The Prima Vini Pages

Have you guys been outside recently? All that heat, sneezing and traffic means spring has officially sprung. This, if you’re into wine at all, means besides being allergy, tax, and gym season it is also time for rosé!

Just a few of the current staff favorites

Rosé has had a bit of an arduous climb to achieve its current success. Boxed White Zinfandel ruined pink wine for most people. Back in the eighties with its bubblegum sweetness, it became associated with awkward backyard barbeques, broke college kids, and terrible hangovers.

The Easter Bunny appears to have overindulged in the Franzia Blush Wine (from awkwardfamilyphotos.com)

I should probably mention the rosé I’m currently drinking costs all of $10.00. Besides certain champagnes, there really is no reason to spend more than $20 on a decent bottle of rosé. Unless you want to. Then by all means! Spend away!

Pink wine season around here is typically viewed with excitement and anticipation. My first major Champagne moment was with a Paul Déthune Brut Rosé. I know that isn’t quite the same thing, but the concept is the same. Good red grapes can make amazing pink wine. The Provence region, for example, is best known for its elegant, refined wines made from Grenache, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Cinsaut. These wines are incredibly terroir driven, with minerality and herbaciousness on the nose; notes of lavender, violet, and rose petal with a dry finish. Citrus and strawberry flavors come out on the palate, but the wines rarely seem too fruity. Domestic rosé, as expected, can run the gamut from bright, punchy and almost Sangria-like, to delicate, soft suggestions of the grapes. Robert Sinskey produces a highly sought after Pinot Noir vin gris that contains notes of grapefruit, candied orange peel, and gripping, food friendly acidity.

A common misconception is rosé being a blend of red and white grapes, with the finished product turning out pink. Though some wines are made this way, the best are instead made with red grapes that are allowed to sit on their skins for 24 to 72 hours (most red wines sit on their skins for approximately two weeks).  This allows for the color and a bit of structure to develop, while the aromatics stay fresh and clean. Some are also made by bleeding tanks of red wine to produce a more highly concentrated red and a perfumed bonus pink.

Most people enjoy rosé in spring and summer. It retains the character and complexity of red, with the cool, crisp freshness of white all in one glass. I can’t think of a better wine to drink poolside – and I always wish I were sipping it on the French Riviera with some oysters or brie. It’s one of the few wines that actually works with artichokes and asparagus, so my new favorite pairing with rosé is asparagus, artichoke, and feta flatbread sprinkled with herbs de Provence and drizzled with olive oil.

Nothing is more masculine or heart healthy than a good bottle of rosé with all that meat and avocado

It has also proven great for those in-between times, when you would normally reach for a red, but there is something else in the mix that makes that decision difficult. I went to Wayfare Tavern and enjoyed the 2011 County Line Rosé ($19.99 in our store) with their beef carpaccio and oyster dish. The light, bright acid was perfect to cut the brininess of the oysters, while the minimal tannin structure complimented the beef really well. My colleague Brandon prefers to drink rosé when his double cheese burger is loaded with avocado and sandwiched between two slices of toasted buttered sourdough. If you’re planning on eating dinner at Prima, a crisp rosé would be perfect with the Mezzaluna Pasta stuffed with rabbit, pork, cremini mushrooms and finished with sage, butter and a white wine sauce.

Besides my wine and food industry colleagues, I have a hard time getting my male counterparts to drink pink wine. I think there is still this idea floating around that wine color is directly related to intensity and quality. Red is the best, white is for drinking alone, rosé is for the weak-of-palate and those lacking drinking fortitude. I’m here to tell you none of those things are true. Real men do drink pink. Rosé is the type of wine with which you can easily start and end your day – dignity intact and looking impossibly cool the whole time.

I’m sorry it’s been so long since posting anything new. I thought January, February and March (and April) would be less busy, and I could fit some writing and researching in. But we’ve been really busy with tastings, dinners, and lots of wine coming in and out. Selling has been the name of the game, so I haven’t had time to sit at my computer and get all philosophical about wine lately. But I’m back! I’m looking to update much more often.

