Pandemic pedagogy.

For me, one of the best things to emerge during the Covid-19 pandemic is the advent of online wine-related webinars (mostly hosted on Zoom and Instagram Live/IGTV) that anyone can access - for free.  Of particular note amongst all the video offerings available is a series called, Behind the Wines with Elaine Chukan Brown (in association with the Wine Institute/California Wines).
In today's virtual tasting and discussion, wine writer and educator Elaine Chukan Brown considered some new trends in California wine.  Well, not really trends, but rather innovations and explorations of, and in, grape varieties, growing regions and out-of-the-box winemaking.  Ms. Brown's guests this morning were sommelier and author, Kelli A.White and San Francisco Chronicle wine critic, Esther Mobley.  The discussion that ensued regarding the evolution of California winemaking was informative and thought provoking.  The featured wines were; White Rock Vineyards, Claret, Napa Valley 2016; J. Lohr, Wildflower Valdiguié, Monterey 2019; and Mountain Tides, Petite Sirah, California 2018.  Compelling stuff.  And a fitting way to kick off California Wine Month.

Gratitude.

One word: Gratitude.  Actually this word is not necessarily about the wine, but rather the wine's proprietors.  Mountain Tides (MT) is a wine project headed up by Scott Kirkpatrick and his wife Allison Watkins (best photography teacher ever, hence the cool label).  Remarkably, although a very small concern, MT have been offering a 30% discount on their wines since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic if purchased by, or for, a health care worker.  (The discount code is the first thing that comes up on their website.)  Amazing, I don't know how they do it, their wines are so value priced to begin with.  (Simply explained to me, they both have health care workers in their families and they are very appreciative of the sacrifices that doctors and nurses et al., are making during these difficult times.)  Wines with a purpose.
Concentrating on one grape variety Petite Sirah (PS), with which to produce the entire MT line up of wines, Scott and Allison source all of their grapes from more affordable vineyards and grape growing areas (i.e., more accessible fruit pricing than in Napa and Sonoma).  Smart.
The 2019 Carbonic Petite Sirah is a fun wine.  A beautiful ruby hue (packaged in a clear glass bottle), quite light bodied, low in alcohol (11.5%), pepper, cranberry, plum, perfume, earth and with a hint of those unmistakable PS chalky tannins on the finish.  It was suggested that I chill the wine before trying it, so I did, but I much preferred it when it warmed up to room temperature.  The MT Carbonic (yes, like Beaujolais) PS is a fresh take on a wine varietal that people don't often consider trying.  Go try it.
Mountain Tides has gratitude.

Wine games.

With a particular bottle of wine in mind, I headed into Vinoland's wine cellar for a look-see.  Yikes!  I didn't realise that there is so much crappy, old wine in there.  There's a lot of good stuff, but there is a fair percentage of wine that needs to disappear - down the toilet if necessary.  Then, I had a thought.  I should select a bottle a week, taste the wine and post about it even if the wine is awful and undrinkable.
I remembered that I like doing series/themes of posts.  Amongst some in the past, there have been; Winery Christmas Lights (WCL), Napa Valley's American Viticultural Area Signs (AVA Sign), Wines of the World (WOTW) and, Thud's personal favourite, Week of Weeds (WOW).  Titter, Titter.  (To see all posts related to these series, click on respective labels below.)
As my search continued, dodging cobwebs (some with spiders in them), stubbing my toes on cases and almost triggering a small avalance of teetering bottles, I had fun trying to recall the provenance of individual bottles I espied.  Where did I buy this bottle?  Was it a gift?  Have I been to this winery?  Memories, mental images and single words popped into my head like a game of word association.  Or rather, in this instance, wine word association (WWA).  A ha!  A new idea for yet another (short) series formed in my mind.  One wine, one word.  I grabbed five random (local) wines with which to start.
Never did find the original bottle of wine that I was looking for.
Stay tuned.