Memoirs of a Wine Trip Well-Taken

The Crew went on a California road trip recently and there was plenty of good Pinot along the way. California is a schizophrenic state in that Southern California is all about what you have, that is, cash and flash, while Northern California is all about how you live, more real and genteel. The food and wine gets noticeably better and better the father north you go, until you reach Sonoma where it is as good as it gets. In Southern California you eat, in Northern California you dine. We managed to do our share of drinking and dining. - much like the saying, “some days you feed the fish; some days you drink like a fish.”

We hit the road on October 28, and by November 1, all of the Pinot Noir had been picked throughout California. It remains a very beautiful time to visit the wine country, for the vineyards take on a kaleidoscope of yellows, reds, and oranges and the few lonely clusters of second growth grapes hang tenuously to life.

Our first stop was Cambria in the Central Coast. On the way, we slipped into Fiddlehead Cellars in the Lompoc “wine ghetto” to pick up some fortification for the long trip. It is always a treat to talk wine with Kathy Joseph. Besides Pinot, we picked up some “Sweetie,” the dessert wine she makes from Sauvignon Blanc and a touch of Muscat. This is the perfect wine (and so aptly named) for Valentine’s Day.

In Cambria, we stayed at the venerable Blue Bird Inn on Main St,, walking distance to two very fine restaurants I recommend: Robin’s and the Sow’s Ear. Both have excellent wine lists and wine service. It was here we began a scientific study that was never really completed. One of our travelers claimed that after you empty a bottle, you can lay it on its side for a few minutes, and still get ten more drops of wine out. Well we immediately challenged this supposition and spent the entire trip testing each bottle to verify this theory. I know the wait staffs thought we were all loony as we discouraged them from removing the supine bottles from our table until we had tested them. Someone actually kept a count and the same person was assigned to be the counter (she was given the title, “The Countess”). The results are a bit vague in my memory (most testing was done at the end of the meals), but the average was at least 10 drops and probably a few more. One wine we drank in Cambria did stand out in my memory for excellence: 2004 Littorai Les Larmes Anderson Valley Pinot Noir.

Jack Creek Cellars
When you hear Paso Robles wine country, you think Zinfandel and Rhone varietals. But, the York Mountain area lies west in the Templeton Gap where maritime influence reaches far enough inland to produce cool microclimates and creates an ideal growing region for Pinot Noir. Foggy mornings, warm days and cooling afternoon breezes suit Pinot Noir just fine. Adelaida Cellars and its historic HMR Vineyard (planted in the early 1960s), and Windward Vineyard have produced some very credible Pinot Noirs from this region. Still others, including Bianchi Vineyards, Casa De Caballos Vineyards, Wild Horse Winery & Vineyards, and York Mountain Winery, have made Pinot Noir fanciers take note. The latest kid on the block is Jack Creek Cellars.

You won’t meet another couple who are more passionate about Pinot Noir than Doug and Sabrina Krause. Doug is a burly, lumberjack-like figure with a soft spot for Pinot Noir. He was in the grain feed business in Southern California and acquired enough financial resources to start his own winery. He sold his business and bought the front 75 acres of JRK Ranch located in Templeton, 7 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The site is located at the southern end of the Santa Lucia Mountain Range. In 1997, he planted 20 acres to Pinot Noir (115, 2A, Pommard), 4 acres to Chardonnay, and a little to Syrah. Recently, he has planted more Pinot Noir (Dijon 828 and 943) and more Syrah and Grenache.

The photo shows the new plantings from the winery’s pad.

The layout at Jack Creek Cellars and the Kruse Vineyard is dreamy. The gorgeous home sits on the top of the hill surrounded by vineyards and the modern winery and adjacent storage barn is tastefully positioned among the vineyards as well. Inside the winery, Doug has a comfy couch and a large TV (tuned to an NFL game on the day we visited).

Doug and Sabrina are totally immersed in their new lifestyle and eagerly travel the country to sell their wines. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that they have to service major accounts in Hawaii, Chicago and Scottsdale. Currently they produce about 1500 cases, primarily Pinot Noir with a little Chardonnay and Syrah. Eventually, they plan to reach 2500-3000 cases. They also sell some of their grapes to notable producers like Tony Craig at Sonnet Wines.

Doug is not shy in admitting he prefers a bigger style of Pinot Noir. He produces two Pinot Noirs: an estate bottling that is more traditional for California and a reserve bottle that is fat and opulent. He says that his customers are split - about half preferring the regular bottling and half relishing the reserve bottling. We tasted through his latest releases and also did some barrel tasting from the 2005 vintage of individual clones in both neutral and new oak. The winery and my three drinking partners on the trip are pictured.

