Out From Land

Here's a Tip for Getting the Most from Red Wine in the Summer

2011-06-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

We make a mistake when we talk about serving wine at room temperature. What we really mean is serving wine - red wine - in this case, at cellar temp.

Before the advent of refrigeration, wines were stored in cool cellars where they were kept out of the dark and at a steady 55 degrees, or so. There are several advantages to storing and serving your reds at this temperature, especially during the summer months:

Wines age more slowly at 55 than they do at 68. That wine you want to save for a special occasion has a better chance of aging well at a colder temp.
When it is hot outside, cooler wines are more refreshing, and they pair with a different set of foods and preparations.
There is much to be gained by experiencing a wine's changing aromas, flavors, and textures as it slowly warms up.

So, don't be afraid to throw a bottle of La Rochelle Pinot Meunier or Pinot Noir - Russian River Valley in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before you plan on enjoying it outside with your favorite foods.

PS: Store your half-empty bottles of red wine in the refrigerator overnight for better tasting results the next day. Just take the bottle out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you plan to drink it!

Pinot Noir Lends a Helping Hand

2011-06-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

I've always believed that any wine reaches its greatest expression when it is being shared with family and friends. Outside of a good home-cooked meal there isn't another product that has wine's unique ability to create and cement memories and to help ease the cares of the day. Maybe, that's why wine and food go so well together!

With the release of our 2008 Pinot Noir - Bradley Vineyard, Umpqua Valley this Saturday, we have teamed up with the venerable Taylor Family Foundation to do all we can to help preserve the wellness and enhance the quality of life for children in Northern California living with life-threatening and chronic illnesses and developmental disabilities.

We consider everyone, from our most loyal club member to the out-of-town wine lover who happens upon our tasting rooms by accident, to be one of our extended family. We spend our lives sharing the joys of wine everyday and want to spread that joy to those vulnerable ones who need it. Please help out a great local charity doing great works. The great bottle of wine you enjoy will be the least of the gifts you get in return.

Come by and visit the Winery or check out our on-line store to help.

Tom Blows His Top

2011-01-26T15:13:00.000-08:00

Tom Stutz, La Rochelle Winemaker, disgorges 2008 Blanc de Noir sparkling wine.

2011 La Rochelle Growers' Tasting

2011-01-25T07:27:00.000-08:00

On Monday, we hosted our 5th annual La Rochelle Growers' Tasting at the Winery. On this day, we invite the growers from whom we buy fruit to the Winery to taste the progress of last year's wine (not only their own, but all the other growers, as well.)

In this video, Tom Stutz, our winemaker, discusses the importance of this kind of tasting to La Rochelle.

Cin Cin Dinner...I Second That Emotion

2011-01-23T10:44:00.000-08:00

Just last week, I had the opportunity to spend an evening with friends and fellow wine lovers at Cin Cin Winebar and Restaurant in Los Gatos. Chuck Easley, my good friend and the owner of T-Vine Cellars in Napa, and I hosted a five course dinner that paired extraordinary food with a total of five of our wines.

What made this dinner unusual and special was a suggestion by Chuck to make an emotional connection with the wines and the audience. So for each course, there not only was a wine and a dish, there was a song to set the tone for that course.

For the first course chef Chris Schloss paired a Smoked Alaskan Black Cod with the 2007 Steven Kent Merrillie Chardonnay. I chose the song "Roll Me Away" by Bob Seger. The pairing was particularly poignant for me in that it brought back a memory of an experience with this wine on a houseboat at Lake Powell in Utah. On the most beautiful day possible, on the most gorgeous lake imaginable, I shared this wine with my wife and my father and my sister as that great song wafted from our boom box...just a beautiful confluence of people, place, and wine.

And it was this confluence that we alluded to over and over again during the dinner. Wine is not about fermentation and aging regimes; it is not about how many points it got in the wine magazine; at its best, wine is about the people with whom you share it and the experiences and memories you create together. The cost of the wine, the relative prestige of the brand, are immaterial if it's shared with the right people. The most expensive wine in the world is just a glass of fermented grape juice if you're sitting by yourself.

Chris and I paired a couple of La Rochelle Pinot Noirs (Sleepy Hollow '08 and Deer Park '07) with John Hiatt (Duck Confit Dumplings) and Bruce Springsteen (Milk-braised Berkshire Pork Shoulder and Belly), and Chuck paired his wines with songs by Marvin Gaye and Eric Clapton (the T-Vine Grenache, Chocolate Fromage and "Sexually Healing" course was very popular!). The wines were tremendous, the food was spectacular but, again, it was the vibe of the place, and the happiness of the diners that was the best pairing.

I want to thank Lisa Rhorer, Don Durante, Chris Schloss and their team for helping to make this a wonderfully successful evening. The food at Cin Cin is consistently great, and the wine program and hospitality are also first rate. I highly recommend you check them out.

Thanks too to Chuck Easley for his consistent support, friendship, and generosity. His wines are wonderful and should be part of your cellar.

Beef & Barley Soup...Better With LaRo Tempranillo!

2011-01-17T20:02:00.000-08:00

The winter nights are getting colder, and nothing tastes better than fresh soup for dinner. Tonight my wife, June, made Beef and Barley soup with vegetables. At first I thought Pinot Noir, but I found the bottle of Tempranillo in my wine cellar, and went beautifully with the meal.

The fruit for the 2007 Tempranillo (the primary grape in Spain's Rioja district) was harvested from Ventana Vineyard in Monterey County and made for members of the now defunct Club La Rochelle. A year and a half of bottle age has improved this wine tremendously. Rustic fruit, velvety tannins, and terrific acidity allow it to pair with a wide variety of foods. The Beef and Barley soup is highly recommended.

2011 - Looking Forward

2011-01-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

The New Year will see continued growth for La Rochelle. the release of our 2009 Londer Vineyard Pinot Noir will expand our Anderson Valley offerings, and a new vineyard - Donum Estate - will be our first release from the Carneros appellation.

Fans of Larochelle will see new tasting options, new wine club opportunities, and two new world-class Chardonnays.

In keeping with our Burgundian wine model, April 2011 will see the release of the Chardonnay from Sleepy Hollow Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation. Fans of our Sleepy Hollow Pinot will recognize its paler sister in the wonderful richness of fruit and structure. Later in the year our second Chardonnay, this time from the Russian River Valley appellation's Dutton-Morelli Lane Vineyard, will be available. Fewer than 150 cases of each of these wines was made. Details about how to order them before they're released will be available soon.

We are very excited about having the opportunity to show off our wines and our wine tasting aesthetic to you. We look forward to seeing you in the tasting room soon.

Friday Snippets

2010-09-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

The first fruit of the 2010 Harvest arrived from the McIntyre Estate Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands yesterday. From 4.66 tons of Martini clone Pinot Noir we will make approximately 150 cases each of Blanc de Noir Sparkling wine and Rosé of Pinot Noir. The picture on the right shows the bins of fruit at the crush pad, and below are samples of juice after various press cycles. Check out the video for a detailed look at the process.

