Many Exceptional Pinot Noirs Reviewed

California Pinot Noir enthusiasts might want to stock up on 2013 and 2014 vintage releases as quantities of premium California Pinot Noir from the 2015 vintage will be significantly reduced. The final California Grape Crush Report 2015 from the California Agricultural Statistics Service revealed that overall wine grape tonnage was down 7 percent compared to 2014, with red wine varieties down 5 percent from 2014. Yields of Coastal Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were particularly affected because of poor weather during bloom. Sonoma County Pinot Noir was down 36 percent off of the five-year average and Sonoma Chardonnay was down 27 percent according to Brian Clements of Turrentine Brokerage. Total tons of Pinot Noir crushed in 2015 was 184,969 compared to 246,905 in 2014. Average Brix crushed was 25.0 in 2015 compared to 24.7 in 2014.

Oregon was more fortunate in 2015, with the Pinot Noir harvest delivering exceptional quality and higher than normal yields. Warm winter weather persisted throughout the spring and summer, with harvest starting about August 26, making the 2015 harvest one of the earliest on record in Oregon.

The California offerings reviewed here span the state from Mendocino County in the North to Santa Barbara County in the South, running the gamut in price from $8.99 to $120. The Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs reviewed in this issue range from $15.99 to $150.

CALIFORNIA

Black Kite Cellars, Anderson Valley (Estate Vineyard), California

Angel Hawk Pinot Noir is a reserve wine only produced in the best vintages. The most age worthy barrels are selected from the three estate vineyard blocks after the first 10-11 months of barrel aging. The wine in these barrels is then blended and returned to oak barrels for a total of 22-24 months of barrel aging.

George Wine Company, Healdsburg, California

Read the full store about George Levkoff here: www.princeofpinot.com/article/1469/. George got a bit off track with these 2014 vintage wines in that are atypical in style for George Pinot. They are higher in alcohol, more extracted and exhibit more oak overlay than is usual with George Pinot. Still, George Pinot is so popular that the 2014 vintage is sold out.

Goldeneye, Hopland and Philo, California

Winemaker Michael Fay took over the helm at Goldeneye in 2012, inheriting a diverse Anderson Valley estate program with 24 different clones of Pinot Noir and 69 distinct clone and rootstock combinations. In the 2013 vintage, Michael experimented with different canopy techniques on certain clones so the grapes could be picked earlier and at a slightly lower Brix. Most of the estate blocks were picked at two different times to build diversity in Brix and acidity levels. In the winery, new oak was dialed back ever so slightly on most wines, and some native yeast fermentation was added. Less saignée was done to accentuate the juicy mouthfeel of the wines. I could sense a subtle difference in the 2013 Goldeneye Pinot Noirs and embraced the winemaking direction.

Helen Grace Wines, Napa, California

Peter Colabuono worked with Paul Lato during the 2014 and 2015 vintages where he fell in love with Central Coast Pinot Noir. He crafted a small lot of Sangiacomo Pinot Noir in 2014 in an “unadulterated, minimalist, all free run, 25% oak-aged Pinot Noir.” No website.

Kutch Wines, Sonoma, California

For complete winery information: www.princeofpinot.com/article/1618/. I was curious why Jamie chose to use no new French oak on the 2014 Pinot Noir wines. In essence, he feels he can build structure and seasoning in the wines with stems instead of oak. Here is what he told me. “New oak can overtake a wine overshadowing the terroir. A new oak barrels is not part of the original terroir, but stems are a part of the terroir as a part of the plant itself. Falstaff Vineyard stems taste more stemmy than McDougall’s stems and that is the signature of the terroir. Stems are obviously wood and add tannin, but that wood or tannin is integrated during fermentation, not after the wine is made as happens when aging wine in new oak. In 2014 and 2015, I completely removed any new oak from my wines for this reason. I don’t need the additional structure from new oak.....Stems can take a wine to heights that are not achievable without using stems. Stems broaden the shoulders of a wine. I have experimented multiple times in multiple vintages with multiple vineyards and always found complexity goes up considerably when a de-stemmed wine is compared to a 100% whole cluster wine. For my style and my hands and my vineyards, I find de-stemmed Pinot Noir to be inferior.”

