Gary Farrell – Vineyards & Winery

During our visit to Sonoma a few weeks ago we visited many wineries, one of which was Gary Farrel Vineyards & Winery ( http://www.garyfarrellwines.com/index.cfm ).  Founded by Gary Farrell in 1982 the winery initially focused on Pinot Noir from specific vineyards.  This vision has continued, and expanded to the production of Chardonnay and Zinfandel, and now includes Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon.  The concept then, as it is now, is of vineyard designate wines – made from fruit grown under long term relations with various vineyards.  The emphasis of quality starts in the vineyards – as many people will tell you – it’s all about the fruit.  Then, like all quality winemaking, there are plenty of decisions to make that lead to crafting the final product.  Of course in visiting the winery, it’s not ALL about the wine.  The property is high upon a hillside overlooking the Russian River Valley – the view is fantastic – and the architecture emphasizes the view and surroundings.

We were given a great tour by LaVonne… followed by a wine/cheese tasting.  What a fantastic visit.  The wines inclued the 2007 Redwood Ranch Sauvignon Blanc, 2006 Russian River Selection Chardonnay, 2006 Cresta Ridge Vineyard Chardonnay, 2006 Russian River Selection Pinot Noir, 2006 Hallbereg Vineyard Pinot Noir and the 2006 Starr Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir.  Paired with the wines were cheeses provided by Bellwether Farms ( http://www.bellwethercheese.com/ ): Fromage Blanc, Carmody, Crescenza and San Adreas, respectively.  We found the wines simply amazing!  The S/B had great balanced acid with apricot & pear notes; the RR selection Chard was extremely good, with great complexity, acid and fruit; each of the Pinot Noir were all that and more!  In visiting wineries we don’t often purchase wines – as we can purchase them through our distributors ( which we must to in order to legally sell them at Cafe le Grand ), however, at Gary Farrell we purchased a magnum for home consumption and a couple bottles to enjoy while in California… a clear testament to how much we enjoyed the wines.

 

We want to sincerly thank LaVonne and the hospitality of Gary Farrell and hope to bring some of their wines to CLG for your enjoyment as well.

Siduri Wines

Last November we had the wonderful opportunity to meet several people while attending Pinot Days in Chicago – one of whom was Adam Lee of Siduri Wines.  Since then we have brought some Siduri and Novy (their Syrah label) into Cafe le Grand and have been spreading the word about these great wines.  Today we had the absolute pleasure of meeting Adam & Dianna Lee at Siduri Wines in Santa Rosa.  Adam took a couple hours to show us around, share their story and thoughts on winemaking and wine drinking – and pour us several glasses from tank and barrel.

Ron & Loreen with Adam Lee of Siduri

( Adam asked that I explain his attire… see, we were his only tour today and he was headed to a Jimmy Buffet concert… apparently Jimmy Buffet is a huge wine guy and quite the fan of Siduri… so Adam was headed backstage to hang out with the band!)

Adam & Dianna’s story ( which is written about in detail on their very complete website  http://www.siduri.com/index.html ) starts in Texas, where they met at Neiman-Marcus.  Adam was the wine buyer while Dianna worked in the gourmet foods department.  Following a dream, they headed to California and in 1994 they launched Siduri wines.  Since this time they have specialized in vineyard designate Pinot Noir and Syrah (being bottled under the Novy label… named for Dianna’s maiden name).  They source grapes from specific sites from Oregon to the California Central Coast – seeking the true expression of the place… and doing a damn good job!  Some of their smaller projects include a dessert wine, a Nebbiolo and a Viognier.

Adam Lee pulling barrel samples

In tasting through all of the tank & barrel samples and hearing Adam’s passion was nearly the same message in a different medium.  Each wine was clearly a word, sentence or paragraph in liquid form.  We found the final blended wines to be very complete and very expressive, while the various blocks and clones were obviously a part of something bigger – something to be determined when the time is right – just a part or chapter from the complete story.  All in all it was an impressive display of what Adam thinks when putting together his wines.  The single vineyard wines, which are really the heart of their program were like great single works – expressive, complete on their own and specific to their intent.

Adam in the barrel room

Adam is not alone in this venture.  In addition to Dianna, he’s got the obvious invaluable and dedicated assistance of assistant winemaker Ryan Zepaltas, who we also had the pleasure of meeting.  In addition to helping out at Siduri, Ryan is also doing his own thing under the Zepaltas label (http://zepaltaswines.com/).  The other very cool thing about meeting Ryan is that he is from Eau Claire, WI.  Having this commonality (me having gone to UWEC) we chatted about WI and our favorite watering holes on Water Street.

