I am sure that all of you are familiar with enjoyment of fermented grapes. But, did you know today is ‘National Drink Wine Day’?  If so, I am sure that you are making an effort to support this vibrate ‘National’ holiday.

If you are not familiar, then I would suggest that you take some time this afternoon or evening to enjoy a glass or two of wine to support this fine day!  Please select a wine that you enjoy or perhaps you might want to do a bit of experimenting and branch out in your wine tastes. 

Let your friends know about ‘National Drink Wine Day’!  I am sure that they will want to join in the celebrations.

There has been a long haitus from posting on the blog.  Life has been keeping me rather busy with some good and some not so good things.   It has been a good reminder to focus on what is important in life — the rest will all sort itself out and to take one day at a time as you never know what is around the next corner.

I am going to post more often…maybe shorter than my regular posting but more often.

Lionheart Wines has been quiet of late.  But, that will be coming to end very soon.  I am refocusing my time and effort to help get Lionheart Wines to the next level.   I want to make sure that we have resources to make more wine this year.   The 2011 vintage is coming along in barrel.  I will be posting tasting notes tomorrow after doing some barrel tasting.   It will be really interesting to see how the wine has turned out compared to what I thought each vineyard would produce.

Until next posting….have a fantastic day!

-Leon

The Genophiles, a wine tasting group at Genentech, did a blind tasting of the following Lionheart Wines:
2007 Angel’s Share
2008 Angel’s Fare
2006 Syrah, Santa Barbara
2007 Syrah, Dry Creek Valley
2008 Syrah, Santa Barbara (available but not formally released)
2006 Roaring Red
2007 Roaring Red
2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

The Genophiles are a group known for being brutally honest and fairly harsh critics.  I encouraged the group to be completely honest as I wanted to get their input on how the wines are aging and overall quality.  The ranking system is 0 to 3 puffs with 0.25 granularity (the scoring system is hard to explain.  The simplied version is this: 0 = the worst, 1 = I would drink this (might even pay for it), 2 = 90+ points and 3 = I would stab someone else to get the last of the bottle.).  There are also +/- involved.  

There were about 16 people tasting the wine so the results tended to be on a good bell curve distribution.  The group generally does not taste white wines as they have a bias against white wine…not worth the time was the feeling I got.  The group was pleasantly surprised by the white wines (they grudingly agreed the wines were good ).  Any wines that score a 2 will be in the running to be included in their end of the year blind tasting competition. 

My guess going into the tasting was that the blends would do well — white and red.  I was hoping to get the whites to score in the 2 range as it would be a big validation for the classic blend of Marsanne and Roussanne (with a hint of viognier for aromatics).  My guess was pretty good about what they liked.  I also noted that they tend to like the more aromatic and powerful wines.

The final tally was:
1.5+ =-> 2006 Syrah, Santa Barbara
1.75 =-> 2007 Angel’s Share (92 pts WE)
1.75 =-> 2008 Angel’s Fare (preferred overthe 2007 slightly)
1.75+ =-> 2007 Syrah, Dry Creek Valley
1.75+ =-> 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (90 pts WE)
2- –> 2008 Syrah, Santa Barbara
2- =-> 2007 Roaring Red, California
2- =-> 2006 Roaring Red, California
2 =-> 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Normally, only 1 wine out of 8 hits the 2 range. So, I feel pretty good about how the wines are showing and aging.  The tasting does indicate that if you have 2006 Syrah, I would suggest that you break it out and enjoy it with some slow braised meat tonight ( especially lamb!)

Last weekend was the 2011 Livermore Barrel Tasting weekend.  It was a very enjoyable time sampling upcoming releases as well as tasting current vintages.  The rainy weather must have kept some people away as the crowds were on the lighter side on Saturday.

The wineries I tasted at were:

Fenestra Winery:
The 2010 Pinot Gris, Buttner Vineyard, barrel sample was quite nice.  It had a good viscosity with lovely pear, white flower and apple flavors/aromas.  The wine is being stirred every two weeks to help develop the mouthfeel. The wine will be bottled in May.

The 2009 Tempranillo, Raboli Vineyard, was a bit lacking in the mouth.  The aromas were of classic Tempranillo — red fruit and spice.

Of the current vintages, the 2008 Malbec and 2008 Cabernet Franc were both quite good.  I would recommend that go and try them.

