Hook & Ladder, “The Tillerman” White, Russian River Valley 2005 ($16/sample provided by the winery)

Hook & Ladder Winery was started by former San Francisco firefighter Cecil De Loach who purchased an old-vine Zinfandel vineyard in the Russian River Valley. This was back in the mid-1970’s when the California wine business was much smaller and single varietal wines were not as popular with Americans as they are today. Flash forward 30+ years and Hook & Ladder has almost 400 acres of vineyards in Sonoma’s sought after AVA for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. So it’s interesting that it has taken me until now, and a generous wine blogger sampling campaign spearheaded by PR wine blogger Tom Wark, to get me to try one of Hook & Ladder’s wines. I don’t really know why I never picked up a bottle as I’ve seen their wines in the store and the brand name certainly is catchy. At any rate, I’m pleased I did try their white blend, “The Tillerman”, and look forward to finding other wines to buy and blog/podcast here in the future.

The Tillerman is the name used on two blends the winery produces named in honor of the firefighter who steers the fire-truck from the back so the ladder doesn’t collide into buildings as the truck turns. The red version is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese. Hook & Ladder is a bit coy about the blend of the white version only disclosing in the materials that accompanied the samples as a blend, “…of three varietals made from estate grapes.” Since the winery also grows and makes Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay, I deduced these being in the blend. After tasting the wine, I guessed that the third variety to be either Viognier, Verdejo or possibly Muscat due to the Rhone-blend aroma and flavor profile (think Sablet blanc without the banana). Whatever grapes are in the bottle, I really liked the result (disclosure: after tasting this wine I emailed Michael De Loach who disclosed the varieties and percentages of the blend; since these would likely cause the reader some undue bias, I will not post them… try the wine and comment here what you think it is made from and in what percentage).

Tasting Notes:

Light straw in color with a hint of green. Aromas of peach, lychee and grapefruit. On the palate the ripe peach flavors are joined by apricot and pineapple, finishing dry with nice acidity and some minerality. A delicious food wine and a great value.

13.8% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 9/10

For a while now I’ve posted a poll on the right sidebar here asking for your thoughts about which wine rating system I should use. For a time after a software upgrade it did not work, but I put it back up a few days ago and more votes have been recorded. I’ve also been tasting and writing a couple of podcasts, which have interestingly brought this issue to the forefront and support the move to the Parker/Tanzer/Wine & Spirits/Wine Enthusiast/Wine Spectator 100-point system (I know, there are fine points between each of these, but most consumers don’t understand this and think they are all equivalent; then there’s the “Dvorak Scale”).

Anyway, I was just about to announce and implement my change to a 100-point system when I read this piece in the Sunday New York Times. Good food for thought that has me reconsidering action for the rest of this month. Cast your vote or make a comment here. A final decision will be taken in early September.

Update: Stephen Bainbridge comments on the issue; hmm…

Update 2: Tom Wark makes some good points regarding the NY Times piece.

Ryan started a Q&A meme over at Catavino that I participated in; you can check out the exchange here. What I didn’t know was that there were so many Portuguese wines here in the local market. I’ll be rounding some of Ryan’s wife Gabriella’s picks for a future podcast. You can follow Ryan’s Q&A with fellow wine bloggers here. Great stuff!

D-Cubed Cellars, Zinfandel, Napa Valley 2002 ($25)

D-Cubed Cellars is a Zinfandel specialist from the Napa Valley. Starting out 10 years ago with Howell Mountain fruit, they have rounded out their line of 5 Zins from various Napa Valley appellations and vineyards: Black Sears, Slaybaugh Ranch and Brown single-vineyard wines, a Howell Mountain blend and this wine from all these appellations. I first tasted D-Cubed Zin at ZAP 2006 and found both the 2003 Howell Mountain and Napa Valley bottlings to be delicious. So when I found this wine at Napa’s Vintner’s Collective tasting room in June, I had to pick up another bottle or two.

Garnet in color with a ruby rim. Black raspberry, cherry, vanilla and spice aromas. Nicely concentrated black cherry fruit along with some spice and silky tannins. The hedonistic mouthfeel and long finish are about as good as Zinfandel gets. This is a stellar value that I recommend snapping up before they raise their prices.