Jack Creek Cellars is located at 5265 Jack Creek Road, Templeton, CA (just off Hwy 46, a short drive from Hwy 1 or Hwy 101). Tasting by appointment. The phone is 805-226-8283. Wine may be ordered on the website: www.jackcreekcellars.com. The Syrah is one big fruit bomb and deserves attention for those with a Rhone bent.

Half Moon Bay and Burrell School Winery

The second leg of our journey took us to Half Moon Bay on the coast, 30 miles south of San Francisco. We stopped on the way in the Santa Cruz Mountains to visit good friends Dave and Anne Mouton and Laura Ness at Burrell School Winery. Just a mile from the winery is a terrific gourmet food store, the Summit Market, where we loaded up on picnic rations and sat out on the tasting room deck (photo right) at Burrell School overlooking the vineyard on a glorious sunny day.

I have detailed the history of this winery in previous issues of the PinotFile. Dave and Anne Moulton bought an 1890 one-room schoolhouse on Summit Road at 1600 feet elevation in the Santa Cruz Mountains. They restored the schoolhouse and built their own living quarters adjacent. The original schoolhouse was used as a tasting room for a number of years, but it now has become the Moulton’s living room with the recent opening of a new tasting room. The tasting room is a very classy place to enjoy one of the many excellent wines made here.

On a blackboard behind the tasting bar is written the winery’s motto, “I Promise to Sip My Wine,” in many different languages.

Burrell School Vineyards & Winery is located at 24060 Summit Rd, Los Gatos, CA 95033. The phone is 408-353-6290. Wines may be ordered on the website at www.burrellschool.com. The tasting room is open Thursday through Sunday, 11:00 to 5:00 and by appointment. Laura Ness, who assists the Moultons with the operation of the winery, writes about the Santa Cruz Mountains wine scene for Appellation America and is an organizer of Pinot Paradise, March 24 and 25, 2007. For more information on Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, go to www.scmwa.com. Santa Cruz Mountains has its own Pinot Noir Wine Club, offering periodic shipment of a variety of Santa Cruz Mountains boutique Pinot Noirs (www.SantaCruzWineClub.com).

Half Moon Bay is the “Pumpkin Capital” of California with multiple pumpkin growers and an annual pumpkin festival. The one street town has plenty of boutiques that can keep women happy for hours.

For big spenders there is the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay, but I recommend The Beach House on Cabrillo Highway which sits smack on the Bay. We had the best meal of our trip on Halloween at Cetrella Restaurant. Wines of note were 2004 Varner Hidden Block Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir and 1990 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Echezeaux. (As a side note: Varner also makes some of the best Chardonnays in California. Production is tiny, prices are very sensible - around $28.)

Devil's Gulch and Marin County Pinots

By now our cars were bulging with pumpkins and various “deals” our wives accumulated, not to mention the multiple boxes of wine we were acquiring along the way. It was now off to the Russian River Valley, but not before stopping in Marin County to visit Mark and Myriam Pasternak at their Devil’s Gulch Ranch in Nicasio. Mark is a city boy (grew up in Southern California) who knew early on he wanted to be a farmer. He purchased Devil’s Gulch Ranch in the 1970s, built his own ranch house residence, and stocked the farm with rabbits (he raises them for Bay Area restaurants), pigs, horses, and various other livestock. This 75-acre diversified working ranch is a 45 minute drive north of San Francisco and is located in and surrounded by the pristine Golden Gate National Recreation Area. In 1980, Mark planted a few acres of Pinot Noir (Martini clone) and Chardonnay and sent the grapes to Schramsberg and Kalin Cellars to be used for sparkling wine. By 1991, he realized the grapes were good enough quality to make still Pinot Noir. Currently, his 20 acres of grapes still supply Schramsberg but are also sold for vineyard designate Pinot Noirs by Dutton-Goldfield and Sean Thackery. Over the years, Mark has become a highly-respected grape farmer and now farms or consults on practically every acre of Pinot Noir in Marin County (about 80 acres at present). His reputation may eventually overtake the much-beloved Grateful Dead in Marin County.

Mark cooked some of his delicious rabbit and we sat down to lunch with a lineup of practically every current Pinot Noir release in Marin County. The wines varied considerably in structure and taste, but they all had in common the wild and concentrated flavors and lively acidity for which Marin County is known. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Marin County Pinot Noirs are made in small quantities and hard to find, but the search is worth the trouble.

After lunch, Mark took us for a tour including his swimming hole. Every summer he runs the Devil's Gulch Ranch Summer Day Camp for kids 6-17 who have the opportunity to work with the animals and in the gardens, learn skills and crafts from the past, climb, hike, and swim and explore the neighboring Samuel P. Taylor State Park. Visit www.devilsgulchranch.com for details. The phone number is 415-662-1099. I can’t imagine a better way for city kids to experience farm life. Below is the Crew at the swimming hole with Mark in the center.

