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Winderlea Vineyard and Winery

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Another fine winery has opened up a tasting room in Oregon. Winderlea Vineyard & Winery, a luxury boutique winery specializing in limited production Oregon Pinot noir has opened their new tasting room on Worden Hill Road in Dundee. Owners Donna Morris and Bill Sweat retired from the business world and moved from Boston to Oregon in 2006, purchased the Goldschmidt Vineyard in the heart of the Dundee Hills and devoted themselves to creating fine Pinot noir. The inaugural 2006 vintage consists of three bottlings: 2006 Winderlea Goldschmidt Pinot noir -- a single vineyard designate from their estate vineyard, the 2006 Winderlea ANA Pinot noir -- a single vineyard designate from the highly regarded ANA vineyard adjacent to Winderlea, and the 2006 Winderlea Inaugural Reserve Pinot noir made up of fruit sourced from the neighboring ANA and Weber vineyards. Winemaker Robert Brittan formerly of Stags Leap Winery makes Winderlea wines.

Winderlea's new sustainably built 4000-square-foot tasting room includes a commercial kitchen and has solar hot water heaters and Day4 Energy photovoltaic modules to meet its energy needs. . The east and south sides of the building are made up entirely of glass and aluminum providing dramatic views over the Oregon countryside. The tasting room will be open Memorial Day through Thanksgiving on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11AM to 4PM. All proceeds from the winery's $10 tasting fee will be donated to !Salud!, an alliance between Oregon winemakers, Tuality Healthcare and medical professionals to provide education and access to healthcare services for Oregon's seasonal vineyard workers and their families.

Tags: oregon, pinot noir, red wine, winderlea, wine

Foursight Wines, A Winemaking Family Gets Hands On

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

I'm far too lazy to have my own winery but I love stories of small family-owned wineries. Foursight Wines is a new Anderson Valley family owned and operated winery producing just a few hundred cases of cool-climate Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc each year. Foursight Wines is a collaboration between two generations of the Charles family: Bill and Nancy - local winegrowers - their daughter, Kristy (the executive director of the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association), and her fiancé, Joe Webb (a Sonoma State Wine Business graduate, currently working with Londer Vineyards). That's Kristy and Joe hard at work in the picture on the right. The name refers to the four people behind the wine as well as to four generations that have lived and worked on the same land which has in the past been a timber mill, farmland, grazing land for livestock, and now a winery.

The 2006 Charles Vineyard Pinot Noir was hand-harvested from the family vineyard and sells for $46 (425 cases produced). The 2007 Anderson Valley Sauvignon Blanc came from the Ferrington Vineyard and was made in 100% stainless steel and sells for $20, (189 cases produced). All vineyard work is done by the family, with help only during pruning and harvest. A tasting room is in the works and should be open in fall 2008, for now the wines can be ordered at the winery website.

Tags: anderson valley, foursight wines, FoursightWines, pinot noir, red wine, wine

"Dark & Delicious" Arrives in Time for Valentine's

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Events

On February 8th at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco one can partake in the loverly Dark & Delicious event. Organized by PS, I Love You (an association of Petite Syrah producers) the name alone qualifies it for a Valentine's-esque evening out with your honey. Boasting thirty-six wine companies and twenty food vendors for only $50 a ticket it makes me want to jump to the opposite coast just for the weekend! And if you aren't already familiar with Petite Syrah you need to be introduced...it's fantastic.

Tags: petite sirah, red wine, valentine, wine, wine events

Pillar Rock Vineyard, 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

I recently had a chance to sample the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from Pillar Rock Vineyard. Pillar Rock is a small (22 acres) estate in the heart of the Stags Leap District. The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 91.2% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.8% Merlot. The wine is exactly what you expect when you think of a Stags Leap Cab, a dark and fleshy wine with that is a velvet hammer, rich and powerful but kissed with a gentle finish. It's not for those who like a big fruit-forward push; it's more subtle, spicy and dark. They producers say it can be aged for two decades and I suspect that it will be even more amazing after some cellar time. There has been some discussion online as to whether or not Pillar Rock is worthy of the rather steep price and it faced a little TCA controversy with the last vintage , but it seems to be right on track with this one. The vineyard sells cases of six bottles of the 2004 for $848 ($125 each) or a 1.5 liter magnum in a wooden box for $333.

Tags: cabernet sauvignon, napa valley, NapaValley, pillar rock, PillarRock, red wine, RedWine, stag's leap, Stag'sLeap, wine

The 10 Most Overrated Wines

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

If you are particularly attached to some of wine's most sacred cows you might want to steer clear of The Upgrader's list of the ten most overrated wines. The article is an equal opportunity offender for those who pride themselves on their taste and selections. It's also a ripping fun read. I was delighted to see them name Australian Shiraz. It's not generally that overpriced but it is certainly overestimated. Ah, but then my ego took a blow as the next slide on Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, which I drank so much of this summer for its minerality, was illustrated by a picture of a cat box. Ouch. The rest of the list includes the Super Tuscans (which I agree are overpriced), Albariño, Chilean Cabernet and the auction favorite Screaming Eagle. It's a list bound to generate a certain amount of controversy and grumbling but it all boils down perhaps to one thing, if you are drinking what everyone is talking about, you are probably paying too much for it and there is a cheaper, lesser known and better tasting wine with a similar taste profile out there somewhere.

