Cafes & Wineries

Commentary by Beatrice Russo

Friday Aug 29 – 8:00 PM
Once again, the old man, IWG, has left me in charge. What an idiot! He knows there are some old bottles, standing up in his wine room, which are pretty close to my birth year. I have already texted my friend down south to see if she wants to come up and raid the room. I even saw a bunch of old Brunellos from her birth year, 1975. I think they’re both ready.

So he goes and abandons ship, says this month really kicked him in the butt, gotta get away, sun and water and wine and friends. OK, so go, nobody reads your damn blog anyway, get on down the road, Viejo, we can handle it around here for a few days wi-chout-cha.

I bet you’re all dying to know, what’s up with the “intern?” I have long ago given up that title, even though IWG still thinks of me as his find. I am so not part of his world anymore, I’ve learned all his mysteries, and I gotta tell you, when he’s running around town saying “ I gotta get more cowbells,” I think we should “make the call”, if you know what I mean.

Speaking of running around, IWG seems to think he has everybody fooled into thinking I am some figment of his imagination. He says he already set it up on some older post, just so nobody would offer me a job or a column or book deal. Well, ask the old man’s Sicilian Godfather. Every time I go over there to take him some Googootz or pomodorini from my garden, he livens up a bit. Doesn’t seem to think he’s imagining me. I don’t know why IWG thinks he can claim me as his own. Nobody owns Bea.

Saturday Aug 30 – 11:00 AM
I got a text from IWG last night when he landed. I didn’t pay any attention to it till now, Great, what’s for lunch and how well will it go with that last bottle of 1990 Cristal that we be chillin’ up?

He wants to talk, says he had a breakthrough. Just another latent and left-behind mid-life crisis that is haunting his oh-so never-will-be-middle-aged keister again. Look it up, he used it. Said one of his friends in the Hamptons uses it. There are very few who are worse name droppers than IWG.

Now he is torn, ‘cause he gets this call trying to bribe him to come into the city for a tasting of old wines , journalists just back from their trips, old Italian wines, ready to go. I know DoBi is in Germany, and Spume-man is back in SF and the grand poobah nephew of the great sci-fi guy, well he’s still M.I.A. And that pretty well much cover all his friends. At least the ones he think he’s got left, if you don’t include those whack jobs out in Albany and Nyack.

“No, not those,” he says. “Big ones, really, really big ones. Influential in their own circles. Critics, auction houses, European folk.” Ok, so what? Go.

He said he felt like he was abandoning his hosts on the “island”. Give me a break, they’d love to see him go (I can’t believe he’s gonna let this post stay up).

I left him at that. The bubbly was ready and we had figured out how to make Croque Monsieur with some ancient Fontina and Speck he brought back from his last trip. That should go down real good with it. Now, let’s see where did he put the SPF30? The sun is high and bright.

Why is it something like a 1937 Carmignano so interesting? It’s old, like IWG, that must be it. Hell, I’m digging into old, right here in the wine room have that 1975 Lisini Brunello lined up and am looking at a 1979 Schloss Schönborn Erbacher Marcobrunn Riesling Spätlese for sometime après swim and sol. Let IWG suffer in Suffolk, tonight friends will come over and we will par-tay.

Sunday Aug 31 – 9:30 AM
I told him to not call me before 10. He said he waited until 10:30. Technically, for him, he was right. But I wasn’t ready to hear about his old wine conquests. Our party lasted until 2:30 and some folks crashed around the many beds, while others just split for more private surroundings. I have an aunt of one of the friends who has a cleaning service, he’ll never know. Like he can see anything outside of his own drama? That’s the Mother Lode of Life Theater, boys and girls. Believe me, he’ll never, ever, know.

OK, now he’s all happy, ‘cause he got them to let him take the driver to drive him into town and wait for him, in time to back for some truffle dinner in the Sound. Sounds like he double dipped the elite-class. Good for him.

So it was old Italian for lunch and old French wine for dinner. And there’s still Monday, which he says, in honor of the holiday, will be a tasting of old California wines. I hate him, truly, truly despise every bone in his body. Which is growing ever larger by the day.

