Vinfolio.com

I had the pleasure on Friday of presenting the first 100 point wine I have tried all year, the 2005 Auteur Pinot Noir, Shea Vineyard. Since we sell wines I review, I take all scores seriously. Historically, only about 4% of the wines I taste for Vinfolio receive a rating over 95. For a wine to receive a perfect score it needs to.

• Be true to type and / or display extraordinary depth
• Consistently outpace other wines in its category
• Exhibit consistent excellence in repeated tasting

An excellent vineyard or a highly regarded "cult" winery name or winemaker are not neccessary to receive the highest score. To the contrary, Vinfolio provides a service to our clients much like an investment advisor, letting you know about wines that are on the way up. The grappling for the "anointed" wines or producers is no place to establish a base of business or expertise. Because of our location in the Napa Valley, I see hundreds of wines before they are put into general distribution. I have the ability to identify a new producer months or years before they wind up in a newsstand magazine. When I see our clients re-ordering these top rated selections I take a great deal of satisfaction out of their embracing our recommendations.

Wednesday afternoon around 3 PM I was sitting in my office working on a tasting when seemingly every fire truck in Northern California was heading south out of town on Main Street. Anytime I see anything like that I anticipate there is either a fire or an accident that inevitably will snarl traffic on one of our main roads for hours. I use the California Highway Patrol website to check up to the minute dispatch information on incidents. To my surprise there was a report of a grape truck accident on Spring Mountain Road (north of us) based on the dispatcher posting blocked the road, caused a fire and would not be open for three hours. I had been all set to go upto Philip Togni to taste, and needed to scratch that idea.

I realized I have friends on the hill who might need to know about this so I sent out e-mails to everyone I could think of. From the reports I got back, all ended well. Barbara Richards from Paloma replied that she was the only vehicle that got through, and Lisa Drinkward from Behrens & Hitchcock who lives in St. Helena let me know her daughter was over at her cousin's house and she was able to stay at the winery until 8 PM.

Fifty years ago, news of accidents spread around the valley over back fences or with all of the expediency of a snail. Instant communication sure makes things easier.

The firetrucks were all headed to a fire on Monticello Road that burned about 30 acres, but apparently no structures.

How many of you remember the X Files episode when Mulder and Scully are being chased by the helicopters through the corn fields? (It was one of the black oil episodes where they encounter an area of bright lights in the middle of nowhere. Well Napa Valley has been reminding me of that scene recently. Yesterday I drove Elizabeth to the San Francisco ferry from Calistoga at 5AM. Throughout the valley floor were these scattered pockets of bright lights casting an eerie glow into the surrounding darkness. This is night harvesting and it is seemingly becoming the accepted method for picking in our area. It is good for the grapes to be picked at the coolest temps as it arrests the tendency for spontaneous fermentation beginning in the picking bins and preserves freshness, especially in white varietals. It also improves the workflow at the winery when the first grapes arrive to be crushed at 430 AM instead of 11. Another advantage is the field workers prefer picking when it is 50 degrees rather than 90.

So if you happen to be in the valley over the next few weeks and see the lights in the early AM, it is just the latest in viticultural technology hard at work.

I didn't anticipate using the blog to talk about wines because generally my wineletter, The Wilder Side of California is the proper place to do that. However this week I have tiny, yet not insignificant amounts of the Cabernet blends from Realm, Pinot Noir from Brian Loring and Jelly Roll Syrah from Jim Knight.

Here are the descriptions and the links to the Vinfolio site. Currently these wines are not restricted but I doubt they will be around for long.