Russian River Valley

The end of our journey was the Russian River Valley and a home on the River a couple of miles from Healdsburg. The rental, Firefly Lodge, was a modern home with four bedrooms, a fully-equipped gourmet kitchen, and expansive decks that looked out on a serene river view. Wine Country Lodges (www.winecountrylodges.com) has several properties for small and larger groups in the area and I highly recommend them. The home was so comfortable, we ended up cooking dinner there two nights. Memorable wines included 2000 Domaine Serene Marc Bradford Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, 1998 Vincent Girardin Grands Echezeaux, 2003 WH Smith Maritime Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, 2002 Robert Stemmler Nugent Vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, and 2005 Miner Rosato (magnum).

Lynmar Winery
It was a rainy day when we arrived at Lynmar Winery on Frei Road in Sebastopol. The setting couldn’t have been more inviting. The winery’s new hospitality center has vistas of the Russian River Valley and surrounding vineyards from every viewpoint. The inside is very serene and relaxing. We had a marvelous lunch cooked by the Lynmar resident executive chef, Sandra Simile, accompanied by and perfectly matched with Lynmar wines.

Lynmar has been a reputable producer of Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley for many years. Recently the winery underwent a complete renovation with new caves and the construction of a tasteful hospitality center. The wines have always been good, but now seem even more refined under the direction of winemaker Hugh Chapelle (formerly Flowers), and consulting winemaker Paul Hobbs. At present, they offer two Pinot Noirs: a Russian River Valley blend, and the estate Quail Hill Vineyard designate. Hugh Chapelle told us they are planning to add a number of single vineyard Pinot Noirs to their portfolio in the coming years.

We preceded lunch with the:

Lynmar Winery is located at 3909 Frei Road, Sebastopol, CA 95472. The phone number is 707-829- 3374 (Ext 113 for ordering). The website is www.lynmarwinery.com. The Lynmar Experience, a pairing of food with Lynmar wines is available Friday-Monday, 11:00-4:00. Lynmar wines enjoy a wide retail distribution as well.

Pellegrini Family Vineyards

Bob Pellegrini is one of the wine patriarchs of the Russian River Valley. He has been involved with wine in one way or another his entire life and he can weave many fascinating tales about the wine business both during and after Prohibition. He talked to us about the days of Prohibition in San Francisco when grapes were delivered to markets and everyone in town (at least the Italians) had a small winery in their basement. He proudly displays photos of his family and their wine business on the wall of his tasting room.

Bob was fresh out of school and had taken a tour of Burgundy when he had the crazy idea of planting Pinot Noir on Olivet Road in the Russian River Valley. At the time, Pinot Noir vineyards were far and few between (Joe Rochioli first planted his East Block Pinot Noir in 1968). He started the Olivet Lane Vineyard in 1972 with the only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines available at the time and never looked back. Fortunately, he had a wine import business which kept him afloat as he developed his winegrowing business. He says today he was just naïve enough at the time to think it would work, but if he knew then what he knows today, he would have never done it. The Olivet Lane Vineyard is now one of California’s cherished heritage vineyards and continues to thrive on rootstock vulnerable to phylloxera.

The group tasted through Bob’s current Olivet Lane Pinot Noir releases as well as the Hamel Sonoma Coast Pinot Noirs made by Pellegrini Family winemaker Kevin Hamel. Bob (on the left, Kevin to the right) looks rather serious in this photo, but I assure you that Bob has a great sense of humor.

Pellegrini Family Vineyards is located at 4055 W Olivet Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. The tasting room is positioned next to barrel storage in the winery and very charming. It is open daily. The phone is 707-545-8680. The website is www.pellegrinivineyards.com. Pellegrini was featured in the PinotFile, Volume 5, Issue 22. The winery produces several other varietals which are also high quality including Chardonnay, Zinfandel and Carignan. Hamel Wines are sold through retail distribution (for example, the Wine Club in Santa Ana, CA, www.thewineclub.com). The phone number is 707-433-9055.

Freeman Vineyards & Winery and August West
We met up with winemaker Ed Kurtzman in the caves at Freeman Cellars and tasted through the lineup of 2005 Freeman Pinot Noirs ( bottled 3 months ago but will not be released until the Fall of 2007), and August West Pinot Noirs (recently bottled and to be released next year). This is an impressive facility that contains 6,000 sq ft of caves and houses 12,000 cases (300 barrels) of wine. In its original incarnation,

this facility was smaller and much less attractive and was the place where Williams Selyem made some of their first wines in 1986-1987. Up until last year, Kosta Browne leased space in this facility from Ken Freeman (they have since moved to Deerfield Ranch in Sonoma Valley). Freeman Cellars owners Ken and Akiko Freeman have spent their investment so far on much-needed wine-making equipment and technology and upgrading the facility. The cosmetic improvements are secondary at this point and are yet to come. We tasted with Ed in a corner of the caves (above right).