Check this out and puke with me ~ His Italian lunch:

1979 Salice Salentino - Malfatti
1978 Etna Rosso - Torrepalino
1976 Morellino Di Scansano - Francheschini

1982 Le Pergola Torte
1979 Tignanello
1979 Sassicaia

1969 Barbaresco Riserve Speciale - Calissanp
1968 Monfortino Riserva - G.Conterno
1961 Chambave Rouge - Ezio Voyay

1937 Carmignano Capezzana

1936 Est !Est!!Est !!! Amabile – Lampari

His Majesty’s Truffle dinner and French wine menu:

1966 Margaux
1966 Cheval Blanc
1964 Mouton Rothschild
1962 Petrus
1959 Ausone,

1953 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares ( magnum)
1928 and 1929 d’Yquem.

I’m so glad we drank his freekin’ 1990 Cristal, sister.

Original post by beatrice.russo

At one point in the glorified history of Western civilization, people were beaten or berated if they failed to show up for religious services. You didn’t simply put money in the collection box, it was taken from you. But we’re in the 21st century, and the church must rely less on force and more on marketing if it wants to hold onto its market share in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

In a move that may have been inspired by scripture itself (”Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make men drunk. Wine drunk with moderation is the joy of soul and the heart. Ecclesiastes 31:35-36″) The Church of England recently suggested that there might be a very easy way to get people to visit one of its cathedrals more often: install a wine bar.

Of course, this wasn’t some stuffy bishop suggesting that a glass of Chardonnay under the light of stained glass windows might be good for the soul. Rather, this was the “director of hospitality and welcome,” whose job, it seems, is to “rejuvenate a the brand″ of the Church, which has seen a gradually dwindling stream of visitors to its Cathedral in Birmingham.

I’m all for this sort of approach. The world would be a better place if we all sat down and had a glass of wine with each other more often, and I can think of a lot worse places to do it than some of England’s beautiful cathedrals.

In fact, this could be a whole new frontier for converting England’s beer drinkers into faithful followers of the grape. France, with its dismally dropping population of younger wine drinkers would be wise to consider such a move as well. Even the Catholic church could find an angle in here, and the the process they could significantly increase the quality of that communion wine.

Presumably there will be some limit to the amount of drinking one can do in such an establishment, however. Dancing on the pews does not seem like it would go over very well.
Read the full story.

Original post by beatrice.russo

To the best of my ability, here is the list, after the jump.

Complete Listing of Italian DOCG Wines (as of May 2008)

Abruzzo (1)
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo “Colline Teramane”

Campania (3)
Fiano di Avellino
Greco di Tufo
Taurasi

Emilia Romagna (1)
Albana di Romagna

Friuli-Venezia Giulia (2)
Picolit
Ramandolo

Lazio (1)
Cesanese del Piglio

Lombardia (4)
Franciacorta
Oltrepo Pavese
Sforzato della Valtellina
Valtellina Superiore

Marche (2)
Conero
Vernaccia di Serrapetrona

Piemonte (12)
Asti spumante - Moscato d’Asti
Barbaresco
Barbera d’Asti
Barbera del Monferrato Superiore
Barolo
Brachetto D′Acqui o Acqui
Dolcetto di Dogliani Superiore o Dogliani
Dolcetto di Ovada Superiore
Gattinara
Gavi o Cortese di Gavi
Ghemme
Roero

Sardegna (1)
Vermentino di Gallura

Sicilia (1)
Cerasuolo di Vittoria

Toscana (7)
Brunello di Montalcino
Carmignano
Chianti
Chianti Classico
Morellino di Scansano
Vernaccia di S.Gimignano
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano

Umbria (2)
Montefalco Sagrantino
Torgiano Rosso Riserva

Veneto (4)
Bardolino Superiore
Recioto di Gambellara
Recioto di Soave
Soave Superiore

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

Back to business. The streets have been pretty quiet in these times, so the times call for special operations. I called up Joey the Weasel and told him to meet me at the usual place, bring his young assistant. We were going in. Like Garibaldi, earlier in the morning I liberated Sicily, starting in Marsala. We weren’t going to let some of the greatest wine sit smoldering in an obscure corner. It took an unusual maneuver, but we got ‘em freed up. On to the mainland.

