welcome to Papapietro Perry

Some of the WC headed back to our favorite wine stomping-ground last weekend, Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg. We’d been to Papapietro Perry a few years before and loved their exciting pinot noirs (or is it pinots noirs?) Anyway, this visit, our dear friend, Callie, was here for a spell; and since we’d just been to Pride and Rutherford Hill, it made sense to try some of “the other red.”

Actually, Papapietro Perry (the name’s a mouthful, no? It comes from the two family names of the winemaking couples) makes critically acclaimed pinot noir and zinfandel, that last, a Dry Creek specialty. Most of the grapes are sourced from various growers in Russian River, Anderson and Dry Creek Valleys. We went there specifically because I’d read the day before in the recent Wine Spectator glowing reviews about these wines. And having tasted them ourselves, we have to agree.

old wine barrels and grapes on the vine near the Papapietro Perry tasting room

Papapietro Perry routinely makes prize winning wines

The tasting room is co-located with a number of other small wineries in the area. That makes things convenient if you’re ready to try several producers all at once. The day that we were there it was very hot: at least 92 degrees, so we were glad to get into the welcoming coolness of Papapietro Perry. Jim offered the wines. There’s a $5 fee to taste, whether or not you buy, though tasting’s free for club members. They offered four wines plus had a few additional ones to try, as they were already open. We liked them so well that we bought a few bottles and even splurged on a magnum. Callie almost joined the wine club but inexplicably backed out with some absurd excuse that nobody but her would drink the wine and it would go to waste. Now really! Does that ever happen in real life? No, I don’t think so, either.

2008 Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, Peters Vineyard: This was pale yellow with a floral nose with hints of lemon and apple. It tasted of “spring” with citrus and yummy tropical fruit. Delish!

2007 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley: This wine was blended from grapes grown in five separate vineyards. It was a transparent pale red. Hegui thought it had a sort-of typical barnyard aroma though I couldn’t detect much, as usual. We tasted red fruit and mineral notes. The really long finish was delightful. Very good!

what can be better than grapes on the vine on a sunny day?

2007 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Leras Family Vineyard: This was a transparent pale red with a smoky nose. We tasted sour cherry and some earthiness with a bit of caramel on the end. Quite different from the last, it had a less dramatic finish, though was still quite good.

2007 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley, Charles River: This comes from the part of Anderson Valley in Mendocino County. It was a transparent red but less pale than the others. Jim thought that it tasted a bit “more Burgundian” too. It smelled “mulchy” to Hegui. The wine tasted “thicker” with more depth of flavor than the others with good balance, fruit and earthiness. This is the wine that I got a magnum of to enjoy on a special occasion sometime.

2007 Zinfandel, Russian River Valley, Elsbree Vineyard: This wine was a transparent red with a nose of caramel, spice box and toffee. We noted plum and other dark fruit, clove with caramel rounding it out. The wine had a creamy texture that was not overbearing. Very good.

2007 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, Pauline’s Vineyard: This was a transparent red with not much nose beyond “alcohol.” Lots of raspberry on the attack with pepper and sour cherry on the finish.

enjoying some Papapietro Perry pinot noir

some Papapietro Perry souvenirs

words to live by from a shop in Palo Alto

In Rheingold – The German Wine Renaissance, Owen Bird enthusiastically advocates for German Riesling while simultaneously criticizing the industry’s ability to successfully market it as the preeminent white on the international stage.

I want to appreciate Riesling but I'm not sure how...

In this age of red wine consumption, has German Riesling become a fashion casualty? Bird, at one of his funniest moments, writes, “Fashion is fickle but, as anyone who has ever bought a Hawaiian shirt knows, some boomerangs just don’t come back.” That’s not to say that he thinks that German Riesling is like a Hawaiian shirt: quite the opposite. Paradoxically, our contemporary red obsession might actually be in Riesling’s favor, as that’s the most complex of whites. Rather he points to ineffective marketing, a confused and confusing classification system, failure of producers to export fine examples of Riesling abroad, unappealing and often incomprehensible bottle labeling, not capitalizing on terroir, and the German desire for egalitarianism as many of the culprits in the under appreciation of this finest of whites.

