I didn’t get much Savoie character in it…'cept a bit of the herbal earthiness you find in Mondeuse. It spoke to me as a Calif rendition of the Mondeuse grape. Terrific wine I thought.
The dry riesling from Mike Dasche is not to be missed. More complex then I would ever have expected and really well made. I tried several other rieslings but none (not even Navarro’s) even came close. $20, btw.
Couldn’t agree more, Jim. It’s McFaddenRanch/PotterVlly & I thought it (easily) the best Riesling there I tried.
walking and standing on concrete for 5 hours isn’t as easy as it used to be. .
Best, Jim
Well…how you think some of the old guys there felt!!!
Wisht I’d known you were there, Jim. Would’ve liked to have met you. I’m an easy one to recognize
at those events…bright red spitoon…dead ringer for a TomCruise…you can’t miss me.
Tom
I just found a bottle of the '99 Carlisle Mondeuse, one I think I helped pick. From mondeuse/refosco vines in the Two Acres plot. Can’t wait to try it.
Those two, in Calif, are not the same. Turns out, what was once thought to be Refosco (dal Peduncola Rosa) in Calif is MondeuseNoir.
The only true Refosco dal PeduncolaRosa is the Matthiasson’s in Napa.
Tom
The annual two-day, San Francisco edition of the Family Winemakers Tasting is the granddaddy of California wine trade tasting events. It is essentially California’s version of Vinitaly–the great five-day annual tasting of Italian wines in Verona. Trade reps from around the country fly in for it. This was the 21st annual Family Winemakers of California tasting in San Francisco. The first was held on November 12, 1991, with 47 wineries pouring and 350 members of the trade on hand. This year there were over 300 producers on hand, and for the trade and media, there were a total of nine hours of potential tasting between the two days. It was also open for three hours the first day to the general public.
I spent eight or nine hours beforehand doing my research as to which of the 300-some producers to focus on this year–crossing off those whose wines I’d tasted recently (a number of which I’m preparing other posts on that I will put up shortly), prioritizing those that were new or that I hadn’t tried yet that looked promising, and leaving room for several old favorites that I generally only get to taste at FW. That got me down to a highest priority list of 102 wineries, which is still, of course, too many to cram into barely nine hours of tasting. As it is, I made it to a total of 63 producers this year. Since several of those have secondary (or even tertiary) labels, I could argue I made it to over 70 producers. I managed to taste 234 wines, or about 26 wines an hour.
There are so many FW members and participants now, and it is so hard to get to even a fraction of them, that it seems like it is worth thinking about expanding the event at this point. Maybe it’s time for it to go to three days, or at least extend the hours a bit if it stays at two days. After all, while Italy is the second largest source of wine at over 1.5 billion gallons per year, California is essentially the world’s fourth biggest producer, responsible for over a third of the volume Italy produces. If Italy devotes five days to their major trade tasting, maybe California needs to start looking at at least three days. It is hard to fully sample a good representation of the great diversity of California’s production in only nine hours.
I came away pretty pleased with what my targeted tasting plan had yielded, even though I couldn’t get to all the producers on my “short” list. I found several very interesting producers that were new to me that are doing good things; several strong producers of good value wines; and some remarkable wines by old favorites. I’ve listed all of those below. Sure there were some “dogs” (quite literally this year–see Cru Vin Dogs below), but overall I was fortunate to taste a lot of very good wines. I also tasted a lot more 2008s, with varying levels of that cursed vintage’s smoke taint, which is not my favorite thing, as well as what’s starting to seem like an ocean of California Sauvignon Blancs. Many of the latter were quite good, but will the market really support that many Cali Sauv Blancs? I know many consumers have moved away from big buttery Chardonnays in recent years, but have they really all moved over to Sauvignon Blanc as the alternative? I doubt it.
Speaking of Chardonnay, there were some excellent samples of that variety too, of the higher acid, less oaked style that has been re-emerging in recent years. I’ve listed what I thought were the best of those that I got a chance to taste below. On the red side, Cabernet Sauvignon always tends to dominate this event, but there were also dozens of Zins, of course, as well as increasing amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah, which is becoming one of my favorite California red grapes. I tend to taste a lot of California Pinot Noir at other events during the year, so I don’t seek it out so much at this tasting, but in my search for new producers, I did find a few more that are producing some excellent Pinot.
Before I get to my stars and new finds from this tasting, I feel obligated to list the strong producers whose wines I’ve tasted recently that were therefore not on my list for this tasting. Those include Audelssa, Benovia, Clos Pepe, Fort Ross, Frostwatch, Grey Stack, JC Cellars, Jemrose, Justin, Keenan, L’Aventure, Ladd Cellars, Mahoney, Peter Paul, Robert Biale, Sojourn, Siduri/Novy and Westerhold. Below is a picture of Eric Lundblad, of Ladd Cellars, producer of some of the best 2008 Pinot Noirs I’ve tasted, representing this group of producers I purposely bypassed at this tasting.
If I had to pick a single star of the tasting for me, based on what I was able to get to, it would have to be Lagier Meredith/Chester’s Anvil’s amazing lineup, most of which were barrel samples. U.C. Davis Professor Emeritus Carole Meredith and her husband, winemaker Stephen Lagier, have produced, in my opinion, some of California’s greatest, most ageworthy Syrahs since 1998–a single bottling each year from their home vineyard in Mount Veeder. In partnership with Aaron and Claire Pott, they are also now producing a line of wines under the Chester’s Anvil label. I had previously tasted the current Lagier Meredith Syrah (a wine I regularly collect), so I didn’t taste that again at this event, but I loved the barrel sample of Lagier Meredith Mondeuse, a relatively obscure varietal grown primarily in France’s Savoy region. It is sometimes known as “Syrah Grosse,” and Carole indicated that she and Stephen had planted a little of it to compare it to Syrah. The result, with the '09 vintage, is really stunning. So were the barrel samples of the upcoming great wines under the Chester’s Anvil label, from the gorgeous Chardonnay and Roussanne, through the Zin and Malbec (one of the three best California Malbecs I’ve ever tasted). Even though this isn’t a new producer to me (or hopefully, to most of my readers), these wines were so darned good that they deserve special mention.
The new finds for me that were most impressive were: Alder Springs (great Chardonnay and Syrah) Black Sears (Thomas Brown is the winemaker, and their unusual Zin was one of my WOTT; the Cab Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon were also impressive) Carica (a good value producer, with a particularly good Petite) Charnu (good Cabs) Delectus (very impressive, but pricey, wines) Figge Cellars (new and quite excellent Charonnay and Pinot Noir producer in the Central Coast, whose offerings are quite reasonably priced) Meander/Aiken (particularly good Pinot and good Cabernet) Sierra Madre Vineyard (very good Pinot Noirs) Spence (nice Howell Mountain Cabernet)
On the value front, besides new producers (to me) Carica and Figge Cellars listed above, I can also recommend from this tasting Coastview, with their bargain priced Fieldfare and Le P’tit Paysan offerings; C.G. Di Arie, Croze/Smith Wooton; Field Recordings, whose prices are surprisingly low on very characterful wines; Field Stone and Silver Wines.
The producers I tasted who were responsible for at least one wine that I rated 92 points or higher were: Alder Springs
Amapola Creek
Black Sears
Carver-Sutro
Coastview
Core
Corison
Corté Riva
Croze/Smith Wooton
Darms Lane
Delectus
Field Recordings
Field Stone
Figge Cellars
Ladera
Lagier Meredith/Chester’s Anvil
La Jota
Lamborn Family
Littorai
Meander/Aiken
Merry Edwards
Mount Eden
Paloma
Pisoni/Lucia
Ramey
Sierra Madre
Spence
Staglin Family
The Terraces
Turley
The best Chardonnays I tasted and rated 92+ points or higher were: 2009 Alder Springs Chardonnay – 92+ points
2010 Chester’s Anvil Chardonnay – 93-94 points
2009 Littorai Mays Canyon – 93 points
2008 Mount Eden Estate – 93 points
The best Cabernet Sauvignons I tasted were: 2007 Amapola Creek Estate – 93 points
2008 Black Sears Estate – 92+ points
2006 Corison – 93 points
2007 Darms Lane Linda’s Hillside Vineyard – 93 points
2007 Field Stone Staten Family Reserve – 92+ points
2007 Ladera Lone Canyon Vineyard – 92+ points
2007 Ladera Howell Mountain – 92+ points
2007 La Jota Heritage Release – 93 points
2008 Staglin Family Estate – 93 points
2007 The Terraces – 93 points
The best Pinot Noirs that I rated over 92 points (keeping in mind that I didn’t taste a lot of Pinot producers at this tasting): 2009 Aiken – 92+ points
2008 Littorai The Pivot Vineyard – 93 points
2009 Mount Eden Estate – 92+ points
2009 Pisoni Estate – 93 points
2008 Sierra Madre Vineyard – 92+ points
The best Syrahs I tasted and rated over 92 points were: 2007 Alder Springs – 92+ points
2006 Delectus Mt. George - 93 points
2009 Lagier Meredith - 93-95 points
The best Petite Sirahs were: 2007 Carver-Sutro Palisades Vineyard – 92+ points
2006 Delectus – 92+ points
2009 Field Recordings Red Cedar Vineyard – 92+ points
2007 Field Stone Staten Family Reserve – 92+ points
The best other reds were the 2008 Black Sears Cabernet Franc Estate (92+ points), 2009 Black Sears Zinfandel Estate (94 points), 2009 Chester’s Anvil Hattori Hanzo (92-94 points), 2009 Chester’s Anvil Malbec (92-93 points), 2007 Core Hard Core (92+ points), 2007 Core Mister Moreved Alta Mesa (93 points), 2009 Lagier Meredith Mondeuse (92-95 points), La Jota Merlot (93 points), 2009 Paloma (93 points).
Richard,
I think it is fair to say that you are the most comprehensive poster on such events that is currently on the boards.
While I disagree with some of your subjective evaluations of the wines you encounter, I don’t know of anyone who is more objectively accurate in his writing nor as complete.
Thank you for taking this thread to the next level.
Best, jim
Thanks as always for the exhaustive notes, Richard. Wished I would have seen you there, Jim, saw Tom Hill – thought it was a taller Tom Cruise. The most interesting wines I found in my brief foray into tasting (busy most of the time) were the Alder Springs selections, but I’m partial to wines from mountain vineyards. That’s a stud vineyard. It was a treat to taste the Littorai offerings. I love what Ted Lemmon does most all the time. Ladd’s Sonoma Coast was my favorite of their four. Lovely delicacy. Fun to see everybody, and to show some exceedingly young wines… and a couple that have come into their own.
Looking at my list from last week (looks like 10 years to me) I liked the following wines
Keenan Cab Franc
Orin Swift D-66
Pisoni PN
Benovia Sonoma Coast 09
Caliza Azimoth
Tantara Rio Vista
Overall my favorite wine tasting event at Fort Mason
I have not had the Malbec in a year but it was the best Chester’s ever when I did have it. To think it will go for no more than $40-something is quite appealing.
I took this pic a month ago at LM. It is of the Mondeuse section with all the excess fruit dropped. Since it is related to Syrah, one can see where Syrah’s vigor comes from!
![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
I managed to taste 234 wines, or about 26 wines an hour.