Hip Tastes Blog

Home on the Range in SF
filed under: Events

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the Rhone Rangers trade and public tasting at Fort Mason with my dad. He was in town for his birthday, and while my mother and sister went to lunch and shopped my dad and I followed the call of our palates to the Marina for some good tasting.

And, before I get started, let me also preface everything by saying that it was an absolutely GORGEOUS day in the city, the kind of sunny and warm sparkler that seems, at the time at least, to make up for all the merciless rain we've been pounded with this winter.

Here's a pic of my dad and me outside Fort Mason enjoying the simply beautiful bay mid-tasting.

Dad_&_Franck_Lambert.jpg Now, to the good stuff: we started off at the first table, where we tried Michael David wines from Lodi. (I tried to tell my dad it was useless to start at table 1 and try to move through them all, since it was virtually impossible at these kind of events to hit all the tables; nonetheless, and as I predicted, he wanted to stop at the very first table we saw.)

This is Franck Lambert of Michael David wines. He's French and from Avignon in the Rhone, which is why I asked him if he preferred the Rhone or American style of Syrahs. Pretty sure I already knew the answer before I asked him, I was amused to see him squirm as he tried to politely admit that he preferred his native country's reds, but that these, too, were also very good. Overall a very nice guy, and really tall, as you can see.

Cline_Sales&Marketing.jpg My favorite wines of the day were from Cline Cellars, where I loved the Viognier (no oak! Just some lees contact in stainless steel) and the Syrah. My dad was really into a Southern Rhone blend they make called Cashmere, which is soon to be available through Southern. This is Charene and Karl, their marketing and sales team. Really nice folks.

Bonny Doon. Leave it to B Doon to bring a freaking cake with a "Rhone Ranger" on it. Here it is. I really love these guys (and gals!).

I always enjoy their wines, and I particularly enjoyed a limited bottling they had on-hand that was either 100% Mondeuse or Carignan (sorry, again, don't have

my notes. Doh!). It was very concentrated and had a lot of stuff going on - more earthy than fruity - my style of wine. Here's a pic of Andrew & David, sales gurus for B Doon.

Rhone at Home. This table was fantastic, because there is absolutely no marketing or sales going on whatsoever. The table is reserved every year for at-home winemakers like Joe and Sandy here who make wines using, you guessed it, Rhone varietals. One of the wines I tried here was alright, and the other had a mighty big dollop of volatile acidity (VA) emanating from the glass, but overall I loved these folks' charisma. Check out the wave breaking on Joe's shirt!

What else? Um, the outdoors. Here's another gratuitous glass shot from Fort Mason looking over the Golden Gate. I had to include it. It's becoming a tradition.

Some crowd gossip: look at this outfit! I absolutely loved it, but it also confused me. What was this guy thinking? The blazer, Levis and belt were fabulous, but the purse? Is that a man purse? It certainly doesn't look like any man purse I've ever seen. Maybe he's carrying it for someone? I really hope that's what was going on. But who would carry that bag?? Sorry, I diverge.

Copain Winery. By the time I got to these guys they were fresh out of wine and were packing up. I've of course heard of Copain, and know they're reputed to be very good, but don't recall any specifics beyond so was glad to see them and learn more. But the guys at the table were rather aloof. They had a bit of rose left on the table, and sort of reluctantly poured it for us, then replied to my inquiry about the winery, "well, if you've ever read any Robert Parker or major wine reviews you'll have heard of us."

And I thought, gee, isn't that what I'm here for? To learn more about you guys? They were just very self-satisfied and seemed almost amused I didn't know more about them. Pardon me, but, as someone fairly new to the wine trade, I don't have a commanding grasp of every renowned producer out there. I felt they missed an opportunity to be candid and friendly and make a good impression. By the way, the rose was damn good. Too bad they weren't.

Then a welcome change: Calcareous. Justin Kahler, the winemaker, was on-hand talking up the winery, and he was super friendly and offered lots of information about the naming of the winery, its history, location in the Paso Robles area, and of course the wines. He followed up with an email later and invited me to tour the winery if I'm ever in the area. Thanks, Justin.

All in all, a really nice afternoon. Here's a couple more gratuitous shots of the Bay. As my dad and I are sailors, we really enjoyed watching the regatta taking place, with the gorgeous spinnakers and tight tacks the boats were making right up next to Fort Mason.

Hope next year's as good as this. Ciao.

www.rhonerangers.org

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Posted by Courtney on March 21, 2006 12:24 PM