IT was an incredible, wine-washed 2011. Again I met winemakers, wine traders and vineyard owners who told me their stories over generous pourings of their beautiful wines. There was Anna Maria Cruciata who traded her high-profile job as a banker in Milan for the serenity of the Tuscan countryside where she now makes three award-winning wines together with her husband. There was Chris Tyrrell, assistant winemaker and a fifth-generation Tyrrell involved in the family wine business (established in 1858), who introduced “Lunatiq” an elegant, double barrel-fermented Heathcote Shiraz. Amid the backdrop of JC de Terry’s sublime cooking, I met Dave Munro, whose vineyards are the first—and still the only one—at Ohau, New Zealand’s newest wine region in lower North Island.
But my top wine memory of 2011 would have to be the intense wine classes (conducted by five Master Sommeliers) that I took in California—and the discovery afterwards of the Paso Robles wine region.
The route to Paso Robles takes one through the majestic vista of the California coastline. Halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Paso Robles is home to a little over 200 wineries, mostly small operations and family-owned, spread over 26,000 acres. More than 40 grape varieties are grown here—Italian and Spanish, Bordeaux and Rhône Valley grapes, including Zinfandel, considered the region’s signature variety.
A long growing season marked by warm days and cool nights result in a slow-ripened fruit that produce vibrantly flavored wines.
I sipped—and spat—my way through varied styles of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petitie Sirah, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Albariño, Chardonnay and Rousanne. In the countryside, in tasting rooms surrounded by vineyards heavy with fruit and blooming fields of lavender, and in glossy, modern wine bars in quaint, quiet Paso Robles town.
At the Peachy Canyon Winery, known for their Zinfandel offerings, I tasted seven different expressions of the grape, including a sublime port-style Zinfandel called “Port IX,” a blend of nine vintages beginning 2000.
At the lavender-bordered Kenneth Volk Vineyards tasting room, the kind gentlemen behind the bar wrapped up the wine glass for me to take home after I had had the perfumed, lithe yet lush 2007 Nielson Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir—and six other gorgeous wines.
In Paso Robles town, after another four tasting rooms, I (and my brother and sister-in-law) had an incredible experience with Jeff Munsey, owner/sommelier of the Pithy Little Wine Co. Mr. Munsey gave us a tasting flight of five beautiful wines in stemless wine glasses, all paired with tasty tidbits in his signature pairing box. He and his wife had collaborated on the wines and their wine shop—from the winemaking to the packaging, to the design and décor of their store. We left Mr. Munsey’s shop with a bottle of his vivacious, fruity, Sangiovese Rosé 2009, half a dozen bottles of his root beer and cream soda (he makes sodas too), eight stemless wine glasses, two Torben Flanbaum-designed wine aerators—and a new respect for hand-crafted wines and the small-winery owner who strives to make the best of the little he has.
That was my lesson of the year, one I will be sure to remember as another wine-washed New Year unfolds.
