Last night I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with La Joya Wine Maker Johanna Pereira (Blog post to come) but I got taste all of the wines that will be in this weeks’ free wine tastings around Cincinnati and Louisville. These are simple wonderful wines that let the grape speak for itself. The La Joya wines: Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Carmenere, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. Enjoy!

Cincinnati area: Tuesday, November 6th
The Fresh Market – Kenwood, La Joya wine tasting and meet the Wine Maker, Johanna Pereira in store event 4-7 PM

Cincinnati area: Wednesday, November 7th
The Fresh Market – Oakley, La Joya wine tasting and meet the Wine Maker, Johanna Pereira in store event 4-7 PM

For our Louisville readers: Thursday, November 8th
Liquor Barn Louisville - La Joya wine tasting and meet the Wine Maker, Johanna Pereira in store event 4-7 PM

Cincinnati area: Friday, November 9th
The Fresh Market – West Chester, La Joya wine tasting and meet the Wine Maker, Johanna Pereira in store event 4-7 PM

- Cheers Angela

Last week I had the privilege meeting Craig Becker the General Manager/Director of Winemaking and Viticulture for Somerston Wines. Craig is one of the founding members of Somerston and his education is in plant physiology, hydrologic science, enology, and viticulture. He oversees all aspects of the business from viticulture, winemaking, sales and marketing, and finance and business development (basically a very busy man and I feel privileged that he took time to meet with me). After speaking with him I could only imagine a beautiful winery with lush vineyards and exquisite lands that I wanted to visit.

 (How beautiful!)

To start off with, Somerston has over 1600+ acres of land and over 200 acres in vineyards. The fruit from Somerston has been purchased by some of Napa Valleys most renowned winemakers including David Ramey, Heidi Barrett, David Phinny, and etc.

Their winemaking facility has many high-tech attributes including new proven technologies like CO2 heat pumps, non-glycol based refrigerants, the first process waste anaerobic bio-filter in Napa County, that delivers clean, pH adjusted processed waster with over 90% BOD (biological oxygen demand) removed, and solar power. The carbon neutral cooling/ heating and hot water system is one of the first of its kind in use at a winery in the United States.

One thing that you can experience is the off-road vineyard experience. Your tour begins with a wine specialists that guides you through the vineyard property visiting the vineyard blocks where the estate wines are grown. After the tour, you will enjoy a tasting of limited production estate wines paired with artisan cheeses from the patio that overlooks the vineyards. (This is on my list of things to do this summer.)

STAY TUNED FOR MY NEXT BLOG WHEN I TALK ABOUT THEIR WINES…

If you haven’t purchased your wine festival tickets yet, head on over to Winefestival.com. The Cincinnati Wine Festival is one of the best in the nation and draws high-end distributors and winemakers. You shouldn’t miss it.

Additionally, the Wine Festival organizers have put the wine tasting floor plan online for you to download. It’s a bit hard to find on their site, but you can download it through this link.

Dilly Cafe is having its own series of events starting this Saturday, where you can meet 3 winemakers in 9 days. For more information, visit their web site or call 513.561.5233.

Saturday, March 3, Free tasting with McNab Ridge Winery and Owner/Winemaker Rich Parducci
1:00 to 4:00 pm, $10 per person
No reservation needed

Thursday, March 8, 6:30 pm
Winery dinner with Austria’s Höpler Winery and Owner/Winemaker Christof Höpler
$40 per person, all inclusive
Reservations required

Sunday, March 11, 11 am
Winemaker’s Brunch with Graziano Family of Wines and Owner/Winemaker Gregory Graziano$50 per person, all inclusive
Reservations required

Not all of the Wine Festival sponsored winery dinners are sold out just yet, and this year five of the dinners are featuring Vintner Select, which is a local and excellent wine distributor. In attendance at each of the dinners to talk about the highlighted wines will be a special guest from the winery or specific wine portfolio (Spain or Italy), as well as a Vintner Select representative. All of the dinners start at 6:30 p.m. and will be held at different restaurants around the city. Ticket prices range from $125 to $150 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Reservations for each dinner are required. For more information on the menus and to make reservations, click here.

