this heaven gives me migraine

Family Winemakers of California #15

A little over a week ago I had the luck to attend the fifteenth annual Family Winemakers of California tasting up at Fort Mason. Being that this was the fifteenth one, things went pretty smoothly: there were spitbuckets galore, wide aisles with room to walk around, and even though it got crowded, it was pretty manageable (I only had to cut my visit to a few of the tables short because of other people). I felt a little down and off that day for various reasons, so I didn't get through quite as many wines as I might have liked, but since there were almost 400 wineries there pouring at least two (in more cases, more like four or six) wines each, I had no illusions that I was going to get through them all, or even through most of them.

So what I did was decide on wineries based on a few things:

1- I keep seeing or hearing about a winery's wine, enough so I feel like I know the winery, but have never had it or don't remember having it and am embarrassed to admit it so I corrected that (Nickel & Nickel, Navarro)
2- The winery makes a wine I have had that has interested me enough to check them out (Mantra, Surh Luchtel, Bacio Divino, Saracina)
3- Totally random sightings (Seduction, just because I have ranted about it so much I had to taste it)

I also took the time to talk to a lot of the people working the tables (now I just have to get better at documenting all the stuff they tell me) and found out about some of the wineries, which was more enjoyable to me than keeping my head down and power-tasting through twice as many wines (not always a bad thing, but I was not up to it for this tasting). The wines were all pretty interesting and well-done, even the ones that weren't my cup of tea, so to speak.

Since I was busy for the trade-only tasting (pesky day job!), I went to the Sunday trade-and-public tasting. I would have liked to go to both, since there was so much to taste, but c'est la vie. The public tasting meant I was exposed to the usual annoying wild-women-on-wine junk, glasses hitting the floor (not as many as I have heard at other tastings), gaggles of tipsy twentysomethings standing around and blocking the tables, and fifty year old women who seemed to be on manhunts because they were overdressed and wearing a lot of perfume, which is very annoying since they stink and prevent you from smelling the wine because you are reeling from a big dose of Poison or Trésor as they trip by. Most excitingly, I was almost run over by a Trésor-free but very drunk man while I was tasting at Saracina (he slurred at me something about not trying to run me over and not being able to run me over if he tried). About four minutes later he dropped his glass and staggered his way out the door. I clutched my spit cup, and, as he staggered by us, said to Patricia Rock, "I hope he doesn't take out your table," and thought that there are a few good reasons for spitting at these things, and he was demonstrating most of them. It seemed a good omen that it was time to go (as did the time on my watch), so I left in his wake, listening to people mutter to each other "I hope he's not driving" as they shook their heads.

Navarro

Talked to Chris Spazek. The verjus will be out before Christmas, he told me a little bit about the wines and winery.

2004 Anderson Valley Gewurztraminer dry, nice nose, spicy in the mouth, finish is pretty zippy, pretty tasty
2004 Anderson Valley Pinot Gris a lot of acid acid in it, really nice! soft floral nose and then it bombards your mouth, mouthwatering
2004 Mendocino Sauvignon Blanc Cuvee 128 Floral, grassy, lingering finish, but not as interesting as the previous two
2003 Anderson Valley Ancient Method Pinot Noir a lighter style PN, bubbly redfruit cherry cola, some oak but nice and well-done
2003 Mendocino Zinfandel restrained, nice tingly finish, nice fruit and not too much spice, balanced, very pleasant

O'Brien

After all my griping about the marketing, I spotted the table on my way back from finding a napkin and figured the time was right to taste it. The nice lady behind the table pointed out that each bottle comes in its own "fun wrapping".

2003 O'Brien Seduction fruity, dark, extracted, a lot of licoricey flavors, very Cabbish (Cab nose, Cab finish) and not terrible like I expected or hoped, but not very interesting, one of those not very interesting but easy to drink wines

(Go Rebecca Chapa, the new wine ambassador for Niebaum-Coppola!)

