we had stumbled across a bottle of the 2005 “A”Estate Pinot at Vintage Berkeley and, not knowing at all what to expect, had been very pleasantly surprised. 

We parked in front of a row of barrels stacked a few yards from what will soon be the winery’s tasting room.  Although Saturday’s Pinot tastings were held in the barrel cellar, the festival marked the tasting room’s grand opening with its brand new floors and wide, wooden deck overlooking the valley. 

We tasted five Pinots at Alfaro, all of which we liked – although we didn’t love the 2006 “A” Estate Pinot as much as we had the 2005.  Our favorites by far were the Schultz and the Estate Pinot.

The overall atmosphere was lively and familial, with music playing in the cellar as we sampled the array of Pinots and a spread of cheese, grapes, and crackers to nibble on as we lingered and chatted with the pourers and Mrs. Mary Kay Alfaro herself!  Mr. Richard Alfaro, we were told, was off at Pebble Beach Food and Wine, and sadly, we did not have the chance to meet Lindsay and Ryan, the two children after whom some of the wines are named (and both of whom are prominent features in the winery’s website).

All in all, it was a great way to begin our self-guided tour of the lesser traveled Santa Cruz wine region. 

Weekend Wine: California Pinot Noir (Gundlach Bundschu Rhinefarm Estate 2005, $18.58*)

 

This is hands down the best value in a Pinot Noir that I could ever expect to come across.  The only problem is that the $18.58 price tag existed for only 48 hours during Gundlach Bundschu’s 150th anniversary sale a couple of weeks ago.  As you might remember, we told you about it as it was happening, and those of us that took note (and action) should give ourselves a pat on the back: we won big.  The same bottle now sells at its usual price of $38.  

Apart from being a lovely winery with very friendly staff, Gun Bun makes quality wines nearly across the board, with the most notable of them being the Gewurztraminer, the Pinot Noir, and, this year, the Cabernet Sauvignon.  We expect to write more on the Cab in the near future.

Shopping for good Pinot in this post-Sideways era can be frustrating.  Even lousy Pinots sell above the $20 mark, and if there’s anything Wine Rabbi abhors it’s a bottle of wine that costs $20+ but doesn’t perform.

Enter the Gun Bun Pinot, which would have been worth the cost even had we paid the usual price.  We found a gorgeous nose and flavors of oaky vanilla, black cherry, and strawberries, along with a kiss of black pepper on the finish.   The body, color (amber), and intensity (light) were all of the more elegant Burgundian style, and the lively acidity and supple tannins gave it all the backbone we would have wanted. 

At $38, this Pinot would have been a great value.  At $18.58, the value was off the charts. 

“Don’t Miss” Wine Country Weekend Events (Mar 28-30, 2008)

 

Here are the events we like this weekend:

• California
  • Santa Cruz Mountains
    • Pathway to Pinot Paradise: March 29, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.; see list of participating wineries by clicking here; $25 fee per person.  In our view, this barrel sampling and library wine event is the Mack Daddy of wine country festivals.  Although many of the participating wineries produce wines that are not rated by Wine Spectator et al., take it from us, there is some killer Pinot to be enjoyed in these parts.  Examples of high quality versions come from Alfaro Family Vineyards and Windy Oaks Estate Vineyards and Winery.  This event may very well constitute the ultimate expression of the Wine Rabbian style of winery exploring: stunning mountain views; small production wineries scattered along charming windy roads; phenomenal Pinot; great picnicking opportunities; and cheap tasting fees.  We are so there. 
    • South Bay Wine Tours – Pathway to Pinot Paradise: March 29, 10:25 a.m. – 5 p.m.; $95 per person; $10 off the ticket price if you mention Wine Rabbi (no joke!).  We took the time to review the web site of South Bay Wine Tours, the official tour guide of Pathway to Pinot Paradise, and we were extremely impressed.  The ticket price includes your Pathway to Pinot Paradise event ticket; a guided vineyard tour and lecture about organic farming practices; all-day transport accompanied by a knowledgeable guide (who, by the way, writes for the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the Good Times); special discounts at Alfaro, which made one of our favorite Pinots of last year; and a catered picnic buffet lunch.  Just remember two things: (1) purchase your tickets no later than Friday, as they need to know how many people for whom they need to cater lunch; and (2) mention Wine Rabbi for $10 off of your ticket price.
    • Pinot Paradise Grand Cruz Tasting: March 30, 2 – 5 p.m. at Villa Ragusa; $55 per person in advance, $65 at the door.  This is the main tasting event of Pinot Paradise.  The upside is that all Pinots will be poured under one roof.  The downside is that you’re under a roof and not outside in the beautiful mountains.  If you can’t make Pathway to Pinot Paradise, or even if you’re still thirsty afterwards, this is an excellent plan B.
  • Monterey
    • First Annual Pebble Beach Food and Wine: March 27 – 30 in Pebble Beach, California; packages start at $995 per person, or event tickets can be purchased for $100 and upwards à la carte.  Check out the web site, but make sure your volume is turned down.  This is what a $1,000 ticket price gets you, in case you’re curious…  (And of course, if you do go, let us know what you think.) 
• Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.: Nothing interesting to report this week.  Tune in next Wednesday!

Just as a reminder, we don’t see a penny from any organization whose events we recommend through our “Don’t Miss” postings.  As always, our highest priority is looking out for you in the wine world! 

Weekday Wine: French Syrah (Domaine la Bastide Syrah 2005, $8.99)

 

This is not the thick, syrupy Syrah that many wine drinkers out there may be accustomed to.   Nope, we’re talking about the more elegant French version, which usually — but not this time – costs a lot more.   

The Domaine la Bastide Syrah 2005 has a beautifully attractive ruby color, and flavors and aromas of plum, earth, licorice, smoke, and black pepper.  The body is in the medium range — almost reminiscent of the last couple of Bordeauxs we reviewed – and there’s plenty of acidity to make it food friendly. 

As Weekday Wines go, this one ranks up there.  Here are two strong reasons:

1. It’s $9.  That makes it almost competitive with a six-pack of Heineken. 
2. It’s of a high quality in terms of both balance and taste, relative to its cost.  To illustrate, let us refer you back, once more, to the wine tasting that we administered two Sundays ago and wrote about last week.  We weren’t keeping score, but it was pretty clear that this Syrah was a favorite of all wines tasted, judging by peoples’ positive reactions and by the fact that it was the first bottle to go empty.  There was certainly no bias for Syrah in this crowd, either: the Shiraz (a.k.a., Australian Syrah) against which we tasted the Domaine la Bastide, lasted the longest of any wine included in the tasting, and we eventually ended up dumping it due to lack of interest.

The Domaine la Bastide is yet another unusually excellent value in wine — a true jewel in the rough.

Winery Review: Chateau Montelena

Since we had the fortune of spending a decadent night at Calistoga Ranch (as we described two weeks ago), we decided to combine the trip with a visit to nearby Chateau Montelena.  We had recently finished reading Judgment of Paris by George M. Taber, the only reporter to have witnessed the 1976 blind tasting contest that transformed the industry world-wide, and we were eager to pay homage to the winery that produced the winning Chardonnay for this very contest. 

Mistakenly wandering past the winery’s entrance, we found ourselves facing a large gothic-like building, which we later realized was the back of the winery.  Just a little farther down the path we took a few minutes to stroll onto the colorful (but a little kitschy for our tastes) islands built into the Asian-inspired Jade Lake.

We finally managed to locate the tasting room — it’s actually not difficult to find — and squeezed ourselves in at the very end of the tasting bar.  Although we were not required to make a tasting appointment (which is unusual for Napa Valley and a definite plus in our minds), we were, nontheless, unimpresed by our pourer’s name-dropping tendencies and snooty demeanor.   Is it really that big of a deal to ask for a spit bucket? 