March 8 Winery Dinners and corresponding wine speakers include:

• Bouquet Restaurant – President Aurelio Cabestrero of Grapes of Spain
  519 Main St., Covington, Ky. 41011
  Price: $150 per person, plus tax and gratuity

• Daveed’s at 934 – Winemaker and Owners Erich and Joanne Russell of Russell Family Vineyards
  934 Hatch St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
  Price: $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity

• Embers – Co-owner Kevin O’Connor of LIOCO
  8170 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236
  Price: $150 per person, plus tax and gratuity

• Jag’s Steak & Seafood – National Sales Representative Mollie Lewis of Indigenous Selections of Italy
  5980 West Chester Road, West Chester, Ohio 45069
  Price: $150 per person, plus tax and gratuity

• Stone Creek Dining Company West Chester – Co-owner Jim Varner of Varner-Neely-Foxglove
  6200 Mulhauser Road, West Chester, Ohio 45069
  Price: $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity

This Saturday I decided to go the Ohio River Valley 6th Annual Barrel Tasting. First off it was a beautiful day and what a lovely drive. Since I live in Northern Kentucky, I decided to go to Harmony Hill Vineyards  in Bethel, then to the Ripley to Miranda-Nixon Winery and then end at Kinkead Ridge Winery.

Disclaimer: When sampling wines that are still aging in the barrel are not complete or finished products. So when tasting them you can taste the potential of what they will be. All of the wines I will will be talking about came straight from the aging barrels.

My first stop was Harmony Hill Vineyards. As we drove back to the tasting room and the barrel tasting all we could think of was how beautiful and quaint it was. Harmony Hill is a Certified Wildlife Habitat and everywhere you look there are donkeys, fawns, birds, and many other wildlife. The Barrel tasting was held in the underground wine cave. We tried 2 wines a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chambourcin. The Sauvignon Blanc was good you could tell when it’s done aging it would be a crisp medium bodied wine. The Chambourcin was decent, but when you tried the finished product in their tasting room it was yummy. A great bold red wine with tastes of oak, currant, and pepper. My suggestion if you go to Harmony Hills go during their summer months, pack a picnic basket and buy a bottle of wine and listen to the live music. Its a whole entertainment experience.

Second was Miranda-Nixon Winery, this place was beautiful too! Not only can you see the acres of vineyards its next door to a horse farm. We sampled 3 wines from the barrel a Chardonnay, a Sangiovese, and a Cabernet Sauvignon. The Chardonnay was amazing and it will be even more amazing once its finished aging. The Sangiovese was young of course but you could tell it had great potential when finished aging. I liked the Cabernet but I really thought the other 2 had more potential. There tasting room overlooks the hills of the vineyards and the horses on the farm. We tasted some of the wines in the tasting room and I fell in love with 3 of their wines. The 2010 Traminette (a crisp white wine that has a hint of sweetness), 2010 Catawba (a blush wine with hints of citrus and sweet), and the American Cabernet Sauvignon (a balanced cab with hints of berry flavors with a semi-dry finish). My suggestion go to their Saturday night tasting dinners $55 per couple accompanied with a bottle of wine with your choice of Salmon or Steak.

Now I have saved the best for last! My favorite Winery was the Kinkead Ridge Winery, they have their wines mastered. These wines will stand the challenge against of any wines anywhere. We first tasted wines as the finished product and then we tasted them out of the barrel. The first wine we tried was their Cabernet Franc and I all ready knew I wanted to buy a bottle. We tried 4 wines from the barrel and all of them were showing strong characteristics of big red wines. We started off with the Cabernet Franc which all ready had some tanins, a hint of cherry, and a little spice aftertaste. This was by far my favorite out of the barrels. I then tried the Cabernet Sauvignon which was on its way to be a full-bodied tanic cab. It was of course still in its young stage but it sure showed potential. Next we moved onto the Syrah which was a little more fruitier tasting or lighter tasting than I would expect from a Syrah. I’m sure after it’s fully aged and bottled the wine will be great after a few years of aging in the bottle. The last barrel tasting was a Petit Verdot this was also showing strong tannins and a spicy aftertaste. This will be the wine to buy when it gets released next year. Trust me when all of the wines get released next year, I’m going to be the first in line to purchase them.

