Come for the Wine: Lodi 2016

Monday, September 19, 2016

Lodi Wine Bloggers Conference 2016: The Missed Connection — St. Jorge Winery

My Friday excursion tag for #WBC16 in Lodi read “The Wine Abides” -- and as I waited with my group to board the bus to our undisclosed location, I realized I’d left my phone charge cord behind in the conference center. I ran back to retrieve it and when I returned the “Wine Abides” bus had up and left without me! Without a roster of who was on what bus it was impossible for them to know who should be aboard. But my missed connection had a very happy ending as I ended up on the “Souzão Berry Fields Forever” bus with wonderful small group consisting of Rachel of Three Strings Wine, Rob Frisch of Odd Bacchus, Josh from Josh Likes Wine, Andrew Pitt from Visit Lodi, Chris Kern of Forgotten Grapes, and Jo-Jo the Wine Guzzling Bear. (I think Jo-Jo blogs for Costo.)

Jo-Jo bellying up to the barre.

Our destination was St. Jorge a winery focusing on Portuguese wines along with a few Italian varietals as well. Our hosts for the evening were Vern & Jenise Vierra, the owners of St. Jorge Winery since 2007. Jenise’s family heritage is Italian and Vern’s family was Portuguese hailing from the island of St. Jorge, thus the name of the winery. Together, Vern and Jenise have all the elements for a great reality TV show--like a modern Lucy and Ricky, they were a thoroughly engaging and highly entertaining couple.

The St. Jorge Estate was like a little slice of Portugal transported to the outskirts of Lodi. After a welcome glass of Verdelho along with some extraordinary Portuguese cheeses and traditional breads, we headed out to the vineyards with Vern.

Bounded by olive trees and oak groves the vineyard soils consist of shallow clay and sandy loam. The estate-grown varietals include Verdelho, Malbec, Tinto Cão, Carignan, Trincadeira, Alicanti Bouschet, Alvarelho, Touriga, Souzão, Tempranillo, and Petit Sirah.

They also produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Maria (Mediera Port), Old Vine Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Sobremesa (Dessert), Syrah, Tannat, Vinho Cor De Rosa, Vinho Tinto Belo, and Vinho Tinto Doce.

With over 22 wines offered, you are sure to find one that suits your palate at St. Jorge.

It was dang hot out and I drank a lot of water. Perhaps too much water as it had the effect of flushing all the salt from my body of making me feel worse in the heat rather than better, and I struggled through the evening until my electrolytes finally balanced out. Note to self: Water is dangerous!

Vern Vierra in the St. Jorge vineyard

After the vineyard tour, Vern led us through a technical tasting in the cellar where we tasted a vertical of Verdelho including the 2011 Verdelho Seco from Silvaspoons Vineyard, 2014 Verdelho from Vierra Estate, and 2011 Maria also Silvaspoons Vineyard.

We also took a mini liquid tour of Portugal and tasted the 2014 Trincaderia , 2013 Tempranillo, 2014 Touriga, 2014 Souzao, and 2011 Vihno Tinto Doce (Port).

But that’s not all!

We then tried the 2013 Sangiovese (a personal favorite of mine), 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2013 Syrah, and the 2013 Alicanti Bouschet.

Time for Dinner

Jenise Vierra, at left, our gracious host.

As the air temperature dropped to a balmy 92 degrees, we headed back outside for dinner alfresco in the courtyard with outdoor chandeliers, and elegant glass sculptures atop a long table artfully decorated with fresh cut grapes that I mistook for fake as they just looked too good to be true.

Not fake grapes, the real deal!

The Portuguese and Italian inspired meal was prepared on site by the long-time family chef Lucia Rogers. The menu was as follows: Gazpacho with a fiery kick of jalapeño paired with 2014 Verdelho; Filetto Carpaccio Salad with 2014 Souzao; Bacalao the traditional cod dish of Portugal with 2014 Trincaderia; Pappa Pomodori Ravioli with 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon; and Port infused Fudge Brownie with Armena & Raspberry sauce paired with 2011 Vinho Tinto Doce.

It was an evening of grand hospitality and wine, wine, and more wine!

Grateful thanks to Vern and Jenise for hosting us and also to Mike Shinn, Director of Operations, for his assistance and the lively dinner conversation.

