Mondavi Launches Animo - A New Napa Valley Mountain Cabernet

Named after the Italian word for spirit, or heart, Animo is a new project from Michael Mondavi and his family. The 2010 Animo Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley $85, a sleek, fruit forward and softly tannic wine, has notes of blackberry, blueberry, mocha, coffee bean and smoke.

The vineyard is located on a 15-acre rocky Atlas Peak hillside at between 1,270 and 1,350 feet. In the past, the family sold this fruit to Opus One.

The wine is limited but available here for a short time: http://www.noblemerchants.com/

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Two for Tuesday - Greek White & Lodi Zin

White Wine

Tonight, try something new. Check out the 2012 Domaine Porto Carras Malgouzia, Regional Wine of Sithonia, $14.95,  a rich, dry, aromatic white wine from Greece. Domaine Porto Carras, one of Greece's most significant and globally-recognized wineries, saved this unique grape from extinction in the 1980's and '90's. It is round and silky with notes of tangerine, lemon, lime, apricot, bay leaf, dried oregano, white rose petal and oyster shell, and would be delicious with a dish of crispy fried fish. It is available here or at a store near you:
http://www.hitimewine.net/PORTO-CARRAS-12-MALAGOUZIA.html



Red Wine

Owner Steve Borra's grandfather came to Lodi from Italy. Winemaker Marcus Niggli came to Lodi from Switzerland.
With this European influence and vision, Borra Vineyards makes some of the most unique wines in California. I love the 2011 Borra Vineyards HERITAGE Field Blend Red Lodi $25. A blend of Barbera, Carignane, Petite Sirah, and Zinfandel, it is elegant, understated, complex and just perfect in body for a late summer/early fall evening. Try this wine with grilled Tri-Tip with side of wild mushroom risotto.
Available from the winery:
http://borravineyards.com/our-wines/








© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

74th DOCG Granted – Italy Celebrates a Serious Barbera

After a frenzy of new DOCG’s, many of them granted for less than serious wines in less than serious styles (think sweet, red and sparkling), Italy’s 74th DOCG, or Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, has been announced. Piedmont’s Nizza DOCG is official. The Consorzio Tutela Vini d’Asti del Monferrato agreed to elevate the Nizza subzone of Barbera d’Asti DOCG. With the endorsement of government committees in Rome and Brussels, this DOCG is effective with the 2014 harvest.

Nizza is in the Monferrato hills. These and the neighboring Langhe hills, home to Barolo and Barbaresco DOCG’s, are nestled between the Riviera and the Alps. While Asti in the center of Monferrato is famous for Moscato d’Asti, and Alba in the Langhe is known both for the famous white truffle, Tartufo Bianco d’Alba and its famous Nebbiolo-based wines, Nizza is making wine from the Barbera grape. This workhorse grape covers 35% of Piemonte and its wines are typically deeply fruity and highly pigmented with fresh natural and often biting acidity. Yet since the 1980’s dozens of producers have experimented with barrique aging for more serious wines. Many of those resulting wines, however, lost their freshness, finesse, and food-friendliness. The Nizza DOCG aims to showcase serious, balanced, expressive Barbera from only the finest years.

Nizza DOCG is with the Barbera d’Asti Superiore DOCG, but will require stricter selection from 18 communes in Asti rather than 160 in Asti and Alessandria, longer oak aging, higher minimum alcohol, and, for its Riserva designation, 100% Barbera as opposed to 90%. The new ruling allows for screw-caps, giving these wines a broader reach into the Asian and North American markets.

In years where Nizza Barbera growers cannot achieve the higher alcohol level, they may still bottle the wine as Barbera d’Asti DOCG, Barbera del Monferrato Superiore DOCG, or Barbera del Monferrato DOC, Monferrato DOC or Piemonte DOC.

While the EU would like Italy to align its DOC’s and DOCG’s into its DOP category, Federdoc’s executive director has stated the Italian government is allowed and will continue granting them.

For more information on Nizza DOCG, check out Italian Wine Central’s latest commentary and learn more about the Italian Wine Professional program that San Francisco Wine School is launching with them - http://italianwinecentral.com/interview-with-nizza-producers/.

Also check out the associazone produttori del nizza at - http://www.ilnizza.net/.

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Sabering Moet et Chandon Champagne at Sea

Sabering at Sea

Cellar Master Sasa Grujicic and Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis Saber Moet et Chandon Rose Champagne in tandem, in the Dining Room, on Holland America's MS Maasdam while sailing through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada.

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Malibu Coast Becomes an AVA

Photo Courtesy David Glancy MS,  SF Wine School

The 46 mile long and 8 mile wide Malibu Coast, with glitzy beachfront mansions and celebrity-filled Starbucks, is now an official American Viticultural Area, or American wine appellation. This is ironic in that the area is home to several low profile celebrity rehab facilities. Nonetheless, Malibu is making viticultural history, joining the ranks of high profile AVA’s including California’s Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley.

Elliott Dolin, proprietor of Dolin Malibu Estate Vineyards, helped initiate the AVA application in 2011, and is joined by 51 other wine grape growers in the area. There are not yet any local wineries. These small-lot artisanal wines are made at custom-crush facilities or at nearby Central Coast wineries for the time being. While the AVA includes the beaches, most of the grapes are grown inland, up in the Santa Monica Mountains. There are 198 acres of vines in production. The majority of the AVA is within Los Angeles County but it overlaps into Venture County. According to local growers, the coastal Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers and cool, moist winters is ideal for wine grape growing. In fact, the first vineyards were planted here in 1824, and shortly
afterwards Los Angeles County was leading the state’s wine production.

Dolin and his family planted a vineyard exclusively to Chardonnay in 2006, though they plan to release a proprietary red blend soon. The south-facing slope is behind
the family home near what is now the AVA’s western border, and is covered with a morning marine layer which burns off by afternoon. Plentiful bright, hot sun and then
cool evenings ensue, a formula that bodes well for both richness and ripeness but which
allows for naturally retained and lively acidity for balance. 

My students had the opportunity to taste the 2012 Dolin Chardonnay Malibu Estate Vineyard Los Angeles County$39 at the inaugural California Wine Appellation Specialist 3-Day Intensive in Santa 
Rosa in January 2014. The wine was rich and buttery with pineapple, lemon curd, lemon meringue and vanilla bean, and had a lovely creamy texture balanced out with lively coastal and cool hills acidity. Dolin’s 2013 bottling will be labeled with the new Malibu Coast AVA. Two previously established Malibu AVA’s, Malibu-Newton Canyon and Saddle Rock-Malibu are both within the Malibu Coast AVA. For wineries, events and
tours in Malibu go to http://www.winerymalibu.com/wineries.html .

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Umbrian Essence - Strada del Sagrantino

For lovers of Umbrian wines, the Sagrantino Umbrian Essence event, held on June 10th at San Francisco’s The Press Club, was a rare treat. Eight producers were on hand to showcase their wines, with an emphasis on the star of the region, Sagrantino di Montefalco.

The indigenous Sagrantino grape produces very tannic wines that are high in resveratrol. Local producer Marco Caprai, of Arnaldo Caprai, perhaps the best known producer in the region, says wine made from Sagrantino is the healthiest in the world. The Sagrantino di Montefalco DOCG must be100% Sagrantino, so the wines are rich, intense, and heartily tannic while young. They are similar in many ways to a Barolo, but are heavier and more bitter. The lighter, softer, and more affordably priced Rosso di Montefalco, a blend of 70% Sangiovese, 10-15% Sagrantino, plus up to 30% of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, is softer, lighter, fruitier, and easier to enjoy, if simpler.

Producers on hand included Antonelli San Marco, Arnaldo Caprai, Tenuta Castelbuono, Le Cimate, Perticaia, Romanelli, Scacciadiavoli, and Tenuta Bellafonte. After tasting through the reds, I stopped back at Scacciadiavoli to try their Rose Brut Metodo Classico, made exclusively with Sagrantino. I was blown away. Extended skin contact gave this rich, bone dry fully sparkling wine a soft, gentle, chewy tannic impression on the palate. Sparkling wine producers typically go out of their way to avoid skin contact. This was a first and I absolutely loved it. What passion and pride this producer has for their local grape!

The event was a joint venture between the Consorzio Tutela Vini Montefalco and the Strada del Sagrantino, or Sagrantino Wine Road, which winds through the hills and towns of Umbria, including Todi, Assisi, and Spoleto, giving tourists a road map to the various wineries, olive mills, castles, churches, museums, and monuments. Their saying is, “Strada del Sagrantino, Discover the Good Life.” I couldn’t agree more.

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The Cider Brothers from Lodi

Freshly fermented apple juice has characteristics similar to wine - tannins, acids, flavors, aroma and body, according to cider experts Michael and Paul Scotto, also known as the Cider Brothers. The Scottos, 5th generation vintners from Lodi, California, know a thing or two about wine and and wanted to dip their toes into the rapidly growing artisan Cider market.

Their recently released William Tell craft ciders, both a Hard Apple Cider and a Pinot Grigio Hard Apple Cider made with a base of California Pinot Grigio wine are bright, tangy, and much dryer than commercial ciders made from concentrate. Each 22-ounce bottle retails for $8.99, and they are Gluten-free.


For more information, visit www.CiderBrothers.com

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.