There was something for everyone at July’s Crush Barrel Wine Market, from bubbly bruts to earthy Bordeaux blends. The event was set at Fort Mason, in San Francisco, where wine enthusiasts could try and buy, directly from the winery. Here are the top picks of the market:

Best of Show – Stein Family

A new discovery and overall best of show winner was Stein Family Winery. Josh Stein was on hand to personally pour his two wines— a 2009 Los Carneros Semi-Dry Gewürztraminer and his Just Joshin 2007 Tempranillo, from the Sierra Foothills. The Gewürztraminer was beautiful with honeysuckle and rose pedals on the mid-palate with a big of orange and lemon to round it out. A touch of residual sugar adds to this wine, kicking up the acidity a bit and making it a desirable wine for my next outing to a thai restaurant.

The tempranillo further illustrated that, to me, the grape is Cabernet’s baby sister. It ripe and ready to drink now, though you might want to wait a few years for the soft tannins to further settle. There’s a bit of blueberries and red berries mixed with a mocha aspect, further added by a dusting of dirt (terrior). Tempranillos have a higher bit of acidity, making it perfect for your next lamb shank dish.

Here are a few other noteworthy wines of the Crush Barrel Wine Market:

Aver Family Vineyard 2007 Homage (Syrah) – The wine is tasting beautifully right now. The tannins have somewhat resided and what you are left with is a medium spice coupled with a bit of vanilla and dark berries. It’s ready to drink now, though you could lay this down for another few years.

Ricardus Corculum 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon – Using a mixture of new French Oak as well and neutral, Ricardus Corculum has crafted a beautiful Cab. Blackberries can be found both on the mid-palate, along with a cedar plank spice and a bit of mocha. The wine is clean, with good, strong tannins. This is a wine that you’ll want to lay down for 10+ years.

R&B Cellars Fortissimo “Port” Desert Wine – A beautiful wine to finish off the wine tasting. I coupled this with a few chocolates from different tables to really get this port to shine. Tobacco, leather and plum can easily be found in this wine. It’s thick and leathery; simply beautiful.

Cheers,
Haydn

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Haydn Adams is the author of the book, Wineries Beyond Napa Valley: Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, an insider’s tasting guide to the hidden gems region. He also contributes to the Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog, writes for vinvillage.com, and can be found roaming the hills of Sonoma County (and at times, Napa Valley) looking for the next hidden gems. You can contact him at haydn@beyondnapavalley.com.

If you had a hankering for Zinfandel, ZAP’s annual Grand Tasting would have definitely quenched your thirst. Held in two halls at the Fort Mason center in San Francisco, Zinfandel producing wineries lined the room, eager to pour their precious Zin to the next willing wine taster. Here are a few of the wineries I found especially appealing.

Best of Class:

Bedrock Wine Company
Morgan Twain-Peterson is one of the hottest winemakers at this time. His knowledge is clearly evident in his two wines showcased: the 2009 Stellwagen Vineyard and the 2009 Dolinsek Ranch (along the 2008 Heirloom at the Flights! showcase). At a case production of under 200, these micro-produced wines were some of the strongest Zin’s found.

Dasche Cellars
The best description I had for this winery was “calm”. All of their wines flowed easily over the palate and left with a considerable length. Elegant Zinfandels.

Wineries to Watch For:

Brazen Cellars
One of the stronger wines to come out of Lodi, Brazen rounds out their portfolio with a strong Zin from Dry Creek. With price points of $17, they are wonderful.

Klinker Brick
Another strong winery out of Lodi. The “Old Ghost” Zinfandel is still one of the best wines from that region.

Starlite Vineyards
A little gem that is peeking it’s head out from the Alexander Valley. In an area that is known for their Cabs, this Zin shines. Their Zin also was partially aged in Hungarian Oak, giving it beautiful hints of white pepper, a bit of spice and a few berries on the nose. Along with the Zin characteristics, there were even bits of cocoa and plums.

If you were at the Grand Tasting at ZAP, I’d love to hear what you’re favorites were. Feel free to comment here or e-mail me at haydn@beyondnapavalley.com.