] Pictured: I’m with the winemaker of Kinkead Ridge Winery, Ron Barrett, I bought the last bottle of Viognier/Roussanne which he autographed for my collection.  Here it is on their website.

Cheers and remember support all your local vineyards/wineries. You’d be surprised what’s in your own backyard.

Angela

I’m happy to share that the Northern Kentucky Wine Festival is on October 15 from 3 – 10 p.m. at MainStrasse Village. The Sixth Street Promenade will feature over 15 Kentucky wineries. Local restaurants will be also offering delicious food items to complement the wines that will be available for sampling.  You will also enjoy visiting with local artists who will be showcasing their works during the event. The $10 Admission includes a souvenir wine glass and 4 sample tickets. Additional sample tickets may be purchased for $1 each or 6 for $5. If an attendee wishes to purchase a full glass of wine, special tickets can be purchased for $5 each. Wines may also be purchased by the bottle or case. You must be 21 to attend.

This year, the Northern Kentucky Wine Festival at MainStrasse Village is partnering with  Full Spectrum 2011. During October, the City of Covington celebrates the Full Spectrum Arts Festival to emphasize the celebration of artists and crafters.

MainStrasse Village is an historic neighborhood comprised of shops, restaurants, taverns and homes, located just off I-75/71.  Take the Covington, 5th Street Exit (Exit 192).  Free parking is available in the 5th Street Parking Lot, located between Philadelphia Street and Main Street.  For more information please call 859-491-0458 or visit www.mainstrasse.org.

I’m very excited to see MainStrasse Village host the Northern Kentucky Wine Festival, please join me for the wine, art, and fun!

The event costs $20 and includes a wine tasting (flight I assume) from Harmony Hill and a chance to meet and greet with the winemaker, Bill Skvarla. Bill is an absolute hoot, and explains the science behind wine better than anyone I’ve met. So take this closer-to-home chance to meet him. Your $20 also gets you a selection of paired appetizers prepared by Mainstay.

Come to the party on Thursday, September 16, from 6-8 pm. Mainstay is located on the corner of 5th and Plum, at 301 West 5th Street. Tickets are available at the door.

For those unfamiliar, Maynard James Keenan is the front man for rock bands Tool, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle. Until I met Kevin Keith, I had no idea who he was, so don’t feel bad, and I think that Maynard actually preferred my lack of knowledge of his music during the interview. If there is anything I got out of that conversation, it’s that he doesn’t like being called a “Rock Star.” Well, that and Maynard James Keenan is the most intense person to whom I have ever spoken. I believe that he does everything with the same intensity – be it music or wine, which should tell you something about his wine.

When Kevin and I went to Arizona in 2007, we visited Cornville, AZ as we drove south towards Phoenix from the Grand Canyon. It’s off the beaten path a bit, but Cornville was an absolute delight for us as wine lovers. We started at Page Springs Cellars, where it just so happens that Maynard had worked with the wine maker to learn everything he could about wine. At the time, Page Springs Cellars was also selling Maynard’s labels, Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards. (Our Photos from Arizona Wineries) We have several Maynard-created wines in our wine fridge.

When I interviewed Maynard, he was working on launching Arizona Stronghold, a winery in the southern Arizona ghost town of Jerome. (A lot of grapes are grown in southern Arizona.) Last summer, an article in Decanter.com alerted me that Maynard and his winemaker Eric Glomski have officially launched the new winery.

Turns out, the process of creating Arizona Stronghold is the basis for a new documentary called Blood Into Wine. It premieres in Arizona (of course) on February 19 (full list of theatres is after the jump – mostly West Coast I’m afraid). But the DVD will be released on May 4 Sept 6. Check out the trailer. Even if you don’t like his music, how can you resist a documentary like this? It’s got music, wine, and a lot of humor, I think.

Blood Into Wine arrives in select theaters on Feb. 19 with a Phoenix-based premiere at the W Hotel Scottsdale.

