All in the Family at Seghesio

Imagine this: A sweeping saga of four generations of Italian winemakers as they struggle against the odds and triumph over adversity for the sake of land, love and wine. Sounds like a Hallmark movie of the week or an Oprah book club selection, right? But it's not--not yet at least. It's the real story of the Seghesio family, winemakers in Healdsburg, California. And I got to learn all about it first hand this past Sunday.

Shana Ray (@sharayray) the Sonoma county social media maven arranged for a wine blogger private tasting lunch at Seghesio and graciously invited me. Also in attendance was Thea Dwelle (@winebratsf), Paul Mabray of Vintank (@pmabray), David Horowitz (@dmhoro) marketing professor at Sonoma State,   Hardy Wallace (@goodetobefirst) visiting from Atlanta and heir to the Murphy-Goode throne in attendance with his lovely maiden, plus Valerie Crowell (@WineDog), and Jim Morris (@sonomawineguy).

It was quite a mixed group and I must admit before I got to know some of these folks personally I was a bit wary. Judging from their tweets alone I had the feeling that any type of event with them might be a cross between Sideways and SuperBad a sort of ad hoc Harold and Kumar Go Wine Tasting  kind of affair. But to the contrary, these people are pros with great knowledge, passion and respect for wine and all aspects of the business. They have been incredibly genial and accommodating to me, an outsider, looking to learn more about the local wine scene and add the moniker of wine blogger to my writing bag of tricks.

Dan, our host at Seghesio, started us off with a light and zesty Pinot Grigio on the terrace before leading us inside to Angela's Table, a private tasting room for the food and wine paring. 

It's all about la famiglia at Seghesio and it’s apparent in every detail. From the black and white photos that line the hallways to the favorite family recipes paired with the wines. Even the redwood in the redwood room had a family history. Seghesio is a living legacy of one family's love of land and wine. It shows in the decor and it shows in the wine.

The wines presented at Angela's table included: 2008 Fiano, a white grape from Campania, the 2005 Rockpile Zinfandel, 2003 Omaggio -a blend of 60% Cabernet and 40% Sangiovese, 2002 Petite Sirah, and the Dionigia Port. You can read more details about the wines here.

The food pairings, all created from recipes passed along generation to generation included; Uncle Ed's Eggplant parmigiana that resembled a tiny pizettea with sausage and cheese melted over a round of eggplant. (Uncle Ed is not to be confused with Mr. Ed of course. But who would do that besides me?) Peter’s spaghetti alio olio with wild prawns, Rachel Ann’s stuffed zucchini, and the spicy traditional family recipe sausage served on brioche with grilled onions. I detected a bit of stone ground mustard on the brioche which seemed rather un-Italian to me, but that could just be a regional thing.

Between the wines, I kept gravitating back to the Omaggio as it paired so well with the sausage and the eggplant parmigiana. It was my kind of wine. A wine that supports and encourages the through enjoyment of something fatty. The Sirah also matched well to the fennel and clove flavors of the sausage. In fact the Italians beloved lardo would be a very nice accompaniment to this wine as well. The more fat the better.

But the surprise for me was the Dionigia port, named after Angela Dionigia Seghesio and made from equal parts Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Cabernet. Maybe I’m biased because my middle name is Angela, but I thought this port was wonderful. Paired with chocolate covered almonds, the Dionigia port was soft and full without the high alcoholicky kick I've found in other ports.

After the lunch we adjourned to the patio once again and sampled the 2006 Zinfandel. It reminded me of the type of the wine found in Italy. Younger and brighter with fuller fruityness. (go ahead and add fruityness the to the new wine lexicon along with alcoholicky.)

If you are in the area, stop by and visit Seghesio-- hang out, play some bocce -- and even if you are not of Italian heritage you can adopt the Seghesio sensibility for a day and find your own sense of family in a glass of their storied wine.

Salute and grazie la famiglia Seghesio

Chill a Cella

I started thinking about all the cheap wine we drank in college, like Black Cat Riesling and Black Tower Liebfraumilch. Mostly we drank German wines because I was studying German at the time and liked the labels. And mostly we drank what we could afford, which was not much.

Then one night at the local Italian restaurant my roommate and I had a bottle of Vapolicella and I realized that there was more to wine than cheap whites. 