There’s been an iniquity of understanding in the world of Italian white wines, so we worked our way down the rows starting with Liguria and Umbria. In this particular setting the white wines are all grouped together. It’s not all Pinot Grigio.

Time out. The other day, on this blog, I had a bit of a one-sided discussion on the relative merits of the company I work with. This week the mission was to go into a store that had seen a lot of action but had been rendered hither and yon (what is a yon?) and was looking skewed. Wines from everywhere were just mixed up. The act of a re-set is to logically re-order the selection so it makes sense, much like one would organize a wine list. In this case the setting calls for wines arranged by region. No big brain-drain here, just fitting everything in. In this case a smaller, niche company easily could have done the work, or a group of companies working together. I guess business has been so brisk that those folks just couldn’t get around to it. A couple of ‘em straggled in looked around, one of them freaked out and left. Another large company came in with their platoon, looked around ordered food and slipped into the back room. I was hoping they’d want to partake, but I figured they thought I was taking ownership of the task and maybe, just maybe they knew I knew just what to do. In this case, a rising tide does lift all boats and all Ligurian wines need to be together, even if they all come from Neal Rosenthal. Hey, Tony, just keeding.

So Joey the Weasel and his young assistant set about helping me. The young assistant was also busy sending SMS’s to the three people she was simultaneously having conversations and drama with. I guess what we were doing just wasn’t that interesting to a 20 something. Ya think?

But that is the work of the moment and with month end coming, and little or no hope of growing sales, how about a little housecleaning?

We tackled Liguria and Umbria, and Basilicata. Then on to unifying Friuli with Venezia and Giulia along with Collio. So far so good. Abruzzo needed to be found and relocated, Pecorino here we come. Good, that’s done. Lazio, wait on it. Then on to the Alto-Adige, the Pinot Grigio selection and Piemonte. Marche, over by Abruzzo, and we still have to figure out where to put Puglia. That leaves us with Trentino, Emilia-Romagna, Sardegna, Sicily and Calabria. Done. Sin adesso tutto bene. Then there is Tuscany and the Veneto.

Now we had a little problem figuring out how to make Campania get along with Lombardia, but after separating them from each other, we averted a cat fight. Then finally Lazio and Puglia are set. Then the rosatos. There, the whites and the sparkling and the rosatos (the chilled wines) are set. On to the red wines.

This is serious business but it was getting late, so Joey the weasel and his charge d′affaires took of to run a delivery and get her back to a young man waiting. I was alone, save for the gang of guys I thought was waiting in the back room for me to leave. But I was not finished reorganizing Italy.

Like I said, this is S.E.R.I.O.U.S. stuff, because the customer is our lifeline. And if his business is slow, we must do something to help him clean out his inventory, re-work it, help him with the investment and the trust he has put in us to move the wines through to the wine lover.

I figured once I got out of the place the thugs would undo everything I had just done. After all they are also a big company and aren’t all big companies bad to the bone? What I didn’t know was that they had gotten their food and slipped out a few hours before. So while I was guarding Ft. Laramie they were on to Little Big Horn.

No problem, I had a country of red wine to re-settle and unify. I saw first that Tuscany was asunder, and I took to separating Morellino from Vino Nobile. The Super Tuscans and Brunellos were all mixed up and I left ‘em that way for the time being. Just as in real life. Let God sort that out. Or Dr. J. Or Angelo Gaja.

I moved on to getting all the Abruzzo red collected. And then on to Puglia. It’s going well at this point, nice and cool in this section of Italy. Not like the 97°F it is outside and the 120°F it is in the trunk of my car, where my three Sicilian refugees were huddled. But Marsala can take the heat, yes? That’s what makes it so darn adorable.

