I just got an email from BevMo informing me that their Santa Clara branch is moving from the location at the corner of Stevens Creek and Kiely to the strip mall at the corner of Winchester. They'll be in what used to be a branch of Good Guys; I bought my home theatre system there, many years ago.

They are having a big opening event this weekend (October 17th-19th), with tastings from several California wineries and breweries. On Friday, Brenda Murphy of Clos La Chance will be there from Noon-3PM and George Troquato of Cinnabar will be there from 3PM-6PM. On Sunday from 11AM-2PM Michael Sones will be representing Bargetto and Chaucer’s along with Richard Alfaro of Alfaro Family Vineyards and Rob Jensen of Testarossa Vineyards. From 2PM-5PM Mike Faul from Rabbit's Foot Meadery and Red Branch Cider Company, and Dane Stark from Page Mill Winery will be there.

Those are just the local wineries; there will also be representatives from various others, from Napa to Paso Robles. The full list is here.

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Last weekend a few of us went out for dinner at an old favourite, Thai Basil in Sunnyvale. This used to be a tiny hole-in-the-wall on the end of Murphy Street in Sunnyvale. It was so successful that the owner opened a much larger second branch in the nearby Town & Country Village. Now that mall is being demolished and rebuilt, the original Thai Basil has expanded into what was formerly a particularly seedy looking bar called the Miramar. This is the first time we been there since it reopened.

The obvious question arose: what wine to take? What goes best with Thai food? Conventional wisdom has it that the best match for many asian cuisines is an off-dry Riesling, but although Felton Empire was once famous for it's Rieslings I don't think there's much planted here any more. Besides, I'm not a huge fan of Riesling or of off-dry wines in general. As Stephen Colbert might say: dry or sweet, pick a side, we're at war. Red wine didn't seem appropriate and although a nice sparkler might work there are very few that would really stand up to a sweet or spicy dish.
Unfortunately my cellar is somewhat lacking in dry whites these days. A 2007 Storrs Sauvignon Blanc looked promising; I also picked out a 2004 Varner Home Block Chardonnay.

The Storrs is from the San Lucas AVA, which is in Monterey County. It's a light, fruity wine with lots of the typical grapefruit flavours as well as melon, gooseberry and something tropical - guava perhaps. There's a slight sweetness that showed up particularly when paired with a bowl of Tom Yum Soup.

The Storrs didn't last long, so we moved on to the Varner. In theory this should have been a good pairing; it's a full bodied, rich, creamy Chardonnay. The oak has integrated nicely after a couple of years in the cellar; there even seemed to be a hint of petrol on the nose like you'd expect from a Riesling. But in practice the sweetness of the sauces, nuts and coconut, and the spice of the chili and basil somewhat overpowered the wine. With hindsight I think a Fogarty Gewurztraminer would probably have been a better choice; I'll save the Varners for something more appropriate.

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Recently my wife was complaining that we had no rosé left in the cellar, so a restocking was in order. I called in at K&L and saw the 2007 Alfaro Family for $14.
I visited Alfaro Family earlier this year as part of the Pinot Paradise event and I remember being impressed with their Pinot Rosé; it had a nice flavour of strawberries, perfect for the hot weather.

Maybe they were pouring the 06, or maybe it's the four months in bottle, but the flavour profile of this was very different than I remember. The dominant flavour is now raspberry, backed by a kind of fruit punch. It's fruity without being sweet, and light in acidity. Overall a perfectly serviceable, though not particularly inspiring sipper for those warm evenings and weekends as summer draws to a close.

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Woodside vineyards was bonded in 1963, which makes them officially 45 years old this year (and slightly older than me). In this anniversary year some significant changes are afoot. Now aged 82, Bob Mullen has sold his property on Kings Mountain Road along with the vineyard and winery buildings, but not the business. Woodside Vineyards is now in the process of looking for a new home, preferably within the Woodside area.

The good news is that the new owner isn't planning on taking immediate posession, so the 2008 vintage will continue to be produced as normal. The future of the vineyard is not certain, but it seems likely that it will continue to be managed by Woodside Vineyards for at least the next year, possibly longer. Since that is only one of around 25 vineyard sources used by the winery there shouldn't be any significant impact.

This last weekend the vineyard held an open house for mailing list members and were pouring several new releases. Wes and his group had visited on Saturday; I managed to get up there on Monday.

1997 Sparkling Wine I wasn't particularly impressed with this the last time I tasted it. The price has been reduced from $30 to $20 so clearly I'm not the only one. There's some green apple but a lot of what some might call minerrality, but to me it just tasted like baking soda. There's far better bubbly for the money. $20

2006 Chardonnay Lots of vanilla and green apples. Fruity with a rich mouthfeel. Quite low in acidity for a Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay and a surprisingly tannic finish; I'm guessing this was fermented on the skins for longer than is typical. I'm in two minds over this; I got one to try at a later date, but it's not my favourite. $22

2005 Pinot Noir This is the first chance I've had to taste the Pinot, but I've heard good things about it. At Pinot Paradise I think it was the first wine to run out, and unfortunately I'd started at the other end of the room. I wasn't disappointed; it really delivered. It reminded me of a much more concentrated version of the 07 Great Blue Heron I tried on Saturday; not entirely surprising given the proximity and the shared history. Lots of chocolate and cherry, with a long finish. $36. Go get some before it sells out!

2005 Estate Zinfandel I do like the Woodside Zinfandel. Lots of bright raspberry fruit and pepper, with some coffee and chocolate from the oak. The finish is long too. $30

2005 Kings Mountain Cabernet This wine and the Estate Cabernet both won Gold medals at the SCMWA Commercial Wine Competition, with the Kings Mountain being voted best SCM Red. I'm sorry, but the judges got it wrong. The Kings Mountain cab is a good wine; lots of blackberry/blackcurrant fruit, a little coffee and caramel, but it didn't wow me like the (Silver medal winning) Pinot did. I'm not even convinced that the 2005 is as good as the 2004 I opened recently, though to be fair the 2004 had a year of cellaring. Having said that it's still a damn fine wine and one of the best Santa Cruz Mountains cabs for opening tonight. Excellent value at $22. I bought two and would have liked a case.

2004 Estate Cabernet A lot more structure - tannin and acidity - than the Kings Mountain. Typically the Estate needs a few years in the cellar to show well and this one is no exception. There's plenty of fruit but it needs time to come round. $40.

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When Paul and Robin Smith built their home in Woodside about 10 years ago they approached Bob Mullen of Woodside Vineyards for suggestions on what to do with their estate. Bob recommended planting Pinot Noir; he oversaw the first phase of planting and took the fruit from the early vintages.
Later vintages were custom-crushed at Thomas Fogarty by Michael Martella, but Fogarty needed the capacity for their own use so Paul set up a winery in his three-car garage under Martella's supervision.

A group of us met at the vineyard last weekend. Wes had arranged a tour calling at Ridge for their "Taste of Monte Bello" event and at Woodside for their open house, but I had other commitments and was only able to make this event. I was accompanied by my one-year-old son which made taking notes impractical, so this is from memory.

The vines are now fully mature and produce enough fruit for 100 cases of Pinot Noir. Paul would like to increase production, but as ever it's a question of sourcing suitable fruit. The wine is sold at Roberts of Woodside for around $21 and is also at a few local restaurants, as well as being available directly from the winery. Unusually for Pinot the wines are bottled in Bordeaux-style bottles. This was done to give more space for the bottle label; the plan is to have a different label every year with artwork from local artists. The name Great Blue Heron comes from one of the resident wildlife who apparently helped keep the area clear of gophers when the vineyard was planted.

The first vintage was 2005, and was scored 86 by Wine Spectator. We tasted the 2006 and the newly bottled 2007. The painting that graces the 2006 label was the first to be commissioned by the winery and depicts a heron sitting on a lake. The wine had a reddish-brown colour reminiscent of an older wine; on the palate there was some candied fruit and a character I couldn't immediately pinpoint. On the way home I wondered if the wine was slightly madeirized.

The 2007 on the other hand had a more vibrant purple colour and really nice, rich cherry and chocolate flavours. I purchased a couple of bottles and plan to let them stand for a few weeks before sampling again; I'll probably end up going back for more. The label has a photograph of two herons in flight.

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These days the interwebs are full of sites where you can find other peoples tasting notes on pretty much any wine that's out there. Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate have extensive online databases of their published scores and notes; collectors post comments on CellarTracker and Cork'd and discuss the wines in online forums (or is it fora?); consumers and retailers alike discuss the latest releases in their blogs.

But for any given wine, who opens the most bottles? Who knows the wine best? Obviously it's the people who made it. They are uniquely positioned to track the progress of a wine over the years; after all they've had it in ideal conditions since before it was even released.

The finest example in this regard is Penfolds of Australia. Every few years they hold a tasting of the entire library going back over 50 years and publish it on their website as "The Rewards Of Patience". For a collector, whether of the iconic Grange or the more affordable but still long-lived Bin series it's the ultimate resource.

Yet if you go to most other wineries web sites, 99% of the time the only thing you'll find information on is the latest and future releases. It's all about selling; where's the after sales support?

Recently Wes told me that a couple of years ago Jeff Emery had held a tasting and posted notes on the entire library of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard wines. Although I'd visited the site before I'd never noticed it because for some reason on my browser (Firefox) it shows up as black on black. But sure enough, the notes are there going back all the way to 1979, and they make interesting reading.

Take for example the rainy 1982 vintage; the Bates Ranch Cabernet is "Complex and soft, perhaps just past its peak. Drink now or last Tuesday" whereas the Estate Pinot Noir is "a HUGE wine that still needs time. Lots of tannin, but lots of deep fruit too. Hold until 2010 to 2015". Notes like these from the people who know the wines are a fantastic resource that will prevent you from opening a bottle too soon or keeping it too long, and I wish that more wineries would share them.

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Silicon Valley is of course well known for its dot-com millionaires. Having made a fortune in the tech industry many of them purchase large properties in the Santa Cruz Mountains and, rather than maintain a huge garden, some of them have a vineyard installed. There are several local companies that specialise in installing and maintaining home vineyards; one of them is called Post and Trellis.

A former geologist, MBA and amateur winemaker, Ken Wornick has installed a number of vineyards from Woodside to Saratoga, including his own 2.5 acre Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese vineyard in La Honda. In 2001 the company purchased an industrial unit in Redwood City and began making private label wines for the vineyard clients. Ken also began making his own wines under the La Honda Winery label.

Skip forward to the present day. With around 25 vineyards being managed, 15 of which are over an acre in size, and a growing inventory of his own label wines La Honda Winery finally decided to emerge from stealth mode and release the wines to the general public. My friend Wes and I made an appointment with Ken for a private tour and tasting one Tuesday afternoon.

The winery is located in a largely residential part of Redwood City. What was once a fairly ordinary industrial unit has been greatly embellished with stonework and art over the course of several years. Trucks carrying fruit can drive through the winery to the crushpad at the rear. Fruit is destemmed, but not crushed, and the individual berries are fed onto a table where they are sorted by hand. The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. Ken aims to keep alcohol levels reasonably low; all the wines we tasted were a little over 13%. Despite the fact that the law permits a margin of up to 1.5% in the declared alcohol content, Ken insists on labelling the wines to two decimal places. The winery has the capacity to handle up to 5,000 cases, but currently is at around a third of that capacity, and plans to remain there.

For a new winery, La Honda certainly has a wide range of wines. The current release list includes three whites and six reds, four of which are sourced from local vineyards that he manages. An additional 4 or 5 reds are planned for release in Winter 2008; two from Chalk Hill AVA in Sonoma, the rest from local vineyards. Case production varies from less than 25 cases up to 235 cases. We tasted four wines; two from local vineyards and two from purchased fruit. Unfortunately I lost my notes, so this is from memory - for an alternate perspective check Wes's blog entry

2006 Syrah, Santa Cruz MountainsFruit for this Syrah is sourced from several vineyards, but the bulk of it comes from a vineyard in the Los Altos Hills. The nose is pretty subdued initially; plenty of tannin but not a huge amount of acidity. Spicy flavours of blackberry and liquorice, and a decent finish. Stylistically it's more like an Australian Shiraz than a Syrah. Decent value at $19 and drinkable but would certainly benefit from short-term cellaring. 58 cases.

2006 Pinot Noir "Black Capsule North", Santa Cruz Mountains Ken manages several Pinot Noir vineyards; this is a blend of fruit from four different vineyards at the northern end of the AVA, from Los Altos Hills to Woodside. It's matured in American oak. In contrast there's another blend called "Red Capsule South" (which we didn't taste) that comes from four vineyards between Los Altos Hills and Saratoga. Frankly if it didn't say Pinot Noir on the label I doubt that would have been my first guess; it has a rather dark colour and initially is very closed, showing mostly oak and tannin. With time in the glass I got flavours of blackcurrant, orange peel and some black cherry. Should really be cellared for at least 2-3 years. 93 cases. $34

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon "Naylor's Dry Hole", Chalone AVA Duncan Naylor has a 2 acre vineyard next to Brosseau Vineyard in the Chalone AVA. When planting the vineyard water was a problem; he dug several wells that came up dry before finally finding water. Consequently he named the vineyard Dry Hole. It's mostly planted to Pinot Noir, which goes to the Loring Wine Company.
Initially the nose has a lot of vanilla from the oak; my first thought was "ice-cream". On the palate it's a nice, soft, drink-me-now cab with good blackcurrant flavour. I preferred it to the Perrucci Family Cabernet that I tasted last weekend, and at $26 it's $7 cheaper. 72 cases.