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Our Sales Manager, Gregory Peebles, has been busy making new friends out in the wider world. You can now find La Rochelle Pinots in these new accounts...UnCorked in Saratoga; Postino Restaurant and Jackson's Wine and Spirits in Lafayette; and UnWined and Joseph George Wines in San Jose. When you visit these terrific restaurants and wine shops, please let them know we sent you!

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On Friday, September 24th from 6-8pm, I will pouring a selection of La Rochelle and Steven Kent wines at UnCorked in Saratoga. Come on by and taste a flight!

New Wine Club for La Rochelle

2010-09-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

We're excited to announce a new wine club in La Rochelle which showcases our Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Rose and Sparkling Wine! We're calling it the White Wine Club and our first release will be October 23rd - 2007 Blanc de Noir, $30.

White Wine Club Benefits;
All Members Receive guaranteed allocation of club wines and complimentary entry for two at La Rochelle Wine Club Release Parties

2-Bottle Members Receive
Two (2) VIP tasting passes with each release
15% member allowance on all White Wine Club releases and select tasting room releases

6-Bottle Members Receive
Complimentary tasting for two in the La Rochelle tasting room year round
20% member allowance for all La Rochelle wines

Upcoming Releases

October 2010 – 2007 Blanc de Noir, $30 (Steven's Video Tasting Note)
December 2010 – 2009 Pinot Blanc, $26
February 2011 – 2010 Pinot Rose, $20
April 2011– 2010 Pinot Gris, $26

Wine memberships are available in 2 or 6 bottle allocations and are released every February, April, October and December. You have the option to pick up your allocation at the winery, or ship (direct shipping laws apply). These wines are first allocated to club members and are then available to everyone.

Click here to join this exciting new wine club

Friday Snippets

2010-09-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought that it would never arrive, the harvest comes creeping in on little cat feet (sorry Carl Sandburg). Yesterday, Wente Vineyards' Large Lot facility received its first truck loads of fruit from the Central Valley. The Small Lot winery will see our first fruit on Wednesday as we bring in about 5 tons of Pinot Noir from the McIntyre Estate vineyard for the 2010 vintage of Blanc de Noir sparkling wine and Rosé.

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Did someone just scream SPARKLING WINE FROM LA ROCHELLE!!!!!??????

Oh...it was me. Anyway...we are very excited to be introducing a new wine club opportunity for white wine lovers...and the 2007 La Rochelle Blanc de Noirs Sparkling Wine will be the first release for this new club on October 23, 2010. Here is Steven talking about the new wine of which only 80 cases were produced in this first vintage. For more information about joining, click here.

Honoring the Best in Wine

2010-08-30T08:30:00.001-07:00

Multi-generational businesses (especially in wine) are rarer and rarer these days. Rarer still, are businesses in which the people on the selling end are treated with great respect and kindness. Just a couple of reasons why it was such an honor to be invited to Joseph George's 70th anniversary tasting for his best customers at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga yesterday.

Back in 1966, my family started distribution of its wines in California, and Joseph George was our first. Over the years, we've maintained contact with the George family, especially with Bert George (pictured, right) who opened the family wine shop in San Jose in 1997. Bert George is one of those legends in Bay Area wine, and his wine shop is home to the rarest and best wines from California.

Under normal circumstances, getting owners (especially those from Napa) to attend tastings is extremely rare, but on Sunday there were many wine stars present pouring their wines. Though, I didn't get to taste as many wines as I wanted, a couple that stood out for me were the 2006 Lewis Cellars Cabernet and 2006 Portfolio (made by Genevieve Janssens).

We had the great fortune of having tables for La Rochelle and Steven Kent, and we poured, among others, the 2008 Sleepy Hollow Pinot Noir and 2007 Clone 4 and Clone 30 Cabs (Gregory Peebles, our Sales Manager pictured, left).

The evening was terrific: a beautiful venue, great wines, and a great family. Here's to another 70 years!

Sleepy Hollow Vineyard

2010-08-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

Just signed a contract for fruit from one of my favorite Pinot sites - Sleepy Hollow Vineyard...4.5 tons of the Martini Clone and 1.5 tons of Dijon 113.

In the past we have done a very small bottling of the individual clones as well as doing a 3 part Martini - 1 part Dijon 113 blend for the Pinot Noir Program members.

For the 2008 vintage, we have decided to take Sleepy out of the club and make her available to everyone. Look for that release in October.

29th Annual Harvest Wine Celebration

2010-08-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Sunday and Monday of Labor Day weekend will mark the 29th Annual Harvest Wine Celebration! This annual fundraising event by the Livermore Valley Winegrower's Association is always an action packed weekend and a great way to get out and visit your local wineries, meet winemakers, enjoy music, food and of course taste wine!

We're planning a fun weekend at Steven Kent and La Rochelle and will be debuting several new releases! For those who's first love is Cabernet, you won't want to miss the debut of our 2007 Livermore Valley Cabernet! Want to delve further into the varietal? For an additional fee you can taste your way through our Cabernet and Cheese pairing in the Barrel Room. On deck for this tasting...2007 Ghielmetti Vineyard, 2007 Smith Ranch and 2007 Home Ranch. Is Pinot your passion? Then head over to La Rochelle where we'll be pouring our 2007 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir, along with 2007 Classic Clones and a special Pinot Noir Program wine. Winemaker Tom will be on hand to talk about his fine creations. Click Here for detailed information about what's happening on our site.

If you'd like to join in on the fun, you'll need a ticket! They can be purchased online at the Livermore Valley Winegrower's website or you can stop by Steven Kent or La Rochelle and purchase one in person!

We hope to see you at the winery!
Tracey

Getting It!

2010-08-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

I was talking to one of our Pinot fanatic guests at the Tasting Room recently about all of the great new vineyard sites that we have coming on-line from the 2009 and 2010 vintages: Londer Estate and Savoy from Anderson Valley; Donum Estate from Carneros; Tondre Grapefield and Soberanes Ranch from the Santa Lucia Highlands; and Gran Moraine from the Yamhill-Carlton district in Oregon, and it really hit me how many great relationships we have built and are building with people who are as passionate about growing great Pinot Noir as we are about making great Pinot Noir.

And I got this sort of mental thought bubble while we were talking of a map with a growing number of pins in places that are perfect for growing world-class Pinot and about all the hard work that goes into making a special place and a special wine ready to show to the world that special-ness.

It is really exciting to think that in the next 12 to 24 months our guests and club members will be able to taste these amazing wines and that the two ends of the loop - from ground and grape to wine in the glass - will have been finally linked together for thoses vintages by someone who gets it!

What's the Point(s)?

2010-08-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

Has it always been human nature to assign value to aesthetic objects? Grading a math test on a 100-point scale is a no brainer. You are right or you are wrong. But assigning a score to something like wine that is so personal and individual in its characteristics (as well as in the standard against which you assign the points in the first place) seems to me to be more about the reviewer than about the thing being reviewed.

The very quick history on 100-point scoring systems is this: Robert Parker in the early '80s cottoned on to this system as a way to differentiate his new newsletter, The Wine Advocate, from all the other magazines out there rating wine. This brilliant appropriation of a system that is instantly recognizable shorthand to everyone who had ever gone to school is as responsible for Parker becoming the pre-eminent critic as anything else. As other magazines such as the Spectator and the Wine Enthusiast saw how the public enthusiastically adopted this model, they changed too. Even the venerable Charlie Olken, publisher of the Connoisseur's Guide to California Wine, adopted the points to go along with the "puffs" he has been using for decades.

