Mark's Wine Blog

I never realized how much I love having the opportunity to live in California before driving through neighboring states.  It is truly amazing to me how much having the ocean so close really does influence our climate and how much I have really taken the cooler temperatures and greener vegetation for granted.  Needless to say, it’s nice to be home.

On part of my trip, I had the chance to stop and taste at two wineries with tasting rooms in Willcox Arizona.  Willcox is a small town about 5 miles south of the 8 Freeway, it’s a historic town with roots dating back to western times (which are more recent in ‘Zona than they are elsewhere).  Aside from the 5 tasting rooms which are currently open, there are a number of other tourist centered services including small boutique style stores, a movie theatre and of course a few restaurants.  One of which is a BBQ restaurant set in an old train car, which we didn’t get a chance to try, but the locals say it is always a hit with tourists both in terms of ambiance and the food itself.  Plus, you know you’re in a small town when the BBQ place doesn’t have an alcohol permit, but is willing to serve you in the saloon next door if you want an adult beverage with your meal.

The first winery and really the reason I wanted to stop in Willcox was Keeling Schaefer Vineyards which holds the honor of having the highest critically scored bottled of wine in the history of Arizona.  A recent vintage of their Syrah (priced at $18) was given 89 points by Wine Spectator.

My honest opinion, the wine is probably over scored by a few points as I think there is a significant difference in quality between their Syrah (which seemed very, very light in texture and flavors) and some of my more recent tasting trips at places like Blair Fox.

More on the other winery we tasted in Willcox as well as the land purchase by an Oregon wine juggernaut that shows the type of wine that industry insiders think can be produced in the region.

As always, if you’re looking for a wine club…..please give my wine clubs a try.

It’s funny how new businesses can change plans so quickly.

In the coming weeks we’ll be celebrating a family reunion in Texas, my wife and I fond of roadtrips will be driving the 1,400 miles from San Diego to Texas.  We’re stopping a few places along the way, but I’m looking forward to being able to visit a winery or two along the way in a region of the country which isn’t exactly known for fine wine production.  I am interested in some of the New Mexico wine being growing at 4,500 feet or higher simply because the desert air is so warm during the day and cool at night.  Not really a fit for any of our wine clubs as of yet, but the likelihood of a quality Zinfandel being grown in these desert conditions is probably higher then any other grape, so it is interesting.

One of the fun things about living in the 21^st century is the east at which information can be shared.  No longer do we need to share information with only people we meet in person, but we can find people with similar interests.

As an example, I’ve made a few Hubpages over the past couple of months. For me, it’s allowed me to set up an easy example of some of the content I want to make for our official Uncorked Ventures site over the coming months.  I realize people wanting to learn about wine will be interested in reading about different grapes, winemaking techniques and of course the areas that produce wine.

At that end, I created a Hubpage based on a small area of Napa Valley, Spring Mountain.  A winery named Spring Mountain Winery contacted me through the Hubpage and invented us for a visit on our next trip through Napa.  A very generous offer and it opened my eyes to a winery which wasn’t otherwise on my radar during one of my next trips to Napa.  For the two of our businesses to get together, all it took was a little bit of time for both Uncorked Ventures and Spring Mountain Winery.

One of the fun things (well one of a great many really) of running Uncorked Ventures is the chance to visit with winemakers and spend time in wine country. I haven’t spoken at length about the wine industry in San Diego at all on this blog, for a number of reasons but mostly because it is largely non existent. There are very few (in relative terms) wineries you can visit that have a nice atmosphere to taste in, while tasting high quality wines.

Over the weekend I had the chance to visit Cordiano Winery, which although technically is in Escondido, California is about 5 miles from my house driving on back roads. It’s the type of place that is largely locals only, owned by an Italian family it offers some of the best views I’ve seen in some time (if we could only take away one small hill so that there would be a view into the Wild Animal Park), good friendly hosts, a small dog more interesting in table scraps and drinking out of the fountain then being petted, hand made outdoor brick oven pizza and some solid wine using grapes largely (exclusively for some of their wines) from grapes purchased from Paso Robles. Judging by the gathering crowds late in the day, their method of work of mouth advertising has been working thus far.

To me, it was nice to see a local winery offering a nice tasting environment while not holding strong to producing only Bordeaux varietals which need (stereotypically speaking at least) to be grown in cooler climates then we have south of Santa Barbara. Of interest at Cordiano was their Sangiovese which paired well with a pizza and seemed to be the favorite of most everyone at the winery that afternoon. Long term I’d hope that the wine industry in Southern California could find a set of grapes that grow well in the incredibly hot and dry conditions that we have here, but until that time having winemakers whom are willing to purchase grapes from more established regions seems to be a good business model.

Grazie del tempo dedicatomi Gerardo y Rosa.

So, my second article over at MetroCitizen Magazine was published this morning. Writing about Kosher wine was truly a learning experience and a topic which I am glad was suggested for me since I knew little about the Kosher wine world before writing the article. With Uncorked Ventures, we haven’t done a Kosher wine shipment as of yet.

I’m already starting on my article for next month as I’ll be comparing two vastly different wineries that make wine in a similar style. One is a traditional French Chateau that has been around for well over a hundred years and the other is a Napa Valley winery which released its first vintage about 5 months ago. Please check it out!