The classification system still puzzles me, though I’ve read this book with rapt attention. Bird offers a basic course of “German for beginners” which already has helped me decipher some baffling Riesling labels at my local wine shop. Kabinett is like a cabinet or a special place to store fine wine if you don’t have a cellar. Lese means “harvest;” spat- is “late;” aus- is “out;” –beeren, “berry;” trocken, “dry;” and Eiswein, which is fairly obvious if you just pronounce the German while thinking English, comes from grapes literally frozen on the vine. So putting it all together, the tongue-twister, Trockenbeerenasulese means “dry berry out of harvest.” Wow, I’m reading German, Mom! Though what that incredible word has to do with the drink in my glass remains a mystery.

And really, that’s Bird’s point. The classification system was set up based on levels of ripeness of fruit and amounts of residual sugar. There’s no recognition that acid and sugar interact to determine the subjective experience of sweetness. Nor does this system take regional distinctions into account. So long as the wine comes from fruit that are ripe to the correct degree and has enough sugar, it’s an auslese, for example. But not all ausleses are created equal: some taste dry, others sweet; some are significantly better than others (I have to believe Bird here as I’ve hardly had any thus far, though I aim to change that after reading this book.) Hence more confusion!

As a remedy, Bird makes a number of suggestions. First, consumers need to be educated about German Riesling. By this he doesn’t mean the details of the very complex classification system. Instead, we must learn and truly grasp that Riesling is the king of whites. Of course, the classification system should be revised to be both simpler to follow and make the greatest of the great wines stand out. The elites will then define local styles, and therefore, regional distinctions, will become more clear to Riesling drinkers. That makes sense, I guess.

He’s all for simplifying labels, focusing on pairing Riesling with Indian and other Asian foods rather than German ones, and rejecting the notion that customers must think a lot about the wine in order to purchase and successfully enjoy it. Finally, he advocates marketing elite, terroir-driven Rieslings differently from more affordable, fruit-forward, internationally styled ones. That’s not to say that these “affordable” wines are the same as Bird’s “sweet and cheap” plonk. In fact, he’s all over the huge German wine manufacturers who, he claims, “strangled if not kidnapped the game for their own motives to the expense of the industry as a whole.”

There’s a lot of attention focused on new classifications of Rieslings. He’s a real believer in the system developed by the Verband Deutscher Pradikatsweinguter (VDP) that re-organizes German wine areas into regions then subdivides them based on quality. The last section of the book offers a somewhat detailed description of these. Living in Northern California, I struggle with Bird’s preoccupation with these total systems. He writes, “the aim of the classification system is to bring to the attention of the wider wine public a method of quality declaration.” So it’s a kind of shorthand for what’s good. We don’t really have that here. Sure, there are regional distinctions: California Counties like Sonoma, Napa and Monterey, for example. We’ve even got some of these larger areas subdivided. Just think Dry Creek Valley, Stag’s Leap, or Santa Lucia Highlands. But that’s it. We’re on our own after that, so good luck finding a wine that’s right for you!

I still think that taste is subjective and truly wonder if there really is such a thing as a grand cru in an absolute sense. On the other hand, there are certainly some winemakers that produce better stuff than others. Bird characterizes California wines as “Old New World” due to our increasing focus on terroir (as compared to Australia, Chile, etc.) Maybe there’s something to that?

Rheingold is packed with ideas and the author clearly adores his subject. The book itself could have stood a more thorough editing. It tends to be repetitive; the style frequently veers off in wild directions, making it seem rough and unfinished; and there are numerous distracting typos and grammatical errors. That said, it’s impossible to come away from this short book without absorbing some of Bird’s excitement for German Riesling. It makes me thirsty…

welcome to Unti

I’ve been wanting to try the wines at Unti for ages now! We finally got our chance the other day while visiting Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg in Sonoma County. It was worth the wait, as this is a must go-to for fine wine. Turns out, you’re supposed to have an appointment for the tasting. Oops! Good thing that they’re friendly there.