The tricky thing is that the points don't mean anything objective. Each reviewer has in his or her mind a set of criteria for a particular wine that is absolutely individual. No two people taste things the same way, consequently, my 90-point California Chardonnay is going to be different than someone else's. The only thing that makes the score valid is the authority we invest in the critic him/herself.

The latest "new" scoring system to be trotted out eschews numbers totally and instead awards badges. This system, on its face, seems more egalitarian and less strict than the numbers. If I think this wine represents a certain level of quality and fits into a subjective category that I just made up, its gets a badge. Despite my deep ambivalence toward the 100-point system, the squishiness of the Badge's parameters makes me think that it's more feel-good than useful.

The points thing is complicated. I personally don't think of wine in terms of how "perfect" (how close to 100 points) it is. The fact that wine is constantly changing means that my 95 point rating for that Cabernet is only valid for that particular drinking experience from that particular bottle. Assigning points to a product that is a melding of science and creativity; the result of the felicitous relationship between farmer and farm seems so wrongheadedly reductive. And at the same time, if we get a great review, we trot it out to show the world:

_______________________

2007 LA ROCHELLE
Pinot Noir Russian River Valley

Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine
Volume 34 Issue 8: June 2010 91
Maybe it is some kind of blind bias for the wines from this Pinot Noir region, but with so many good offerings from La Rochelle, it is the Russian River Pinot that has turned out to be our choice. We like its bright, keenly defined red cherry fruit, we like its dried flower nuances and we like its supple, slightly velvety yet keenly balanced stance on the palate. Some may find its evident, latter palate acids to be a bit too high. We do not, but we do expect them to smooth further with age.
_________________________

I told you it was complicated.

Evolution of a Different Sort...

2010-03-02T20:43:00.001-08:00

In a recent post, I wrote about the relative importance of wine evolution vs. wine aging. Michael Pollan, in his amazing book, Botany of Desire, explores the wonderfully twisty idea that certain plants have evolved human tastes in order to insure their continued existence.

In his sections on the apple and tulip, Pollan posits that these plants have selected for specific human desires (sweetness in the case of the apple, beauty in that of the tulip) through the generational physical manifestations that fire our imaginations. The book explores the possibility that both the human and plant are manipulating each other in a farthest-reaching evolutionary dance...just a wonderful thought to chew on.

Let's put this through the wine filter...can it be said that the first natural (arbitrary) cross between Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc which led to the creation of Cabernet Sauvignon, in turn lead to that new variety's hegemony among red grapes because it appealed to man's desire for richness and round fruit and structure? Did we choose to plant a lot of Cabernet in California because it happened to grow well and produce a tasty wine or did the grape fulfill our desires and therefore subtly compel us to spread its genetic material?

I don't that there is an answer, but what great fun to contemplate over a great glass of wine.

Smile at the Cellar Door

2010-02-27T08:20:00.001-08:00

A recent blog post by wine critic, Steve Heimoff, leads me to this thought:

if you are lucky enough to live in or near wine country, get to know the wines and the people behind those wines. Letting a a numerical score (which implies an objectivity that doesn't exit) substitute for relationships seems like a recipe for a stunted, reductive experience.

Remember wine is all about relationships, the relationship of the grower with the vines, the winemaker with fruit, the Tasting Room team with its customers, and the customer to the experience. No purported exactitude can ever take the place of a smile at the cellar door.

Silver Lining

2010-02-18T13:59:00.001-08:00

When business is off for one part of an industry, the negative ramifications are usually felt up and down the chain. Sales for high-end wines have been hit the hardest in the current economic downturn. The total volume of wine is right where it was in 2008, but price points tend to drop as disposable income diminishes.

Where the silver lining lies is in new opportunities for purchasing fruit. La Rochelle Winery will be getting a couple of tons of Pinot Noir from a new site in the Santa Lucia Highland called Soberanes Vineyard. This site was planted and is being farmed by the same people behind Garys', Pisoni, and Rosella's vineyards...three of the best sites in the world.

On the Chardonnay front, Merrillie will now be getting fruit from Rosella's Vineyard (pictured right) one of the top Chardonnay sites in the Santa Lucia Highlands. Coupled with the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard fruit from which we made wine for the first time in 2009, Merrillie is poised to begin her new life as a Chardonnay-only brand in 2011 with a stable of some of the top Chardonnay vineyards in the state.

The Year to Come in Pinot Noir

2010-01-21T09:56:00.000-08:00

Because of the way we make our wines, we tend to release later than most other Pinot Noir producers. While some producers already have 2008 vintage wines in the market place, we are just now releasing the bulk of our 2007 vintage wines. What this means for lovers of La Rochelle Pinot Noir is access to a bunch of wines from one of the greatest vintages for California Pinot.

Over the next several months, you'll see one of my favorite wines the 2007 Pinot Noir - Santa Lucia Highlands, and two wines from my favorite site - 2007 Pinot Noir - Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, Martini Clone and Clone 113 (available in June). If you like to compare wines that are the same except for one variable, take a look at our 2007 Pinot Noir - Mission Ranch, French Oak and Mission Ranch, American Oak offerings.

For members of Pinot Noir Program, we have a stellar lineup of wines including 2007 vintage wines from Paraiso Vineyard, Deer Park, and Sarmento Vineyards, and a 2008 release from a new site: Spring Hill Vineyard in the Sonoma Coast appellation. The Pinot Noir Program features single vineyard wines made exclusively for members.

For those hankering after white wines, we have wonderful things for you too. In August we will be releasing the 2009 Pinot Gris; in October, our first Blanc de Noirs sparkling wine from the Santa Lucia Highlands, and January 2011, our 2009 Pinot Blanc.

The future is very bright for lovers of La Rochelle Pinot. We appreciate all of your support, and look forward to seeing you at the Winery soon.

Pinot Patchwork?

2009-08-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Last night I saw an interesting post on Twitter. Jayson Bryant of TheWineVault, tweeted, “If smell were a fabric, what would Sauvignon Blanc be?” Immediately I thought of linen. Cool, crisp, clean. He then asked me "what about Pinot Noir". My first thought was corduroy. Textured, structured, yet soft, like our Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir. Then I thought, no, pinot noir is more like velvet – deep, dark, elegant, smooth, luxurious. Hmmmm…which is it? Maybe it’s actually shantung silk, silky with some texture, crisp and brilliant color…I can’t decide! Maybe the true answer is that Pinot Noir would be a patchwork quilt. Some pinots are corduroy, some velvet and others silk…aren’t those differences part of the beauty of Pinot Noir? What are your thoughts?

Visiting Vineyards - Searching New Sources, Cementing Relationships

2009-07-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

Tom Stutz and I spent the day in Sonoma County last Friday meeting with three growers to taste wines, walk vineyards, and talk winemaking philosophy.

La Rochelle does not own any of its own vineyards so it has the opportunity to source out the best possible fruit and to create relationships with people who are as passionate about growing great grapes as we are about making great wine.

