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Wednesday, June 25, 2008Brosseau Chardonnay is Wine of the Week
![]() Novus Vinum, Gayot's sister publication focused on wine, has named our Brosseau Chardonnay Wine of the Week! You can read more about it on www.novusvinum.com.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008Sometimes small things are great
![]() The Monday Room (210 Elizabeth Street, New York, New York) is one of our favorite places in New York. Elizabeth Street also is the home of the Tasting Room - another great place. Anyway, Ruben has our Recluse. Seeing it on the list made us both happy. You can see his whole list on their website - www.themondayroom.com
Sunday, June 22, 2008Falling asleep thinking about fires and waking up to a review
Wine making is agricultural business. Following Pliny's advice, our vineyards are typically on the edge of where that particular varietal will ripen with lots of exceptions.
In our case, this means many of our vineyards are located literally in the woods. This years fire season is already rough and we got our first fire call yesterday. There are several fires burning near our Broken Leg vineyard in Anderson Valley. Nothing close enough to worry about, at least yet. Trying to fall asleep last night, I couldn't help but thinking about the fires. First 80% crop loss to frost, next a fire... Reading email this morning, I saw a new consumer post on CellarTracker regarding our Brosseau Chardonnay. Drank enjoyably and uncritically with dinner. Here are some of the things we noticed. This is a unique and unusual wine. It had what we call a skanky nose at first. That isn't necessarily bad and got better as time went on. It had substantial acidity and some mustard green (herbal) and spicy flavors. Cinnamon and nutmeg. It matched well with asparagus (!) and salmon and grilled onions. The acidity pretty much took care of all flavors. There was also a bit of oxidized, sherry flavor in there somewhere which I assume came from the ver jus that was stored and added back. An enjoyable drinking experience but not at all typical. dfeiner I like to read these reviews in context of the reviewer. You can see all of their reviews here.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008Meeting Alice Feiring
We went last night to hear Alice Feiring read from her new book The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization. (Parker isn't a fan - Forbes recently published his views.)
It was very interesting to see the polarization of the people in the audience. Alice stated that she thought there was more to wine than a simple number - some jumped on the band wagon and talked to her about their love for understated wines that expressed something unique. Others argued that Parker followed that line of thinking and gave examples. One of my favorite wine makers was brought up - the late Eduardo Valentini. His wines were his - his rose often had a slight amount of CO2 left in it (or perhaps it came about after bottling). I loved them and cherish the few I have left. I don't know how he was rated but I think Alice appreciated his desire to do his own thing.
Saturday, May 31, 2008Bees
There have been many reports over the last year about collapsing bee populations. In our backyard, we don't seem to get nearly as many. In fact, in the past, I have had to keep Isabel, our daughter, away from our sage when it is in bloom. The bees were often swarming around it.
This year, we haven't gotten any. I am not sure if the local colony has collapsed like numerous others have in California. Or perhaps it is just coincidence. Germany has just banned 8 pesticides out of fear of this problem. Our vineyards don't use this pesticide or much of anything since several are organic. That said, I wonder if something else used by the wine industry is contributing to this problem. Bees aren't crucial to grape pollination but they may be beneficial and I would hate to see them go especially since I love almonds...
Thursday, May 29, 2008Summer Beach Reading
![]() I just returned from Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. We had a great time on the beach and at our winemaker's dinner at the Port Land Grille. Instead of the light, typical summer reading, I brought Gods, Men and Wine by William Younger. I am sure I am going to write more about this book but for now: 'Rabbi Ishmael son of Rabbi Jose visited the home of Rabbi Simeon... They offer him a goblet, which he accepted at the first invitation and drank at one draught. Said they to him:"Do you agree that he who drinks his goblet in one draught is greedy?" Said he to them: "This was not said when your goblet is small, your wine sweet, and my stomach broad."' (Talmud-B, Pesahim, 456.) Such common sense deserved another goblet. So far, it is a dense but great book. More latter.
