Winery Watch: Four Vines Winery

This is the second in a series of posts highlighting California family wineries. You might not be familiar with them--yet--but they produce wines that speak with the voices of this state's people, places, and history. They are worth seeking out. These posts will be longer than most posts on the blog, but I hope you will find them perfect for leisurely weekend reading and internet browsing. Have fun! To read the first post in the series, click here.

Families today come in all shapes and sizes. They can include your children, your partner's children, friends from college, former neighbors who moved in when they lost their job and never left because they turned out to be great gardeners or cooks and therefore were far too useful to evict, cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They clump up in one spot over holidays, and stretch out in complicated diasporas that span the globe the rest of the time. They are kept together with passion, email, text-messages, and all-inclusive long-distance phone plans. Sometimes, they even include grapevines and pirates. (photo of Christian "the Pirate" Tietje courtesy of Four Vines Winery and FutureWorks)

I discovered one of these thoroughly modern families at the Family Winemakers of California tasting: the Four Vines Winery family of Paso Robles, Amador County, and Sonoma. The family started with Christian Tietje, a wandering chef who came to San Francisco from Boston in 1990, and fell in love with old vine Zin. In 1994, the family grew from Christian and Zin to include Susan Mahler (aka Sam), a pilot and earth scientist, who quickly fell for Christian, his Zin, and the backbreaking and absorbing work of tending vineyards. They moved to Paso Robles, started Four Vines Winery, and focused on making appellation-specific Zins and--at a time when this was a complete heresy--unoaked chardonnay. As the business grew, they needed help, and help came in 2004 in the form of Christian's childhood friend Bill Grant, who managed the finances and marketing for the burgeoning enterprise. Today the family includes tasting room wine pushers, crush slaves, cellar masters, keepers of wine, growers, pirates, bikers, and self-appointed "ZinBitches." Not to mention a growing mob of satisfied consumers and fans. (photo of Bill, Sam, and Christian with their grape-children courtesy of Four Vines and FutureWorks).

Together, the Four Vines family wanted to introduce some fun into wine, and to blow the cobwebs off what (especially in the 1990s!) was becoming an all too stultifying and stuffy wine culture. They gave their wines names like "the Biker," "Maverick," and "the Heretic." They started holding Zinfandel Festivals with pirate themes long before Johnny Depp had even thought of donning an eye patch. They were among the first to appreciate the sensory pleasures that came from making Zin from grapes that came from old vines. And they loved seeing how Amador fruit differed from fruit sourced in Paso Robles, or Napa, or Sonoma.

There is an old expression--"the genius of the place"--that was used in the 18th century to describe the spirit that inhabited a particular spot. Architects and landscape gardeners were supposed to try to capture the genius of the place in whatever work they did. The Four Vines family seems to have applied this concept to their winemaking, and the results are stunning. They produce rich, complex wines that have an intriguing silkiness on the palate. Every zin has a different cascade of flavors and aromas that evolve from your first sniff and sip. And the other wines that they make are truly memorable examples of the varietals that go into the bottle.

What follows are my brief tasting impressions of their line of wines. You are going to be hearing a lot about them in the upcoming months, based on coverage the winery has already received this year from Wine & Spirits and Wine Spectator. Buy the wine now if you want it, because the 2004s are nearly sold out. Or, save yourself the aggravation and join their wine club, thereby insuring that you will get your required stash of new Four Vines wines as they are released. The first 2005 reds will be released in late May, so circle this date on your calendar and check their website so you aren't disappointed because, yes, they, too, are going to sell out. After that, piracy will be your only option.

Prices below are those suggested by the vineyard. Click on the name of any wine to be directed to merchants in your area or online who might be offering the wine at higher or lower price points.

2005 Four Vines Chardonnay Naked Chardonnay ($14) This excellent unoaked chardonnay, made with Santa Barbara County grapes, has striking butterscotch and soft pear aromas that are followed up with fresh pear and citrus flavors. Juicy, easy to pair with food, and excellent QPR.