2005 Loring Pinot Noir (five brand new Pinot Noir releases)


2004 Realm Cabernet Sauvignon and blends (3 reds from Mike Hirby)



2004 Jelly Roll Syrah (Jim Knight makes sure we get a little of this every year)

Here at Vinfolio I keep my ear pretty close to the ground when it comes to new releases. Do I find myself at the door of every one? Unfortunately a few will zip by. Like a shooting star, they go so fast I ask myself "was it really even there?" I have great relationships with virtually all of the brokers and wineries that I work with and am able to taste most everything on the first day they are available. Years ago when I began writing reviews on wines and numerically rating wines I liked, customers would initially ask me if that was a score from a major publication. I would let them know it was my personal evaluation of the wine and that they may need to wait several months to read a review on the same wine in a major publication. I recently ran across an example of this phenomenon this week when I received my new issue of The Wine Spectator. You may recall I wrote my impressions on the newly released Carter Cellars wines last week, the 2004 vintages. They were all delicious and highly recommended by Vinfolio. When I opened the new November 15, 2006 issue of Spectator I noticed that Jim Laube had listed the 2002 Carter Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer-To Kalon at the top of the page. How much success will someone have going out and trying to find this wine currently? I recently did an analysis of all the wines listed with reviews in common from the Wine Advocate and The Wilder Side of California. Out of 40 wines we had both tasted, the point distribution came down to less than 3%. The major difference, as I mentioned above is how timely is the delivery of information? Allocations of the best California wines I taste can be off of the market within a matter of weeks. That is why it is important to bring these wines to your attention as quickly as possible with the additional resource of our Vinfolio rating as a recommendation. I am working to develop some additional reporting that looks at when major reviewers publish on wines compared to Vinfolio. I think you will be surprised how "ahead of the curve" we are.

How valuable do readers find a Vinfolio recommendation, specifically a review/rating in The Wilder Side of California?

I did something tonight I've never done before, attend a wine event wearing my MEDIA hat. I went looking for a story. This was a tasting in San Francisco hosted by the Napa Valley Vintners Association and held at the posh LIMN designer furniture gallery in the SOMA district. The invited audience were the recently minted wine drinkers in the 21-26 range. When i went to sign up to attend I discovered the event was soldout. No problem I thought, just email my credentials as a Napa retailer and I'm in. Not so fast. Fire Marshall has strict restriction on capacity and absolutely nobody extra is getting in. I asked to be contacted if something opened up and then I just came to the event. It took a few minutes but I eventually got in.

I wanted to see how the established and very savvy Vintners group would appeal to this emerging demographic. Apparently the primary directive was to dress "hip" Some of the reps had it down if they were under 30 while some of those over 50 failed miserably or didn't get the memo.

I stopped and spoke to several wineries I know. Franciscan, Honig, Broman, Bennett Lane, Dyer, Tres Sabores, Corison, Lang and Reed. The crowd seemed to move somewhat tentatively around the room and their were a lot more women who seemed to come in groups. One of my main questions to wineries was "how successful have you been so far marketing to this generation?"

Two wineries seem to excel in this area; Franciscan and Honig. Both have young staffs in their tasting and sales areas and have appealed to the demographic by presenting well priced, consistent quality wines. Modern hospitality rooms and easy to join wine clubs that treat them to a urbane, self-effacing quality. Honig has a long-running post card series of the entire staff dressed in every type of costume from lounge singers to bees. Stephen Honig said they dialed into this group years ago and they are doing it right. With Franciscan, their wine club is open and staffed by engaging contemporaries of the guests who speak the same language and make the environment less formal than some tasting rooms. One of their club members was there getting three glasses of chardonnay to take over to a waiting trio of young ladies.

This generation seems more intent on drinking than collecting. The winery information handed out was in the form of a neat address book spiral bound that would fit neatly into a purse or an inside jacket pocket. The layout listed the name of the winery with phone and email and the name of the wine being poured. There were four choices of comments suggested to rate a wine

1. Vino-licious! Gotta get it.
2. Tasty. Perfect for a dinner tomorrow night.
3. Good party gift. Can't go empty handed, right?
4. Not so much.

