In this case, I found two! over dinner with friends at Wood Tavern in Oakland.  The restaurant is a great place — always packed but it still feels so comfortable.  And the food as it turns out is soulful too.

On to the wines.  The first, a Priorat, 2004 Joan Gine´ from Spainish producer Buil Gine’.  I love Priorats, they are fragrant, fruity (think lush red cherry) with minerality and well-balanced and just delicious.  You don’t see many Priorats on wine lists, but I always order it when I see it.  The Joan Gine’ does not disappoint!  It’s made from Grenache (Garnacha), Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon. [retail $32]

Wood Tavern's pork belly

The second wine is an ’07 Lewis Syrah.  Rhone varietals are my favorites, and Lewis has an outstanding bottling here.   The nose just bursts out of the glass.  This is a rich, voluptous wine.  You’ll definitley notice the deep, inky color.  You may think it’s too big and powerful, but paired with a dish like pork belly, you really can’t go wrong.  It’s smokey and chewy and intensely soulful. [retail $70]

What are your soulful wines?

This post’s title, Snack on This! I have totally borrowed from friend and colleague Mark Oltz.  Whenever we were looking for new titles to segments on In Wine Country he’d always throw out “snack on this.”  Today’s the last day of the three day Fancy Food show in San Francisco.  There are hundreds of food vendors, from all over the country and all over the world.  You can spend all day there and eat nothing but cheese — some darn good cheese.  I managed to pull myself away from the cheese pavilion to sample other things.  Here’s my list of favorites.

Everything’s better with bacon.  The cured meat was everywhere; lots of jamon Iberico legs being carved up.

Bacon makes its way into chocolate at Vosges, in a dark choc bar and in a fantastic bacon caramel toffee.  Also saw dried smoked salmon “bacon bits.”

Porchetta was on display too.  Tasted this really delicious petite porchetta from Porchetta Primata in Italy. The good news, it’s available at Costco.  For those of us who live in or near Napa Valley, or are visiting the wine country, you’ve got to go to Fatted Calf at Oxbow Market in Napa for their amazing porchetta.  I’ve seen it made and it’s full of garlic, lemon and all sorts of herbs…yum!

Next to cheese caramel was everywhere you looked, in all sorts of decadent bars and candies.  Poco Dolce’s Burnt Caramel was one favorite, and so were the chewey vanilla caramels from the relatively new Happy Goat.  Their caramels are made with goat milk — from goats from small loca farms producing milk that is antibiotic, growth hormone and pesticide-free.

More for the sweet tooth – wine country-based Anette’s Chocolate Factory has always had an exceptional (and addictive) beer brittle.  Here at the show they’re introducing triple nut bourbon brittle, a new favorite for me, with pecans, pistachios and almonds.  I also tried their Chardonnay wine brittle which is terrific.  Follow this link to a story about Anette’s that we did on In Wine Country.

There were lots of beverages too…flavored sodas, zero-calorie flavored waters, tea and more tea.  I love the rose nectar called Sence.  The packaging is beautiful…the bottles above on the left.  It’s not too sweet, and is a great mixer for coctails, like the vodka-spiked drinks they were making.  It’s stylish and fun and something different.  The teas I really like actually come from a coffee company in Hawaii.  The pulp of coffee beans grown on Moloka’i is dried and blended with other herbs and flowers, into a tisane.  My favorites are the lemongrass and the lavender tisanes.

To quote Rachel Zoe, some of the foods “I die” for — and will be buying as soon as I find them online or at my local grocer:  the coco-passion jam from The French Farm just rocks!  Also love the confit of jasmine flowers, confit of violet, both very delicate flavors.  Can’t wait to get my hands on a bottle of Lucero‘s peach balsamic vinegar.  It’s a white balsamic and the peach is just perfect, not overly sweet.  Lucero’s ascolano olive oil is one of the best I tasted.  I must also have the new spicy ketchup from Maya Kaimal, a purveyor of Indian food.  I love their curry simmer sauces too.

One product related to wine caught my attention.  You may have heard of Vinturi, a hand-held device that decants (aerates) one glass of wine at a time.  It is similar to a funnel and it makes a sucking sound as the wine passes through it.  The Soiree is an alternative for decanting on the go.  It’s a glass bulb that fits into the bottle mouth, and you pour right through that.  Check it out.  I’m going to do a side by side test and will let you know the results.

You know how fashion designers end their shows with a wedding gown walked down the runway?  To end my post, here’s the foodie version of a wedding cake — in cheese!  This was created by the folks at Cypress Grove Chevre, and is made up of a variety of their cheeses…including the wonderful Truffle Tremor, made with yes, fragrant, earthy truffles. Cowgirl Creamery introduced Devil’s Gulch, a new seasonal cow’s milk cheese topped with spicy dried red pepper flakes (adds a nice kick!)

Rogue Creamery had a great line up of blue cheeses.  The cheesemaker also paired up with Oregon beer brewer Rogue, adding a chocolate stout to cheddar.

Were there things I didn’t like?  Yes, like the pesto from a vendor who told me it’s the best in the world — but not to me.  Also tasted pasta sauces with overcooked noodles (yuch), some overly sweet sodas, green tea ramen noodles.

The Mendocino Crab & Wine Days festival is a great event in that you’re eating local Dungeness crab and drinking local Mendocino County wines with it.  I tasted many of them as a component of the wine competition for the Crab & Wine Days event.  The same five judges in the the crab cake cook-off sipped and spit 48 wine entries.  Our mission:  choose the wine best paired with pure crab meat.

In the blind tasting lineup there were only white wines, except for one sparkling Rose.  Lots of Chardonnays were entered, but many were over-oaked or butter bombs.  The top three wines were #1 Graziano Chenin Blanc; #2 Navarro Vineyards Gewurztraminer; #3 Yorkville Cellars Sauvignon Blanc.

At the public crab and wine tasting, my favorite discoveries were the wines from Toulouse Vineyards, and the wines from Elke Vineyards. I almost don’t want to tell you about Toulouse because he’s a small producer and he sells out quickly.  Owner/winemaker Vern Boltz is a character, as I found out at his tasting room.  Loved the Gewurtz and both his Pinots — the reserve just rocks!  Please save a few bottles for me!

Mary Elke was one of the few vintners pouring a pink wine, a Rose of Pinot Noir.  I just loved it, lots of strawberry fruit character.  Her Chardonnay is unoaked and fabulous, clean, crisp and fruit-forward.  Love those unoaked Chards!

A People’s Choice award was also given for wine.  It’s not an apples to apples with the judges; we tasted the wine with just crab meat, while the people tasted wine with crab cakes.  Also the public vote was for best overall winery, not just one wine.  The choices were #1 Toulouse Vineyards; #2 McNab Ridge Winery; #3 Maple Creek Winery.  All are worth seeking out either online or through your local wine merchant.

This is when you get a good feel for the vintage.  Here, the 2008 reds made their debut.  There were many issues with that growing season, including frost and fires.  Yields were low.  Winemakers who’ve been holding their collective breath can breathe a sigh of relief.  Almost everyone I talked to is very pleased with the wines.  To me, they are restrained but complex, with long finishes.

PNV is also about buying wine.  All the auction lots are exclusive to the Premiere Napa Valley “brand.”  Retail and restaurant buyers and distributors bid on the lots during the charity auction.  By the end of Saturday’s bidding, all 200 lots sold for a total of roughly $2 million, 29% better than last year’s tally.  The highest bid was $37,000 for the Shafer Vineyards lot.  Is this a sign the economy is turning around and wine sales will recover lost ground?  Let’s hope so – I’ll raise a glass to that!

Instead of a “best of” or “top 10 list” I decided to highlight the wineries and wines that should be on your radar.  The 2008 reds won’t be released until 2011 at the earliest.

Anomaly Vineyards – these folks changed their wine the Thursday before PNV, a brave move.  Went from blend w/ 60% Cab to 100% cab.  Kudos for following your instincts.

Arietta – a beautiful 100% Semillon with floral aromatics

Ashe Family Vineyards – a new winery with debut releases.  Also had a 100% Sauvignon Blanc, nice and refreshing.  Phillipe Melka is the winemaker.

Blackbird Vineyards – incredible Merlot based wines.  more to come in another post

Black Coyote Chateau – a first time showing at PNV.  Rich layers of flavor – a beautiful wine from Atlas Peak.  Well done!

Chimney Rock Winery – a fabulous wine from the fabulous winemaking team of Elizabeth Vianna and Doug Fletcher.

Dyer Vineyard – really loved this wine, a 100% Cabernet Franc.  Very very aromatic.  From Bill and Dawnine Dyer (look for one of Dawnine’s other wine projects, Meteor Vineyard)

Emblem Wines - Rob Mondavi, Jr. and Michael Mondavi are behind this label.  The lush Cab is all Rutherford fruit.

Gemstone Vineyard – I’m a big fan of Paul and Suzie Frank’s Gemstone wine.  Elegant and complex.

Hourglass – love the violets in the nose

Juslyn Vineyards – Carolyn and Perry Butler’s second PNV is smooth and elegant.  This is also the team behind the Footcandy shoe boutiques.

Tierra Roja – All of Linda Neal’s vineyard management experience is now captured in her own label.  A lovely wine.

Tuck Beckstoffer Wines – my first time tasting Tuck’s wines.  Track down Mockingbird.  More on these wines in a future post.

Venge Vineyards – rich and velvety.  Kirk Venge’s family is rooted in Napa Valley.

VinRoc Wine Caves – this winery is located in the up-and-coming Atlas Peak appellation of Napa.  It’s a wine worth seeking out and discovering, especially if you like rose´

The first stop was at Bent Creek Winery, where they were not only offering samples, they were also doing a blending demonstration. You first tasted samples of Cab from barrels with two types of wood — French and Hungarian oak. There is a difference, one was rounder and softer (French oak) the other much bigger in tannins (Hungarian oak). Then you blended the two samples and the result — it tasted better than each wine on its own — is a good example of the art and importance of blending. Adding just a drop of Petit Sirah showed us how a small amount of another wine can make a huge difference in taste and texture.

On to Big White House and John Evan. I’d heard of BWH, but not John Evan. Turns out it’s a family operation — like most Livermore wineries — and Big White House Winery is the father’s label and John Evan Cellars is the son’s. Winemaker John (Evan) Marion was sampling the ’07 Les Amoureux that’s a 50-50% blend of Cab from a vineyard in Calistoga and their Livermore estate Cab. It’s smooth and powerful. They also offered a vertical tasting of Syrah, starting with the ’09 and ’08 in barrel. There’s a big difference between the two, with the ’09 having spent just about six months in barrel. It’s all fruit, not a lot of complexity yet. Then, you tasted the finished wine in bottle, the ’07 Syrah “Rapscallion,” which was fantastic. It’s a Rhone style Syrah, a little smokey, meaty, spicy and fruity.
All the label art is painted by John’s sister Laura Marion, who has a distinctive style. The photos show her artwork for “Les Amoureux” Cabernet and Roussanne bottlings; her paintings are on display in the tasting room.

Last stop was at Page Mill Winery. Here they were sampling the ’08 Walker vineyard Cab from Livermore Valley. It’s drinking really well right now.

The barrel tasting event happened to fall on the 3rd Sunday of the month, and that’s also when Page Mill holds its BYOB event. On the 3rd Sunday each month you bring empty, clean wine bottles and for $8.49 per bottle, the winery staff will fill, cork and label your bottle. Winemaker Dane Stark says the program is very popular. Well, for under 10 bucks you get a better wine than you’d find at the same price point in the grocery store. Dane calls this “Recovery Red.” If you don’t have your own bottles, no worries, you can buy them for a couple dollars from the winery.

Conn Creek Rutherford estate: Love the big nose, juicy finish and silky texture [Supple]
Volker Estate Chiles Valley: So good! Floral nose, well-balanced, excellent [Complex]
Stagecoach Vineyard Atlas Peak: Nice complex nose, soft tannins [Complex]
Frediani Vineyard Calistoga: Ohh the nose is wonderful, brambles, cassis, black fruits, chocolate [Bold]
Merlot: Velvety
Cabernet Franc: Lovely floral nose

The next decision is how much of each wine to put into the blend. This is trial and error time. I went with the wines I liked the most in bigger percentages.