Nickel & Nickel

2003 Russian River Valley Syrah starts off super austere and smooth and silky and then gets a bit of spice on the finish-- close to too extracted and fruity for me, but not quite over the top
2002 Dragonfly Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon funky stemmy nose, not a lot of blackberry spiciness you would expect, but it is all in the finish, which is very nice, starts out slightly medicinal but the finish makes it very nice
2002 Schlumberger Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (the vineyard where the winery is) not as medicinal on the nose as the Dragonfly, mouth drying, heavily tannic

Project 3000

Grenache soft spicy nose, a LOT of fruit in the mouth, has a nice finish, but the fruit is a little much for me, somewhat overwhelming

Ravenswood

Icon heavy funk fruit nose, kind of crazy smelling especially after all the Cabs, it is very fruity and intense and overwhelming but still kind of fun

Red Car

2004 Red Wind (freshly bottled) brooding and dark and intense and everything I usually don't love in a wine, but it works for me in this case, for some reason I don't understand
2004 Boxcar (entry level Syrah) has that sweet cigar/blood/manure nose I love in all those Italian wines, beautiful, pleasant in the mouth but finish is a little tight; still pleasant and a big CA Syrah
2003 The Fight will be out in October, more of that sweet fruity manure nose, slight coffee/mocha notes, lots of extracted dark intense fruit, a goodly amount of tannin that sort of sneaks up on you

York Creek

Talked to Scott who works in the winery

2002 Merlot odd green smell in nose... not stemmy or planty, but soapy... clean in the mouth, lots of berry fruit in mouth
2002 Cabernet Franc slightly fruity on the finish, extracted
2001 Petit Verdot brett on nose, okay, but I didn't love it because it is bretty, I didn't love it but what's a person to do with Petit Verdot?
2002 Meritage green bell peppery in nose that dissipated with swirling, pleasant but not mindblowing (I have that thing with Cabernet, though)
2002 Port whoa! super spicy on finish, very peppery, along with the typical Port profile (lots of sweet fruit)

Surh Luchtel

2003 Gary's Vineyard Pinot Noir clean cherry fruit, pleasant fuzzy finish with slight tongue-tingling spice, a little fruit-forward
2002 Napa Valley Zinfandel spicy finish, fair amount of fruit but not overwhelmingly so, most of the wine is in the finish
2002 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon green nose, lots of fruit, softish tannins on the finish and slightly too much fruit at finish for me, personally

Mantra Wines

stopped because I liked their rosé at ZAP, talked to Michael Kuimelis, the winemaker, don't have proper notes because we were talking

Started in 2001, 3500 cases in production now, 2005 vintage will be up to 5000 and that is where they want to be, (and maintain at about 5000), bulk of production is in the black label Cab

2002 Revelations Reserve (500 cases) has some Syrah in it, I liked it best, I think
2003 75/25 Cabernet (700 cases) slightly stemmy but okay
2002 Zinfandel Reserve (350 cases) high alcohol, almost desserty (old vines at high elevation next to cab, dry farmed, watered twice a year, 5 percent Petite Sirah and in an isolated vineyard with no phylloxera, mostly aged in Hungarian oak) the wine is not always like this, but this is what Michael said "the grapes wanted" this year, they know it is a little over the top, but kind of go with the grapes

DuNah

wines are unfined, unfiltered, and all made using only wild yeast, no inoculation, usually around 1/3 new oak and full malolactic fermenation

2002 DeeDee's Vineyard Chardonnay nose slightly on the oaky side, but very pretty and in the mouth it is beautiful, with some peaches and creme brulee, a goregous soft finish (yes, and even with all that ML! go figure)
2002 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay (3 vineyard blend) lots of oak on the nose, lots of fruit on the palate, more fruit than DeeDee's, very rich and girly (I preferred the DeeDee's)
2002 San Giacomo Vineyard Pinot Noir good nose, but descends into a little too much cherry fruit for me
2003 DuNah Vineyard smells like it has more oak on it than the San Giacomo