Wine at MetroCitizen Magazine

So last week was enjoyable both in terms of a short tasting appointments on my way to the Bay Area, as well as having the chance to work with the Peninsula Wine Enthusiasts Meet Up once again. Especially fun to hear Jeff from Vellum Wines talk about how their winery got started and some of their goals for the future.

This week brings a more hectic schedule (if that’s possible) as shipment start leaving the warehouse this morning and then we need to begin planning for the July shipment ASAP since we have a family reunion to attend which will take part of the month away from work in July.

Of course, please visit us online and see if one of our wine clubs would be a good fit for you and your family.

I couldn’t be a Southern California Blogger without mentioning the passing of John Wooden this past weekend. Many people are familiar with Wooden’s life and legacy, but he is certainly someone whom I admire both for his professionally accomplishments as well for how he handled his personal life and especially how he treated everyone who came into contact with him.

Some classics from the best college basketball coach ever:

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”

“It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”

“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”
“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”
“Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”

Professionally his accomplishments stand by themselves. I can’t even imagine another college basketball program having another run of 10 titles in 12 years. That level of success is unprecedented in any sport, let alone college basketball which has a true tournament system to crown a national champion.

Personally, Wooden not only always showed how much he loved for and cared for his wife (even after her unfortunate passing some time ago) but he also showed a level of class not found often in the sports world. He was consistently supportive of each and every head coach who came after him, you never heard him talking about who should be fired or hired. Although there were times the University would have loved to bring him back, he was steadfast in his insistence that he was only part of the program to help the current coach reach their full potential.

Lastly Wooden treated everyone who he met with respect. He was well known to sit in his same seat at each home game and graciously signed autographs during both time outs and half time. You’d often see a line around the entire court before the game of people of all ages waiting for autographs. Wooden always obliged.

We’ll all miss him both for what he did on the court, but more so for what he did off of it. As much as there has been talk during the past week or two about Midwestern values, he was truly an iconic figure in Southern California and made UCLA the type of household name that it is today.

Pride Mountain Vineyards

During our last trip to Napa, we were able to identify at least 3 new wineries that we’re interested in partnering with in the upcoming months. While we’ll wait until after shipping those wines to talk about them I did get a chance to taste and take a tour at Pride Mountain Vineyards during my time in Napa. Pride’s probably not a fit for any of our clubs, not because of quality but because they are already extremely well known.

Having not personally spent a lot of time on Spring Mountain it was good to get a chance to explore in person, I have enjoyed Pride’s wine on quite a few occasions because my business partner/brother in law has been a club member for some time.

The trip up Spring Mountain starts easily enough. Turn off Highway 29 in St. Helena (one of the cutest small towns you’ll encounter anywhere) and make a right on Spring Mountain Drive. It’s a windy mountain road without services (yes we had gas this time, unlike here or especially here) and the drive up to Pride which sits atop the mountain took the better part of 15 minutes and included a few fun moments like being tailgated by a VW Bug and having a semi truck decide that it needed 3 feet of our lane on a curve. It seemed appropriate to be there on a rainy, foggy day because the GPS had put us into white space well before we found the winery itself.

The tour at Pride is reservation only, although I hear telling them that you have a reservation can sometimes be as good as actually having one and takes about an hour while costing $10 per person. I do believe they will credit that $10 towards one of your wine purchases however.

We started in the tasting room with another couple (from Pennsylvania and Toronto respectively) and were able to taste their Chardonnay which is a solid selection grown in Carneros. It shows hints of lemon, orange and nuts (almond, walnut?) while having a basic sense of acidity. Retailing for $37 I can see a lot of people liking the wine, personally I tend to look for more acidic whites in that range.

After that we were taken to a map of the vineyards at the side of the tasting room which also included a picture of the Pride family. Theirs is, in many ways a quintessential Napa story having moved to Spring Mountain to grow some grapes and retire in relative anonymity. It hasn’t quite worked out that way, in large part because Parker gave their first Merlot a 94 point score. After the short and enjoyable history lesson, we moved outside.

I expect our time outside was shortened quite a bit due to the weather, but our host whose name and business card currently escape me after traveling (currently attending Sonoma State in their Wine MBA program which is very cool I might add) showed us that they have a small example vineyard planted in the front of the tasting room. They plan to let visitors pick a grape off the vine and taste how different it is from grapes you find at the grocery store. I think this is a great idea and should give visitors an even bigger connection to the wine that they find in their glasses.

We then walked toward the caves and learned the most interesting part about the winery…..more tomorrow!

Last marked the first Meet Up that Uncorked Ventures has participated in. Both Matt and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and learned quite a bit about how we want to handle our next event. We’re starting to get some feedback from our MeetUp group, aptly named the Peninsula Wine Enthusiasts. A few brief pictures from the event which was hosted at Alana’s in Redwood City, a restaurant that is normally open for breakfast and lunch only so we had this converted Victorian house to ourselves for the event.

Every month or two it comes time for me to make my way up to wine country once again. This month that happens on Thursday morning bright and early. It’s an exciting trip for a couple of reasons. Thursday night brings our first Peninsula Wine MeetUp followed by a Saturday charity tasting event. We’ll also be spending Monday and perhaps part of Tuesday morning of next week visiting wineries.