Striving for the ultimate Pinot, the passing of Jamie Davies, Pe-CHANG-gaaaaa and much more
For the next couple of weeks it’s just you and me, dear readers, as Kim is on special assignment and won’t be contributing to the daily grind, so to speak, for a little while. But I’ll be here for you. I’ll always be here for you. Here are links to recent blog posts from across the web that might be of some interest to you:
Nabor Camarena, vineyard manager at Robert Stemmler Winery and The Donum Estate, describes his role in the two sister wineries’ quest to produce the Ultimate Pinot. Writes Camarena:
[Wine grower] Anne [Moller-Racke] and I were talking yesterday, and I told her that this is my 24th vintage. I know enough, but not everything. My job is interesting because it’s a constant learning experience.
I play a game with myself, like a football coach. I don’t focus on the end of the game. Instead, I try to concentrate on it play by play - a five-yard run here, getting into field goal position there. Yes, I have an idea of what a whole vintage might bring, but right now I’m concentrating totally on pruning, and next week, on tying the canes to trellis wires.
As I look back over 24 years, I realize there are many more people making wine now. Many have gone to school and are good at putting the numbers together. In the old days, people made wine more with intuition and talent, but the results were more vintage dependent because they had fewer tools to work with. Today, I think there may be fewer people with talent in our industry. But those who are both well-educated and talented — they are exceptional. Talent also has a lot to do with passion for your work.
Since Camarena brought up the football analogy I’ll expand on it a bit by adding an anecdote that New England Patriots head coach likes to tell at press conferences, namely how golf ace Tiger Woods twice remade his swing to improve his game even though he didn’t exactly have a pressing need to do so either time. Belichick’s point is obviously quite simple: No matter how good you are, there’s always room for improvement (here’s an example of Belichick raving about Woods (wine, golf, football - you get it all here at Wineries.net)).
As Camarena concludes his post: “We’re all still learning.” And there’s quite a bit to learn from the Ultimate Pinot blog.
One Day in Wine Country reflects on the passing of Jamie Davies, “America’s first lady of sparkling wine.” The New York Times’s Erik Asimov wrote an obituary on Jamie last week. Sommelier Melissa Smith writes on her blog Wine Chef:
The legacy that the Davies will leave behind will far outlive them in the sparkling wine that brings effervescence to all of our lives that are graced with the opportunity to experience it.
Wine Scamp has a nice picture of Jamie and her son Hugh.
While attending the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers “Blind Muscat” Tim Patterson sampled wine from Blackbird Vineyards and visted Charles Krug winery. Writes Patterson about Blackbird:
The lunch, sponsored by Blackbird Vineyards, was held at an interior design studio in St. Helena, and high style was on full display. The Blackbird venture, focused on ultra-high-end Merlot and Merlot-based blends, is one of Napa’s hot young properties, with just one vintage in the bottle and two in the cellar. The wines are extremely well made and very Napa, full of fruit and color, definitely legitimate contenders in the $100-a-bottle league they play in. Blackbird seems to be on every trendspotter’s “wineries to watch” list.
He then compares Blackbird to Charles Krug and sees a rather daunting challenge for the latter.
Andrew and Jill Tanis are excited over the Ledger Dispatch writing about Tanis Vineyards opening its doors, and also about the winery’s red blend TNT Dynamite Red. From the article:
Five years ago, the couple built a house and moved to Willow Creek Road in Ione and began following the lessons learned from their Elk Grove experiments. Before they could plant vines, though, they had to clear their land of liberal quantities of poison oak, whose distinctive leaves are featured on some of their labels. “As I was making wines, a couple of winery people told me I was making a really good wine and should consider selling it to the public,” Andrew noted. “I owe a lot to people like Steve and Jamie Concannon at Convergence Vineyards and Mark McMaster at Nua Dair for helping along the way.”
Fox News report Adam Housley has posted a handful of pictures from what I think is his family’s vineyard (as well as a couple of pictures that probably aren’t from his vineyard).
Sonoma Sue recently visited Roche Carneros Estate Winery and found it to be to her liking.
Chung Food visits Opus One and Pine Ridge Winery. The wine he tried at Opus One? “It was really good.”
Moe used an unexpected vacation of sorts to visit six wineries in Temecula as well as Pe-CHANG-gaaaaa.
A picture of winter at Peaceful Bend Vineyard in Missouri.
Finally, Montana-based Grizzly Growler thinks the story of Oregon’s wine industry can serve as a road map for his state’s brewery industry, starting with alcohol regulations.