2009 is going to be a very important and exciting year for us as we bring on new fruit from the Gran Moraine Vineyard in Willamette Valley, grapes from Londer Vineyard's estate vineyard in Anderson Valley (we now have 2 sources there), and fruit from Donum Estate vineyard in Carneros (another new appellation).

On this trip, we had the great fortune to talk and taste with Anne Moller-Racke from Donum Estate. Her winemaking and grape growing philosophy matches ours nicely, and we are lucky to be one of the very few to get grapes from her vineyard.

We also met with the Ross Cobb, the winemaker of Keller Estate, the owner of La Cruz Vineyard. Ross also owns his own eponymous brand, making great Pinot from Sonoma Coast fruit. The pictures show the Petaluma River off to the west from the Coro block of La Cruz Vineyard and our block of clone 115 Pinot beginning veraison.

Our appointment with Al Steele, the vineyard manager for Dutton, served the duel purpose of locking in the details of the Dutton-Campbell Pinot Noir for 2009 as well as looking at the Morelli Lane Vineyard, one of the new sites for the Merrillie brand (more on this later). It also included lunch at the Underwood in Graton (our Sonoma Coast restaurant of choice!).

La Rochelle began life in Livermore with the mission to make world-class wines. We also wanted to work with world-class people...it's nice to see that this part of the equation is working too.

Differences Between French and American Barrels

2009-06-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I wrote about the flavor and aromatic differences in two newly released La Rochelle Pinot Noirs. Though made from the same fruit and in the same way, the Pommard Clone in American oak differed greatly from the same wine aged in French oak.

While much of the differences in wine owe to the winemaker's hand, the actual structure of the trees made into barrels in France and the US is responsible for the "macro" characteristics of grain tightness, aromatics, flavors, and durability, among others. With the advent of improved curing regimes for American oak, qualitative difference between domestic and imported barrels are much less than they used to be.

Wooden receptacles have been used to store and age wine for hundreds of years, at least since the 1600s. We think of the 60-gallon barrel (or barrique) when we think of wood, but large wood upright tank made of redwood are still in use today. Chestnut has also been used for aging wine, and Balsamic vinegar starts as Trebbiano and is aged in a series of different woods to provide much of its flavor.

Oak is uniquely qualified for aging fine wine because of its relatively neutral aroma and flavor (compared to Redwood), its tightness of grain (Chestnut is not used much anymore because its porosity allows too much wine to evaporate), and its ability to bend without breaking (steam and fire are used to bend staves as barrels are being made).

White oak, Quercus alba, is the species of oak grown in America used for barrels; Quercus sessilis, is the European species. Midwest and Eastern states produce nearly all American barrels, with Missouri leading production. the map to the right shows production areas. Quercus alba differs structurally from Q. sessilis in the number of tyloses it contains. A tylose is a cellular structure in the xylem of the tree that blocks the nutrient-carrying tubes that run from the root up the tree, making the wood watertight. The American species has significantly more tyloses so the staves can be milled from larger sections of tree and up to 50% of the tree will be usable for barrel making. The European species, with fewer tyloses, needs to be handsplit into staves along the tylose lines, and up to 80% of the wood is wasted.

American oak barrels, as a consequence, are less porous than French oak and less tannic. At the same time, American oak is significantly more odorous than the French counterpart, contributing aromas of vanilla and coconut while the less powerful spice aromas of clove, and cinnamon are a feature of French oak.

French oak is used in large part because it tends to bolster the mid-palate of the wine, providing a sense of roundness and shape (just as it does in the La Rochelle Pommard clone Pinot Noir).

At La Rochelle, we tend to uses significantly more French than American oak. The aromatics of French oak and the structuring effects of French barrels work better with a majority of the Pinot Noir we harvest. For our Cabernet brand, American oak is often used because the depth of Cab fruit stands up well to the powerful aromatics.

A great deal of the improvement in American oak can be attributed to the air-drying of staves. French coopers have been doing this for centuries, but it is much newer for American coopers. In the early 20th century whiskey producers used newly sawn wood from which to make barrels. The extremely high tannin level and balsamy quality of the wood was overwhelmed by the product inside. Recently, American coopers have been air-drying their barrel staves for 24-36 months, stacking the wood, open to the elements, so that as the wood gets wet then dries many times over the course of time, much of the tannin and sappy quality of the wood is leeched out.

Toast levels of the barrels also add significantly to the aromatics, flavor, and quality of wine. the better barrels are toasted over an open fire both to bend those staves into a barrel shape and to bring out specific flavors and aromas in the wine. It is known that specific flavor elements such as coffee and chocolate are created in the wood at various temperatures and toasting durations. Depending upon the type of wine being made, we will buy barrels that have undergone medium, medium-plus, and slow heavy toasting so that we can capture these organoleptic elements in the finished product.

While American oak was originally seen as a poor man's alternative to French oak, its recent quality and the characteristics it brings to wine aging make it a very valuable tool in the wine maker's arsenal.

Defined by Barrel: The Wood Affects the Wine

2009-06-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

We have written many times before about how the transparent nature of Pinot Noir reveals everything about itself. The place of its origin, the lateness of harvest, the yeast types used for fermentation, the length of time and type of barrel used for aging all put their very obvious stamp on the finished wine.

A great part of the fun of wine is in the knowing, and we think the deliciousness of the La Rochelle wines can be more greatly appreciated when you know more than just the surface details.

The 2007 vintage will be one of the best Pinot vintages in recent memory. The La Rochelle wines are just now rolling out. Some of the first include a pair of wines that, on the surface, differ only in the type of barrel used for aging. But a deeper look, will show just how profound a difference that aging vessel can make.

We have just released two single barrel wines: the 2007 Pinot Noir - Mission Ranch, Pommard Clone, American Oak and French oak. The barrel used to age wine obviously affects that wine's aromatics and flavors. But it has as dramatic an affect on the texture and structure of the wine as well.

Up front there is substantially more woodiness in the American barrel than there is in the French counterpart. The aromatics include the relatively overt, smoky, sweet oak notes of a Nadalie American oak barrel (Virginia wood) while the wood effect of the French (Nadalie, Allier forest) barrel is more in the shaping of the wine. The aromatics persist longer in the American barrel, the dark fruit notes heightened by the sweet underlayment of wood.

In the mouth, a similar sensation is also present. The French barrel seems substantially more elegant: tighter and less overtly fruity than the American barrel, while the smoky sweetness and dark fruit aromas are translated readily to the mouth in the American.

Imagine the route of the wine through your mouth as a highway. Upon entry, both wines are on a two lane road. Quickly though, the American's exuberant fruit expands the road to 4 lanes. On the mid-palate, the American road is wider still, and on the finish, the road resembles a funnel: the fruit, tannin, and acid are rampant. Conversely, the French road widens only a little and only on the finish. This wine lacks the American's full-throttled wideness at this point, relying instead on a staid and elegant containment (a very well paved, pot-hole-free journey). The French does, on the finish, hint at its own abundance, however: an abundance that will reveal itself over the next several years.

Only 20 cases or so of each wine was produced and it is moving quickly. Grab yourself a bottle of each and make your own comparisons. Let us know which you prefer.

Next time we will discuss just why there is so much difference between French and American oak barrels.

Are Pinots Getting Too Big?

