Thirsty Thursday—When the Vino is Pinot—More from Marin

Welcome back, winelovers. And grab a glass! Today’s what it’s all about around here—we’re gonna taste some vino.

It’s our first Thirsty Thursday. And just because I love the stuff so much, and because lately I’ve been enjoying some of the best I’ve ever encountered, we’re gonna taste Pinot Noir.

On Tuesday, I brought you to the historic (1881) Escalle Winery in Larkspur for the Marin County Pinot Festival. Presented by the Marin County Winegrowers Association, www.malt.org the tasting also featured artisan cheeses and other tasty morsels from Marin County family farms.

Today we’ll get to know some of the winemakers who’ve put Marin on the map as a premier source for primo Pinot. (It’s already on the map as the home of the Grateful Dead, among other things. Speaking of which, in my “Earth Day in Green Valley” podcast—Culinary Roundtable #12—that is indeed *the* Mickey Hart, reading an eco-poem and philosophizing.)

Back to Pinot. From my first taste, at the Thomas Fogarty table, www.fogartywinery.com I realized that these Marin Pinot growers were really on to something. Winemaker Nathan Kandler, whom I’d met at the Alsace Varietals Festival in Mendocino County (podcast coming soon!), started me off with an ‘06 barrel sample from the Corda Family Vineyard in the chilly Chileno Valley. (The conditions here along the northern Marin coast are so distinctive that the area might soon become its own AVA—American Viticultural Area—with vineyards on both sides of the Marin-Sonoma border.) Nathan described its “bright red fruits, Asian spices and orange peel.” The silken texture made it easy to love, and I could have kept my nose in the glass all evening if I didn’t have lots more to try.

Next up: Vision Cellars, www.visioncellars.com with an ’05 also from the Chileno Valley, but from a 30-year-old mountaintop vineyard with the “oldest, gnarliest vines around,” as pourer Dale described it. Lush, velvety, lots of spice and a long, smooth finish.

At the Pey-Marin table, www.marinwines.com I reconnected with longtime friend Susan Pey, who poured me the newly released (bottled only two weeks earlier!) ’05 Pinot from Trois Filles Vineyard. (She and husband Jonathan have three young daughters, hence the name.) I found it seamless, soft, very complex and very generous. If flavors were colors, it would have been a kaleidoscope in my mouth. Later, when I met up with winemaker Jonathan, he compared it to Catherine Deneuve, with the focus on elegance, finesse and nuance. (That’s Susan and Jonathan in the foto.)

He also gave me the inside track on why Marin County may be California’s absolute best growing area for Pinot Noir. It’s all about “hang time,” with an extremely long growing season and the cool maritime influences that let the grapes ripen slowly. (See Tuesday’s post.) And here, unlike some better-known Pinot-growing areas, the flavor compounds in the grapes actually develop before the sugars, ultimately yielding complex wines with significantly lower alcohol.

I’m going to save some for next time, when I’ll introduce you to a couple of legends: Dan Goldfield (who made the first “still” (non-sparkling) Pinot in Marin), www.duttongoldfield.com and the multifaceted, multilingual Sean Thackrey. www.wine-maker.net

Dan and I get into food pairing with Pinot. (Hot-smoked salmon and risotto with porcini and truffle oil, anyone?) Sean and I talk about everything from Mark Twain and the music of Richard Wagner* to astronomy (he names his wines for celestial objects such as Orion (constellation), Andromeda (galaxy), Sirius (star), Pleiades (asterism—it’s part of the constellation Taurus; it’s often dubbed “The Seven Sisters,” and it’s “Subaru” in Japanese—just check the car logo. Sean sees it as a grape cluster.).

We’ll also talk oysters with Steve “Rowdy” Doughty of Point Reyes Vineyards, www.ptreyesvineyardinn.com/Winery who makes some wonderful Pinot-based bubbly in addition to the red kind. (Drakes Bay Oyster Farm http://drakesbayfamilyfarms.com/ is right near his winery. That’s on our must-taste itinerary too.)

I’ll bring you back to the tasting when my Marin Pinot Festival podcast is ready to go. That way, we can all sip something from Marin (the winery websites make ordering easy) while we’re listening in.

Tomorrow, in our first FoodPairing Friday, we’ll celebrate the first edition of Rosina’s WineWeek. We’re having lobster. Yum! I’m salivating as I type.

What are we drinking? I think I’ll surprise you. Just expect the unexpected, and also expect some you-heard-about-it-first-right-here tricks for tweaking the pairings.

Cheers for now,
Rosina

*Old joke. Answer: "9W." Question: “Do you spell your name with a 'V,' Herr Wagner?"
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson