Vino In My Dino

Food for thought

December 23, 2014 12:13

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I remember one gift I always look forward to and was from my great Aunt Rena. She always gave my family a big box of cookies-of all kinds-and my favorites were Lemon Lassies and Butterscotch Chip. My grandmother was able to get the recipe from her for the Lemon Lassies before she passed away and I am grateful to have it today. Other family dinner memories include the Ravioli my grandmother made at Christmas, they were so light and the sauce so flavorful-but that recipe is lost because we didn't have her write it down. The memory of the meal will suffice for me. Overall, our family tends to keep things pretty simple even for holiday meals. Especially for Ed and me. We serve Prime Rib (this is the one and only time we do) along with all the usual sides. We will include a sparkling wine kick off (we chose a magnum of Roederer Brut Rosé this year) and our Block 007 Cabernet Sauvignon will be paired with the roast beast. I consider our wines in the style of tried & true food friendly. It seems I always have a hard time choosing which wine I’ll pair with dinner because of this. We’ll likely include a bottle of Pinot Noir and Zinfandel as well-there are 10 of us for dinner and lots of palates to please. I do have quite a collection of recipes on our website (click here) and many of these are family favorites which have graced our table year in and year out. Merry Christmas! And pass the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tags: Pedroncelli, food and wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, Recipe
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Mull This Over

December 18, 2014 12:18

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Since this is the holiday season, and we do like to celebrate, here are a few ideas for cocktails made with our wines as well as one after dinner coffee drink. These add a bit of pizzazz to your party or dazzle to your dinner. You are always welcome to share a glass or two without all the frou-frou but then it wouldn’t be the holidays, would it?

friends.white Punch

friends.75

Strawberry-Basil Rosé Sangria

Pedroncelli Mulled Wine

Portspresso

Portspresso by Dry Creek Kitchen, Healdsburg CA. Good to the last drop!

Tags: Pedroncelli, Recipe, wine
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Varietally Speaking

December 16, 2014 12:25

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Funny story about Sangiovese. Almost 15 years ago, I read an article predicting the next popular wines. At that time, Syrah was riding high, it was before the movie Sideways so Pinot Noir was still a sleeper, and Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot were holding their positions as top selling wines. A wine writer wrote that two wines were up and comers and were about to sweep these other wines off the map: Sangiovese and Pinot Grigio. I became hopeful that our new addition of Alto Vineyards Sangiovese, first released in 1999, would do well.

Well I am here to tell you that while Pinot Grigio did well the wine buying public didn’t receive the memo about Sangiovese. In fact many of the vineyards planted back then have made way for other, perhaps better known varietals. I think it doesn’t quite have a hook like California’s own Zinfandel or familiarity of Cabernet Sauvignon. It is the grape that made a region in Italy famous: Chianti. When I talk to sales representatives and retailers about carrying our California Chianti I urge them to become a Sangiovese champion because it is a unique wine in a sea of others. I believe our estate vineyards are producing some of the best California-style Chianti on the market. Planted to three areas on our home ranch the vineyard has thrived. This is one of my favorite wines to pour in our tasting room. Taste it for yourselves with a toast to heritage and choices in the vast world of wine.

One of our Alto vineyards on our home ranch, you see the terraces of Sangiovese atop our Mother Clone vineyard.

Tags: Pedroncelli, varietals, Sangiovese, Mother Clone
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Canyon Creek Rising

December 11, 2014 12:30

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This day will truly go down in the books as an answer to the many prayers for rain. 5 inches overnight. And a few more inches today. While the drought is nowhere near over, this is a good healthy addition to our annual rainfall. Canyon Creek begins just north of us and runs through our Home Ranch as well as our East Side Vineyards, a mile west on Dry Creek Road. Part of it goes underground beneath the fermentation buildings, crush pad and bottling warehouse. Sometimes when we have this type of deluge it runs over. Today was one of those days—it flowed through our yard and partly into our cellar and warehouse. It even ran over Walling Road. The crew had their hands full cleaning up and trying to stay ahead of the storm. In the photo below, taken in the 1950’s, my uncle John is standing in the yard just outside of our cellar. As you can see, Canyon Creek spilled over then, the same as it has in every large storm. We’ll keep an eye on our hillside vineyards-sometimes they’ll slip with this much rain. Overall this is the relief that we were looking for-just all at one time. Grab your glass and toast the bounty of rain and 87 years of weathering storms.