I spent three mornings a few weeks ago learning about these three powerhouses of wine – Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and Brunello di Montalcino. Before I get into the important things, here are a few side notes.

1. It is never too early in the day to drink Italian wine.
2. Don’t start drinking Italian wine without first eating breakfast.
3. Related to the above points, having a cheese plate for breakfast is not only reasonable, but a genius concept.

I was pretty grumpy due to having to wake up at my old usual time, catch my formerly usual train to the city, and sweat and sniffle along with the rest of the unwashed masses to get to my class. I can’t believe I commuted like this everyday for two years, and further, I can’t believe some people do it for decades. So while I was wallowing in my own little pity party, sponsored by Clipper Card, I realized something. I’m not trudging into an office to answer phones and file papers. I’m going to learn about Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile, and Brunello. I told myself to build a bridge and get over myself, and all was right with the world. I went back to playing Draw with Friends on BART.

But enough about me. What did I learn about the wine?

The first morning focused on Chianti Classico. Lead by the ever-entertaining Master Sommelier Tim Gaiser, we first went through nine DOCG Chianti Classico and Riserva wines, which for the uninitiated can make a world of difference to a select few. DOC and DOCG wine is currently 33% of the total production of wine in Italy. The DOC system was introduced in the 1960s to create regulations for regional wine varieties. The regulations control for yield, production methods and other factors. There were a wide range of reasons for this, but mostly the system was created to maintain the consistency and quality of the wines produced in Italy. A winery didn’t have to participate, but not doing so meant their wine would be relegated to the Vino Tavola (Table Wine) classification, which forced the wine into a lower price point and made it more difficult to sell.  In 1984, thanks to institutionalized abuse of the system, a more carefully regulated DOCG system was created to “guarantee” wines of a certain caliber. If a wine is labeled as DOCG, it indicates that the wine has been tested by a government appointed panel, and is considered an “approved” expression of that region’s character. To date there are approximately 330 DOC wine regions, and 74 DOCG regions throughout Italy.

This isn’t to say that DOC or DOCG classified wines are the only worthwhile Italian wines to buy. Those Super Tuscans we all know and love don’t fall into either of those categories. It doesn’t keep them from being delicious, top quality and at times, quite expensive. If you’re like me, however, and are still trying to pick out the subtle differences among the multiple varietals in any given region, having a line up of DOCG wines is beneficial for consistency and educational purposes. Although now might be a convenient time to mention that the seminar was sponsored by the three Tuscan Consorzios* which also selected the wines for us that day.

*A wine consorzio isn’t directly related to the wine law in Italy. Rather it is a group of producers that come together as part of an organization to promote their wines domestically and internationally. Most of the wineries involved do have the DOC or DOCG distinction to be considered more marketable and prestigious. This is something I was tripped up on quite often so I wanted to explain it to you all to prove to myself that I understood it. Thanks for indulging me.*

Onward!

The unifying thread among the three wine types is the Sangiovese grape. This is an ancient varietal, indigenous to Italy, and considered the workhorse of the Central Italian wine industry. Its high acid content and moderate tannin structure can develop into a wide range of wines from the simplest table wine to the most complex and age worthy Brunello. However, the Sangiovese that’s used to make the house wine at your favorite salumi and cheese shop probably isn’t the same clone as the one used to make high-end Brunello. Like any quality varietal, some clones are better suited for certain wines than others.

In 2000 the Italian government, along with the EU funded a clonal study on Sangiovese, and two other local grapes, Canaiolo and Colorino, and identified 234 clones, 8 of which were considered ideal for Chianti Classico production. The wine laws shifted throughout the 20^th century, but for our purposes this week, DOCG Chianti Classico and Riserva requires the following:

Must include 80-100% Sangiovese grapes

Maximum of 20% other varieties, indigenous or not.

No white grapes are allowed in Chianti Classico or Riserva

Chianti Classico cannot be released until October 1^st of the year following harvest

Chianti Riserva requires a minimum of 24 months of aging from January 1^st of the year following harvest, including 3 months of aging in the bottle.

