To Infinity, and BEYOND!

The Wine Century Club was developed for all adventurous wine lovers. Have you tasted 100 different grape varietals? I know what you're thinking: I drink a lot. A lot of wine. Surely I must be a charter member! But It's not as easy as you might think.

The most common varietals are some variation on the Big Six:

• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Merlot (does anyone actually drink this stuff?)
• Pinot Noir
• Chardonnay
  
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Riesling

The Wine Century Club is made up of people that enjoy tasting new wines, and have an adventerous streak. Sounds like me! With Family Winemakers coming up, and the Wine Bloggers Conference shortly thereafter, what better way to challenge myself to learn about new varietals.

Here is a challenge to all of you Luscious Lushes out there.
See if you too can earn one of these fancy certificates! My goal is to have it completed by the time Rhone Rangers rolls around next year.

Download the Century Club application here:
Excel
PDF

Weekend Wine-ing with the BrixChicks!

This weeked, I was lucky enough to have a full wine schedule with each of the Brix Chicks, that fun filled wine duo also known as Liza and Xandria.

Saturday, Liza and I atteneded the Rosenblum 30th Anniversary Open House courtesy of the Blogger Extrodinaire, Farley of Behind the Vines.

With over 40 delicious wines being poured, it was fantastic to be able to park our rears in beach chairs, and munch on fresh cheese and Zinfandel ice cream. Yummy! I am sad to report that we missed out on the Anniversary Edition of the Rockpile Road Zin, because we were attempting to go in a reasonable order from everyday to extrodinary. C'est la vie.

My highlights of the tasting day at Rosenblum were:

• England-Shaw Vineyard Syrah, Solano County - 2005
• Harris Kratka Vineyard Zinfandel, Alexander Valley - 2005
• Planchon Vineyard Zinfandel, Contra Costa County - 2006
• Rockpile Road Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley - 2006
• Rominger Vineyard Syrah, Yolo County - 2006
• Maggie's Reserve Zinfandel, Sonoma Valley - 2005
  
• Monte Rosso Vineyard Reserve Zinfandel, Sonoma Valley - 2006
  
• Rockpile Reserve Syrah, Fran's Vineyard - 2006
  
• St. Peter's Church Vineyard Reserve Zinfandel, Sonoma County - 2005

Can you see a theme here? First, I am a Zin girl. Always have been, always will be. While I love Syrah and really enjoy Pinot Noir these days, Zin is where my heart is.


Sunday, Xandria and I headed up to Dry Creek.
I have to add a disclaimer here, because I did not take any tasting notes. I was just enjoying myself too much to think about it! So, these recollections are just the wines that stuck out in my mind as tasty without any deconstruction.

I had originally wanted to head up to Vinify Solutions in Santa Rosa because I got an invitation to their open house where Kethcum Estates was pouring there fabulous Pinot Noir. I first discovered Kethcum last year at Pinot Days, and have been a fan every since.

Little did I know that Vinify, a custom cursh facility, had over 10 labels pouring that day! Pinot, Syrah, Chardonnay oh my.
Some of the offerings we tried were:

• Ketchum Estate
• Bjornstad Cellars
• Suacci Carciere
• Baker Lane
• Sojourn Cellars
• Dry Stack Cellars
• Super Sonoman
• Lattanzio Wines
• Cinque Insieme
• Bevan Cellars

I did not have a bad wine among them, which is truly dangerous since my garage is running out of cellaring space! Do I see a wine locker in my future?

After that luscious pitstop, we zipped on up Dry Creek to go visit @ShaRayRay (Shana to you non Twitter types) at Kokomo. Bermuda, Bahama, baby don't you wanna? I would if I were you. For a new winery, Kokomo is producing some amazing things. My first trip to Kokomo was this year's Barrel Tasting, when I fell in love with the Carignane. Sadly, I have to be a patient Wineaux, since it won't be released for a while.

While we were enjoying our lunch from the Dry Creek General Store, we sipped on such tasty treats as

• 2006 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, Peters Vineyard
• 2006 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Windsor Oaks Vineyard
• 2005 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, Perotti Vineyards
• 2006 Cuvee"Bela",Sonoma County

Thanks Shana for showing us such great hospitality! Sitting on the porch at the Dry Creek Olive Oil Company, eating a really good sandwich, drinking really good wines. How bad can it be!

Go out, taste, and enjoy your life. You might get hit by a bus, or be in an earthquake tomorrow.

Cheers!

Quote of the Day...and why I love Twitter

As I spend time on Twitter keeping up to date with my wine buds, Randy Hall of Wine Biz Radio fame started an new trend in microblogging. Call it boredom, call it random silliness, but Randy has started the TWOT. No, it's not a disease, it's the
Twitter
Word
Of
The
day!

