The Crushed Grape Report

Sipping from morning until night/Wine Bloggers Conference Day 2

There is no way right now that I can recount all of today's activities. So just a brief note with more to come when I can pull all of my notes and thoughts together.

It's been wine 24/7 since our buses left the hotel this morning headed for the CIA (the real one the director laughingly told us). Of course this CIA is the Culinary Institute of America, a gorgeous facility. More on this stop later.

From there we were off to vineyard visits and the organizers did something very clever. They didn't reveal what vineyards each of the buses was heading to--you just got on and got surprised. My bus went to Domaine Chandon and later Trinchero Family Winery . Again, more later.

After Trinchero, we headed to Quintessa for a tasting of Quintessa and Faust wines produced by the vineyard, as well as a huge tasting featuring about 20 wineries from Napa! We left there headed toward another secret location for a wine matched dinner. Our bus headed to Pine Ridge. I admit my taste buds leaped for joy. I love Pine Ridge wines--the Chenin Blanc-Viognier is one of my favorites. The blend of Chenin Blanc and Viognier results in a  crisp white wine with a touch of sweetness.

BTW, Pine Ridge's chef runs a cooking class on the property. Our dinner was delicious. 

We left Pine Ridge for the hotel and ONE MORE TASTING!!!  This time the wines of Portugal. You may know that Portugal makes the best ports in the world, as well as some other great wines.

I'm too pooped to talk about it right now, so consider this a teaser. Wait until you see the pictures.

Wining and Wining and Wining

I confess I'm about to fall over. I don't know that I have ever tasted so much wine in the space of a few hours.

After the rapid round robin tasting at the live blogging (I survived!), we had just an hour before the Grand Tasting of Sonoma wines.

Following the Grand Tasting, dinner, and our next opportunity to taste more wines from Sonoma.

Our dinner was sponsored by the Sonoma wineries and the wine representatives brought a wide variety of the wines from the area. Some were on the table, and if that weren't enough, a couple of vintners did wine pass arounds at the tables.

Whew!

Good thing I paced myself. Our dinner speaker was Chris Alden  of Alden Vineyards and the CEO of the company which produces Typepad, the blogging platform I use. He titled his talk "blogging past, present and future" but spent a fair amount of time looking toward the future and the merging of blogging and social media. He described Twitter as "the phenomenal gateway drug to blogging" The future of blogging, he said, will allow for what he called Social Media Optimization. I know he's right, and his examples of Six Apart's latest efforts in this direction illustrated that this could be a powerful  branding tool.

After dinner, more wine--this time the After Hours Tasting featuring vintners from the Russian River Winegrowers. Though my bed was calling (okay I'm a wuss) I had to go because I wanted a chance to sample the latest from one of my favorite wineries, the Benziger Family Winery. 

 I was not disappointed. I love, love, love the Signaterra Sauvignon 

Blanc, a pale green/gold color with a wonderful aroma and the kind of 

crisp acidity I can't get enough of. My friend Marcy,not typically a fan of Sauvignon Blanc took a sip and declared it quite tasty.

Also in the group tasting the delightful reds of Merriam Vineyards . I tried the Cabernet Franc, and the Cabernet Sauvignon. It was the perfect nightcap for me. By the way, Peter Merriam lives in Massachusetts but flies west every other week to tend to his vineyard in Healdsburg.

Tomorrow, the bus rolls out early and we head to Napa Valley.

2007 Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir

Benovia.. new winery...
The rep says this wine is a beautiful match with any kind of mushroom dish as well as  also lamb, grilled salmon.
When the guy walked over to our table some of my table mates cheered..saying the wines are known to be good.
They were right, but it must be noted that I like Pinot Noir.
This is not a cheap sip, it retails for $55 but as you know Pinots tend to be pricey.
Save this one to serve the people you really like:)

2006 Napa Valley Syrah

Clif Family Winery the wine is called   Gary's Improv...named after  the owner and his love for jazz 

retails for 35 dollars....

this is good. lovely smell, deep red color, lingers on the tongue in a way that calls for a second sip. I would drink this while listening  to Oscar Peterson playing the jazz piano.

Foggy Bridge Winery

Another Chardonnay light style   retails for 18 dollars

Urban winery in San francisco hope to be open 2010 or 2011...
wine maker from australia once worked at Geyser Peak...

From the winery (which is not yet open) GEO tier Green Earth Origin--farming  the wine organically....about to get the organic

I like this one better than the more expensive one.. which proves I can like Chardonnay sometimes....

Manchester Ridge Chardonnay

Tandem Winery...
Ya'll know how I feel about Chardonnay, so I'm trying to be open.
Given that, it's  not bad  retail price is $54.
The rep is talking about the detailed production process for this wine..lots of tender loving care and manipulation at the juice stage
....I'm sure that is why it costs more...the guy--actually the wine maker-- says he's trying to "think like a yeast" so as to bring out the best in this wine.

2007 Cline Ancient Vine Mourvedre

Mostly Mourvedre in this red wine...suggested retail 16 dollars

This is one of about 20 wines produced by Cine vineyards

Great touch for those of us willing to experiment with new wines. The bottle comes with a tear off back label with a recipe for  crusted beef tenderloin

the rep says he tells people to remember Mouverdre by thinking "move over dear"

Clever... worth a sip.

Line 39 Petite Syrah

Petite Syrah from Lake County California

Red wine that's a pleasant sip...I'm drinking most of it rather than pouring it out.
I realize at this moment that I've not drunk a lot of Petite Syrah so don't have much to think about in comparing it to other wines. This one is just okay for me.

The suggested retail price is 10 dollars  definitely a recession pack bottle. At that price no reason not to check it out for yourself if you want to try a different kind of red wine.

Snows Lake Vineyard

The rep is going on about thinking about the cleanest air in California and boulders..as a way to understand where this wine comes from.

I gave this one a good sniff, and it's yummy.

The winery makes 2 wines..Snows Lake 1 100 percent Cab and  Snows Lake 2 and it's a blend..28 percent Cabernet Franc.

 We're tasting #2  Suggested retail is $45...no wonder it's going down smooth..
This is one I would put in the wine rack...

Cupcake

Cupcake Vineyards  Cabernet Sauvignon...from California...
2007 ...
most of the wine  Cabernet Sauvignon a bit of Syrah and Petit Syrah as well...

18.99 retail price  the sales rep says it's wine for adults,  bringing back the memory of when your Mom bought you a cupcake.

Not the usual full bodied Cab.....more the weight of a Pinot. Not one for the purists.