 Page Mill Winery:
Page Mill’s barrel tastes were both quite good: Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah.  The Petite Sirah was a classic example of dense, chewy, blue/black fruit bomb in your mouth with very solid but fine grained tannins.  The Petite Sirah is a must try if you go to Page Mill. 

I also tried some of the existing vintages.  The chardonnay was not remarkable.  The other wines were fairly good — worth trying.  The people working in the tasting room were a lot of fun!

Darcie Kent (produced at Concannon) & Concannon:
Concannon is the oldest winery in Livermore.  They are known for their Petite Sirah and have championed it for over a hundred years.  Barrel samples were from Darcie Kent: Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon.  The barrel samples were fairly good.  It was very interesting to try the same wine but in different barrels (some new, some once used and one neutral).  All of the grapes are from the Livermore valley yet the wines were reminiscent of El Dorado Zinfandel and Napa Valley floor Cabernet Sauvignon.

The current vintages were all good examples of the respective varietals at nice prices.  If you are looking for value wines, I would suggest that you check out Concannon’s portfolio of wines.  You will not be disappointed.

Stony Ridge / Crooked Vine Winery:
The wines all showed a bit of brett contamination in the barrels.  The wines were not very good.  The winery site would be a good place for a picnic.

Steven Kent & La Rochelle:
The best wine that I tasted during the day was the 2009 Four Sisters Vineyard Pinot Meunier.  It is a great example of Pinot Meunier (normally used in making sparkling wine).  The futures price is $38 or $30.40 for 6 or more bottles.  If you have never tried a Pinot Meunier, you really should stop by La Rochelle and give it a try.  It will be worth your time to make the trip.

Cedar Mountain:
The wines were not particularly good.  They made quite a few sweet wines / pseudo-ports.  The wines were super sweet, the fruit flavors tended toward the overly ripe and the alcohol was not well integrated.  I can not recommend Cedar Mountain.

Les Chenes:
This is a small winery who were tasting two variations of the same syrah.  The wine was alright but nothing to go out of your way for.  They did have some very yummy brushette to have with the syrah.  It was a good combination.

Big White House & John Evan:
The winery tasting room was packed.  The wines were ok — some good, other not so good.  I did notice a hint of Brett in some of the wines.  I am rather sensative to Brett.  I get concerned about winery when several of their wines show Brett.  The tasting room would be a fun place to go with a group of people if you are wine drinking instead of wine tasting.

McGrail Winery:
We ended up tasting at McGrail Winery.  The Rose barrel sample was pretty good — Grenache.  If would be worth your while to give it a try.  The Cabernet Sauvignon and the Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blends were both good — not outstanding but enjoyable.  Several of the wineries tasting staff suggested McGrail.  I did not get to taste any of their current vintages which was unfortunate.  If you tasting in Livermore, make it a point to stop by McGrail winery.

The 20th ZAP Grand Tasting was a good time for all that attended.  The weather threatened to get ugly but thankfully, held off and ended up being a great day in San Francisco.

The number of wineries seemed to be lower than in past years which is a good and a bad thing.  The bad thing is less zinfandel to taste; the good was that there was more room in both of the event halls which seemed to help with crowd flow at the event.   Also, the casting call for a extras in a Matt Damon movie help keep down the number of barely legal drinkers who normally come to get drink instead of taste.

I was able to taste a large number of wines this year even with being a volunteer for 3 hours.  The wines of the 2008 and 2009 vintages were actually fairly consistent with a trend toward above average zinfandels.  The cooler years seemed to help with not having too many over-ripe fruit flavors and keeping the alcohol levels down to more reasonable levels (14% and 15% instead of some of the recent vintages where alcohol were easily up in 16%+ range).  The change in the fruit flavors and lower alcohol seemed to throw a few wine makers a curve ball as quite a few of the zinfandels that I tasted expressed too much oak in the nose and palate.

The wines of note for me were the following:

Black Sears Estate Wine, Angwin, Napa Valley, 707-963-1334, Website
2008 Black Sears Estate, Howell Mountain, $42 — I enjoyed this wine the most out of what I tasted.  It was very well balanced in aroma, palate, acidity and overall intensity.  It had the classic zinfandel fruit flavors with an added fresh cracked black pepper note that is so rare in Zinfandels now.  It had a very long, pleasant finished with a greater than usual acidity for Zinfandel.  The is lovely by itself but would spectactular with a peppered flank steak.