I was completely blindsided by the Vapolicella. It was such a departure from the super sweet Rieslings and Liebfraumilch's and it opened my palate in an unexpected way. I could actually feel a difference as well as taste it. And that was new to me. The Vapolicella had a weight and shape to it that was lacking in the the white wine I'd had. Up to that point, I'd not realized or noticed the vast range of tastes, textures and flavors in wine.

After that I spent more time in the wine aisle looking at the labels and trying all sorts of things. Since we rarely spent more than 4 dollars it was rather hit and miss. One stand out was the Bolla Vapolicella. The Bolla was a good wine for the price and set me off on Vapolicella jag.  

Around the same time the Aldo 'chill a cella' commercial came out for Cella Bianco (view it here) and people called me "Mar-chill-a-cella" for the next two years. Eventually, as with most jags, I got burned out and moved on to something else. 

I didn't drink Vapolicella again for almost 15 years. But recently I tried a bottle of Giuseppe Campagnola Valpolicella Classico Superiore Caterina Zardini 2005 and it made me appreciate it all a new.  

It certainly makes a difference to drink a Valpolicella Classico or Superiore instead of the regular old Vapolicella. And this wine was super superiore for around $24. I found this wine to be fresh and flavorful, quite spicy and even smokey, and with much more dimension than the Vapolicellas of old. 

After the fact, I discovered the 2006 had been rated tre bicceriere three glasses from Gambero Rosso. The bottle I tasted was a 2005 but it was still very much on the mark.

I think it's interesting to revisit wines we have a certain preconception about from time to time. So what have you drank, eaten, seen or read recently that re-acquainted you with something you once were obsessed with but may have forgotten? Do tell. 

A Wet Day in Dry Creek

My big sister is in town, so today we did Home School Tuesday tasting (see April 28th post below) on Monday and spent a wet day in Dry Creek rambling about. After learning a Visa Signature card gets you complimentary tastings at certain wineries, (see list here) I built the day accordingly. 

Today's Itinerary:

Quivera 

Rosso & Bianca (Francis Ford Coppola Presents)

Trentadue

Hanna - Hwy 128 (visited Occidental tasting room last week)

I just love, love, love Quivera. From the gardens, to the chickens, to the design of the structures on the property and even the collateral materials. Everything seems in harmony here, just like their wines. Today I made my love affair with Quivera official and joined their Queue wine club. I guess you could say we're going steady now. 

From Quivera we went to Diavola for lunch and had panini's and pizza. I must be on a pig/boar jag since the logos at Quivera and Diavola both feature swine. Or maybe it's a subconscious reaction to the Swine flu (media flu, really). Whatever--swine, I fear you not. I embrace thee!

After lunch we drove over to Rosso & Bianco which was just around the corner. I think it took us longer to drive to the tasting room on the winery property than it did to get to the winery gates from Diavola. If you go, just keep following the red signs past all the construction. You'll find it eventually. 

The tasting room at Rosso & Bianco (soon to be re-named/branded Francis Ford Copppola Presents) is long and narrow with a dark slate poured concrete counter top and low key lighting. It's all about the visuals here. The hosts wear red and white Guayabera style shirts that resemble bowling league attire from the 50's. The shirts gave the place a theme restaurant feel, but it was also kinda cool. 

We tasted the Sonoma County flight of wines and also a new release, the Sofia Riesling. 

Behind the tasting bar was a display of Coppolas' Oscars, Golden Globe, Donatello (an Italian version of an Oscar), Palme d'Or and other awards of merit. Plus storyboards of scenes from The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. Apocalypse Now is one of my all time favorite movies if not the favorite. I saw it about 30 times when it was first released and I was working part-time at a movie theater. I was riveted by it from the get go. I had just written a college paper on Joseph Conrad and The Heart of Darkness so it was beyond intriguing to me. I've since seen it another 20 times or so, I never tire of it. 

Off to the side of the bar at Rosso & Bianco was a rack of All-Story issues, the lit mag that Coppola publishes. I highly recommend All -Story to you readers out there. The design alone is worth the subscription price. Each issue is designed by a guest artist like Tom Waits, Wayne Thiebaud, Wim Wenders, Chip Kidd & most recently Guillermo del Toro.

I am always attracted to clever, well designed labels. The Coppola labels are very unique. The FC Reserve bottle feature the letters of the Coppola name scattered across the bottle. Apparently the letters were tossed in the air and then photographed as they landed.  The Directors Cut labels feature whimsical block cut figures that spiral around the bottle. The Votre Sante label is cut like a delicate piece of hand crocheted lace. Something anyone with an Italian grandmother is well acquainted with. 

From Coppola we drove back under the freeway over to Trentadue where we were greeted by a very happy wine dog that was part sharpei and boxer. I've had Trentadue Port, but this was the first time tasting their other offerings. There were many selections that stood out on the tasting menu, but my favorite was the Sangiovese. 

On the way home we stopped off at Hanna on Hwy 128. Originally Hanna was not on the list but we enjoyed their wines so much last week that we could not resist another taste.

Living La Vida Locavore

For many people, trying to eat locavore is not as hard as trying to drink locavore. In most regions of the country locally grown produce can be found within 50 to 100 miles of your home. But sourcing locavore wine is a bit more challenging. 

Luckily I live smack dab in the middle of a locavores' wet dream. Farms, dairy's, orchards and vineyards as far as the eye can see and beyond. Sonoma county is practically ground zero for year round availability of locally grown and produced products. I can hear chickens in my neighborhood and see vineyards from my living room. 

A few weeks ago I decided to find out exactly what vineyard I was gazing upon in the distance.  I fired up Google Maps and discovered it was Balletto. So off I went to check out my locavore vineyard. When the pourer asked where we were from I pointed out the tasting room window and said "Up there. I can see your vineyard from my house."

We tasted the 2006 Chardonnay, the 2007 Burnside and Estate Pinot Noirs, and the 2005 Zinfandel. But the wine that came home with me was the 2006 Gewurztraminer.  I was shocked by how much I liked this wine. It was so crisp and citrusy and thoroughly delightful. Not the treacly Gewurztraminwer of old that I remember from Stammtisch, the Friday night German Club drink fest held in the language department basement in college. I think Professor Marshall made the stuff himself.

Tonight we drank it with corn tortillas filled with sauteed rainbow chard, grilled onions and asiago cheese topped with green tomatillo salsa. It was a great combination. The savory and piquant with the crisp and light.  

I guess it's time to revisit other wines of the past that I have left in the dust and see what else out there will change my mind. -- Bis Gleich (german for see you later)

Reinventing the Past

Are we hard-wired to remember tragic events over the good? It seems that way. Maybe it's just me. Sure, I’ve had peak high days of utter joy but they don’t have the same razor sharp clarity as the bad events. It’s as if the emotional muscle memory can't let go. Those moments in time that just hang there like fossils preserved in Lucite. The words etched in your memory: Dad died.  Your brother is dead.  Mom is gone. There is no turning back certain days, or pressing delete on the calls that defined them. 

So today, in honor of my brother, I'm starting a new tradition to change the energy around this tragic milestone. I’ve decided to turn it into a mini celebration and try to access the joy division of his life. 

Lucky for me Traverso’s  the Italian Deli in Santa Rosa is having a moving sale so I was able to get all the “ode to a good life” supplies at 25% off. 

Since my family background is Italian I thought it fitting to do this with an Italian theme. I love Traverso’s; the array of Italian products, the special cheeses and meats remind me of my childhood, but without all the angst and screaming. (Hey, Italians can be a bit overwrought you know.) But food and wine makes it all better. 

I filled my cart with items to create a classic Italian antipasti spread. Along with some cheese from the Dolomites and salami, I got Filetti di Acciughe--Anchovies with capers, Flott Tuna (the worlds' greatest tuna IMO), and a few different types of Sicilian Caponata.  Caponota is a Sicilian dish made of eggplant and olives and capers, tomatoes, celery, peppers and vinegar and it’s just the most fantastic thing in the world. It’s my go to de-stress food. The food I find most comfort in. It’s like Italian Valium to me. My Mother and Grandmother were master caponata makers. Once we spent the whole day making enormous vats of it for me to take back to school and in the process burned out the element on my mom’s electric stove. I went back to school with three huge jars and hid them from my roommates. It's not that I'm not into sharing, but this stuff was like high grade smack and equally addictive. I did not want to be responsible for creating any new caponota addicts with my antipasto gateway drug.  