Laetitia

2003 Laetitia Estate Pinot Noir barnyard funk going on, fair amount of oak and fruit, this is where I started thinking maybe I was having Oak Issues and was off in some way, but it was well done and I liked it. It warmed my chest like a hot toddy

Eric Ross

2001 Saralee's Vineyard Pinot Noir cigar/manure nose, very very soft, with perky finish, soft soft soft and then bam! almost-spicy finish with a lot of stuff going on
2004 Old Vines Carignane really blueberry? nose and no weird Carignane finish... some slight spice and then it fades out, nicely

Flowers

2003 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir some barnyard on the nose, tobacco, possibly a little brett? pleasant but not mindblowing, which I think I was hoping for
2002 Andreen Gate Pinot Noir more oaky, woody tobacco smells on nose than the Sonoma Coast, well-balanced, nice acid, some spice on the finish, overall a woodier, tobacco-ier, more dried leaf type of wine

Fritz

talked to Stephen Schelke

2003 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir funk on the nose and a nice little Pinot overall, very friendly, easy to drink, slight puckery finish
2003 Estate Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel very happy and friendly, lots of cherry fruit, not a dark Zinfandel, but a kind of happy and light Zinfandel, if such a thing exists

Hendry

2003 Blocks 4 and 5 Napa Valley Pinot Noir well integrated oak on the nose, so far possibly my favorite of the day
(did I try a second pinot)

Cambria

2003 Katherine's Vineyard Chardonnay nose too brown for me (oaky, brown smells) but the finish is pretty, creamy but not too much, tart apple and nectariney and white stone fruit
2003 Estate Benchbreak Vineyard Chardonnay less oak and more peaches than the previous, and I think I liked the first one better, overall, even though both were fine
2004 Julia's Vineyard Pinot Noir finally a Pinot that isn't super oaky! cherry and iodine, not very big, slightly medicinal finish, not so sure about that finish
2003 Benchbreak Vineyard Pinot Noir softer, less aggressive, less medicinal than the Julia's

Bacio Divino

talked to Brian Lipton

2003 Pazzo (just released, 66% Sangiovese, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Sirah, 4% Viogner) a very pretty floral nose, high acid, not much tannin, mostly fuzziness, I like this wine and this is going to be a really nice year for it
2002 Bacio Divino (66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Sangiovese, 15% Petite Sirah) while Pazzo is more red fruit, this is more black fruit, all about the Cab (it's a Cab, Sangiovese, , dark and brooding, intense, nicely done

Corison

2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon not much on the nose but is very elegant, very well done, so smooth
2001 Kronos Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon this one has a nose that is more willing to talk to you, more fruit in the mouth than the Napa Valley, not quite as smooth as the Napa Valley

Dashe Cellars

2002 Todd Brothers Ranch Zinfandel more extracted and fruity style of Zin, a lot of spice, a lot of alcohol
2002 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon good nose but finish is a little awkward and blocky

Acorn

2002 Sangiovese nice lingering finish, almost too clean and fruity for a Sangiovese, not as rustic as I am used to
2002 Medley (Cab Franc, Zin, etc) the perfect bastard child of Cabernet Franc and Zinfandel, lots of cherry-strawberry-blackberry fruit
2002 Allegria Vineyard Axiom Syrah a soft fruity Syrah, but there is an element of medicinal bandage, not band-aid, not iodine, kind of a cough syrupy flavor, it is my least favorite of the three

Davis Bynum

2004 Fume Blanc slightly tropical nose, not as grapefruity as the 2003 (or was it the 2002?) and closer to the 1999 which I loved (I tried this to see if it was similar) with some hay bale/grass/straw on nose, but full of pineapple and peach in the mouth
2002 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir spicebox tobacco nose, slight bready manurey touch, soft and clear in mouth with pleasant fruit