When tasting through the Chiantis, it was easy to see a more internationally focused flavor profile. Sangiovese thrives in Central Tuscany’s particular soil called Galestro-  a combination of chalk, limestone and marl. As a result, there is a distinct chalkiness to the tannin structure on the wines.  Several individual villages, however have slightly different soil characteristics which can lend the wines slightly different flavor profiles. For example, the wines produced by Felsina come from Castelnuovo Berardenga where the soil has different sand and gravel combination, so the wines themselves end up darker and more perfumed. As with any terroir driven wine, slight differences in soil can make drastic changes in the finished product. Combined with bright fruit forwardness, and the occasional added character from Cabernet and Merlot additions, the DOCG Chiantis seemed to have a distinct, modern, and easier-going palate than the other wines in the following days.

Flavor profiles in Sangiovese include tomato and tomato leaf, sour cherry, forest floor, and plum. The color is a light ruby garnet and Chianti tends to have a lighter mouthfeel – unless there are additions of Cabernet and Merlot which will make wines richer and heavier. Depending on the producer’s choice of oak, there can be pronounced toast, pine, and balsamic notes on the nose.

What I got the most from this tasting was finally being able to pick out the characteristics that are distinctly Sangiovese. When expressed thoughtfully, the grape expounds lots of red fruit characteristics without being “fruity”, strong acidity without being searing, and a solid tannin structure without being overpowering.

Of the nine wines we tasted, I had my favorites. The entire lineup contained wines that were unique in their own way – none of them tasted at all similar to the one before it.  The standouts for me (remember at the end of the day all of this is subjective and no one’s opinion matters anyway) were as follows:

2009 Felsina Chianti Classico “Berardenga”:   This was round, smooth and elegant with restrained acid, and lovely notes of black tea, pepper, and minerality. This is a staple for us here at Prima, but I had never been able to try it until now. I found it to be quite delicious and modern.

2007 Monteraponi Chianti Classico Riserva “Baron Ugo”:  This to me was the most rustic of the series. The nose contained notes of tar, smoke, and rubber with some blackberry and herbs. Something about the Slovenian and Russian oak that was used on this wine made it especially earthy and interesting.

2008 Ormanni Chianti Classico:  Bricks, plums, cherries, and violets all dominated the nose, while the acid and oak were in enjoyable harmony all the way to the lingering finish. A few people in the seminar mentioned that this was the most “brunello-esqe” of the Chiantis. This was more powerful, with a bigger finish and  more complex perfume.

2007 Rocca Delle Macie Chianti Classico Riserva di Fizzano:  I was taken aback by the crisp, fresh chopped herbs on the nose. Blueberry, plum, tomato leaf, followed with a  full, rich mouthfeel. There were nice, round tannins with all the classic indicators of Sangiovese. I also really enjoyed the small amount of Cabernet and Merlot that was added to the mix, as well as the French oak aging. I would recommend this to someone who is looking to expand their palate into Italian wine, but is more of a new world drinker.

I’ll have another post on the Vino Nobile and Brunello wines in the coming week. I apologize if my notes don’t make very much sense. It was 9 a.m. and I was drinking Chianti. Forgive me?

This is an excerpt from an upcoming article in Walnut Creek’s Ala Carte magazine. Our Executive Chef and co-owner Peter Chastain contributed to their inaugural publication.  If you try out the recipe,  be sure to let us know how it turns out!

How does a chef stay inspired? By journeying for culinary treasures. Here’s a vignette from a three-week vacation Peter Chastain took last spring. He spent most of the time in Turkey, but got away to a small island off Sicily for a couple of nights—and one particularly memorable meal.

By PETER CHASTAIN

Chef-owner of Prima Ristorante in Walnut Creek

On the Island of Pantelleria—often referred to as The Black Pearl of the Mediterranean—my friend and I are dining at a restaurant where the “menu” is brought on a platter—still moving!