Tags: red wine, white wine, wine, wine selection

Natalie MacLean's Thanksgiving Wine Picks

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Wine goddess and author Natalie MacLean has made her picks for wines for this year's Thanksgiving feast. MacLean, the author of the book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass also has some simple rules for Thanksgiving wine pairing:

Starting off with a Champagne, Prosecco or other sparkling wine sets a festive note and makes a great aperitif.

Red wine or white wine with the turkey? You can do either. A crisp white like a Riesling or Pinot Grigio works but a juicy red like a Zinfandel also works well (it sort of mimics the berry note of the cranberry sauce). You can also go for the practically fruit juice appeal of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau.

You can also match your wine to the sides, offering other wines such as a buttery Chardonnay to complement the stuffing and veggies or a Sauvignon Blanc to add a little pep to a palate numbed by too many cream sauces. .

She suggests a late harvest wine or ice wine to pair with dessert to add the perfect finishing touch. In my experience, I have found that a Port or a late harvest Zinfandel works well with pecan pie while a late harvest Chardonnay can work with pumpkin pie.

After the jump, her top picks for reds and whites for the table.

Tags: expire-images:2008-11-18, red wine, RedWine, thanksgiving, white wine, WhiteWine, wine, wine pairings, zinfandel

Continue reading “Natalie MacLean's Thanksgiving Wine Picks”

Wine Spectator's 2007 Wine of the Year

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Wine Spectator has announced their wine of the year. Top honors this year go to France for the Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2005. The wine is rated at 98 points and Wine Spectator says that under the care of Vincent Avril, Clos des Papes is making the best wine in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape domaine. Their red is a blend of 65 percent Grenache, 20 percent Mourvedre and 10 percent Syrah and other grapes. The wine is aged in wooden foudres for up to 12 months before the final blend and there were 7,500 cases made. Wine Spectator gives the price as $80 but now that the wine has been anointed as WOTY I'm guessing the price is set to cruise into the $100 to $150 range (an auction on Wine Commune was sitting at $100 per bottle last time I checked).

Tags: chateauneuf du pape, french wine, red wine, wine of the year, wine spectator, WineSpectator

Mamietage Wine Brings New Meaning To The Word Full-Bodied

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

For certain winemakers, what is on the label rather than what is inside is the main selling feature. We've seen it recently with the wines that put Jesus and infamous dictators on the bottles and we are seeing it again in the new 2005 Mamietage wine which features images of aging bombshell Mamie Van Doren. Like the Marilyn Monroe wines we have seen before, this wine features nude pictures that are covered by peel-away stickers. The are three 1.5 liter bottles, two images of Mamie today (heavily Photoshopped, we hope, although for someone born in 1931 according to IMDB she looks fabulous) and one of Mamie at age 21. Should you choose to partake of the wine you will find a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, Syrah and Malbec from the Alexander Valley bottled by the Armida winery which is located in Healdsburg, CA. A set of all three bottles sells for $300.

[via Wine Spectator]

Tags: california wine, celebrity wine, mami van doren, MamiVanDoren, red wine, wine

Bald Hills Pinot Noir

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

CNN has an interesting piece on the Bald Hills winery in New Zealand which is making some of the world's best Pinot Noir. There's a fun backstory on this one, Blair and Estelle Hunt got into the wine business just as they were approaching 60, the age most people are looking toward retirement. Fast forward to ten years late and their 2005 Bald Hills pinot noir has beaten 4,760 other entries to take the Champion Red award in the International Wine Challenge, the world's biggest blind tasting. They also won the Champion Sustainable trophy at the International Wine Challenge.

The pair had sold their house in Sydney and moved to rural New Zealand in search of a more peaceful, rural life. They landed in Bannockburn and found that their land was ideal for growing grapes. They wound up working with renowned New Zealand winemaker Grant Taylor to create the wines which are created with great care. As was memorably explained in the movie, Sideways, Pinot Noir grapes are rather fussy, they are thin-skinned and prone to rot and grow best in Burgundy in France, Oregon in the U.S., and New Zealand's Central Otago region.

Getting your hands on the wine is not easy but it is not wildly expensive; it costs just 38 New Zealand dollars, less than U.S.$30. It is distributed in the U.S. by Pangaea Wine Group.

Tags: bald hills, new zealand, pinot noir, red wine, wine

$150,000 For One Bottle Of Wine?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Auctions

When it comes to the upper tiers of wine auctions there are wines you buy basically for the old bottles (the Jefferson wines fall solidly in this category) and then there are wines you open no matter how much they cost. The imperial bottle of French Grand Cru First Growth Château Pétrus, 1961 being auctioned off by Edward Roberts International at their October 28 auction falls into this category. The imperial (the size of eight standard bottles) of Bordeaux is expected to sell for up to $150,000.

