The Golden State.

Despite having an extremely wet winter, the golden hills that California is famous for have arrived for the season, albeit a little later in the year than is the norm.  Them thar golden hills are indeed one of the reasons why California is nicknamed The Golden State.
At breakfast this morning, I was reading a piece in last week's 'On Wine' section of The Napa Valley Register about climate change.  The headline of the article read: Trump administration and the wine industry.  Under the guise of a business related feature, the column contained a comment from some Harvard professor or other who said, "that the land suitable for grapegrowing could shrink 23 to 75 percent by 2050."  I am assuming the good professor, who was a panelist at the recent Vinexpo in Bordeaux, is referring to existing grape-growing regions and the fact that they could, in the next thirty-odd years, be rendered un-replantable due to global warming.
On the other hand, if the Ivy League scholar is alluding to the planting of new vineyards I'd posit that the Napa Valley has already reached its saturation point, or is very close to it, so it's a moot point.  There isn't much available land left; there is no new valley floor being created and there is an on-again, off-again moratorium on hillside vineyards.  No land, no planting, no problem.  Besides, not every available postage stamp-sized piece of land should have grapes planted on it.  Napa needs more housing, open spaces, expanded infrastructure and services for its existing residents.  And, of course, dog parks.
And, speaking of dog parks, here is Vinodog 2 surveying her gilded, off-lead doggy-domain which, incidentally, is surrounded by vineyards that until about 14 or 15 years ago used to be cattle grazing land.  Progress due to a shift to a preferable, and more profitable, industry?  Or a land-use change due to "emissions of heat-trapping gases from fossil-fuel burning...?" Vinodog 2's dog park, and the vineyards surrounding it, may well revert to a more pastoral use of the land, oh, in about 30 years from now.

Balloon over Napa.

I've been back in Vinoland a week already.  The time has flown by.  My first morning back I was interrupted, whilst unpacking, by a hot air balloon that floated over the southern end of Vinoland...you're not on Merseyside anymore Vinogirl.  Sigh!
All my spare time has been spent in the vineyard catching up on a fortnight's worth of shoot-stuffing and trunk-suckering.  Fruit set looks good so far, especially in the Pinot grigio.  The Cabernet Sauvignon is perhaps only 70% through flowering, but everything looks like it's going according to plan.  2013 is looking like it maybe another excellent vintage. 

In vino veritas est: Wines of California.

Tonight, week 16, was the final, full tasting night of my Wines of the World class.  Next week my classmates and I will take our final exam, a component of which will be a blind tasting of six wines from who knows where in the world...yikes!  There was a whopping total of 39 wines tonight, the majority of which were donated from the wineries where my fellow students are gainfully employed.
Although California is my current home, and I am employed at a winery that was well represented tonight, I think I can be pretty impartial, as I did not grow up drinking California wines.  There are a lot of naysayers out in the world who decry anything oenologically-Californian, I myself have an aversion to high alcohol, over blown Pinot noirs and Cabernet Sauvignons.  But the truth is that California, and in particular Northern California, is an almost perfect place in which to grow wine grapes.  Some growing seasons maybe cooler and therefore not as ideal as others, but the grapes always ripen.  California's vintages are always good. However, some vintages are spectacular.
Each varietal wine that was poured tonight - Merlot, Tempranillo, Viognier, Tannat, Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Muscat Canelli and Albariño, to name but a few - were all near perfect renditions of their olde worlde benchmark classics.  After all, isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery?  Sure, one could still, if one had an axe to grind, lament the very existence of the jammy, oaky, alcoholic, massively extracted wines that people associate with California, but that would be a gross generalisation. But the fact remains, the Californian climate allows winemakers to express the inherent characters found in almost every grape variety on the planet. Something which can't be said for other parts of the world, or even other parts of the USA.
The wine in the photograph was the first wine of the evening.  The Domaine Carneros, 2010 blanc de noirs, very recently disgorged and sporting a crown cap and an Avery label, was charming.  The acid and sugar were not as yet well integrated, but this wine had loads of potential: one could just see that this gangly adolescent was going to grow up to be one mature, bubbly individual.
So in conclusion, in my humble opinion, Dr. Krebs saved the best for last.
Next...Nothing, the semester is almost at an end.

Worth the doe?

Without getting into a discussion about the placement of the apostrophe in Stags' Leap, versus Stag's Leap, I'm posting about a fabulous 2010 Viognier from Stags' Leap Winery, formerly owned by Carl Doumani who is known for having had a bit of a punctuation disagreement with Wayne Winiarski (of the 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting fame), who formerly owned Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (now owned by Tuscan producer Piero Antinori). Okay, I think I just gave myself a headache.

I don't particularly care who owns the winery now, or indeed where whoever decides to put their particular apostrophe (although the California Supreme Court may care), I just love this wine. Redolent with the usual Viognier stone-fruity suspects and a big, blossomy nose, it is the ultra bright acidity in this Viognier that makes it a real winner. The finish just goes on and on. The wine retails for about $25 and it is well worth it. A fitting libation for California Wine Month.