Fiddlehead Cellars

2003 Happy Canyon Sauvignon Blanc first sniff freaked me out, smelled like frying chicken (and I mean that in a nice way, although it was very unexpected) but that disappeared, maybe I hallucinated it... very fruity tart apple on palate, not grassy at all, pleasant enough but I didn't love it
2002 728 Pinot Noir not much on the nose, but at least there isn't too much oak (ha), a quiet Pinot Noir, light red fruit, would be good with food, pleasant

Saracina

talked to Patricia Rock, wife of winemaker (John Fetzer, and yeah, he is the guy who started Fetzer years ago, with his family)

Altrea is the Saracina second label, devoted to blends, while Saracina is all varietals

NV Atrea "The Choir" White (300 cases, just released, already those 300 cases are allocated) Viognier/Roussanne blend beautiful, floral, nice acids, bright and tasty
NV Atrea "Old Soul" Red a little fruit, a little spice, a little tannin, very pleasant and well-balanced

2004 Saracina Mendocino County Sauvignon Blanc grassy nose good high acid finish, lots of tart citrus and even pear and hay, nice, almost has a snap on the tongue at first hit
2003 Saracina Mendocino County Syrah crazy, starts out with a lot of fruit and is very extracted, then goes into a bitter period and then comes out with more fruit and spice on the finish, dark and brooding, lots of tannin

Fred Franzia, empire builder

I don't know why I didn't think of it in online form, but in paper form I have been reading (in several installments as I cook or wait for laundry or something) this interesting article on Fred Franzia that was in SF Weekly last week. I have to say, no matter what you think about the man, he is very shrewd. It's interesting that he will threaten to sue someone for, say, using a name that is similar to a nickname for one of his own wines, and then turn around and needle the Napa Valley Vinters Association by trying to trademark their initials (essentially, he does the same things for which he threatens people with lawsuits).

There is also an interesting brief bit about the Charles Shaw phenomenon and who Charles Shaw really is. And it has reminded me I need to pick up some Napa Creek wine to investigate it and maybe pit it against some other Napa wines.

2001 Chehalem Stoller Vineyard Pinot Noir

Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: I remember that my friend Dan first touted Chehalem wines to me, years ago. He'd had a chance to taste some of them while working at Asia Nora, and tipped me off that they were worth investigation. Because of this, I always think of Dan when I drink Chehalem wines. I've had a smattering of their Pinot Noirs and also their Pinot Gris, and I have had some very long days at work lately, so when I got home tonight I decided to open this up while I made a fig/arugula/goat cheese pizza. I am glad I did. I am also glad I liked it, since (and I don't know if it was me or the wines or both, I suspect both) when I was at Family Winemakers on Sunday I had a streak of Pinots that screamed OAK to me, and not much else, and I couldnt deal with it. But more on that when I write up Family Winemakers.

Aside from the aforementioned oak issues, I have always liked Pinot Noir. It's the first red grape I fell in love with, which isn't surprising since for a few years I thought reds didn't agree with me (one night of a migraine made me superstitious) and only drank white wines. It's a friendly way for white wine drinkers to learn about reds, since it isn't normally monstrous or tannic.

The land on which this particular Pinot was grown is possibly the only connection in the world (and here you werer never even looking for one, were you?) between Pinot Noir and turkeys (live ones, not Thanksgiving turkeys), since it used to be a turkey farm. The folks who own it, the Stollers, are co-owners of Chehalem. The land has other vines planted on it, but the 90 acres of Pinot dominate. 820 cases of this wine were made.

Notes: Burgundy with a paler brownish pink rim. A prickly (if a smell can have a shape), earthy nose full of black and red fruit, with dark chewy earth and mushroom, bramble, and herb. In the mouth it is round and lush with soft tobacco spice, mocha, and cherry, and has more warm spice than tannin on the finish. The acid is very fine and the finish lingers in a pleasant way. Overall, I think it is a very nice example of an Oregon Pinot Noir... slightly dark and earthy, but friendly and delicious.

