Wine Industry Technology Symposium Live Tasting With @WineTwits

During this year's Wine Industry Technology Symposium, a group of wine bloggers were sent four wines from California and invited to participate in a live, virtual wine tasting. Frequent readers (all four of you) might be familiar with this format, as I've posted recaps of these tastings fairly often over the past few years.

The way a "virtual tasting" works is by having bloggers around the country receive the same wines, then use Twitter and a specific hashtag to talk about each wine. Usually there's a moderator, in this case the fine folks behind the @WineTwits account and website. We talked (tweeted) about each wine over the course of about an hour, with the various participating wineries chiming in to answer questions and give data points.

I tend to enjoy some aspects of virtual tastings, especially when bloggers whose palates I trust are participating. We get to compare notes and really dive into what the wines are about. The other side of virtual tastings is that all too often we get bloggers who do nothing but tweet hyperbolic statements praising every wine. Not only do they look like idiots, it undermines our already-fragile credibility as a group.

Each wine selected has the benefit of being easy to find in grocery stores and BevMo-type outlets, being of high enough production to virtually guarantee nationwide distribution. The sole unfamiliar wine to me was the 2010 Garnet Vineyards Pinot Noir, the rest have all graced my wine glass at some point in the past few years.

2010 Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay Livermore Valley: The bouquet is full of lemon cream, tropical fruit, and popcorn butter aromas. To me it smells exactly like I'd expect a traditional California-style chardonnay to smell like. On the palate there's a nice bit of that tropical fruit, some more lemon notes, vanilla, and more of the buttery taste. The acidity is low, or at least, feels low due in part to the malolactic fermentation that this wine saw. Wente consistently makes drinkable wines, and if you're a fan of buttery California chardonnay, I think you'll really enjoy the Morning Fog bottling. 13.5% abv. $11 retail.

2011 Hahn Winery Nicky Hahn Pinot Noir California: Pours a beautifully vibrant ruby color in the glass, a testament to its youth. The nose is full of ripe, jammy cherry preserves, baking spice, some woodsy aromas, and a touch of earth. Cherry jam dominates the palate, providing a soft, rich mouthfeel. The baking spices come out to play a little bit on the finish, which in itself is nice if a bit short. 100% pinot noir, according to the data sheet I have. 14.5% abv. $14 retail.

2010 Garnet Vineyards Pinot Noir Carneros: Loads of raspberry and strawberry aromas followed by a bit of white pepper spices. I think there's a bit of funk here too, some nail-polish remover came out as the wine warmed up. I think this pinot is very varietally correct on the palate, with light red fruit, peppery spice, hints of earthy funk, and lots of acidity. The finish is medium length, tapering off nicely, however, the bottle was open about five hours before the finish got to be any reasonable length. It might need a bit of age or an hour in a decanter before it shows all its facets. 13.5% abv. $19 retail.

2008 Franciscan Magnificat Napa Valley: A blend of 69% cabernet sauvignon, 23% merlot, 6% petite verdot, and 2% malbec. This Meritage pours dark, almost opaque garnet. Pepper, wood smoke, cassis, and leather rush up out of the glass. There's a touch of alcoholic heat, nothing more. Lots of ripe black fruit mixed with oak form the primary flavors. Secondary flavors include smoked meat, cocoa dust, and dried spice leaves. A nice long finish shows earth and leather before disappearing in a burst of dried black cherry. This is a 2008, and it shows true to form as a very young wine. Lots of firm tannin that will soften and integrate with age. I tasted this again after six hour and it had mellowed out noticeably. 14.5% abv. $35 retail.



The wines we tasted were all interesting and well made. The Franciscan was very good, and the clear leader of the group. I re-tasted each wine about six hours after I opened them and save for the Meritage, they'd all begun to fall apart. Out of the latter three, the Wente chardonnay held together best, still retaining some acidity and complexity.

The WineTwits crew did a great job getting such a large group of bloggers together and keeping the discussion moving along, but weren't as active with the technical facts and winery-liaison work that I've seen from other virtual tasting hosts. Perhaps that will change in the future, should they do another tasting. Then again, it's not always necessary to constantly chime in if the discussion is flowing nicely.

