Wine and food have been besties for a long time. "Who invented this magical brew", you say? Yeast! And we took kind of a gross idea and ran with it. Yeast will digest the sugars in grapes if you don't eat them first. This is called fermentation and it leaves behind a wonderful thing called ethyl alcohol, making the grape juice turn into wine. Mmmmm...ethyl alcohol. Actually, raw wine is pretty nasty. The wine makers got really good at controlling the fermentation process to make it not so nasty. In fact wine is so not nasty now because wine makers have been practicing this art for centuries. Some of the earliest grape juice residue was found in a jar in Iran and dates to around 5400 - 5000 B.C.! Grapes aren't the only thing that you can ferment and make tasty. Rice can be fermented to make sake, cabbage and cucumbers can fermented to make sauerkraut and pickles, and beer and bread are also a result of fermentation.
This past Saturday, I got up close and personal with some yeast of the best kind. If you haven't been on a Passport (http://www.scmwa.com/passport/index.htm) excursion in the Santa Cruz Mtns. in California, you HAVE to go. California is one of the best places in the world for wine now, and the Santa Cruz Mtns. is an unsung hero in this industry. I visited 5 wineries in the Corralitos area with Brendan, Barry, Kristin, Jared, and Rama.
1. Alfaro. Friendly people. Got to meet the winemakers/owners. Great food spread. Must have the 08 Chardonnay. It is light, refreshing, and buttery. Also try the 07 A Estate Syrah. This wine is super spicy and tannic. For a very drinkable table wine, try the 07 Scarlet. Num!
What is tannic? Tannins in wine are from the stems/seeds/skins of the grapes or from the wood barrels. They make the wine rougher in your mouth...your tongue feels like it's going to stick to the roof of your mouth. Tannins usually mellow out as the wine ages.
2. Windy Oaks. We actually went here on a whim because they aren't in the new passport, but the Alfaro people told us that they will still honor passports. Sure enough, they did! We were served by the winemakers and they were fantastic. It's a pure family business and a small operation, but they make beautiful pinots. They don't pump anything because the pinot grape is so sensitive, so they rely on gravity to transport the wine. They use a lot of wild yeast and don't ferment the wine. All of this natural wine making results in greatness, but rather expensive greatness. Diane's Block Pinot and the Estate Cuvee Pinot were super good, but my favorite (and the winemaker's) was the Wild Yeast Pinot. Their wines are smooth and oaky.
Oak is a common flavor in wines because most wines are aged in oak barrels. Most oak barrels come from France or America, each of which will impart different flavor profiles to the wine. I couldn't tell French or American when drinking the wine, but the wine maker can.
3. Natal. Now the fun begins. I haven't had much of an opportunity to taste bad wine on these passport trips, but this one takes the prize. This is the worst wine I have ever tasted. It was like the wine maker ran out of time and just dumped some water and vinegar into some grape juice. I never pour out wine, but this shit was in the spit jar after two sips. Even stranger was the Chardonnay...it was like a port! To give them some credit, I guess the real ports weren't bad. And they had an awesome bar. I need to find out what country they are from so that I can never go there. Love the dogs though!
4. Pleasant Valley. In the wine makers back yard, which was stunning. They had a hammock in their little redwood grove. Totally pimp. They had named all the wines after the various kids in the family, and the adults in the family were pouring the wine, so it was a nice and comfortable atmosphere. The whites were tasty (08 Paso Robles Viognier and 07 Estate Chardonnay) and the reds were interesting. The 07 Pinot was super spicy and smooth (and $60!!) and the 07 Syrah was similar but not as spicy. The Syrah was my favorite drinking wine, but the Pinot was really interesting. They also had a Zinfendel from 06 which was a little too sweet for my tastes, but most people in the group liked it.
5. Nicholson. This was in a pretty farm area. They had a really good, consistent wine spread (all from 07) and decent prices. Their chardonnay was tropical and good (I usually like buttery rather than fruity). Maybe my pallet was geared for spice that day, but the Pinot and Syrah were spicy and smooth. They were good, but might benefit from another couple years in the bottle. I don't normally like Cabernets, but their's was good. And finally, they had a Zinfandel which was rich, tannic, and slightly sweet. Overall enjoyable. And the wine pourers/makers were great... they put up with hearing us complain about Natal.
It was a beautiful day, we got to taste some great wines, we got to talk to most of the wine makers, and we took a nap on the way home (except for the drivers). Can't ask for a better day!
Want to know more about passport? Go to http://www.scmwa.com/passport/index.htm. Want to know more about wine? Look it up! Just kidding...you can just ask me.
Want to know how to pair wines? I'll be blogging about that later, but you can ask me specifics in the mean time!
Please drink, but enjoy responsibly.
<3, The Nerd.
Did anyone catch my mistake? At windy oaks I said that they don't ferment their wines. Uh...they kind of have to ferment it to make it wine. What I meant was that they do only natural fermentation...they don't help the yeast in any way and they don't add anything weird to change the chemistry of the wine.
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