Site Meter Wine Outlook » San Francisco Bay wine

San Francisco Bay wine

A Vertical of Planchon Vineyard Zinfandel

Monday, April 14th, 2008

Planchon Vineyard ZinfandelAt Rosenblum Cellars we make about 25 different Zinfandels, from all over the state, each one different. One of my absolute favorites is the one from the Planchon Vineyard. This bottling is classified under the San Francisco Bay appellation, as the fruit is from Contra Costa County (near Oakley). This wine is also one of the reasons Wine & Spirits pronounced us America’s best producer of wine from SF Bay. Most Saturday afternoons, we get a visit from Frank, who grows grapes for the vineyard designate, and his lovely girl Helen.

Rosenblum Cellars tasting room staff, plus Frank & HelenThe Saturday crew has been trying to plan a dinner with the two of them for a while now, but schedules made it hard. Finally, this past Saturday, we all came together at Angela’s Restaurant for a vertical tasting of the Planchon wines. We had been working hard that day at a wine club event, so it was nice to relax among friends with really good food and an amzing line-up of wines. Frank even brought some wines from Franus, that also use the Planchon grapes, which enabled us to do one horizontal comparison.
(more…)

Planchon Vineyard, ,

Mourvedre Across the Years

Friday, February 8th, 2008

mourvedre vertical tastingIf you follow the blog or have met me in the tasting room, you’ve probably read or heard my love for this wine before. I’m enamored with the 2005 Rosenblum San Francisco Bay Mourvedre for many reasons. It’s from our Appellation Series, which means it’s relatively inexpensive ($18), plus it goes great with meals that are full of different components ( I had it for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners), and is oh so tasty. It shows blueberry, cherry, minerality, spice, cocoa, and coffee with good acidity.

But how was the 2002? (more…)

Cranberry Cupcakes and Syrah Port

Sunday, December 23rd, 2007

cranberry cupcakes Rosenblum Cellars Syrah PortLast Saturday, I followed through on my promise to make something sweet for the tasting room (which I planned to get double use out of by tripling the recipe and taking one third to a dinner party that night). Waking up early that morning, I got out the ingredients for these cranberry cupcakes with maple cream cheese icing. I followed the insrtuctions, except for adding more cranberries and more maple syrup. Once they were cool and frosted, I loaded them up on plates– with extras in tupperware– and headed over to work. Because they were more like muffins and the only sweetness came from the syrup, I decided to go with the dessert wine with lowest residual sugar: the 2004 Rosenblum Syrah Port from the Castanho Vineyard in San Francisco Bay. The wine showed light spice, smoke, and cherries and cranberries that went quite nicely with the cupcakes. Yum.

, ,

It’s Baaaaccccckkkk…

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

In their fall issue (released at the end of the summer), Wine & Spirits named Rosenblum Cellars as one of the top 25 producers of the past 25 years and America’s best producer of San Francisco Bay wines. The Planchon Vineyard Zinfandel grown outside of Oakley is one of the reasons for that accolade and one of my personal favorites. Same is true for the Mourvedre and the Heritage Clones Petite Sirah, also from SF Bay and highly regarded by Robert Parker recently. Another wine to help reach that pinnacle was the 2005 San Francisco Bay Zinfandel, which sold out soon after.

Rosenblum Contra Costa ZinfandelWell, readers and drinkers, it’s back but in a slightly different get-up. We bottled the 2006 Contra Costa County Zinfandel just a week or two ago, and it’s already released and ready to go. You might wonder about the name change. The reason? To achieve a more finite appellation. SF Bay covers some 1.5 million acres and several counties. Contra Costa County gets that much more specific, giving more definition to our Appellation Series. Though County appellations might not usually indicate similarities among the vineyards located there, that can’t be said for this one. As stated on Appellation America’s website, “The earthy, dusty and leathery quality of the region’s big reds is evidence of a definitive Contra Costa style.”

