Tag Archives: Mendocino

June Bubbly Club Iowa

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Bubbly Wine ClubSB-NV-Brut-Rose-transparentSchramsberg Vineyards
Brut Rosé
North Coast, California

BUBBLY WINE STYLE

Schramsberg’s Brut Rosé is fruitful, complex and dry, making it both versatile with food and delicious by itself as an apéritif. The character of the wine is strongly influenced by bright, flavorful Pinot Noir grown along the coast from southern Mendocino County to northern Marin County. A few small lots of Pinot Noir are fermented in contact with their skins to add depth and subtle color to this vibrant sparkling wine. Chardonnay gives spice, structure and length on the palate.

“The 2019 Brut Rosé opens with enticing aromas of raspberry, strawberry and peach, intermingled with layers of lemon shortbread, brioche and a hint of white florals. A bright entry of watermelon, cherry-limeade, candied orange and sugar cookie leads to a long quenching finish.” – Winemakers Sean Thompson, Jessica Koga and Hugh Davies 

Analysis: 13% alcohol / volume
Varietal: 66% Pinot Noir, 34% Chardonnay
TA: 8.0 g/L
pH: 3.19
RS: 9.0 g/L
Appellation: North Coast, California
County Composition: 48% Sonoma, 24% Napa, 22% Mendocino, 6% Marin
Harvest Dates: August 20 – September 24th, 2019
Release Date: September 1st, 2022
Barrel Fermentation: 32%
Critical Acclaim: 93 pts Wine Enthusiast, 92 pts Wine Spectator
Serving Suggestions: This is a very versatile wine; try it with sushi, salmon, rock shrimp, roast chicken BBQ ribs, Caprese and Panzanella salads, red berry tarts and an array of cheeses, charcuterie, nuts and fresh fruit. For more recipe inspiration, click here.

SchramsbergVineyards_Vineyard-Sources-2020

© Schramsberg Vineyards

Production & Winemaking:
Hand picking, careful handling and gentle pressing produce a wine of delicacy, aromatic purity and depth. Following the fall harvest and fermentation of the base wines, extensive tasting trails are carried out in the spring to create a polished blend reflective of the vintage. The finished blend undergoes a second fermentation in bottle before aging on its yeast lees for about two years, just enough to achieve refined effervescence and toastiness without diminishing its refreshing, vibrant appeal.
 
For 2019, winter brought an abundant amount of rainfall which helped restore the water reservoirs that had suffered from years of drought. With additional late rains in May, the vines had ample water for the growing season. The transition from veraison to full ripeness was very consistent due to the warm, but not hot, temperatures that were maintained during the summer. Harvest started slightly later than average, and in the end brought a bountiful crop with exceptional fruit structure, depth of flavor, and bright acidity.
 
About Hugh Davies – President and CEO:
Hugh-Davies-Headshot

© Hugh Davies, President and CEO

Hugh Davies was born in 1965, the year his parents, Jack and Jamie Davies, revived the historic Schramsberg Vineyards property in Napa Valley. Forty years later, Hugh was named president and CEO of the then 40-year-old sparkling wine house. Prior to 2005, he held the dual responsibilities of winemaker and general manager for the winery. He serves on the board of directors for the Napa Valley Vintners (president 2006), and with his family, chaired the 2004 Auction Napa Valley. For prior hands-on experience in the wine industry before joining Schramsberg, Hugh worked with Möet et Chandon in Epernay; Petaluma Winery in South Australia, and Mumm in Napa Valley, among others.
 
About Schramsberg Vineyards:
SB-Script-LogoIn 1965, Jack and Jamie Davies established Schramsberg as a sparkling wine estate on the property originally founded in 1862 by German immigrant Jacob Schram. At a time when there were only 22 bonded wineries in Napa Valley and fewer than 100 acres of California vineyards planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, they set out to make world-class sparkling wine in the true méthode champenoise style. Theirs was the first California winery to provide a Blanc de Blancs in 1965 followed by a Blanc de Noirs in 1967. Now their son Hugh Davies, who was born the same year the Davies arrived at Schramsberg, leads the winery’s management and winemaking team. Learn more here.