Land of Promise, Petaluma, California

Charles and Diana Karren own a distinguished vineyard in the Petaluma Gap region of the Sonoma Coast named Terra de Promissio. The name reflects the family owners who are immigrants pursuing the American dream. Both Charles and Diana were born, lived and worked overseas before pooling their life savings in 1999 to buy diary land in Petaluma in what was virgin territory for wine grape growing. They planted the first 32 acres of Pinot Noir (clones 115 and 777) in 2002 and then ran out of money. With their last dollars, they bought a tractor and lived on site in a used house trailer, and brought Diana’s parents and Diana’s sister over from Russia to help farm the newly planted vineyard. The project is a true family run operation, with all members of the family contributing to the management of the vineyard on a day-to-day basis, with each of the vineyard rows and blocks custom farmed according to each winemaker’s preferences. Eventually, Charles and Diana were able to convert a barn on the property into a home and in 2012 and 2013 planted an additional 18 acres of Pinot Noir (clones 943, 97 and Calera). In 2015, the vineyard’s eleventh harvest, they sold grapes to 13 wineries, many of which were vineyard designated including Pinot Noir from Domaine Della, Kosta Browne, Whetstone and Williams Selyem.

Diana and her mother oversee the making of the Land of Promise wine which was first released with the 2013 vintage. The inaugural wine is sold on the website at www.landofpromisewine.com.

Masút Vineyard and Winery, Redwood Valley, California

Brothers Jake and Ben Fetzer grew up in the vineyards of Mendocino County where their grandparents, Barney and Kathleen Fetzer established Fetzer Vineyards in 1968. In the early 1990s, the Fetzer brand was acquired by Brown Forman, and second generation vintner Robert Fetzer bought a 1,200-acre property in 1994 and named it Masút, a Native American word meaning “dark, rich earth.” He envisioned a place where he would be able to grow Pinot Noir. Planting began at Masút in 1997 and many wineries began to see the potential of the site. Unfortunately, Jake and Ben’s father passed away in a rafting accident in 2006. The brothers became determined to move forward in his honor. A barn on the property was converted into a winery and the brothers released the first vintage of Masút Pinot Noir 2011. The brothers spearheaded a petition for a new AVA called Eagle Peak Mendocino County that has been approved.

There are 19 distinct blocks of predominantly Pinot Noir planted among 40 acres of rugged, sloped terrain with elevations varying from 800 to 200 feet. Pinot Noir clones include Dijon 113, 115, and 777, and UCD 23, Mt. Eden, and “La Tache.”

Peter Paul Wines, Santa Rosa, California

Peter T. Paul founded Peter Paul Wines after buying the former Grove Street Winery in Healdsburg. Daniel Moore of M2 Wine Consultants crafts the wines. The winery’s focus is Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines are sold on the website at www.peterpaulwines.com.

ROAR Wines, Santa Lucia Highlands/San Francisco, California

The grapes for the ROAR wines are from premier vineyards of the Santa Lucia Highlands, including the Rosella’s, Garys’, and Sierra Mar vineyards owned and farmed by the Franscioni family. The wines are crafted in the ROAR winery in San Francisco and are available through the winery’s website at www.ROARWINES.com and through distribution in select markets nationally.

Saxon Brown, Santa Rosa, California

Owner and winemaker, Jeff Gaffner, has many longstanding grower relationship that he developed over time as a consulting winemaker. He began his career at Chateau St. Jean under the tutelage of vintner Richard Arrowwood, and since has been a winemaker for many artisan labels including Ram’s Gate Winery and Black Kite Cellars. The Saxon Brown label focuses on small lots of vineyard-designated Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from special vineyard sites in Sonoma County, Carneros, Anderson Valley and the Santa Lucia Highlands. The Saxon Brown wines, less than 2500 cases annually, are allocated to mailing list customers at www.saxonbrown.com, with some retail and restaurant distribution in select markets nationally. The wines reviewed here are new spring releases.