Theaters showing Blood Into Wine:

Albuquerque – Guild Cinema – Mar. 13
Austin – Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek – Feb. 19 – 20
Boston – Somerville Theatre – Feb. 26 – 28
Davenport (IA) – Capitol Theatre – Feb. 19, 21 & 26
Houston – Alamo Drafthouse West Oaks – Feb. 19 – 20
Los Angeles – Laemmle Sunset – Feb. 25 – 28
Minneapolis – Riverview Theatre – Mar. 4
Phoenix – Premiere: W Hotel – Feb. 19 ; Valley Art Theater – Feb 26 – Mar. 4
Salem (MA) – Cinema Salem – Mar. 12 – 18
Salt Lake City – Tower Theatre – Mar. 5 – 11
San Antonio – Alamo Drafthouse The Market – Feb. 19
San Antonio – Alamo Drafthouse West Lakes – Feb. 20
San Francisco – Viz Cinema – Feb. 25
Sedona – Sedona Film Festival – Feb. 21

Join me tomorrow – let's call it a Wine-Girl Meetup (or Tweetup if you're on Twitter). Kevin and I are going to be there around 2 pm (when the winery opens) and I'd love to meet everyone there!

Don't forget that this is also your opportunity to partake in the Farmer's Market, which runs from 2 -6 pm.

Harmony Hill is family friendly – no matter who your family might be. So bring your kids and bring your dogs. Furry friends just need to be on a leash and friendly with other dogs and adoring people.

Bring your outdoor chairs or blankets in case there is a crowd and feel free to bring a picnic lunch and complement it with a bottle of summery wine and some great live and acoustic music.

Remember that buying and drinking local wines is a great way to stay "green". If you're interested in meeting the winemaker, he is usually around as well – and incredibly fun and friendly.

We hope to see you there!

We're about to do a live "speed tasting." 6 Minutes per wine maker to explain a bottle of their wine. Then switch to the next group of 10 attentive tasters. Post will be updated with pics when I get a chance. 18 tables, 3 winemakers are stuck in traffic from San Francisco. We are delayed as IT is called to fix the wifi.

Round 1: Schramsburg 2006 Blanc de Blancs

Winery started in 1965. 4 areas are used for grapes to create the bubbly. Sweet fruity flavor upfront with a little apple. Small amount of yeastines and not trying to be French style. On lees for 2 years and I think our table lucked out with the best way to start a tasting. Retail $36.

Round 2: 07 Lilly Hills Zin from Bella Vineyards. Syrah and Petite Syrah in the blend as well. 15% Abv. Earthy and leathery on the palate and about the opposite of the last thing we tried. Overall it needs  alittle more time in bottle to relax. Retail at $38

Round 3: 2007 River of Skulls from Twisted Oak. Smoother than last year, higher Syrah percentage. Mourvedre. $35 at retail.

Round 4: 07 Barbarra from Northwest Wine Academy. Sweet flavor and little depth. Would work better with food.

Round 5: 08 Fish Eye Pinot Gris. Central Valley grapes. Going for year after year consistency. I am still not a huge Pinot Gris fan, but this has a open and acceptable flavor profile. $6.99 retail for 750. $14.99 for the 3L. I'd bring this to a party without heavy wine drinkers and I think there would be no problem.

Round 6: Pinot Evil. $20 for a 3L box. Nice basic Pinot. Would recommend for when hosting a party or to have an everyday red available for drinking.

Round 7: 07 Cab Sauv from Cupcake. 2 different vineyards combining for 85 CS, 12 Syrah, Petit Sytah for the rest. Going for an adult treat. Good again this year a little warm on the finish, but plenty of fruit to balance. Used Cab Sauv to make cupcake frosting on the paired cupcakes for after the tasting.

Round 8: 05 Snows Lake 2 Blend. Nice tannic, CS shows through, needs time to open up a little. Very deep wine with great food potential. $45 retail and worth it. 14.2% AbV doesn't overwhelm and is very nice.

Round 9: 07 Petite Syrah from Line 39. Very light with alot of tannins. At $10 this would be a great introduction to the varietal to anyone who is starting on red wines.

Round 10: 07 Ancient Vine Mouv from Cline Cellars. Nice spicy and earthy. Cline has nice sandy soil that lends to growing this varietal. 25% new American oak keeps the flavor pure. 15% AbV does not overwhealm the rest of it. 10,000 cases made yearly. $16

Round 11 (two left): 07 Chard from Tandem. Very buttery and subdued oak. Chewy flavor and a nice example of Cali Chard. 2000 ft elevation Dijon 809 clone used in making the wine. Balanced, but not my style of chard. $54 retail.