Photo and Information © Schramsberg – All Rights Reserved

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Skylark Orsi Vineyard Pinot Blanc

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Butternut Squash SoupButternut Squash & Apple Soup

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 2–3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 Granny Smith apple, diced 
  • ½ tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary 
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage
  • 1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced (about 5–6 cups/800 g)
  • 1 13.5 ounce can of light coconut milk
  • 3 cups vegetable broth
  • Salt and black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Bring a large soup pot to medium-heat and add the oil (for oil-free add a splash of vegetable broth). Add the onion and apple, then sauté until the onion is translucent, 3 to 5 minutes.
  2. Add in the garlic, rosemary, sage, and a pinch of salt. Sauté for an additional 1 to 2 minutes, then add in the squash, coconut milk, and vegetable broth.
  3. Raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 10 to 12 minutes, until the squash is fork-tender. Carefully use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth, or transfer to an upright blender and blend on high speed to do the same.
  4. Serve as desired; leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days, or can be frozen for up to one month.

© Recipe and Photo courtesy of From my Bowl. All rights reserved.

NOVEMBER WINE CLUB:

Crisp Wine StyleSkylark_Pinot_Blanc-wine-bottleSkylark
Orsi Vineyard Pinot Blanc
Mendocino County
North Coast, California

CRISP WINE STYLE

Light straw yellow. Aromas of green apple, lemon skin and tangerine. The palate is sleek and refined, with a mineral component lending structure to the fleshy fruits of apple and citrus. The beautiful interplay of fruit and acidity results in a silky fruit impression folding into a fresh and palate-cleansing finish. – Jeb Dunnuck, 90 points

WINEMAKING DETAILS:
This vintage is a beautiful rendition of Orsi Vineyard Pinot Blanc. The Skylark team has been farming this Mendocino vineyard with Berni Orsi since 2005, watching this heritage site deal with the fickle harvest weather with stubborn grace. The year began with a difficult flowering where frost reduced yields in April. Summer was warm but not hot until late August, when daily 100 degree temperatures scorched the North Coast. The grapes were picked on August 31, right before the heart of the heat spike, preserving natural acidity with plenty of phenolic ripeness. This vintage will be remembered as a small harvest in California with memorable wines – Orsi Vineyard Pinot Blanc will fit right in that category.

“We strive to produce wines that crystallize our passion within each bottle. Because of our relationships with meticulous and respected grape growers, we have been able to produce wines of distinction and character that represent the best of what Northern California vineyards have to offer. We are proud of Skylark and hope to continue share these wines with family and friends, old and new.” – John Lancaster and Robert Perkins

Information & Photos © Skylark Wine Company – All Rights Reserved.

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Skylark Pinot Blanc

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Creamy Lemon Pappardelle with Scallops

Creamy Lemon Scallop Pasta

© Spices in my DNA

INGREDIENTS:

For the scallops

  • 1 pound jumbo scallops, side muscle removed
  • small drizzle of olive oil
  • 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • squeeze of lemon

For the pasta

  • 9 ounces pappardelle pasta
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup reserved pasta water
  • 4 ounces mascarpone cheese
  • 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
  • 1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
  • zest of 1/2 a lemon
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, plus extra for serving

DIRECTIONS:

For the scallops

  1. Make sure scallops are super dry, pat down thoroughly with paper towels until they’re dry. Season with pepper (no salt yet). Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add a small drizzle of olive oil and the butter. Once melted, wipe out the pan so that only a thin layer of oil and butter remain. Sear the scallops on one side for about 2 minutes, or until a golden brown crust forms. Flip and sear on the other side for 1 minute or until just cooked through. Season with salt and a squeeze of lemon.

For the pasta

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt the water generously. Once boiling, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Be sure to scoop out the pasta water during the last few minutes of cooking, or right before you drain it.
  2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and olive oil. Once melted and hot, add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds to 1 minute until fragrant, stirring constantly. If it seems too hot, reduce the heat to medium (you don’t want the garlic to brown). Add the reserved pasta water (start with 1/4 cup), mascarpone, ricotta, parmesan, and lemon zest, and stir until melted and creamy. Add the pasta and toss until coated. If the sauce seems too dry, add another splash of pasta water and toss until desired consistency is reached. Add the chopped basil and toss again. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve the scallops over the pasta, and garnish with extra fresh basil and parmesan. Enjoy!

© Recipe from Spices in my DNA

DECEMBER WINE CLUB:

Silky styleSkylark Wine Company
Pinot Blanc
Mendocino County, California

SILKY WINE STYLE

Light straw yellow in color. High-toned aromatics of lime peel, roasted lemon, Granny Smith apple and a complicating note of pebbled soil. Intense and penetrating on the palate, the flavors follow through with the roasted lemon and green apple enlivened by natural acidity. Deftly light and concentrated at the same time, with the crunchy fruit streaming into a palate-staining finish.