2005 Viognier, Napa Valley Most of Ken's wines have a story behind them. This fruit came from three rows that were surplus to requirements and so hadn't been picked. The resulting wine is still around 13% but has 3.8% residual sugar; though not sweet enough to be a dessert wine it would make an excellent aperitif. The nose is typical Viognier; sweet and floral. On the palate there are concentrated flavours of peaches, pears and canteloupe with just enough acidity to counter the sweetness. $24 - 235 cases.

La Honda Winery seems to be doing all the right things. Ken is clearly doing something that he enjoys and the wines I've tasted have all been well made and reasonably priced. I'm looking forward to following his progress.

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Perrucci Family Vineyards is a small producer based in Los Gatos. Andy and Greg Perrucci come from a family of Italian fruit growers, but instead chose to pursue high-tech careers. In the late 1990s they planted Sangiovese on their father's estate. The first vintage was in 2003; they also purchase fruit from other Santa Cruz Mountains vineyards as well as Paicines.

This Cabernet Sauvignon includes fruit sourced from both AVAs, though the ratio isn't listed. As a result it's entitled to use the Central Coast Appellation, though I didn't see one listed. It's blended with around 15% Merlot and aged for 2 years in American oak.

This was from a newly opened bottle. The nose was enticing, with black fruits and coffee. This was matched by similar flavours on the palate; lots and lots of blackcurrant and chocolate and soft tannins. Not a lot of acidity. However it faded a bit on the finish, where there was a hint of green tannins. Would probably benefit from a year or so in the bottle; I'd appreciate the chance to try it again from a bottle that's had some air.

Overall then a decent effort. What lets it down is the price; at $33 it's about $10 more than most of the immediate competition, such as Mount Eden Saratoga Cuvee or Woodside Kings Mountain, and lacks some of the structure of similarly priced Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernets.

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I finally got round to reading the press release from the SCMWA on the winners of the 2008 Santa Cruz Mountains Commercial Wine Competition.

First off, congratulations to the winners. Woodside Vineyards not only got best SCM red wine for their 2005 King's Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (I reviewed the 2004 just last month and was very impressed) but also got gold for their Estate Cabernet and silvers for their 2005 estate Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. Beauregard got best SCM White for their 2006 Bald Mountain Vineyard Chardonnay, as well as three other silver medals, all for Chardonnays.

The two top wines were a bit of a surprise. Best In Show went to a white port from Picchetti Winery called Angelica. Now personally I find port to be over-rated; I'm more of a Sauternes fan. I'll withhold judgement until I've tried it. But the highest score of all went to a Soquel Vineyards Zinfandel from Lodi!? What's the world coming to?

I was a bit surprised by the number of medals that were handed out; there were more gold medals awarded than Michael Phelps got. It turns out that rather than divide the wines into classes and award first, second and third place within each class all the wines receive a score out of 100 (I'll put aside my views on the 100 point system for now). Anything scoring over 90 points gets a gold, anything over 85 gets a silver and anything over 80 gets a bronze. Out of almost 150 wines only five of them failed to get any kind of medal. It reminded me of the scene from Meet the Fockers where DeNiro says "I didn't know they make 9th place ribbons" and Hoffman replies "Oh, they've got them all the way up to 10th place."

All that aside there were some interesting results, including Golds for Black Ridge (I've been saying that they were worth keeping an eye on) and - of all things - a 2007 Pelican Ranch Lodi Pinotage.

Nice to see several wines from Santa Clara Valley getting decent scores, including Muccigrosso Vineyards "Lynzin" (90, Gold) and "Stanzin" (89, Silver), Sarah's Vineyard 2005 Estate Pinot Noir (89, Silver), Martin Ranch 2004 JD Hurley Cabernet Sauvignon (89, Silver) and Clos LaChance 2004 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (88, Silver).

The medal winners will be on display during the Santa Cruz County Fair, which runs from September 9th-14th. The SCMWA is organising a tasting event for that weekend.

The official results table is here.

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It's the Scotts Valley Art & Wine festival this weekend. Several local wineries will be pouring;
Bargetto, Domenico, Glenwood Oaks, Hallcrest, Heart O' The Mountain, Hunter Hill, Naumann, Pelican Ranch, Roudon-Smith and Sones. Additionally, Heart O' The Mountain's sister winery High Valley Vineyard from Lake County will be there.

The event is on Saturday and Sunday from 10AM to 6PM on Kings Village Road in Scotts Valley. Wine glass plus two tastings costs $15. For more info see the festival web site.

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