Sedition Wine, Sonoma County, California

Sedition is a family owned boutique winery showcasing the terroir of the Green Valley of Russian River Valley. Co-founder and winemaker Josh Bartels has spent ten years as an assistant winemaker at Kokomo Winery where he crafted wines from all over Sonoma County. The second founder, Jigar Patel, met Josh while the two were students attending Purdue University over twenty years ago. This first release from Sedition Wines is composed of grapes from Chenoweth Vineyards and Graham Family Vineyards. The inaugural wine is available by allocation through the mailing list at www.seditionwine.com. Tasting is available in downtown Forestville at Jigar Wines.

Tessier Winery, San Fancisco Bay, California

Owner and winemaker Kristie Tacey has been crafting small lots of Pinot Noir from special vineyards in the Russian River Valley and Santa Cruz Mountains since 2009. Her wines are available through the winery website at www.tessierwinery.com.

Tongue Dancer Wines, Healdsburg, California

Tongue Dancer Wines is a new project created by winemaker James MacPhail and “Knowledgeable One” Kerry Forbes-MacPhail. The label is modest in size and scope meant to satisfy James’ cravings for winemaking creativity. The name illustrates James’ style of crafting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that have mouthfeel, that is, wines that are meant to “dance on the tongue.” The label art is a nod to intellectual whimsy. Next year, a Tongue Dancer Russian River Valley Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay and Tongue Dancer Putnam Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir will be introduced. Visit www.tonguedancerwines.com.

Waxwing Wine Cellars, Belmont, California

For full winery information: www.princeofpinot.com/article/1470/. Winemaker and proprietor Scott Sisemore is a one-man show and now up to producing nearly 1,000 cases annually. It has taken him two years, but he finally has his Belmont winery up to his standards.

Wren Hop Vineyards, Windsor, California

Wren Hop Pinot Noir is stylistically unique for its full-bodied, luscious fruit flavors, and character imparted by aging in 100% new French oak. This is a family winery run by partners James McDonough and his father James McDonough, Sr. James and his spouse Jennifer bought a 10-acre Russian River Valley property in 2008 including a 6-acre vineyard named Wren Hop after the resident birds. The first release was from the 2009 vintage. The winemaker is Russell Bevan. Each wine has a unique and provocative name. The wines are sold through the winery’s online store and via a mailing list at www.wrenhop.com.

More Wines

WILLIAMETTE VALLEY

Anam Cara Cellars, Sherwood, Oregon

CARDEN Cellars, Gaston, Oregon

James Carney moved to Oregon in the early 1980s to study at the University of Oregon and soon became enamored with Oregon Pinot Noir. Nearly 20 years later he partnered with one of his friends and fellow wine lover Susan Weeden to start Carden Cellars. The winemaker is noted Oregon veteran Tony Rynders. The wine is sold on the winery website at www.cardencellars.com.

Cristom Vineyards, Salem, Oregon

Read about one of Oregon’s most cherished wineries: www.princeofpinot.com/winery/142/.

Mouton Noir Wines, Dundee, Oregon

This winery was founded by French Laundry and Per Se sommelier André Hueston Mack in 2007. The wines were originally created for some of New York’s best restaurants and are now available nationwide. The wines offer clever, irreverent names including the wine reviewed here.

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Byron Introduces Single-Vineyard Wines

Inspired by innovative vintner Uriel Nielson, the first to plant a commercial vineyard in Santa Barbara County in 1964, Byron returns to its roots with a focus on limited production, single vineyard Pinot Noir, while continuing to make wines that feature Santa Barbara’s coastal AVAs under the Nielson label, including Santa Maria Valley, Sta. Rita Hills and the broader Santa Barbara County AVA. Byron Winery, located in Santa Maria, was one of Santa Barbara’s pioneering wineries, but in recent years has shifted its focus away from vineyard designated wines.

The 2013 vintage of Byron wines marks a return to single vineyard Pinot Noirs including releases from Nielson Vineyard, Julia’s Vineyard, Sierra Madre Vineyard, and Monument Vineyard, all in the Santa Maria Valley AVA. Future releases will offer Pinot Noir from the John Sebastiano, Rita’s Crown and La Encantada vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills and Chardonnay from the Nielson and Bien Nacido vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley. The new wines will be available primarily through the winery mailing list and website at www.byronwines.com, with limited distribution nationally to select wine retailers and restaurants.

