Pacific Star Zinfandel

Mendocino County, located about 90 miles north of San Francisco, is known for having some of the best views along the pacific coastline.  They are also home to some great microbrews, and tasty wine. 

On our trip to the area earlier this year, we adventured up to the seaside winery, Pacific Star.  Located 12 miles north of Fort Bragg, Pacific Star sits right on the edge of the water, with endless views in all directions.  As if the scenery wasn’t enough, winemaker Sally Ottoson makes some pretty darn great wines, too!  While at the tasting room, we were fortunate to try a number of wines, including a Pinot Gris, couple of red blends (Dad’s Daily Red and It’s My Fault), petite sirah, a rare 100% Charbono, and one of our favorites, the Zinfandel.  

We recently took advantage of the beautiful winter weather in San Diego, and enjoyed a sunset sail with my mom and friends.  It seemed only appropriate to hit the ocean with a bottle of Pacific Star.  So, we grabbed a bottle of the Zinfandel to share.  This is a medium-bodied wine, lighter in color but rich in flavor.  Nice fruit upfront, medium tannins and a light pepper finish.  It was great to sip on its own, but we also enjoyed with a selection of meat and cheese.  With a  price point at $28, it’s not quite an every day zin, but it is certainly worth it! 

Wine can be purchased directly from the winery, and highly recommend visiting them on the ocean.  Pacific Star has a tasting room in downtown Ft. Bragg.  However, if you find yourself in the area, go the extra 12 miles.  You will be glad you did!  

Second Bottle - 2009 Rombauer Zinfandel

We recently enjoyed our second bottle of 2009 Rombauer Zinfandel while dining at Antica Trattoria. It was outstanding, but more on that later.

First, here’s a little background on why we’re big advocates of buying at least two bottles whenever we like a wine. That second bottle gives you all sorts of options:

• You can share it with friends
• You can drink one now and cellar the other one for a while
• You can avoid being disappointed when you drink your one and only bottle

Enjoying a glass of Rombauer ZinfandelWe’ve often noticed that you can have two bottles of the same wine at the same time and they’ll taste just a little bit different. It’s a perfectly normal and fun characteristic of wine.

When we bring two bottles of the same wine to share with friends at a restaurant, we always ask our server to pour a taste of the second bottle in a separate glass before serving it. The wine really does taste just a little bit different in most cases. When this happens, we ask our server to allow people to finish their glass of the first bottle before refilling it with the second.

Now back to the Rombauer.

It’s fun to compare our tasting notes when we drink a wine several months apart. Our perceptions are no doubt influenced by each bottle’s individual characteristics, its relative age, what we’re pairing it with, and even our mood at the time.

Here’s how it tasted when we enjoyed a bottle in July:

“Aromas of dark fruit. A jammy Zin with rich blackberry flavors, and a splash of pepper. The berry flavor stays strong throughout the lingering, smooth finish. You’d never know it was 15.9% alcohol.”

Here’s how it tasted when we enjoyed a bottle in late October:

“Dark fruit on the nose mixed with a little herb. Jam bomb with tastes of blueberry compote that carry throughout the palate with light pepper on the finish. Pour it on you pancakes. The 15.9 % heat is totally hidden in this bottle.”

Our notes are very similar but have two differences. First, we picked up some herbaceous quality on the nose the second time around. This is very unusual for a Zinfandel and may have been just that bottle of wine or perhaps a smell that came from our food. The second difference is we tasted blackberry in the first bottle and blueberry in the second.

Both bottles were very good, but they were also a little different. Perhaps we’ll need to start buying three bottles of good wine so we’ll have a tie-breaker!

The Circle of Wine

Last year, my friend Tami told me she and a friend were planning a trip to Napa. She knew Sally and I are into wine, so she asked me for a few suggestions. Sharing wine tips with friends is one of the reasons we write this blog, so of course we had a few.

I quickly sent her links to three of our most popular blog posts on wine tasting in Napa Valley:

• How to plan your first trip to Napa Valley
• 3 days in Napa at our top 10 wineries
• Going wine tasting? Follow these top 10 tips

I also suggested she stay at one of my favorite hotels, the Napa River Inn.

Tami and her friend had a wonderful trip. The Napa River Inn treated them to a wonderful experience, they enjoyed some good food, and of course they had some amazing wine. The two of them visited a few of the wineries I had suggested, but they also discovered a few of their own.

I recently saw Tami while we were both in Washington, D.C. working on a project for the American Society for Training and Development. It gave us a chance to compare notes about our latest wine discoveries. Tami told me that her favorite winery from her Napa trip was Summers Estate Wines. I made a mental note to check it out.