Given Randy's recent daddy-hood, I decided to pitch in today and offer up today's TWOT:

Sempiternal

Sem`pi*ter"nal\, a. [L. sempiternus, fr. semper always: cf. F. sempiternel.]1. Of neverending duration; everlasting; endless; having beginning, but no end. --Sir M. Hale. 2. Without beginning or end; eternal.

To which Patrick of Iridesse Wines, aka Oenophilus offered up the following quotable quote:

Until we recognize our codependence on natural corks, TCA contamination will be sempiternal.

Cheers to the best TWOT of the day Patrick! Perhaps this will inspire you to join the Twittersphere. Good times, good times.

And perhaps given the impending film debut of Bottle Shock, we had better read George Taber's other book, To Cork or Not to Cork.

Bottle Shock UPDATE!

As promised, here are the vital stats for the Bottle Shock! Premiere Party.
The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 turned established perceptions of French and California wines on their heads. So what better place than Crushpad — known to challenge convention ourselves — to celebrate the release of Bottle Shock, the new feature film that dramatizes this famous tasting.

Tickets are $75. Yes I know, it's a lot. BUT think of what you get. You get Bo & Heidi Barrett and Gustavo Brambila, who won first place among white wines at the Paris Tasting with their Chateau Montelena Chardonnay.

We'll also be joined by folks from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, whose Cabernet Sauvignon captured first place among red wines. Bottle Shock producers, Brenda & Marc Lhormer will even be on hand to give you a behind the scenes account of the filming.

You'll be part of the judging too, tasting four French wines and four American wines, then casting your vote for best red and best white. After the winning wines are selected, we'll hop aboard chartered buses for a short trip to the theater to view a private screening of the movie.

You'll also get entry to the opening night screening of Bottle Shock with, more wine!

Please buy your tickets early here:
Bottle Shock Tickets

Bottle Shock!

Bottle Shock is about to be released!
Picture it.
Paris.
1976.
Scions of the wine industry gather in Paris for the annual Judgment of Paris wine competition.
In a blind tasting, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from France and California were pitted against each other, where, shockingly California won and changed the wine world forever.

On August 6th, the film adapted from the book Judgement of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine by George Taber, opens to audiences here in the heart of California wine county. To help celebrate the 22nd anniversary of this epic victory for American wine, Crushpad is hosting a premier party to celebrate our victory over the French. Come celebrate with us by tasting a recreation of the Paris competition, and then join us at the Kabuki for a screening of the movie.

Details to follow soon. You can watch the official trailer below for your entertainment!

A Passport to New Discoveries

Yesterday was the quarterly Santa Cruz Mountain Winegrowers Association Passport day. This is a time when the participating wineries open their doors and invite you to taste this exciting region, while enjoying many tiny wineries that are rarely if ever open to the public.

With the explosion of boutique wineries recently, it was no surprise that there were several new offering on this year's list, and I aimed to stay north and try the new offerings instead of fighting beach traffic and heading over the hill to the tried and true Santa Cruz destinations. In particular, there were some new urban wineries located in the mid-Peninsula, which makes it a great short day trip.

My first winner for the day were Domenico Winery, located on Industrial Road in San Carlos. Domenico started as the Bacchus Winemaking club, a make you own shop similar to Crushpad. In a large warehouse space on an industrial lane, Domenico has a large open space which has tables set up. On summer Sundays, they host jazz & other musical guests in this space, where you can enjhoy wine and a picnic to the tunes of whoever is playing for the bargain price of $5 entry.

The absolute winner here was the 2006 Santa Cruz Mountain Pinot Noir, $35. While many Pinots I have tasted from the 06 vintage were uninspired, Santa Cruz seems to have bypassed this disappointing year and is producing stellar examples of my favorite vino.

Another winner was down the road in Redwood City. Tucked away in a working class neighborhood of run down houses and auto shops, La Honda is a re-purposed warehouse, redone in a slightly gaudy fake Tuscan Villa style. That said, the owners were genuinely happy to see us, and were happy to let us wander in the small art gallery whiel we sipped our wine.

Again, the winner here was the Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, Black Capsule North, $26. This is a full bodied Pinot Noir, but is not overdone, and is a nice rich blend from several wineries in the northern Santa Cruz Mountain appellation.

Go forth and buy locally, and enjoy your Santa Cruz wine!

Wine Blogging Wednesday Anniversary Edition!

You know the drill. Once a month, your fellow wineaux and bloggers are handed a theme from the heavens above, and we drink. Then we write.

This month, it is the 4 year anniversary of Wine Blogging Wednesday, started by our Fearless Leader Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours.

For this anniversary edition, Lenn is asking us to go back to our drinking roots, and find that wine that got us to fall in love with Bacchus, or something you used to drink a lot of when you were young and impressionable. Please try to avoid the Boone's Farm or Sutter Home however!

Come over, do it alone, find a Meetup, but do it!
Post your replies on the WBW site, email Lenn or Twitter it by August 13th, and you can share your notes with the other bloggerati out there.