30% – Chiles Valley
30% – Stagecoach
15% – Conn Creek Estate
15% – Frediani
5% – Merlot
5% – Cab Franc

You add wines to a graduated cylinder, and then once you have 100% you dump the wine into a glass, then swirl, sniff and sip. Well, my blend wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. It was a little too fruity and that made it seem sweet.  While there is a wine educator on hand for the blending experience, the idea is really for you to do it on your own.  But I was happy that Conn Creek’s winemaker, Mike McGrath, dropped by.  He tasted my wine and immediately knew what was missing. Richness, in the form of earthy. He suggested adding some of the Newton Vineyard Mt. Veeder [Rich]. So I reworked my blend. Still not there. Now it was missing acid. I added a very small amount of Truchard Vineyard from Carneros [Soft] and it was amazing to me that it instantly made my blend taste really good. It’s like a light bulb went on. This blending is an art, and much harder than I expected. Here’s the “recipe” for my final blend:

20% – Chiles Valley
20% – Stagecoach
10% -Conn Creek Estate
15% – Frediani
5% – Merlot
5% – Cab Franc

Plus new additions:
5% – Truchard
15% – Mt. Veeder
5% – Petit Verdot

Now that I had my blend down, it was time to design the label. I’m no artist, so I went very simple — rolling hills and a sun. Once that’s done, you fill the bottle, cork it and slap on the label. That’s it — a bottle of wine you can take home to enjoy with friends and family.

Last, but not least, you get to taste Conn Creek’s flagship Cabernet Sauvignon blend, Anthology and you can compare your results to the pro winemakers. Turns out the blend for the current Anthology is 76% Cab, 10% Merlot, 8% Malbec, 4% Petit Verdot and 2% Cab Franc. I didn’t get the breakdown of the Cabs blended — after all that’s their “secret sauce.”
Anthology is powerful yet smooth and rich.

When I got home, my husband wanted to taste the wine immediately, but we had to wait at least 40 days to let the wine settle and go through bottle shock. So he tracked it on his calendar. On day 41 he wanted to open it, but the dinner I had made wouldn’t be a good match. A few weeks later I was ready; we popped the cork. I was a little worried the wine wouldn’t be any good, so I was pleasantly surprised by the floral nose with a hint of vanilla. There was lots of dark red fruit, a little tobacco and mint. The tannins were there, but they were soft. I was happy with my wine.  And I want to do it all again!

Taking part in the blending experience at Conn Creek really shows that there is an art and a skill to blending wine. It also shows the diversity of Cabernet grown in Napa Valley — there is not a uniform taste or character. That in turn shows the influence of terroir on the grape. Being a winemaker for a day is a lot of fun, and its an activity you can share with friends or family.

Here’s a clip from the story we did on Sattui and his castle on In Wine Country

Frog’s Leap Winery in Rutherford is one of the most beautiful places in Napa Valley. They are organic and sustainable, and the ground around the winery features a working garden and hen house (they sell to local restaurants) and pond. The red barn is a wine country icon.

The seated tastings are something fairly new for Frog’s Leap, so if you haven’t been in a few years, be sure to check it out next time you’re in Napa. The tasting is four wines, and you sit outside on the big veranda of the Vineyard House, with a terrific view. Reservations not necessary, but in the summer you might want to make one. Cost is $15 per person. Of course you can go on one of two daily tours for free.

By the way, here’s a feature we did on In Wine Country a couple years ago about Frog’s Leap.

Have you heard of Elizabeth Spencer Wines?

This is a fairly new winery, with what just might be the smallest tasting room in Napa Valley. It’s housed in what was the original Rutherford post office. The building is a mere 300 sq. ft. We also featured the tasting room on In Wine Country.

Now there is a very cool garden outdoor seating area, where you can sit, relax and enjoy your wine tasting.

For Cabernet fans, you might want to go for the Appellation tasting.  Elizabeth Spencer is best known for its Cabs.

The tasting takes place in an open air room, with a view of the garden patio.  The Cabs are paired with chocolate and other small bites. The regular tasting is $15; the Appellation tasting is $40. Reservations required for each.

No doubt I’ll be following the happenings and pronouncements from WBC. I’m hoping someone will finally reveal the secret to making loads of money by blogging. That would make the conference worth attending.

I’ll post about WW&S, which takes place at Hall Winery in St. Helena on Sunday, June 27. I’m going with a group of friends; our numbers keep expanding year after year. This is year four!