California

With Thanksgiving over, the inevitable slide into the Christmas holidays has begun. Usually in the weeks before Thanksgiving, this depresses me. However, this year I got the opportunity to taste a wine that made me wish for the arrival of holiday and mistletoe.

The Biltmore Estate has been producing wines since the 1970s and presently producing wines from both estate and contract grown grapes. VinoVerve had its first taste of wines from the estate when Marguerite Barrett first tasted the Century White on 2009′s Open That Bottle Night.  Besides good wine, I love the sense of history that comes from the Biltmore Estate and their wines.

The Estate was built by George Washington Vanderbilt II a scion of the great Vanderbilt family.  Being the youngest of his father’s eight, the bulk of his father’s wealth went to his older brothers, but G.W. was not left penniless.  He build the Biltmore with the plan to pursue intellectual pursuits which he did, including experiments with horticulture, animal husbandry and silvaculture.  Unlike many intellectuals of his time, his goal was to make the estate self-sustaining.

In furtherance of this goal, GWV’s grandson began the winery.  Starting with French-American hybrid grapes, the estate is now growing Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Riesling and Viognier.  The wine makers are using North Carolina grapes as well as those from California and Washington to produce award winning wines.

The Christmas at Biltmore® White Wine is the perfect wine for a holiday meal or party.  It is fruity and off-dry to semi-sweet which will match perfectly with spicy foods.  It is lovely for sipping in a crowded party and if sweeter wines aren’t your thing, you probably have an Aunt Rita who drinks nothing but.  The flavors of orange, spices with a touch of mint scream Christmas and the bottle label with a holiday tree seals the deal.

This wine is available at the winery, online and in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington D.C., and West Virginia.

Enjoy your holiday season!

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor
December 1st, 2011

Disclosure:  I received this wine as a sample.

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Once I am on a mapping roll, I sometimes can’t stop. Here is the McMinnville AVA from Oregon and the Arroyo Grande Valley AVA from California. You might be wondering why I working on west coast appellations, but all will be revealed soon enough.

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor
September 29, 2011

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

Yes, I realize that this is much later in the day than I usually post, but it has been a crazy busy week and I wanted to start this next series. Hard core wine lovers have almost always have gone to visit a winery before. But if you don’t get to travel much and don’t realize that there are wineries in your area you might not be familiar with what it is like. Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin was on my way home from the Wine Bloggers’ Conference and therefore the perfect last stop before I got home later that day. The winery at Wollersheim was established in the 1840s by Agoston Haraszathy, better known to wine lovers as the “Father of California Viticulture” and the founder of Buena Vista Vineyards. Before he made it to Napa, he stopped for several years in Wisconsin, where he established the oldest incorporated village in the state, Prairie du Sac. The winery is still in operation to this day and this is from the tour when I visited at the end of June. Enjoy.

Wollersheim Winery
7876 Wisconsin 188
Prairie du Sac, WI 53578
1-800-VIP-WINE (847-9463)

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

Boy, that sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Never fear, I am not hanging out with mobsters or any nationality… I am drinking wine from Don Sebastiani & Sons. This winery, an independent offshot of the Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery is terroir driven. The wine was poured by Greg Kitchen, the winemaker and Jack Meyer from their marketing department.

The wine poured was from their Crusher line of wines which are grower’s selections. We tasted the 2008 Petite Sirah from Clarksburg.

Don Sebastiani & Sons
P.O. Box 1248
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 933-1704

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

I am nothing if not predictable. After discovering that there was a Lake County in California, it was all but certain that I would have to prepare a map of it….

So… Voilà

The Red Hills Lake County is one of five AVAs located in Lake County, California including Clear Lake, High Valley, Benmore Valley and Guenoc Valley. Red Hills is located on the southwestern shore of Clear Lake. It is located at the foot of Mt. Konocti, an extinct volcano between Excelsior Valley, Big Valley and the Mayacamas Mountains. The appellation was designated in 2004 and consists of 31,250 acres of which 3,000 are under cultivation. The soil is volcanic and is full of shards of obsidian that was formed as the magma from the Mt. Konocti cooled quickly due to the waters of the lake. The elevation of the area is betwen 1,400 and 3,000 feet and receives between 25 and 40 inches of rain per year. The region is perfect for Bordeaux and Rhone grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Mourvedre and Zinfandel.

Wineries and vineyards located within the AVA include:

Sol Rouge
Fortress Vineyards
Ferrel Ranch Vineyard
Red Hills Winery
Obsidian Ridge Vineyard
Fore Family Vineyard
Becht Vineyard
Eden Crest Vineyard
Roumiguiere Vineyards – Red Hills Ranch
Snow Lake Vineyard

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

When I bring home wine, it is generally white. Not because I don’t like red wine, but for during the week, I tend to avoid red wine because sometimes the tannins wreak havoc on my head. So imagine my husband’s surprise when I came home with a bottle of red wine on a Tuesday. Better yet, a California Cabernet Sauvignon which I generally view as too big a wine for most occasions (California wines generally get too much publicity).  After he had a sip, he understood.

