Bullet Point-esque Round Up. WOPN: Day 2

What else can I say then I got to spend a Saturday afternoon eating cheese and Pinot and then chocolate truffles and Pinot? Fromagerie Sophie not only nailed their pairings but also introduced me to seven cheeses I had never had before. (Go find Olivet Fain, Langres, and Chiriboga Obere Mu Blue right now.) And then the always spectacular Jessica Foster blew everyone away by finding chocolate that worked with the not-as-deep Pinot.

Some lovely random quotes and notes: "Cheese B.O.," "You cheese flipping robot!," "It's almost like the chocolate chews itself."

Media room. Three walls of Pinot. Lots of highlights, but perhaps most special as most rare, the Rusack 2013 from Santa Catalina. It's no mere stunt--a bit more bramble, a bit more wild, a lot more lovely.

Steve Clifton, no stranger to rock and roll himself, and his wife Chrystal, are killing it with the new La Voix label. Part of the fun is the wines all got rock names, including the 2012 Reflektor, from the Machado Vineyard, which I waxed eloquently about yesterday. So, yes, drink and dance madly.

Discovery! Withers, which we couldn't pass up given Branden Bidwell, wine director of the Wine Cask was tasting at their table and singing praises. an incredible range, from an Anderson Valley Pinot to Rhone blends from the Sierra Foothills you want to drink.

Ridiculous deliciousness from folks I've previewed in the run up to WOPN: E16, Hitching Post, Failla, Ampelos.

Bullet Point-esque Round Up: WOPN, Day 1

What's good after day one at World of Pinot Noir? Almost everything. What's bad? You can't drink everything.

But if I have to report on some of the highlights, and that truly means some amazing things as so many of the wines are so good, well, here you go....

So many great people, from winemakers to media to industry to drinkers (we need them too, remember). People are just flat out nice when they're drinking good wine. So maybe we all need to do that more.

Balletto from Sonoma across the board, in particularly their 2011 Sexton Hill Vineyard, which came into even clearer focus after tasting the young but on its way 2014 from the same vineyard.

Hilliard Bruce 2009, which was singing, especially out of a magnum.

Lane Tanner pouring a 25 year old Sierra Madre pinot. That still had fruit. SB isn't supposed to age like that. (And her Lumen 2014 showed she's amazing still.)

Montemar pouring 5 different Pinots (vineyards and vintages), pleasing with all, and knocking it out of the park with a 2012 Zotovich, with enticing black pepper on its nose and finish.

Dolin also strong across the board, but especially nailing a 2012 Solomon Hills.

Kynsi's estate/Stone Corral, a wine that could put Edna Valley on the map all by itself.

The Qupe clan nailing Pinot (does that mean someday we get Jim Clendenen's syrah?), particularly with the ethereal 2012 Sawyer-Lindquist.

Alta Maria Vineyard shaking things up with a carbonic Pinot that's light and lovely.

Brewer-Clifton doing their usual amazing work, and is their Machado Santa Barbara's best Pinot?

Rancho Ontiveros Has Got CA Roots to 1781

Well, at least James Ontiveros does, although land grants come and land grants go. (That was the history of our state in as few words as possible.) He's a viticulturist, so about the land and what we grow in it, which means in Santa Barbara County you have to grapple with the grape. Teaming with winemaker Paul Wilkins, and again this is too much history in too few words, they've crafted brilliant wines in the Santa Maria Valley since the 2004 vintage as Alta Maria Vineyards and also Native9. Onitveros says, "There is a spice element that comes out of Santa Maria Valley that is entirely unique. Terrific balance of ripeness, freshness, and terrific aromatics."

As for exactly what wines Ontiveros will pour at World of Pinot Noir on Saturday, he's a bit coy, claiming he will share a "strong line up of our finest wines, because when we show up we want people to experience us at our best."It could be something like the 2012 Santa Maria Valley Pinot that Wine & Spirits hailed as a best buy. Or perhaps something a bit more out there like a 2014 carbonic Pinot Noir; as their website puts it, "Our second Cru Beaujolais Style Pinot Noir is made using 100% Carbonic Maceration. It's fermented for 31 days using whole-cluster grapes without crushing or pumping over the free draining juice in a closed stainless steel tank and bottled only 4 months after harvest."

