Uncorked Ventures Blog

Black Rock Zinfandel

Ok, so let’s start with the elephant in the room.  Yup, it’s a Lake County winery and yes, two of our monthly wine clubs are receiving the wine this month….it isn't likely the two that you expect though.  But, before you start thinking this is a new project, or someone trying to make a go of it in unfamiliar territory, it’s owned by the Venge family.

If you drink a ton of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, or you find the history of wine and California wine in peculiar interesting,  Nils Venge needs absolutely no introduction.  He is famous in the industry for having the first 100 point Napa Valley wine according to Robert Parker and his other property, Saddleback Cellars has helped to continually grow the Oakville AVA to where it is today, behind perhaps only Rutherford in the pantheon of new world Cabernet Sauvignon.

We have a bit of a personal connection with Nils son Kirk, who attended UC Davis (like almost every other would be winemaker who grew up in the industry) along with my sister in law.  Kirk makes highly acclaimed wines at B Cellars, which we’ve worked with in the past, as well as at Renteria Vineyards and his family's namesake project, Venge Vineyards (ok, so there’s 3 or 4 others at any given time, but I won’t bore you with the details, he’s good and knows anyone who is anyone in the industry). I also appreciate that while so many new winemakers and new wine projects have headed toward Pinot Noir, or obscure growing regions and colder conditions, the Venge’s seem happy to make these fruit forward and almost jammy wines….you know, the stuff that put California on the proverbial wine map in the first place.  There’s still room for that and although this might not be my preferred style, it is summer and summer brings plenty of BBQ and time outside, which seems to fit exactly what’s being offered here.

I think you’ll be more interested, instead of a family history lesson of the Venge’s, to hear a bit about Lake County though.  If you’ve been a wine club member since last Christmas, give or take you’ve received a Lake County wine or two along the way, newer members likely are seeing the AVA for the first time.

I’ve talked at length about how as prices continue to increase, wineries are forced to move increasingly to the prolifery of great growing regions.  Napa and Sonoma sit right next to one and other, with Carneros and the city of San Francisco to the south.  The only room for growth in the region generally referred to as the “North Coast” is to the north.  Sure there's some room out east, but the only temperate regions are pretty much Berkeley and Oakland, other than that….it gets pretty darn hot in Contra Costa County, pretty quickly as you get away from the Bay. Thus, most wineries and winemakers look north for less expensive vineyard space and that's why you find Mendocino wines gaining ground, Anderson Valley and of course Lake County.  As you drive up highway 29 through Napa Valley and especially once you hit Calistoga, you see signs for it, Lake County 50 miles…give or take.

Lake County is appropriately named, for Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake in California.  It also boasts more volcanic soil than other regions of the state because of the existence of a now dormant volcano.

Wineries of the region are largely clustered around Clear Lake, where nighttime temperatures fall precipitously giving winemakers that nice combination of acidity as well as fruit forwardness….after all, California continues to be damn hot and Clear Lake is inland.

What’s in your glass is also grown at altitude.  That might be the least understood aspect of fine wine by the general public.  We’re accustomed to hearing the word valley when it comes to great wine growing regions.  Napa, the Rhone, Dry Creek, Barossa, Hunter, Willamette, etc etc.  What we don’t talk about as much are the regions that are warmer and that winemakers use altitude to gain some extra moisture in the air, as well as some extra wind, which both help keep berry sizes smaller.  Those smaller berry sizes help to give fruit the complexity that we all want, even in warmer climates where some of that complexity can be lost by idea conditions. Arizona and New Mexico have been pretty successful with the setup and we’re seeing an increasing number of warmer regions try to plant wine grapes at altitude to buffer some of those incredibly warm temperatures.  Having grown up in Southern California I can attest that deserts, even coastal deserts get hot during the day, but during the summer they can be pretty darn cold at night.  Thus the reason so many tourists end up walking around with those ever present “San Diego Lifeguard” hoodies every summer.

Lake County has seen its profile rise due to projects like this one and winemakers, especially those Napa folks that want a bit of land are being pushed increasingly north as the lower valley develops quickly.  Downtown Napa was once little more than a home to a few streets around the river, a courthouse and a whole lot of empty storefronts.  The action was in the upper valley. Things have changed a bit though, as San Francisco has become even more expensive and tourist dollars have continued to flow, developers have noticed and the lower Napa Valley has become increasingly up market in terms of accommodations, restaurants and yes, as you might expect, real estate prices.