One of Skylark’s oldest vineyard sources is Bernie Orsi’s Pinot Blanc outside of Hopland in Mendocino, California. Originally planted by John Fetzer in the 1970s, John and Robert walked through the oldest block of this site in 2005. Impressed by the thick, stubby trunks and gnarled old vines, they signed on to purchase that section for harvest 2005.  They have now grown production to almost the entire vineyard for Skylark’s Pinot Blanc bottling. After picking, the fruit is whole cluster pressed into a tank, then racked to Mueller stainless steel barrels for fermentation. Stirred the lees once, blocked malolactic fermentation and bottled with a light filtration. No doubt, this vintage of Pinot Blanc will brighten your day.

John L and Robert P

Photo by Skylark Wine: John L. and Robert P.

Analysis: 13.2% alcohol / volume
pH: 3.28 g/L
TA: 7.1
Aging: Whole cluster pressed and vinification in multiple stainless steel 75gl barrels
Harvested: Hand-picked
Vineyard: Orsi Vineyard
Cases Produced: 800

“To reflect our palates, the portfolio at Skylark includes crisp, flavorful, aromatic white wines and full-bodied, rich, spicy red wines. As we have long admired the beautiful white wines produced in Alsace and Austria, our Pinot Blanc is a California rendition of a classic European varietal.”

 

Wine club logoJoin our WINE CLUB and enjoy these amazing wines and pairing recipes each month. Plus, you’ll receive 10% off all retail wine purchases!

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Winery Spotlight Series: Dec. 9th Skylark Wine Company

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Skylark Wine Company Logo
Virtual Wine Tasting Event on Zoom and Facebook LIVE

Skylark Wine Company

Wednesday, December 9, 2020
6:00pm CST / 7:00pm EST

Please join us for a virtual wine tasting event, featuring the co-proprietors of our December Wine Club, John Lancaster and Robert Perkins, from Skylark Wine Company. During our virtual event, John and Robert will be guiding us through a tasting of our December Wine Club wines and other Skylark wines too. The following 6 wines featured during the tasting will be:

Zoom Facebook Live

  • Skylark Pink Belly Rosé 
  • Skylark Orsi Vineyard Pinot Blanc
  • Skylark Red Belly
  • Skylark Grenache  
  • Skylark Las Aves 
  • Skylark Rodgers Creek Vineyard Syrah 

Be sure to RSVP at your local WineStyles location or on Eventbrite.  Pre-order your wines in advance at your local participating WineStyles location and taste alongside John and Robert with a front seat on Zoom!  Or watch on our Facebook LIVE event.Skylark Wines

About Skylark Winery:

Skylark Wine Company is collaboration between Boulevard Restaurant wine directors John Lancaster and Robert Perkins. John and Robert have run the wine program at the acclaimed Boulevard Restaurant in San Francisco for the past fifteen years. During their tenure at Boulevard, they have built a close friendship, an inventory of wines from around the globe and a palate of tasting wines of the world from vintage to vintage. This partnership has created long-term relationships with the entire scope of the wine industry, from winemakers to vineyard managers to owners. With these relationships, their next logical progression was the realization of a dream: making fine wine from select vineyards in Northern California. While the original plan was simply a barrel, they jumped in with 14 barrels of Syrah from the 2002 harvest. Skylark Wine Company was formed. Learn more about Skylark Wine Company here.

John Lancaster – Co-Proprietor

John Lancaster

Photo by Skylark Wine: John Lancaster

Co-proprietor of Skylark Wine Company, is a graduate of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. His passion for wine grew while working in the restaurant industry and brought him to the culinary destination of San Francisco. As the Wine Director of the wildly eclectic Cypress Club, he was recognized by the Wine Spectator for his wine list. For the past eleven years, John has been the Wine Director at the James Beard award winning Boulevard Restaurant. During his tenure at Boulevard, John has traveled extensively throughout the world’s wine regions studying wine production. In addition to his professional duties at Boulevard, John is also a professional wine judge and consultant. John resides in San Rafael with his wife and two daughters.