“What of this small catch would you like to eat tonight?” our chef queries. We look at each other. “All of it,” we reply in unison. “Va bene.” she says, and makes off to her small kitchen leaving us with her husband to watch the soccer finals and sip local wines made from grapes grown in what are essentially holes—for protection from the fierce Sirracco winds off the deserts of Africa (Pantelleria is part of the provence of Sicily, located between Sicily and Africa). We nibble at little zucchini fritters, sweet and sour onions, grilled eggplant rolls and toasts smeared with butter and prawn roe. Homemade pastas in various shapes arrive with fresh shrimp, sea urchin and fried sole seasoned with onions and vinegar. Unbelievable flavors and textures!

As our hostess sets out clean plates and utensils, and opens two more bottles of rich wines to accompany a platter of whole baked sea bass we realize we are truly doomed. We make our way through this glorious feast and, knowing desserts are on the way, take a walk for some invigorating sea air.

It would have been fine had I died that night, but we somehow make it back to our accommodations. I later dream I’m a small sea bass, very full from dinner, swimming in the cold, clear, blue water of the Mediterranean waiting to be taken, dispatched and prepared with all the elegant simplicity, care and passion our hostess poured into her cooking—this time for unsuspecting hungry guests back home at Prima in Walnut Creek. I wake up grinning at how tasty I might be, head out for more sea air and write down what I remember on how to prepare that delicious fish…

Whole Baked Branzino

with Fennel, Capers, Olives, Tomato and Sage

                                                Serves 1-2 as an entree or 4-6 as an antipasto

This dish goes well with a little arugula dressed with lemon, oil and salt or simple boiled greens such as beet greens, rapini or chard. It pairs excellently with crisp, Italian white wines such as Fiano di Avelino, Arneis or Greco di Tuffo.

1 2-pound Mediterranean Sea Bass (Branzino) or other firm white fish such as Tai Snapper, Rhode Island Black Bass or True Snapper, scaled with guts and gills removed

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

12 fresh sage leaves

1 small sweet yellow onion, diced

1 fennel bulb, diced

1 tablespoon capers, rinsed

10 olives (Castelventrano and Gaeta are two of my favorites)

1 small can whole, peeled San Marzano tomatoes passed through a food mill to remove the seeds

1 lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse the fish well in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Season both the inside and the outside well with salt and pepper. Heat a saute pan large enough to accommodate the fish and sear one side in olive oil over moderate heat taking care not to overheat the oil. Add the sage leaves, turn over the fish and finish in the oven—about 10 minutes. Remove the fish to a platter with the sage leaves and keep in a warm place. Wipe the pan clean and saute the onion slowly until golden. Add the onion fennel and capers and cook until the fennel begins to soften—about 5 minutes. Add the tomato and olives and simmer until the sauce is pulpy. Finish with a few drops of lemon juice and some fresh olive oil. Serve immediately with the hot fish.

Our fearless leader John Rittmaster was one of the lucky few that was able to attend the tasting of the newest releases of DRC Burgundy yesterday, some of the most famous and expensive wines in the world. Wines that mere mortals like myself will probably have to experience vicariously. Here is his unfiltered account of the day. Enjoy!

Contemplating the DRC tasting held today in SF over a refreshing glass of Ravello Bianco and a pizza at A-16.

The tasting this year was at Quince and, as usual, ably and professionally hosted by longtime Domaine importer Wilson-Daniels.

There is a ton of hype and anticipation regarding the Domaine’s 2009s. Domaine director and host Aubert de Villaine compared the vintage to 1959….high praise indeed. And, as a rare bonus, it’s a vintage of quantity as well as quality. Predictably, there was a lot of fawning over the wines after the tasting, and a lot of it is deserved for sure.

The Richebourg was certainly the best I’ve ever tasted, the Montrachet haunting with a finish I can still taste, and the R-C probably one for the ages.

Also on the sizable plus side of the ledger: the Domaine’s new Corton is fabulous. Made only from older vines in Clos de Roi, Renardes and, mostly, Bressandes, it’s a departure wine with a great, earthy feel to it…all black truffles, violets and cardamom spice. It captures a sense of finesse I rarely experience with wines from Corton. You could call it oaky, but so what? It sure tastes good.