Thursday, May 15, 2008We ARE going home again
Thomas Wolfe may have said, "You can't go home again" but Jared and I plan to do exactly that next week. Crazy scheduling challenges even has us each at a wine maker dinner in our home state on the very same night. With Isabel, I'm off to North Carolina on Saturday where I'll spend the first week in and around the Triangle. While there I'll get out in the market with our fabulous sales reps at JUICE (our distributor in NC). Tuesday we will be in Charlotte and Wednesday in Raleigh. On Tuesday Jared will fly to Salt Lake City where he'll to celebrate his nephews birthday. On Wednesday evening I'll be in Chapel Hill at Elaine's on Franklin for a dinner (if you are in Chapel Hill pls join us!) and Jared will be in Salt Lake City at Luganos for a 50+ person dinner that is sold out! It probably didn't hurt that he made the papers yesterday http://www.sltrib.com/food/ci_9248625.
The second week we will try to vacation more than we work and have rented a house at Wrightsville Beach. I've seen beaches in the Caribbean, France, Spain, Italy, Australia and New Zealand and have never seen anything that is better (for me) than the North Carolina beaches. Needless to say I'm pretty excited! Jared will join us for the holiday weekend and to help me celebrate my new year (no guesses please). And we will conclude our spring sales tour together with a wine maker dinner at The Port Land Grille on May 27th. After that we turn into harvest pumpkins! Sante, Tracey
Thursday, May 08, 2008Natural Wine Making circa 1907
![]() Last night I went to bed thinking about Joe Dressner and Jean-Paul Brun. Joe Dressner imports a great selection of wines from France and is a wonderful story teller. (Just spend some time reading about Buster and the airport.) Joe introduced us to Eric Texier and to many numerous great wines. He is a defender and champion of natural wines which reflect their terroir. He also imports one of my favorite Beaujolais - Domaine des Terres Dorées made by Jean-Paul Brun. Jean-Paul's wines were recently denied "A.O.C." status. Having drunk these wines often (and having lived near Jean-Paul),I am not surprised that they were denied this status. They are unique and reflect something from the past that has nearly been lost. The are not made with 71B - the yeast many attribute the banana flavor often found in Beaujolais wine. After thinking about this last night, I read an interesting blog post this morning regarding a vigeron revolt in 1907. It reads "Long live to the natural wine", "down with sugar" and "down with cheaters". As is often the case with wine making, what is old is now new. To learn more about the historical reference and read a wonderful blog, take a gander at the blog Wine Tasting, Vineyard in France by Bertrand Celce.
Sunday, April 27, 2008Some Brief Notes
We have already gotten busy with the 2008 season and, believe it or not, with wrapping up 2006. We have been busy blending our final 2006 wines (and even a reserve 2005 bottling of Syrah.)
Tim Patterson's article in Wine and Vines on wild yeast features us and it a worthwhile read. Using wild yeast is "not safe winemaking," says Greg La Follette, who does it at Tandem Winery. Read the whole article at http://www.winesandvines.com Plastic is a hot topic these days. We make our wines in oak for a variety of reason - one of the health. The concerns about plastic have caused Nalgene to stop making a whole product line. Some worthwhile reads: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/business/18plastic.htm http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm And lastly, Steve Lightner posted about our little experiment on his blog On The Contrary - http://www.onthecontrary.us Labels: Gamay, Lightner, Plastic, Syrah, Wild Yeast
Sunday, April 20, 2008More on NYC eating
I realize it must seem like we did nothing but drink wine and eat...well that is partially true. Thankfully lugging a stroller with a 3 year old or wine bag up & down the streets and subways does burn a few calories! Before we left I did a little research on where to eat. With so many options and so much potential I wanted to make sure we took advantage of every meal to either try something new, visit an old favorite and/or visit an account. For research I turned to my favorite food blog tablehopper (http://www.tablehopper.com/) by Marcia Gagliardi. She is a prolific and gifted writer and we clearly share food preferences. She has 3 visits to NYC archived so I compiled and culled until I had a nice little one pager to carry around in my pocket. On of several I sought on her recommendation was the Monday Room which is the wine bar associated with the restaurant PUBLIC in the LES on Prince Street. Jared and I had the pleasure of spending the start of an evening with Ruben who is the som. I’m not easily impressed and can say both the