Unti specializes in Rhône and Italian style wines as well as zinfandel. They’re organic and biodynamic. This family run place grows all of their own vines roundabout the tasting room on Dry Creek Road. Their web site has a cool map of the vineyards that breaks them down by varietal. It loads a bit slowly, so be patient if you’re gonna look.

a gorgeous Unti vineyard

stunning views of Dry Creek Valley from Unti

understated Unti Winery

gardens and picnic area at Unti

The facility is not that impressive to behold though there’s a wonderful garden and picnic area. We ended up having leftover Indian food that Hegui made the night before sitting under the shade among the flowers and herbs. The vegetarian paratha was especially delicious.

The tasting room was a practical affair, packed full of barrels and cases of wine with a simple divided tasting bar and some understated offices. Alex initially poured our wines. We really liked him. Aside from admitting us sans-appointment, he was very knowledgeable about these wines and clearly into the whole thing. There’s a tasting fee but they waive it if you buy. They don’t have a wine-club per se, rather they have a mailing list that you sign up for and you can order from that. I’ve seen the zinfandel at K and L and understand that several San Francisco restaurants offer these gems on their wine lists.

barrels and cases of delicous Unti wine

Everything we tasted except the rosé comes from the Dry Creek Valley Estate, so I won’t bother to keep re-writing it.

2009 Cuvée Blanc: This is 47% Grenache blanc, 44% Vermentino, 9% picpoul. This refreshing wine was a transparent pale yellow with a fruity nose. We tasted peach and apricot. The creamy texture led to a long finish. I really liked this one.

2009 Rosé Sonoma County: This is 77% Grenache and 23% mourvedre. This bone-dry wine was a very pale slightly orange-ish color. We smelled unripened peach on the nose. This was very smooth and round with some vanilla and spice notes.

2008 Segromigno: 92% sangiovese, 8% montepulciano. Wow! I adored this wine! It was a dark red to purple color with a nose of tobacco, and dirty sock. A bit fruitier and lighter than some Chiantis, nevertheless, this is a winner. There was a lot of red fruit, garrigue and earth on this full-bodied Italian-American.

2007 Grenache: this is a blended wine. Alex said that Unti’s trying for a Châteauneuf-du-Pape style. 80% Grenache noir, 10% syrah, 10% mourvedre. They age it in foudre rather than barrel. That’s got to be unusual in Sonoma County. It was a purple black color with dark cherry, dark stone fruit and tobacco on the nose. It was a medium to full bodied wine with lots of fruit and some earthy minerality. Alex suggested that it was “tight” though Hegui thought that the acidity might have been unbalanced making it taste a bit sour. I didn’t notice that at all and really enjoyed myself.

vines and pines in Dry Creek Valley

2007 Zinfandel: This is actually a blend of 88% zin, 8% petite sirah and 4% barbera. It was purple black with mulberry notes. This is a big wine full of raspberries with a lot of depth and a long finish.

2006 Syrah: All syrah from the Valley floor, this was an opaque purple black smelling of earth, tobacco, plum, and chicken poo. We tasted black cherry cola. The wine had supple tannins but a fairly short finish.

2005 Benchland Syrah: Also 100% syrah but grown on the hillside, this was the real deal. It was super dark black and smelled of tobacco, chocolate and freshly cut wood. It was creamy, thick with loads of black cherry, black pepper, metal and mineral. Does it get better than this?

Unti 2007 zinfandel

welcome to Rutherford Hill

Hegui was familiar with Rutherford Hill from a wine tasting excursion there several years ago with some friends with whom we’ve now lost touch. I was visiting people in New York, so missed out on this delightful wine experience. On our recent trip to Napa, we had just finished a lovely picnic lunch at Pride Mountain Vineyards with our friends, C and E. We wanted a go at one more place, so there we are.

This winery is hidden off the main part of Silverado Trail on, appropriately enough, Rutherford Hill Road. Surrounded by flower gardens, rolling hills and stunning views of the Napa Valley floor, this is the last stop after the world-renowned Auberge du Soleil, the very luxurious Napa Valley hotel and resort.

Rutherford Hill tasting room entrance

echinacea flowering at Rutherford Hill

a beautiful view of Napa Valley from Rutherford Hill

Unlike at Pride and Stag’s Leap, where the vineyards are more-or-less contiguous, Rutherford Hill has vineyard parcels scattered throughout Napa County. As a result, they can produce interesting blends from the sometimes very different parcels. Our tasting-room hostess, Betty, told us that because of the wide ranging parcels, wine blends with the same grape varieties can all taste quite differently. That makes sense.