The cheapest parts of Napa these days sit to the extreme north, far enough to not be convenient from a time or traffic standpoint for those who want a second home in wine country.

That’s helped the rise of Lake County as more winemakers live in Calistoga and even further afield, an hour’s drive up the 29 to Clear Lake doesn’t seem to bad, especially in comparison with the snarls of traffic that exist to the south.

With more attention winemakers and vineyard managers have been able to find plots around Clear Lake with their preferred make up.  There’s much debate on the point by the way, if grapes should be slightly below the fog line, right at the fog line (which sits, reportedly at about 750 feet above sea level) or lastly, if the grapes should just be at the highest altitude possible.

The Venge’s have opted for the final choice here and 2500 feet in elevation, a generation ago was considered a fool’s errand. Books have been written about the chase for elevated vineyards (The Vineyard at the End of the World is a personal favorite about a South American vineyard at 10k feet above sea level, they’re trying for Pinot Noir)

Lastly, a short word about Zinfandel.  There’s been a lot of debate about the genetics of Zin and where it came from originally.  UC Davis, as with most things in California wine, is at the forefront of the research into grape genetics.  They’re actually completing something along the lines of a grape genome in fact.  So Zinfandel is usually compared to Primitivo, the Italian grape that seems oh so similar to so many people.  California vineyard owners swear that Zin is the ancestor to Primitivo.  Italians of course, think the inverse is true.  As it turns out, there’s a Croatian grape that is the long lost relative of both of them.  As an aside, most of the international varieties that we enjoy today.

Here’s the more interesting part of the Zinfandel story though-mainly that the genetics are still being written.  There’s a grape that brings a lot of history into question. It’s also Croatian and is called Plavac Mali.  Plavac Mali is generally thought of as the child of the original Zinfandel vines in Croatia and another native variety in a region that has given rise to any number of wine grapes that are now household names. There’s some new research though that shows that Zin from California likely contributed to the planting.  Researchers didn’t previously believe that vines had gone back and forth between the two continents in the 17th century, but the exact way that Zin was born in California is now being debated some once again.

I think it’s an interesting question to ponder, maybe too serious for a wine newsletter, but Zin was definitely a part of California viticulture since the early 1800’s.  That 200+ year period gave it plenty of time to genetically adapt to the climate of the Golden State and that’s why many Sommelier’s will tell you, it’s pretty easy to pick apart the differences in flavor profiles between Zinfandel and Primitivo. Those years also gave rise to the idea of a field blend which is unique to California.  Zinfandel and other dark skinned grapes have largely been allowed to grow as they may within vineyards and genetic material seems to pass relatively freely between vines.  Enough in fact that certain vineyards throughout the state are not called Zinfandel or Petite Sirah any longer, but simply field blend vineyards since the genetics no longer match either grape perfectly.  The grapes are harvested at once and then fermented together, usually in and old world style of open top containers.  It’s something to look out for, especially if you enjoy this fleshy, acidic Zinfandel that I hope makes you think, this would have been something good to drink after a day of mining for gold in the hot California sun.

Thank you for your continued membership.  I hope you’re enjoying the wine!

Aug 3, 2015 at 1:39 PM

Permalink

Be the first to comment on this post

Bardessono Knight’s Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Let’s spend a minute on Bardessono, if you haven’t been a wine club member for a year or so, this is certainly a new name.  The pedigree is pretty clear, Bardessono is one of the larger vineyards in Yountville, which if you aren’t familiar, is the home to more Michelin starred restaurants per capita than any other city in the world.  It’s a walkable destination in Napa Valley, where one can have breakfast at Bouchon bakery, lunch at Ad Hoc and dinner, if one is lucky enough to fall into a reservation at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry. Bardessono sells grapes to a few folks interested in what is a relatively unheard of Napa AVA designation: Yountville and they make about 200 cases of their own.

This wine is the result of a 3rd generation farmer, thinking that maybe, instead of focusing on the property itself, he’s try his hand as more of a winemaker.  Then he decided to fully devote himself to the high end eco friendly 55 room inn on the property-so it ends up in your shipment instead of a wine list around the country.

About 2 barrels, 55 cases of this wine were made.