wines and food were highlights of our visit. For wines, we tasted two stunning and unique whites. One was a 2002 Cour Cheverney made from the Romorantin grape which I was unfamiliar. The other was a 2005 Vin de Pay of 50/50 Viognier & Muscat that was wholly unexpected in it’s aromatic profile and utterly enjoyable. We only sampled two menu items but one was again, riveting and rivaled a recent dinning experience at Daniel Patterson’s COI in San Francisco. It was a pickled beet and eel “bite” topped with a poached pheasant egg. The flavors and textures were amazing. The Monday Room was special b/c Ruben is extremely passionate and knowledgeable and personally attends to each guest.The other wine bar experience we thoroughly enjoyed and found from Marcia was Inotecca, also in the LES at Rivington and Ludlow. We landed at JFK on Sat at 6pm and by 8pm with our 3yr old fast asleep in her stroller we relished our first meal back in NYC. The locals looked surprised and then impressed to see our sleeping beauty in this hip and happening spot. And the light dinner was perfect. Of course, any place that focuses the menu around “stuff” on bread is going to draw me and this was certainly up there with the best of them. Also worth mentioning from the favorite new spot category are two of David Chang's places: We took Isabel for lunch at Momofuko Noodle and Ssam. Both were fabulous but being the pork loving girl that I am if I was pressed to pick one I'd go Ssam. Finally, our last meal together (Jared sadly was in New Jersey when I was sipping the 1947 Rioja at BLT Market) was Sunday brunch at The Tasting Room. This qualifies as both a favorite and an account but this was our first time for brunch. Not surprising Colin's culinary artistry is not limited to dinner time. I'm from North Carolina and it is not easy to please me where biscuits, corn bread and grits are concerned. He made all 3 to a level even my grandmother would have approved of. All of this food writing has my stomach grumbling...I wonder if wine critics get thirsty when writing about wines?!? Tracey Labels: LES, Monday Room, NYC, Tablehopper
Wednesday, April 16, 2008More from NYC: A 1947 Rioja
On Friday evening Isabel and I had our last NYC dinner at BLT Market. This account is one of our favorites, located in the Ritz Carlton at So, we three sit down to dinner at this gorgeous restaurant overlooking Organic. Natural. Old wood (they cooper themselves from American Appalachian Oak). Native fermentations. Hands over machines for all phases of winemaking. An appreciation for the structure provided by a strong acid backbone. And most impressive, after 131 years the estate is still in the hands of the original family. I know the first appointment I am making on my next trip to Here's to 61 and still going strong! Tracey Labels: BLT Market, López de Heredia, Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva
Monday, April 14, 2008New York, New York
Our first of several sales trips happened last week:
More Labels: Aqua Grill, Texier
Friday, April 04, 2008Best Chef in Utah hosting our debut
![]() We had the pleasure of meeting Greg Neville, owner and Chef at Lugano's in Salt Lake, a few weeks ago. He is hosting our Utah debut on May 20th. I have heard he is a great chef from many people including my mom. That has been confirmed with his recent award from Salt Lake Magazine as the Best Chef in Salt Lake.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008Mother's Day Suggestion
We are planning to follow Novus Vinum's advice and give our mothers our favorite Rosé. Isabel is planning on giving Tracey one as well.
We are thrilled to have our Rosé so widely admired.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008Offline In New Jersey
Anyone interested in an offline in New Jersey? I am planning on meeting a few people at Latour's in Ridgewood on the 11th. I am not sure what BYOB is like in NJ. That said, I will be bringing our Spring Release to sample.
If you are interested, drop me an email or leave a comment. We are having a few scheduling glitches but assuming that can be solved, it should be fun! Latour A French-American Grill 6 East Ridgewood Avenue Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450 201-445-5056
Monday, March 31, 2008Taking a bite out of the Big Apple
We are about to go to NYC for a week. It will be the first family trip to NY. The last time we were there together was before before 9/11 and before Isabel.
We have been a bit overwhelmed with trying to figure out what to do. One useful guide has been Table Hopper by Marcia Gagliardi. Her guide to the East Village has been especially great. Fatty Crab here we come! That said, if you have recommendations for the East Village and for what to do with a three year old in New York, drop us a line.
Saturday, March 22, 2008A Donkey and Goat in Manhattan? - Details on upcoming tasting.
Vestry Wines, a Tribeca wine shop that opened last April, will host an in store tasting event to debut the new spring line up from A Donkey and Goat winery. Vestry was custom designed to showcase each and every one of their hand selected wines from around the world. Jim Kuhner, founder and general manager, travels near and far to find his gems. He also taps the expertise and passion of Shelley Lindgren, Vestry's consulting wine inspirer. Shelley resides in San Francisco as owner and wine director of acclaimed restaurant A16, located in the Marina district of San Francisco. Together, they have built a beautiful boutique wine shop where the center piece is the tasting bar. It is at the bar that Jim's passion shines through when pouring his latest discovery to al that stop in. If you stop in on Thursday April 10th between 6-8:30pm Jim will be pouring Manhattan the first taste of all four wines in the Donkey and Goat spring release. Owners and winemakers Tracey and Jared Brandt will both be in attendance (very rare!) to talk about the wines, their sustainable and organic practices, how they got started and anything else guests might like to ponder. The spring line up includes:
Vestry Wines is located two blocks south of Hudson & Canal. For more information call 212-810-2899 or email contact@vestrywines.com. The tasting is complimentary and will provide guests an opportunity to purchase these limited production wines.
Monday, March 10, 2008Great Dinner - Kudos to the team at Franklin Sq Wine Bar
Last night we hosted a wine maker's dinner at Franklin Square Wine Bar in Oakland. The event was a tremendous success. I wish we had taken some photos.
Sunday, March 09, 2008Several major wine events over the past week
This past week has been one filled with exceptional wine.
Tuesday started the week. We tasted with Greg Neville of Laguno in Salt Lake City. It was a great tasting. Tuesday evening was devoted to the Northern Rhone. Accompanied by a spectacular meal at Rubicon, we have 89 and 95 Hermitage Blanc from Domaine J-L Chave of Tain Hermitage. Both of theses wines were showing extremely well. The Roussanne clearly showed through despite being roughly 20%. Next up were 2 1990 Cornas - one from August Clape (at one point, the local mayor) and the other from Noël Verset . Both were great but the Verset was singing. It had the lovely Thyme/Basil nose that one finds in some great Côte-Rôtie. It reminded me of Clusel-Roch's 98... We followed this with 1983, 88 and 89 Chave Rouge and a 89 Jaboulet La Chappelle. Again, just incredible wines. Hopefully, we can makes wines of this caliber and, like these examples, so specific to their origins. The Tre Bicchieri wine tasting at Fort Mason followed on Wednesday. It was excellent - only our daughter's need to be picked up from school prevented from spending the whole afternoon there. A dinner/birthday celebration at Spuce followed on Saturday. Tracey surprised me with our wine tasting group being present... We had 8 wines - none of which I wrote down. What I remember were: Égly- Ouriet, Les Vignes de Vrigny, Dr. Loosen, Erdner Treppechen 2005, Vouvray Bourillon D'Orleans, Sec 2005, 95 Hospice du Beaune, 97 Vietta Barolo (not sure on the vineyard), 2 cabs and a Aszu , 3 Puttonyos 2000 Tokay with our desert. Tonight is our winemaker's dinner. All in all, a great week!
Monday, March 03, 2008Old Vine Chardonnay
Last Sunday we found some ungrafted, 30 plus year old chardonnay. I wish I had taken a photo - they looked incredible. The vines have been nearly dry farmed, head pruned and generally left alone over this time.
We might try a ton or two - see how a nearly "unmanipulated" vine does.
Our New Projects
We spent part of Sunday sitting on top of a hill thinking about our new project high above Anderson Valley. We are going to graft over an existing vineyard to our specification. We choose the clones a while back along with the grower - now the questions are more focused on what clone to put where.
This is our second project like this, the first being Hog Pen in the Mendocino Ridge AVA. Hog Pen should bear some limited fruit this year - we are very excited. I hope to get up there soon (it takes a good 2.5 hours from Berkeley) and take loads of pictures.
Saturday, March 01, 2008The Berkeley Boycott
Having a business in Berkeley has its ups and downs. Thursday night, we lost a sale due to the city. There has been an ongoing tussle over a marine recruiting station which is in downtown Berkeley. I haven't followed the issue and, being a believer in free speech, wouldn't want to see the Marines go nor have Code Pink stop picketing the station. That said, I am not sure the boycott against Berkeley businesses is going to have its intended impact.
In reality, we sell out of wine. This person's decision won't impact our sales (though I would still love to have him as a customer). I did do some rough math on what the impact would be if we were not able to sell the wine: The direct impact on the City of Berkeley would be about $.06. Since this was an out of state sale, sales tax (much more direct impact) isn't a factor. I doubt the Berkeley City Council' will be taking a penny pay cut for this. If we couldn't sell the wine, eventually we would have to stop purchasing grapes from the growers. In this case, half was Chardonnay which comes from Jon Brosseau's vineyard. Jon has worked for the defense industry his whole life. He designs rockets (or something to that effect) for Lockheed Martin. Good thing to punish him for the Berkeley City Council's decisions. Our other growers are all farmers. If I remember correctly, two of them are vets. They clearly need to be punished as well. On our end, we live in Oakland. While the business is in Berkeley, our political choices are not reflected in Berkeley. I guess we could move the winery but that isn't very realistic. Perhaps we should just lose our entrepreneurial spirit, give up the business and just work for large corporations or the government... Tom Bates, the Berkeley Mayor, was a Captain in the US Army. He has specific reasons for support the anti-war effort. Bill O'Reilly whose show led to the canceled order did not attempt to present Tom Bates side. (Bill O'Reilly is not a veteran according to Wikipedia.) Melanie Morgan, who seemed to be pro anti Berkeley stated on the show that she hadn't endorsed the boycott. She did state: In fact, I'm in contact with over 150 Fortune 500 companies that have been put together in a list. These people are seeing that their service vendors and their people are not going to participate financially with Berkeley anymore. Millions of dollars have been taken off the table. Show TranscriptI would love to see the list and talk to a few of the 150 people. Melanie does have Google Ads on her blog. Google has a research lab in Berkeley. I assume, if she changes her opinion and explicitly supports the boycott that those ads will go. The new Bay Bridge will use steel cables made in Berkeley. I guess the right thing to do is punish the state and drive around. And lastly, I wonder if they realized the connection between UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Probably not..
Friday, February 29, 2008More Open House Fun - Photos
![]() ![]() ![]() Oakland Magazine sent a photographer to our open house and they have posted them on their site. Take a look. My father also took some photo including a nice one of Chris. He came at the end but we were all still enjoying ourselves.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008Wine Maker Dinner - Come Celebrate My Birthday
My birthday is March 8th. Isabel is making me cupcakes which will be wonderful. Outside of that, our plans are low key for the evening. The night after, we are hosting a dinner at our favorite east bay wine bar - Franklin Square.
Details are below. We would love to see you there and no need to bring a present. A Donkey & Goat Winemaker’s Dinner Sunday March 9th 2008 – 7pm $65 per person For reservations, call 510-251-0100 2007 Isabel's Cuvee, Rosé of Grenache Gris Bocarones w/ Black Olive Puree & Goathorn Chilies on Crostini Chorizo & Mahon Bocadillo Salt Cod Croquettes 2006 Brosseau Vineyard Chardonnay Pheasant Terrine w/ Baby Greens & Walnut Vinaigrette 2006 Three Thirteen & 2006 Recluse Pan-Roasted Venison w/ Celeriac-Potato Puree & a Red Wine–Huckleberry Sauce Red Wine Sorbet Selection of Cheeses Coffee & Chocolates Franklin Square Wine Bar – 2212 Broadway, Oakland , CA 94612 For reservations, call 510-251-0100
Monday, February 25, 2008And Thank You To All That Helped
With each open house, harvest and bottling, we are lucky to have wonderful support from family and friends. Some of our volunteers are people we have known for ages, others we meet randomly at different wine events and even at job interviews. They are all great and we can't thank them enough.
Angela Simoncini Alexis Puma Brad Rogers Burt Alper Chris Long Dawna Hall Erica Marcroft Kari Roesche-Goodman Kelly Fratar and Tom Fratar Laura Forrest Margaret Spring Patrick Heron Stephanie Martling Tim Byars Next time I will take a photo of everyone! |