www.julieannkodmur.com
707-963-9632
corking@julieannkodmur.com
Benessere Vineyards
Spring is a perfect time to explore the charming wineries away from the crowds on Highway 29. One such winery is Benessere Vineyards, at 1010 Big Tree Road in St. Helena. Tastings take place inside the picturesque farmhouse winery or outdoors on a rose-bordered garden patio overlooking the vineyard. The winery specializes in Italian varietals—Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio, Muscat di Canelli, Sagrantino, Aglianico, as well as producing Zinfandel. "Benessere," pronounced behn-ESS-seh-ray, means 'well-being' or 'prosperity' in Italian. It's a name the owners selected to convey the unique qualities of healthy living and grape growing in their charming corner of the northern Napa Valley.
Biodynamics is a Hoax Blog
On June 1, 2010 Stuart Smith launched www.biodynamicsisahoax.com to
offer an alternative view of Biodynamics and to engage
the Biodynamic community in debate over the merits and
efficacy of Biodynamic farming.
The blog’s generated considerable traffic, including this
episode at 1
Wine Dude and in the Wall
Street Journal, Napa
Valley Register, Cork'd.com, and
on the
Goosecross
Cellars Website.
Cameo Cinema
The Cameo Cinema announces its first annual fundraiser to support its community programming, taking place on February 12 from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. at Caldwell-Snyder Gallery, 1328 Main Street in St. Helena. Tickets are $75 a person and include sweet treats and desserts, wines from Domaine Chandon, Rubicon and Smith-Madrone and a performance by The Fabulous Screwtops. The evening will also include go-go dancers, an appearance by an Elvis Presley impersonator (Gene Kirkham) and Marilyn Monroe (Diana Dawn).
There will also be a live auction of ten unusual lots, conducted by Stuart Smith; guests can also support The Cameo's community programs by bidding on silent auction lots. "It will be a lively evening of dancing, fun desserts and wines and a chance to mingle together to support our programs benefitting local children and families," explains The Cameo's proprietor Cathy Buck. "The Cameo vision is to offer film classes, free community events, family films, art films and a variety of speakers and presenters who add to the magic of storytelling," she adds.
Download fundraiser information [PDF]
The Cameo Cinema—set in a century-old historic building along St. Helena's Main Street—is one of less than 25 single-owner, single-screen movie theaters in the U.S. and the only one with digital and 3-D upgrades. The Cameo was meticulously restored in 1997 with touches including a classic Art Deco lobby, purple-upholstered seats and movie star photo-wallpaper in the restrooms.
Date Night Cabernet Sauvignon
from Phifer Pavitt Wine
www.datenightwines.com
veronasociety.com
The 2007 Date Night Cabernet Sauvignon will be available to purchase by the glass on Valentine's Day at SolBar in Calistoga. Proprietor Suzanne Phifer Pavitt and her husband Shane Pavitt will greet guests from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. "How fun it will be for those celebrating with their valentines to enjoy our wine, which celebrates romance as well," they explain. Solbar, the restaurant at Solage, is located at 755 Silverado Trail in Calistoga.
Phifer Pavitt Winery opened its tasting room this past November. The tasting room, located at 4660 Silverado Trail (just north of Dunaweal in Calistoga), welcomes visitors Mondays - Saturdays for tastings either at 11:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m., by appointment at 707-942-4787 or Suzanne@phiferpavittwine.com.
Visit our new Tasting Room!
Smith-Madrone Winery
Travel back in time to the rustic beauty of Spring Mountain when you have time to visit Smith-Madrone Winery. Celebrating its 40th year, founded by brothers Stuart Smith and Charles Smith, visitors are always greeted by one of the brothers before tasting the winery's estate-grown Riesling, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, all grown within a stone's throw of the winery, perched at 1,900 feet above the Napa Valley floor. The dry-farmed vineyards are text book 'mountain vineyards,' straddling steep slopes which range up to 35%. The 200 acre ranch was partly planted as vineyard over a century ago; California black bears and other wildlife once thrived here; enormous 120-year-old Picholine olive trees frame a path and view down to the floor of the Napa Valley. The name is a tribute to the Smith brothers and the predominant tree on the ranch.
Swanson Vineyards
Swanson Vineyards pioneered Merlot in Oakville when W. Clarke Swanson founded the winery in 1985. Today the winery is the largest producer of estate-grown Merlot in the Oakville appellation. With the establishment of its Salon in 2000, Swanson also pioneered a signature style of tasting room hospitality.
Visitors can enjoy the Salon (seated tastings) or The Sip Shoppe, at 1271 Manley Lane in Rutherford (by appointment), luxuriating in elegant surroundings with distinctive approaches to the winery's best known wines—Merlot, Pinot Grigio and Alexis Cabernet Sauvignon—as well as the new line of Modern House Wines—Merci, Just Married, With Love, Mazel Tov, Swell Swill, Lucky Night, Please Forgive Me, Thrilled For You, Instant Bon Vivant, Expensive Christmas Wine—and also a group of tiny-production dessert specialties, Crepuscule Late Harvest Sémillon, Angelica, Arsene Fortified Petite Sirah and Tardif Late Harvest Chardonnay.