The Domaine is replanting the younger vines in this holding, leased from the old Prince Florent de Merode holding, to better material and the hope is that there will someday be three DRC Corton cuvees. Something for you youngsters to hope for!

La Tache is a blockbuster: plush and sexy. This will always be the DRC I would go for given my druthers, and 2009 is excellent.

And the Richebourg? Sleek, sexy and elegant in every good sense of the word. Easy to understand, it had a perfume that couldn’t wait to get out of the glass. If I had tasted it blind, I might have confused its cool, liquid perfume for the R-C.

Wait….did I just write ‘easy to understand’ and then compare the wine to the notoriously inscrutable R-C in the same paragraph? Hmmmm.

Romanee-Conti is, in 2009, an amalgam of the best attributes of the La Tache (more textural and voluptuous) and Richebourg (underlying structure and a more feminine sensibility). Sort of like Renoir painting an Egon Schiele model. (Or is that the other way around?) It’s less restrained and minerally than the 2008 but, after doing this tasting now for many vintages, it is understandable as an R-C. Raj said it might be the best R-C ever. I can’t comment on that but I do know it will be the most expensive!

And Montrachet….atypical in that it wasn’t as overtly voluptuous or tropical as some past vintages (2007!) nor is the acidity as obvious as was the 2008. Jordan Mackay, who sat next to me at the tasting, called it “a Montrachet from Chassagne rather than Puligny” as it showed Chardonnay’s floral and orchard side and tasted of being siphoned through mineral, yet was not at all sharp or acidic. The finish was creme brûlée and lasted over a minute. Spectacular.

But the empirical taster in me found some things with which to quibble.

Yes, nature was magnanimous in 2009 but I wonder if, in the case of the Vosne 1er Cru, comprised of the Domaine’s younger vines, if it might have been too much so. Compared to the really fine and focused 2008, 2009 seemed downright light and a trifle too crisp. It has great freshness and spark but is there enough there there? I loved the 2008 and maybe it was asking too much of the 2009 to match it.

And I’ll insert another note here. Something was up with the pouring, either with the glassware at Quince or with the conditioning wine. My first impression of the V-R 1er, the second wine after the Corton, was of tankiness bordering on corkiness. My neighbor Allen noticed this as well, but after recoating our glasses with the wine inside (the glasses were supposedly pre-conditioned with 2007 Leflaive Meursault!) that negative impression faded. Could it have been an off bottle of Meursault to blame? I don’t know, but the Vosne never dug itself out of the doghouse in my estimation. But, to be fair, by the time I tried it a third time, I had had R-C and Montrachet ahead of it.

Echezeaux was pretty…very pretty… with plenty of blood orange, ferrous and rhubarb backing it up, and it added weight with each successive pass, but still, I’d call it a good Echezeaux and not a great one.

Grands Echezeaux was, as usual, a cipher to me. Chunkier and edgier than the Echezeaux (nothing unusual there) the scorched red earth, meat blood, broad tannin and introverted nose reminded more of Nebbiolo than Pinot Noir. It’s an understatement when talking about DRC, but this will require time!

Romanee St. Vivant is usually my bellwether wine for DRC but the 2009 was curiously restrained and ungenerous, even after two or three passes. The texture was spot-on but I missed the sandalwood incense nose I remember fondly from 2008 and, especially, 2007, and there was an uncharacteristic chunkiness that segued backwards towards Grands Echezeaux rather than ahead to the La Tache. To be fair, de Villaine, pointed out that the RSV had shown better two days earlier in New York, and that sort of staginess is not uncommon. Still, for me, it was puzzling showing for this, usually my second favorite, of the DRC crus.

All in all, I think DRC fans will be very happy with the 2009s. Whether or not they will prove the equal of 1959 is for another generation to judge, but I do believe that the trifecta of 2008, 2009 and, most likely, 2010 will prove to be one of the most glorious strings of vintages ever at this august address and I am honored to be around to enjoy the ride.

I’ll admit, when I first began working in wine I was a California Cab Girl all the way – the oakier, fruiter, more alcoholic the better. I think a lot of that had to do with my comfort level. It is intimidating to sit down at a nice dinner, scan an extensive wine list and have no idea where to begin. It’s easier to seek out familiarity, and in my case, treating myself to a night out at the time meant I wanted to drink something I knew for a fact that I loved. I didn’t want to have to get used to an earthy Burgundy or a austerely tannic Borolo. I didn’t want to have to think about it too much.

But as the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt.

The more I tasted wine though, the more I realized how limiting domestic wines can be. Big labels tend to aim for crowd pleasing consistency year to year in order to dazzle in their tasting rooms and at events. Because of that, they are more difficult to pair with the wide varieties of foods I like to eat. Highly stylized, fruit forward wines don’t have as much of a place next to the delicate, umami flavors of sushi, or the thousand and one spices in chana masala. If I’m having pizza I rarely go for a domestic wine or varietal.

To be honest, the depth of character in Italian and French wines for me became a lot more interesting and taught me more about wine than going tasting every weekend in Sonoma ever could have.

However, I do realize that I’m spoiled. I got into wine when I was an undergrad at Cal Poly. I could literally ride my bike to different wineries and try things I normally wouldn’t have been able to afford on my student budget, thanks to $5 tasting fees. Living in the bay area means we’re only an hour away (depending on traffic) from world renowned appellations. I can understand living here, falling in love with wine here, and wanting a similar experience at home.

It’s important to support local industry, and in California wine is a very large part of that. But if you really love wine, expanding your horizons is just as important. Only being serious about drinking California wine really does limit one’s palate and experience.

Yes, the prices of Burgundy, Brunello and Champagne can be stroke inducing. Especially if you aren’t completely sure what you’re in for. But there’s no reason to be so ambitious. Start low and aim high. If you’re a bargain hunter (like me) you’re better off drinking old world wines. I hate to say it but in the $10-$20 range I have much more success finding something delicious from Spain, Italy, or France than California. This will also help expand your palate and figure out what you really like in imported wine so that when you go to higher end tasting events or restaurants with specialized, old world wine lists, you’ll get a better idea of what you’re looking for.

On that note: the “Only Red Drinkers” have a special place in my heart. I was totally like that too. I assumed that serious wines had to be red. No exceptions. Drinking white meant you either couldn’t handle your booze, or didn’t appreciate anything remotely delicious.

But then I got into champagne and white burgundy and all that changed. To my Red Only people: what to you drink with subtler seafood and poultry dishes? What, for the love of all that is holy do you drink with Dungeness crab and Hog Island Oysters?

I hope I’m not offending anyone here, and I hope I’m not coming across as a snob. I believe variety, and steeping out of your comfort zone is the best thing you can do for your palate. The famous California producers we all know and love deserve all the accolades and success that come to them. I’m just asking you; as a wine consumer to expand your horizons. Don’t walk into a restaurant and immediately flip to the Domestic section. Don’t go to a wine store and ask the staff to only find you a California wine. Go to a tasting event with a varietal or region you’re not familiar with. You just may find yourself falling in love all over again.

Our wine director, John Rittmaster has been known to take an excursion or two to wine country. Over the New Years holiday, he drove down to Paso Robles, a region that has become synonymous with rolling hills, modern takes on California cuisine, and an up and coming wine scene. Here is his take on the trip. Enjoy!

I’ve heard it said that Paso is Somoma County 30 years ago, but a stroll through the bustling square on New Year’s Eve day indicates that the gap may be a lot smaller.  The boutiques are boutique-y, the restaurants offering great locavore cuisine are filled, there’s a tasting room on every corner and there’s plenty of real estate on offer.  Looks startlingly familiar.