Clearly some brands were drawing a bigger crowd than others; Shelly at Tres Sabores, owned by Julie Johnson mentioned people knew the brand and were particularly excited about the label. Additionally the crowd responded favorably to Julie's fire roasted Zinfandel-Pomegranate grilling sauce, a happy result of the devastating wine losses she suffered in the Mare Island warehouse fire last year. I asked the very hip John Skupny (Lang and Reed) what he would have done differently to make his brand even more appealing to this group. He thought bottling in half gallon jugs with screw caps may be just the thing. Lisa Augustine at Broman enthused about several people knew their boutique brand well having enjoyed it at dinner parties. She was pouring out of magnums and added that the consumers there didn't know much about larger bottles.

My favorite visit of the whole evening was with Katherine Noell of Corison. We were chatting about the decision to reach out to this audience by the vintners and i asked how they went about it. She offered that the primary directive was to dress "hip" She said she needed to ask her director of sales to find out from his 22 year old daughter exactly what that would be.

I think this crowd was pretty grown up; at the door along with the stemware they were handing out little stem charms to identify your glass. They were on a hoop and blinked on and off. I kept looking for someone to be wearing it as a nose piercing but had no luck. The most I saw was someone wearing it on their finger.

A pretty tame night in the City by the Bay.

I'm often asked when I meet people who find out what I do for a profession how exactly I got into wine. It actually began when I was a small boy living on an island in San Francisco Bay and my parents would take my sister, brother and I for fall picnics in the idyllic Valley of the Moon, Glen Ellen and Kenwood (Sonoma County). My first exposure to a grape vine was munching on Zinfandel grapes when I was six years old. Back then a winery called Italian Swiss Colony allowed you to fill your own jugs directly from huge oval casks. I never forgot the smell of sweet fermenting grapes in the winery. I never recall seeing barrels in the early 1960's.

During the early 70's when I was in high school I took a class called California History which the instructor spiced up with wonderful field trips all around the state. During a section on Agriculture he brought in several different types of grapes for the students to try; Chardonnay, Muscat, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel and Cabernet. That experience exposed me to the multitude of choices available from our state. Following High School, I began studying for Engineering and working for a consulting firm in San Francisco. By the early 1980's I was working in the field frequently as our clients were the design firms for Nuclear Power utilities. At that time I was the junior guy on the teams. We would always go out to a nice steak dinner every night and fortunately there was one guy who knew how to pick great California wines. These were the first expensive wines I had experienced; 1974 Mondavi Reserve, Chalone Chardonnay, Martin Ray and Ridge.

By the beginning of the 90's I was back in school and found a part time job in a wine shop in San Francisco called The Cannery Wine Cellar. That is where I was exposed to producers like Grace Family, Silver Oak, Diamond Creek, Dunn, Babcock, Kathryn Kennedy, Foxen, DuMOL, David Arthur, Chasseur and Cronin. I soon learned people would listen to what I had to say about wine and purchase on my recommendation. I published my first newsletter in late 1997. Now I can't believe how I used to send out 700 faxes beginning at 6PM (this was before e-mail). In 1999 I "graduated" to Napa Valley when I joined Dean & Deluca in St. Helena. The selection there was extraordinary and exposed me to new brands and hundreds of new people that made a life in this one-of-a-kind place. The writing continued and gained in its reach and length becoming the most quoted publication in the wine department.

Joining Steve Bachmann at Vinfolio in February of last year was one of those opportunities that come along once in a lifetime. Directing the California portfolio is an exciting challenge that leads me to explore areas of California, as well as Oregon and Washington and bring the small boutique producers to your attention. I never thought I would be writing a weekly column on wine, much less authoring a blog about life in Napa Valley.

So that's my story on how I got into wine. What was your defining moment that spurred you to want to know more about the wines of the world? Is it something you are dabbling in or has it become a consuming passion?

Free run juice wants to hear your stories!

It was reported in the Wine Business News today that the wet weather we experienced last week is playing havoc with grape growers who are used to the overall warm temperatures traditionally experienced in Northern California during the early Fall. Rot in tightly grouped bunches; like Chardonnay, is especially a problem, and severe thinning is occuring in vineyards that are affected. This will lead to a smaller harvest and tighter allocations for the vintage.