You can find each winery on social media here:
@Wente and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/WenteVineyards
@HahnWines and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HahnFamilyWines
@FranciscanWines and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/FranciscanEstateWinery
@GarnetVineyards and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/GarnetVineyards

and @WineTwits

Thanks for inviting me!

These wines were media samples.

Beau Carufel

Wente Named American Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast

This came down the PR wire the other day. Congratulations to Wente Family Estates, they've a long heritage behind them and should be very proud of this achievement. In my near-decade selling wine, Wente has consistently been a customer favorite.

Press Release Below:
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Wente Family Estates Named American Winery of the Year

by Wine Enthusiast Magazine

"November 7, 2011 - Livermore, CA - Carolyn Wente, CEO and Fourth Generation Winegrower of America’s oldest continuously owned and operated winery, is pleased to announce that her family business has received the 2011 American Winery of the Year award from Wine Enthusiast magazine. Wente Family Estates is comprised of Wente Vineyards, Murrieta’s Well and Tamás Estates as well as entwine, a partnership between The Food Network and Wente Vineyards. Known as the Wine Star Awards for the last 11 years, the magazine honors international wine personalities who have had great influence on the world of wine.

Wente Family Estates joins an esteemed group of winners this year including Restaurateur of the Year Michael Mina, Winemaker of the Year Bob Cabral of Williams Selyem, and Georg & Maximilian Riedel as Generations of Innovation, among others. Upon learning of the news, CEO Carolyn Wente stated, “This is really such a wonderful acknowledgement and recognition for the five generations of my family who have remained committed to the wine business. We all love what we do and my two brothers Eric and Phil and my niece and nephew Christine and Karl are individually helping to build our company into a strong, relevant and quality driven winery in the 21st century. We have built on the foundation laid by my great grandfather, Carl Wente, who came to this country as an immigrant in the late 19th century, to the Livermore Valley in 1883.”

This award comes at an auspicious time for the winery as 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of Chardonnay coming to America. In 1912, Ernest Wente, son of founder Carl Wente, brought Chardonnay cuttings from Montpelier, France to California. His plantings and experimentation with the Chardonnay clone began a chapter in California wine history that continues today. Post Prohibition, Chardonnay plantings encompassed roughly 100 acres in California, and today nearly 100,000 acres are planted to Chardonnay and it is the top selling varietal in the country. Over 75% of the Chardonnay planted in California is derived from the Wente clone, making the Wente family integral in the development of wine culture for Americans.

As one of the top 30 wine companies in America several years running, Wente Family Estates has established itself as a unique company given that it is family-owned, and all of its fruit is estate grown and sustainably farmed. Due to the vision of CEO Carolyn Wente, the winery was also among the first to develop a wine country destination program when 25 years ago, Carolyn launched both an onsite fine dining restaurant, The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards, as well as the renowned Concerts at Wente Vineyards. In 1998, the winery opened the Course at Wente Vineyards on property, an 18-hole championship course designed by Greg Norman. Blazing a trail that many would follow, Wente Vineyards made wine country more than just a casual stop by a tasting room to an entire wine country experience.

In 2008, on the occasion of their 125th anniversary, the Culinary Institute of America inducted Wente Vineyards’ founder Carl Heinrich Wente into the “Vintners Hall of Fame” as a “Pioneer.” In 2010, the winery was named both Winery of the Year by the California Travel Industry Association and received the Lifetime Achievement award at the 2010 California State Fair. Several generations of sustainability efforts were also recognized when Wente Family Estates became among the first wineries to attain Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing status for its business and winemaking practices in 2010. Also in 2010, the Course at Wente Vineyards became a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary by the Audubon International Program, recognized for its commitment to provide a sanctuary for wildlife on the golf course property as part of its holistic sustainability mandate.

With the Winery of the Year Award, Wente Family Estates is recognized in good company in the Winery of the Year category with previous recipients J. Lohr, Trinchero Family Estates and Concannon. The winners will be announced in the December 15th issue of Wine Enthusiast and a private ceremony honoring the awardees will be held at the New York Public Library on January 30, 2012.