2009-03-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Eric Asimov, wine writer at the New York Times, recently wrote about the "revolution" occurring in the increasing lightness of California Pinot Noir. Steve Heimoff, columnist for Wine Enthusiast magazine, responded, in his blog, to Asimov's assertion.

Taken together these two viewpoints underscore a fundamental issue for me. The only truth in wine is that which is circumscribed by your vineyards and fruit coupled with the winemaker's overriding sensibility that takes those raw products and makes the most authentic wine out of them.

Asimov is talking about a STYLE of wine for which he has a PREFERENCE. There is no right and no wrong to this. The style that he prefers (or that Parker or the Spectator prefers) is not intrinsically better than the fatter style of wine that he doesn't.

The winemaker really only has a responsibility to himself. I can't truly know what the "market" wants especially when I release a new wine. I can only promise that the wine I am producing is as true to the vineyard and to the grape as it can be and, more importantly, that it is true to my winemaking philosophy.

Styles of wine change. Critics gain a pre-eminence which can shape the way wines are produced. That pre-eminence will eventually cease to be, and the next major critic may like a different style of wine. Making wine to suit the perceived palate of the critic is a fool's errand. It's philosophically dishonest and boring...and there's every likelihood that the wine style and the critic won't arrive at the same place at the same time.

There is room in the wine world for any number of wine styles and wine varieties. We, the consuming public, will vote with our palates and our pocketbooks, some styles and grapes will be steamrolled under and serve as the fertilizer for the next "revolution."

In the end, we should all worry less, explore a lot, and drink more good wine.

La Rochelle in the Larger World

2009-03-16T14:54:00.001-07:00

We have very consciously decided that we want to stay small...and that we want to sell wine to our friends.

Though most of our wine is sold at the Winery to members of our wine clubs, we do sell a small percentage to fine restaurants and wine shops, mostly in California (they're our friends too!)

Click on the link to see an evolving map of the fine folks all around California who sell our wine.

La Cruz Release Heralds New Appellation

2009-03-15T10:35:00.001-07:00

We recently released our latest Pinot Noir made exclusively for members of our Pinot Noir Program. The 2007 Pinot Noir - La Cruz Vineyard, Sonoma Coast marks the first wine we have made from this wonderful appellation.

La Cruz Vineyard sits right on the Petaluma River and is comprised of two distinct sections. These sections are further divided into blocks based upon varietal and clone (in the case of Pinot Noir). The upper portion of the site is called the El Coro block and is comprised of very light, infertile soil, while the lower block is alluvial soil from the river...much darker, heavier, and fertile than El Coro. The photograph to the right shows El Coro block soil along with bird netting that is held together by plastic spoons.

In 2006 we harvested only Dijon clone 115 but got it from both vineyard sections. We vinified each section separately then blended them before release. The photo below and to the left shows the distinctly light brown soil of the El Coro Block.

This wine is distinctly different in weight, aromatics, and flavors than any other Pinot we have made. While our main source of fruit (the Santa Lucia Highlands) is generally characterized by dark raspberry fruit notes and significant mid-palate viscosity, the La Cruz wine is much more an amalgam of rose petals, blood orange with a transparency in the mouth that shows off the very clean, expansive acid line of the wine.

In the future we hope to have a couple more sites from this appellation so that we have wines to share both with club members and Tasting Room guests. For the time being, however, if you would like to get a couple of bottles of this wonderful wine, we'd like to invite you to join our club.

Terrific Wine, Better People

2009-03-08T21:50:00.001-07:00

I had the occasion to taste at Testarossa Vineyards today after having visited Ridge Winery earlier in the day for their 2008 Monte Bello assemblage event. I have enjoyed the Testarossa wines quite a lot (their 2005 Pinot Noir, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard was stunning) and have been up to their tasting room only once before.

The team there, led by Jeffery Marino, the Tasting Room Manager, could not have been nicer and more generous.

The thing that most tasting room teams share, and what the Testarossa folks have in spades, is a love of wine. Apparently, quite a lot of them had had some of our Pinots in the past (I think I have Bob Zamorra, a great wine lover in his own right, who works both for us and Testarossa, to thank for that!) and liked them. And being as passionate and as generous as they are, they allowed me to taste some wines that have not been released yet or that were part of their library.

The 2006 Chardonnay, La Cruz Vineyard and 2007 Chardonnay, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard were both stunning. They were outshone, however, by the 2006 Diana's Reserve Chardonnay that is a blend of the finest barrels from each of the vineyards from which they source fruit.

On the Pinot Noir side, the 2006 Pinot Noir, La Cruz Vineyard was gorgeous (another tie-in: our 2007 La Cruz Vineyard will be released very soon) as was the 2007 Sleepy Hollow.

More info about the winery can be found at www.testarossa.com. Tell the great team there, that we sent you!

Beauty and the Beast

2009-02-23T11:22:00.003-08:00

It was the end of a working day last week, and I wandered into my wine cellar in the garage looking for a bottle of Pinot.

From the 2005 vintage, we had produced a number of very small (some only a single barrel) offerings and will have 11 separate single-barrel releases in 2009. Anyway, I found a bottle of one of the 2005 wines wedged behind some Cabernet.

The 2005 Pinot Noir - Mission Ranch, Pommard clone is both beautiful and ugly simultaneously.

Shortly after I acquired the La Rochelle brand from my cousins, we decided to change the packaging to more clearly delineate what we wanted La Rochelle to be. Before our current label design (created by Nick McNeill), we developed a new look that was just horrendous. The picture to the right shows the abomination (kids, this is why you leave the label design to the pros!).

The wine inside the bottle was wonderful. Explosive aromatically (fresh raspberry and cranberry fruit, spice from barrel), the wine had a beautiful, silky mid-palate, open fruit flavors, and great acidity. I had it with roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and corn. Yum score = 100.

Beautiful labels, do not guarantee delicious wine, and - thankfully enough, in this case - the ugly ones don't also describe the wine inside.

2006 Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains Released

2009-02-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

While single-vineyard wines make up the backbone of our Pinot Noir Program (in fact, we will release a wine from the Deer Park Vineyard from Santa Cruz Mountains for the wine club later in the year), our appellation wines boast a complexity and deliciousness that typify our best offerings.

Grapes have been grown in the Santa Cruz Mountains since the 1850s with Pinot Noir a growing contributor to the overall acreage planted in the appellation, especially recently. Unlike other more hill-challenged appellation, many of the vineyards in this appellation are small, the average size (according to John Haeger in his seminal book North American Pinot Noir) being just 11 acres.

The Deer Park Vineyard provides the vast majority of fruit for this offering with the San Vicente Vineyard adding the last few percent. This wine is dramatic, imbued with wonderfully intense dark-berried fruit, great mid-palate acidity and a fair amount of tannin. This is one of those wines that needs some time before it shows its best.

When it does, though, the results will be stunning. Only 80 cases of this wine were produced and can be ordered in our on-line store.

The Game's all About Food

2009-01-31T20:24:00.000-08:00

We may root for a particular team, wear that team's jersey, live and die with the fortunes of that team...but we all really know, the big game is about the food and wine. I am serving the dish below...what Pinot would go best?