On the other hand, vineyard owners with Merlot vines are experiencing a significant glut of fruit and a coincident depressed market for selling. I recently heard that some Merlot in Northern California was selling for $500 a ton, down significantly from $1200 a few years ago.

What does this mean for the consumer? I envision that in some instances Chardonnay may get slightly more expensive, but will be countered by red blends showing generous amounts of Merlot that will provide more immediate drinkability.

When we crushed the Guman Vineyard Chardonnay at SCHOLIUM PROJECT last Friday, the fruit was pristine with virtually no leaves or damaged fruit. In the end, quality producers who spend time in the vineyards themselves and make the final call will produce the best wines.
I will get a chance to evaluate some of the 2006 vintage in the spring at the Cabernet Society barrel tasting. Until then, Free Run Juice will continue to monitor and update.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Abe Schoener of SCHOLIUM PROJECT had invited me to come out to his new facility in Wooden Valley to experience Crush again. Last year when I did this, the site was White Rock in south Napa. The new location seems very different from the old place. First of all the facility is much larger and Abe has more room for his barrels and fermentation bins. The equipment also allows him to create wines more in line with his artisinal philosophy. When Elizabeth and I arrived an hour later than I expected to, the work hadn't even started yet. That was about 430 yesterday afternoon and the first order of the day was to crush a small amount of GLOS, his stunning Sauvignon Blanc project. That was relatively short work as the yield from the pressing was enough to only account for 19 cases of wine when finally released. The bulk of the rest of the work was consumed in crushing 1.3 tons of Guman Vineyard Chardonnay for his SYLPHS. There were four seperate press loads that needed to go through the destemmer and into the half ton press. Bucket by bucket of precious juice was hand carried to a stainless steel collection tank where Abe kept a running log of each bucket. Dollarwise each bucket represented about $1500 of finished wine. After every press load the press needed to be broken apart and the grape skins removed by hand. Very gooey work indeed. Brigit Favia, provided much needed sustenance with her bag of baguettes and mortadella. Everytime I would take a few seconds to munch one down I would pop 3 or 4 chardonnay grapes in my mouth. An excellent combination! We called it a night about 1 AM after all of the equipment was cleaned and put away. It wasn't all work as we tasted 05 Babylon and Farina in barrel with Abe's assistant, Sarah Atkins, as well as some of the fresh 2006 Gemella. At the end of the day SCHOLIUM PROJECT ended up with just under 95 gallons of juice from pressing 2600 pounds of fruit. This will produce about 40 cases of SYLPHS. We got home about 3 AM after having our dinner at the local In and Out at 130AM. Elizabeth had been on the receiving end of two "blowouts" of the bladder press where grapes, pressurized to 4 atmospheres, squirt past the seams of the fabric lining the press. She reminded me of a scene from Ghostbusters; slimed with juice and grape skins. She was not suitable for presentation so we ate in the car. Every muscle hurts this morning, but it was an experience I wouldn't trade.

I even got to solve a problem using my engineering experience that could have been a lot tougher (and more dangerous) given the collective level of fatigue everyone was experiencing.

This morning when I was in the shower I recalled that a year ago the weather was a lot different than the dark clouds and drizzling rain we are currently experiencing. I know that for a fact because last year at this time I was at the SCHOLIUM PROJECT crush pad with Abe Schoener, the owner and winemaker while he was bringing in fruit. I recall the pictures I took that day showed people in shorts and tank tops and it was bright sunshine. If you want to see what it looked like, click here: https://www.vinfolio.com/jsp/public/wine-offers/WSC-SE-10-05-05.pdf.

Today the valley has experienced a steady heavy drizzle which has brought my yard- landscaping, fence-building, concrete-pouring do-it-all contractor George to a screeching halt. The irrigation is all in, but the last thing I need right now is water... We are doing everything we know to keep George busy so he doesn't get pulled in another direction, but once he is done here I'm happy to refer him to others in the North Bay who want world class work done at a reasonable price. Right now, it's espresso and cigarettes until it dries out. He and I walked the property this morning and I realized how muddy my boots were and I thought what it must be like in the vineyards under these conditions.

