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

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

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

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

2011 La Rochelle Growers' Tasting

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

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!

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

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.