Wine Outlook

At 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.

The 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.
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Planchon Vineyard, San Francisco Bay appellation, wine from SF Bay

If 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…)

2005 Rosenblum San Francisco Bay Mourvedre

Last 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.

cranberry cupcakes with maple cream cheese icing, 2004 Rosenblum Syrah Port, Castanho Vineyard

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.

Well, 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.

San Francisco Bay wines, Planchon Vineyard Zinfandel, 2005 San Francisco Bay Zinfandel, 2006 Contra Costa County Zinfandel

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.

You 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.

2005 Rosenblum Mourvedre, Mourvèdre, Monastrell, Mataro