We did, however, enjoy each of the wines we tasted, and most of all the grande finale $125 2004 Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.   While we were not inspired to purchase any bottles, we decided to purchase a future case of the 2007 Estate Cab (the year that our son was born), which will be offered to the public this November.

One postscript: as we were leaving, we asked our pourer, somewhat sarcastically, whether he had ever tasted the 1973 Chardonnay that took first prize in the famous Paris tasting.  He answered, “Yes, in fact last year, and it was perfect.”  A Chardonnay aging for 34 years… wow!  That statement, coupled with the shrine in the back to the very same bottle, certainly made up for any negatives of our pilgrimage to Montelena.

www.ChateauMontelena.com
1429 Tubbs Lane
Calistoga, California 94515
(707) 942-5105

Question of the Month: Favorite Winery to Visit

 

In case you haven’t noticed, we love talking about wine.  But we also realize that much of the fun achieved from discussing wine is from hearing about other peoples’ experiences, and not just our own.  In fact, if you read Wine Rabbi often, you probably agree!

With the above in mind, we decided that once a month, beginning today, we’ll pose a question for readers to ponder and comment on over the course of the following four weeks.  The point?  To engage as many of the wine lovers out there as possible in conversation so that we all end up learning something new. 

Thank heavens for the Internet! 

Anyway, answer by posting a comment below, and note that you can always access your, and others’, comments by clicking “Question of the Month” under the “Explore WineRabbi.com” sidebar menu.  Then, please tune in on April 18, 2008 for next month’s topic. 

Now, on to our first question:

What is your favorite winery (anywhere) to visit?

Weekend Wine: California Chardonnay (Taz Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2006, $16)

 

In Chardonnays, we tend to prefer the lighter, crisper style of French Burgundies over the bigger bodied, creamier, and less acidic New World versions.  Still, every once in a while we’ll be taken by surprise by a bottle from the non-European regions that will defy our usual preference.  This was certainly the case with the Taz Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2006.   

So, ok, the Taz had some typical California characteristics that usually aren’t our bag: it was rich and had the creamy texture of peach juice, and it also had tropical fruit flavors that one would expect from a warm climate.  Regardless, there was so much acidity packed into our bottle that we became convinced that we were getting the best of both the Old and New Worlds: rich, luscious fruit flavors and full body, on the one hand, and mouthwatering, fresh puckeriness on the other.

We included the Taz in our tasting last weekend (which we described in more detail in Tuesday’s posting), and it turned out that this wine’s greatest strength quality-wise – acidity – was also the very thing that disappointed us most.  In planning our tasting, we were intending that a Chardonnay from Southern California would act as sacrificial lamb in helping us demonstrate why we prefer the French version of the varietal.  As it turned out, it seemed everyone — including me — preferred the Taz over our chosen Burgundy. 

One thing to suggest: let the Taz sit out for about an hour before drinking.  As we found out last Sunday, it opens up widely with exposure to air revealing tantalizing banana, pineapple, and pear aromas.  We were a teeny bit less enthusiastic by the lemon drops we tasted in the finish, but it hardly detracted from our overall view of the wine: fantastic.

“Don’t Miss” Wine Country Weekend Events (Mar 21-23, 2008)

Gosh, a sleepy weekend this will be on the wine scene.  We didn’t see anything to recommend — whether on the West or the East Coast – that was directly related to wine, which we’re sure has a lot to do with the big holiday coming up this Sunday.

Particularly for those of you living in the San Francisco Bay Area, resting up is probably a good idea anyway so that you’re raring to go for the phenomenal event happening on the following weekend, which involves lots of Pinot Noir on the cheap.  Tune in next Wednesday, and we’ll tell you all about it and everything else worth knowing about elsewhere…

Weekday Wine: Bordeaux (Château Charron 2005, $11)

 

We enjoyed our last Bordeaux from a couple of weeks ago so much that we thought we’d give another one a try, but this time from the highly regarded 2005 vintage.  The result was something very, very different, which became apparent to us even from smelling the cork.