In Good Company

2009-01-13T06:37:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of great wines produced in California. It has always been a goal (especially in our Cabernet House where the Livermore Valley appellation doesn't get the credit it deserves) to make wines that are considered among the best.

And while I am deeply conflicted about the wine reviewing process (more on that another time), the benefits of a positive review are undeniable. Jim Laube, the California wine reviewer for the Wine Spectator magazine, just published a list of top scoring Pinot Noirs from last year, and our Garys' Vineyard from 2005 is included.

We are re-releasing the last 120 bottles from our Library. The limit is 2 bottles per person. The price is $75 per bottle. Click to order Pinot Noir - Garys' Vineyard.

Making Sense of La Rochelle

2009-01-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

The world of Pinot Noir can be confusing... the myriad flavors and aromas and appellations and clones... lots of stuff to know.

In an effort to give you more information, we have created a Pinot Noir Characteristics matrix that details information about all of our wines.

Find the downloadable Matrix here. We will update it regularly.

It's Soy Good...

2009-01-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

Soy. Not a descriptor I would normally attach to a wine. Sushi maybe, wine no. I've seen this word used before to describe wine and as a matter of fact I have heard Steven refer to it several times with some of our pinots in La Rochelle. I never could quite get the soy. I just chalked it up to my amateur palate. Then I opened a bottle of the 2003 Garys' Vineyard Pinot Noir which was created especially for the Steven Kent Future Release Program. One sip and I was hit with a soy bomb. Yes, a soy bomb! It was unbelievable. Not only was the flavor amazing, but the mouthfeel was silky and coated my tongue like a cashmere jacket in autumn. It was perfect. How could I have missed this?

I thought back and remembered when we released this wine in 2005. We had never done a pinot before and I was not familiar with the grape. Sure, I had pinot noir prior to this but it was a casual acquaintance, not a varietal I could appreciate. I remember tasting the 2003 and enjoying it, but thinking I enjoyed cabernet more. Since its release I have had the honor of tasting many more pinots, whether our own at La Rochelle or those we bring in for tasting to compare and contrast with our own. While I still enjoy my cabernet, I have come to appreciate what pinot noir has to offer. I enjoy opening each bottle, wondering what flavor awaits me…will it be earthy…dark fruit…perhaps cardamom - a favorite of mine, or another spice??? Or maybe this time it's soy.

Grab a bottle of pinot and open it up…what do you taste???

(ed. note: Just our opinion, but the wines that are predominantly made from Sleepy Hollow Vyd. fruit also display this soy quality in spades.)

Pressing Matters...Harvest is Over

2008-10-26T13:54:00.001-07:00

Harvest time is always the most exciting time of the year, not always for positive reasons however. Wine, for all its importance if culture and history, is still - at its core - an agricultural product. As such, the grower ceeds much control to Mother Nature. We are never comfortable about the vintage. We're a little more at ease when all the fruit comes in, but then there is the next important matter of when to press wines off the skins.

This is where we are now with our Pinots. All of our fermentations are done in 1.5 ton open-top fermenters. Tom Stutz tastes each of these fermenters (we have over 30 going at any one time) every day tracking the progression of flavors, aromas, sweetness, tannin, and the like until he feels that the wines can come off the skins. We tend to leave our wine in fermenters nearly until the point the caps submerge (this indicates that there is no more production of carbon dioxide, a by-product of fermentation and the substance that keeps the cap afloat).

Once the wine is pressed off the skins you can't go back. You can't add more color, more tannin, more extract (you can technically, but those kinds of manipulations are not in our winemaking playbook). Essentially, the wine is made. Any flavor and aromas changes to the wine will come from the presence (or lack) of new barrels and exposure to oxygen.

Over the course of the next week or so all of our wines will be in barrel undergoing the next phase of their lives.

Touring Monterey County Vineyards

2008-09-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to the Central Coast vineyard sites from which we are sourcing grapes this year, the same conditions that greeted us in Livermore were evident down south: nothing is moving.

Harvest time is a lot like an automobile race except when it comes to grapes you never really know, until the moment it happens, whether it is a sprint, a 500-miler, if the starting flag has really dropped...

Our relatively cool summer continues. And with the cool weather comes slower maturation of fruit. As winemakers, we like this condition. We get slow development of flavors and sugar levels move up only grudgingly. As fruit processors, though, the hurry up and wait conditions are burdensome. The team is ready to sort fruit, crush and de-stem, start fermentations, etc. but they sit idle. The real trouble starts when all the fruit comes in at once...which may be a consequence of the weather this year.

Mission Ranch

The Mission Ranch is located about 115 miles south of Livermore in the Arroyo Seco appellation and was planted by my family in the early '60s. Over 200 acres, the site is planted mostly to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah. From Mission we get the fruit for our Classic Clones blend: Mariafeld, Pommard, Wadensville, and Swann (a new clone for us this year). The photos below show Mission's proximity to the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation up the hill in the background (l) and the new Swann block (r).

Mission is now owned by Steve McIntyre. Our relationship goes back to the early 2000s when he bought the vineyard from the family, and he and his team have done a wonderful job supplying us with gorgeous fruit. The photo below of the Mariafeld block shows how immaculate the fruit and vineyard are.

As of September 15, 2008 the fruit at Mission was sitting at about 20 Brix, at least a couple of weeks away from being ready for harvest. Flavors are developing beautifully, however.

Paraiso Vineyard

This is the most southerly-located vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation from which we source fruit. Owned by Rich Smith, the vineyard site had provided outstanding quality fruit to us for many years...and the views are amazing. In the photo below, we are looking east from Paraiso's Wedding Hill, over the Salinas Valley all the way to the Chalone appellation in the Pinnacles on the east side of the Valley.

Located in the Santa Lucia range about 700 feet above sea level, the Martini and 667 clones have consistently produced wines that are highlighted by bright red cherry, cola, and orange oil notes. The 2006 release of this wine was made exclusively for members of Pinot Noir Program. Planted originally in 1973, the Paraiso block from which we get our fruit has been grafted over the course of time. Sometimes a vine or two is missed when they are top-worked. In the photo below notice the Pinot Noir and Gwerztraminer clusters sharing the same vine.

Sleepy Hollow Vineyard

Juxtaposed to Paraiso Vineyard in the south is the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard in the far northern reaches of the Santa Lucia Highlands. Owned by the Talbott family, this vineyard site produces one of the most distinctive Pinots we offer (think raspberry fruit folded into mushrooms, pine needles, and soy...mmmm! mmmm!).

The photo on the left shows Sleepy Hollow up against the foot of the almost vertical Santa Lucia, the center one shows the Clone 113 block marker (notice that it is planted on its own roots), and the one on the right shows the uppermost rows from which we harvest the Martini clone fruit that is the base for our multi-clone wine.

With weather remaining cool, it will be a few weeks yet before all of our Central Coast fruit is in to the winery. If the last part of the harvest goes as well as the early part, the quality of the fruit...and the wine...should be very high indeed.

Tasting the New Sleepy Hollow Pinot Noir

2008-09-10T16:38:00.001-07:00

The 2006 Pinot Noir - Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands is a blend of three clones: Martini, 113, and 667 (two Dijon clones). This wine is a gorgeous expression of the earthier, non-fruit aromatics face of Pinot Noir. Made exclusively for members of the Pinot Noir Program at La Rochelle, it will be available to taste for a limited time on our Pinot Noir Flight. Only 130 cases were produced.