Anyway I then took on the Veneto and Piemonte. I have more to do that we didn’t get to that day, but we reorganized Veneto with Valpolicella and Ripasso and Merlot and Refosco. Then on to my pet peeve, the separating of the Barbera D’Alba from the Barbera D’Asti sections. It’s real important, when setting a store, to make sure the shopper can have a clear delineation. Makes it easier for the salesperson on the floor to help guide the shopper. Got the Barberas worked out for the umpteenth jillion time. And then the Dolcetto and the other varieties, Grignolino, Rucche, etc. Even had time to do a little reconnaissance on the big boys, the Amarones and Barolos and Barbarescos, let a Carema find it’s way amongst them (you’re welcome, Tony) and those Nebbiolos that some wine salesperson thought should have been in with the Barberas. Sent them up with their own kind, unified and all real pretty like.

Two days later I went into the section and some knucklehead had already moved a Nebbiolo back with the Dolcettos and mixed up the Barberas. Time out. Again. Most likely, from looking at the wine, it was one of the small niche distributors. You know the ones those bleating-heart blah-gers think are the hope of the free world? Mind you, remember the big guys (us) are the scum bags, the ones fixing the mess, the rising tide that is often mischaracterized as a tsunami. In any event I wish someone knew how to scratch their niche correctly. Again, it isn’t about the size of a company, it’s the intent and the purpose of the individual. Or as Guy Stout likes to say, “It ain’t the wand, it’s the magician.”

Well, I did my best to wave my wand, and now am feeling pretty good. In less than a day we had gone all the way from Marsala to Lombardia, liberating and unifying all things Italian (wine that is). And it’s a good thing. While it lasts. Which will probably be a week or so. In the meantime, I got a date with a lady and a sunset.

The Hamptons are calling.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

From the late 1800’s to the first half of the twentieth century California represented a land of opportunity for many. In Northern California, this potential seems to have been realized in particular by Italian immigrants who settled North of San Francisco in great numbers, founding small towns up the coast and in the inland valleys. Drive Highway 1, Highway 12, Highway 116, and the Bohemian Highway North of the city and you’ll pass old barns and homesteads, country stores, and several Italian restaurants that have been operating continuously since at least the Thirties.

That these fiercely determined immigrants met with success here is evidenced by not only by the preponderance of these small towns and farming communities, but also that these same towns are, after several generations, still populated with Dinuccis and Gonnellas.

Garen Staglin grew up the son of one of those early Twentieth Century immigrants. His father, Pasquale Stagliano, later naturalized as Ramon Staglin, emigrated at the age of two with his family from Calabria, Italy and settled first in New York and later California. Like so many other immigrants, the Staglianos brought with them their love of food and wine and the central role they both play in family life.

It’s no wonder then that when Garen met with considerable success, going from UCLA to Stanford Business School to the corporate world, and then to boardrooms and the halls of Silicon Valley venture capital, he and his wife Sharalyn dreamed of owning a vineyard. Carefully biding their time, they finally found just what they were looking for.

In 1985 the Staglins purchased a very old, very large estate in Rutherford that for many years had been under the management of André Tchelistcheff, known by some as the “Godfather of California Cabernet.” Tchelistcheff managed this vineyard for Beaulieu Vineyards under the ownership of the La Tour family, and it was this 50-acre parcel that he selected for producing the vaunted BV Georges De La Tour Cabernet.

The Staglins took this vineyard and the adjoining ranch and literally transformed it, carefully replanting the vineyards with direction from Tchelistcheff and building an underground winery and a home for themselves in the style of an Italian villa.

Today, and for nearly the past twenty-five years, Staglin Family Vineyards has been winning praise for the small quantity of estate wine that it produces each year: 350 cases of Sangiovese and 2,000 cases of Chardonnay in addition to the slightly more than 6,000 cases of this Cabernet. They are certainly my favorite producer in Rutherford, and in my opinion, one of the top three producers in the appellation.

Winemaking is currently done by Fredrik Johansson, but I believe this vintage was made by then winemaker Celia Masyczek, who spent almost a decade making some of the most celebrated of Staglin’s wines before continuing her career as one of Napa′s superstar winemakers.

The wine is made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grown organically on the Staglin Family estate in the shadow of Mt. St. John in the Mayacamus Range in an area known as the Rutherford Bench. After destemming and crushing, the berries cold soak before a fermentation that lasts anywhere from 14 to 28 days. After secondary fermentation is complete the wine is aged for 26 months in 100% French oak barrels, (65% of which are new).