In the wine department I found two of my favorite wines from Sardegna the Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino and the Argiolas Costera made of Cannonau grapes which I recently discovered is the same grape as Grenache. These wines are easy drinkers and a great value at under $20. I’ve been drinking these wines for years but I noticed they have been sort of discovered lately and I even saw the Vermentino was mentioned in Wine Spectator, so the price has been creeping up. I also grabbed bottle of Cinque Terre Vendemmia a very delicate dry white wine that I have never seen outside of the Cinque Terre. Probably with good reason as I don’t think this wine travels all that well. But what the heck, it's most excellent paired with something like Acchugie with capers. So I got a bottle of that too. 

Tonight I as I lay out this Traverso repast, I'll raise a glass to my brother and try to hold on to the better memories now and in the future. –Ciao ciao

Home School Tuesdays

In our quest to learn more about the wines & wineries in our area I set aside Tuesday afternoons to go tasting and explore the region. I call it "Home School Tuesday" and think of it as a kind of improvised field trip to illuminate and educate ourselves on what's out there and what we like. It's completely unscientific, I just pick wineries at random or else select ones I've read about. 

Last week we went to Dutton Estate and Iron Horse. Today we visited Merry Edwards and Hanna. I always wanted to stop in at Merry Edwards because of their David Lance Goines wine labels. The tasting areas were like individual conference rooms and it sort of felt like going on a job interview, but without the exchange of business cards and discussion of career goals.

We tasted their Pinots and the highly rated Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc. I would have bought the wine for the label alone, but the wine was equally well designed so got a bottle for some "extra credit" work at home.

Next we went to Hanna and tried some Chardonnay  Pinot Noir,  Cabernet  a nice Rose and the Bismark Mountain Vineyard Zinfandel.  I normally don't buy wine above the $35 price point. My goal is always to find the best wine for my palate (and purse) for under $20. But we ended up buying the $52.00 Zinfandel. It was just irresistible. Luckily it turned out that if you have a Visa Signature credit card you get a 15% discount! I didn't even know I had a Signature Visa card till I looked at it so that was a nice bonus. 

Apparently Visa has set up this promotion with about 60 wineries where you can get the tasting fee waived and discounts on wines purchased in the tasting rooms. So take out your card and see if it says Visa Signature on it. It's a pretty nice deal.

In Real Life

Since moving to Sonoma County three months ago I have toiled to embrace the wine country lifestyle and all it has to offer. And if that means dining at phenomenal restaurants and visiting world-class wineries, so be it. I’m also enjoying the astounding bounty of locally grown and produced comestibles. (A fancy word for stuff you eat-- not blow up.)  Anyway my friend James O'Reilly of Travelers Tales had been urging me to join Twitter since it launched. He also encouraged me to join Second Life way back when, so naturally I was dubious about what possible value this new media time suck might offer. (BTW: I'm not adverse to new technologies. I’ve worked in Tech for years and was involved with the launch of Travelocity and Opentable. I also worked on Netopia Virtual Office with GeoCities. Not sure if those last two even exist anymore.) But I finally caved in and joined Twitter at the end of 2008.

Recently I decided to go beyond the fourth wall of cyberspace and attend a real live twitter event. This was not your random tweet up kind of thing with crap pizza. This was a fully fleshed out extravaganza. The event was sponsored by Twitter Taste Live and Hospice du Rhone and hosted at ESTATE by Sondra Bernstein. The point is to meet in person to taste wines that are simultaneously tasted by others attending virtually via twitter. A big part of the event is the live feed of tweets that scroll out on a big screen. Unfortunately the day of the event was also the day Oprah joined twitter so there were all sorts of connection problems. Nonetheless, the event far exceeded my expectations. The people and the wines were exceptional.

Tablemates at the pre-taste dinner included Paige Granback and Chuck Hayward of the Jug Shop in San Francisco, Wine Marketer John Corcoran and Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyards. And all through the meal I kept having the deja-vu-y feeling that I'd previously met all these delightful and interesting characters. The next day, I realized why they all seemed so familiar. A month earlier I’d read Red, White, And Drunk All Over by Natalie MacLean so in effect, I had already met them through the pages of her book.

I was mostly unfamiliar with Rhone wines-- the bulk of my experience is with the wines of Italy-- but I was a convert by the end of the evening.

I also got to meet some of the players in the Wine Twitter space like @sonadora, @winebratsf and @sharayray among others. And oh yeah, did I mention I won the door prize? Yup real life has it’s perks. 

So thank you to James for getting me on the twitter path and thank you to real life for delivering more than promised in the demo.