But such an unusual for California experiment isn't really the norm for Alta Maria. Instead, Ontiveros wants people to know their wine is "the real deal, estate grown, organically farmed. It's about showing the only variable is the vintage with the consistent being the people and the site. It's truly a wine of place and time."

Eat This: Mushroom Bisque @ Barbareño

Usually there’s no risk to bisque: It’s supposed to comfort you in its creamy arms. Of course Barbareño is all about the clever curve, the elegant update, as now embodied in this gorgeous mushroom bisque.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

WOPN Shares Pinot Pairs

Sure it's very hard to think "poor you" when a person says, "We did, of course, subject ourselves to a couple-hour session of tasting nearly 20 cheeses with the three wines up in downtown SLO a few weeks ago." But given the results of all that "work" means a better event at the World of Pinot Noir, the better that is for all of us attending.

The speaker of that quote was Matt Kettmann, senior editor at the Santa Barbara Independent and contributing editor for Wine Enthusiast, who will be moderating two panels Saturday morning, Myth-Busting: Pinot, Cheese and Chocolate. For cheese he will be able to lean on the expertise of Sophie Boban-Doering and Paul Doering (both pictured above) of Fromagerie Sophie in SLO; for chocolate the mad skills of Jessica Foster of Jessica Foster Confections.

"The umbrella term 'cheese' is almost as broad as saying 'food.' There are so many different types of cheese in the world that Sophie has access to, you could find one to go with anything you're drinking, from soda water to a root beer float," Kettmann points out. "Which is to say, pairing wine and cheese is much easier than wine and chocolate, simply because there are so many wildly different possibilities, from light and crisp to unctuous and gooey." 

Boban-Doering was more than pleased with all the possible pairing options for Pinot. "Each Pinot is unique because of terroir, wine maker prerogative, weather, etc. Typically, the nose of a Pinot will guide me on what cheeses to try," she explains. "Some Pinots are peppery, others more fruit forward, some have a darker fruit flavor, while others have red cherry notes…in addition the texture of a wine can help dictate which cheeses to try; is the wine smooth or acidic, heavy or light? Pinots are fun to pair since they are so varied (it’s a tough job but someone has to do it)."

And while the usual two basic types of pairings are to complement or to contrast, Boban-Doering sees it in a more complex way that should make Saturday fascinating. "The moments when the cheese and wine pairings are transformational are my favorite," she says. "By transformational I mean that a flavor emerges from the pairing that I can’t attribute to just the wine or just the cheese. Transformational pairings result in flavors of anise or tobacco or some other herb or spice. So much is going on that it makes me think of what I’m experiencing. Then, out of nowhere, a complexity between the cheese and wine dances in your mouth and finishes beautifully."

 Of course pretty much nothing finishes as beautifully as chocolate with wine, but people need to think before they drink. "Dark chocolate can be bitter and biting, while milkier chocolate tends to be lush, scene-stealing, and even cloying," Kettmann spells out. "That may go well with some dessert wines and very rich, cocktail-style Cabs, but even those are harder to pair with chocolate than you would think. Pinot can be more versatile depending on the style, but chocolate really demands its own space on your palate. So yea, it's no piece of [chocolate] cake."

Of course it's not like WOPN will have you sucking on a Hershey's kiss and swigging Two-Buck Chuck. "Luckily, in the case of Jessica Foster, we are pairing amazing truffles that feature a range of spices, fruits, and other fillings and toppings," Kettmann points out. "That really opened up the possibilities, and I think we've found some nice combinations for the three wines, which are, incidentally, a sparkler from Oregon, a rose from Sancerre, and a regular red Pinot from Sonoma.

"And if you don't like the pairings, we've got some cool backstories on the producers and the locally sourced ingredients in each truffle to keep you interested. But really, with fine hand-made chocolates and fine hand-made wines, what's not to like?"

It doesn't hurt that both seminars feature winemakers who have particular affinities for their food subject--for instance Jim Klein from Navarro, Anderson Valley's fine producer that also makes cheese, too--so the only question after the seminars will be: did I learn more or like more?

E16 Jones for Ultra-Premium Pinot

Last year at World of Pinot Noir, I was greatly impressed at the E16 table. While it was late in a day of tasting, and therefore my scribbled notes are nearly impossible to read (a danger even when my script is sober), they are clearly more animated than the notes from tastings before and after. Mostly I was amazed how they got access to so many good grapes and often did even better things with that fruit than more famous wineries.

