Monday Mix—Wine Judging—The Lighter Side—Amateur Winemaking Competition

Last Monday I led you through the judging procedures at the giant, world-renowned San Francisco International Wine Competition. www.sfwinecomp.com Four thousand wines. Eleven judging panels. Three days of tasting. Medals galore. Major prestige. Winery reputations made; bottom lines boosted. Pretty darn intense.

Today we’re going to kick back a bit. I judged another wine competition this month, and I’d like to bring you along with me to this one too. As with the SF International, medals here mean a lot. But they won’t affect a winery’s sales—by definition.

That’s because this is an amateur winemaking competition. It’s part of the Marin County Fair, which takes place each year during Fourth of July weekend. (I'll share some fun audio with you on an upcoming podcast.) I signed up on a lark, and showed up at the fairgrounds (right behind the landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin Civic Center) for the preliminary round, with no idea what to expect.

After a warm welcome from Bernie Rooney, the event director, I made my way to the small grouping of tables in the back corner. I introduced myself to the judges who were seated there already, and they filled me in on the setup.

Each of the four tables had a piece of paper on it with the names of three or so types of wines. I spotted the magic “P” word, and quickly sat down at the “Chardonnay, Pinot, Syrah” table. My best friend Christina joined me (she’s done amateur winemaking for years, and has an excellent palate), then two fine fellows who had greeted me earlier filled in the last two seats.

Although the actual results (e.g. “Gold Medal,” “Best Red,” “Best in Show”) would eventually be similar, the actual judging procedure differed quite a bit from the SF International. (And any differences I point out have nothing to do with “a better way”; both sets of protocols are perfectly valid and work quite well all around.)

Rather than presenting us with full flights of wines (the 10 to 15 glasses or so at a time that’s SOP at the SF International), our panel coordinator brought out just one wine at a time—a bottle in a paper bag, marked only with wine type and code number (see pic). Then we would pass the bottle around the table and pour our own.

Our task was to evaluate the wine in great detail (the winemakers would later receive our actual comments about their entries), also rating them numerically in categories such as “appearance,” “aroma” and “finish.” Then, after each wine, we would turn in its scoresheet. (At SF International, we keep our paperwork, and later we receive a long list of the wines, with their codes, so that we can write about—or better yet purchase—the ones we like.)

Another difference is that our ratings didn’t directly address the question of medals. Bernie and his tabulators (wasn’t that a ‘70s band?) would do that afterwards, in preparation for the final Sweepstakes round, held two weeks later. That’s when we judge the “best of the best,” comparing apples and oranges (in some cases, almost literally!) to decide, for instance, “Best White” in a group that might contain the Best Chardonnay, Best Riesling, Best Sauvignon Blanc, and more. (BTW, the SF International handles the sweepstakes round in the same way, just with lots more wineglasses.)

Next time I’ll fill in more details, bring you to the Sweepstakes, and reveal the results. (And yes, I did get to discover a “perfect” 20-point wine—a gorgeous Pinot Noir that could easily have snagged a Gold or even Double Gold in a professional judging.)

Cheers for now,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

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

Tuesday Travels—Pinot Envy? Not in Marin!

Welcome back to Wine Country—and to the first “Tuesday Travels” post of Rosina’s WineWeek! Each Tuesday, we’ll visit a different winery or winegrowing region—either in person or via worldwide “virtual visits.”

Today I’m starting us off in my own ‘hood with a tasting of Marin County Pinot Noirs. Benefiting the Marin Agricultural Land Trust – www.malt.org – the two-day event took place at the historic (since 1881) Escalle winery in the nearby town of Larkspur. Marin isn’t California’s best-known winegrowing region, but there are sections, especially in coastal West Marin, that are flat-out perfect for Pinot.

To quote the Marin County Winegrowers Association descriptions, “The Marin climate is influenced by the frigid Pacific Ocean along Marin’s rocky western coast and the foggy San Pablo Bay (the northern arm of San Francisco Bay) to the east… Marin’s persistently cool spring and summer weather and complete lack of heat waves… contribute to one of the longest natural “hang times” in the state. Perfect for superb Pinot Noir.”

They got *that* right! What a treat, to be able to taste world-class bottlings of my favorite red, made practically in my own backyard. And in a “bedroom-community-for-San-Francisco” ‘burb often mocked for its hot tubs, “fern bars” and “lah-di-dah” lifestyle, the people here were as genuine, as warm-spirited and as passionate about their winemaking as anyone, anywhere.

Some of the wineries themselves are physically within Marin County limits (Pey-Marin, Sean Thackrey and Point Reyes Vineyards, for example); others are located elsewhere (e.g. Thomas Fogarty in Woodside, south of San Francisco; Dutton-Goldfield and Orogeny in the Green Valley of Sonoma—more to come) but they produce some of their wines from Marin County fruit. True to the Marin County ethos, several of the wines being poured were made from organically farmed grapes.

All of these carefully managed vineyards lie within a cork’s toss of one of the world’s top urban destinations, as San Francisco links via the Golden Gate Bridge to the southern tip of Marin. The green Marin hills and our iconic Mount Tamalpais provide stunning vantage points for viewing the bridge, the City and the rugged ocean cliffs.

Most of Marin County’s vineyards lie close enough to the Pacific to get the full brunt of the cooling (to put it mildly!) afternoon breezes and the lingering morning fog. (When I go beachcombing near here, I often need a parka in the morning, even in July!)

But Pinot loves these chilly conditions. It does best when its subtle aromatics can develop very gradually on the vine during a long growing season, with just-warm-enough days to build sugar and flavor by tiny increments, and consistently cool nights to help preserve the grapes’ acidity.

I’ll let Jonathan and Susan Pey of Pey-Marin – www.marinwines.com – fill you in on Marin County vineyard soil (another major component of “terroir,” see below): “Over millions of years, this explosive geologic force (the San Andreas Fault) has turned the land into a collage of rolling hills, with steep terrain and a potpourri of soil types—many of which are suited for premium vineyards. Soils of volcanic, maritime and alluvial origin are plentiful, each borne by significant geological influences of earthquakes, erosion and even glaciers. Dozens of soil types have been identified, ranging from well-drained gravelly loams to moisture-retaining silty clays, all of which vary in depth and fertility.”

Stop by on Thursday for some “Thirsty Thursday” tasting notes from this Marin County Pinot Noir event. Tomorrow, we’ll take a closer look at terroir in our first “Wine 101 Wednesday” post. Until then –

Cheers,
Rosina


gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson