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

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.

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.
Chris Loxton, former winemaker at Wellington now producing his own Loxton Cellars wines in Sonoma County, does most of his Zinfandel and half of his Syrah with ambient yeast, aiming for complexity and mouthfeel, even if it means giving up a little fruitiness. Greg La Follette at Tandem Winery, a Sonoma Pinot and Chardonnay specialist, sees complexity and mouthfeel as the result not only of multiple natural yeast strains, but of having all of them scuffle to get their work done. Jared and Tracey Brandt at A Donkey and a Goat, one of the San Francisco East Bay's many start-up warehouse wineries, got their training under an old-school winemaker in France, and try not to add anything to their reds or whites--yeast, nutrient, you name it--in hopes of getting more out of them.

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

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

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 Central Park and one of the rising stars in the Laurent Tourondel portfolio. Earlier in the week I had met Jeremy and Jim (Sommeliers) who are both contagiously passionate about all things grape. When playing mommy as opposed to winemaker I found myself at 5^th Ave and 55^th each day at 5:30pm. This would be the location of the NYC Disney store and my little princess had discovered that each day at 5:30 she could meet and be photographed with the princess du jour. I can only hope an interest in wine and food will prove to be as genetically coded as her single minded obsession with all things pink and princess. It is adorable but I honestly did not expect to see the inside of Disney’s retail racket 4 times in one week! On the upside, BLT Market is mere blocks away so I negotiated with the 3 year old. She got one last princess hoo-rah and I got one last supper at a fabulous restaurant. I even managed to rope in an old friend to join me who has just returned from living in Argentina. Kenner is truly a man of travel and leisure.

So, we three sit down to dinner at this gorgeous restaurant overlooking Central Park for our last dinner. The wine book is impressive by weight alone and with an old friend to catch up with and a princess to entertain Kenner and I decided to ask Jim to surprise us with something medium to full bodied, red and from Spain or Southern France. Surprise us he did! I thought he was joking when he suggested we give a try to a 1947 Rioja. But joking he was not. He brings out a R. López de Heredia, Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva 1947! I am by no means expert with Spanish wines (although I have a good friend in a tasting group who thankfully provides some education) but without research I knew this would be a special wine. Jim decanted it and to all of our surprise there was very little sediment. The cork did not survive so we do assume it was the original. After tasting we did decide to decant back into the bottle because the wine was fresh and beautiful and did not need the additional aeration that would occur over the course of our dinner. Vina Bosconia is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacho (Grenache), Mazuelo and Graciano from the El Bosque vineyard. A Gran Reserva ages for 8-10 years in barrel before it is bottled and then another 10 years before it is released. I’m afraid I focused on the moment and not on articulating tasting notes. I can share that it was insanely fresh with high toned fruit aromas with lots of earthy, woodsy, mushroom undertones. Like silk on the palette. And most surprising was the still vibrant color. The biggest challenge was to savor it so we could watch it evolve. It did begin to fade as the evening wore on but not offensively, just a subtle farewell from a 61 year old wine. Kenner (my dining companion) is an intellectual so we discussed the turmoil following WWII going on during the 1947 harvest, the many years Franco was ruling Spain while this beautiful wine was developing, and the romance and sentimentality that attracted me to this vocation to begin with. Upon return to Berkeley I of course decided to do some sleuthing and came to appreciate Jim’s selection even more as I realized how fantastic a recommendation it was. Aside from the age of this beautiful wine I found myself getting excited to read about their philosophy and winemaking. I’ll share highlights but if you are interested… http://www.lopezdeheredia.com/english/vinos/vinos.html

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 Spain.

Here's to 61 and still going strong!

Tracey

Labels: BLT Market, López de Heredia, Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva

Our first of several sales trips happened last week: New York City. I can still recall the first time I went to the big apple to sell our wines. I felt giddy, like I imagine young wanna be actors must feel when they arrive. Because my friends if you can make it here you can make it anywhere! Well four year later we have made a considerable amount of success for ourselves in Manhattan and beyond but I still get a rush each time I visit.

This trip was special for many reasons. For one, it was the first sales trip Jared and I have done together. Isabel was born in February of 2005 and in March of 2005 we released our very first wine. This means we’ve always played roshambo to determine who gets the trip vs the home front duty. This time we decided to make it a sales trip combination vacation and took the whole family. We rented a *little* apartment in the LES and had a fantastic week alternating between selling wine and introducing our daughter to the wonders of Manhattan. Back in November when we planned the trip we realized that Eric Texier (our mentor and friend) and his wife and three children were also making a family trip to NYC for their sales trip and painfully would arrive 12 hours after we departed. Try as we did it was impossible to overlap. But in an odd coincidence last night I received a text message asking if I stayed at the apt on Houston because the refrigerator was full of our wine! At first I thought it odd that whomever rented the apartment after us would go to the trouble to figure out my cell phone and text me. But Jared noticed it was a French cell and we soon confirmed that in this increasingly small world we inhabit the Texier clan had rented the very same apartment we did!