University of Massachusetts. He worked in a wine shop at the time and later moved to California to sell wine in the Bay Area. He quickly realized that he would rather make wine then sell it and went to Fresno State to obtain his degree in enology. His 16 years of winemaking experience include four harvests each at Bernardus, Chalone, Testerossa, and Freeman Cellars.

Ed says that 2005 was a perfect growing year for Pinot Noir, “THE Pinot year.” 2006, in contrast, was “The botrytis year,” which required special efforts in the vineyard and careful sorting in the winery after harvest. The 2005 Freeman Pinot Noirs have around 14% alcohol, lower than in the 2004 vintage. The 2004 Sonoma Coast wines were bigger and richer than the Russian River wines; in 2005 the roles were reversed, the Russian River wines being plumper. Generally the wines see about 40-45% new French oak from five different coopers.

All of the wines were tasted briefly and I came away with the general impression of consistency in style here with complex aromas and flavors, an unctuousness on the palate, finishes which leave a lasting impression, and all elements in proper harmony. Because they are so young and only recently bottled (you might call this infanticide), they are shy and reserved, but there is no mistaking their potential for greatness.

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Freeman Vineyards & Winery is located at 1300 Montgomery Road, Sebastopol, CA, 95471. The winery is not open to the public. Pinot Noirs are sold primarily through a mailing list and to restaurants. Production was 2200 cases in 2004 and about 3000 cases in 2005. The phone is 415-831-4756. Sign up for the mailing list at www.freemanwinery.com.

August West is a partnership formed in 2003 between winegrower Gary Franscioni, business man Howard Graham, and winemaker Ed Kurtzman. The name is from a Grateful Dead song, Wharfrat, in which August West is down and out and drinks a lot of “Burgundy.” The winemaking is essentially the same as for the Freeman wines, but the grapes come from different sources and only two coopers are used. In this, the second year for Graham Vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Ed made the wine in the “Michael Browne” style, that is natural yeasts, no punch downs during cold soak. It is the most muscular Pinot Noir Ed has ever made. Howard Graham loves Kosta Browne wines, so Ed decide to make the wine from Graham’s vineyard “like Michael.”

August West wines are available at fine restaurants and retail markets. There is a mailing list signup at www.augustwestwine.com. Prices hover around $50. The winery’s address is 1300 Montgomery Rd, Ste 2, Sebastopol, CA, 95472. The phone is 415-225-2891. Ed is also producing a small amount (120 cases) of Sandler (his middle name) Syrah from a cool vineyard in the Bennett Valley region of Santa Rosa. His model for this wine is the French producer, Guigal, and he patterns his winemaking after Guigal. He uses 100% whole cluster, striving for the aromatics, tannins, and structure of Guigal Syrahs. A very impressive wine that will surely become a cult favorite among Syrah fanciers. Ed will be selling it soon when he acquires a resale license.

The Last Day and the Sonoma Coast

On the last day of the trip, the Crew motored out to the Sonoma Coast. We picked up rations at the Fiesta Market in Sebastopol and the Wild Flour Bakery in Freestone. If you like great bread, and who doesn’t, Wild Flour is an oasis in the tiny town of Freestone. Wild Flour bread is made in a wood-fired brick oven with organic ingredients and just may be the best bread on the planet. The artisan loafs are baked each morning from Friday thru Monday and are often sold out by noon. Owner Jed Wallach is out front, offering bite-sized samples of each of his creations. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “Day trippers from all over the Bay Area drive to Freestone to sample Wallach’s creations.” The bakery is located 5 miles west of Sebastopol at 140 Bohemian Highway.

At Bodega Bay, we found a small beachhead called School House Beach. The parking lot was empty and the only picnickers were a flock of seagulls. A single, lonely picnic table welcomed us. We broke out the crusty bread, cheese, fruit, cold cuts and several bottles of wine, and like young kids on their first school outing, reveled in the great food, the views, and the camaraderie. We reminisced about the great wines we had drank this past week and how marvelous it is that wine can bring friends together for so many special times. I was reminded of a wine quip by Robert Farrar Capon: “With wine at hand, the good man concerns himself with drinking in all the natural delectabilities of wine: taste, color, bouquet; its manifold graces; the way it complements food and enhances conversation; and its sovereign power to turn evenings into occasions, to lift eating beyond nourishment to conviviality, and to bring the race, for a few hours at least, to that happy state where men are wise and women beautiful, and even one’s children begin to look promising.”

I leave you with a parting image: the Prince sitting at the picnic table, catching up on his reading and finishing a bottle of Half Moon Bay Red in a plastic cup. Life is good.