Tom Bardessono won’t tell us where in the Knight’s Valley this wine came from.

Let’s go back to Tom.  3rd generation farmer.  Trained winemaker.  Assistant winemaker at Miner Family Wines by day-home winemaker (if you can call an estate I’m estimate at being worth 30M+ just that) by night. If you Google Bardessono, you’ll find that the first result is the luxury inn and spa, about 55 guest rooms and running close to $1k per night. It’s an exclusive place and one of the best locations in Napa Valley from which to be based.

Suggested retail price for the wine that Tom makes from his estate vineyard is $75.  Knight’s Valley is a better known AVA within Napa, so you’re likely looking at something similiar. Ok, probably more.

To give you some idea on the Knight’s Valley AVA.  It sits to the west of Chalk Hill in Napa and to the east of Alexander Valley.  It’s technically Sonoma and according to many, home to the Sonoma Cabernet industry. Although if you consider fruit only as good as its neighbors, then having Chalk Hill and Alexander for neighbors isn’t so bad right?

There’s about 30 growers in the region. It’s an interesting spot to visit and it reminds me so much more of the Willamette Valley of Oregon rather than Napa Valley simply because as you drive through the region, you’re as likely to run into an apple orchard (after all this is Sonoma, home to the Gravenstein apple) as you are grape vine after grape vine. Usually when we see growers come into some grapes from a different region, they’ve done something along the lines of either a trade (grapes for grapes) which is my best guess here, or they’re bartering grapes for something else, perhaps consulting winemaking.

In any case, we have a classically trained winemaker-something that you’re going to find is common in this shipment…..as well as an absolute top rate growing region.

You might be wondering where the name comes from and unlike the Medieval military connotation that you might be considering, it’s named after Thomas Knight who bought much of the original Spanish land grant back in the 1800’s after making a name for himself at the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma Square. Sonoma still has the original barracks and some interesting historical facts about the state’s time as a Republic (one story that gets so much less attention than the time Texas spent, which is interesting I think). That’s been one of the surprising things to me after living almost my entire life in Southern California, spending 5 years on the Central Coast (let’s be clear, from Santa Cruz south to Ventura is the central coast…give or take, yes it’s different) and now living in the Bay Area….people take this whole California Republic thing seriously. Not Texas seriously, but t-shirts and stuff.

There’s some real history here for both the state, as well as grape vines, which Knight planted shortly after purchasing the land, along with peaches, apples and wheat.  He really did bring grapes to what is Sonoma’s most easternmost point and the warmest growing climate in one of America’s fastest growing wine regions.

Sonoma’s made a name for itself with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but much like Santa Barbara, the region is capable of growing Bordeaux varietals in its warmer regions even if most of the general wine drinking public, doesn’t appreciate that fact. There’s plenty of wineries bucking the trend of course and although I’ve talked about Knight’s Valley and other regions as warmer regions, they aren’t as warm as Napa Valley, there’s a greater amount of acidity inherent in these wines. I think part of the issue is a marketing one, more so than anything else.  Who is the quality leader in deep and dark red wine from Sonoma? If I asked about Pinot Noir, we’d all have our individual favorites, be it Anthill Farms, Littorai, Williams Selyem, Kosta Browne or any number of newer producers like Cartograph & Thralls….but for Bordeaux blends, or straight Cabernet? Verite gets HUGE scores in most vintages, but the average buyer at a wine shop hasn’t ever seen a bottle. Rodney Strong and some of the single vineyard Kendall Jackson stuff get great scores, but the huge production levels and wide availability on the lower end cloud a ton of people’s perception of the high end (Mondavi suffers from the same bias, their To Kalon single vineyard Cabernet is still among the best wines produced in any single vintage).

Part of the issue is also that Knight’s Valley is among the 5 original Sonoma sub AVA’s and most of the growers in the region (during my conversations at least) are fiercely loyal to the wider Sonoma designation.  They don’t as of yet have a single trade group for their wines, which are really quite different than many of their neighbors.

I'm going to bet that we see some of this change over the coming years.  Knight's Valley deserves more attention and while the Napa folks move even more increasingly toward straight Cabernet Sauvignon, there's an opportunity for others to fill in a hole with blends and yes, even some higher acidity Cabernet.

