Auntsfield: Tonic for a heatwave

There's a reason I love the pinot noir grape so much. Besides the fact that it's delicious, it's fractious, mercurial and loving of cool breezes and shade---all emotions I can second. So, with the recent heat wave, I've been wishing someone would put me under a canopy! And I've been craving the white wines! So when Luscious Lush Thea sent over the invite for a free wine tasting of New Zealand wines I was all in (even though it meant literally speeding back to the east bay from a short exile in Cupertino!) Dreaming of crisp Sauvvy Blancs and interesting Chardos, I was not disappointed. Luc Crowley from Auntsfield Estates was pouring a refreshing 2007 Auntsfield "Long Cow" Sauvignon Blanc ($21). The wine was a pale, clear yellow and lush with fruit flavors more peachy than tropical, which I found delightful. Only slightly darker in color was the 2006 Auntsfield "Cob Cottage" Chardonnay ($26). This wine spends 10 months in French Oak and then goes to stainless steel tanks giving it luscious stone fruit flavors with balanced acidity to make it an easy drinking wine with none of the things that can so annoy about Chardonnay. The standout of the evening was the 2006 Auntsfield "Hawk Hill" Pinot Noir. Its intense mocha cherry aromas wafted over on the warm air as it was being poured. The flavors were bold with hints of brown spice, cassis, and beautiful stone fruit. Excellently balanced for acidity, this wine has a dark, intense vibrancy to the color and a silky richness to its texture. The finish was amazing! Luc Crowley the winemaker was charming and very informative and provided great information on everything we asked from how the wine was made to how New Zealand Wine Industry handles issues of sustainability. Thankfully he did not volunteer to guess our age or weight as was threatened in the invite from Solano Cellars. In gratitude, I made no references to Hobbits, Hobbit Caves or hobbitry of any kind

Lodi Rules!

Before you think all of yesterday's White Zin went to my head permanently, let me tell you Lodi Rules is a certification process that the growers of Lodi have put together to drive sustainable wine growing. I, myself, love Lodi wines and was thrilled to see that even though my bad planning left me shut out of every Slow Food Tasting Pavilion, I could still get a ticket to sip.

This class put together a lot of information in a short time and combined it with some fun tasting. Plus, it cleared up some misconceptions I had about how far away Lodi is (everyone I know in Sacramento assures me it's more than an hour away---it's really about 35 minutes! I have GOT to go!).

Since Lodi growers get about $500 a ton for their grapes when Napa growers get closer to $4000/ton, this program is working to differentiate Lodi and elevate its profile. In creating a comprehensive set of rules to drive towards sustainable growing, Lodi is putting itself at the forefront of a burgeoning movement to look not just at the environmental issues of sustainability, but also to create a tripod of balance around issues of economic viability and add to it something the 1920's founders of organic did not think of: Social Equity. Lodi's focus on the health of the community as a whole was interesting.

There's a cacophony in the marketplace: Bio dynamic? Organic? Sustainable? To sulfite or not to sulfite? To quell our inherent fear of "chemicals", the presenter pointed out, water is a chemical. In addition to the complicated alchemy of wine creation, guidelines to help navigate issues of how much power is used, quantifying human/social costs, etc are laid out in a handbook to provide Lodi growers with a blueprint for sustainability. As well, they view the topic of sustainability as a continuum to strive for instead of a Utopian end point past diminishing returns. The topics raised were interesting, however, the tasting was what we were all waiting for.

2007 Bokisch Vineyards Albarino: This was a stunning wine with a variety of rich fruity aromas. The notes described them as " Bosc pear, Fuji apple and mandarin rind" which seemed accurate for the melange of fruit. The flavor had a tropical presence with dried pineapple the most pronounced. Medium bodied, it had a lovely mouthfeel holding to the just the brink of

creamy. Delicious.

2006 Bokisch Vineyards Garnacha: Typical grenache has more of a delicacy of fruit that it contributes to blends or displays on its own, however, you could almost feel the heat of the Lodi sun blasting a rich volcanic clay loam to produce a heavier fruit presence. This wine initially had aromas of geranium and strawberry and then opened up to a nose of red fruit and a slight taste of tar on the mid palate underneath a plethora of berry, fruity tastes without being sweet.