Cost: $30, but I paid about half that on sale

Overall: I have to say A-, because I wouldn't mind having a case or two of this around.

2002 Domaine du Closel "La Jalousie"

Region: Savennières, Loire, France

Composition: 100% Chenin Blanc

Background: Anjou-Samur of the Loire is the second region in from the Atlantic coast (to the east of Nantais, which is on the coast) and enjoys a climate moderated by that body of water... mild winters, warm summers, good humidity. The main grape of importance in the area is Chenin Blanc, which is made in a variety of ways; historically it was sweet, but now the trend is to dryness. Within that region lies Savennières, a tiny (150 acre) appellation for white wines made from the Chenin Blanc grape.

Domaine du Closel, in Savennières, has a long and interesting history that ties into the appellation. Ownership of the property can be traced back to the grandson of Emmanuel-Augustin-Dieudonné-Marin-Joseph, the Marquis de Las Cases, who was an intimate and historian of Napoleon. From there it went to the Marquis' daughter, who married Bernard du Closel, a man who was at one point the mayor of Savennières (and a strong advocate who worked to get the region recognized as an official appellation, which happened in 1952). Madame du Closel had no children and thus gave the estate to her niece, Michèle Bazin de Jessey, in 1961. Madame de Jessey, who runs the estate with the help of her son and daughter, has always had a great love of wine and winemaking and even served as the first woman to be president of an appellation (the Savennières AC, of course).

The estate makes both red and white wines, but the white wines are the stars, as one would expect in the Loire. They farm and hand-pick the 30 acres of Chenin Blanc that they have planted, which, if you think about it, is about 1/5 of the total land devoted to the Savennières appellation.

Notes: Clear pure gold, this has a very forward nose of honeyed pears, dried grass, lemon zest, and tart apples. It's less fruity in the mouth...it has a lot of rocky gravel, dried grass and hay, and maybe some more lemon. The finish is very dry with some herbal and soft lemon flavors. It's pretty high acid, and makes a nice pairing with food (arugula, garlic, tomatoes, in this case), and the finish is long and clean. This wine is fermented in stainless steel and has the clean zippiness you get from wines fermented that way.

Cost: B+

Overall: $15

WBW13 Announced: Wine and chocolate cake

Next month's Wine Blogging Wednesday will require everyone to get out of the cellar and into the kitchen. Clothilde of Chocolate and Zucchini, in keeping with her site title, wants everyone to find a wine to pair with chocolate cake. You can buy the cake if you don't want to make it (she has a recipe for those who want to bake but need direction), and the wine choice is entirely up to you. September 7 is the deadline, so it's time to start planning!

WBW12 wrap-up posted

Lenn posted the wrap-up for WBW12 a few days ago, but I was busy having some very long days at work so have not been able to catch up on things. A record 43 people checked in to drink local wines. Which means there is a lot of interesting reading!

Family winemakers tasting Sunday August 21

This Sunday (and Monday, if you are trade) head on up to Fort Mason for the fifteenth annual Family Winemakers tasting. For $35 you get the chance to taste the wines from almost 400 winemakers who will be pouring their best.

I won't even pretend to myself that I will get to taste them all, but I am coming up with some form of Plan of Attack as we speak. It might involve throwing darts at the list, but I am not telling.

Cookie cutter wine

Last week, the New York Times had an interesting article about Enologix, a consulting company you can hire who will get you a 90-plus point wine (registration required, use Bugmenot if you need to). Well, a 90-point wine in the Parker style. Once I finally got a chance to read it, I thought it was pretty interesting, since I am reading David Darlington's book Zin, and McCloskey just popped up in that book, albeit back in the late 1980's. McCloskey was touting the same wine science back then, and pitted (in the book) against Ravenswood's Joel Peterson, who has a completely different idea of wine (less scientific, more traditional).