This is the first of a few days we’re spending here as a Get-out-of-Dodge year-end stress relief strategy. So far, so good. In just three hours we’ve left the Bay Area for a seemingly simpler part of California. Lunch was at Bistro Laurent which, of course, we found, is called Le Petite Marcel at lunch. Why this is, no one cared to share with us. Our server looked at us like ‘duh, of course this restaurant has a different name at lunch.’ No matter. My smoked albacore salad was fine and I didn’t hear any complaints about the French Onion Soup or Blue Crab Salad either.  I drank Jean-Marc Brocard’s slate-driven Chablis with lunch while Jim had a local Calcareous Cellars Rhone blend.  Anne and Barbara had Kir Royales, after all, they were teachers on vacation, and all was good!

When we hit town, our first stop was Denner Vineyards up on Vineyard Road on the West Side. This seems to one of the hot spots for Paso Robles Rhone-varietal activity as the famed James Berry and Booker are in the same neck of the woods. They sell the vast majority of their fruit to other winemakers and, judging by the North-Of-Fitty price tags on all of their wines, everything seems to be much in demand. The property is beautiful and the business plan clearly geared towards its mailing list which are given access to a beautifully chic, overstaffed tasting room and on this gorgeous New Year’s Eve day, the million dollar view.  We tasted through four wines, the last four they apparently have available…a thickish, perfumed Viognier, a likable but ambitiously priced white Rhone blend, a dark, pungent but overwrought Syrah and a delicious, if not terribly varietal Mourvedre.  Now perhaps, given my predilection towards old world, higher acid wines, I am not the best judge of these wines. They seem to me overly sleek and textural and while certainly savory and delicious, I just think the sales, marketing and concept of the wines is too far ahead of the empirical product. At least 30 years ago in Sonoma, a young vine Mourvedre wouldn’t have cost $50. So I kept my mouth shut and let my friends judge for themselves. Jim is a Sonoma veteran who even has the opportunity to drop a thou with Rochioli every year so he’s not scared off by $50 a bottle experiments. His comments, though, echoed mine. Maybe we just don’t get these wines yet…..

Anyway, this was much debated over the aforementioned lunch, a walk around the square and a rest in the venerable Paso Robles Inn, a real slice of Paso’s past that adding a few hot tubs and a spa can’t necessarily update.  Still, it’s a wonderful spot just off the square and loaded with character.

We had an early NYE dinner at Artisan, by all accounts the best food in town, and we were not disappointed. This was first class cooking! It was funny how we spent over 20 minutes debating the large ala carte menu and how we wanted to dine and then giving in and opting for what proved to be a thoroughly delicious three-course tasting menu with several options for each. The wine list was interesting too…we drank Jacob Toft’s white Rhone blend that, for $48 on their list, proved to be very good. They did have the obligatory triple digit heavy hitters from L’Aventure, Justin and such, but I know there is some fun stuff that costs a lot less and I am determined to find it.

We ushered in 2012 the way a bunch of old farts typically do…we had found DiRaimondo’s Italian grocery in the square earlier in the day and loaded up on La Tur (sex in a cupcake wrapper), a nice Taleggio and a tangy Blue recommended by the super knowledgable and funny woman behind the counter and spread them all out on the tiny table in my room to go with a 2005 Giuseppe Mascarello Monprivato consumed from the oversized Champagne flutes we had stashed in the car to avoid New Year’s toasts from Dixie cups. Yes, if you are going to spend a C-note on a bottle of wine, it had better taste like this!  While admittedly still way too young, it had character to spare and drank great even in those horrible glasses. We made it bleary-eyed through to midnight (damn, why do they keep doing that to poor Dick Clark- let him die already!) and a bottle of J Vintage Brut that Jim had brought along but we were done not,long afterwards.

2012 dawned on Paso Robles probably like a lot of other winter days there.  The square was ice cold and enveloped in a London-esque fog.  The Paso Robles Inn’s famous coffee shop provided ample sustenance to do battle with the kinetosis-inducing drive out through the mist along  Adelaida Road to what has been become the benchmark winery of Paso – Tablas Creek.  It was with some ambivalence that I visited the property as I have been a vocal critic of the place over the years, accusing it of having its marketing concept in place way before its wines.  But you can’t argue with the pedigree: the Perrin family of Chateau de Beaucastel of Chateauneuf du Pape and the Haas boys of their longtime importer, Vineyard Brands transplanting the nobility and ethos of the Southern Rhone in Paso’s west side.  And now, I am pleased to say, twenty years later, the performance of Tablas Creek has reached its promise.