About Wente Vineyards
Founded in 1883, Wente Vineyards is the country's oldest continuously operated family-owned winery. Today, Wente Vineyards is led by the fourth and fifth generations of the Wente family. More than 128 years of committed stewardship to the land led to the development in the 1990s of Wente Vineyards’ Farming for the Future program, a system of sustainable viticultural practices designed to produce the best quality wines with the least environmental impact. This philosophy extends to all aspects of winery operations, where energy efficiency, waste reduction, recycling and social responsibility are all integral to the culture.

Located just east of San Francisco in the historic Livermore Valley, Wente Vineyards is recognized as one of California’s premier wine country destinations, featuring wine tasting, fine dining and championship golf. For more information, visit www.wentevineyards.com."

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Congratulations again to Wente and the people there.

Beau Carufel

California Cabernet's from Chateau Felice, Krutz, Wente, and Rodney Strong.

About a month ago I took part in a tasting of four California cabernet sauvignons withTasteLive and group of fellow wine bloggers. I've been fortunate enough to participate in other TasteLive events, the format being that select bloggers around the country are sent samples to taste and talk about, live. TasteLive's website allows each blogger to log in and appends each tweet with hashtags relevant to the tasting.

For the wineries and PR groups, TasteLive represents a great way to spread each brand across a huge chunk of the wine-drinking, new media-using demographic. It's also a smart way to build background buzz about wines and/or regions that the PR groups are trying to build awareness for. For us bloggers, well, let's face it, we get free wine to taste and talk about..Things we already love doing to begin with.

The event last month was titled "Luscious Hedonisms", and was intended to showcase four different cabernet sauvignon growing regions in California. We were sent these bottles of wine a few weeks before the tasting, then on October 11, we all gathered at our respective homes and swirled, sniffed, and sipped our way through some expensive wine. I think some of us spit too, though I confess to not spitting a couple of the wines. The lowest priced bottling was around $49, the highest coming in close to $75. Those are, of course, suggested retail prices.

Here are the wines:

2007 Chateau Felice La Craie American Celebration: From the Chalk Hill AVA, this is actually a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc. It's what we here would call a "Meritage", "we" and "here" being totally irrelevant of course. The Chateau Felice is tight upon pulling the cork, but soon reveals aromas of leather, plum, baking chocolate, and herbs. Out of the four wines, I feel it had the most tannic presence, but backed up the firm tannin with gorgeous flavors of cassis, black cherry, baseball glove, and a bit of dusty oak. I rated this wine a B+, it's very, very good and worthy of your cellar. Suggested retail: $50. Alcohol: 14.3%


2007 Krutz Cellars Stagecoach Cabernet Sauvignon: Ok, first off, why the hell would Krutz even want to send a bunch of bloggers a 95 point (W.E.) cabernet sauvignon? It's suggested retail is $75, so the score:price ratio is right (for once). This was by far the best wine of the tasting, and you can find it for $65 at good retailers. The bouquet is all Napa mountain fruit, brimming with cassis, black cherry, herb, dark earth, and hints of vanilla. Despite four years of age (two in bottle) this wine is still a bit tannic which only means it needs more time in your cellar to become even more delicious. Gorgeous plum and blueberry, vanilla cocoa, dry desert herb, and leather all balance out very nicely on the palate. Wonderfully integrated despite it's young age, the Krutz Stagecoach has many years left. I gave this wine an A and STRONG BUY for those who want a cabernet that reminds us why Napa Valley is one of the best places on earth to grow that varietal. 14.8% abv.


2008 Rodney Strong Alexander's Crown Cabernet Sauvignon: Another $75 srp California cabernet sauvignon, this time from Alexander Valley. Wine Spectator rated this a 93 points, so we have another highly rated wine given to a bunch of bloggers. And again, I am somewhat baffled. That said, I'm more than happy to taste and talk about wines with high scores. Unfortunately, I disagree with the 93 point rating, mine is closer to a B+, or 87/88 points. This smelled of ripe blueberries, sweet red cherry, and oak. After a few hours I was able to detect some bits of minerality but they were lost behind the over-extracted fruit flavors which themselves had to contend with massive amounts of vanilla oak. The palate left me feeling much the same, this wine feels big and tastes intense. More of the ripe berry fruit and a big dollop of vanilla oak are battling it out. I think with time this might mellow out and allow the intriguing mineral element to come play but for now, it's just not my thing. PASS recommendation, especially at $75. 15.5% alcohol. (wow!!)