2004 Four Vines Zinfandel Old Vines. ($18) I doubt that you could fine a better Zinfandel at this price. It has a superb balance of fruit, spice, and acidity with warm aromas and flavors of blackberry, clove, and pepper. This wine will improve further with a little time in the bottle. Excellent QPR.

2004 Four Vines Zinfandel Biker ($20) This rough young zin from Pas Robles should settle down and shed some of its acidic tannins with a bit more time in the bottle. Its blackberry and pepper flavors and aromas are struggling a bit to come forward now, but all the structure and potential are there so give it some more time and it will be superb. 15% alc/vol. Excellent QPR.

2004 Four Vines Zinfandel Maverick ($20) Soft blackberry-toned fruit from Amador County, with 14. 9% alc/vol. I found a very good balance of fruit and spice, and lots of complexity as the two wove together. Excellent QPR.

2004 Four Vines Petite Sirah Heretic ($30) Absolutely stunning petite sirah. Cocoa and cassis aromas and flavors, with a smooth and silky cassis palate with notes of fresh picked blackberries. Seek this one out. It's fantastic. Very good QPR.

2004 Four Vines Syrah Bailey Vineyard($30) An impressive syrah with beautiful, jammy plum and cassis notes. Warm spices complement the fruits and add complexity. Very good QPR.

2004 Four Vines Anarchy($30) This nouveau Rhone-style blend made with Paso Robles fruit has an infusion of zin that you can really taste. Made with syrah, zin, and mourvedre. Jammy red and black fruits, nice spice. Good texture and mouthfeel. Good QPR.

2004 Four Vines Peasant($30) Another wine made with Paso Robles fruit, this intriguing red blend is dominated by syrah and mourvedre. Soft and smooth blackberry fruits, touched with vanilla and cracked pepper. Good QPR.

These are wines that are full of the genius of the place, and the genius of the people who make them. You won't be disappointed with their wines, and you may find yourself behaving like a pirate and starting your own treasure chest of Four Vines wines.

Next Week: Brutocao Cellar and Vineyards

Yes, Virginia--Connecticut makes wine, too

When I went to school in Massachusetts, Connecticut was not thought of as a great viticultural center. But that is changing now, with more and more regions of the US trying their hand at growing wine grapes. While grapes have been grown in the state for hundreds of years on small family farms, the first modern wineries were established in the late 70s. Currently, there are more than 15 vineyards in the state, all producing wine with limited distribution.

Recently I had a wine from Sharpe Hill Vineyard in Pomfret in the eastern part of the state. Sharpe Hill's wines have have received over 185 medals in international wine competitions. The NV Sharpe Hill Vineyard "Ballet of Angels" white blend ($10.99, Colorado Wine Company), nick-named "Creepy Baby Wine" by irreverent consumers due to its distinctive label, is the best-selling Connecticut wine. And for me, it was a real eye-opener. This excellent QPR wine made from a secret blend of ten white grape varietals that probably includes melon de bourgogne, riesling, vidal blanc, and vignoles. Plentiful aromas of honeydew melon, honeysuckle, and citrus hint at the flavors that develop as you sip the wine. Though floral and slightly off-dry, a bracing acidity keeps the sweetness from becoming cloying or overpowering. This was a wonderful wine that would be exceptional with spicy food or Asian cuisine, like these Thai peanut noodles with chicken, or Thai salmon with rice salad.

The store where I bought this, Colorado Wine Company in beautiful downtown Eagle Rock, specializes in unusual, high value bottlings like these. It's worth stopping by if you live in the LA area or are here on a visit. They recently started a blog for customer reviews and discussion of wine. It's a great idea for Wine 2.0 types, and I've already found a great blog I didn't know about while reading.

The NV Sharpe Hill Vineyard "Ballet of Angels" is widely available throughout the country, but if its not to be found at a store near you, ask your local merchants if they can start carrying this great white wine. If you like Riesling, you will love the "Ballet of Angels."

So How Bad IS Hwy. 1 in Sonoma County?

It's this bad.

Wish me luck as I transport 3 humans, 2 dogs, several cases of wine, and all kinds of other paraphernalia related to a two week vacation over the Tejon pass, up the valley, through the Bay Area, over the Richmond Bridge, across Pepper Road, through Valley Ford, past Tomales, and out to scenic Highway 1 for the last hour or so of the drive to our redwood hideaway. Timing depends on local road conditions including but not limited to: cow grazing patterns across Hwy. 1, number of Winnebagos on road, fog, folks who don't understand the meaning or use of "turn-out," how good the surf is and therefore how many surfers are parked between Jenner and Bodega, landslides, downed trees, and road construction. (hair-raising aerial photo taken by Scott Wilson of West of One).

I'll be back Thursday after Good Wine Under $20 lands temporarily on the wild and woolly reaches of Sonoma County's north coast.

In this Corner: the Bruiser from Bulgaria

Some wines announce themselves with with a gentle purr. This is not one of those wines.

This is a bare-knuckle prize-fighter of a wine, a big, bruising red that is not for the faint of palate. It is a wine that needs some careful handling to bring out its softer, more sensitive side. But it is unusual, and (like many prize-fighters) possesses an unforgettable character.

The 2005 Damianitza Rubin Uniqato ($7.99, Trader Joe's) is a red with good QPR. It is made from Rubin grapes, a cross of Nebbiolo and Syrah developed in Bulgaria in 1944. Unfiltered and full of sediment, it was dark garnet in color and full of mouth puckering tannins. In short, this was a wine that benefited from decanting, and would also benefit from some more time in the bottle.

I don't bother much with decanting in the normal course of things, though I probably should, but as soon as this went into my glass I thought, "OK, time to bring out the decanter." If you don't have a decanter, a clean jar or pitcher will do. What you are doing is getting some more air in the wine and, in this case, hoping to filter out the sediments by using a wine funnel with a screen on it. FYI, a mesh tea strainer works just as well and you probably have one in the back of the same drawer where you store your corkscrew. If you want to see someone demonstrate decanting, and what it can do for a wine, check out this video from Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV as he does a decantation!

After decanting this wine, the spicy aromas and indefinable black fruits detectable on first opening and sipping the wine gave way to herbal, fruity, and meaty flavors. The aromas and flavors developed along the grilled meat/grilled herb spectrum, with fruit taking a back seat. There were notes of cinnamon on the dry, dry finish.

Damianitza is in southwestern Bulgaria near the Greek border in Thrace's Struma River Valley. Founded in 1940 during the height of communist wine-making in the region, it was privatized in 1997. Not surprisingly, privatization has brought both challenges and opportunities to Bulgarian vintners and winemakers, and Damianitza is one of the wineries that is recognized for its efforts to bring the best Bulgarian wine traditions into the 21st century. Wine Report 2007 listed Damianitza among the 10 fastest improving wineries in Eastern Europe, for example. They bottle over 2,000,000 bottles a year, and use native grape varietals like Melnik and Rubin. JohnG over at Quaffability tried their Melnik a little while ago and was less than completely impressed. I'll try to open up my bottle soon and add my tasting notes to the mix.

In the meantime, if you want to try this affordable and easy-to-find Bulgarian wine, here are my recommendations for dealing with this young, brawny specimen: 1. decant 2. Serve it with hearty food, like steaks, grilled meat, or any robust fare that's not too spicy because trust me you do not want to accentuate the tannins in this wine. 3. Take your time drinking it and enjoy the way the flavors change with more air and time out of the bottle.

Sunday Brunch with Chinese Style

Sundays in LA often involve a trip to your favorite dim sum restaurant for a brunch of steamed pork buns, dumplings, and other Chinese delicacies. But the lines can be epic, and the noise significant, especially if you head out to one of the big restaurants in Monterey Park.

