Seven % Solution tasting in San Francisco this evening

Late notice for this but it’s a fun tasting, this evening from 5-8:30pm at the Folsom Street Foundry in San Francsico The tasting includes a select group of the many Northern California wineries that produce wines from the 7% of varieties which are among the less-commonly planted in the area. From the website (http://bergamotalley.com/seven-solution/):

Roughly 93% of Northern California Vineyard acreage is planted to only eight grape varieties. The remaining seven percent is home to hundreds of lesser known varieties.

Wineries that will be pouring:
Arnot Roberts / Bedrock Wine Co. / Calder / Dirty and Rowdy / Donkey & Goat / Edmunds St. John / Ferdinand / Giornata / Idlewild / Jolie Laide / La Clarine Farm / Leo Steen / LIOCO / Matthaisson / Nico Wines / Palmina / Preston Vineyards / RPM / Rein / Ryme Cellars / Scholium Project / Stark Wine / Two Shepherds / Unti / Wind Gap

Tickets should still be available through the website. I’ll be checking out the wines there this afternoon during the trade/media tasting, and helping Steve Edmunds pour his wines this evening at the public tasting. Hope to see some Berserkers there!

I wish I could be down there for that one. Have a great time & I’ll look forward to reading your article when it comes out.

Thanks for the heads up!

I really enjoyed this event last year but unfortunately it’s impossible for me to make it in tonight.

Nice also that it’s right around the corner from Una Pizza Napoletana.

I’m pretty sure I know the top 7, but what is the eighth?

Thompson?

Cab
Chard
Zin
Pinot Noir
Syrah
Merlot
Petite Sirah
Sauvignon Blanc

Are those the 8?

I’m pretty sure there’s more Colombard and Pinot Gris than Petite Sirah.

I have a top 6 list from UC Davis for the 2007 crush:

Chardonnay 16%
Cabernet Sauvignon 12%
Zinfandel 11%
Thompson 9%
Colombard 9%
Merlot 8%
Other 35%

Next significant percentages would include: Chenin, Barbera, Carignane, Grenache, as well as Pinot Noir.

The following is from the 2014 California Grape Crush Report. It’s for wine grapes in tons crushed for the entire state, not acreage planted for just Northern California. But it should give you some idea of the top plantings.

Chardonnay 715,712
Cabernet Sauvignon: 510,958
Zinfandel: 354,810
French Colombard: 330,642
Merlot: 281,755
Pinot Noir: 242,961
Rubired: 242,203

Pinot Gris would be #8 at 181,880 and Muscat of Alexandria #9 at 159,857. Syrah looks like #10 and Sauvignon Blanc #11, both just over 110,000.

BTW, Thompson Seedless are not classified by the state as wine grapes but as raisin grapes.

But they are wine grapes. The 9% I cited above in 2007 was for wine crush only, not table, juice or raisin use. The government classifies Thompson as raisin grapes regardless of use (raisin, table, juice, wine, etc.)

No question of that, Wes. Just pointing out the state of California’s classification of Thompson as a raisin grape. The tonnage listed in the Crush Report wouldn’t put it in the top 10 in any case.