Ryan Zepaltas supervising filtering of a special dessert wine

 I think it’s pretty clear that we had a great time tasting and talking with Adam and our thanks go out to their hospitality.  We strongly encourage you to seek out these wines – and we’d be more than willing to bring in anything from Siduri/Novy that you’d be interested in buying.

Thanks for checking out our blog and we look forward to seeing you at CLG – where we’re changing the way you look at wine!

Regards,

Ron

2007 Chateau St. Jean Estate Vineyard Viognier Sonoma Valley

Today I tasted the 2007 Chateau St. Jean Viognier… a fantastic wine we had the privilege of tasting on the patio at Chateau St. Jean with our host Bob (my apologies to Bob who I mistakenly identified as Hutch… who was actually our gracious host at Kenwood).  We are having a great time in Sonoma this week and being treated very well by all the wineries we’ve visited!  We have several under our belt with many more to go.  I hope to cut some new video on some of the other wines we’re drinking… and be sure too find us on Facebook where I’ve got some pictures posted as well!

Congratulations to Margo Van Staaveren, winemaker at Chateau St Jean, Wine Enthusiast’s 2008 Winemaker of the Year

Chateau St. Jean… http://www.chateaustjean.com/stjean/index.jsp

Wine Enthusiast Winemaker of the Year… http://www.winemag.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=908F18A9CF024249B96CDA2684EADF34

One last note on the little intro diddy (Wine Diddy #2 as he calls it)… it was done by our good friend and Unofficial Cafe le Grand Handy Man Tim Scharbius… be sure to check out his other ventures at http://www.themusic-maestro.com/ and http://www.photobooth2go.com/.

Thanks for visiting and we hope to see you again soon!

Regards,

Ron

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Sonoma Here We Come!

Greetings CLG Blog Fans! Just a quick note to let you know that we’re headed to Sonoma this week and I hope to keep you in the loop with some tasting notes, pictures and some video from our trip! We head out Wednesday and we’ll be tasting by Wednesday afternoon! Hope to see you here and we encourage you to post some comments.

Blog to you soon!

Regards,

Ron

Wine in the News…

Tonight on 60 Minutes there was an interesting story about the Antinori family of Italy… if you didn’t see it, be sure to take a look here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/10/60minutes/main4514254.shtml

And make sure you watch some of the accompanying videos as well… wine related stories.

Have a great week!

Ron

2005 R&B Cellars Sauvignon Blanc – Serenade in Blanc

After mowing the lawn in the Sunday afternoon sun, I figured I’d crack a bottle of vino… and on a hot day (relatively speaking, of course) I like to drink white.  I found the 2005 R&B Cellars Sauvignon Blanc – Serenade in Blanc smiling back at me from the wine fridge.  R&B Cellars ( http://www.rbcellars.com/ ) does some really nice stuff – at really reasonable prices.  I hope you find this one as refreshing as I did!

2005 R&B Cellars Sauvignon Blanc $14.99 with a Special Wine Club only price of $7.00!!

Oh… and a little note on my wine rating… I’m conservative.  What do I mean by that?  Well, first – you shouldn’t listen to what I think about wine – you should decide for yourself.  Second, I’m really conservative about what I’ll “rate” a wine… to me, a nice bottle of wine – something I’d gladly drink day in and day out, is 80+ points.  I have absolutely no issue with thinking about a wine and thinking to myself “self, this is a nice bottle of wine… something I’d willingly drink” and scoring it in the 80-85 point range.  If something totally blows me away, you’ll know it… but I still likely won’t hit the low to mid 90’s very often.  So take it for what it’s worth – which isn’t much.

Thanks for visiting the CLG Blog!

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2004 Beaulieu Vineyard Dulcet Reserve

Today I tasted the 2004 BV Dulcet Reserve.  A Napa Valley blend of 74% Cabernet and 26% Syrah.  BV has an amazing history – and a very prominent place in the history of wine in the United States.  Loreen and I have visited BV twice – having wonderful experiences on both occasions.  We recommend the tour and tasting – especially of the reserve wines – if you’re ever in Napa.  Although I make mention in the video that we were in Chicago for the Wine Enthusiast Grand Tasting Tour last night, I failed to specifically mention that we were fortunate enough to taste the 2005 BV Tapestry as well as the 2005 BV Georges de Latour!  Tasting the Dulcet tonight was a great follow up.  www.bvwines.com

My apologies to Wine Enthusiast for inadvertently referring to their Toast of the Town event as the Grand Tasting Tour… which, I believe, is the name of the other publication’s little touring-tasting event.  We had a great time… check it out if you have the chance!  www.wineenthusiast.com/toast/

2004 BV Dulcet Reserve – Cafe le Grand Price:  $33.99

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