Click on the video below for more detailed tasting notes.

Tasting at La Rochelle

2008-09-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

We invite you to join us for a pairing of gorgeous Pinot Noirs and spectacular cheeses. Click the play button below for more info:

New Friends at Spring Hill Vineyard

2008-09-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

Finding Pinot Noir is extremely difficult these days given the popularity of the variety and the paucity of really high-class sites. I was lucky enough to get a lead on a wife and husband team growing beautiful Pinot Noir on Spring Hill Vineyard, 20 acres just 7 miles west of the Petaluma Gap in the Sonoma Coast appellation.

Karen and Chris London are pretty amazing (I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Chris yet, but did meet Karen). Not only are they farming their vineyard themselves, but they have young children and are raising cattle and vegetables for local restaurants to boot.

Hoping for a couple of tons of fruit in the 2009 harvest year, I called Karen to see if Tom Stutz and I could take a look at her vineyard on the way through to the La Cruz vineyard about 8 miles further East. Karen, who is very energetic and justifiably proud of her site, indicated that she might even have a couple tons of fruit from one of her blocks available THIS year.

After walking the site with her and making plans for getting picking bins to Sonoma, we left her with a couple bottles of La Rochelle. She, in turn, gave us a couple pounds of beef from Silver Bell, a cow from her Scottish Highland stock. That night...one of the best hamburgers I ever had. Harvest from this site should be in the third week of September. Look below to see the crazy-looking cows the London's raise.

2008 Harvest Begins!

2008-09-06T21:27:00.000-07:00

Just when you think you have a little bit of breathing room after the annual Livermore Valley Harvest Festival, bam! the real harvest begins!

Yesterday, we harvested a bit shy of 6 tons of Pinot Noir from the La Cruz vineyard in the Sonoma Coast appellation. Last year was our first harvest from this beautiful site, and we were able to get about 4 tons of clone 115 Pinot Noir from two different blocks.

This year, we were able to secure not only the 115 which we like a lot, but also small volumes of 667 and 828. This is the first time we will be working with 828 and it came in beautifully at about 25 Brix. There's the fruit below at the Winery.

Our winemaker, Tom Stutz, and I went and visited La Cruz a few days before the harvest, and Petaluma, where the vineyard is located, was suffering similar heat as we were in Livermore. Early in the day it was not too hot and harvest was already underway for other wineries purchasing fruit from this site. Notice in the photo below the light brown dirt in the foreground. The soil in the upper block is thin, loamy-clay on top of volcanic rock. This block, called El Coro has much lighter soil than the block surrounding the Keller Estate winery located down the hill.

You can imagine that you'd see tractors and picking bins, and picking crews, and the like on a vineyard at this time of year. But you might not think that one of the most ubiquitous of tools, especially in vineyards where there are lots of birds is the crucial plastic spoon. Notice the pile at the foot of the row end post in the photo below. Netting is used to keep the birds from devouring fruit, and the nets are knitted together with plastic spoons.

As more fruit starts coming in, I will give you an update as to how quality is looking, and how the first blocks are tasting as they get through primary fermentation. This is one of the most exciting times of year, and if early indications are right, most of our fruit should be coming in a two to three week window this year. Busy! Busy! Busy!

It's Not About the Drinking Age

2008-08-27T06:50:00.000-07:00

It's not really about a mandated age, or designated drivers or MADD or the disingenuous Please Drink Responsibly message at the end of beer and liquor commercials. It's much more fundamental than that.

It's really about teaching children what responsible drinking behavior looks and feels like. I am sure that there have been people injured or killed driving after drinking too much wine, but I would be willing to bet that the number is incredibly low compared to those killed after binging on hard alcohol. Wine is the perfect beverage with which to instill the idea of healthy moderation.
It stands to reason that a thoughtful introduction to children of wine, its affinity to food, and its role at the family table will result in more knowledge and understanding of wine's beauty, uses and effects. It also will go a long way to putting the drinking of alcohol into a context that is healthy, respectful, and effective.

Recently a group of College Presidents, called the Amethyst Group have questioned the reasonableness and efficacy of the current drinking age. They contend that prohibiting 18 and 19-year old college students from buying alcohol legally results in significantly more dangerous behavior than would ensue if the drinking age were lower. This group has its agenda...one that is of a piece with ameliorating the EFFECTS of alcohol abuse on campus and not necessarily with creating the right context for alcohol. And of course, the prohibitionists just want to proscribe behavior regardless of the reality of the rationale for their arguments (subscription required).

Tom Wark at the Fermentation blog has posted passionately about this issue. And I agree generally with his points; for me, however, it fundamentally comes down to this: when Americans can regard their daily glass of wine as a natural part of a moderate and healthy life, the drinking age question will have answered itself.

PS: Here are some other links of interest: A researcher at Indiana University has this take on the debate. A FoxNews writer opines.

Tasting the 2006 Pinot Noir - Paraiso Vineyard

2008-08-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Pinot Noir - Paraiso Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands has just been released exclusively to members of our Pinot Noir Program. A favorite of La Rochelle guests last year, this new vintage triumphantly carries on the where the 05 left off. Chock full of bright cherry fruit and elegance (hear more detail in our video tasting note below) this wine will be gone very soon.

To be one of the few who will enjoy this gorgeous wine, click here for more information about joining our club.

Click below to hear more.

Some Things I Like Right Now

2008-08-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

In the last two weeks, I like:

The Dark Knight. Visually stunning, great acting by Heath Ledger...a legitimately scary villain. Must be seen on the big screen.

The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler. Though some of her comments regarding the wine business, especially the marketing and sales aspects, betray her lack of understanding, the book is well researched and a cautionary tale for any family-owned business.

Simply Fondue Restaurant in Livermore. Who knew that paying a restaurant to cook your own food could be so fun. Owners, Ivy and Alden Faught and their staff, have done a wonderful job filling out their wine list with an extensive selection of Livermore wines...and the Bananas Foster dessert fondue is ridiculous!

Mera Vino Wine Boutique & Lounge in Livermore. This new, upscale wine shop/wine bar is elegant, with a growing collection of Livermore wines, and the small-plate style menu looks fabulous. Good luck Raj, Karaminder and Mary Lynn.

Bollinger Champagne, gin martinis (hold the vermouth), everything from Manresa restaurant, the Livermore Hills in spring and summer, the Tasting Room staffs at Steven Kent and La Rochelle (the best in the valley...knowledgeable, fun, passionate about wine), and teaching my kid to drive.

We are Innovatively Delicious!

2008-08-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, La Rochelle Winery's 2006 Pinot Noir - Classic Clones, Arroyo Seco was paired with a Squash Blossom Tamale created by the talented folks at Campo di Bocce restaurant in Livermore...and came away with the most innovative pairing award at the annual Taste of Terroir.

(Photo of La Rochelle's Tracey Morretta and Steven Mirassou courtesy of Vanessa Pelletier)

A blend of older clones from several Arroyo Seco vineyards, including the Mission Ranch, this new release is brimming with dark cherry, plum, and coffee notes. In the mouth, the wine is all silk and power...easily capable of aging 7-10 years.

