Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson The Grape Nut

with Ben MacPhee- Sigurdson

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• California, final entry: Zinned out

  01/30/2012 2:13 PM

  Saturday morning in San Francisco was the ZAP trade tasting. ZAP stands for Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, and is a festival devoted solely to the grape.

  To be clear, I'm talking about the big, inky dark dry red wine, not the cheap, off-dry blush. The trade component started at 10 a.m. and ran until 1 p.m., and the goal was to taste as many Zins as possible in the time allotted. I counted 38 tasting notes made by me, but I definitely tried at least another dozen without taking notes.

  A point of clarification, perhaps a bit late: this is wine tasting, not drinking. I spat out nearly every one of those fifty Zins, a common practice among writers, sommeliers, etc. One ounce of Zinfandel x 50 equals nearly two full bottles of wine. Not spitting would be highly unadvisable. There's also fresh bread, cheese, fruit, water, coffee, etc. so that people can mix it up a bit and put something other than Zinfandel in their stomachs.

  Oh yes, there were many at the trade tasting who weren't spitting, and by all accounts ZAP tends to be a bit of a gong show, especially during the public segment in the afternoon.

  I'm told people come in all forms of costume (I did see one woman at a booth wearing a fake moustache and a plunger on her head), tip back countless Zins and generally get somewhat tipsy and debaucherous. That certainly wasn't the case at the trade tasting, although some were likely on their way. I was curious to peek in on the public tasting but instead grabbed lunch at Gott's Roadside before checking out Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, where the sea lions hang out.

  I almost forgot, the size of the ZAP tasting is incredible - it's at least the size of the Winnipeg Wine Festival yet is solely dedicated to wines made from one specific grape. It's unreal.

  That was it for our official duties - our group got together again in the evening for dinner at E&O Trading Company, whose food was sorta Hu's Asian Bistro-ish. Then we said our good byes at the hotel and rolled into bed.

  OK, that's it for my California adventures for now - more to come in the column, I'm sure, as well as in this space. My flight home (via Chicago) is boarding shortly, and I need to scarf back a burrito or something before the journey.

  Oh yes, and for those interested, the Wilco concert at the Warfield Theatre last night was fantastic - it at least equalled the four other performances I've seen by them.

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• California, days 4 and 5

  01/29/2012 7:07 PM

  So when I last wrote it was Thursday morning and we had yet to hit our first winery. I've made plenty of stops between then and now - in fact, the rest of my traveling companions have gone home, while I'm staying an extra day to explore San Francisco and see Wilco tonight at the Warfield. Thanks to a crazy schedule that often left us with barely enough time to check in to our hotel before dinner, it seems I've got some catching up to do. So, in a nutshell:

  Thursday: Chateau St. Jean was our first stop, where we tasted through a range of their Chardonnays in an effort to learn about the subtle variations between Sonoma County sub-appellations. We checked out their 2010 Sonoma County Chardonnay (a great example that's available at Liquor Marts and beyond) as well as three 2009 single vineyard wines. Great stuff. We then tasted through the 2001, 2006, 2007 and 2008 vintages of Cinq Cepages, their flagship red (a Bordeaux style blend) that showed how the weather in different years affects the same wine.

  From there it was over to another room on the stately property to taste through wines from Etude - one Chardonnay and three Pinot Noirs (the two grapes are their specialties). They're not cheap wines (nor do I think are they available in Manitoba), but the Pinot Noirs showed some nice finesse while the Chardonnay was among the best I tasted on this trip.

  From there the gang got back on the bus and headed to Kunde in Sonoma, where we toured their incredible property (most of the vineyard shots in the film Bottle Shock were filmed at Kunde) and sat down with winemakers from Ramey, Patz & Hall and Kunde to chat about and taste through some Sonoma County Chardonnay from different sub-appellations (called AVAs - American Viticultural Areas). There were 11 Chardonnays in total from eight wineries, and all showed subtle variations based on the AVA from which they were sourced, the year, the amount of time the wine saw in oak, etc.

  Then it was off to Stonestreet, a winery owned by the same folks that own Kendall-Jackson. In fact, Julia Jackson, daughter of proprietor Jess Jackson, tasted through a cross-section of the Jackson Family Wines portfolio with us, including their pricey "Le Desir," a Cabernet Franc-based premium red blend. By the time we left we were running fairly late, so we had just enough time to dump our stuff at the tastefully modern H2 hotel in Healdsburg before turning around and heading to Clos du Bois for a tasting and dinner. Clos du Bois is owned by Constellation, which also owns Robert Mondavi, Estancia and others - as a result, we tasted through a number of their lines before tucking in to a fantastic dinner.

  Friday:  Gallo Sonoma's Frei Ranch property was our first stop on our last day in wine country proper, and while the trip featured picturesque vines, rolling hills, etc. But what this property also has is one of the biggest wineries I've seen in person ever. The Frei Ranch winery has a 40,000 ton capacity, which is around 2.8 million cases per year. Crazy, right? Well, considering Gallo's total output is in the 60 million case range (they have many other wineries in California as well), it seems downright minimal. 