The auction also includes 1921, 1947 and 1961 Chateau Petrus en Magnums and several prized vintages of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild including the 1945. California cults wines are also represented with selections from Screaming Eagle, Harlan and Scarecrow available. But the most visually striking selection from the auction has to be the Courvoissier Cognac Erte decanter collection shown above. You can bid online or in person at the auction at the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago.

[via Blogging Stocks]

Tags: auction, bordeaux, chateau petrus, red wine, spirits, wien

Oculus, British Columbia's Pricey Red Wine

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Expensive red wines from France, Italy and Napa are commonplace but one of the latest high-priced wines comes from British Columbia. Mission Hill Family Estate Winery has announced the 2004 release of their Oculus wine, a high-end red modeled after fine Bordeaux wines. The Globe and Mail reports that the wine is listed at $70 but could go higher in the provinces. The wine is priced $10 more than the 2003 vintage and it is expected that the wine will hit $100 in 2010 right around the time that the world's eyes turn to B.C. for the Vancouver Olympics. Oculus is just the most expensive of reds from wineries in the area.

Mission Hill Family Estate Winery has an interesting history, the owner Anthony von Mandl, is the man behind Mike's Hard Lemonade. He used his alcopop cash to invest in the finest equipment for his winery such as $1,000 French-oak barrels, automated grape-sorting tables, stem-removing conveyors and computerized basket presses. Oculus is named for the circular hole at the top of Rome's Pantheon and is a small amount of Mission Hill's output - just 3,000 to 3,500 12-bottle cases depending on the year.

Tags: british columbia, canada, mission hill family estate winery, MissionHillFamilyEstateWinery, oculus, red wine

Martha Stewart Enters the Wine Business

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Celebrity Shopping

Honestly I'm surprised it took her this long but Martha Stewart is finally getting into the wine business. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. has announced a partnership with E.&J. Gallo Winery to create wines known as the "Martha Stewart Vintage." The first launch of 15,000 cases includes three wines: a 2006 Sonoma County Chardonnay, 2005 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvingon and 2006 Sonoma County Merlot. The wines will be available in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Denver, Phoenix and Portland starting in January and will sell for around $15.

Tags: cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, gallo, martha stewart, MarthaStewart, merlot, red wine, RedWine, white wine, WhiteWine, wine

Il Palazzone Wine

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

New York Magazine has an interesting piece on Dick Parsons ,the CEO of Time Warner which mentions Il Palazzone, his vineyard in Tuscany. Parsons is passionate about his Brunello saying in the article that it has terroir, complexity and character. According to the article, he has also created a super Tuscan, named Lorenzo & Isabelle after his parent. The wine is a blend of Cabernet-Franc, Sangiovese, and Petit Verdot.

Il Palazzone is around 25 acres in the hills of Montalcino. His Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is particularly well regarded. it is only produced only in outstanding vintage years and is aged in French oak. It sells for over $100 a bottle through Italian Wine Merchants

Tags: dick parsons, il palazzone, brunello, IlPalazzone,Brunello, italian wine, red wine, time warner, wine

Long Shadow Vintners Wins Winery of the Year

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

A unique winery in Washington, Long Shadows Vintners has been named Winery of the Year by Food & Wine magazine. The winery is actually more of a collaboration in which famous winemakers from around make wines from Washington grapes. Allen Shoup, the former CEO of Stimpson Lane (owner of Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest) is behind the project which creates luxury wines at the winery facility in Walla Walla. The wines include Pedestal, a Merlot-blend from Michel Rolland, Poet's Leap, a Riesling from German winemaker Armin Diel and Saggi, a blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet, Syrah and Barbera from Italian producers Ambrogio and Giovanni Folonari. Basically it's like getting wine experience from all around the world made from Washington grapes. Prices for the wines vary but start at $20 for the Poet's Leap. There is a membership club for those who want to be the first to get their hands on the latest releases since these popular wines quickly sell out. A situation that will undoubtedly only get worse with this award.

[via Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

Tags: food and wine magazine, long shadow vintners, LongShadowVintners, merlot, red wine, riesling, washington wine, white wine, wine

Blackstone Launches New Sonoma-Based Wines

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Like Kendall-Jackson, Blackstone winery is seeking to seek the next level of the wine market with a new line that appeal to a different price point than their main line which is generally under $10. The Blackstone Sonoma Reserve is produced at Blackstone's Kenwood Winery in the heart of Sonoma Valley and includes a Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Bordeaux-inspired red blend, Rubric. The wines use grapes sourced from premium vineyards found upon the hillsides, benchlands and coastline of Sonoma County and are made by winemaker Gary Sitton.

The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Chardonnay uses grapes from the cool climate areas of Russian River Valley and Carneros, with small percentages drawn from the Sonoma Coast and sells for $16.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Merlot uses grapes from the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Sonoma Valley and also sells for $16.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Pinot Noir uses fruit from the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley region and is aged for 12 months in French oak. It sells for $18.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve "Rubric" is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah. It is matured in a combination of French and American oak barrels and sells for $18.99.

Tags: blacstone wines, BlacstoneWines, chardonnay, grapes, merlot, pinot noir, PinotNoir, red wine, RedWine, sonoma, white wine, wine

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