The idea of a nursery to nurture and sell vetted Beaucastel budwood in Paso and beyond has been abandoned; leaving behind close to a dozen large empty greenhouses. The project lasted long enough, however, to insure that Tablas Creek’s own vineyard land would be planted to the authentic clones of Mourvedre, Grenache, Roussanne,  Marsanne and Syrah that made Beaucastel one of France’s most identifiable properties.  Along with many of the other factors that help create Beaucastel’s unique terroir, vine age is crucial, especially when it comes to a few of these varieties. This is the one major piece of the terroir puzzle not immediately reproducible in Paso.  It really does take a century to grow hundred year old vines!

But, at nearly two decades, the grapes at Tablas Creek are now producing wines of impressive quality and the Franco-American winemaking team is finally making wines truly worthy of showcasing in their brand new tasting room.  Thanks to a vineyard management scheme where various neighbors have planted and grown Tablas’ budwood, production here has grown to the point where they can offer a Cotes du Rhone style wine actually priced like a Cotes du Rhone (albeit a California Cotes du Rhone which means $20 instead of $12) called Patelin (neighbors) de Tablas.  Both the red and white are very good, the former based on Syrah and the latter redolent of peachy Viognier.  These are both wines I will happily sell here at PRIMA.  Less successful, I think, are the wines that Tablas originally sold as entry-level, the Cotes de Tablas.  The Grenache-based red and Grenache Blanc-based white are still bland, heavy and lacking spark.

What is interesting, though not so much commercial I think, are Tablas Creek’s renditions of some of the single varietals they grow. Not only do they produce the usual suspects one might find in the Rhone Valley like Marsanne and Mourvedre, there is an interesting, austere Picpoul, a delightful Vermentino (Rolle) and, of all things, a Tannat!  This dark, tannic Pyrenees native was included in Beaucastel’s plan for Tablas Creek because of its potential affinity for Paso’s limestone soils.  It’s a gamy, smoky wine that is probably better off as a blender in the greater scheme of things but fun as a one-off.

Tablas Creek’s flagship wines are the Esprit white and red and those truly are the class of the joint.  The white is modeled, at least in theory, on Beaucastel’s famous Vieilles Vignes Roussanne which, of course, is not possible in Paso without old vines with which to work.  Nonetheless, it’s a stylish white with an astute use of barrel to add richness and presence.  I don’t know if it can age like a fine Chateauneuf Blanc but it sure tastes good now.  The red gets its punch from earthy Mourvedre, like its red cousin at Beaucastel, making it an earthy, pungent wine with an enticing sauvages nose and the kind of effortless palate weight I am sure they are jealous of at the mother ship in France!   These are the gems that show the promise of this soon-to-be-great address.

It’s interesting to compare this Old World-oriented operation with the self-consciously artisanal Rhone-varietal producing projects dotting the West Side. I think that Tablas Creek’s (inevitable) success will ultimately be intrinsic to the success of these little guys and essential to the success of the region as a whole.

And guess what? Like a typical winter’s day in Paso, by the time we were done plowing through the entire lineup, the sun was out and the layers of the clothing we donned against this New Year’s Day morning chill were piled up in a heap at the door to the tasting room.  It was lunch time.  Should we eat outside?

Welcome! This is the first post on Prima’s first blog. A Premier Post for Prima if you will. We’re very excited to write about the things we love: food, wine, cocktails and the occasions on which we enjoy them. I feel incredibly lucky to work here, and have learned so much already. I hope I can impart some of this newfound wisdom, and that you’ll get to hear from some of the best brains in the business directly. Be sure to stop by often, and if you have any ideas on what we should be writing about, let us know!

Cin cin,

Jen