No matter the name, however….all you need to know is this wine is good. And it’s on the tasting menu this week, which I will most likely post tomorrow or Monday. Come get it before this one flies out the door as well.

wines, , ,

2005 Rosenblum SF Bay Mourvèdre

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

That bottle being opened in the picture is the 2005 Rosenblum Mourvedre from San Francisco Bay. The grapes come from the Castanho Vineyard in Contra Costa. Mourvèdre is known as Monastrell in Spain where it originated…though some sources seem to think that Monastrell is really Graciano. However the DNA may fall, Mourvèdre tends to be high in alcohol and tannins with an often gamey flavor. When grown in southern France, the structure is good, as is the intensity of fruit. It’s called Mataro in Portugal and the New World, and almost vanished into oblivion until the Rhône Rangers rescued it and brought it back to life in Contra Costa County.

SF Bay MourvedreYou may recognize my girl Shauna from the post about the Paso Robles Grower Day, in which she attempted a smile and I couldn’t even keep my head up. What you may not know is that in addition to drinking wine, this girl can make it, too. She’s been working her way around the winery, in all areas, including up in the tasting room with us. This wine was released at the August Open House, but we actually tasted it a couple weeks earlier. Shauna was excited, since she had given it some TLC before it went to the bottling line: six hours of aeration and the addition of a tiny amount of old vines Zin. We tasted and enjoyed: flavors and aromas of roasted coffee beans, chocolate, plums, blueberries, pepper, and traces of minerality. Good tannins and medium+ acidity. And quite a deal at $18.

, , ,

About Wine Outlook

This site is your go-to for answers about wine, courtesy of someone in the business. Firsthand knowledge and hours of research logged each week provide informed and impassioned suggestions for what wine to serve with meals (sometimes with recipes), places to go for education or fun, and what to buy or not buy. Wine Outlook is where you go when you’ve had too much to drink or not enough.

Wine Outlook Author(s)

Blogging Flair

Add to Technorati Favorites Top Food & Drink blogs Food & Drink Blogs - Blog Top Sites As Seen on Delightfulblogs.com

Food, Cooking & Wine Channel Posts

  • Pancakes - or not
    Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday. I know this because very year around this time I try to persuade friends to collect me throws from Mardi Gras parades. Some years I succeed, this year I didn't. I [...]
  • Great dinners: Stress relief through cooking
    [caption id="attachment_493" align="alignnone" width="1024" caption="Abstraction: Ability to move beyond photo by Mary MacIntyre"][/caption] At this time of night, I ought to geeting ready for my [...]
  • Sunday Evening Cookie Making
    • Shortbread Cookies Makes: 2 dozen 1-1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 tsp. salt 6 egg yolks 2 tsp. vanilla extract 4 cups all-purpose flour In a large bowl, cream [...]
  • 2 Women Changing their local garden community
    [caption id="attachment_489" align="alignnone" width="1024" caption="Congratulations:Garden more!"][/caption] This a fantastic way to start farms across the nation! In our own backyards! [...]
  • Food we eat:Dr. Vandana Shiva - Part 1
    [caption id="attachment_486" align="alignnone" width="1024" caption="Real food for all species"][/caption] "Half the people in the world don't get the nutrition they need" paraphrased from Dr [...]
  • What's for Dinner Tonight?
    • Turkey, Black Bean and Corn Salad Wraps Serves: 4 Shred some cooked turkey and mix with 1 cup of corn, 1 cup of black beans and 3 cups shredded romaine lettuce. Mix that with 1 cup salsa [...]
  • Ways to a Healthier Heart
    February is heart health month and the best way to get your heart healthy is to practice a few heart health exercises and to adopt a strategy to keep your heart at it's best. Here is some ways right [...]
  • We met the chef
    I'm still a hothouse of minor ailments, but I really want to give you a banquet update because there's so much news. There are a hundred recipes being tested over the next ten days. I need to [...]
  • Have you had a Fig Lately?
    Did you know that many people when they go to purchase fruits, don't consider buying figs as a part of their fruit bowl, and you maybe one of those people. There are 150 Varieties of figs the [...]
  • Time out with the letter 'p'
    Today you have a miserable excuse for a post. I came down with something last night and today I still have that something, plus I had proofs to look at. Working through illness is seldom wise, so [...]

Hot Off The Press


Warning: Unknown: write failed: No space left on device (28) in Unknown on line 0

Warning: Unknown: Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct () in Unknown on line 0