On that note we also encountered our first wine list featuring both Eric and our wine from the same vintage, merely lines apart. Something about seeing our wine on the list at the fabulous Aqua Grill, in New York with Eric’s wine made us both pause and realize, hey, we have come a long way!

More New York stories to follow….after a week selling and playing we must attempt to catch up on the piles of mail and email. Plus I think our taxes are due tomorrow!

Labels: Aqua Grill, Texier

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.

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.

Labels: Isabel, Rose

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

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.

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:

• the much anticipated 2006 Three Thirteen, a southern Rhone style blend of Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache
• the extreme cool climate syrah from the Broken Leg Vineyard in the Anderson Valley which is called The Recluse in 2006 to give credit to the brown recluse spider that bit Jared on a pre-harvest vineyard check
• the near cult status 2006 Chardonnay from the Brosseau Vineyard made using a ver jus (green juice high in acid made from berries picked in July which will be featured on the television program In Wine Country on May 25th)
• the wildly popular, lip smacking 2007 Grenache Rose that shouts the arrival of spring

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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 Transcript

I 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..

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.

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

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!

We wanted to thank everyone who helped with yesterday's open house. We had over 400 attendees and despite the rain, it was a great success!

Broc Cellars , Dept C and ourselves provided excellent wine.
The Ramp played some great tunes.
Melon Catering provided great food.
Charles Chocolates created the wonderful ginger chocolate bars.

Only another 6 months and we will have the next one.

Our open house is coming up quick and we have some special treats for those who attend:

• A great selection of wine from A Donkey and Goat, Broc Cellars and special guest Dept C.
  
• Our neighbor on 4th Street, one of Wine.com's two retail stores, is going to be offering a special treat for attendees - $10 off any purchase of $50 or more. We love having them down the street and Gwendolyn Wilson, the store manager, and her staff know their wine. Wine.com's Retail Location
• Great wine pairing food from Melons Catering
  
• Chocolates from Charles Chocolates.

Like last time, the Ramp will be playing. Please come by rain or shine!

Last night, I heard from a customer who had asked about natural fermentation and yeasts. Anyway, her email ended with a tasting note that was wonderful.

BTW, I got a hold of a bottle of your 2005 Vielles Vignes McDowell Valley Syrah and enjoyed it with a friend the other night; we grilled up some country-style pork spareribs and doused them with an Asian-style bar-b-que sauce I concocted from bottled KC-style bbq sauce, sweet Indonesian kecap soy sauce, sake, rice bran
oil,passion fruit puree, red chili garlic sauce, and fresh garlic, ginger
and scallions...That Syrah is literally the best-tasting, most exciting
domestic wine I have tried in a very long time. What I was really impressed
by were the endless layers of complex, deep meaty, spicy and sweet flavors
and aromas all hitching along on a surprisingly light-textured medium-bodied
wine- not the ginourmous, more one-dimensional wine one so often encounters
in warmer California Syrahs. The finish on this wine is also stunning-long,lingering and luscious. A $145.00 finish on a $45.00 wine! A sexy, but not slutty wine! The whole is an ethereal meeting of new-world ripeness of fruit with the more subtle and enigmatic old-world qualities that I love in Rhone red wines. I have tasted McDowell Valley old-vines Syrahs before, but they never tasted this good. I can't wait to try more of your wines.
Take care,
Nora

Was a great way to end a long day. I am hoping to connect in person with Nora to talk more about natural fermentations and enjoy a glass of wine.

Yep - that is the review from Daily Candy and I like it. Read the full coverage at http://www.dailycandy.com/san_francisco/article/34975/

Labels: Three Thirteen

Our new website just went live and we are super excited. We are still working through bugs so it may not stay up. More soon and latter. We are expecting to add much more content, especially around wines and vineyards.

RSS is somewhat broken. The links back don't work the way I want them to and I don't know how to fix it. I will be working on that over the next few days.

Tracey and I had the pleasure of trying to pair our "Recluse" with chocolate at Charles Chocolates today. Our host, Traci Prendergast, presented us with both the usual suggestions and some really unusual ones. The Ginger Chocolate Bar was the clear winner. I was shocked but it really works.

We are going to feature these locally produced chocolates at our open house. Traci will be on hand to answer all of your chocolate questions as well. I can't wait!