Happy Easter! And a Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Tasting

The Real Life in a Tasting Room

Surprise - We're Vegan!
I first became aware of vegan wines about five years ago when I was tasting at a winery in Healdsburg, just off the square. All of the wines on their tasting sheets were labeled as vegan, organic, biodynamic, or a combination of them all (there are issues with that, but that's for another blog post). At that point I thought that was interesting, but promptly forgot about it until about 2006, when we started making our own wines for Foursight.Having studied wine a bit I understood that animal products were used in the process at some wineries -- for fining in particular. The basic idea is that these animal-derived products settle down to the bottom of the tank with the large part

Mushroom Recipes
This weekend is the start of the Wine & Mushroom Festival and Nancy Charles has made some mushroom appetizers for our tasting room visitors to enjoy. They're absolutely delicious and go very well with Pinot Noir. Here are the recipes -- all are very easy to make:Marinated Mushrooms1/3 cup red wine vinegar1/3 cup olive oil1 small onion, thinly sliced1 tsp salt2 tbsp dried parsley1 tsp ground dry mustard1 tbsp brown sugar2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed1 pound small button mushrooms (or cremini)In medium saucepan, mix vinegar, olive oil, onion, salt, parsley, dry mustar

2010 Alsace Festival
Tickets are now on sale for the 2010 Alsace Festival - a celebration of the most delicious white wines produced in the Anderson Valley. Tickets are only $65 per person for the grand tasting -- complete with wine, food, and live music. It's a great event -- get your tickets at http://www.avwines.com/! Participating wineries include: Annie Amie Vineyards, Breggo Cellars, Chateau Grand Traverse, Claudia Springs Winery, Esterlina Vineyards, Greenwood Ridge Vineyards, Handley Cellars, Husch Vineyards, Lazy Creek Vineyards, Londer Vineyards, McFadden Farm, Foris Vineyard

Wine Club Par-lay
This past Saturday we had our first wine club pick-up party and open house. We hired a very talented band from the Mendocino Coast, some friends (luckily one a caterer) made delicious fall foods, and we opened the cellar to friends from near and far. We popped bottles of Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc, and event opened some of our 2008 Semillon, which we just released (one whopping barrel made). It was a great day and we look forward to having many more.

90 and 91 Points: More Scores and Reviews!
Scores and reviews on our 2007 Pinots have begun to come out, and we're very happy so far. Here's a look (more can be found on our Web site):***Burghound recently rated all three 2007 Pinots 90 points and above -- one of the highest group ratings in the entire California Pinot issue, with well known names abounding:2007 Zero New Oak Pinot: 90 points"A fresh and relatively complex nose resembles that of the 'All-In' with the primary difference being that the wood is less obvious with lovely, balanced and pure medium-bodied flavors that possess good con