Director of Winemaking for Byron Winery, Jonathan Nagy (pictured below), grew up in Santa Barbara County, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from University of California at Davis. After graduation, his initial winemaking experience was at Cambria Winery, later followed by an assistant winemaker position in 2001 at Byron Winery under pioneering Santa Barbara vintner, Ken Brown. In 2003, Jonathan became the Director of Winemaking at Byron Winery. He lives in Santa Maria with his spouse Clarissa, who is also a winemaker.

Byron offers public and private tastings daily at a newly remodeled tasting room in downtown Los Olivos.

The new Byron vineyard designated wines are vinified differently depending on site. The grapes are either crushed whole cluster, 33% de-stemmed or fully de-stemmed into a variety of vessels from oak barrels and one-half ton bins up to 6-ton tanks. Most lots are inoculated and punched down twice daily. The wines are age on the lees in a French oak barrels from several cooperages. On average, Byron Pinot Noir is aged for 16 months in barrel and 12 months in bottle before release.

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The Legacy of Burt Williams & Williams & Selyem Pinot Noir Keeps on Giving

Burt Williams had an extraordinary intuition for crafting Pinot Noir. He was enamored with wine by his late teens, bought his first case of wine, a Pedroncelli Zinfandel at the age of 20, and made his first wine in 1964 at the age of 24 at his house in Forestville. The location of the house in “Hacienda Del Rio,” would grace the label of the first wines Williams crafted with neighbor, friend, partner and fellow winemaker Ed Selyem.

Williams enjoyed Russian River Valley Zinfandel, and although he dabbled in Burgundy and was attracted to it, he considered it too expensive. In fact, the escalating cost of Burgundy was one of the reasons he and Ed Selyem decided to start their own winery. They never set out to make a splash or become rich, but rather wanted to make good Pinot Noir they could drink at home. Burt would recall, “I had no big plan. I wanted to buy grapes and turn them into good wine. We weren’t trying to conquer the world or make millions of dollars. We were trying to make the best wine we could and enjoy it ourselves. If enough was left over, we could sell it. We never imagined that we would become a cult winery capable of selling everything we made.”

When Burt and Ed started out in 1979, consistently fine California Pinot Noir was nowhere to be found. Blessed with a superb palate and possessing a self-taught keen understanding of how Pinot Noir should be crafted, Williams realized there was a place for world-class Pinot Noir in California, a “niche” for something that no one had ever done before. Williams read every book on wine and winemaking he could get his hands on and visited many local Russian River Valley winemakers who offered practical advice and encouragement. Burt attended many Burgundy tastings in the Bay Area, but never set foot in Burgundy because of his admitted reluctance to fly.

The Williams Selyem Pinot Noirs had a powerful charisma that turned on many devoted followers. A customer wrote, “Please hurry up with your next release because I missed the last one and my friends have stopped coming over.” The quirky garagiste origins of the wines added to their mystique with their scarcity contributing to the appeal, but the truth was these were flat-out some of the greatest California Pinot Noirs of their time. The wines even appeared on restaurant lists in Burgundy!

Williams was forever humbled by the public’s attraction to his wines. He was encouraged that consumers enjoyed his wines, but was more concerned with making wines that pleased himself.

The Williams Selyem Pinot Noirs were charming and complex when young, but they would turn out to age better than many California Pinot Noirs crafted at the time. People thought that they were so delicious when young, they couldn’t possibly age. Their age ability has proven itself over time, in part due to moderate alcohols and well-honed acidity, as well as impeccable balance. Balance was very important to Williams who explained, “Wine needs to be transparent and to be transparent, it must be balanced. Over ripe, over blown wines do not reflect the site.”

Williams Selyem was sold in 1998 and Burt was asked to consult for a few years after the sale, but he could never put his heart in it and soon left permanently. The last vintage he vinified at Williams Selyem was 1997. After the winery was sold, Burt bought a 40-acre property in Anderson Valley and planted 13 acres of Pinot Noir at what was named Morning Dew Ranch. He crafted two vintages from this vineyard, 2008 and 2009, and then retired completely from winemaking.

Ed Selyem was an equal partner in Williams Selyem and although he did much of the business accounting and management, and came up with the idea of allocating the wines through a mailing list, he was also involved in the winemaking. Since selling the winery, he has shunned the limelight and press, and cherished his retirement.