A week later, Tami posted a picture of a bottle of Summers wine on Facebook with the caption, “Living la dolce vita.” ("Living the sweet life.") I made another mental note to check it out.

Later that day, Sally and I dropped by Iowa Meat Farms, our local butcher shop. They have an outstanding wine collection that always bears a look. I was surprised to see a bottle of 2009 Summers Napa Valley Zinfandel.

Was it destiny?

We bought a bottle and took it home to enjoy that night with grilled chicken and roasted root vegetables. It had notes of cocoa and cigar on the nose. Those flavors carried to the palate where they were joined by hints of raspberry and strawberry with a little pepper on the finish. The wine definitely got better and better the longer we had the bottle open and we savored every drop. 

Summers Estate Wines has been added to the list of wineries Sally and I must visit on our next trip to Napa. They are just one more example of how wine connects us all.

Living la dolce vita.

Wine tasting notes demystified (sort of)

Sally enjoying a glass of 2009 Benessere Black Glass ZinfandelWine tasting notes can be tough to decipher. Seriously, what the heck is cassis? Or pencil box? Or barnyard funk?

We’ve seen all of these included in wine tasting notes.

These weird flavors can confuse or even intimidate drinkers. Even folks with moderately sophisticated palates can have difficulty picking out the blueberry compote from the hints of leather, tobacco smoke, and wet concrete.

Wet concrete?! Yes, we’ve seen that one too.

Why have wine tasting notes?

The purpose of wine tasting notes is to describe the taste of the wine so people can decide whether or not to drink it. It’s not enough to simply say, “It’s good” or it “tastes link grapes” since that doesn’t explain the differences between one wine and another.

For example, if one Chardonnay on the wine list is described as “buttery” and the other Chardonnay has “citrus notes,” you can make a choice based on your preferences.

These notes can also be misused. One pet peeve is when you are tasting wine and your host gives you their wine notes before you have a taste. How about if I taste it first and then we compare notes?!

If I don't taste it, am I wrong?

There are no right or wrong tastes when enjoying wine. Just trust your palate and have some fun.

Here’s a little test we did last night with a bottle of 2009 Benessere Black Glass Vineyard Zinfandel. We compiled our own tasting notes and then compared them to the winemaker’s after we enjoyed our bottle.

Our notes: Earth, and plum on the nose. Jammy plum flavors up front give way to a little pepper, grilled plum and light tannin on the finish.

Winemaker notes: Spicy cherry and bright blackberry aromas that are complemented by clove and allspice tones that carry through to the palate. (You can read the winemaker's full overview here.)

We stand by our tasting notes, even as we’re sure the winemaker stands by his. Why is there a difference? Here are a few possibilities:

• Different palates. Each person has their own unique palate, so we may be tasting something the winemaker didn't and vice-versa.

• Different vocabulary. We might be using different words to describe the same taste. For example, cassis = black currant, pencil box = cedar, and barnyard funk = disgusting.

• Different bottles. The same wine can have a slight different taste when it comes from different bottles.

Create your own notes

Try to create your own wine tasting notes the next time you enjoy a glass of wine. Here is a basic strategy:

1. Aroma. What does the wine smell like?
2. Front palate. What does the wine taste like when it first enters your mouth?
3. Back palate. What does the wine taste like as it moves to the back of your tongue?

Remember - there's really no right or wrong answer though you may find it helpful to purchase a wine wheel. It's a sort of job aid for wine tastes. Our preference is Ann Noble's Wine Aroma Wheel which can be purchased online for $6.

2009 Rombauer Zinfandel

When I hear Rombauer, the first thought I usually have is, “Jeff’s favorite chardonnay”. On one of our recent trips to Napa, we had a chance encounter with their tasting room manager and were encouraged to pay them a visit. My thoughts now no longer immediately jump to their buttery chardonnay. I also think about their excellent reds.  One new discovery during that tasting room visit was their 2009 Napa Valley Zinfandel.

This wine not only looks great in the glass, it tastes great, too. It is bright purple, with aromas of dark fruit to match it.  A jammy zin with rich blackberry flavors, and a splash of pepper.  The berry flavor stays strong throughout the lingering, smooth finish. You’d never know it was 15.9% alcohol.

We enjoyed this wine with honey glazed pork chops, sweet potato mash and a fig & goat cheese salad. The wine notes recommend pairing with a rib-eye steak with bleu cheese, or Cajun spiced sausage. Sounds good to me ~ where’s that second bottle?