If you visit Lodi, be sure to stop in at St.Jorge. They are open Friday - Sunday from 11-5pm .

St. Jorge Winery
www.stjorgewinery.com

Friday, September 25, 2015

Straight Outta Corning -- Highlights of #WBC15 Finger Lakes Part III

SATURDAY--
Ageability of Finger Lakes Wines
I learned a lot in the session led by Brandon Seagar who was funny and engaging and the wines he selected for the tasting supported his points well. The best thing about WBC in recent years have been the educational sessions devoted to aspects of the wines from the particular region. Last year in Santa Barbara, the Syrah panel comes to mind, and in Finger Lakes this session was top notch.

Three Birds Cornerstone Dinner
I’m always honored to be invited to the Cornerstone dinner and Craig Camp’s Cornerstone wines are a pleasure no matter where in the world you are. This year the dinner was held at Three Birds in downtown Corning. The food was quite good and a well suited to showcase Craig’s wines.

Wine Blog Awards Corning Museum of Glass
What is with the two Allan’s/Alan’s -- Alan Kropf and Allan Wright? They have a special kind of bromance for sure for Allan to get Alan to delay his honeymoon to present the Wine Blog Awards.

Alan Krop pulls out all the stops for his annual awards show

I find the Wine Blog categories are still a bit weird, but I’m sure if I ever won one I’d be knocking people aside to get mine and singing their praise in a heartbeat. Plus that handmade glass trophy??? Whoa, that beauty should win a wine blog award for best wine blog award.

WBC16 Announcement
Drum roll please for the worst kept secret ....

WBC16--We’re going to LODI!!!

Yay, We’re going to Lodi!

SUNDAY--
After the last two sessions we had, in my opinion, one of the best WBC meals by far: chicken spedinis, salt potatoes and fresh husked corn, a Hudson style repast prepared by Sommelier/Winemaker/Chef extraordinaire--Christopher Bates. Mr. Bates deserves some kind of medal for the work he put in over a hot grill keeping hundreds of hungry bloggers fed. What the heck was in that secret sauce? It was the best chicken, actually the best anything on a skewer, I’ve ever tasted. Yeah, it was way too hot outside, yeah, it was way too long a line to get food, but yeah, it was incredibly delicious.

Corning Museum of Glass Tour
You will need at least all day, if not two days, to explore this amazing collection. The new wing of the museum is a work of art in its own right with soaring spaces, undulating lines, and an abundance of natural light to showcase the exhibits.

Celestial Scat at the Corning Museum of Glass

By the way if you find yourself in front of this exhibit shown above at the Corning Museum of Glass and see the term “celestial scat” in a placard describing the work, you can thank me. Huge thanks to Kimberly Ford for the Museum tour and especially for taking the time to escort Regine Rousseau and me through the 100 Years of Pyrex exhibit. It was a true blast from the past.

Thanks Finger Lakes!
Big shout out to Ann Crook, Director of Aviation at Elmira Corning Regional Airport for coordinating blogger shuttles to the airport. That was greatly appreciated and of course enormous thanks to all the sponsors and especially to Laury Poland and her entire team at Finger Lakes Wine Tourism for hosting a memorable and engaging Wine Bloggers Conference. I’ll be back!

But first I had to try and leave....

Last Chopper out of Corning
After all the flight delays, lost bags and missed connections; WBC15 may go down as the conference you check in to, but can never leave. Cue Hotel California... But if you have to get waylaid in an airport, getting stuck with fellow wine peeps makes it much more tolerable. And if those peeps include the Canadian Delegation...all the better.

After a two hour flight delay getting out of Corning, I was re-routed from ORD to PDX then to SFO the following day.

Last call for Peter Rabbit

While waiting In ORD with April Yap-Hennig for our (delayed, of course) flight to PDX I heard the announcement:

“Last call for Peter Rabbit, Peter Rabbit, gate 27 last call.”

I looked at April and said, “It’s a little early for Easter jokes don’t ya think?”
April gave me a long withering look -- “It’s last call for Cedar Rapids, Marcy, not Peter Rabbit!” Oh...well it sure sounded like Peter Rabbit to my exhausted ears.