A few hours after I arrived to my office, I get a text message from a number I don't recognize. I call the number back and I am surprised to hear it is Abe Schoener inviting me to crush on Friday at his new winery in Wooden Valley. He is expecting to bring in GLOS and GUMAN that day. I let him know I had thought about last year's crush earlier in the day and that the weather was warmer then. He let me know today his uniform was long pants and thermal underwear.

I'm looking forward to seeing my friends Abe, Brigit and Sarah at SCHOLIUM on Friday His maneki neko (japanese happy cat) charms must already be in place protecting all of his barrels.

I will blog about the barrel tasting we will no doubt do.

This morning when I was in the shower I recalled that a year ago the weather was a lot different than the dark clouds and drizzling rain we are currently experiencing. I know that for a fact because last year at this time I was at the SCHOLIUM PROJECT crush pad with Abe Schoener, the owner and winemaker while he was bringing in fruit. I recall the pictures I took that day showed people in shorts and tank tops and it was bright sunshine. If you want to see what it looked like, click here: https://www.vinfolio.com/jsp/public/wine-offers/WSC-SE-10-05-05.pdf.

Today the valley has experienced a steady heavy drizzle which has brought my yard- landscaping, fence-building, concrete-pouring do-it-all contractor George to a screeching halt. The irrigation is all in, but the last thing I need right now is water... We are doing everything we know to keep George busy so he doesn't get pulled in another direction, but once he is done here I'm happy to refer him to others in the North Bay who want world class work done at a reasonable price. Right now, it's espresso and cigarettes until it dries out. He and I walked the property this morning and I realized how muddy my boots were and I thought what it must be like in the vineyards under these conditions.

A few hours after I arrived to my office, I get a text message from a number I don't recognize. I call the number back and I am surprised to hear it is Abe Schoener inviting me to crush on Friday at his new winery in Wooden Valley. He is expecting to bring in GLOS and GUMAN that day. I let him know I had thought about last year's crush earlier in the day and that the weather was warmer then. He let me know today his uniform was long pants and thermal underwear.

I'm looking forward to seeing my friends Abe, Brigit and Sarah at SCHOLIUM on Friday His maneki neko (japanese happy cat) charms must already be in place protecting all of his barrels.

I will blog about the barrel tasting we will no doubt do.

This last weekend officially kicks off the harvest season, at least for the last three years that is. It is now on our calender that the last Saturday in September is the day for the Scion Advisors Wild Pig roast. Hosted by wine industry consultant, Deborah Steinthal, founder of Scion, and her husband, noted commercial photographer, John McJunkin, the evening is a chance to see old friends and meet new ones before the madness of harvest begins in earnest. Their home is a compound on the site of an old schoolhouse in east Napa Valley. We arrived with champagne in tow and the first thing I noticed was a bottle of Kosta Browne 4 barrels sitting on the tasting bar. To my chagrin, it was empty. I began to pour through the lovely magnums of Patz & Hall Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and then pulled out a superchilled Schramsberg in magnum (so I like big bottles!) finally settling in on an excellent Patz & Hall Chenoweth Pinot Noir for dinner. The food theme this year was lamb which were supposedly done patagonian style. Mouthwatering good! I hung out with John in his studio marveling at the images from Thailand's Buddhist temples. We called it a night fairly early as some of the folks already were tending their 2006 wines.

The following evening we were guests at the estate of architect Roger Hartley in Sonoma who is transforming a sleepy little lane into a southwestern hacienda oasis. An unerring eye for detail made him the most sought after designer in Tiburon. On the grill tonight was twenty pounds of salmon. I always know there will be something new on the project and this evening was to celebrate the 5000 sunflowers on the property which were going out in a blaze of glory. This place is still a year or two from completion but will be the location of wine tastings that Roger wants to put on for all his clients. I had brought a 2005 Selene Sauvignon Blanc to have with the Salmon and it was an excellent match with vibrant acidity, lemon and mineral. It is still available at www.vinfolio.com