On the day we were there (a Saturday) the tasting room was crowded. Apparently, the winery offers tours of the facility. We didn’t plan ahead for this so weren’t able to do that. They produce a large variety of wines at various price points that range from the value $18 to $22 level all the way to their super trophy Bordeaux blend, EPISODE, at $150 a bottle. They do offer case discounts for at least some of the wines and should you be a club member, tasting fees and further discounts are available.

contemplating the wine list at Rutherford Hill

I shared the $30 “Reserve Tasting” with Hegui. Callie had the standard $15 tasting. Hegui was so enchanted by these wines that he encouraged me to join the club (which I did). Now I’m in four clubs and on the buying list for Williams-Selyem. I’m gonna have to re-visit these and perhaps take some of my own advice about wine clubs sometime soon! At any rate, we had a lot of fun here. The wines that we tasted for the most part were full of pleasure, and we look forward to a return visit for the tour and more tasting. Here are our notes:

2005 Syrah: This had a transparent red color with medium body. The attack and middle were fine but it finished with a sour note that we didn’t really enjoy. There was cherry fruit. It was just okay.

2007 Malbec: We didn’t like this one much, finding it a bit unbalanced.

2006 Angels’ Peak: This is a blend of 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. This dark red beauty was medium to full bodied with raspberry, cherry and minerally, earthy notes with a delightful flinty almost bitter finish. Hegui thought it offered a characteristic Rutherford nose. We really liked this wine.

2006 Devils’ Peak: This wine was 66% Cabernet Franc, 23% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest, Malbec. This wine was also a delightful dark red. We noted butterscotch and tobacco notes on the nose. Though not quite as round as Angels’ Peak, nevertheless, it was smooth with an impressively long finish that opened up in your mouth like a flower in bloom seen in one of those high-speed scientific films. Wonderful! There were distinct vanilla notes at the end. What a wine!

Rutherford Hill trophy wine EPISODE

2007 Winemaker’s Blend: This is 44% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, and the rest, Petit Verdot. This was a transparent dark red color. On the nose, we detected chocolate, thyme and rosemary. It had mellow, almost over-ripe flavors of cherry and red fruits with mineral and vanilla. This was very balanced and quite good.

2006 Luke Donald Claret: There’s a story about the name for this wine that escapes me now. It’s a blend of 44% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc and the rest, Petit Verdot (the flier says 11% PV but I think that they must mean 1% and it’s a typo.) This wine was a transparent red with crème brulée and some smoky sweetness on the nose. Hegui said while tasting this gem, “It feels like you can drink this like you’re drinking water,” it’s that refreshing and good. It seemed very Bordeaux-ish, if that’s a word: full bodied, round, lush and supple with a good finish. Though packed with fruit, it had an almost metallic attack and pepper on the end.

2005 Reserve Merlot: This wine is 91% Merlot and the rest, Cabernet Sauvignon. This was a rusty red color with a complex nose of mulberry, cranberry, cherry, garrigue and earth. It was full bodied with lots of red fruit and a wonderful finish. I liked this a lot.

2006 EPISODE: This is Rutherford Hill’s flagship wine, a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot and the rest, Petit Verdot. This is not a “Meritage” as the winery does not participate in the Meritage Association. But that’s the idea behind this exclusive bottling. Betty used one of those little aerator devices to serve this wine, saying that it needs to breath to be properly appreciated at this young age. The wine was a dark purple with a nose of scorched earth. This had red and blue fruit, mineral and earth. Wow! It was very smooth with a long, lingering finish. Delish!

We loved Rutherford Hill. Let us know what you think.