Tasting Notes:
Medium ruby in color and showing little sign of its age, this wine has a nose of leather, cherry, and wet cedar bark aromas — distinctively an older California Cabernet. In the mouth it offers flavors of fresh and dried cherries, cinnamon, and what can only be described as both the flavor and texture of the softest suede. A long finish completes a very satisfying experience that, if tinged with anything other than pleasure, might be said to involve a little regret at drinking this wine now, as it clearly has a good decade ahead of it.

Food Pairing:
I drank this wine with a nicely grilled filet mignon and fresh vegetables, which is certainly a classic pairing.

Overall Score: between 9 and 9.5

How Much?: This vintage can be had at auction or select retailers for around $120

This wine can be purchased online.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

Some of the best meals of my life have been from the kitchen of chef David Kinch at Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos. I’d take half a tasting menu from him over anything at the French Laundry, any day of the week. Which is why I’m humbled at his continued interest in collaborating with me to provide an unparalleled dining and drinking experience for a few adventurous diners every once in a while.

David and I both have an enduring love for Japanese cuisine. If you’ve ever eaten at Manresa you may have noticed this influence in Chef Kinch’s cooking. It’s one of my favorite aspects of his cooking — the guy knows how to deal with raw seafood better than almost any (non-Japanese) chef in this country.

All of which is why he and I are both giddy with excitement at the prospect of the Sake Dinner: an eight course meal that will be a little heavier on the Japanese influence than normal for David, accompanied by some of the best sakes I′ve ever tasted. The early drafts of the menu that I′ve seen make me extremely hungry (I′m currently traveling on business in upstate New York, and pretty much every restaurant in town is Italian — I′d kill for a decent plate of sushi).

Working with Jeff Barielles, the wine director at the restaurant, we’ve managed to get our hands on some sakes that are almost never seen in the United States (as well as some others that are also phenomenal, but easier to find in the event you fall in love with them).

The food and the sake will be accompanied as usual by stories from me about how and where they are made.

This will be a fantastic evening if you care to join us. There are still seats available, so call the restaurant to make reservations.

Manresa and Vinography present: The Sake Dinner
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Seating begins at 6:30 PM
Manresa Restaurant
320 Village Lane (just off North Santa Cruz Avenue)
Los Gatos, CA 95030
408-354-4330

$325 per person gets you an eight course meal with sake pairings. You pay tax and gratuity.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

Field report from the Italian-American delegation.

In the past few days the happy warriors along the wine trail have been looking for opportunities to make something out the month of August. While our Italian counterparts are bronzing and eating bronzino, those who have not gotten furloughed from their platoon assignments have been skirmishing and planning counter-insurgent acts toward all things regarding Italian wine. Seminars, working with trainees, retail re-sets, reprinting wine lists, you name it, this is the month to plant the winter garden. And while we won’t see the fruits of our labors in the next few weeks, somewhere down the line, it will pay off. In the meantime, this week, several of us decided to go about reorganizing Italy.

Before month’s end, we’re all looking for any opportunities to sell something, even a close-out. Some folks might be waiting for their ship to finally arrive, though this month not much is moving. And if the transport company happens to take the route from Livorno to the New World via Marseilles, those at the end of the line might have a surprise in store. Dock strikes and port blockades will spiral costs for those wines sitting in (hopefully) refrigerated containers. But the clock is ticking. Then again, if you believe everything you read on the blogosphere, the world is coming to an end with the latest round of distributor consolidations. Now anyone who has read On the Wine Trail in Italy probably knows I work in the industry, and for a large distributor at that. I have heard the company I work for, and the people in it, called scum-bags, evil-empire, dark-force and behemoths. Oh, and mad-wounded elephants, that’s one of my favorites.

We have read, on blogs, bloviated comments such as “consolidation is a sign of weakness,” and referring to consolidation as a byproduct of “fear and scarcity.” And usually this comes from some unspecified workstation in some condescending setting, far from the reality of the streets. More often than not, the blogger has never sold a bottle of wine. But to hear them, they know the ins and outs of the business; they’re better briefed than the bespoke suits on Stockton Street.