So our friend Mae taught me how to make dumplings and in my opinion this was better than waiting in a long line and then eating out. The process itself is very soothing, and conducive to sitting around the table, chatting and sipping wine, while the dumplings get filled and pleated up. And then--you get to eat them!

Brunch--even Chinese brunch--still requires bubbly wine as far as I'm concerned. But a champagne or brut sparkling wine wouldn't work. With our dumplings we had the 2006 Fetish Wines Moscato "Field of Dreams" from the Barossa Valley ($16.00, Malibu Wines; available from other merchants for under $15). Fetish Wines is a proprietary brand of Joshua Tree Imports, who also make Razor's Edge Wines. The wine was made for Fetish by the well-known Australian winemaker Wayne Dutschke from grapes grown on his Barossa Valley estate. I selected it in part because it was a warm afternoon, in part because moscato goes well with Asian food, and in part because its low alcohol (just 8% alc./vol.) was not going to get in the way of our pleating technique (see below). This good QPR wine was simple, fresh, and very sweet--kind of like drinking fizzy lemonade for grownups. It was a tad one-dimensional, with lemon blossom aromas, a sweet lemon palate, and a slightly bitter lemon pith edge to the finish. Still, it was refreshing and and if you are looking for a very lemony low-alcohol wine this would be a good choice. Plus, drinking it makes you feel a bit naughty, like you've spiked the punch at the prom.

If you don't live near a good dim sum restaurant, or just want to have your own dumpling stash in the freezer, here is the recipe that we followed. The results are fantastic!

Mae's Dumplings
1 package of dumpling wrappers (tip: look for the ones made closest to where you live)
1 pound ground pork or chicken
1 small head of Napa or Taiwan cabbage, cut into big chunks
1 bunch scallions or Chinese Chives, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 Tbs soy sauce, or more to taste
1-2 Tbs corn starch
Bowl of water
sheet pan lined with wax or parchment paper
soy and vinegar for dipping sauce

1. Using the shredder attachment or the steel blade of a food processor, shred or pulse cabbage chunks in small batches until fairly fine. With each batch, remove the shredded cabbage and, using your hands, squeeze out all the moisture that you can. You will be surprised at how much water comes out! Put in the bowl of a mixer, or a large bowl.

2. Combine shredded cabbage with ground meat, scallions/chives, egg, ginger, garlic and soy sauce using a mixer on low speed (less messy) or using your hands (more authentic). Using chopstick or wooden spoon, add cornstarch as needed to absorb any additional moisture in the filling.

3. Take a dumpling wrapper and hold it in the palm of your left hand if you are right-handed, your right hand if your are left-handed. Moisten all around the edge of the wrapper with your finger dipped in water. Put a heaping spoonful of dumpling filling in the center. Bring the wrapper together in the center, and pinch. Then, pleat the back side of the dumpling wrapper against the smooth front side, pinching it slightly as necessary to get the pleats to stick. Curve the dumpling slightly when you are done, and sit the dumpling on the tray on its base so that the pleats sit up like a fin.

4. At this point you have several options.

You can take your tray and stick it in the freezer for about 6 hours, then take it out and make up bags of dumplings for later use. Frozen dumplings take slightly longer to cook, of course, but there's no need to thaw them first.

Or you can eat them right then and there. There are three ways to cook dumplings.

You can cook your dumplings in gently boiling water. They will float to the top of the water when cooked.

You can steam your dumplings over gently boiling water using a steamer insert or bamboo racks for about 3-5 minutes until the wrapper is cooked and slightly transclucent.

Or, you can pan fry them in a bit of oil in a skillet that has a lid. Place the flat, bottom of the dumpling in the hot oil. After 2-3 minutes, when a nice brown crust has developed, add a bit of water, clamp the lid on, and steam the dumplings for 3-4 minutes. Then take the lid off and continue to cook until nearly all the water has evaporated. (this was the method I used in the picture above)

Serve your dumplings with a bowl of dipping sauce made of soy sauce and vinegar (balsamic, chinese black vinegar, rice vinegar, or cider vinegar are best here), mixed to your taste.