Wine Monkey

My wife discovered the Wine Monkey while browsing at BevMo's 5 cent sale. We rarely go to this sale, but Jose's fond remembrance of the Palo Alto Red makes me want to find it now and again. Finding it for half price is even better.

My initial reaction to the Wine Money was that it was almost as tacky as the flip-flop wine coasters we saw at La Nebbia, but she wanted one, so what could I do. I'll let you be the judge.

Wine Monkey

The back of the box encourages me. "With the Wine Monkey, I went from party zero to party hero!" I guess there's hope for me yet.

La Nebbia

In a last ditch effort to get one more Santa Cruz Mountain's winery in before Summer ended, my wife and I headed to La Nebbia late Sunday afternoon. La Nebbia is location in Half Moon Bay, which means we had to take the dreaded two laned highway 92. 92's speed limit is 45 MPH, but I don't think we got over 20. Thankfully, the trip went pretty fast, only taking 45 minutes; the GPS said it should have taken 33 minutes.

The pumpkins were starting to appear for Half Moon Bay's big Pumpkin Festival that they have every year.

The place was packed, but we got lucky and found a spot.

The tasting room was nice, though a tad small, the bar holding maybe six comfortably. There were 12 people in the room when we came in, the rest of the people must have been in the outdoors area. It took close to ten minutes before we were offered any service; two couples were attempting to settle up, which seemed to preoccupy the hostess. The hostess later ranked the busy level at the time a 2 out of 10; I can't imagine how slow a 10 would have been.

Tasting was $8 for 7 wines and a decent, though a tad small, souvenir glass. The fee is not refunded if you purchase any of the wine, which I guess makes sense given the glass. Given the choice I wouldn't have paid for the glass, but it's not a choice. On the plus side, the glass is usable as a backup, unlike most other souvenir glasses I have purchased, which are way too small.

Souvenir Glass Compared to a Normal Glass

The tasting room contained a gift shop area, with various oils, jams, some refrigerated bottles of their whites, and meats, as well as various wine products. Sue found the perfect wine coasters: Flip flop coasters! How silly.

Flip Flop Coasters

The wine was hit or miss, mostly miss for me. We tried three whites: A Sauvignon Blanc, a Chard, and a sparkling wine. The sparkling wine was very sweet; after a sip I let my wife enjoy the rest. We also tried four reds: A Sangiovese, which was nice, a Zinfandel, a "mystery" Merlot, and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Sue liked the Merlot in addition to the Sangiovese, which was a mystery because it wasn't from the winery; the hostess actually referred to it as such. We passed on the $2 port tasting; it was served in a chocolate cup, which made it tempting.

La Nebbia had a huge outdoor area with picnic tables and two very nice bocce courts. There were lots of groups, spread out, and having a good time. Parts were a little run down, but as a gathering spot, I think it worked well.

A Witch Shrubbery

In the tasting room they had a cabinet of glass pumpkins. The creator of these beautiful items was blowing and answering questions near by. He had some really cool looking jelly fish lamps, in addition to numerous other items.

We were told about their Bottle & Cork days, where you bring a bottle, pay $5, and they fill and cork your bottle. It sounded kinda fun.

We headed out, back over the mountain.

Winery Details

Wish List Decanters

I'm not a big shopper, but every now and then I look at the crazy decanters from Riedel and imagine what I would do if I ever won the lottery.

Black Tie Bliss Decanter

I love the look of this one. It could help set the mood on a romantic night.


Sommeliers Black Tie Amadeo Decanter


Amadeo Decanter

I'm not certain what the difference is between these two, besides price. They are both pure beauty that I've seen in action once at a wine maker's dinner I was lucky enough to attend. It was very impressive, elevating the already elegant dinner.


Sommeliers Black Tie Decanter

This one is similar to the Amadeo, but it's different enough to warrant a mention.

Wine Read : Santa Cruz mountain winegrowers: Cool weather means fewer grapes, better quality

http://www.mercurynews.com/central-coast/ci_19016162

Zinfandel Large Group Blind Wine Tasting

The jackal and his wife joined us for a Zinfandel blind tasting.

I wanted to start at 6, since it's getting cold and dark earlier these days. By 6:15 everyone but Jose and Lili were there. We took a vote and the consensus was to wait until they arrived. I pulled out a 2009 Marilyn Remark Viognier to keep the growing unrest at bay.

Michel had arrived a little early and had prepared a lovely plate of pâté with bread. Pâté isn't really my thing, but in the spirit of expanding my tastes I gave it a try. It tasted meaty, which, to me, was a strange taste for a spread. Bob and Carolyn had also arrived a little early with cheese and crackers. So much cheese that I had to wonder if they had left any in the store. Carolyn assured us all that the cheese choosing was all Bob. 15 minutes after arriving Bob was still preparing his incredible cheese plate.

Bob Preparing the Cheese Plates

The Cheese Plates' Legend

Park entertained with tricks on his diablo.

Park and His Diablo

Bob brought out his beautifully arranged and plentiful cheese plates. We all dug in. Everyone enjoyed each other's company while waiting. About every 5 minutes someone called or texted Jose. He said he was on the way, so we sat tight. Bob joked that we were having a wake for the late Jose. The cheese was spectacular! Indulging in it whet everyone's appetite for a glass of wine.

Finally, Jose arrived sans Lili. She wasn't feeling well, but was kind enough to prepare lasagna for us. Sue and Kait randomized the bottles and we started tasting the 5 wines, one by one. At some point Bob told a joke about an infinite number of mathematicians going into a bar and ordering a drink. I can't remember the rest. I do remember that he said Carolyn laughed when she originally heard it. I don't remember if anyone else laughed that night. While tasting I brought out a couple of aroma wheels. Carolyn and Ling entertained us by finding strange aromas such as mousy. This wine smells mousy, yum!