2007 Wente "The Nth Degree" Cabernet Sauvignon: The last wine of the evening was from Wente, a producer I generally avoid because I've always found their wines to be heavily oaked and lacking structure. Their winery is located the same area they get their fruit from, the Livermore Valley AVA. The 2007 The Nth Degree was heavily oaked as usual, but luckily there was also some firm tannin that acted to restrain the vanilla and cocoa flavors of the oak barrels. Like the Rodney Strong, I smelled a lot of vanilla, cocoa powder, ripe berry fruit, and the barest hint of minerality. Across the palate, more of those extracted berry flavors and vanilla oak, framed by the tannin I mentioned before. Luckily the Wente cabernet is also balanced nicely, so those of you who enjoy a California cabernet sauvignon that is made in the style that California is now departing from need not despair! The suggested retail is $60, teetering on the edge of the "overpriced California wine" precipice. I feel the quality is high, but it's too extracted and still too oaked for my palate. B+ and a PASS from me. If you want this style, don't pay $60 a bottle, despite the obvious quality here. 14.3% alcohol.

Tasting four brawny California cabernet's is one thing, but tasting them in a realistic setting means that you need food to accompany the wines! Cabernet and steak go together like Beau and Burgundy, so it was time to cook up three pieces of tri-tip. Becky was in town helping me pack for my move to Oregon, and my buddy Justin came over because he likes free wine and to hang out. Here are some pictures of our meal:

Tri-tip steaks marinated with a spicy Cajun sauce for a few hours, then put into my cast iron skillet to broil in the oven. I could have gone with rib-eye or New York Strip but those are pricier options and these were the perfect size, one for each of us.

Some people wonder why steak or red meat pairs so well with tannic red wines, one of the reasons for this is that tannin binds well with proteins in red meat, creating a nice synergy of texture and flavor. Another reason, the actual taste of good beef, a "meaty" taste, pairs with flavors like herb, earth, and even spicy black fruit.

Here you see the tri-tip steaks fresh out of the oven, ready to be enjoyed with the different cabernet's. When I pair steak with wine, I tend towards reds with firmer tannin levels opposed to fruitier reds like merlot. Cabernet fits that bill perfectly - if you pick correctly. Forgive the rant, but too many California (Napa Valley in particular) cabernet's are so fruity and over-extracted that their flavors completely overwhelm any food you try to pair with them. As a result, I look for cabernet from Washington state, Mendocino and Lake Counties, the Sierra Foothills, and France. That said, the Krutz paired brilliantly, as did the Chateau Felice.

I have to confess, I reduced the mushrooms in the 2007 Krutz Cellars cabernet, which was so good that I knew it would ensure the mushrooms were awesome.

They were, and spooned onto the steaks created a delicious match of flavors. Again sticking with the more tannic reds of the tasting, Chateau Felice and Krutz, earth flavors found in mushrooms are complementary to those wines.

I wish I had the finished meal to show you, plated and all, but I don't. That's a major fail on my part, but I can leave you with this: the meal was damn good.

Cabernet Sauvignon is versatile, it can grow in many places on this planet and the finished wine can run the gamut from austere to overly sweet and tasting of vanilla sawdust. My tastes run towards the former, and lucky for me and those with palates like mine, there is a shift towards more restrained styles going on in California. Each wine we tasted was high quality, of that there is no doubt, unfortunately the latter two were simply over-made wines. They aimed for a flavor profile that is increasingly out of sync with today's wine drinker. Time will tell if in future vintages, Rodney Strong and Wente's top offerings begin to resemble those of producers like Krutz, Round Pond, and Elizabeth Spencer.

The TasteLive event itself was a lot of fun, even if I wasn't able to tweet as much as I'd hoped. Juggling hosting duties, taking notes, and interacting with people on Twitter and TasteLive was a daunting task, one that I need to work on. That said, I want to thank the TasteLive folks and the winery representatives for taking the time to get this all up and get us bloggers the wine, as well as sticking around to answer questions and give us good data on what we were drinking.

These wines were media samples for tasting purposes.

Beau Carufel