Cheers,
Haydn

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Haydn Adams is the author of the book, Wineries Beyond Napa Valley: Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, an insider’s tasting guide to the hidden gems region. He also contributes to the Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog, writes for vinvillage.com, and can be found roaming the hills of Sonoma County (and at times, Napa Valley) looking for the next hidden gems. You can contact him at haydn@beyondnapavalley.com.

All the wineries, under one room, err, tent.

Review of ZinTopia
by Haydn S. Adams

The WInegrowers of Dry Creek held it’s first Zintopia—to highlight Dry Creek’s most treasured grape, the ZInfandel. Unlike PinotDays and other Zinfests, this event really honed in on the family winemaking aspect along with the down-to-earth feel that Dry Creek has.

While Zinfandel was the staple wine at the event (as it is in Dry Creek in general), other wines were featured. The whites, aptly being poured on yellow table cloths, could be found, with a majority pouring Sauvignon Blanc. The other, which was creative, was the “Unusual Reds”, featuring non-Zinfandel or Zin blends comprised of less than 75%. This suited such wineries as Montemaggiore well, as they are 100% Zin free. Or as Vince, owner said, “We dare to be different”.

Great food to accompany Great wine

Park Avenue catering did a fabulous job providing excellent food to pair with the wine. Meaty fish, a few different pizzas, and burger-style dishes were in order. The catering company even dolled out desserts towards the later half of the event. I was quite impressed, as well, at how the food was spread around. That led to less of a line bunched up buffet-style.

Erik Miller, winemaker from Kokomo Winery

The winemakers were there, and pouring

This is truly the hallmark of Dry Creek—family owned wineries with visible winemakers. With most wineries you’re more likely to find a portrait of the winemaker hanging in the tasting room than you are them in the flesh. Not the case with Dry Creek and Zintopia. Throughout the day you could mix and mingle with such winemakers as Eric from Kokomo and Steven Canter from Quivira. Vincent Ciolino from Montemaggiore could be found on the unusual reds, and Lou Preston of Preston vineyards could be seen either walking around sampling the wares or showcasing his organic vegetables in adjacent section of the event.

It was enjoyable chit chat with the very people who crafted the wines being sampled. And while at first you might find it intimidating to let your true feeling be known about the wine to the winemaker, on the flip side, it is quite fulfilling to tell him or her just how good their wine is.

Steven Canter, winemaker for Quivira

Overall great atmosphere

This has to be one of the best wine tasting events I’ve been to in a while. The crowd was large enough to feel cozy, yet I wasn’t needing to stand 3 deep in line to get a micro-pour. Everyone was upbeat, friendly and courteous. I had time to talk with many new winemakers whom I had never met, or even, heard of before. The winegrowers of Dry Creek did an excellent job of reflecting the feeling of Dry Creek in ZinTopia. And that was the keystone to why the event felt so great. I can’t wait ’til ZinTopia 2.0!

Cheers,
Haydn

Lodi Zin Fest – Part 1 – The Winemakers dinner
This is a three-part series on the wine and festivities of the Lodi Zinfest.

by Haydn S. Adams | Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog
May 17th, 2009

The winemakers dinner at the Lodi Zinfest, was held on May 15th in Lodi, California. According to the advertising, we were to experience the top 12 Zins of Lodi. In addition, I was told that the food at the dinner was “barbecued wine country cuisine”. Thankfully the wines held up because the “barbecue” did not.

It turned out that the second wine that I had at the dinner (out of about 10 or so, a few non-Zins) was to be one of my favorites. The m2 Zinfandel was a true gem with a bit of strawberries and deep blackberries and a touch of black pepper. According to the winemaker it’s a “velvet elvis”. The m2 “artist series” Zin was also featured but it lacked in structure. A tan thinner than I would have come to expect. I was happy they didn’t use “reserve” on the bottle. I rated the m2 ‘artist series’ an 88 and gave the other Zin 90pts.

There were a few other shining gems, including a wine that was dry farmed, and appeared to mimic the look of Petite Sirah (it was literally staining my glass), one that topped the alcohol charts at 15.9% and others that were just textbook Zinfandel. Overall, I was happy with what was coming out of Lodi. While they did lack the overall complexity as you would find in a few Dry Creek Zins (Zinfandel capital of the world), they were overall very satisfying.