Fortunately, the wines of Williams Selyem have continued to offer remarkable longevity, and well-cellared examples are still drinking beautifully. The legacy continues.

Recently I had the good fortune to drink two older vintages of Williams Selyem Pinot Noir: 1993 Williams Selyem Cohn Vineyard Sonoma County Pinot Noir and 1995 Williams Selyem Allen Vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.

Cohn Vineyard, now an estate vineyard of Benovia Winery, entered Burt’s radar through a winemaker friend at Hop Kiln Winery that was sourcing grapes from Cohn Vineyard beginning in 1981. When the Hop Kiln Winery contract expired in 1987, Williams Selyem began sourcing grapes from Cohn Vineyard, usually blending them into the Russian River Valley and Sonoma County bottlings. A vineyard designated Cohn Vineyard Pinot Noir was produced in only two vintages: 1988 and 1993. Burt dropped the vineyard in 1995 when owner Arne Cohn put in drip irrigation and over-watered the vineyard.

I was able to acquire a pristine bottle of 1993 Cohn Vineyard Pinot Noir from a collector and recently shared it with winemakers Michael Sullivan of Benovia Winery and Rod Berglund of Joseph Swan Vineyards. The wine had astonishing freshness and color, infused with aromas of incense, spice, Bing cherry and rose petal that held up for an hour while the bottle was consumed. Tasted blind, it would have been impossible to identify this wine as 23 years old. The balance was impeccable, the oak thoroughly immersed, and the tannins gossamer in nature. It was without doubt one of the greatest, if not the greatest, old California Pinot Noir I have ever tasted in over 40 years of tasting Pinot Noir.

Grape sources were critical for the success of Williams Selyem and Allen Vineyard become one of the cornerstone sources of Pinot Noir for the winery. Since Burt and Ed had spent a significant part of their lives in the Russian River Valley, they knew where the good vineyards were located. In 1987, Joe Rochioli introduced Burt and Ed to Howard Allen who owned a vineyard farmed by Joe Rochioli that was located directly across from Rochioli Vineyard on Westside Road. Not every vineyard met Williams Selyem’s high standards and only the best were deemed able to stand on their own as a vineyard designate. Allen Vineyard was consistently one of the favored vineyards in the Williams Selyem vineyard designate program.

The 1995 Williams Selyem Allen Vineyard Pinot Noir that I opened recently was a delight. The color had turned a brickish red and was hazy (unfiltered). Upon opening, aromas of spice, leather, woodland and cherry zoomed from the glass, but faded over time. The wine was still fascinating to drink, offering ever changing nuances of flavor including cherry, strawberry, orange-infused cranberry, orange pekoe tea, and brown spice. At 13.7% alcohol, the wine was easy to drink, with resolved tannins and a sappy richness still persisting on a surprisingly long finish. Not epiphanic like the Cohn bottling, but still engaging.

More examples of aged Williams Selyem Pinot Noir were reviewed in 2014 here: www.princeofpinot.com/ article/1487/.

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Pinot Briefs

Pinot Noir New Zealand 2017 Acclaimed “I’ll Drink to That!” United States podcaster Levi Dalton will join noted British wine writer Jancis Robinson, MW, eminent wine and sake expert Ken Ohashi, MW, and Grammy Award-winning Tool frontman and winemaker Maynard James Keenan from Arizona in the US, as key note speakers. Registration for Pinot Noir NZ 2017 is now open at www.pinotnz.co.nz.

Wally's All-Stars Wine Tasting 2016 The 6th Annual Napa and Sonoma All-Stars Tasting will be held at The Olympic Collection in Los Angeles on Sunday, April 17, 2016. Taste nearly 150 of some of the most highly-respect wine producers in California with many of the principals and winemakers attending. Pinot Noir specialists that will be pouring include Balo Vineyards, Black Kite Cellars, Castalia, DuMol, EnRoute, Eric Kent, Etude, Flowers, Goldeneye, Hanzell, Hartford Court, LOLA Wines, MacMurray Ranch, Merry Edwards, Morlet Family Vineyards, Patz & Hall, Ram's Gate Winery, Robert Sinskey, Saxon Brown, Twomey Cellars, WALT Wines and Wayfarer. Tickets are $75 in advance at www.wallywine.com or call 310-475-0606.