The wine, The Girls in the Vineyard is silky smooth, intense and fruity.  The wine makers, Rob and Kat McDonald and Matt Stone believe in bringing “wines from the vines to you without any fuss and where possible do a good deed along the way”.  To that end, they do not have a fancy tasting room, waste money on advertising or excessive print materials.  What they do provide is wine produced from sustainably grown grapes from the Amber Knolls Vineyard, the bottles are made near the winery to lower to carbon footprint of the process and the capsules are recyclable.   Additionally, the winery makes a $2.50/bottle or $30/case donation to the non-profit of your choice for those customers who purchase directly, but it is available locally if you aren’t looking to buy in bulk. Check Good Grapes for instance.

One of the reasons that I decided to write about this particular wine is where the grapes are grown.  The Amber Knolls Vineyard is in the Red Hills Lake County AVA.  Kevin was a bit surprised to hear that there were hills in Lake County.. but only until I pointed out that this particular Lake County was located in California.  Of course, with twelve Lake Counties in the United States, it is easy enough to be confused.  This particular Lake County surrounds Clear Lake which is the largest natural lake completely within the State of California (Lake Tahoe is partly in Nevada).

“So,” Kevin asked me, “Who are the girls?  Are they the daughters of the owners?  Or their pets?”  HA!  As if!  The folks at The Girls in the Vineyard specifically promise as part of their pledge NOT to sell you a “lifestyle” to avoid showing you pictures of their pets.

The Girls, as they turn out are the vines themselves.

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

As I mentioned a while ago, the Calistoga AVA was finally approved after years of negotiations. When the final description was published in the Federal Register and I got right to the mapping of the area (ok, I took some time getting to it).

But here it is! The AVA is located between St. Helena to the southeast and Kellogg on the northwest and is centered around the town of Calistoga.

As always, these maps are done to the best of my puny abilities as a geography nerd and should not be used for land speculation or navigation purposes.

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

As if Santa Barbara doesn’t sound pleasant enough for you, this AVA tops it! Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara sounds beachy and bucolic.

This American Viticultural Area is located in Santa Barbara County in California. It is located between and and abutting the Los Padres National Forest and the Lake Cachuma Recreation Area. Currently, there are six wineries in the AVA:

• Cimarone
• Grassini
• Happy Canyon Vineyard (HCV)
• McGinley
• Star Lane
• Vogelzang

The AVA became official November 9, 2009.

Please note that this map is not to be used for navigation….

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By Don Holton
Contributing Writer

Wines produced by pro golfers Ernie Els and Luke Donald were the stars of our recent tasting at Terlato Wine Group’s corporate headquarters in Lake Bluff, the restored Armour mansion built in the 1930s.

After tasting the Ernie Els wines (see Friday’s post), we moved to another room and the wines of Luke Donald. As a professional athlete, Donald might not be expected to fancy fine wines, but he has a range of talents – as a golfer, winemaker, and artist. He also completed an undergraduate degree at Northwestern University, at a time when many top young golfers skip college and head for the pro tours.

The Luke Donald Chardonnay 2007 consists of 100% Carneros Chardonnay grapes. This is a wonderful wine, exemplary of the movement away from heavy oak, and it succeeds in deftly balancing citrus and a mild oaky sweetness. It retails for about $30.

The Luke Donald Claret 2006 is 100% Napa Valley fruit, from vineyards in Rutherford and Stags Leap, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It is aged in French Oak barrels for 16 months. The taste is full and smooth, with European style tannins and notes of spice – a fine wine whose quality equates well to its $40 retail price. You would serve this with your finest beef tenderloin.

The Luke Donald Collection wines are the result of a friendship with Bill Terlato, President and CEO, who believes the Els and Donald wines carry credibility, not because of their sports fame, but because the golfers play serious roles in the wine making process.

“Our Ernie Els and Luke Donald wines are outside the normal ‘celebrity’ wines,” Terlato says, “in that the athletes don’t lend their names for a fee. Ernie owns the vineyards and several wineries in South Africa, and Luke was involved in each step of producing and blending the wines under his California label.”

Do the golfers’ names command a higher price at retail? No, says Terlato, “Our wines do not carry a celebrity premium. Our goal is to produce an exceptional wine that reflects the professional golfer’s particular taste. These are wines from acclaimed vineyards for serious wine buffs.”

My guess is that the athletes’ names are “market neutral” to sales volume. Notoriety may garner interest among the golf crowd, but yet, be limited by those who don’t recognize an athlete’s name or who think wine couldn’t possibly be good if it comes from a guy who hits a golf ball 300 yards for a living. In the end, as it should be, the wine must deliver to succeed.

Beyond the wines, our tasting at Tangley Oaks was impressive for the things our hosts did not do during two hours of cruising food and wine stations. The Terlato family could have gushed about their big house and their success, but they did not and kept to the subject at hand: experiencing good wine. They could have offered “tours” of the mansion’s 61 rooms (would love to have taken one), but instead confined the event to several first floor rooms. Since acquiring the historic home over ten years ago, they could have junked it up with gaudy reproduction furniture, but have chosen to retain and use many of the original furnishings from the Armour days, thus preserving a long-ago time in North Shore history. The evening was a lesson in reserve and good taste.

To learn more:

http://www.terlatowines.com/wines/california/luke_donald/

By the way, Donald, in town for the BMW championship, finished in 10th place and earned a spot among the final thirty players at the Fed Ex Cup in Atlanta.

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