14.6% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 9+/10

Buy this wine online

Sam from Becks and Posh last hosted Wine Blogging Wednesday over a year ago with the theme of Rosé. Next month, she is again hosting and has chosen the theme of Champagne, the world’s most celebrated sparkling wine. I’m not sure which approach I will take for this theme given that “good” Champagne starts at around $30 USD and I hope to find something a bit better. Perhaps a single bottle tasting is in the cards, a few half bottles or I might get lucky and find a local tasting. All will be revealed here on September 13th.

PS: Lee Ann, let me know which Champagne you would open here

It’s great to see wineries embrace the blogisphere and I notice new wrinkles on the Stormhoek meme most every week (the latest example by Josh over at Pinotblogger). So it was interesting to see a well known food product brand use the internet in an innovative way. If Heinz can make and sell custom labeled ketchup bottles at approximately 100% markup over their mass produced product surely a winery can crank out very small production custom labeled wine. Yea, I know there are many wineries who do custom labels, but these usually involve set-up fees that don’t make buying 1 or 2 custom labeled bottles cost effective. With the automation opportunities of the internet and open source software, I would think even the smallest winery could make something like this work… food for thought, anyway.

Alder has posted his summary of the latest Wine Blogging Wednesday over at Vinography. Almost 30 Loire whites were sampled by 27 participating bloggers (I’m not sure why Alder had trouble getting to this blog when he did the write-up; I’ve had no problems posting and things seem fine now). Stay tuned for the announcement of WBW 25 in coming days.

The folks at Don Sebastiani & Sons have recently added a video podcast to their media arsenal and it is the best I have yet seen in the genre. As someone who tried this myself, I can appreciate the slick production value that is beyond the means of indie podcasters. The very watchable first episode clocks in at just under 4 minutes but provides a lot of information and a glimpse into the Sebastiani wine company. Unlike the very scripted and sometimes wooden delivery of their off-and-on audio podcast, the video version is very slickly produced and everyone plays their parts as natural as can be expected from wine executives and their winemaker. This makes the Don Sebastiani & Sons Films video podcast the new standard bearer for the wine genre from my perspective. Subscribe here in iTunes.

Bravo, guys!

Wine Blogging Wednesday turns 2 this month with numero uno wine blogger Alder from Vinography hosting. Alder has picked a regional theme that is perfect for late summer sipping, the white wines of France’s Loire Valley. It doesn’t seem possible that what started 24 months ago with 17 bloggers has grown to such a large world-wide gathering with new bloggers participating each time. Different from most of the months I have participated, I will only blog and not podcast this time, saving this theme for a more comprehensive audio version in the next few of weeks.

The Loire is known for both white and red wines, but it’s probably most famous for it’s great Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé) and Chenin Blanc (Vouvray). Another notable white is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape and is called Muscadet. The region is also renowned for Cabernet Franc based red wines (Chinon and Bourgueil), but that is a subject for another night. Alder has asked that we keep our choices to only whites, so that’s what I picked up to taste.

I generally found the selection of Loire whites to be disappointing here, but I didn’t get a chance to really search the best stores in town. What I did find was a lot of Vouvray, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Since I covered Sancerre in a past show and would like to feature Pouilly-Fumé on it’s own, I decided to concentrate on Vouvray and a wine I have never tried, Muscadet. Here’s what I found:

Cuvée Catherine, Muscadet, Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2004 ($8) - Very light straw-green in color with aromas of green apple and citrus.Tart grapefruit fruit flavor with a bit of creaminess and complexity from the lies aging. Bone dry with good acidity making this a nice, simple white for seafood on a hot summer’s day. Score: 7.5/10. 12% ABV, synthetic cork closure (easily removed).

Domaine Pichot, Vouvray 2004 ($15) - Bright straw in color with aromas of pear and melon. Pineapple and green apple flavors with a touch of minerals. Off-dry, but nicely balanced by acidity making this a very good summer selection and a great value. Score: 8.5+/10. 12% ABV, natural cork closure.

I liked the Vouvray best tonight but I like the exploration of a new varietal and this underrated region more. Thanks to Alder for hosting once again and for Lenn for the coming up with this idea over 2 years ago. I’m in for next time and will produce a podcast timed with my post. Stay tuned for my more comprehensive podcast on the Loire soon.