Whereas the previous Bordeaux’s defining features were its earthiness and elegance, we felt the Château Charron was best characterized by its bright black currant, red pepper, and (especially) minty aromas and flavors.  Kind of like the citrusy sensation you get on your tongue when you’re eating oranges, this wine left the cool sensation of mint in our mouths for a period of minutes after each swallow.  Whether mint is or isn’t your thing, the fact, in and of itself, that we haven’t encountered a wine with so much of it made the Château Charron worth experiencing, and at $10.99, you can feel guilt-free about opening a bottle any night of the week.

Note that this is one of the few bottles of 2005 Bordeaux that you’re likely to find in the $11 price range that are worth drinking.

Incidentally, last weekend we hosted our first Wine Rabbi sponsored wine tasting with a few friends, and we think it went rather well – particularly considering that, of the nine people in attendance, three were under the age of 10 months.   The emphasis was on experiencing the effect that terroir has on grapes, so we compared, first, a typical white Burgundy (i.e., French Chardonnay) to a California Chardonnay and, second, a French Syrah to its Australian counterpart, Shiraz.  The Chardonnays effectively demonstrated the contrast between the French version’s typically cooler climate fruit (e.g., pear and green apple) flavors and lighter body with the Californian’s tropical fruit (e.g., melon) flavors and fuller mouthfeel.  But best of all, the fruitiness and thick body of the Shiraz made an eye-opening contrast with the French Syrah, which tasted of smoked meat and was lighter in body.  Stay tuned, because we’ll be writing about some of these wines over the course of the next couple weeks. 

If you’d like some ideas on tastings that you can organize on your own with a few of your friends, we’ll be more than happy to give suggestions.   Post a comment below and we’ll gladly respond with an idea or two!

Winery Review: Barnett Vineyards

We had just about accepted that we weren’t going to make it in time for our 11:30 a.m. tasting appointment last Sunday at Barnett.  We had rushed out of the house in a frenzy, and according to our GPS, at 10:15 a.m., had an hour-and-a-half’s drive ahead of us.   Luckily for us, though, we managed to pick up a bit of time along the way.  

We didn’t know quite what to expect of this Napa Valley winery, with a tasting fee of $25 and the cost of bottles ranging between $42 and $125.  Thus far, the wineries that have attracted us have been those off-the-beaten-path in the less “touristy” wine regions, with free or $5 tastings.  As we made our way up Spring Mountain, though, we were surprised by the feelings of remoteness and untouched beauty.  After passing by signs for Paloma and Pride (two other big named and pricey wineries), we pulled into Barnett, at 11:31 a.m.  

The first thing that caught our attention was a small white tourist bus and a black stretch limousine in the parking lot.  Very typical Napa, we thought.  We made our way to the group of people standing on a deck, perched near the tasting room (a cellar lined with barrels) and overlooking the gorgeous valley, but were immediately stopped by Ted, who said that he would be overseeing our private tasting. 

We soon realized that Barnett did not in fact live up to our vision of the stereotypical Napa winery; and we were so very pleased.  Ted mentioned that the group tasting was a rarity, and that tour buses were an unusual sight at the winery (though honestly, we were not bothered in the slightest; the deck was far away enough from our tasting that we could barely hear a sound).   Barnett’s atmosphere was laid back and friendly, with Riley (a lovable German Shepard) basking in the sun at the entrance of the tasting room, much to our son’s delight; the seven wines that we tasted were all excellent; and the views of the expansive valley just beyond the tasting room brought a sense of peacefulness to our already delightful tasting experience. 

www.BarnettVineyards.com
4070 Spring Mountain Road
St. Helena, California
(707) 963-7075
*Tasting by appointment only; $25 tasting fee.