Rutherford Hill steel fermentation vats as seen from the tasting room

a vineyard at Pride with Pride Rock in the background

Some of the crew went to Pride Mountain Vineyards for a tasting appointment last weekend. If you’ve never been, we highly recommend it. Situated on the border of Napa and Sonoma Counties, this stunningly beautiful winery at the top of Spring Mountain in the Mayacamas range produces marvelously complex and succulent wines in a magnificent setting.

welcome to Pride Mountain Vineyards

It is true that since the winery’s at the top of the mountain, the ride there can seem a little treacherous. Hegui got motion sickness from the several miles of switchback roads and almost bombed out on the tasting. Fortunately the clear mountain air and the sheer loveliness of the place helped him to regain his equilibrium. Perhaps we erred in coming from the Sonoma side rather than the Napa one? The Western approach did seem a bit longer and somewhat wilder. If you’re planning a visit, besides making a reservation (Pride’s reservation only) consider how your party handles rugged terrain.

That said everything else on our recent visit to Pride was perfect.

The location has a long history. According to the winery web site, the place was first developed in the Nineteenth Century as Summit Ranch. There’s even evidence of some wine production from that period. Nowadays this is a family run vineyard and winery that apparently recently passed to the second generation of winemakers. Pride is an unusual name, suggesting perhaps gay liberation or maybe that Walt Disney movie, The Lion King. The vineyard and the movie both boast a “Pride Rock.” In fact, it’s the family name of the winemakers. That is cool! I wish my family name sounded nearly so interesting.

We didn’t realize that we were to be offered a tour. We’d gone to Pride about three or four years ago and it was sort of a standard tasting at a bar. Things have changed for the better. “Jay” was our very kind and well-informed guide. We started at the tasting room where we sampled the 2009 viognier. Then Jay guided us through parts of the facility including the grounds immediately adjacent to the tasting room and into the wine caves. That’s always a real treat and you won’t be disappointed here.

some grapevines at Pride

at Pride they collect winter rain to irrigate vines in the dry months

more views from Pride

Pride tasting room and offices

some Pride merlot on display

we're ready to be wow-ed by Pride...and we were

with my left foot in Napa and my right in Sonoma, I'm ready for anything

Pride is unique in that it’s a winery physically on the border to both Napa and Sonoma. If this was the Carneros region that might not seem that remarkable, but we’re talking Spring Mountain. There’s a line in front of the cave entrance that demarks the two counties. They consider it an asset though it creates some confusing bottling issues according to Jay. Since the counties are two different AVAs, if the grapes grown in different lots were mixed together before fermentation, they’d have to be named in some generic California way. It’s something like that. To manage this, the Pride folks separately ferment the wines then in the final blends; indicate percentages by county of origin from which the grapes originated. It sounded a bit complex, though they clearly have everything under control.

We were offered three wines plus a barrel sample from a single block of merlot, but we thoroughly enjoyed them all.

2009 Pride Viognier: This wine was a pale yellow color with a flowery aroma and a distinct creamy mouth-feel. We detected peach and nectarine. I really liked this. Hegui, always a skeptic of white, wasn’t that sure.

2007 Pride Merlot: This was a dark red color. It had an earthy scent and was a full-bodied almost thick tasting wine with supple tannins and a long finish. We detected red and purple fruits with some distinct mineral notes. We all adored this wine. I ended up purchasing a magnum to have as a treat later.

2007 Pride Cabernet Sauvignon: This was a deep, dark red color. I thought there was some cedar on the nose. It was silken with a long, long finish. We really liked it.

tasting some Pride in the caves

posing with friends after the tour and tasting at Pride

some grapes on the vine at Pride

Afterward, Jay recommended that we enjoy our picnic lunch in the vineyard under some shade trees overlooking one of the many breath-taking views. How could we say no?

the view from Pride atop Spring Mountain is stunning

Pride Mountain Vineyards isn’t just a pretty face, though that’s always welcome. The Prides make quality wine that’s full of pleasure. Taste it for yourselves sometime soon.

I really enjoy Wine Spectator, but maybe I’ve been taking it too seriously lately. I went a little crazy over 2009 Bordeaux futures after WS and everyone else went hog-wild about the vintage. My checkbook is still recovering. The same happened with the 2007 Châteauneuf-du-Pape vintage. WS loved it, and, by extension, I did, too.

In the latest issue (Aug. 31, 2010), I was thrilled to read Matt Kramer’s column, “OK, So I Was Wrong” about American syrah. Have you seen it? Apparently some time ago he’d speculated that syrah would be the new “it” grape in American viticulture. Of course, pinot noir won that crown. Too bad if you ask me: I adore syrah but I’m still waiting to be bowled over by pinot.