Blah-gers also commented recently about the amount wholesale alcohol distributors spend on political causes. A figure of $50 million has been put forth for spending by American wholesalers and their associations for state politicians from 2000 to 2006. What never seems to get mentioned by bloggers – is the charitable spending these companies do. For example, Larry Ruvo, Senior Managing Director of Southern Wine and Spirits of Nevada, is founder of the Keep Memory Alive Foundation and the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute. Since its inception, Keep Memory Alive has become one of Las Vegas’ most important charitable initiatives and a key player in the nation’s fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Larry has helped raise more than $50 million and recruited leading specialists to become part of this vital project. But what do we hear from bloggerdom? That worn out talking point mantra: large companies are anti-competitive scum-bags.

James Molesworth said this recently on a Wine Spectator forum, “This is the problem with the ‘blogosphere’. It’s a lazy person’s journalism. No one does any real research, but rather they just slap some hyperlinks up and throw a little conjecture at the wall, and presto! you get some hits and traffic…”

Others trivialize by wondering how “the small wineries will fare with increasing competition for attention among the already over worked sales force with even greater expectations of delivery upon them.” Of course none of those bloggers who perform their armchair criticism will ever know how those barmy-mutilated pachyderms will break away from the psychosis of the wine industry, because they are safely ensconced in a bubble of protection from the reality of having to worry about reality.

For those of us who do sell actively, and selectively, whether it is for the Brobdingnagian or the niche companies, it boils down to this: You are a salesperson offering a product to a buyer. You are one person talking to another person, mano-a-mano. It is up to you to engage that person, the buyer, your client, sometimes your friend, into wanting what you have. It doesn’t matter how big and powerful or how small and terrified you are, you have to “sell” that person on you and what you will deliver. That is the great equalizer. This week I saw a young saleperson from a niche company attempt to enter into an exchange with a buyer and she had as much time and opportunity as I did. And was as challenged as the best of us.

Remember me? One of the guys who work for the “scumbags.” Me and my friends for the last quarter of a century, who have forged a family of wine, who take in the younger people like the trainee we had this week, who helped us reorganize Italy. Yeah, we’re really bad people doing bad things. Just ask our customers, our friends and all the families we help support. I have a challenge for those “nattering nabobs of negativity”: Come out of your protective shelters and walk around in the sun, in our shoes, if you have the cogliones. Which I doubt any of you do.

That would mean having to do real work, no business-class treatment, no free-run of the mouth. The road. The service portion of the exam.

Reorganizing Italy Part 2: Next post.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

In the Silicon Valley, business incubation is quite common — larger companies often provide financial, operations, and moral support to smaller companies that they themselves have started, or outside start-ups that they believe have a good potential for success. This practice has become so normal that some companies have established entire business models based on incubation.

Incubation has also become common in the wine industry, where the costs of all the equipment and supplies required to make wine can be an extreme barrier to entry, and a source of extremely high overhead for those who do take the plunge. Just like a larger company might rent out some cubes and offer guidance to a smaller company, so to do wineries offer the use of their equipment to smaller producers using the fees from such services to defray the costs of their capital investments.

But incubation in the wine industry does not only happen as a matter of economic convenience, it often happens simply because, frankly, most folks in the wine industry can’t help themselves — they love making wine.

Jeff Cohn comes to winemaking from the world of food and hospitality. He fell in love with eating and drinking in his twenties and decided that he was going to make them his career, heading off for a degree in culinary arts, which was followed by a degree in hospitality management.

His early career saw him as the food and beverage director for Windjammer Barefoot Cruises and then later the manager of a Washington, D.C gourmet store.

During the ten years of his hospitality career, Cohn fell deeper and deeper in love with wine, and by 1993 he couldn’t take it any longer. Enrolling in a masters program in agricultural chemistry, Cohn emerged with a degree emphasizing enology, and was promptly hired by Rosenblum Cellars as its staff enologist.