Carolyn & Ling Find Silly Smells Like Mousy

Bob & Carolyn Talk With Ling & the Jackal

Now This is How you Eat Pâté

After we tasted the originally planned 5, we threw in 3 more. Bob and Carolyn, Carlos and Ling, and Sue and I had an extra on hand that we brought to share.

After compiling the ratings, I went crazy and opened the other three Zins I had in the house. I opened a Storrs Rusty Ridge so Jose could argue his case that it was actually a Pinot. I next opened a Ridge East Bench, because I knew Bob liked it so much. Lastly, I opened a 2007 Picchetti Bellicitti Zin. Michel tasted it and said, "Now this is a five!"

Results

Top to Bottom from Left to Right

G - 2008 Dry Creek Vineyard, Sonoma County, Heritage came in first with an average rating of 3.875. Bob and Carolyn brought this. It cost $27.

E - 2007 Dry Creek Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Beesen Ranch came in second with an average rating of 3.5625. Jose brought this. It cost $30.

C - 2005 Green & Red Vineyard, Napa Valley, Tip Top Vineyard came in third with an average rating of 3.03125. Ling and Carlos brought this. It cost $26.

D - 2007 Dashe, Florence Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley came in fourth with an average rating of 2.875. Sue and I brought this. It cost $28. I found this by googling for the best Zinfandel in California, which lead me to The Best Zinfandels in California: Tasting at ZAP 2010. I then picked one of the best rated wines.

H - 2008 Ridge, Paso Robles, Benito Dusi Ranch came in fifth with an average rating of 2.875. Ling and Carlos also brought this. It cost $30. I did not make it clear to them that group favorites were not allowed. I thought this was the best wine of the tasting.

A - 2009 Hartford, Russian River Valley, Dina's Vineyard tied for sixth with an average rating of 2.5625. Bob and Carolyn also brought this. It cost $55.

B - 2008 Storybook Mountain Vineyards, Napa Estate, Mayacamas Range also tied for sixth with an average rating of 2.5625. Michel brought this. It cost $30. He said it came highly recommended from one of the staff at K&L. He joked that he would return to K&L to discuss its showing.

F - Martinelli, Russian River Valley, Jackass Vineyard came in dead last with an average rating of 1.8125. Sue and I also brought this. It cost a whopping $95! I noticed it on the front page of the website I bought the Dashe at: Wine Ranger Cellars. The site said it received a 94 from Robert Parker. I'll admit, I went a little crazy with this order and was incredibly disappointed to find a sweet, jammy wine. If you haven't guessed already, Sue was not consulted on this purchase.

The Results in Ted's Trademarked Format

Once again we proved that money doesn't necessarily matter, or perhaps we just don't have that expensive tastes. Either way, I'm not certain I'll learn.

What is amazing is that Dry Creek took first and second. Years ago Jose and Lili put on a blind tasting and Dry Creek came in second, after Burrell School Pinot.

We headed inside to try some of Lili's lasagna, and Sue's chicken and dumplings.

Obligatory Sue with Wine Glass Shot

Prohibition Premieres Tomorrow

Prohibition, a new documentary by Ken Burns, premieres October 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 2011 at 8 PM on PBS. It look interesting.

An Ideal Wine

An Ideal Wine : One Generation's Pursuit of Perfection - and Profit - in California, by David Darlington, chronicles the California wine industry primarily through two players: Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon and Leo McCloskey of Enologix. Into these two people's main stories, the book seamlessly integrates numerous other interesting tales ranging from the outrageous Beverly Hills Wine Merchant, to the rebuilding of the wine educational system post prohibition, to the formation of Kendall-Jackson, Two Buck Chuck, and [yellow tail], just to name a few. Randall and Leo take very different paths to try and create great wine, exploring drastically different parts of the wine world, both equally interesting, and sometimes in opposition. Randall searches for the perfect terrior, while Leo uses state of the art wine analysis.

I really enjoyed this 337 page book. Both of the characters are interesting and I love the way the author integrated the multitude of interesting subplots. I feel like I've learned a lot about how wine is made and the history of California wine.

Reading this book has also put a hankering inside me to revisit Bonny Doon, now that I have a history of the place, the man behind the wine, and his struggles. I also wish I could do some sort of blind tasting of a Randall vs Leo wine.

Some Randall Grahm Quotes I Love

"The great pinots are the greatest wines. They're captivating-they have depth, seductiveness, fragrance, complexity... There's nothing like them-they're unrivaled"

Pinot being one of my favorites, how could I not like this.

His description of Zinfandel : "oversized, loud, blustery, lacking finesse...the SUV of grapes...a wine for enthusiasts, not connoisseurs."

I'll be using this to prod Jose, a good friend and Zinfandel nut, for years to come.

Rhys Vineyard

I found the chapter on Rhys Vineyard very interesting. I wanted to try their wine so I signed up for their mailing list on their web site. Here's the response I received:

"We have added you to our waiting list. We currently sell all of our wine to our active mailing list. We estimate that there is a 1-2 year wait before you will be able to purchase wine and move onto our active mailing list."

Interesting Terms

biodynamics - Think organic farming to the nines and a little crazy.

lees - The leftover junk (sediment, pulp, and yeast cells) that settle out of a wine after it's been pressed. They consume oxygen, contributing to the chemical process known as reduction.

micro-ox - The controlled injection of oxygen into wine to help soften the tannins.

reverse osmosis - A filtration process that separates a wine's flavor and color from its water and alcohol.