Hip Tastes Blog

To Each His Rhone
filed under: Events, Regional Spotlight

This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of tasting a number of excellent wines at the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association trade tasting in downtown San Francisco (subtitled, rather cutely, "Santa Cruz Mountains Wines Are Coming to San Francisco"). I particularly enjoyed the region's Chardonnays, although there were some standout Pinot Noirs and a Syrah to boot.

My absolute favorite people at the tasting were Dexter and Val Ahlgren of Ahlgren Vineyard, whose 2001 Ventana Syrah had black pepper and salami aromas bang-on typical of a Syrah from the Northern Rhone, the varietal's ancestral home in the south of France. It's so rare to find a California-grown Syrah that so truly fits the varietal's profile, and I couldn't have been more tickled to find it in my glass. As I enjoyed the Ventana I thought to myself, "the Ahlgrens are alright." Retails for about $24/bottle.

The winemakers generally forego filtration and follow a very hands-off winemaking philosophy, which I'm sure is much to the credit of this fabulous wine. What's more, the Ahlgrens are sweet, dedicated winemakers whose flair for enjoying life was all too obvious. Val and I kibbitzed about their upcoming trip to France (they'll be visiting most of the country's fab wine regions during a month-long trip!) and I've since been corresponding with them via email.

BTW: if anyone's interested in buying a winery in the Santa Cruz mountains, theirs is for sale and they're looking for someone fabulous to pass it along to! Visit http://www.aninavanalstine.com/listings/listings.html to learn more.

Moving right along, check out Burrell School's Cabernet Franc if you get a chance. It's strange and very Cab Franc-esque (true to the varietal), which is, if you like that stuff, probably perfect for you. And, their 2002 Pinot positively ROCKED, apparently netting 90 pts from the Pinot Report (not that I really follow that stuff, but that's what they said). Here's a pic of their sales guy, Anthony Kresge, and owner/winemaker Dave Moulton. Nice!

Mount Eden Vineyards had some dynamite Chards, particularly the 2001, which was apparently their "bastard" wine since it had higher acidity than most California Chards. While quite possibly consumer-scary, this wine was just fine for me, with a great undercurrent of crisp but pleasant acidity complemented by still substantial oak and beautiful floral aromas.

And, what would a Santa Cruz tasting be without RIDGE? The old player was there in full force, and their sales guy remembered me from ZAP, which was cool. Loved everything I had there - no one wine was a show stopper, but they were all damn good. It's what we've come to expect from Ridge, and they definitely didn't disappoint.

And finally, some miscellaneous crowd gossip. This guy with the camera. He was so weird - he wouldn't tell me his name, although he introduced himself to my sister as Bruce. He kept telling me his camera was better than mine, and, I'm sure it was but, whatever? I was there to talk wine, not shutter speed.

He DID, however, take me over to the Hallcrest table, where I tasted the best wine of the day, the Potter Valley Powerhouse, I think it was called. Amazing depth for a California Pinot. Funky, earthy, but fruity and deLIcious! Thanks, random camera dude.

Here's Neil Mechanic from Arlequin wine shop next door to Absinthe in Hayes. Really nice guy, has pointed me towards some great wines in the past.

Eric Quanstrom from Appellation America, a great up and coming site dedicated to unearthing the secrets behind American appellations' uniqueness - what some call terroir. Super nice guy.

And, this chick (on the left in pink) had bad tasting manners. She came up behind me and literally shoved me aside like twice to get to the tasting tables. Bad tasting karma, babe. PS - that's my sister on the right. She's a Hip Taste-r, and definitely not a shover!

http://www.scmwa.com/

http://www.ahlgrenvineyard.com/

http://www.appellationamerica.com/

http://www.burrellschool.com/

http://www.mounteden.com/

http://www.ridgewine.com/#home

http://www.hallcrestvineyards.com/

http://www.arlequinwine.com/

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Posted by Courtney on February 2, 2006 09:22 PM