I admit to being on the "let the grapes do what they will" side of the winemaking fence, and think less (meddling) is more, and it makes me sad that there is an entire company out there devoted to making a "Style 4" wine. I guess it doesn't really make me sad, but I don't get it. But then I don't get fans of fabricated bands, either. I find that the type of wine I like and drink varies depending on the situation and my mood, and if I were relegated to a world of high alcohol, overextracted, fruity wines, I would be very unhappy. It isn't that I never drink these wines or sometimes don't enjoy them, but focusing only on those types of wine to make a buck is probably pretty boring for the winemaker (it's like telling a painter "you will paint this painting, over and over, exactly"). Luckily, there are a lot of people out there who are not forcing their grapes into a particular mold, and I applaud them.

I guess I think of winemaking as more of an art than a science, and while I don't argue that a lot of science is involved, I wouldn't want to remove all art from it, either.

2002 York Creek Vineyards Tempranillo

Region: Sonoma County, California, US

Composition: 100% Tempranillo

Background: Today is, in essence, the first birthday of Wine Blogging Wednesday, and for this one year anniversary, Lenn challenged us to find (and drink) wine from the closest winery to our house. This took some consideration... did I want to go by closest winery office, vineyard, tasting room, winemaking facility or something completely different? I ended up, after some debate, going with winemaking facility since that seemed most honest to me. I had a feeling I knew where the closest place that actually made wine would be, but I did some Googling to make sure there wasn't anything sneaky that was closer, and then I was good to go.

Fritz Maytag is famous for a lot of things, but York Creek Vineyards is probably not at the top of that list unless you are a wine lover. His family is the family to bring you not only Maytag washing machines, but also Maytag Blue cheese (not that he has ever had much to do with those personally). He is the man behind Anchor Brewing Company (makers of fine beer, rye whiskey, and gin) and singlehandedly brought the microbrew to power in the United States. Or at least made "microbrew" a household word. He is also quietly making wine (and making olive oil even more quietly than that), something I heard about years ago, but never got around to investigating. Which is stupid since I live less than a mile from Anchor Brewing and York Creek Vineyards.

Maytag got involved in the booze business in the mid 1960's, when he was a grad student at Stanford. He was a fan of the local Anchor Steam beer, and when he heard in 1965 that the company was in trouble and about to go under, he bought half of it for a few thousand dollars. Three years later, he bought the other half, even though he knew nothing about brewing beer, and had to figure it out as he went along. The company limped along until 1971, when he launched a reformulated Anchor Steam beer, which became an immediate hit and was so popular Maytag couldn't keep up with demand by the mid 70s.

About the same time he bought Anchor Steam, Maytag (along with his ex-roommate and friend, Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards) tried to set up an effort to improve Chilean wine and agriculture, but that failed (even though Chilean winemaking is in full force now and it seems that they were just ahead of their time). Maytag also bought 700 acres of land closer to home, near York Creek between Napa and Sonoma, and planted vineyards on about 100 of those acres. For years he sold the grapes grown on the land to other wineries (such as Ridge), but he always secretly harbored a desire to make his own wine.

So he started to do just that in the early 1990s (with the help of Cathy Corison of Corison Winery), first using equipment and space where he could get it, then building a little winery of his own in 2000. He started out making only three wines, and, while he makes more than those three different wines now, he makes only small lots and is very much about the process of winemaking, learning about the individual grapes, and experimentation. This Tempranillo is grown for the winery's Port project (something I would also like to get my hands on) and is one of the wines Maytag says he made "just to see".

(Randomly, the label reminds me of the Anchor Brewing Christmas label (also tree-themed) and the 24 trees represented are each varieties of tree found on the York Creek property.)

Notes: This is one intense wine. It's a thick burgundy-black in the glass with a slightly pink rim. The nose is filled with cocoa and tobacco leaves, along with spice and red berry. It's smooth, generous, and mouthfilling, with good acids, a lot of black fruit, and a spicy, smoky finish. There's more spice than tannin in the mouth on the finish. I like it a lot, but I do have a thing for Tempranillo. This is a nice example; inky but kind of friendly.