Jul 31, 2015 at 11:13 AM

Permalink

Be the first to comment on this post

Kiona Vineyards 2013 Chenin Blanc

Kiona Vineyards is a trailblazer in Washington wine, having planted what I believe to be the first grapes in what has become the Red Mountain AVA.  It started with 12 acres and according to anyone that you ask, many times that number of people telling founder John Williams that he had completely lost his mind.  Why would he think that planting grapes on 12 acres of sagebrush was a good idea? Well, Kiona is now on their 3rd generation and have about 250 acres under vine…..so it’s gone better than anyone, perhaps outside of John and his Ann, thought possible.

A short word on the name since, having grown up in Southern California, that sounds like a Hawaiian island to me-Kiona is the original Yakama Nation Native American name for the Red Mountain area that is literally translated to “Brown Hills”.  The Red Mountain AVA designation is actually more important here than another AVA might be elsewhere, there’s only about 1400 acres under vine in the AVA.  We can talk all we want about soil compositions (those are certainly important to be sure) as well as elevation and steepness of hillsides, but one thing that I think separates the Red Mountain AVA from others is that the average rainfall is only 7 inches.  As happens here locally in the Bay Area near Half Moon Bay, the mountains in essence trap the clouds which would otherwise deliver rain.  Seattle gets a lot of it and those folks on the other side of the mountains, don’t get much.  They get even less during summer and fall, giving winemakers the ability to allow grapes to sit on the vine for as long as possible, without any real concern about rain coming along and ruining a large portion of the crop at the last minute.

So Kiona has been there quite a while, but the future is still coming for Washington wine, so they aren’t the household name that they would be, if say, those 12 acres were purchased in Napa.  Of course, the wine is no worse, but the region will get there.

Kiona boasts a nice family story that almost everyone in the wine business aspires to: three generations working together, hopefully without killing each other, while living what many would call a dream life.

We wanted to feature a Chenin Blanc here for a few different reasons.  First, the grape is native to the Loire Valley of France, one of the coldest growing climates in all of France.  Washington isn’t cold though and the state’s success with this continues to show that there’s something a bit different about growing conditions in Washington that simply isn’t getting articulated by simple soil composition studies, or rainfall totals.

California vintners have always planted the grape, in large amounts, in the most generic vineyards around the state.  A single vineyard Chenin Blanc like this? It doesn’t exist.

It’s often referred to as a workhouse variety, which really means that in the hot climate of the inland valley’s that cut down the state like a scar, the grape grows well, given enough water to produce those $5 wines that we all started drinking.  The French, of course, are slightly aghast at the treatment of what they consider something of a noble variety.

A lot of the Washington folks that I’ve talked with have said that they think Chenin Blanc might end up being the white wine grape that the state is known for.  Part of that is a certain mindset that comes from having to compete with so many regions in regard to Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet based blends on the red wine side, wouldn’t it be nice to have something a bit less complicated on the white wine side….at least from a marketing perspective?

Many wine regions have struggled with the transition from unknown and underappreciated to established and few have found a single red and a single white wine grape that they can be known for, without question.  After all, travel to the Rhone Valley of France and tell me, what the white wine grape of choice?  They’re 300+ years in and haven’t figured it out yet.

Washington though is onto something here and prices could easily jump for these low production versions of Chenin Blanc, if they can figure out the marketing.  All the classic appeal is here, there’s plenty of acidity, but there is also a ton of fruit aroma that isn’t necessarily apparent in other white wine grapes around the state.

Members of our Explorations Wine Club are enjoying this Chenin Blanc as part of their regular wine club shipments, at least some of them are!

Jul 15, 2015 at 10:06 AM

Permalink

Be the first to comment on this post

Corvidae The Keeper 2012 Cabernet Franc Columbia Valley

Ok, so let’s start with the big “secret” Corvidae is a side project, or affectionately called a 2nd label within the wine industry for the folks behind Owen Roe wines.

A second label comes into being for a variety of reasons, but here’s the usual suspects:

Winemaker wants to work with a varietal that doesn’t make sense under his own label.  As an example, if a cult Cabernet in Napa, say Vineyard 29 as an example wanted to make a Sonoma Pinot Noir, they might do it under a 2nd label to not confuse people.

A winery is 100% estate….but a neighbor has some fruit that they really, really like.

A winery produces mostly $40+ wine and wants an entry level addition, without driving all their current customers into that entry level addition.