While we didn't see this much water through here today, Canyon Creek is known to crest pretty high. John Pedroncelli, circa 1950s.

Tags: Pedroncelli, drought, weather, California
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What is an Old Vine?

December 9, 2014 12:34

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Bear with me as we navigate the sometimes confusing waters of wine terms. Old Vine, Reserve, Special Selection and others are phrases that are used on wine labels to help give more definition of style but don’t really stick to a particular set of rules. ‘Reserve’ in fact has no legal definition so wineries may use it freely—check out the wine wall the next time you are at a store and count the ‘reserves’. The same goes for Old Vine, where you would expect it to have a definition (75-100 years old at least) but it doesn’t. If you had 20 grape growers in a room I don’t think you’d draw a consensus for a definition. We don’t use the old vine term on our Mother Clone Zinfandel because we developed a proprietary name. It refers to vineyards ranging in age from 100 (a very small part of the blend) to 20 years old, some historic and some new kids on the block. These are well established vineyards but not ‘old’ in the sense that this Zinfandel is from a century old vineyard. If you are curious about what is in your glass when it comes to our wines rest assured we do our best to define it for you. From my Dino cup to yours, cheers!

This photo of the Mother Clone vineyard on our Home Ranch shows 30+ year old vines.

Tags: Pedroncelli, winespeak, Zinfandel, vines
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Prohibition Revisited

December 4, 2014 12:37

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The tale has been lost to history as to why my grandparents bought 90 acres, mid-Prohibition, in 1927. I think it is because my grandfather wanted a piece of land he could call his own after working on other farms and dairies once he had arrived in the U.S. as a teenager. The property included 25 acres of vineyard, a home and a defunct winery. It was sold by the Canata family who could no longer shoulder the debt of owning the land-and there may have been more to the story there as well, also lost to history. Even though Prohibition began in 1919, if you still grew grapes you could sell them to home winemakers if they were a ‘head of household’. Each household could make 200 gallons of wine per year. Now let’s think about this for a moment: this totals about 4 gallons per week. 20 bottles a week, or just shy of 3 bottles per day. Big families? Tradition? Thirsty? Many of these home winemakers had wine in their DNA-or at least were accustomed to enjoying wine with their meals every day. They at least kept some vineyards growing through this period and helped support my family. It also helped wineries reboot once Repeal rolled around. Statistically, the story is a sad one for Dry Creek Valley. Before 1919 there were 17 wineries making 1.5 million gallons of wine. Business was booming and then the hammer came down. Many of the vineyards were taken out and planted to prunes and other orchard crops. While there was still a market for wine grapes the bottom fell out by 1925 or so. Gratefully December 5, 1933 ended this nationwide dry spell and we were poised at the right time to enter the winemaking business. Only 2 other wineries survived the next decade and it wasn’t until the 1970s when our valley saw a resurgence of wineries and vineyards. From my Dino to yours, let’s celebrate 81 years of Repeal!

Tags: Pedroncelli, Prohibition, Repeal, 21st Amendment
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Vine 101

December 2, 2014 12:43

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I was pouring wine at one of our winter tasting room events and a guest, looking out the window at our Zinfandel vineyards, commented that they looked ‘dead’. Admittedly, wintertime grapevines don’t look especially alive once the canes have been pruned off. They are dormant from November through March-ish—depending on the type of winter we are experiencing. Once they begin their spring growth, what we call bud break, the whole cycle begins again. If you look closely at a dormant vine you can see details that tell its’ story. The canes are pruned back to two buds-next year’s crop. Look at what I call the ‘arms’ of a head pruned Zinfandel vine. Believe it or not they are positioned intentionally this way to support the crop as well as to form the vine arms in a pattern that best ripens our Zinfandel. The pruner, when cutting back the canes in winter, knows instinctively whether the arm is set for the right direction and will change it, if necessary, to groom for the best position. All this pruning has made me thirsty for some Zin!

