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Something To Crow About

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Last week, I was asked to emcee the monthly meeting of the San Luis Obispo’s American Wine Society’s lecture, which included blind tastings of Pinot Noir.

Feeling as “inadequate” as I usually am, I first reached out to my co-member and “wine wife” Nancy Rodgers and secondly, most importantly, our winemaker, Larry Brooks.

Larry agreed to summarize his thirty plus harvests in California, as well as guide us through three flights of three wines each(nine in all).

Larry’s years have paralleled not only California’s own “identity” with Burgundy as such, but the difficulty encountered in the early years including rootstocks, potential planting sites and of course, winemaker’s objectives.

All of this being especially timely since the recent brawl broke out at “WOPN” when California’s Pinot Noirs and most specifically their alcohol levels, were critiqued. Which Larry explained to us, for most part, “missed the entire point”!

The real fun however, came during blind tastings. Candidates included: Edna Valley (3), Russian River(2), Oregon(2) and of course Burgundy(2). We ranked each using “Nobles” wine wheel and evaluated by: Appearance, Aroma, Taste, Aftertaste and Overall impression. Votes were totaled for overall best and tallied “Chicago style” – in other words-vote early and vote often!

The winner-Tolosa’s 2007 Edna Ranch ($28) Pinot Noir!

John Shakley, Concierge

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Ageworthy Wines!

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

The last few weeks have been informative on the subject of the age-ability and general quality of Tolosa’s Pinot Noir. Our LA rep Jeff Kandell told me about a “Pinot Noir Shootout” that one of his accounts was hosting. This event puts together 20 world class wines and a large group of qualified professional tasters in an effort to rank aged red wine. The account had done a Cabernet Shootout previously and now wanted to try the same thing with Pinot Noir. I talked with my friend Mike Dunn who had participated with his Dunn Vineyards Cabernets in the first event and he said it was both legitimate and worthwhile. Tolosa decided to sponsor the event, which took place at Red, White and Bluezz in Pasadena, by donating some wine to be used for charitable fundraising, and the account asked if we had a wine made between 1990 and 2001 that we’d like to enter in the competition. We ended up entering our 2001 Estate Pinot Noir. Nobody, ourselves included imagined that the Tolosa wine would score that well against some extremely tough competition, including a La Tache from the famed DRC. We were pleasantly surprised to finish 9th out of the 20 wines. Only one California wine beat Tolosa and that was in 7th to our 9th place. More than half of this heavyweight group finished behind us in the ranking. Our wine at $55 was also the least expensive wine in the flight. As one journalist put it, “While hardly two buck Chuck the Tolosa wine was a bargain given the company it was in.” I think these results speak not only to our Pinots age worthiness but also to the overall quality of our Pinot Noir.

Stimulated by this information we surveyed the other Pinots in our library and found that many of them are the equal of this 2001 and some to my taste, superior. I particularly like the 2002 Estate Pinot Noir and the 2003 is delicious as well. Only the 2004 has faded, but given how hot that vintage was that was not shocking. We tasted all of our “1772″ Pinots as well as the Estate and they are ageing on pretty much the same pattern, but in a denser deeper mode.

In light of this tasting and seeing how great some of our Library wines are tasting we have decided to host a Library Tasting here at the winery on Sunday April 10^th, 2011. At the Library tasting guests will be able to taste our library wines varying in vintages we feel are at their prime. We will be featuring both Estate and “1772” series in the following varietals; Pinot Noir, Syrah and Chardonnay. It’s just $15 for General Public and $10 for Wine Club. You can sign-up online by clicking here or by calling the tasting room at (805)782-0500. And trust me after tasting some of these wines you will see how Tolosa’s wines are uniquely age worthy!

-Larry Brooks.

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Southern Pinot Noir Workshop

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

On January 20th I gave the keynote address to the 20th annual Southern Pinot Noir Workshop held in Hanmer Springs New Zealand. The invitation to speak is quite prestigious. Recent speakers include winemakers such as Tony Soter and Ted Lemon. This is exclusively a producer’s symposium so the audience is composed of your fellow vineyardists and winemakers only. It is both an honor and a privilege to address your peers. But it is also intimidating in some ways as you must be careful that everything you say is accurate and true. The title of the talk was “Terroir and Technique in Pinot Noir; Is terroir still the most beautiful question?” In this talk I reviewed both vineyard and winemaking changes over the 30 years of my career and related them to their effects on terroir. Both the questions and the answers were difficult, and in many ways the preparation of this speech felt like an examination of conscience. A review of the scientific basis of terroir and its relationship to Pinot Noir winegrowing was presented before the more general discussion that followed. The speech is available in an 8,000 word essay for those interested in the details.