D-Cubed Cellars, St. Helena, Napa Valley, 707-963-5212, Website
2007 Howell Mountain, Howell Mountain, $37
This wine was really good!  The winemaker told me the fruit comes from the Black Sears Vineyard, so no big surprise that I enjoy it so much!  The wine was elegant, complex and layer in both aroma and palate.  The freshly cracked black pepper aroma and flavor lured you in to enjoy the rest of a balanced and layered fresh fruit flavors starting to show secondary flavors — flavors of black tea, red fruit, black pepper and slight brambleberry.

2007 Napa Valley, Napa Valley, $27 — this was very enjoyable but not as complex or elegrant as the Howell Mountain — primarily fruit driven with noticable tannins, a dense wine.

Klinker Brick Winery, Lodi, Lodi, 209-333-1845, Website
2008 Old Vine, Lodi, $18 — this was a fantastic wine especially for the price point!  The wine shows classed old vine characteristics — mixture of brambleberry, red fruit, black fruit, black tea and hint of floral.  The wine is medium density with a balanced level of tannins for the intensity of the flavors and palate texture.

2008 Old Ghost Old Vine, Lodi $37 — This wine shows vintage variation; this year is a very good year!  The wine is similar to the $18 but with more concentration, complexity and elegance.  This wine will age well which is rare for zinfandels.

Mazzocco Winery, Geyserville, Northern Sonoma, 707-431-8159, Website
They were pouring 8 different wines — most of them single vineyard designates.  The wines were excellent and worth the effort to seek them out. 

Good wines — Worth trying:
Artezin Wines, Napa, Napa Valley, 707-255-1144, Website — 2008 Dry Creek Valley, $25; 2009 Mendocino County, $20
Calcareous Vineyard, Paso Robles, Central Coast, 805-239-0289, Website – 2008 Twisted Sisters, Paso Robles, $20
Downing Family Vineyards, Napa, Napa Valley — 888-440-2468, Website – 2007 Fly By Night, Oakville, $24
Edmeades Winery, Santa Rosa, Mendocino/Lake — 707-522-6488, Website — 2008 Mendocino County, $18 (Very good especially for the price — on the lighter side); 2007 Ciapusci Vineyard, Mendocino Ridge, $35.  All of there Zinfandels were quite good but I liked the balance and elegance of the Mendocino County blend best.
Gamba Vineyards and Winery, Fulton, Northern Sonoma, 707-542-5892, Website – 2009 Old Vine, Moratto Vineyard, Russian River Valley $43 (typical Gamba — big, dense, fruit bomb — aka not quite Port but damn close!)
Kokomo Winery, Healdsburg, Northern Sonoma, 707-433-0205, Website — 2008 Mounts Vineyard, Dry Creek Vineyards, $32; 2008 Timber Crest Vineyard, Dry Creek Vineyard, $36
Mauritson Family Winery, Healsdburg, Northern Sonoma, 707-431-0804, Website — 2009 Dry Creek Valley, Dry Creek Valley $27; 2009 Rockpile Ridge Vineyard, Rockpile, $35
Miraflores Winery, Placerville, Sirra Foothills, 530-647-8505, Website — 2007 El Dorado, $22; 2008 El Dorado, $22.  These are very good, complex wines and nicely priced.
Pezzi King Vineyards, Healdsburg, Northern Sonoma, 707-473-4310, Website — 2008 Old Vines, Dry Creek Valley, $24 — highly recommended.
Seghesio Family Vineyards, Healdsburg, Northern Sonoma, 707-433-3579, Website — 2009 Home Ranch, Alexander Valley, $36; 2008 Cortina, Dry Creek Valley $36; 2009 Sonoma, Sonoma County, $24
Sextant Wines, Paso Robles, Central Coast, 805-542-0133, Website — 2007 Holystone, Paso Roables, $27; 2008 Wheelhouse, Paso Robles, $20, 2008 Central COast, Central Coast $15
Storrs Winery & Vineyards, Santa Cruz, Bay Area, 831-458-5030, Website – 2005 Lion Oaks Vineyard, Santa Clara County $34; 2006 Rusty Ridge, Santa Clara County, $30; 2007 Central Coast $20

For anyone interested in Zinfandel, you should seriously consider attending the Grand Tasting at Fort Mason on the 29th.  It is the 20th anniversary of the event!  Trade will start tasting at 10:00 AM and general public will be able to start tasting at 2:00 PM until 5:00 PM.