Tags: Pedroncelli, Vine, Zinfandel, vineyard
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Wine, Family, Food

November 25, 2014 12:48

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I received a photo via Kay and Diane, two neighbors with deep family roots in Dry Creek Valley, who were volunteering with the Healdsburg Museum. They were asked to compile a selection of stories printed in the museum’s newsletter and this particular edition will cover a 10 year period highlighting many of the local families and business. What I love about this photo from the Pedroncelli article is my family around the dinner table laughing and toasting, just what I talk about when describing our wines and pairing them with food—it is also a photograph I didn’t have in my collection so the bonus of having it now is a priceless addition. I grew up eating meals with my family in this room, just like my dad and his family did. We gather there Monday through Friday (when in town) and eat lunch in this place—I sometimes can almost feel the presence of those decades of family events around me. Especially when we joke with my dad about something we didn’t like to eat or the time we watched the hill slide during breakfast-right outside the window! I am thankful for the food we had, the company of my sisters, parents, and now the gathering each weekday for lunch where we share stories of what’s going on in our lives. Cheers to you all, from my Dino to yours, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Tags: Pedroncelli, family, family business, food and wine, Legacy
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Judge Julie

November 20, 2014 12:54

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A few months ago I received an invitation to be a wine judge for the Grand Harvest Awards Competition sponsored by Vineyard & Winery Management. The wondered aloud ‘do I need credentials to be a judge’? Debra Del Fiorentino, the Competition Director, assured me that my experience (almost 30 years) in the industry was enough. I looked forward to the opportunity, tasting as many wines as I could to be ‘in training’ for the big day. November 18th rolled around and I showed up at the event, my palate ready to go. My co-judges were the inimitable Larry Van Aalst (a 25 year sommelier and host of The Sonoma Report), Leslie Renaud, from Roth Estate Winery, and Christopher Christensen, from Bodkin Wines. We tasted through our first set of wines from Anderson Valley in Mendocino. Paso Robles was next with 62 (!) wines followed by what they termed the ‘Native American Red and White Hybrids’. Can you say Catawba, Seyval, Vidal Blanc, Concord and Noble? We had them all and more judging 203 wines altogether—and what a great education it was. I tasted more wines in one day than I have tried in the last year. While they weren’t all gold medal contenders it was a fascinating study of the competition and I broke new ground trying 11 new varietals and added them to my need-to-taste bucket list. In the end, my palate was sharpened by immersing myself in the wines and I now know there are so many new experiences out there just waiting for me to delve in and learn. Cheers! Or should I say ‘bottoms up’!

Tags: Pedroncelli, wine tasting, Vintage Wine
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Port of Call

November 18, 2014 13:01

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I had a synchronicity moment this week. I set up my blog topics ahead of time and had scheduled this bit about semi generic wine terms and our Port for today. Last week a reporter from our local paper, The Press Democrat, called to talk about this issue-and the article was published Sunday. Timing is everything as they say. On with the story: Not too long ago I attended a meeting with several wineries about the use of what we call ‘semi-generic’ terms for wine. We made our arguments in favor of keeping some of the terminology because ultimately it would mean a huge re-education process and renaming of some very familiar wine terms. We currently use Four Grapes Vintage Port for our dessert wine. From the 1930s through the 1960s we used semi generic terms like Claret, Burgundy and Chablis-which have all been replaced by their varietally-correct names of Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. And the word Port is up for discussion, again, with the European Union. They have allowed us, so far, to use it because we made this wine before the first ruling in 2006. Now we just might be stopped from all uses of semi-generic terms completely. I want you to imagine trying to re-invent the term Port so that when you are in the market for one from U.S. wineries you would know what kind of wine it is. Fortified Wine (too scary and not allowed as a labeling term). Dessert Wine (too broad). Proprietary term like Ort-Pay (unclear on the concept). Other varietals are easily identified as to what type of wine they are because the wine industry has done a huge amount of education-you know a Cabernet Sauvignon from a Chardonnay. Changing the name of our Port would make it difficult to market not only for us but for many of the other wineries who make it. Imagine, if you will, the following scene in our tasting room: this used to be called Port but now we are barred from using the term; we call it by the varietally correct name of Tinta Madeira, Tinta Cao, Souzao and Touriga Nacional. Here’s hoping we can work something out before it gets too drastic.

For more information, here is the full article by Bill Swindell.

Tags: Pedroncelli, winespeak, wine, community
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