Brian Benson 2005 Syrah Denner Vineyards with hand written note

Kramer gives some reasons for the failure of American syrah to excite the imagination. One of them is that “syrah needs cellaring.” In fact, he reports that “California’s best syrahs, like those of France and Australia, put on a show only after a decade in bottle.” That’s good to know!

WS has that famous 100 point rating scale which they apply to wines that they review for the magazine. At the top of the scale, 95 to 100, are “classic” wines. 90 to 94 are “outstanding.” These wines are the best of the lot.

WS assigns a number to each wine but also attaches tasting information and recommends the best time to drink the wine in question. And that’s where the confusion starts.

Remember Kramer saying that the best syrahs need to age for a decade? Well in the same issue that that column appears, WS reviewed thirteen American syrah and syrah blends that it scored 90 or higher: three from California and ten from Washington. The highest score, 97, went to the 2008 Owen Roe Syrah Yakima Valley Red Willow Vineyard Chapel Block. They liked it so well that they put it in their “highly recommended” category, the group for “[t]he issue’s most impressive wines.” Oddly, WS says that the optimal time to drink this winner is “now through 2016.”

Normally I might not notice something like this, but Kramer just made a big point about quality syrah needing to age for a decade. The inconsistency is glaring. The Owen Roe is best up to eight years post vintage date: just eight. Eight, huh?

When I looked more closely at the other dozen wines at the 90-plus rating level, WS recommends drinking them all before the magical ten year mark. Sure, most of these are from Washington (which Kramer doesn’t really comment on specifically) but the three California highly rated syrah or syrah blends all should be drunk “early” too. No wonder folks are confused by syrah! Even the “experts” can’t get it together!

We’ve a lot of Meyer lemons right now after a visit to our friend, Kristen’s home in the East Bay to celebrate the Kev-star’s birthday last week. She has two dwarf trees in her backyard that are full of these delightful fruit.

tequila Meyer lemonade

Meyer lemons have terrific flavor. Milder than regular lemons; the acidity level is very low and the fruit exudes smells redolent of clementines, tangerines, oranges and sweet limes. They’re very aromatic. To me the whole lemon tastes good. I can eat the pulp, skin and pith. The pith only tastes slightly bitter. The skin is thin, smooth and shiny. Meyer lemons are very versatile. I love to use them instead of or combined with vinegar in salad dressings, or just eat them like you would an orange or grapefruit.

The other day I came home from a not so fabulous day at work ready for a drink. Strangely, we didn’t have wine handy that I actually like: too much cheap red Bordeaux and one-note summer whites. I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to go to the storage unit to fetch some better stuff. So many stairs! Then I realized we did have a bottle of Patrón silver from a party a few weeks ago. Perfect! I was one step away from enjoying a cocktail!

Here’s my solution for turning a sour day into a sweet one:

tequila Meyer lemonade

1 pint size glass cup
Ice
2 large Meyer lemons (or more)
2 tsp sugar
1½ shots (or more if you’re really frisky) good silver tequila, like Patrón

Fill the cup with ice. Squeeze the juice of the lemons into glass. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add tequila and give it another stir. Decorate with a Meyer lemon slice. And there you have a delicious cocktail to sip and relax!

Wine is fantastic, though is it possible to ever get too much of a good thing? Well, not if you’re Neal Rosenthal.

His exciting book, Reflections of a Wine Merchant, describes his career as an independent wine merchant in New York with a penchant for Old World wines. In the mid-Seventies, Rosenthal was a disillusioned attorney looking for something new. Luckily for him, his parents were set to retire and wanted to turn over their small pharmacy in the Upper East Side to a successor. They’d always sold a bit of wine to their customers. So it was only natural that this budding vinophile took over the place and started his very own wine shop.

could these ships be filled with fine French wine? I sure hope so!

This book is more of a delightful wine travelogue than anything else. Somehow I’d never put two-and-two together before, but, duh, a big part of the business of being a wine merchant is having wine to stock your shelves. It hadn’t really donned on me just how challenging getting that fine wine into your store could be. I’d always just imagined that it simply materialized there, year after year, new vintages miraculously appearing in maritime shipments from across the globe, like clockwork. LOL

It turns out that it’s all about who you know, and persistence helps, too.