There will be a lot of people there but so will there be a lot of zinfandel. 

 Here is a link to official ZAP link: http://www.zinfandel.org/default.asp?cid=1&n1=15&n2=645#20414.  Here is a list of the participating wineries:

I would like to wish all of your a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!  The new year is nearly upon on us (11 hours away PST). 

How are you ringing in the new year: friends, big hosted party, a bottle or two of bubbles, great meal or some combination there in?  This New Year’s Eve is going to be a smaller and simplier party than in previous years — some friends sharing Jambalaya, light appetizers, board and card games but with a few adult beverages so see the new year in properly.

I hope you have a wonderful, safe and safe New Year’s Eve celebration!  Please make sure to have a designated driver if you are going to be out and about enjoying the evening celebrations.  A taxi is cheap while someone life and/or a DUI is not!  If you have any questions about your ability to drive, then you should not be driving for quite awhile.  So, find a fun place, good people and enjoy yourself!

My 2011 be a much better and more prosperous new year for you and your family!

I love Alsacian wines!  The wines of Alsace have bright, lovely acidity, wonderful aromas and fantastic in your mouth.  The wines happen to be primarily white which may be a turn off for some people.  But, I say give them a chance especially on Thanksgiving.  The region is known for Muscat Blanc, Rielsing, Pinot Blanc, Gewurtraminer and some Pinot Noir.  These varietals all work very well with traditional Thanksgiving foods.  The wines are generally dry but you can find some with a bit of residual sugar for people with a sweet tooth.

Last weekend, I was wine tasting in Anderson Valley in Mendocino County.  Anderson Valley is an appellation well worth learning about if you are not familiar.  The valley is known for its Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Gewurtraminer.   Excellent sparkling wine is also being made in the valley by Roederer Estate and Scharfenberger (once owned by Dr. John Scharfenberger of the chocolate fame — he has since sold it to Roederer Estate).  The valley is in a cooler climate zone relative to most California grape growing locations which the warmish days and cooler nights gives you excellent temperature spreads which encourage phenolic ripeness while maintaining great acidity in the grapes.  As I was tasting, it struck me in how similar many of the wines were in style, aromas and flavors as Alsacian wines. 

On the wine tasting trip, I went to the following locations:
Roederer Estate – I started the day of wine tasting in a very refined way — drinking sparkling wine at Roederer Estate!  I can not recommend stopping here highly enough.  The people and wines are both tremendous.  One of the great things is to try the same wine aged in a 750 ml vs. the same wine aged in a magnum.  The wine aged in a magnum is smoother, better autolysis flavors (toast, yeast, etc).  The price difference is only $5 more for the magnum (generally) but well worth the price difference.  Of the wines I tried, I really enjoyed the Brut NV, Rose Brut NV and the 2000 L’ermitage (in the magnum).

Husch Vineyards – Husch Vineyards is one of the oldest active wineries in Anderson Valley.  They produce a wide range of wines: Muscat Canelli, Riesling, Gewurtraminer, Carigne, Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Noir.  They make a dry and a sweet Gewurtraminer — both of which are quite good.  The white wines were better than the reds.  The tasting room is a converted small shack into a cute and eclectic which fits in well in Mendicino County.

Navarro Vineyards — Navarro Vineyards is a must stop by when in Anderson Valley.  The tasting room is very well appointed with many bars and has very nice people working in it.  They were pouring 18 wines when I was there — mostly all white varietals (Riesling, Muscat Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Gewurtraminer).  Navorro does produce some nice lower price point simple Pinot Noirs from Anderson Valley.  The Muscat Blanc, Pinot Gris, Gewurtraminer and Edelzwicker (blend of Riesling, Muscat Blanc, Gewurtraminer and Pinot Gris — a traditional blend in Alsace) were all very good.  We were also able to taste the 2008 Pinot Noirs and Syrahs that were bottled under a second label — Fireside — due to the smoke issues from all the fires in the Anderson Valley.  The Fireside wines were actually pretty good especially at the price of $12 / bottle; these wines would be great at any BBQ.

Standish Cellars – The tasting room is located in an old apple drying building.  The building is very cool and worth the time to check out.  The wines are quite nice but a bit on the pricey side.  The 2007 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir was very good and worth tasting.  You will not be disappointed.

