The Best of Wines

Should you ever meet Robert Haggstrom Church - owner of Church Estate Vineyards – you will be struck by how plain folk he seems to be. After a couple hours sipping wine and lunching on his terrace, checking out his spectacular wine cellar, and listening to his views about making wine, quotes by Hunter S. Thompson start coming to mind.

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn PRO”

“Buy the ticket, take the ride”. Continue Reading »

Concerned you ran out of time to score the BEST of Oregon’s 2008 Pinot Noir? You may have additional time with Scott Paul Wines in Carlton. He produces too many cases to qualify for the Portland Independent Wine Festival – PIWF – even though his sensibilities are definitely artisanal [ed. you know, a small producer dedicated to the craft], his focus is Pinot Noir, and his winemaking touch is deft. This means he may have some of his 2008s left when you go calling. Continue Reading »

Malibu Wine Country. The very thought captivates. How could this be? Domestic wine country suggests thousands of acres and acres of vineyards with names like Rutherford Bench or Navarro River or Sonoma Coast. Even the Paso Westside. The idea that there could be a Malibu Wine Country begs the question…where could it be?

For right now Malibu Wine Country is more an idea than anything else. It is something that COULD BE, or that MIGHT BE, given time and experience. This little blog has been tracking the IDEA and intends to continue tracking it just to see what happens.

Recently, a Malibu restaurant – Charlies in Malibu – hosted a Malibu Wine Tasting dinner and tBoW was able to attend. Four Malibu vintners attended and shared their thoughts on winemaking and their wines. The tBoW team shares our observations and impressions in call and response style. Dotoré takes the lead while tBoW gets to follow.

First a quick review of Charlies: a delightful and welcome stop on Pacific Coast Highway north of Topanga and before the Malibu Pier. Wally Moran manages the staff and keeps everything moving efficiently. The food is very good with three inspired prix fixe choices as well as ala carte. Worth a visit just for the cool vibe. Continue Reading »

Some of the better wines tasted recently. Ain’t summer grand?

2007 Bera Canelli Moscato d’Asti $15 (?): A Louis/Dressner Selection which almost always bodes well. This bottle was left over from summer 2009 in tBoW’s cellar and from 2008 on the store shelf! In other words, a Moscato d’Asti ain’t supposed to go past its release summer and here we have one two seasons over the limit. At three years old it was showing plenty of flavors of peaches and ripe pear juice. Light weight, delicate spritz and at this alcohol level don’t we have to get the current release? Delicious. 5% Continue Reading »

The Playboy Jazz Festival is a cultural institution. Veteran LA hipsters abound! The bowl is filled with fricques of all kinds from jazzsters to booty queens. This year’s party at the Hollywood Bowl was great as usual. The two days of nonstop jazz for eleven straight hours each day is mildly raucous in a mature adult kind of way. The scene is all about lounging, eating and drinking, listening and boogying to live-as-it-gets music. Continue Reading »

tBoW has soft spot for Et Fille wines. I know why, too. Discovering Et Fille wines at the 2009 PIWF should be enough reason for our enchantment with the project.
The wines are all sourced from premium vineyards in the Willamette Valley. The winemaking style is perfect for the palates of the tBoW tasting team. Of course we have only tasted two vintages! Continue Reading »

tBoW really likes Dewey Kelly’s wines…at least the 2006 and 2007 vintages of his eponymous label and the 2008 Ribbon Ridge VIneyards Pinot Noir. We wrote about it in 2009 and again this year following the Portland Indie Wine festival or PIWF.
We also reported something we heard that 2009 would be Dewey Kelly’s last vintage making any wine, at least for sale. He would be selling off all his fruit and letting other capable winemakers work with his carefully tended and, apparently, much admired Pinot Noir grapes.
NOT SO…at least not exactly. Continue Reading »

The 2010 Portland Independent Wine Festival that took place on May 8 is a very manageable tour de force that promotes hand crafted artisanal wines and winemakers. This is the second post on the festival which focuses on Byron Dooley, the enthusiastic and innovative winemaker and owner of the Seven of Hearts brand. [ed. pen and ink drawing above captures Dooley's Luminous Hills vineyard by Yamhill artist Terry Peasley] Continue Reading »

Wine Festivals are a staple of the “wine industry”. Regions use them to promote their odd varietals which hopefully brings attention and sales to growers and wineries. Festivals are especially important when a region has the misfortune of being situated adjacent to Napa or Sonoma such as it is for the Anderson Valley where California’s best Pinot Noir is grown.
Oregon’s Willamette Valley does not have this problem having been branded as one of the superior regions in the world for growing Pinot Noir nearly 25 years ago when Domaine Drouhin set up shop in the Dundee Hills. These days only forgotten regions in Oregon such as Umpqua vie for recognition like “Oregon’s oldest wine growing region”. Continue Reading »

The Masters was exceptionally dramatic this year. Many years it can be a total bust. But the return of Tiger to the Tour to face a resurgent and mature Phil Mickelson promised to deliver a worthwhile show. Adding the most fun player on Tour – Anthony Kim – and the promise was more than fulfilled. Continue Reading »