- Larry Brooks, Winemaker

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Tolosa 2010 Legacy Party- A big thanks to all of our Tolosa Legacymembers for coming out on Saturday night!

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Catered by Native lounge, our members enjoyed a Santa Maria Style Tri-tip dinner paired with our 2007 “1772” Pinot Noir poured right from the 3 Liter bottle. As soon as the sun went down, blankets and chairs were spread out on the lawn for a viewing of Bottle Shock. Movie night on the patio would not be complete without our truffle oil popcorn and homemade Lavender cookies.

Tolosa employee Lori Morse baked the cookies after harvesting the lavender right off of the Tolosa property. As you drive up the road to the winery, you will notice the vibrant and fragrant purple that surrounds the tasting room. We like to refer to this as our “estate lavender.” See the recipe below to make these cookies from home:

Tolosa Lavender Legacy Cookies

1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 c. Tolosa Lavender sugar (or regular sugar)
1 c. sifted flour
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 pinch salt
2 tbsp. extra sugar for dusting
* 2 ½ tsp. lavender buds (omit if using lavender sugar)

Cream the softened butter and lavender sugar (and lavender buds if not using lavender sugar) together by hand or on low speed in an electric mixer until light and fluffy about 2-3minutes. Add the cornstarch & salt to the flour and mix well with a fork. Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture by thirds, incorporating the flour after each addition. The dough will be thick and stiff. At this point you may make the cookies two different ways: 1. Turn the dough out onto a well floured board and roll out until approx. 1/3 in. thick. Cut with a cookie cutter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and sprinkle with the extra sugar. Bake at 325° F for 15 minutes or until just golden brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack and serve. OR 2. Pat the dough into a square 9×9 pan and prick in neat rows with a fork. Sprinkle with the extra sugar and bake for 15/20 min. or until golden at the edges. Take from the oven and let cool. Cut into rectangle “fingers.” Remove from pan carefully and serve. NOTE: Careful-they will go from golden to burned very quickly, so watch them the last 15 minutes of baking.
Original Recipe from Lori Morse, Tolosa Winery

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Weekend Theatre – Riedel Eve Decanter

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

In my twenties, fresh out of college and on the executive training program at a San Francisco department store, I learned many things, but one of the most important was how to create consumer demand.

One would think that just stacking the pallets high like they do at Costco would be enough, but that usually only works when you’re dealing with a necessary commodity…two-ply toilet paper comes to mind. But aside from that, how do you sell four-ply cashmere sweaters?

My first buying trip to New York gave me insight. I was standing in the middle of Bloomingdales on 59th and all around me in every department was a common theme…King Tut. The Met came to town with the Egyptian exhibition two weeks earlier, and leave it to Marvin Traub, CEO of Bloomingdales, to edict that every department have merchandise and displays, reflecting this current “pop” culture.

“Merchandising is theatre” Marvin said. Anyone can just stock the shelves and wait for sales, but to get them to come in, there had to be “Theatre!”

Today, in my wine world, no one understands this better than the people at Riedel. Anyone can open a bottle and pour a glass of wine, but in addition to creating the perfect glasses and decanters, you have to create “theatre”.

This brings me to the new Riedel “Eve” decanter, currently on loan to me from the Riedel folks.

This crystal decanter, with a neck measuring about thirty inches high, has the look of a coiled cobra. But before dismissing it as another marketing gimmick, check out the attached pictures and even better, visit their web site for a live demo.

http://www.riedel.com/index.php?article_id=18&clang=0

The wine is poured down this vast neck (cobra) which “charges” the wine. We then, carefully, ($500 here) hold it with both hands and slowly rotate it in the upright position. This not only “double decants” the wine, but when done properly, puts exactly one serving in the upper neck for the next pour.

One has to see it to believe it. Every Saturday and Sunday this month, we will demonstrate it in our Heritage Room as the final pour of our wine and cheese pairing.

So…not only do you get four artisan cheeses paired with four Tolosa wines for $20 ($15 club), but you get “theatre” as well. We may even be able to order you your own “Eve,” for a bit under $500. Well worth it when you consider all the attention you will get.

John Shakley

Maitre Fromager

Tolosa Winery