Round 12: 07 Estate Chard from Foggy Bridge. Winery to open in San Fran next year. Balanced and 1/2 malo and 1/2 stainless. Crisp finish and good acid. 190 cases and $18 a bottle. Malo balances the wine and makes this a nice value Chard.

This will be prettied up later, but another great tasting at the WBC!

 - Adam Lazarre

Every once and again I get what I call jokingly call a winecrush. It's usually on someone fairly young and accomplished who has an amazing passion for wine. For a while, my reigning winecrush was on Johannes Leitz, an enterprising and charismatic German winemaker that I met in 2007.

That winecrush was superceded by a quick winecrush on Doug Cook, WSET diploma holder and creator of academic wine search engine, Able Grape. Okay, maybe a geek-winecrush there. I met him at the Wine Bloggers Conference and he introduced me to the first Cab Franc I fell in love with (French, of course), and he brought an amazing selection of wine with him to the conference. I think even the guys had winecrushes on Doug.

I'm apparently fickle, because Doug has been pushed down my winecrush list by Adam Lazarre. Adam is the winemaker for Hahn Estates and the incoming winemaker for Villa San Juliette. You've probably heard of the former but not of the latter? Well, Villa San Juliette is the brainchild – and originally the reality tv show – of Nigel Lythgoe (So You Think You Can Dance) and Ken Warwick (America's Got Talent). The reality show, Corkscrewed, didn't do so hot, although you can view the entire first (possibly only?) season on Hulu. Villa San Juliette hired Adam in September 2008, so (according to the San Juliette web site) he's in transition between wineries at the moment.

But he was in our town – at the Party Source – to talk about Hahn wines from the Santa Lucia Highlands (SLH). The Santa Lucia Highlands are located in Monterey County, California. The location, situated in the western mountain range above the Salinas River Valley, is home to about 2000 acres of grapes. The vineyards, 200-1200 feet in elevation, are home to cool weather grapes such as syrah, malbec, and my personal favorite, pinot noir.

Adam has sort of a rock star look to him. Or maybe more like a surfer. I think it was the beaded necklace or the fashionably unkempt blonde hair. He also has a fondness for good bourbon, which I can fully appreciate. I mentioned talking to him to an industry friend of mine and she asked me, "Was he drunk from too much bourbon yet?" He's friendly and high-energy, to say the least, and deservedly passionate about his wines.

The conversation arose at some point as to how Sideways made loving pinot noir so trendy it's almost uncool now. But Sideways or not, pinot noir will always be my favorite grape. Hahn's SLH pinots are pretty impressive. While Hahn does have a nice selection of inexpensive wines on the market, overall the ones we tasted are not recession wines. The tasting started with a Pinot Gris and included 8 wines in total, all of which you can read about after the jump.

Prices listed are per The Party Source.

Hahn SLH Pinot Gris 2007, $17.99
Kevin and I both really enjoyed this wine. This is surprising only in that we're not usually big Pinot Gris/Grigio fans. Obivously we hadn't had the right wines. Kevin found that the nose was buttery and beachy. There was a full mouth feel with a bit of peppery spices, and then a light nuttiness on the finish. I thought the whole thing was crisp but filling. It was creamier, from the malolactic fermentation (a secondary fermentation), and had a slight nose of nectarines.
Our rating:

Hahn SLH Chardonnay 2006, $19.99
Those who read this blog a lot will note there are rarely Chardonnays on here. Oh, an occasional white burgundy, but a California Chardonnay is a rare appearance. Something happened to California Chardonnays (I don't know if I should blame Kendall-Jackson or Mondavi), and winemakers noted that big sellers had an oak tree growing in them complemented by a Paula Deen portion of butter. It's not my thing. No trees in my Chard please. Anyway, this particular Chardonnay, despite the oak, is rather well-balanced. They at least kept away Paula and her cups of butter.  I got a lot of oak – but also a lot of pineapple  – on the nose. The wine had a full mouthfeel and I imagine it would work quite well, even for me, with a yummy cream sauce. I'd be open to it, at least. Now, Kevin liked it better than I did, not having the aversion to oak I've developed. He thought the nose had some lemon meringue on it, and that the flavors were complex and layered. He even found some cinnamon in there. And that's why you get two of us reviewing the wines. It's all a matter of, um, taste.