The International Chardonnay Symposium Wente Family will be honored at this year’s International Chardonnay Symposium to be held in Pismo Beach, CA, May 12-14, 2016. Wente Family Estates will receive the first Legendary Family of Chardonnay Award. The Wente family story began in 1883 when first generation C.H. Wente planted 47 acres in the Livermore Valley that quickly grew to 200 acres before Prohibition. His sons, Ernest and Herman, took over the family business after Prohibition, and developed the Wente Chardonnay clone that transformed California’s Chardonnay wine landscape. Today, 80% of Chardonnay grown in California is derived from the Wente clone. This year the Wente family celebrates the 80th anniversary of bottling the nation’s first varietally-labeled Chardonnay, a 1936 vintage. Wente Family Estates continues to release award-winning wines from their vineyards in Livermore Valley, San Francisco Bay and Arroyo Seco appellations. The Symposium is also hosting a panel titled, “Wente Clone Comparative Tasting,” that will explore the Wente clone planted at various sites. To purchase tickets, visit www.TheChardonnaySymposium.com.

Foley Food & Wine Society Orange County Event The Foley Food & Wine Society has planned an event at Orange County, California’s Lyon Air Museum on April 9, 2016. Tapas will be offered to accompany spring releases and other wines in the Foley Estates portfolio. Winemakers from Foley Estates and Lincourt, Chalk Hill Estates and Roth Estates will be present. 25% off all wines the day of the event. Profits from the event benefit the Folded Flag Foundation and Dream Foundation. For tickets $150 per person), visit www.foleyfoodandwinesociety.com.

40th Anniversary of the Judgment of Paris in Sonoma County The three days of the Russian River Valley Barrel Auction will kick off with a recognition of Helen Bacigalupi as one of four Sonoma County Icons for her part in shaping the heritage of Sonoma County winemaking. Bacigalupi Vineyards will join four other Russian River Valley vintners in producing The Judgment of Paris 40th Anniversary Barrel during the Sonoma County Vintner’s Annual Barrel Auction. This never before and never again barrel is composed of lots of Chardonnay from the original Wente clone plantings at Bacigalupi Vineyards. The Return to Paris Tasting will be held Saturday, April 30, 2016, at Bacigalupi Vineyards, offering a tasting of current vintage French burgundies and California wines that emulate the wines tasted in 1976 along with a BBQ lunch. A forum of guest speakers (including me) will discuss the influence of Sonoma County farming on the winning Chardonnay and the Judgment of Paris’ affect on the California wine industry. This event coincides with the 60th anniversary of the planting of the historic Bacigalupi vineyard. The tasting is sold out, but tickets to the BBQ are still available: visit www.bacigalupivineyards.com. The photo below shows a young Charles and Helen Bacigalupi.

West of West San Francisco West Sonoma Coast Vintners present the West of West SF Wine Festival on May 19, 2016, to be held at the Golden Gate Club of the Presidio in San Francisco. VIP Library Tasting and Barrel Tasting will be held from 5:00-6:00 p.m. ($120) and the Consumer Grand Tasting will be from 6:00-8:30 p.m. ($80). There will be 34 participating West Sonoma Coast Vintners member wineries pouring Pinot Noir, Syrah and Chardonnay. For information and tickets, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Pinot, Pigs & Poets Event The Pinot, Pigs & Poets Committee, in collaboration with the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, has announced the 7th Annual Pinot, Pigs & Poets to be held at Happy Hollow Club on June 2, 2016. All proceeds benefit the Completely KIDS weekend and after-school food programs. The event features outstanding Pinot Noir wines and savory pork dishes from renowned Omaha chefs as well as slam poetry and vintner and chef competitions. Participating wineries include Adelsheim, Beaux Freres, Big Table Farm, Domaine Serene, Failla, FEL, Loring Wine Company, Pali Wine Co., Ponzi Vineyards, Reuling Vineyard, Small Vines, Talbott Vineyards and Williams Selyem. Reservations are available at www.pinotandpigs.org.

