It was fun to visit the SIP-certified wineries pouring at the Atascadero Wine Festival – a relaxing, lakeside event that’s now held from 4-8 p.m. to avoid the heat and take advantage of lovely North County summer nights. Local artists and restaurants also participate (we enjoyed paella from 10th Street Basque Café in San Miguel), and it’s always fun to listen to the Mighty Croon Dogs!

Here are some SIP wine tasting highlights …

Ancient Peaks: ’09 Sauvignon Blanc (which just won Best of Sauvignon Blanc at the Mid State Wine Competition) had honeydew notes with crisp acidity, definitely a good summer wine, $12. ’07 Oyster Ridge Cab-based blend showed wafts of violet and dark fruit with elegant tannins and balance, a beautiful wine, $50.

Pomar Junction: ’08 Viognier had nice honey and pear aromas, soft mouthfeel but enough acid to balance it, $25.

Saucelito Canyon: this pre-release showing of the bright ’09 Sauvignon Blanc (a gold medal winner at the Mid State Fair competition) offered crisp, citrusy flavors – made in all-stainless, it’s a wine that fans of New Zealand Sauv Blancs will love, $17. The ’08 Backroads Zinfandel and ’08 Estate Zinfandel were very different wines, with the Backroads showing a softer style and bright red fruit and the Estate true to form as Saucelito’s bold flagship Zin. Drink the Backroads with apps or on its own, $19, but the Estate really begs for an equally bold food pairing like grilled steak, $30. Add some chimichurri sauce to that steak, however, and you might want to reach for the ’08 Tempranillo, a beautifully balanced spicy interpretation of this increasing popular varietal, $28.

Aaahhhh, sigh … just now coming off my cloud of bliss following the 2010 Earth Day Food & Wine Festival on April 17. Great weather, great food, great wine, great venue, great attendees … okay, okay you get the point.

One of the big highlights this year was the chance to taste “The Wine” – the wine that recently snagged 100 Parker points, Saxum Vineyard’s 2007 James Berry Vineyard Proprietary Red. Produced by Justin and Heather Smith, this label is near and dear to Central Coast Vineyard Team since Justin’s dad, Pebble Smith, was a CCVT founding member.

Justin not only graciously hosted a private tasting for a lucky few at the winery on Saturday morning, but also poured at the Earth Day main event that afternoon. Since allotments of the ’07 James Berry all but vanished from the general market soon after the Parker blessing, I can only say, “THANK YOU FOR SHARING, JUSTIN!!”

Justin Smith offers some barrel samples of one of the '09 James Berry components.

Robert Parker called the ’07 James Berry “Utter perfection,” and who are we to argue. A blend of 41% Grenache, 31% Mourvedre, and 28% Syrah, all three varietals brought their strengths to the table. This wine had the most perfect pitch I’ve ever tasted in a wine, with bright notes and fabulous depth, sturdy but not overwhelming tannins, and stunning balance.

At the private tasting, Justin also offered another treat – barrel tastings of the three main wines slated to go into the 2009 James Berry Red. Tasting each of these wines individually really gave a sense of how Justin was orchestrating the ’09 fruit and how each really does bring a specific theme to the finished wine. First was a bright Grenache with a joyful sense of pure fruit, being aged in concrete tanks; second was a 50/30/20 MSG with big earthy Mourvèdre on the nose but not a lot of tannins, co-fermented in new oak; and third was a Syrah with some great tannins and rich but subtle mid-palate notes. Given how all these wines are showing now, the ’09 James Berry should be one to watch for!

The lucky folks who joined Justin Smith for a private tasting at Saxum Vineyards before the Earth Day Food & Wine Festival main event.

The Santa Lucia Highlands Wine Artisans proved true to their moniker at a recent tasting in San Francisco. Over two dozen labels were represented from this distinct appellation in southern Monterey County – including SIP members Hahn Family Wines, McIntyre Vineyards, and Paraiso Vineyards. 

Hahn Family Wines gives out seed packets with the same mixture as the wildflower/cover crop they use in the vineyard.

McIntyre visibly touted sustainablity and the SIP Seal in their handout, including noting that Steve McIntyre was a founding member of Central Coast Vineyard Team. Hahn Family Wines had the SIP seal all over their marketing literature, including seed packets containing the same wildflower/cover crop mixture that they use in the vineyard: five percent each of Bachelor Buttons, California poppies, Baby’s breath, and Persian clover, and 20 percent each of Crimson clover, Blando Brome, Buckwheat, and Rose clover. Philip Woodrow, director of marketing communications said “they are wildly popular. Last year we gave out over 2400 packets.” 

Among the outstanding wines from SIP wineries and/or wineries using SIP fruit were … (prices are the suggested retail)

Hahn Family Estates: 2007 Estate Pinot Gris ($20) – nice acid with light peach, a good food wine or as an aperitif; 2006 Estate Chardonnay ($25) – smooth luscious mouthfeel; 2007 Estate Syrah ($27) – wonderful balance with a rich structure and hints of tobacco and meat, a classic varietal interpretation.

Hope & Grace: 2007 Hahn Estate Pinot Noir ($45) – very smooth with bright fruit and black cherry

La Rochelle: 2007 Paraiso Vineyard Pinot Noir ($50) – good balance with nice briar and plum

McIntyre Vineyards: 2008 Estate Chardonnay ($29) – beautifully balanced with elegant structure

Paraiso Vineyards: 2007 Eagle’s Perch Chardonnay ($30) – very rich mouthfeel, pair with cream sauces or even serve on its own as an aperitif; 2007 West Terrace Pinot Noir ($40) – earthy with nice notes of plum

It was great to see Niels Udsen of Castoro Cellars recently honored by the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance as their 2009 Paso Robles Wine Industry Person of the Year.

A longtime supporter of Central Coast Vineyard Team and the SIP program – some of Castoro’s vineyards are SIP certified, as well as being certified organic – Niels started as a local cellar rat back in 1981, when no one knew what a Paso Robles was. He and his wife Bimmer launched Castoro (Italian for Niels’ nickname: “Beaver”) in 1983, and over the years, it can certainly be considered one of the labels that helped put Paso Robles on the map as a stellar wine region.

Over the years, the Udsens quietly but steadily practiced responsible stewardship of their vineyards, and have clearly emerged as successful role models for sustainability and community leadership. To name just a few of their efforts: their employees are encouraged to recycle, there is no bottled water sold at the tasting room, the events room at the Templeton tasting room is largely powered by solar panels, and Castoro was one of the first wineries in the area to offer employee benefits.

Under the direction of Niels, Winemaker/Enologist Tom Myers, and Assistant Winemaker Mikel Olsten, Castoro Cellars has grown into a 60,000 case label (plus a thriving custom crush facility and mobile bottling service). Typically, there are about 15 varietals bottled, from the flagship Zinfandels to the more obscure varietals such as Cabernet Franc. Several blends and vineyard-designate wines are always on hand as well, but – despite the breadth of available wines – we’ve never found Castoro to be about quantity. All the wines are classic varietal interpretations, some with forward fruit if the grape and vintage suggest it, but the rest show veteran finesse and restraint in the winemaking process, making them wonderful wines to pair with food.

Judging from the standing room only crowd at the SIP Roundtable breakout seminar at CCVT’s 2009 Sustainable Ag Expo, there’s certainly a lot of buzz about the SIP program, and – we think – rightly so!

CCVT Executive Director Kris O’Connor spoke about the success of the fledgling program, now only in its second year, but already with 30-plus members and about 11,000 certified acres. She also noted that all the first year members renewed, many with expanded acreage. She stressed that although much of the certified acreage is from the counties of Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara, SIP is not and was never intended to be strictly a regional program.

O’Connor moderated the roundtable, which consisted of John Niven of Niven Family Wines (Baileyana/Tangent/Trenza/Cadre), Matt Merrill of Pomar Junction Vineyard & Winery, Daryl Salm of Paraiso Vineyards (and one of the committee members that wrote the SIP Program and Protocols), and Jean-Pierre Wolff of Wolff Vineyards & Winery.

There was a lot of great information presented at the SIP roundtable, some of which we’ll explore with some later posts, but it was intriguing to hear what some of the members had to say about the value of SIP as a marketing tool. Pomar Junction is using the SIP seal on everything from bottle labels to event posters, from advertising pieces to winery logo apparel. Matt Merrill noted that the SIP seal is particularly useful as a point of entry with which to get visitors to the tasting room talking about sustainability. Many visitors are pleasantly surprised to hear about such topics as vineyard worker benefits, for example. (Check out the recent article in the San Luis Obispo New Times discussing this.)

John Niven noted that getting the word out about SIP “is a grass roots marketing effort right now,” but his family’s labels are putting out a lot of roots. He estimated that about 30,000 cases of their labels’ wines went out with the SIP seal in 2008, and he estimates that number to increase to 40,000 this year. For his sales team, that seal has proven invaluable on at least one occasion – one of them walked into a shop and pointed out the sustainability seal, which prompted the proprietor to gather up 12 other labels with the word “sustainable” on them and ask “what makes yours different?” The wine rep was able to answer that in two words – “We’re certified.”

Central Coast Vineyard Team was one of six businesses recently honored with Green Awards from the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce. There were over 70 nominees for the award, which celebrated companies dedicated to saving energy and reducing their waste.
Keynote speaker was Deborah Lyons, an environmental sustainability specialist for Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, the largest information technology company in the country and recently named as the greenest company in America by Newsweek magazine.
According to The Tribune’s Biz Buzz Report on November 11, 2009, “Lyons’ message was that saving the planet is good for businesses — and the bottom line. She came to San Luis Obispo hoping to inspire local enterprises to measure their energy usage and waste, be efficient with their resources and find new ways to save costs. But after listening to what county businesses were doing to reduce their carbon footprint, she said, ‘I’m the one who’s inspired’.”

Vineyard Night Life

Jogging down the vineyard row at 11 at night I keep hoping I don’t catch my toe on some dirt clod hidden in the dark and I wish that I spent a little more time at the gym so I wouldn’t feel like this light jog was about to kill me. The closer I get to the beast rolling along over the top of the vineyard rows the easier it gets to see. When I reach the ladder I grab onto to steps, swing up and enjoy the rush of warm air that blows from the tractor into my face.
But wait, there’s more!

The spirit of Friday night, and the need to enjoy some social time with my co-workers, I was off to Paso Wine Centre (this wine bar doesn’t have a web site but check out  Paso Winos’ very informative blog).  I walked into the modernly designed room complete with hardwood floors, stainless steel counters, and black leather box-shaped couches to find myself staring at a wall of wines.  These wines were hooked up to a gadget that looked like a cross between a display case and a beer tap, it’s an enomatic wine-dispensing machine.  This machine removes excess air from the wine bottles allowing an open bottle’s shelf-life to be extended to up to three weeks.
But wait, there’s more!

Taste of SLO has done it again, I thoroughly enjoyed myself last Wednesday night as I wandered, well due to the great turn out, shuffled up and down the Mission Plaza tasting all that San Luis Obispo has to offer. This year’s disco themed event came complete with go go dancers, a giant disco ball, great music, and of course fabulous food and wine. The best of the best of San Luis Obispo restaurants made their appearances with delicious samplers; Tuna tacos from Native Lounge to mushroom soup topped with grated espresso bean from Mother’s Tavern to profiteroles from Mama’s Meatballs, can only begin to explain the range choices that were laid out in front of me. While samplers may sound like child’s play compared to the gigantic meals we are served at some restaurants, with a choice of samplers from over 30 restaurants I found that my graceful walk into the event had turned into a bit more of a waddle as I left the evening.
But wait, there’s more!