It was also a pleasure to talk with the wine makers who were literally at arms distance as I was critiquing the wines. After the initial wine tasting round, we found our seats (thanks in part to vinvillage.com), and continued to pour a few more glasses and awaited the “barbecued” food.

Unfortunately the “barbecued” food was nothing more than over-grilled chicken and steak on skewers. No finger-lickin good sauce dripping from the meat. No, “pass me some more napkins”. Just plain ‘ole chicken. It was a bit of a disappointment because the peppery, fruit forward and strong Zins would have been awesome with some KC masterpiece sauce, and maybe a few ribs.

While, the food was average, the impromptu balloons were anything but. I’m not sure who had the smarts to pull this off, but my hat goes off to whomever who did. Imagine a room with a few hundred guests, some of them wine makers and vintners, and then introduce a few big purple balloons into the mix. Complete that with white shirts and filled wine glasses of red wine, and you’ve got a party.

Overall a very fun experience. I met a few wonderful vintners (coming up in my next article) and learned a great deal about Lodi wine.

Tasting rooms come in all shapes and sizes. Some are small and hold about 10 people. Others double as California castles, standing out in a wine region beckoning to be confused with the Chateaus of France. And some just double as wine storage locations.

I was invited to a tasting party for Trek Wines (www.trekwines.com), a new label / winery that was created in 2007.
The tasting party was held inside of their storage facility in Sonoma, about five minutes off of the 128 (I think that is the main thoroughfare) and probably a ten minute drive from Buena Vista or Larson.

They were pouring three ready-to-be-released wines and five wines that were about 18 months or so from bottling. I’m guessing that the winery was going with a typical 24-month age on their reds, however the owner was bombarded with people asking other questions so I couldn’t find out the approximate time.

If you have not been tasting with me prior, than I should fill you in that I’m not the biggest fan of standard California made Chardonnays. The malolactic acid just doesn’t sit right on my tongue and while I do not prefer them, I still appreciate the style.

With Trek, the Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blancs were reversed. With Trek, the Chardonnay was given the tank, stainless that is, and the Sauvignon Blanc was thrown into the barrel (softly I imagine). And their respected tastes complemented the aging style with the Sauvignon Blanc showing some oak on the finish, but surprisingly little on the nose (he did say it only was in the barrel for 3 months) and the Chardonnay, while containing a bit of honeydew, showed a much more crisper taste. If someone would have poured these blind, I would have guessed the reversed.

The Merlot, the last of the three bottled wines was off, in both color and taste. Murky brick red for the fringe and lacking much in the center, this wine showed little berries and fruit was more of a menthol kick than anything else. Little length on the finish.

The other five wines, straight out of the barrel, were Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, Zinfandel, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. All were barreled in 2007, so in essence we were tasting futures at this point in time, which they were selling at 30% off. The three that showed the most promise were the Zinfandel, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The sangiovese was average. In a true Italian style, this would work with food beautifully but would have a hard time drinking this solo. The Cabernet Franc wasn’t showing much fruit yet, no cherries on the finish or ripeness in the nose. The Cab Franc did come from the Rhoné style region of Dry Creek, which I think it is why it is picking up earthy qualities early.

The Zinfandel showed a lot of promise. It was as if the pepper taste just cracked out of its shell and while just a baby, would continue to mature in the barrel. This could be one kickin’ Zin, much like Wilson’s of Dry Creek. The Syrah was deep in flavor for being so young. I was thinking black currant on the nose and a little in the taste. Could be a well balanced wine once it is freed from its barrel hibernation. We’ll have to see. And lastly (if you didn’t realize it, I’m going from lightest to darkest) is the Cab. The big boy on the block. And being the big boy, it is strutting its stuff already. Deep dark almost coffee qualities are already starting to show. This boy is going to be pretty strong in my opinion when he is all grown up.

Obviously the majority of Trek Wines are only a year old and need another year and a half to mature. But given the right way they were barrreled, this wines could be breadwinners down the road.

And trek played up their name very well with the Jeep Wrangler, soft-top, parked out side and camping chairs around for places to sit as well as a roof-top storage box turned ice cooler for refreshments. Overall a wonderful tasting experience. I look forward to seeing their wines on the other side of the mountain when they are a bit aged and bottled!