Available only at the winery are also other limited-production wines including Face Cabernet Sauvignon, Salon Rosato, Salon Sangiovese, Salon Petite Sirah and Salon Chardonnay. The Salon and The Sip Shoppe also offer proprietary caviar (wild American hackleback and farmed American osetra) and a line of bonbons and the new Clarke's Bark.
Sweet Sunset / ADS Wines
Sweet Sunset is a line of flavored wines taking off like wildfire along the East Coast, the South and the Midwest. Stay tuned for the media moment.
Trivium
Doug Wight, Jack Stuart and Stuart Harrison—long-time friends, neighbors and wine industry veterans—continue their collaboration now into the third release of a wine they call Trivium. The 2007 Trivium is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Les Ivrettes, a block in the northwest corner of the Lewelling Vineyard in western St. Helena. Only 368 cases were made. The name is Latin for 'a place where three ways meet.' "It literally is our father's Cabernet," the three partners say. How do you differentiate an elegant tiny-production Cabernet in today's world? The Trivium partners have launched ThisIsYourFathersCabernet as a platform for their Cabernet Manifesto, accompanied by a Facebook page, intending to build a community supporting the style of wine they stand behind.
"We are three long-time wine professionals who've been on three different paths (Jack Stuart, winemaker; Doug Wight, viticulturist; Stuart Harrison, marketer) now joining together to make Trivium—a wine from one varietal, one vineyard, one appellation," the men explain. "The style is a throwback to the era when we all started in the wine business," says Stu Harrison. "We think some aspects of wines made back then are worth revisiting."
V. Sattui Winery
V. Sattui Winery celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2010 with an array of events focusing on different facets of its history. Founded in 1885 by Vittorio Sattui, the great-grandfather of Dario Sattui, the winery is proud to be a fourth generation Napa Valley business.
There's no question that the Sattui family either 'broke'
the mold or invented the mold in terms of establishing
one of the most successful wineries in America—the
anniversary year touched on all of the reasons why. During
the year, there were commemorative events almost every
month, including a gala luncheon in North Beach on March
25, celebrating the founding of the business in San Francisco
125 years ago. There was a bud break party in April, a
Mother's Day event in May with a flamenco band, an outdoor
screening of the movie Merlove (also a benefit for RLS
Middle School in St. Helena) in June, the Festa Italiana
in July and the grand finale—The Harvest Ball—on
September 25.
Today V. Sattui makes 40 different wines; it's the only winery in Napa Valley with its own extensive deli offering house-made prepared foods from salads to charcuterie to pastas, pizza, bbq'd fare and 205 cheeses from around the world. Visitors can assemble a picnic and enjoy it outdoors under the 200-year-old oak trees on the winery grounds.
Zinfandel Advocates & Producers
www.zinfandel.org www.zinworld.org
Upcoming Events in Kansas City and Austin
Almost 8,000 people tasted more than 400 wines from 206 Zinfandel wineries at Ft. Mason in San Francisco on Saturday, January 29 at The Grand Tasting, the grand-finale event of the 20th Annual Zinfandel Advocates & Producers Festival. Notable is that this was a year where the Festival reached in many new directions and offered many new options for the attendees.
Ten years of researching historic Zinfandel vineyards around California and the propagation of cuttings from those vineyards in The Heritage Vineyard made possible a very detailed presentation of those results—including tasting the wines—at Flights! Advancing a Legacy: The Zinfandel Chronicles on January 28. Those ten years of research have resulted in the availability of Zinfandel cuttings for consumers and vintners alike to purchase and plant on their own terroir. The body of research presented at Flights was literally unprecedented in the California wine business.
Another distinguishing angle this year was the involvement of celebrity chef-tv host Nadia G., whose program Bitchin' Kitchen (www.nadiag.com) has zoomed to enormous popularity on The Cooking Channel, having launched initially in her own Montreal kitchen on YouTube.
Another new angle this year was the inclusion of Zinfandel blends at the Grand Tasting—the recognition of Zinfandel's part in California history, in that so many vineyards were planted as "mixed blacks." Yet another interesting variable this year was that ZAP delineated "Zin Tracks," a way to find a winery by different variables—whether by appellation, price, gender of winemaker, generation-of-ownership, organic production, old-vine status, winemaker's hair color or whether the wine is a Zinfandel blend. Yet another new aspect was the availability of recipes from chefs and restaurateurs at Good Eats and Zin, whether Nadia G.'s peanut butter-and-banana fritters or Joyce Goldstein's Moroccan Meatball Tagine, Ruth's Chris Steak House's Lamb Lollipops, Radio Africa Kitchen's Roasted Leg of Lamb with Root Vegetables, Bin 38's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Truffles or Compadres Rio Grille's Street Tacos Al Pastor.
The Association of Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) is a non-profit, educational 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. ZAP is dedicated to advancing public knowledge of and appreciation for American Zinfandel and its unique place in our culture and history. Winegrowers, winemakers and wine enthusiasts combine to form the membership. The common focus is the preservation and recognition of Zinfandel as America's heritage wine. ZAP's membership includes approximately 275 winery-members, 5,000 advocate members and 100 associate members.
