I finally got the opportunity to meet Rusty Gaffney, MD, aka “The Prince of Pinot” and creator of the Pinot Noir newsletter “Pinotphile” when I participated in the World of Pinot Noir event last week.  I have enjoyed reading his newsletter for quite some time.  It is well-written and entertaining and I find it particularly informative about what other winemakers are doing (I don’t get out much these days, so really don’t have much opportunity to find out for myself).  If you haven’t discovered this newsletter yet and love Pinot as much as I do, I would highly recommend it.  And, it just so happens that he wrote up a generous review of the wine we poured at the event — our 2005 Chula Vina Pinot Noir — click here to read what he says.

Now — Cima Collina available in many locations in Bay Area

Doug and I did a sales trip up to San Francisco yesterday and met with a few folks up there. We are now available at a number of online and brick-and-mortar sites in the area:

The Wine House, at 129 Carolina Street in SF, and also an online store.

The Jug Shop, Chuck Hayward has chosen to carry both our 2005 Chula Vina and Tondre Grapefield Pinot Noirs. 

Arlequin Wine Merchant, at 384 Hayes Street in Hayes Valley.  Ask Chris about our wine!

K&L Wine Merchants, in, I believe, all of their locations throughout California.

An Aside…..

We went to lunch at A16 in SF yesterday (wonderful lunch, by the way), and enjoyed the fact that they have, first of all, a tremendous by-the-glass list, and second of all, the current California by-the-glass wines are all made by female winemakers.  We happened to choose what turned out to be two astonishing white wines:  Viognier from Cold Heaven and a Malvasia from Palmina – both wineries I had never heard of before yesterday.  Both were the most well-crafted examples I’ve ever tasted from California….It is these kinds of inspriational and surprising experiences with wine that keep us all going and one of the main reasons I love this industry. Ooh La La!

 

Here’s an article of interest about Mary Ewing-Mulligan, the U.S.’s first “Master’s of Wine” honoree, and how she discusses the (novel) concept of trusting one’s own taste or palate.  In this article, she encourages people to try new wines and not stick with just the four top varietals (Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir or Merlot), and to try wines from various regions as well.  She says “Just remember, it is your mouth and only you know what tastes good to you.”

Having been in the wine industry long enough [to know better], ahem, I have had the opportunity to taste wines with thousands of people, and here’s one general thing I’ve noticed over the years:  people can get a little apprehensive and all hung-up about wine — they are unsure of their ability to “taste” it — “taste” being the ability to name the flavors and aromas that one notices in a wine.  People often want to know what I taste because I am the “professional”, ie I have the ability to “taste” and they don’t.  They seem to think that wine professionals are “super-tasters and -smellers” and the rest of the population is not as blessed.  I think all of that is just hogwash.

Here are some definitions for you:  hypergeusia is an enhanced ability to taste; hyperosphrenis is an acute sense of smell.  I’ve never met a person working in a winery who is hypergeusic or hyperosphrenic.  If winemakers had either of these conditions, they wouldn’t be winemakers because they couldn’t deal with all the smells in a winery.  At a given time a winery can smell like mold, rotten eggs, nail polish remover, sulfites.  Objectionable smells and (sometimes) flavors happen.  It’s life in a small, artisan winery or Gallo [RIP Ernest], or any of “Constellation’s” galaxies, and I can guarantee you that anyone with a hyper-sense of smell or taste would not be able to deal with it.  So if that’s the case, then where does that leave winemakers?  Winemakers — at least those I know — are pretty normal people with a passion for wine that has led them to taste more wine than most people.  The art of tasting wine simply comes with practice and exercise and a little study.  It is a continuum — once one walks the path of developing the senses, they will disover new vistas, and after that newer still.  Sappy, but true.  It takes practice to connect a smell or flavor with a name and then recall it.  It takes practice to single out aromas in a wine.  And like anything else, as one gets better at noticing the details, more details come along to be noticed…..

There you have it — my proclamation on the subject.  [You read it here first].  If you really want to develop your palate — get to work!  How hard can it be?  And in the meantime:  trust in your own palate, drink what you like, and have fun.