May 2010 Wine Club Selections

Women in Wine Not that we've conducted serious analytical research on the topic, but lately as we've perused our aisles, we've noticed that our shelves have been graced with quite the plethora of impressive bottlings from talented women winemakers. Now we won't enter into the debate over whether women really do have superior taste-buds and olfactory sensors (although there is some evidence to support the theory of "female supertasters"), and we won't get into the glass-ceiling politics behind women on this career path as opposed to that. But we will say that more than a fair share of our own favorite wines are being produced by winemakers with two X chromosomes, and we think these ladies may be on to something. So in celebration of women and all their super-tasting ingenuity, we've selected a roster of wines made or inspired by women this month, from all regions and all walks of life. From a nineteenth century stage actress to an Italian cook and mother and a few California trailblazers, these are the women at the forefront of the wine industry today: scientists, artists, cultivators and culinary masterminds wrapped into one. We couldn't think of a better month for this lineup than the one in which we honor our mothers, so be sure to share a glass with your mother or your lady, and tell her what great taste she has. Cause you know she does. And because she does, she's gonna love these ...

2008 Bastianich Tocai Friuliano Grape variety: Tocai Region: Friuli, Italy Food pairing: Bagna Cauda or figs wrapped with Prosciutto di Parma If you're an avid viewer of cooking shows and/or Italian food, the name Lidia Bastianich is likely familiar to you. For years, Lidia has been the Italian mother coming into American homes via television, showing us how to make the comforting Italian dishes our own mothers may not have had the slightest clue how to make. But what many don't know is that Lidia, in partnership with her son, sommelier Joe Bastianich and friend and superstar chef, Mario Batali, owns her own vineyards in Italy. Within the Colli Orientali region of Friuli, the Tocai Friuliano grape is king of the white wines (though in 2007, the EU mandated they begin calling it Friuliano since another region laid claims on the Tocai name.) Lidia's Friuliano is a classic expression of the local grape and terroir, with medium body and lush flavors of pear, mineral and almond. More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/italy/70077.html 2007 Guenoc North Coast Victorian Claret Grape variety: Meritage Blend Region: North Coast, California Food pairing: Point Reyes California Blue Cheese In 1888, flamboyant British stage actress and notorious tomboy Lillie Langtry purchased a vineyard property sight-unseen in the North Coast of California, arrived with entourage and a small fleet of stagecoaches, rolled up her sleeves and started making her own wine. "Greatest Claret in the county," she proclaimed, and who could argue with her? Over a century later, that estate has changed hands a number of times, gone fallow during prohibition, and was revived in 1963 by the current owners. Inspired by Lillie's spirit, they saw it fitting to make a "Victorian Claret" in her honor (Claret is just another name for a Bordeaux blend, containing Cabernet, Merlot, Cab Franc, and sometimes Petit Verdot or Malbec.) And since 1981, Guenoc has held the distinction of being the only single-proprietor AVA in the country! Lillie would be proud. Expect friendly red fruits and an ever so slightly spicy finish to this well-rounded blend. More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/california/13261.html

2007 Selby Chardonnay Grape variety: Chardonnay Region: Russian River Valley, California Food pairing: Baskets of popcorn shrimp and pesto Susie Selby is her father's child. Raised by a man who loved wines of all sorts, not just the big powerful wines with high scores or the most elegant or the most well known, but all of them, she was encouraged to taste and love wine, enthralled with the lure and history of it as she was growing up. It was her dad's dream to have a Selby family label, so Susie pitched in with the marketing development when he first launched it. It was only then that Susie began to really fall in love with winemaking itself, and in the early 1990's, Susie ditched the corporate career to learn everything she could about making wine, from driving a forklift to running a tasting room. Sadly, her father passed away in 1997, but Susie carried on the legacy on her own, now in her fifteenth vintage. Chardonnay was the first wine they made, and one of the wines she continues to love. While this one is for all of you who have patiently waited through the zestier whites to get to some buttery ripe California Chard, Susie still balances that buttery fruit with a good dose of acidity. More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/california/13407.html 2005 Hagen's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Grape Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon Region: Napa Valley, California Food pairing: Beef ribs with cocoa-spice dry rub Some wineries are smart enough to hire a woman winemaker to join their team, contributing those highly-tuned feminine sensors to the selection and blending process. The Palmaz family, who makes Cedar Knoll Vineyard Co. Hagen's Reserve, had the insight to hire two. Mia Klein is a well-respected Napa Valley winemaking consultant; her credentials are outlined in the Premiere selections this month. Tina Mitchell, the full-time winemaker at Palmaz, has some serious street cred of her own, having learned under the legendary Andre Tchelistcheff at Niebaum Coppola winery. Put the two together, and you've got a team that can really crank out a great Cabernet. A perennial staff favorite that seems to over-deliver every vintage, Cedar Knoll carries ripe red fruit and mocha tannins that make it an interesting wine to taste as it evolves over a year or two. More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/california/74523.html