  Director of Winemaking Scott Kozel was doing a fine job leading us around the winery and facilitating some barrel tasting before the group got completely distracted by the appearance of Gina Gallo, granddaughter of Julio Gallo, the face of the company as well as winemaker for Gallo Family Vineyards Sonoma Reserve. Sporting work boots, jeans and an old plaid jacket, Gallo would have fit in with anyone else milling about in the winery or vineyards. For us wine geeks, however, it was a great chance to spend a few valuable minutes talking to one of the most recognizable American winemakers today. And she happens to be a lovely woman to boot.

  Our next stop was MacMurray Ranch, another Gallo property, albeit with a focus on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Director of Winemaking Cris Munsell spent a bit of time with us walking around the incredible property and conveying the sense of history of the spot. Prolific actor Fred MacMurray used to own the ranch, raising cattle on the property in order to have a "Plan B" when his acting career came to a close. It's an incredibly beautiful and well-preserved ranch that produces some very nice, restrained Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

  We showed up at Rodney Strong and were shepherded through a presentation featuring Alexander Valley wines. This illuminating and educational presentation included tasting through a wide range of Rodney Strong wines, including Cabernet Sauvignons from three separate vineyards within the valley. The notion of "different vineyards, different flavours" was certainly (and adequately hammered home throughout our stay. This visit - our last to a winery - was no different. 

  From there we said goodbye to wine country and made the hour-plus trek to San Francisco, where we piled into the Hotel Monaco for some quick drop-the-bags-and-freshen-up time before heading to a family-style dinner at Kuleto's with winery reps from Ironstone, Bogle, Perry Creek and more. 

  So that sums up Thursday and Friday... I need to get myself ready to hit the Wilco show, so Saturday's adventures at the ZAP Zinfandel tasting will have to wait...

   

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• California, Day Three: meeting the Mondavi matriarch

  01/26/2012 9:30 AM

  Day three, and yet again I’m up before 6 a.m. – which would be a huge problem if it weren’t for the fact that I’m going to bed at 10 every night. Shift those times over to the Central Time Zone and it’s though I never left home. But it’s amazing how much you can get done in the morning – I’m more of a writing-at-night kinda guy, but working in the morning means there’s a finite time; you have to stop, because the bus is going to head to the next winery without you, so you need to get it done.

  But I digress. Yesterday was mainly all about Cabernet Sauvignon. Our first stop yesterday was at Cliff Lede winery for a panel discussion on Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and its ageability. Here we heard from winemakers/educators from Robert Mondavi, Silver Oak, Staglin, Clos du Val, Silverado and Cliff Lede while tasting two of the same wines from each winery, but with differing vintages – one new and one old. This was a great opportunity to hear from some of Napa's best winemakers about how winemaking in the valley has changed, and to taste both old and new Cabernets, the latter of which show great promise with some cellaring.

  Our next stop was at the iconic Robert Mondavi winery, which looks just like it does on the front of their label and not entirely unlike the Okanagan Valley’s Mission Hill winery. We were taken out to Mondavi’s To Kalon Vineyard, a gorgeous spot from which much of the winery’s best Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon are sourced.

  Back at the winery we were joined by Genevieve Janssens, Director of Winemaking for Robert Mondavi Winery. She detailed the subtleties of the soil in To Kalon as we tasted wines from the vineyard. As we were standing there listening, a shrunken woman with blond-white hair was quietly escorted into the back of the room, listening as we tasted the wines and peppered Janssens with questions.

  "Margrit!" Janssens exclaimed as she noticed the eighty-something-year-old Mrs. Mondavi at the back of the room. We were all sort of floored – here was California wine royalty. Despite the Mondavis’ tumultuous relationship with the winery once taken over by Constellation Brands, Margrit continues to happily wander the winery, occasionally joining groups for a quick hello. We were lucky enough to have her join us for lunch at the winery as well, and it was quickly apparent that she and Janssens are very close. It was pretty darn touching. Margrit is a ridiculously personable, witty and engaging speaker, and many of us took a few minutes to speak with her -- it was an unexpected, memorable and once-in-a-lifetime experience.

  Of course, this development made us ridiculously late for our next appointment at Black Stallion winery, whose wines I’ve yet to see in Manitoba. However, you’d likely be familiar with much of the rest of the Delicato Family Vineyards portfolio: 337 Cabernet Sauvignon, (B)razin, Gnarly Head, etc. After a quick tour of the facilities we tasted through much of their portfolio before being shuffled back on to the bus.

  Once back at the hotel, the group of us were herded into a boardroom where we were given an interesting presentation on sustainability. It’s less strict than being an organic or biodynamic wine, which is both good and bad – it means wineries can work on becoming sustainable gradually but it also means the word has far less concrete meaning, and can be bandied about a little more loosely.

  After a quick break we headed to Louis M. Martini for a quick tour and another massive, fantastic dinner, this time in an underground cave-type cellar. Seriously, I’ve twice had a pork chop as big as both my fists combined. Huge. Anyway, the winery is a Gallo-owned property, and mainly produces Cabernet Sauvignon on-site that are great quality and value.

  Oh, speaking of giant pork chops, I’ve got to get a quick run in before we head out to Chateau St. Jean and beyond. From there it’s all Sonoma for the rest of the day.

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