The tamale, with its squash blossom shell, was stuffed with pinot noir-braised lamb, ricotta polenta, and fresh zucchini, brought out the wonderful fruit notes in the Pinot; the wine, in turn, highlighted the earthiness of the dish.

The Taste of Terroir is an annual event that brings together the talented vintners and restaurateurs of the Valley to give nearly 500 guests a hedonistic view of the progress of our ever-improving wine region.

And the wine's are improving dramatically: from Deer Ridge Winery's Moonstruck to Karl Wente's Nth Degree Merlot, our wines are showing more complexity, more classic structure, and even more value.

Not all the entries were equally successful, but if the pace of recent progress continues in Livermore, if more growers, producers, and consumers understand how capable were are of making world-class wines, it won't be long before the wine world as a whole embraces our appellation.

Creating Depth and Breadth

2008-08-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

One of the most fun things about La Rochelle from a wine-making standpoint is the sheer number of different Pinots there are to make and drink. Pinot Noir is perhaps the best argument for the French notion of terroir, that hazily-understood notion that says that all aspects of the vineyard site (temperature, soil type, sun exposure, wind, rainfall, etc) have a significant and unduplicate-able effect on the final outcome of the wine. Each of our Pinots is a physical manifestation of the vineyard site, vineyard practice, winemaking philosophy, and vintage.

La Rochelle was founded on a passion for Pinot Noir and with a mission to show as many of the facets, beautiful and idiosyncratic, of this noble variety. Consequently, the search for great vineyard sites in as many of the great growing areas in California and Oregon as possible consumes a lot of our time. Currently, we have sourced fruit from nine different appellations:

Monterey
Santa Lucia Highlands
Arroyo Seco
Santa Cruz Mountains
Chalone
Russian River Valley
Sonoma Coast
Anderson Valley
Umpqua Valley of Oregon

The first releases of wines from Chalone, Sonoma Coast, and Anderson Valley will be in 2009/10. There are still a number of appellations that we are on the prowl for: Willamette Valley, Santa Rita Hills, and Santa Maria Valley.

We will never (at least I can't conceive of doing this) produce large lots of Pinot Noir. We want to continue to scour the landscape for great vineyard sites farmed by people as passionate about growing Pinot as we are in making it. This is the only way have to guarantee that our wines have the quality we expect of them.

A Family Connection to Robert Mondavi

2008-08-06T10:47:00.001-07:00

On May 16, 2008 Robert Mondavi passed away at the age of 94. Obviously, his contribution to the wine industry in America cannot be overestimated. I don't think it is overstating the case to say that, without his influence, we would not be talking about the Livermore Valley or Monterey County's potential to make world-class wines.

My family goes back a long way with Mondavi. In 1966, Robert served as a consultant to my father and the other 4 fifth-generation members of the family as they began to transition from selling bulk to premium wine. In fact, my father, whose passion for wine was passed on to me, remembers Mondavi bringing 1959 first-growth Bordeaux to a biweekly meeting to show these young guys (all in their mid-twenties) what wine could be like. My father's "religious experience" was one of the conversation points that ultimately led to the creation of the Steven Kent Winery in the Livermore Valley.

In Julia Flynn Siler's book The House of Mondavi, she recounts Mondavi's quest to build his own winery after he was kicked out of the family business. My grandfather and great-uncle co-signed a loan for $100,000 that amounted to half of the initial investment in the Robert Mondavi Winery. In retrospect it would have been nice if they had loaned money in exchange for part of the business, but, alas...

Robert Mondavi has served as a model for me, too. His emphasis on producing outstanding wine and understanding the role that wine plays in a full, family-oriented life, resonate with my own sense of the importance of what we do. While his mistaken belief that his name was enough to overcome the lack of quality in his wines from Lodi and the like, led to an unfortunately ignominious end, all the energy he put into leading in the creation of the modern California wine business cannot be calculated. He will forever be among the giants of our industry.

Art & Commerce: Emotion & Money

2008-08-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

I find myself linking to Steven Heimoff's stuff quite a lot. Steve, writer for Wine Enthusiast magazine is one of the best wine writers out there. Especially on his blog, he is not afraid to emotionally invest.
In his latest post, he reacts quite eloquently to the dynamic of critic being criticized for expressing a controversial viewpoint. He wasn't the critic in question...it was the art critic for the SF Chronicle who got enough negative mail from readers regarding his remarks about Dale Chihuly's work that he felt a need to explain himself.
If the world were perfect, we wouldn't need a mediator to tell or explain or reveal. We would (if we were so inclined) devote enough attention to something to come to some kind of rational and humble conclusion of our own about the worth of a piece of blown glass or a Santa Lucia Pinot Noir, for example. It would become obvious to us that only our own reaction to a piece of art or to a product is valid, that we cannot ever "know" what the artist or craftsman was trying to accomplish, but that his work was a gift given to us...and we are to say to it, either yes or no.
We know that we could never have made that thing, and that the artist's conception of it is different than ours and only the artist's. Our conception is only truly meaningful to ourselves given that we all experience the world differently.
The hardest thing though, sometimes, is to acknowledge our own lack of experience with something and to be careful how loudly we trumpet our opinion. It isn't a perfect world, and wine critics serve a useful purpose for those who aren't yet ready to make their wine buying decisions completely on their own. It is important to remember, however, that the critic is paid to form an opinion; he does not speak for us...he speaks only for himself; and his opinion, in the end, can only be valid for him.

Special Occasions

2008-08-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

Today in the La Rochelle Tasting Room, two of our guests celebrated their birthdays with us. While these kinds of celebrations happen more frequently in our tasting room than they use to, I never stop being humbled and honored by them.

A winery tasting room is like a Jiffy Lube for relationships. We don't sell wine; we help to grease the gears of memory production; of getting close to your friends and family. With so much competition for one's urgent but not important time, finding even a moment for what is important is difficult enough. And even when that small slice is found for re-creation, there are things to do, un-numberable.

Thank you for choosing us...and Happy Birthday!

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2007 LA ROCHELLEPinot Noir Russian River Valley

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Smile at the Cellar Door

Silver Lining

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Pinot Patchwork?

Visiting Vineyards - Searching New Sources, Cementing Relationships

Differences Between French and American Barrels

Defined by Barrel: The Wood Affects the Wine

Are Pinots Getting Too Big?

La Rochelle in the Larger World

La Cruz Release Heralds New Appellation

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Beauty and the Beast

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The Game's all About Food

In Good Company

Making Sense of La Rochelle

It's Soy Good...

Pressing Matters...Harvest is Over

Touring Monterey County Vineyards

Tasting the New Sleepy Hollow Pinot Noir

Tasting at La Rochelle

New Friends at Spring Hill Vineyard

2008 Harvest Begins!

It's Not About the Drinking Age

Tasting the 2006 Pinot Noir - Paraiso Vineyard

Some Things I Like Right Now

We are Innovatively Delicious!

Creating Depth and Breadth

A Family Connection to Robert Mondavi

Art & Commerce: Emotion & Money

Special Occasions

2007 LA ROCHELLE
Pinot Noir Russian River Valley