The Corvidae wines (the name comes from the latin word for the type of bird, which include crows) don’t fit into one of those categories completely, but in this case, I am guessing the issue is more to do with the grape varietal than anything else.

Let’s start with an admission: Cabernet Franc just might be my favorite varietal.  Well, it’s right there with Pinot Noir, or maybe Grenache, but I’m comfortable saying that I like it much, much more than most. Evidently, I’m also not someone willing to drink a single type of wine for the rest of my life…so there’s that.  That affection for Cabernet Franc is why it’s painful to read the Wikipedia page (that gets posted everywhere around the web) which basically says it’s only grown so that it can be blended with Cabernet Sauvignon (ok, ok, I get it) or Merlot (what?)!

At it’s core Cabernet Franc is a dark skinned grape that will remind you of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, to me the fruit and density falls somewhere in between those two grapes-but it carries higher acidity than either. Slate ran an article a number of years ago about the sad state of Cabernet Franc and again sadly, things haven’t changed in the decade since it’s release.  Other than Pinot becoming even more important and everyone in the new world completely forgetting that Merlot exists of course. Heck in the last decade imports of the wine have tripled, yet no one has seemed to notice, or care.

Largely known from the cool climate Loire Valley, Cabernet Franc has been called everything as a good pairing for fish, to a variety that can’t ripen well.  Sounds a lot like Pinot Noir right? Of course, those imperfections have little to do with the grape itself and have much more to do with the Loire Valley, itself one of the coolest growing climates in France.  Having tasted a Cab Fran from the Russian River Valley and a few from Napa in addition to the Washington wine in your glass, ripeness isn’t an issue.

Then again, if the grape is always going to 3rd, 4th or 5th in line for vineyard space, how good can the wines ever get? What’s needed is a region to focus on it and I don’t mean Long Island (Long Island actually make some good wine, but it’s already been developed so there isn’t a lot of production) but instead a part of a new world wine region that can make enough for people to actually get some of the wine at the entry level, but also care about it enough to make great wine with it by giving it some of the best vineyard space they have.

Enter the state of Washington.

If you haven’t been in one of our monthly wine clubs for long, you might not have had a Washington wine before, so here’s some quick background.  Walla Walla is probably the most important region for wine in Washington and the climate couldn’t be any different from what most picture in their heads (Seattle and it’s rain, right?).  It’s damn hot during the summers and Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah do well there.  Pinot does not.  Smart vintners won’t even plant the stuff to the east of the mountain ranges any longer-it’s just too warm during the summer growing months.

Anyway, Cabernet Franc has an uphill fight to gain acceptance and market share everywhere, including Washington, but there’s one major, major difference.  Most people when they judge where the wine industry is going, tend to look only at plantings.  In that case Cabernet Franc is the 4th most planted red wine grape in the state of Washington and 9th overall when you add the white’s.

What makes Washington the new world’s best hope for the grape though is that while plantings aren’t much different than elsewhere, pricing is.  Instead of also being at the back of pricing (the prices that winemakers pay to growers I’m talking about here) Cabernet Franc is either first, or second depending on the vintage (of course, Cabernet Sauvignon continues to be king of grapes).  That tells me that local winemakers LOVE the stuff.  When winemakers like something, they tend to find ways to market it.  They’ll pour it and encourage people to try it in person, basically marketing the grape by itself for the first time in America.

I liked this version of Cabernet Franc because it comes with all the tell tale markers of the varietal.  Think like Cabernet Sauvignon.  Higher acidity though.  Flavor notes that include herbs and a certain tobacco element when you first open the bottle.

Lastly, a minute on the Columbia Valley. One of the very few vineyards that span state lines, the Columbia Valley is Washington’s most important (and first) AVA, with 99% of the wines being produced in the state grown within the AVA (others are grown on the fringes of Seattle) but the AVA also has a few miles of Oregon within its boundaries.  As often happens, state’s are drawn with different natural dividers than are viticultural areas.  The Columbia River makes a nice boundary between Oregon and Washington, but the mountains that form the valley itself are what matters for the wine industry. Thus the dichotomy.  Additionally, good luck making any generalizations about an area this big (think about a fifth of the entire state, give or take) because there are plenty of microclimates around the river itself, in the foothills and at significant elevation.

Give it a shot, let me know what you think!

