Wine Outlook

If you love Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, and the like, then am I teaching the class for you!

What: Rhone Valley History and Tasting seminar
When: Wednesday, August 20, from 6:30 to 8:30pm
Where: Rosenblum Cellars, Alameda
How: call Samantha at 510-995-4100 to reserve your spot… they’re filling up fast!
How much: $40, $35 for wine club members

What to expect: learn while you taste. I just ordered a few French wines (Chateauneuf du Pape and Cotes du Rhone) to compare to some of the Rosenblum Rhone-style reds. We’ll talk and take notes while drinking in the beauty of the Rhone Valley.

Take a vacation without worrying about the price of plane tickets!

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

Saturday the tasting room staff had planned to go to dinner with one of our growers and to taste through several older vintages of the Planchon Vineyard Zinfandel, one of my favorites. Unfortunately, things changed last minute and we had to reschedule. Since we were all a little sad about missing out on the yummy wine, Kelley—who works with us every other Saturday—brought in a bottle of 2001 Rosenblum Annette’s Reserve Zinfandel from the Rhodes Vineyard in Redwood Valley. The 2005 is currently another favorite of mine for its raspberry, blueberry, and loads of Chinese 5 spice. The 2001 showed some of the same, just to a deeper degree. On the nose, I found raspberry jam, cocoa, clove, raisin, and then later coffee. Upon tasting, it was plum, raisin, rich chocolate, anise, and hint of pecans. Pam found chocolate and coconut, like a Mounds bar in her glass. And LaMont seemed to agree with me when he wrote “ripe raspberry with cocoa—followed by dark chocolate with an Asian spice finish.”

The wine had aged beautifully, becoming a richer version of what it tastes like in youth. And our least expensive reserve, it’s quite the deal at only $35.

2001 Rosenblum Annette’s Reserve Zinfandel

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

It’s always fun to engage people in my nerdy little wine experiments. This time I had a partner in crime. I get to work with the most enthusiastic fellow, Kenny G, and he helped me conduct a side-by-side tasting with some new club members. We had a grand time comparing the 2002 Rosenblum Hendry Reserve Zinfandel (pulled from the library for that appreciation party) with the 2004 Rosenblum Hendry Reserve. The first still had fruit going strong, mostly blackberry, with pepper and vanilla and tons of smoky bacon. The 2004 was a huge fruit bomb with plums, boysenberries and blackberries, laced with cocoa. Both quite good, so we were torn 3-2 in favor of the older vintage. That one’s no longer available, but the 2004–my pick–is still available in the tasting room.

side-by-side tasting, 2002 Rosenblum Hendry Reserve Zinfandel, 2004 Rosenblum Hendry Reserve