For last Friday afternoon's fermentation, I opened an '05 Copain blended with equal parts Grenache and Mourvedre. The fruit was sourced from the James Berry Vineyard in Paso Robles. While lots of fingers have pointed toward Paso for Grenache, I kept finding weasely excuses to look elsewhere. Can't even say for sure whether it was a conscious decision. It's not fair, just a simple fact.
While going through introductions at a recent Pinot Noir Wine Plan Seminar, Z observed that our 5 winemakers have 73 years of production experience. Impressive. However, that figure doesn’t take into account harvest experiences. Harvest experience? Think dog years, but instead of seven, it’s two. That’s because one can accumulate valuable insights and destroy the body by working both, a southern and northern hemisphere harvest in one calendar year. Two for the price of one punishment.
No, no, no. Not that kind of robbed. This isn’t a Hamburglar mask-wearing tale of hands held high or smashed car windows in search of easily removable stereos. Nope. This is a tale of aromatics, cat boxes and my grandmother’s curtains.
Crushpad recently hosted a BYOB tasting event featuring Sauvignon Blanc. BYOB at a winery? You bet. And, it was fantastic…unless you were Alex.
He was robbed.
But, not in that way.
Decisions, decisions... putting together a wine plan can seem a daunting proposition. There are so many choices that determine how the berry will play out in the bottle. To help demystify the process, Crushpad's Pinot Noir winemaker, Chris Nelson, walked us through the 30 or so steps that go into making a red wine. As Chris detailed the wine plan, we sipped and sampled two Pinots sourced from Amber Ridge Vineyards in Windsor.
Some 30 Crushpad clients, staff and friends tasted, talked and debated their way through 7 California Chardonnays on Thursday’s tasting. Here’s a quick run down on 3 of the wines poured.
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