"E16 Wines is an ultra-premium, luxury producer of single-vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from California’s most sought after appellations," is the way founder Robert Jones (pictured above) puts it. "We are extremely passionate and are committed to producing exceptional wines year after year."

Jones sees a new California wine landscape on the horizon. "I’m excited that Pinot Noir is starting to receive recognition as one of the world’s few great wines," he enthuses. "Cab was king, but Pinot has forged a clear path from obscurity to formidable presence. With the combination of the limited-production, small yields and its restriction to thrive in a select few corners of the earth, have distinguished Pinot Noir to emerge as world-class fruit."

The world-class fruit Jones, winemaker Daniel Moore, and V.P. of Sales and Marketing Carl Grant will be pouring on Saturday will be their 2013 Anderson Valley “The West End,” 2013 Bennett Valley “Bowland Ranch,” and 2014 Santa Lucia Highlands “Upper Bench.” Jones adds, "All of these single-vineyard Pinots represent vastly different terroir and provide wonderful snapshot of three of the four appellations we produce from.

“The fruit that we get from Conzelman Vineyard is truly three-dimensional," he says about the first wine. "The West End bottling from Anderson Valley is definitely one of the sexiest wines of the group…savory with tremendous concentration, opulence, and complexity as well as super purity and good acidity.”

The Bennett Valley from Sonoma Jones calls "the most structured of our 2013 portfolio. We source this 100% Pommard Clone from Moaveni Vineyard. I’m most excited about this Pinot’s flavor profile…it boasts of earthy raspberries, red and black currant notes intermixed with subtle background of oak, smoke, and charcoal. The tannins seem to creep up in the finish. Definitely more age-worthy than say…our SLH.”

Not that the 2014 Santa Lucia Highlands “Upper Bench” Pinot Noir isn't a delight. “This wine continues to be our most popular Pinot Noir," he points out. "Fruit forward, 100% Pommard Clone, an elegant example of SLH.”

Jones is excited to get back to WOPN and connect with trailblazers and legends. "The World of Pinot brings together a community that shares a common thread—a deep passion for exceptional Pinot Noir," he says. "It is truly rewarding to share our creations with an audience that appreciates artisanal Pinot Noir, What’s more is seeing our wines to stand up with the big boys; ultimately, its an honor to be included in this elite group of legends—we consider ourselves lucky to have a seat at the table.”

Born in Babylonia, Moved to Sonoma--Siduri

Adam Lee and his wife Dianna founded Siduri Wines (Siduri was the Babylonian goddess of wine) in 1994, and since then their winery has become one of the best known producers of Pinot Noir on the west coast, working with 20 fine vineyards from Santa Barbara to the Willamette Valley. Things got so good, they even got to sell the winery to Jackson Family Wines last January--who says the big companies can only buy up craft brewers? Corporate insists they want Siduri to remain Siduri. Of course, that just means there's more financial oomph behind what the Lees want to do, which is, "letting the individual place show through in the wines and encourage people to be honest in their reactions to the wines," according to Adam. "If our Pinots have real personality then someone is going to prefer one over another and we like to hear that."

He gets to hear that often at World of Pinot Noir, where he's been coming for over a decade. He loves to attend to "catch up with old friends. Some of these friends are consumers, others are fellow winemakers. But there’s a general sense of friendship and joy in hanging out together."

While that camaraderie is something he looks forward to, he's less looking forward to what's up with the weather. "This was supposed to be an El Nino year and a season where we caught up from the drought," he says. "Yet, here we are going into early March, and my vineyards in the Central Coast still are in the single digits when it comes to rainfall. This obviously has me worried." Worries about weather lead to worries about yield, and low yields can be troublesome for a winemaker like Lee who owns no vineyards of his own, despite having worked with several for many years. Only time will tell how many grapes he can get his hands on.

As for what he'll be pouring Friday, tasters can look forward to "a 3 year side-by-side of the Ewald Vineyard, 2012, 2013, 2014," he says. "These have been three extraordinarily great years in California for Pinot Noir, and I thought it would be fun to see the differences in the wines from these vintages." While Ewald, in the Russian River Valley, might not have huge cachet, it turns out it's 4 acres tucked behind famous names Kistler and Dehlinger. That is, we all better pay attention.