That same year, Kent Rosenblum allowed Cohn to make a little of his own wine on the side — around 70 cases of Zinfandel — and JC Cellars was born.

You′d think that winemakers would be pretty busy folks — lots to worry about as grapes come piling into the winery by the truckload, dozens of fermentation tanks, hundreds of barrels — and that they wouldn′t exactly have time for dabbling here and there. But I don′t know a single winemaker that doesn′t have some small side project going, whether it’s a little experiment with a new cooperage, a new source of grapes, a consulting project for a little extra cash, or their own private label.

Such activities make for a lot of late nights for winemakers around harvest time, but somehow they manage to pull it off, and Cohn was no exception. He gradually built up a small business on the side, thanks to Rosenblum’s help, and Rosenblum customers got used to shopping at J.C. Cellars after they arrived to pick up their wines at Rosenblum.

By 2000, Jeff was Rosenblum’s winemaker and he had convinced owner Kent Rosenblum to add Rhone style wines (Syrah, Viognier, and Marsanne) to the portfolio, and J.C. Cellars was a steadily growing success. In 2004 Cohn was named vice president of winemaking and production, but in 2006, the time had come to focus all his efforts on J.C. Cellars.

Managed by himself and his wife Alexandra, the winery now produces about 5000 cases of wine and is the poster child for “in-winery” incubation of a new brand. The fledgling winery got its start in the protective shadow of Rosenblum but is now a completely independent entity, and one of America’s most highly regarded small wineries, with an unusual amount of critical acclaim for the wines.

The J.C. Cellars portfolio consists of mostly single vineyard wines, with an emphasis on the Rhone varietals — Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Viognier — plus some Zinfandel thrown in for good measure. Cohn sources grapes from small producers throughout Northern California with long term contracts that allow him to work closely with growers to tailor the fruit to his specific liking.

The wines are made in small batches that are carefully crafted to showcase each specific grape source, from the yeasts to the barrels, to the durations of time that the wines spend in contact with the skins.

Cohn’s wines have a reputation for power and brawn, richness and opulence. They have conjured the adjective “hedonistic″ from many. These are accurate characterizations, but I find the wines somewhat more restrained on the whole than other producers that elicit similar descriptions. Cohn’s wines are nothing if not carefully and lovingly made, and this is easy to taste.

Full disclosure: I received these wines as press samples.

TASTING NOTES:

2007 JC Cellars Rockpile Vineyard Rose, Rockpile, Sonoma
Pale ruby in color, this rose of Syrah smells of alpine strawberries and rosehips. On the palate it is bright and silky with bouncy flavors of strawberry and cherry that remain firmly (thank god) in the territory of dryness, making this an excellent, refreshing wine of which to drink many glasses. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $18. Where to buy?

2005 JC Cellars “Rockpile Vineyard” Syrah, Rockpile, Sonoma
Nearly opaque garnet in the glass this wine has a rich sultry nose of earth and black cherry aromas. In the mouth it is silky and thick with flavors of black cherry, leather, earth, and black currant. Dusty tannins emerge as the wine heads to a long finish. Big and brawny, this wine will please lovers of big Syrahs to no end. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $45. Not yet released.

2005 JC Cellars “Ventana Vineyard” Syrah, Monterey
A cloudy medium ruby in the glass, this wine has a nose of white pepper, cassis, and black cherry. In the mouth it comes across as spicy, with continued flavors of white pepper, blackberry, and mixed spices. Lean and less bombastic than some of the other wines from this producer, but no less pleasant for it. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $45. Not yet released.

2006 J.C. Cellars “California Cuvee” Syrah, California
Medium to dark garnet in color, this wine smells of homemade blackberry jam and rose petals. In the mouth it offers flavors of cassis, blackberry, cola, and caramel notes, that head towards a finish with some heat on it. Decent acid, and imperceptible tannins, but the wine doesn’t quite hold together as much as you might like. Feels a bit disjointed. Score: between 8 and 8.5. Cost: $25. Where to buy?