2008 Patricia Green Pinot Noir Croft Vineyard Grape Variety: Pinot Noir Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon Food pairing: Grean pea risotto with May morels Patricia Green is a pretty humble person with humble beginnings in the wine industry. In the 1980's, she left the re-forestation business literally to pick grapes for Hillcrest Vineyard in Oregon. Within a small amount of time, she had somehow worked her way up the winery ladder to assistant winemaker, and only a few more years later she was known throughout Oregon, by wine critics, and Pinot drinkers as the Famous Patty Green, Pinot Expert. She made wine and garnered high scores for Torii Mor for six vintages before she got her own name on her own label, a phenomenon she's still a little shy about. "I'm not a name-in-lights kind of gal," she says, but today she is the creative force behind what she humbly calls "a pretty decent little two-person operation." Patricia and her winemaking partner Jim Anderson believe in the expression of terroir in each individual vineyard, and Croft remains one of her best sources for silky, cherry and earth-laden Pinot Noir. Patricia Green Cellars is located in the Ribbon Ridge district of Yamhill County on the 52 acre estate purchased in 2000 by Patty Green and Jim Anderson. The winery is noted for producing a tremendously broad selection of Pinot Noirs from far flung vineyards representing some of the better sites in the Ribbon Ridge, Dundee Hills, Chehalem Mountains, and the Eola Hills growing regions. Patricia Green produces Pinot Noirs that show the distinctions of the differing soils and climates of these sites. More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/oregon/62556.html 2007 Elizabeth Spencer Cabernet Sauvignon Grape variety: Cabernet Sauvignon Region: Napa Valley, California Food pairing: Beef and fingerling potato kebabs on rosemary skewers Today, many proprietors of Napa Valley vineyards come to the Valley looking for a second home after making their fortune in another industry. But for Elizabeth Pressler, wine was always the focus, though it took a number of years before her dream of owning her own winery was obtained. She came to Napa in 1978 to work as a tour guide for Joseph Phelps Vineyards. Over the next few decades, she worked her way through numerous hospitality and wine marketing positions with Araujo, Dalla Valle, Spottswoode and Viader, (to name only a few) before she and her husband, Spencer Graham, finally founded their own winery, Elizabeth Spencer. Today they source their Cabernet from Napa's finest sub-appellations in St. Helena, Howell Mountain, Yountville, Oakville, Rutherford and Mt. Veeder to come up with just the right blend of cassis, cigar box, incense, cherry and plum cobbler flavors. More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/california/09159.html

2000 Corison Cabernet Sauvignon Grape variety: Cabernet Sauvignon Region: Napa Valley, California Food pairing: Organic dry-aged ribeye steak It's no secret that to get a Napa Cabernet noticed by the critics and the public alike, many winemakers feel the need to make wines that boom and shout on the palate. But as wine writer Jancis Robinson once said, "Cathy Corison has barely to whisper." Cathy has a philosophy on Cabernet that many may claim to ascribe to but few actually practice in California today. She makes wines the old-fashioned way, some would argue the French way: to be less ripe, less alcoholic, and most importantly, ageworthy. The wines are subtle, complex, never "big" or "flashy" or over-concentrated. And thus, they often won't catch a reviewer's eye in a blind tasting, where the ripest and boldest wine often wins. But those are often not wines that you want to drink ten years later this is. Cathy spent almost thirty years making wine for others, including Chappellet (where she mentored Mia Klein), Staglin, and Long Meadow Ranch, before she made the first vintage of her own Corison Cabernet in 1987. "There was a wine inside me that needed to be made," she says. And the rest is history. Recognized and well-respected across the industry as a maker of age-worthy Cabernets, Cathy will never be seen donning the front cover of a glossy mag as a "rockstar winemaker." Instead she prefers to do things rather quietly, with wines that "define style and grace." (Wine Enthusiast). And that's just how we like her. More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/california/13131.html 2004 Selene Chesler Blend Grape Variety: Grenache Region: Chateauneuf du Pape, Rhone Valley, France Food pairing: Slow-roasted leg of lamb Winemaker Mia Klein really earned her stripes as a consulting winemaker before finally beginning her own wine label. Her resume reads like a who's who of Napa wineries: she worked her way up to assistant winemaker under the venerable Cathy Corison (see second Premiere selection) at Chappellet before going on to make wine for Spottswoode, Araujo, Viader, Dalla Valle, Bressler and Palmaz. In 2003 Food and Wine magazine named her "Winemaker of the Year." But it's her own Selene label that's Mia's personal expression of winemaking. The Cabernet Franc (60%) and Merlot (22%) both came from the Frediani Family vineyard and were picked and co-fermented together, creating a rare seamlessness to the blend. Cabernet Sauvignon (18%) from the hailed Stagecoach Vineyard in Oakville joined the party later, imparting a deep blackberry flavor to the profile of the wine. Parker found flavors of sweet cherry, licorice and spicebox, noting, "It is a broad, savory, rich, full-bodied red that retains the hallmark elegance and purity for which Mia Klein's winemaking is known." "Selene" was named after a Greek moon goddess, a tribute to the important role the moon and its influence on nature plays in a winemaker's life. But the Chesler bottling may be the most personal to Mia, as it carries a picture of her own mom waterskiing on the front label. More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/california/13124.html