Rosenthal didn’t really know much of anyone when he started out, though that wasn’t as huge of a deal as it sounds. As he says himself, American wine importing from Europe was sort of in its infancy then. California was just beginning to develop its now well respected reputation as a place for fine wine production and imports from other New World countries weren’t much.

Things certainly have changed but Rosenthal seems to have stayed ahead of the curve and managed to remain in the fine wine business for more than thirty years. That’s very impressive.

He’s obsessed with red Burgundy. I most enjoyed his descriptions of early wine visits to the Côte d’Or. Clearly fond of Burgundians, it’s also quite obvious from what’s written here that as a group they’re slow-to-warm-up bordering on xenophobic. Though from their point of view, I suppose that you’d be leery of a strange American attorney showing up at your doorstep out of the blue, asking in broken French to taste then sell your wine. You might want to test their mettle, too. Of course, Rosenthal passes the tasting and spitting tests with aplomb. But it’s a wild ride.

The book focuses on wine makers and wineries predominantly in Burgundy and the Rhône in France and Tuscany and Piedmont in Italy, though he does venture further afield. It’s thrilling “traveling” with him on his twice-yearly pilgrimages throughout these glamorous wine lands. He has an intriguing chapter on early contemporary wine production in California but doesn’t seem to be that much of a fan overall. Well, no one’s perfect.

As an importer/merchant, Rosenthal offers some insights into special issues related to the industry. For example, he suggests that an importer can be an “interventionist,” someone who “actively insists on imposing a style or methodology on a producer.” Apparently he’s tried not to be this way with his stable of producers. Another area of controversy surrounds the question of what to do with wine from poor vintages. The immediate thought of most importers is to refuse to buy the lower quality stuff. Rosenthal looks at it in another way. His goal is to build loyalty among his producers, so he sticks with them through good and bad times.

That’s a noble sentiment that seems both practical and old-fashioned. He lost me with his blanket dismissal of New World wines. There is a lot of good juice out there these days. Why be such a snob? Rosenthal Wine Merchant still seems to be active in New York. I was able to google their address and even find a blog sponsored by the company. There was no web site, though, and the wine blog appears to have had limited postings, only in 2008. That really is old school.

New or old, I adored this book. I highly recommend it.

I read A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season in hopes of learning more about pairing red wines with spicy, vegetarian and Asian style foods: basically the kinds of things that we eat and blog about all the time. Plus I really like Dr. Vino’s site.

Like a refreshing Chablis on a warm day, the book is cool, smooth and easy going down with enough earth and interest to keep you wanting more. After a short introduction it’s divided up into sections based upon the four seasons, sort of like French Women for all Seasons. Within each section, it’s further subdivided into chapters based upon each month.

Colman suggests various wine styles for each season; gives advice for matching wines to specific events like weddings, Thanksgiving, etc.; tells chatty humorous anecdotes about wine and people, for example, “Tyra and Tannins: Why Moscato d’Asti is the Ultimate Wine for Newbies, Pools and Tyra Banks.” Each chapter also has lots of practical advice about everything from selecting wine openers and decanters, shopping for wine at sales and managing a growing wine cellar. He offers travel tips to wine region destinations and the thing that I found most interesting was that at the end of each chapter he interviews a sommelier from various established restaurants throughout the U.S. who talk about their personal experiences with wine.

I realize after reading this book that I’m following Dr. V’s general advice on wine, “Drink the wines you like and eat the foods you like.” But this book has also persuaded me that trying new wine styles, especially whites, which I rarely go after, is worth doing. Riesling is the real take-away lesson that I got from A Year in Wine. Almost all of the sommeliers surveyed recommended Riesling, especially aged Riesling, as a wine that they would seek out at various times of the year. That doesn’t solve the red-wine-with-vegetarian food-etc. dilemma but was exciting advice that I’m going to start to follow. It’ll be fun to have a not-chardonnay choice for Chinese or Thai dishes.