2006 St. Amant Lodi Mohr-Fry Ranches Old Vine Zinfandel: I'm a girl who like her Zins in all their possible incarnations. This wine was a delicious surprise. Immediately opening up to pleasant aromas of vanilla and raspberry, they give credit to the Delta Breeze, that cool marine layer that wafts in from the San Francisco Bay, turning right toward Napa, but also blanketing Lodi with exactly what they need to produce delicious Zins. Slightly grippy, this was a wine that could match with a variety of foods easily. Delightful!

2006 Delicato 337 Cabernet Sauvignon: This wine was a last minute substitution for something lost in transit. It definitely would have benefited from some more attention. It needed time to open up and breathe. Initially the nose was all vinegar, but at the end of the class after a little more than an hour it had opened up to tasty licorice and Christmas spice. Beautiful dark color, but definitely did not drink like a Napa cab. Still, for such a young wine, it was delightful.

So, we have to go! Visit http://www.lodiwine.com/ to plan your visit. Guess what? The tasting rooms are still free!

Wine Wobbling Stay-cation

Okay, so I completely blocked the end of summer and forgot about Labor Day, so ended up deciding to stay local for the duration. And where else to start with the Bay Area's best value than the Wine Mine http://www.winemineco.com/ . For only $1.00, we tried 5 Pink wines. I love anything with that seductive blush hue. These wines ranged. My favorite, which I bought, was the pink Il, a charming pink prosecco from the Veneto region. I was particularly charmed by the way they got us to try the White Zin. As they poured the second choice, the server engaged us in a guessing game. So convinced was I that it would be Pinot Noir, I could actually smell the champagne bubbles. Then, he told me I was cold. But it was a Russian River varietal? We sipped, we swished we guessed---wrong. And then when we finally realized it had to be Zinfandel, white zinfandel we were so delighted with ourselves for guessing, it was fully five minutes before we realized. Hey, it wouldn't be the last of the White Zin for me, but then, I have a fondness for the 80's in general (is that VH1 classic marathon still going on?).

The convenience of the stay cation is that I could go home to drop off my purchases and avoid any risk of baking my wine, which I did on the way to the Art and Soul festival in Oakland.

This three day extravaganza hosts several stages of dance, blues, latin etc. And vendors galore purveying all manner of inappropriate food choices. So we wandered sampling sausages, snacks, Ethiopian honey wine observing the crowd, the booths and even spent some time watching the acts. But what I was really after was Barbecue. Xandria remembered a visit past and the best barbecue from some random place in Hayward. Of course at the end of out walk, adjacent to the blues stage we found a barbecue place with the only detail she could remember: Hayward. We got a plate of tri-tip and a plate of ribs and created a DIY combo. Xandria selected a Merlot. Inspired by my visit to the Wine Mine, I selected the Vendange White Zinfandel. Cool and slightly sweet, it stood up to the rich barbecue with a sauce redolent of smoky spices and slinky with honey, the meat perfectly cooked to a toothsome tenderness. After taking advantage of the washing up stations, we tried to go to the Franklin SquareWine bar http://www.fswinebar.com/, but alas, like last visit when they forgot about us and we huffed off to Sea Salt, we arrived too early and never made it back. I saw the Grayson cheese plate in the window, too. It would have been fun. Maybe later. Because the downtown was so crazy with Art and Soul folks, we opted for Lakeshore. And headed for the Vine Wine bar: 3343 Lakeshore Ave (between Lake Park Ave & Trestle Glen Rd)Oakland, CA 94610 (510) 444-8463 ww.vinewinebar.net It's a cute place and has those weird ATM style dispensers. I was pleased to see two varietals that have heretofore eluded me in my Century club quest: Arneis and Lagrein. However, they were having some challenges with the machines and some of the wines came out with an inappropriate and pronounced appley aroma and flavor. When the third pour we tried was "Calvados-like" we knew we had a problem. I tried the:

Jacuzzi Arneis

Lagrein (producer NA)

Ridge Chardonnay

Pahlmeyer Merlot

ZaZin! Old Vine Zinfandel

PlumpJack '04 Reserve Cab Sauv <----This wine was the standout of the day fully deserving of its WS 94 points. A great high point to end our day! This photo is Special to the Chronicle by Kat Wade. NOTE: If you are visiting this spot please resist the urge to douse your entire party in Victoria Secret Body butter. When we were there, we ended up upwind of a party of party people who resembled in an olfactory sense human Bath and Body shops. Nobody needs that much cheap perfume people!