Toulouse Vineyards – They are in the process of building a tasting room on the vineyard site.  The temporary tasting room was in the winery itself that had a wonderful homey and authentic feel to it!  When I get to building a winery / tasting room, I want it have this type of feel.  The wines were quite good especially their Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir!  The people are wonderful and this is well worth your time to taste their wines!  They also have great cheese crackers to cleanse your palate (impossible to just have one). 

Scharfenberger Cellars – Even though Roerderer Estate owns Scharfenberger now, they are maintaining the Scharfenberger house style quite faithfully.   The house style is made to suite the American palate (noticable residual sugar) vs. an older world palate (drier).

Jim Ball Vineyards — specializes in Pinot Noir and does a fantastic job.  If you are in the area, please go in and taste, you will be very glad that you did!  The vineyards were planted in 2000 with the first vintage being in 2004.  The Pinot Noirs are very good especially the owners blend.  The 2007 vintage is very good (as you might expect).

Londer Vineyards – they have a very nice tasting room in Booneville (eastern Anderson Valley) and have a wide range of excellent wines!  The white and red wines were equally good which is rare thing at a winery.  2008 Corby Vineyard Chardonnay is very good (the Robert Young clone is very distintive and enjoyable).  The three Pinot Noirs (2007 Anderson Valley, 2007 Ferrington Vineyards – Anderson Valley, and the 2007 Parabol Vineyard – Anderson Valley) that I tried were all very good and distinctive — you must try all of them.

If you are not familiar with the wines of Anderson Valley, it is well worth your time to learn more!

The label redesign process has finally gotten started!  Based on the feedback from the MBA marketing group, the lion image we have been using is not resonating with prospective purchasers.  The lion images that did resonate had a more artistic / artisan feel to them — watercolor of a ramprt lion.  The image is more of an impressionistic view of lion than the more realistic of the current version.   Do you agree that the more artisan lion would look better, be more engaging and attention getting than our current lion?

We are going to be using a different paper and move away from the foil stamping.  The approach here is more of the ‘Less is more’ theory.  The paper will be high quality ragged white paper. 

I would like the overall effect to be a classic label with a modern flare to it.  The label should make you think of a premium, artisan wine.  What qualities in a wine label make you think of quality, artisan/small lot, and premium product?  If you have any thoughts on this, please email me at lglover@lionheartwines.com.  (Note: I have had to turn off comments on posts due to excessive spam postings from IP: 69.174.246.208, monster-lite.com.  I am getting at least 20 spam posts a day now!)

As we get drafts/samples for the new label format worked out, I will post them to get peoples comments on them.  Your help will be most appreciated!

I was lucky enough to get an executive MBA marketing group to study Lionheart Wines.  The goal of the project was to see how the Lionheart Wine brand was received and how to make Lionheart more competitive.  The group spent quite a bit time and research to come up with their findings.  It was very helpful to see how Lionheart Wines was perceived vs. what message I have been trying to get across to the wine market. 

The main highlights was that report were:
1) Labels needs a bit of adjusting.  The artisan, small-lot nature of the wine was not coming through effectively enough.  I got some excellent suggestions on how to improve the label. The front label of the varietal wines (non-blends) were received better than the labels on the blends( Angel’s Fare and Roaring Red).   The back label — the one with the descriptions and food pairing recommendations — was received very well which made me happy.  I am in the process of working on getting some new artwork for the front label.  It make take a bit but the new release could use the time in shiners.

2) Pricing needs to be adjusted to reflect the new reality of the wine market.  I was not terribly surprised by this; I agree that it needs to be adjusted.  So, the new price list will be announced in the week or so via email, Facebook and twitter.  I hope the prices and quality of the wine will generate some interest as I need to get ready for the upcoming harvest.

3) Lionheart supports various charities.  There was suggestion to focus on a food-oriented charity given the food-friendly nature of the Lionheart portfolio.  It makes a lot of sense.  What charities would you recommend that I take a look at to support?  Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

4) The demographic that resonates with Lionheart Wines is: 30+ years old, well travelled, college educated and “foodies”.   So, it seems that the wine make to go with food does have a following out there!  I am going to be following up a suggestion from the MBA project team to try to collaborate with some of the underground dining / traveling chefs that have a bit of a following in the San Francisco area.  If you know of any restaurants, caters or underground dining operations that I should contact, please let me know!  Your suggestions would be very helpful.

There are going to be changes made in the operations of Lionheart Wines to serve you better.  It may take a bit to get them implemented but I am moving forward on it.  I will be posting information as items get implemented.