Wine Bloggers Conference: Live Blogging!

Friday, October 24th, 2008

A group of bloggers — 170 or so of us — is currently in Santa Rosa, California, at the first ever Wine Bloggers Conference. It’s incredibly geeky and so far fun. I’ll be updating a few times this afternoon.

First taste of the day will be the 2005 Bink Pinot Noir, Weir Vineyard. Three clones, vinified separately and blended before bottling. Here’s a picture of it. Yay for multimedia! Tastewise, it’s a nice, medium-bodied Pinot that’s not pretending to be Syrah, which I appreciate greatly.

Update: next up is Clos La Chance — 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. About 1200 cases, $30 retail. That’s Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20 drinking it with Russ Beebe, the Winehiker in the background.

LIOCO line-up

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

We boarded a plane from Santa Rosa to LAX yesterday afternoon, and Kevin O’ Connor of LIOCO happened to be on our same flight. Call this a sign from above that it’s about time we make good on our promise to write up the wines we tasted with Kevin a week ago.

For those of you unfamiliar with LIOCO, a bit of background…only a couple of vintages young, Lioco is a small winery crafting Sonoma wines, many of them from single vineyards. Its principals have a storied history in the wine and food industries of California: Matt Licklider spent many years at North Berkeley Imports, handling sales for some of the world’s finest wine labels. Kevin O’ Connor continues to head up the wine program at Spago in Beverly Hills. And winemaker Kevin Kelley got a degree at Davis and spent his formative years in Burgundy before returning to California. Licklider and O’ Connor teamed in 2005 and the rest, as they say, is history… Read more…

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get your wine on

2007 Scholium Project Naucratis Verdelho

Abe Schoener strikes again, this time with a great Verdelho at a slightly lower price-point than the Gemella. This is 100% tank-fermented and a very dry, mineral-laden wine. This is one of the reasons why Schoener is earning status as a winemaker as a cult winemaker. It delivers. $28 for Scholium goodness.

2007 Skylark Cellars Alondra Chardonnay

I admit, I really don’t dig Chardonnay, so you don’t see many around these parts. I do, however, love this one. Not surpisingly, it’s unoaked. $18 of un-oaked, un-malo’ed goodness!

2007 La Fenetre “A Coté” Red Blend, Santa Barbara County from Timeless Palate Wines

This is astoundingly good for the money. It’s 60% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard, and 40% Merlot from the Bien Nacido Vineyard. The winemaker, Josh Klapper, is a mere 29 years old and one to watch. This is red, juicy and lush but not over the top. $18 and worth every penny.

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freshly pressed

Wine Store Design Continued: More Racks and Lights and Stuff:

Just a couple of images for the now…

Some of the single-depth racks, assembled (thanks again to Tim Krablin of Modern Cellar for the photo)…

And the interior of one of the lampshades, of which there will be 48, in three different shades of blue-ish purple. Keep in mind this is 36″ in diameter — as in three feet (the exterior is aluminum, non-powdercoated. I’ll let your imagination do the work).

Maybe one day I’ll post about the wines I’ve been tasting and stocking, and actually try to sell you something…which would possibly help me pay for all these neat things…ummmm, maybe next week…

Wine Store Design Continued: More Racks and Lights and Stuff

June 19th, 2009

Wine Store Design Part 4: Wine Rack Construction

June 5th, 2009

Wine Store Design Part 3: Urinal Defense Fund

June 3rd, 2009

wine jargon

Frizzante
From Wikipedia: Frizzante is an Italian wine term term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to Spumante, which is generally used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial secondary fermentation in tank. You might notice a light fizz or tingly sensation on the tongue with a Frizzante wine, compared to the more carbonated sensation that more fully sparkling wines yield.

Scorekage
Okay, so we made up this word yesterday after a great restaurant experience. We brought a bottle of wine with us, expecting to pay a corkage fee. But the restaurant either forgot to charge us the $15, or decided to be nice to us. We scored! Hence, “scorekage” has entered our lexicon. This can also refer to BYO friendly restaurants that don’t charge for corkage under any circumstances.

Frizzante

March 29th, 2008

Scorekage

March 23rd, 2008

Rioja

March 3rd, 2008

grapewise

I recently stopped by Venokado, a new-ish shop in LA. I bought a Lirac imported by Kermit Lynch, and it was yummers. Last night I had the pleasure of spending some time with one of its owners, Susan Brink.

domaine547