Sta. Rita Hills Winegrowers Road Trip to Southern California Members of the Sta. Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance will be returning to the Marriott Marquis and Marina Kitchen in San Diego for an afternoon of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and BBQ. The Bottles and BBQ public event begins at 4:00 p.m. Tickets on sale at www.eventbrite.com.

Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival The 19th Annual Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival will be held May 20-22, 2016. Respected industry experts will speak at Friday’s Technical Conference (I will be the emcee for this Conference) followed by a Casual BBQ at Pennyroyal Farm. The Grand Tasting will be held the following day at Goldeneye Winery from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.. Local wineries will have open houses on Sunday. Accommodations are limited in the Anderson Valley so arrange now to stay in the Anderson Valley, Mendocino Coast (a 45 minute drive), or Cloverdale (a 60 minute drive). This event always sells out. Tickets are available at www.avwines.com.

California Wine Festival The 7th Annual California Wine Festival will be held in Dana Point, Orange County, California April 15-16, 2016. The California Wine Festival has partnered with the Surfrider Foundation as the beneficiary of the proceeds of this event. A Sunset Rare & Reserve Wine Tasting and Silent Auction on Friday, April 15 at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa will offer large format bottles, hand made surfboards, wine country adventures and more. A Beachside Wine Festival will be held on Saturday, April 16, at Lantern Bay Park offering tasting of wines, microbrews, and gourmet food samples. For tickets, visit www.californiawinefestival.com.

Flavors of Carlton On May 7, 2016, Yamhill Carlton Together Cares presents the 13th Annual Flavors of Carlton at Ken Wright Cellars Winery in downtown Carlton. The evening begins in the barrel room of Ken Wright Cellars with wine, hors d’oeuvres and a silent auction. Dinner follows in the big tent featuring offerings from 10 regionally renowned chefs with pairings of wine from 20 Yamhill County wineries. The evening will climax with a live auction of rare wine, original art, spectacular travel packages and one-of-a-kind items. Tickets are $100 and include dinner, wine and a commemorative wine glass. For information and tickets, visit www.yctogethercares.com. Yamhill Carlton Together Cares, Inc. is a non profit organization dedicated to providing programs for local youth and families in Carlton and Yamhill.

Banquet: Wine from America’s Best Merchants The people who launched Delectable four years ago have created an app - Banquet - that allows consumers to shop over 20,000+ bottles of wine from top independent wine stores and boutique wineries using their iPhone. Visit www.itunes.apple.com or www.shopbanquet.com.

Zena Crown Winery Debuts Zena Crown Winery debuted its four 2013 Pinot Noirs for the media and trade on March 31, 2016, in Salem, Oregon. Winemaker Shane Moore has worked with well-known Oregon winemaker Tony Rynders for the past few years to craft the Zena Crown Winery Pinot Noirs. They are sourcing various blocks throughout the 250-acre Zena Crown Vineyard that is located at the southern end of the Eola- Amity Hills AVA in the Willamette Valley, surrounded by the estates of Bethel Heights Vineyard, Cristom and St. Innocent Winery. The vineyard has proven to be a premier growing site for Pinot Noir and has supplied grapes to several celebrated producers in the Willamette Valley including Beaux Freres, Penner-Ash and Soter. Jackson Family Wines bought the Zena Crown Vineyard in the spring of 2013 increasing its vineyard holdings in the Willamette Valley to 440 acres. Look for the public release of these wines this year.

Domaine Serene Guaranteed Cork (DSGC) Domaine Serene President, Ryan Harris, announced a zero-tolerance policy against TCA and other forms of cork taint for all Domaine Serene wines starting with the release of the 2014 “r” Rose in February, 2016. DSGC assurance positions Domaine Serene as the world’s first winery to extend a comprehensive guarantee of taint-free natural cork closures to consumers and trade customers, regardless of where or when the wine was consumed. The higher cost associated with these rigorous new testing protocols will not be passed along as increased prices to consumers. In related news, at this year’s Unified Grape Symposium, Amorim and M.A. Silva presented natural cork products that guarantee each individual cork has been inspected for TCA. Cork inspection is moving from testing batches of corks to testing each cork individually and the technique is good enough that the cork companies will certify the results. Corticera Amorim is based in Portugal and is the largest producer of cork products in the world. Amorin’s NDTech is a quality control system using gas chromatography and solid phase micro-extraction to test each individual cork for TCA, insuring that if it remains present, is below the detection threshold of 0.5 nongrams per liter. M.A Silva is also automatically inspecting each individual cork for TCA using gas-phase spectrosopy and is standing behind the results.