2005 J.C. Cellars “Caldwell Vineyards″ Syrah, Napa
Inky garnet in the glass, this wine smells of well oiled leather, black cherry, and earth. In the mouth it offers black cherry, blackberry, and deeper woodier flavors. Good acidity and silky texture make for a very pleasant feeling in the mouth and a long finish. Score: around 9. Cost: $45. Where to buy?

Original post by beatrice.russo

Every spot on earth has its place to find a little bounty from the harvest. This year, my back yard has given up figs for the mockingbirds and Hoja Santa for the cheese maker. A farmer has given us several boxes of East Texas peaches and the garden is ready to offer up the Jalapenos to be pickled and the basilico to be made into pesto. The Pequin peppers are a ways off, if we can keep the mockingbirds from harvesting them first. As well, in the winter garden, arugula and finocchio are ready. Today we will be putting up peaches and peppers and making pesto.

My aunt Amelia put up peaches during her life, I still have a few packages in the freezer (she passed away in 1999) but I don’t have the heart to discard them. So we will offer up the new crop to the collection. They smell wonderful; the home has been filled with the aroma of ripe peaches. I feel like I’m living in a bottle of Riesling.

The Jalapenos have been ready for some time; many of them are ripe and red. The bees love their flowers; I wonder what it does to their honey. They also have plenty of basil and mint flowers to keep them busy in my back yard. We have a couple of colonies of Italian bees in the front yard, high away from children with rocks. They keep my yard happy and they seem to be gentle enough for us all to live together in peace.

The basil is in prime shape and so we will transform them into the sauce we will use all year long. Pine nuts are ready, olive oil from Liguria has been summoned to the dance, and the Reggiano-Parmigiano is resigned to its fate of joining forces with the other ingredients to give back joy all year round.

The Hoja Santa fills the whole yard, I never have to plant flowers again, for the towering plants fill the whole yards with a crop that goes to my friendly cheese maker in Deep Ellum and comes back to me in the form of year-round cheese. And there is never any poison or any kind of intervention, except by hand weeding and pulling off the critters that damage the plants. A compost bin is in the works and this little garden is my own way of letting the earth be the earth in its fundamentally perfect way – simply by letting it be and caring for it.

And as for Italy, come va? How are your ancient villages and hillsides doing? When will we see you? Soon, very soon. In the meantime we have our peaches, peppers ‘n pesto to keep us occupied.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola

It’s a pretty good time to be alive. I don’t find myself often wishing that I had lived in earlier times. However, there are events in the past that I would give my right arm to have been able to experience first hand. One of my top choices for time-travel destinations would certainly be the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. I’d love a week to explore the wares of the world amidst Olmstead’s gardens.

There may not ever be another event so grand as that, but when it comes to American food and wine, Slow Food Nation may very well be the equivalent for those who enjoy the pleasures of the palate. There’s so much stuff going on over the weekend of August 29th to September 1st all I can really do is point you to the web site and offer you good luck in drooling your way through artisan bread tastings, cooking demonstrations, speakers, films, farmer’s market, concerts, tours and field trips, hikes, and more.

What I will tell you is that the part of the weekend known as the Taste Pavilions will be a wonderland for bay area wine lovers, especially those interested in sustainable, organic, and Biodynamic^&trade wines. More than 450 wines will be available for tasting, and perhaps a hundred of them will be from exotic places like Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New York, and Texas. There will be hundreds more from well known places like California, Oregon, and Washington. All told it will likely be the single largest tasting of sustainable wines yet held in the U.S. Here’s a full list (PDF) of the producers who will be pouring and their wines.

The Taste Pavilions, which have both mid-day and afternoon sessions on Saturday August 30th and Sunday August 31st will also offer a huge variety of other foodstuffs and drinks, all from Slow Food friendly purveyors and producers.

Tickets for the mid-day sessions are already sold out, so if this smorgasbord of amazing food and drink appeals to you, you’d better plan on freeing up Saturday or Sunday evening over labor day to go check it out.

Slow Food Nation
August 29th - Sept 1st
Fort Mason Center (and other locations)
San Francisco

Tickets for the taste pavilions are $65 (or $45 if you’re under 21) and they must be purchased in advance online. This event will likely sell out in the next week or so.

Original post by Alfonso Cevola