Cost: $21

Overall: A/A-

2004 Red Car "Think Pink" Rosé

Region: California, US

Composition: Not sure, but it smells/tastes like Syrah

Background: I admit, I bought this on a rosé-buying spree (not just for the nifty bottle and very good label, but also because I really liked Red Car's "The Fight" when I had it back in May), but it is interesting that I am drinking it tonight, since I have been thinking a lot about people who take a chance to do what they want to do in life. People who do something that seems crazy or that requires faith in themselves, or even people who just pick up and change something because that is what they think they want. People without fear. (Or, maybe, people with fear but who are optimists or foolish or very very smart.) I am not one of those people, or at least I am one of those people who moves like a tortoise and needs to examine and overthink every decision and plan for all possible failures, including meteors, plagues of locusts, and the possibility that I will sprout a second head from my shoulders à la How to Get Ahead in Advertising, so I envy the people who decide something and then do it within a decade.

A few years ago, Carroll Kemp and Mark Estrin fled Hollywood to take a chance and make wine, first scraping together a couple of thousand dollars to make their first 50 barrels in Kemp's driveway, then procuring investment money to buy vineyards, and finally quitting their day jobs for the wine life. It was definitely one of those leap of faith endeavors, and they made it happen. They aren't enormously famous or anything, but they make small quantities of wine they love and love to make, and they get some money for it (and some recognition in wine circles). That isn't so bad, is it?

Kemp and Estrin named their winery "Red Car" after the old red Pacific Electric streetcars that used to be part of Southern California's transit system before that was all removed (silly transit systems, what's the point?) so the land could become Land of Cars. Hollywood storytelling came with them to their new jobs, becoming evident on their wine labels (not for this rosé, for some reason, but for all the other wines I have seen); each label has a paragraph telling a noir-style story about the wine, its name (usually something like "The Stranger" or "All-Night Radio") and the feeling it evokes. Supposedly, taken all together, the wine stories will tell a bigger story. This is something you don't see on labels every day, and while some people might find it hokey, I think it's creative and interesting enough. It's not like wine labels are usually that informative, and I tend not to trust them when they tell me things about the wine, anyway, so why not do something creative? It's way better than something horrible like "luxurious raspberry caresses your palate while oak-kissed cherries drift in and out on a tide of sumptuousness". Go, Red Car, tell me a story rather than feed me that kind of stuff.

Sadly, part of the Red Car story is that a few months ago, in May, Mark Estrin died of brain cancer at 57. I am glad that he (as the story goes) listened to the fortune cookie that made him brave enough to take the leap and join his friend Carroll Kemp to form Red Car, and in doing it found something that he loved.

Notes: This is a dark rosé, one of those rosés that is really almost a red. It's a cherry red in the glass, clear but intense, and has slightly salmon highlights. The rosepetal and strawberry/raspberry nose will almost bowl you over when you open the bottle. It's aggressive and mouthfilling with enough acid to hold up to the intense red fruit followed by a cola and spice finish. The spice was rigid and slightly bitter when I opened the bottle, but is now softening with a little exposure to air and while the spice is staying, the bitterness is going away. The spice makes me think this is probably Syrah, and this is one of those wines that starts out slow but ramps up to a big finish.

I think I like it better once it sits out for a while and calms down. It's a little over the top for me straight from the bottle, and nice after a half hour or so sitting around. I just let some sit out for about two hours, and now the nose has faded to almost nothing, but it still has the soft, watery start ending in a big burny spicy finish that really sticks around with you for a while. I think it is somewhat challenging and I don't absolutely love it, but it is interesting to drink and I am enjoying it despite its flaws. Maybe I will have the rest tomorrow night with actual food and see how that goes. I kind of had ice cream for dinner (not much, and with a lot of peaches and nectarines, so that isn't as bad as it sounds) and did not drink the wine with it because that would have been very very bad.

Cost: $15

Overall: B (maybe a B-)