The sommeliers were also interesting in another way: very few of them recommended red Bordeaux.

pair of ducks at Paraduxx

We went to Paraduxx on the recommendation of a frequent member of the weirdcombos tasting crew, Carey M. She had gone there a few months prior and remembered it to be an excellent experience.

The winery is the “child” of Duckhorn, located further north in Napa. At the “parent,” like much of Napa, they produce Bordeaux style blends. Paraduxx mixes things up a bit, primarily focused on zinfandel blended with cabernet sauvignon and merlot: sort of Californian Bordeaux blends, if you will. Of course, that’s the source of the unusual name: Paraduxx combines “paradox” for the unusual blends with “pair of ducks” to signal that this is the second winery chronologically in the Duckhorn empire. It’s cute bordering on precious.

The tasting room looks understated from the front though inside was remarkable with a very high ceiling, lots of windows overlooking the back yard and contemporary styling. It was a beautiful day—ninety degrees and sunny– so we sat out back on a shaded porch.

The winery web site recommended a reservation. We went on a Saturday at 1PM. There were other groups there but I feel certain that you could have walked in and been accommodated.

some Paraduxx vines

2009 Blackjack Napa Valley Rosé

All tasting is done at table rather than standing at a bar. You place your order at the entrance and are then seated. We were offered complementary tastes of their rosé while they prepared our zinfandel blends. There are two tastings: the Essential and the Enhanced. There were two of us that day so we had one of each and shared. The first is current releases and some library wines; the second, more rare bottlings and library wines. These were served with a small plate of select cheeses and crackers.

Some of the vineyards surround the property and they have a small but enjoyable garden off to one side. We strolled around it mid-way through our tasting, but apparently the staff became confused, as they began busing our table before we finished. I was very annoyed by that. Perhaps it was all for the best. I ended up drinking less.

some Paraduxx wines

2009 Blackjack Napa Valley Rosé: This was pink with pepper on the nose. We tasted raspberry and pepper. Refreshing.

2007 Blackjack Napa Valley Red: This is a blend of 55% zinfandel, 23% petit verdot, 14% cabernet sauvignon, and a bit of merlot and cab franc. It was a purple color with mellow notes of tobacco, dark stone fruit and garrigue. It was fruity and peppery with a decent finish. We enjoyed it.

2005 Paraduxx: This is 60% zinfandel, 32% cabernet sauvignon, 6% merlot and 2% cabernet franc. It was purple black without much nose. It was smooth with red and black fruit at the core.

2006 Paraduxx: This one is 64% zinfandel, 27% cabernet sauvignon, 7% merlot and 2% cabernet franc. It, too, was purple black. Hegui noted musty “forest rot” on the nose. It had a rounded taste with some cherry and caramel with a peppery finish.

2007 Paraduxx: This is 72% zinfandel, 18% cabernet sauvignon, 9% merlot and 1% cabernet franc. This was dark purple with scents of forest. This filled the mouth with flavor but had less structure. The zinfandel really shone through here.

Paraduxx interior

2007 Paraduxx Reflection: This one is 60 % cabernet sauvignon and 40% zinfandel. It’s the reverse in terms of the blend compared to the 2007 Paraduxx, hence the name. The wine was a purple black color that smelled of fudge. It was smooth, very silken with a long finish. It was one of our favorites.

2006 Postmark Monitor Ledge Vineyard: 61% zinfandel, 35% cabernet sauvignon, 4% merlot. This was purple black without much nose that we could tell. It had sour cherry and graphite notes with a root beer finish that was sustained.

2007 Postmark Rector Creek Vineyard: 66% zinfandel, 24% cabernet sauvignon, 7% cabernet franc, 3% merlot. This was purple black with chewy tannins, some cherry and red fruit.

2007 Postmark Howell Mountain: 64% zinfandel, 30% cabernet sauvignon, 3% cabernet franc, 3% petit verdot. This was purple black. We didn’t detect much aroma but by this time Hegui started to wonder about the glasses that they used. Perhaps they had some soapy residue? The wine was smooth and supple without sharp edges. We noted red currants and braised fruit.

Overall, this was a fun experience and good, though not excellent wine. We’re still skeptical about zinfandel blends and I’m not sure that I’d seek Paraduxx out over more traditional Napa wines.

welcome to Paraduxx and be careful