Michelle:   Kevin:

Hahn SLH Pinot Noir 2006, $24.99
Ah, pinot. I love a good pinot noir. According to Lazarre, making the wine is easy – it's growing the grapes that's hard. I think a good pinot noir can be sexy, of all things, and Lazarre's pinots get sexier by the bottle. This one is a blend of four different vineyards. I found the nose to be smoky, with a lot of recessed fruit that was begging to be let out. The taste had a lot of black cherry in it, sort of velvety. I bet this wine would open up even more, given the chance. In my head there was a black cherry in a short skirt, strutting into a smoky bar.

Our rating:

 Lucienne Pinot Noir 2006, Doctor's Vineyard – SLH, 2006, $35.99: This is the higher end pinot noir, sourced from a single vineyard (Doctor's Vineyard) in the Santa Lucia Highlands. This wine is the source of the "grabs your soul" quote from the beginning of this post. I think Lazarre has a bit of beatnik poet in him. That passion really shows in this wine. I took my cartoon image a step further in this description, writing in my notes that this wine is a "black cherry sauntering into a smoky bar, wearing a short skirt and high heels, and announcing, "Hello boys!"  Yeah, it's that kind of wine. I bought a bottle.

Our rating:

Bonus Wine #2: Lazarre Pinot Noir, Sierra Madre, est retail $45: Ah, my favorite of the bunch. This is Adam Lazarre's own label, and its one of those limited production type of wines. Every year I purchase about three bottles of a limited production pinot noir and I've already placed my order for three of these. I'll be getting the last of the batch, as they're about all gone. I think they mentioned 4.5 cases in inventory, but they sold several at a wine dinner the night before. Kevin noted that Lazarre mentioned that in making this wine, he takes three barrels and dumps one. It may seem like a waste, but it leads to a high-definition, sexy pinot. Take my black cherry in a bar analogy, take it somewhere inappropriate for this blog, and that's this wine. Like I said, I ordered three bottles instantly. Love at first sip.

Our rating:

Hahn Cabernet Franc 2006, Central Coast, $15.99: Just as I'm not a fan of Chardonnay, I've also had few Cabernet Francs that I haven't found to be green and over-peppery. This particular Cab Franc, however, wasn't as scary as many that I've had. In fact, it's only 89% Cab Franc, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Malbec making up minuscule parts of the rest. Maybe that's why I didn't mind it as much. This wasn't done in my preferred French style, but it did have a huge lush mid-palate. It also had a pleasant finish. Kevin found this one to be sweeter than the average Cab Franc, with less pepper and a little talcum powder on the nose.

Our rating:

Hahn SLH Syrah 2006, $22.99: The Syrah was different, and after all those wonderful pinots, just didn't quite strike my fancy. I think it suffered by its placement in the flight, but where else could it have gone? I'm sensitive to anything over 14% (really, over 12%) AbV, and this one clocks in at 14.5%, which is fairly typical for a Syrah. It was nice and jammy, with some minerality, and tasted delicious with the Fiscalini San Joaquin Gold cheese we had on our plates.

Our rating:

Bonus Wine #2: Pianetta Winery Petite Sirah, Paso Robles, est retail $30: This isn't available locally – yet. It sounded like Party Source was working quite rapidly on changing that. Pianetta is a winery around the corner, so to speak, from Hahn, so they're friends. They picked up the winemaker's daughter in Columbus and brought her to The Party Source so that we could all try it. This was 100% Petite Sirah. The nose was rather chocolatey. The taste was HUGE fruit and acid.  Apparently Pianetta specializes in wines that are big in flavor and big in quality, but this wine was almost too big and heavy for me.

Our rating:

As a final note, we had several cheeses on our plates. The best cheese – it was almost sinfully good – was the Carr Valley Cocoa Cardona. From Wisconsin, this 100% goat cheese is rubbed with cocoa and is a wonderful combination of two of my favorite things. Yum.