Robert Perkins – Co-Proprietor

Robert Perkins

Photo by Skylark Wine: Robert Perkins

Co-proprietor of Skylark Wine Company, is a graduate of Fine Art Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. His paintings have been shown throughout the Bay Area: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art-Artist Gallery, Canessa Gallery and Mesh Gallery. His designs are featured on every Skylark Wine label. When Robert is not in his studio in San Francisco, he is pursuing his other creative outlet, wine. Robert has worked in the restaurant industry for 20 years and has worked at Greens in San Francisco, Willowside Café in Sonoma and at Boulevard Restaurant as a sommelier for the past nine years. With his expertise in the wine industry, Robert has been a wine consultant for several Bay Area restaurants. He has also worked hands-on in production at several small wineries including Nalle, Scherrer and Sean Thackrey. He resides in San Francisco with his wife Kristine.

“We strive to produce wines that crystallize our passion within each bottle. Because of our relationships with meticulous and respected grape growers, we have been able to produce wines of distinction and character that represent the best of what Northern California vineyards have to offer. We are proud of Skylark and hope to continue share these wines with family and friends, old and new.”

 

Let’s Taste, Learn and Enjoy® together! 

Contact your local WineStyles to RSVP for this tasting event.

Skylark Wine Company
Mendocino County, California

Cheers!

WineStyles.com

August Bubbly Club: Iowa

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Bubbly Wine ClubDSC_0588-EditPOE Wines
NV Ultraviolet Sparkling Rosé
Napa, California

BUBBLY WINE STYLE

NV Ultraviolet Sparkling Rosé is a base of 85% Coombsville Cabernet Franc Rosé, made from the grapes that go into POE’s Ultraviolet Cabernet Sauvignon. The remaining 15% is French Colombard from Mendocino.  This sparkling rosé has aromatics of lemon blossoms and strawberry, the palate shows lovely minerality and fine bubbles, with underripe strawberry, peach, and orange peel, with a lingering bright grapefruit on the finish.

WINEMAKING:
POE had been making Champagne method sparkling wines for six years, when they decided to make a playful, fruit driven California sparkling wine, by utilizing the Charmant method.  As opposed to fermenting in the bottle, POE takes their sparkling base and instigates a second fermentation in stainless steel, utilizing yeast and sugar.  This is the same process as the Champagne method, but in a different vessel.  The fermentation is kept cold, and lasts seven weeks.  After a few months of rest, they bottle under cork.

ABOUT POE WINES:
Samantha Sheehan founded POE in 2009 after being inspired by the wines she tasted in Burgundy and Champagne.  The goal was not to replicate Burgundy, but rather create alluring, vineyard specific, age-worthy wines revealing the beautiful terroir of California.  There is minimal intervention, judicious use of sulfur, and never any additives. POE produces traditional Champagne method sparkling wines, Rosé, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and a nouveau from Pinot Noir.  Each wine is made in very limited quantities, and sold directly from the winery and to high-end restaurants around the country. 

Owner/Winemaker Sam Poe Sheehan

POE Vineyards© POE Wines

Bubbly Wine ClubBodkin Sparkling Sauv BlancBodkin Wines
Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc
Healdsburg, California

BUBBLY WINE STYLE

Bodkin Wines is proud to release the fourth cuvée of California’s first Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. This unique and stylish twist on Sauvignon Blanc has a core of racy crispness driven by lively acidity, accented with lemon-lime aromas (no cat grass — no worries) and citrus-passion fruit flavors. The pronounced citrus tones team with a note of toasted hazelnuts to accent the enchantingly plush mouth feel of the wine. The wine is called Cuvée Agincourt in reference to the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years War. In 1415 where the English army comprised largely of archers armed with Bodkin pointed arrows beat back a French army much more numerous and comprised of the nation’s high nobility.

VARIETY: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
ALCOHOL: 11.5%
DOSAGE: Brut

ABOUT BODKIN WINES:
Bodkin Wines was founded by Chris Christensen, an Iowa native, in 2011. His passion for aromatic wines and winemaking led him to create America’s first Sauvignon Blanc with bubbles. In 2013, Andrew Chambers, an Oregon native, joined the brand and they purchased 24 tons and made 1,100 cases of their award-winning Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. Since that time, Bodkin Wines has produced over 15 varietals of wine, eleven of which were scored at 90 points or higher by Wine Enthusiast. They are consistently growing, year after year, but are determined to keep their presence small and unique. Bodkin Wines is still 100% owned by both Chris and Andrew, two guys living and working hard in Sonoma County.

ee5774_c9f6ce12a8fe4898b27246fed2853b0b_mv2
Screen Shot 2020-07-20 at 6.38.33 PM© Bodkin Wines