Jul 10, 2015 at 2:36 PM

Permalink

Be the first to comment on this post

R Stuart & Co 2008 Autograph Pinot Noir Willamette Valley (375ml-half bottle)

I’m still a bit surprised more wine critics and consumers aren’t all over the 2008 Pinot Noir’s out of Oregon.  That’s the vintage that really should have put everyone into a tizzy, like 1994 or 2005 in Napa Valley, South Africa’s 2003 (that led to their first world wide distribution networks) or even the 2012 Pinot’s from California’s Anderson Valley that literally put the region on the map.

Maybe it’s because, well it’s Oregon, so things may move a bit more slowly and while Portland is a cosmopolitan city and certainly one of the great food and wine capitals of the world, it just doesn’t capture the attention of small town and big city America in the same way that does, say San Francisco or New York.

Ok, so I’ve expressed my general displeasure with vintage hype especially given the size of the wineries that we work with consistently (is one suppose to just forget every Napa Valley 2011 because the critics weren’t happy with the vintage, or can we taste and judge for ourselves?) but this is one vintage, the 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot’s where I think the hype is justified and perhaps even undersold.

Critics and consumers alike enjoy debating how long wine can last. I’ve had two greatly memorable wine experiences, the first occurred at the Wine Bloggers Conference in 2014 where a 45+ year old Burgundy Pinot Noir was opened.  It was reportedly from a great vintage, but the bottle would have cost, according to the winery owner who had it, about $4 today. Secondly was a Qupe Marsanne (that’s a white wine grape, mainly used for blending if you aren’t familiar) at a Rhone Rangers seminar this year, from the 80’s.  Both helped to cement my thought process that perhaps, as a nation we’re simply drinking wines too soon. Perhaps it’s worth it to miss the optimum drinking window in some cases, only to see massive regards from others.

I bring all that up because I’ve seen it written of late that the 2008 Oregon Pinot’s need to be consumed now, that they’re starting to go flat.  Frankly, I flat out disagree and so will you after opening this bottle.  This is a fine time to open one of these, but I’ll take advantage of some of the prevailing wisdom here (and the smaller format bottle) to get my wine club members, something that would go into the mid $40 range based on quality.

My first experience with R Stuart & Co was last summer when I spent a week in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  I stayed in the small picturesque town of McMinnville and low and behold, a few feet outside of my front door was R Stuart’s wine bar.  They originally weren’t on my list of wineries to visit, but with some small bites and a local wine scene that largely closes down at 5pm, I was excited to sneak in an extra stop since they’re open until 8pm. Winemaker and owner Rob Stuart probably should have been on my short list to visit with though based on his resume alone-biochem degree and then a full career in Napa led to winemaker gigs in Washington and then finally at the much acclaimed Erath in Oregon. Eventually, he started his own label.  As I’ve been told by quite a few different winemakers, better to learn your trade on someone else’s dime and then start your own once you’re overqualified.  Stuart is definitely overqualified to produce these small batch wines, but it’s the type of juice that gets people excited.  His background does come through in my opinion in the wine that’s in your glass, these are more dense and darker than many other Willamette Valley Pinot’s I’ve had-still balanced of course, but you lose a bit of the earthyness and add in my cherry cola flavors. I was literally shocked to read that there’s 95% new French oak on these, you don’t notice it, like at all, but that helps to explain some of the depth here.  Wine, no matter what anyone tells you, still likes oak barrels best.  It has for millenia and that isn’t changing any time soon.

Another interesting aspect to R Stuart and the winery’s story is that Maria Stuart (Rob’s wife, but to be clear, she’s had her own career in wine before meeting him and taking on the thankless tasks that come with a winemaker husband…marketing, PR and compliance aren’t as interesting as winemaking I’m afraid) writes simply put, one of the most interesting and insightful blogs of any winery owner that I’ve come across.  Far from only about wine and definitely not one of those overly salesy corporate blogs that we all hate,  Pinotmom.com is filled with recipe’s, stories about the family and generally will encourage you more than anything else that R Stuart does a company to support them.  Writing our newsletters and again for our company blog, PinotMom gives me a few ideas of things I could be doing different, & better.

I hope you enjoy another look into the Oregon 2008 vintage.  It was truly one for the record books and it’s one that we can all enjoy to this day.

Jul 9, 2015 at 3:15 PM

Permalink

Be the first to comment on this post