Wine Glass Transport How many times have you been to restaurants and wished you had proper stemware for the cherished Pinot Noir or Burgundy you brought? How often have you thought about bringing your own stemware to a tasting but lacked a proper carrying case? Wine Glass Transport offers an elegant wine glass travel case made of solid Beechwood with a leather handle that containa two padded pouches perfectly sized for Riedel’s Sommeliers Burgundy glass or other fine glassware. Smaller glasses of almost any size can also be protected. This is the ultimate Pinot geek accessory. The case is priced at $65 at www.wineglasstransport.com.

Wine & Spirits Restaurant Poll 250 restaurants participated in the 27th Annual Restaurant Poll. The results indicate a continued surge in popularity of Pinot Noir over the last decade. California Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir continue to dominate by-the-glass pours. Meiomi California Pinot Noir was the #1 by-the-glass restaurant pour with an average price of $14. Other Pinot Noirs in the top 30 in order of popularity included Copain Tour Ensemble Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, Sandhi Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir, Domaine Eden Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, Sonoma Cutrer Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Bench Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, DeLoach Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Laetitia Arroyo Grande Valley Pinot Noir, andElk Cove Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. The most popular Top 50 wines in America’s restaurants from wineries that produce Pinot Noir were Cakebread Cellars (#1), Merry Edwards (#3), Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards (#16), Cristom Vineyards (#23), Kistler Vineyards (#25), La Crema (#27), Flowers (#28), Argyle (#29), Frank Family (#32), Calera (#24), Ferrari-Carano (#37), Mark West (#45) and Soter Vineyards (#48). The average restaurant price of Pinot Noir has increased from $39 in 1994 to $76 in 2015.

By The Numbers Oregon Wine Press reported in their 2016 Oregon Wine Almanac the following stats for Oregon as of the end of 2014. 1,027 vineyards (591 in the North Willamette Valley), 27,390 acres planted (16,545 in the North Willamette Valley), 676 wineries (440 in the North Willamette Valley. Total tons harvested in 2014 by variety: Pinot Noir - 45,239, Pinot Gris - 13,701, Chardonnay - 3,972 and Riesling - 2,194.

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Book Review: American Wino

Dan Dunn, former Playboy magazine nightlife columnist who wrote mainly about beer and spirits for two decades, knew little about wine when the confluence of personal life crises and a desire to learn about wine led him to hit the road in his FJ Cruiser on a seven-month,15,000-mile journey to practically every wine region in the United States. Dunn’s live-in girlfriend had abandoned him, his beloved dog, Piglet, had succumbed to cancer, and his brother had committed suicide. In addition, he had become disenchanted with living in Los Angeles, what he termed, “A gorgeously fucked-up bubble.” This humorous travelogue turns out to be one of personal discovery, a way for Dunn to free himself of sadness, or as Dunn notes, “A tale of a man drinking himself to life.”

Dunn admits, “I’ve spent most of what some people charitably call ‘a career’ writing about booze....not so much a job that you get as a job that you get away with.” For years he had “bullshitted” his way through wine tastings and learned how to fake a knowledgeable grasp of wine (“what the trade calls Speaking from the Rectum”). He decided to educate himself about wine by visiting well known winery states as well as places in the United States that you would never think made wine, such as Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia and Vermont.

The trip would begin in Venice, California, and culminate at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival in Northern California where he would recount his travels as a keynote speaker. Through a haze of freeloading, drinking, womanizing, and a stream of expletives, the downtrodden Dunn shares some useful wine production basics, wine terminology and insights, albeit in a cynical tone. For example, the term “complex,” when used to describe a wine, is translated by Dunn to, “I actually have no clue what I’m fucking tasting.”

After reading this book, I did not learn a thing about wine that I did not already know, but I laughed out loud at many junctures about experiences only wine insiders would muse over, and overall was thoroughly entertained.

American Wino, Dan Dunn, William Morrow Publishers, paperback, 338 pages, 2016, $16.99.