Sipping Around Carlsbad

by Frank Mangio
Carlsbad is a lovely beach and BBQ town and a city that I have called home for many years. It never occurred to me until recently that in casting around for a story on a North Coastal San Diego community that seemed to be dominating the social wine scene, Carlsbad gets the nod.

Active, events-driven wine shops like Carlsbad Wine Merchants, Wine Loft and La Costa Wine Company compete with restaurants and resorts. New wine and dine places are going up in both the downtown district and village style shopping centers in new communities like Bressi Ranch.

Wine shoppers keep coming back to well run specialty centers like The Forum and Carlsbad Premium Outlets. The city even has its own winery by the sea with Witch Creek Winery, releasing 24 hand-crafted wines from its location on Highway 101. A few blocks away on

Carlsbad Village Drive, the classy, richly appointed PAON Restaurant and Wine Bar is attracting a big following with its steady stream of stylish wine events, including the legendary Frenchman Stephan Asseo of Paso Robles’ L’Aventure.

The winery was a perfect fit for the restaurant’s California-French cuisine and European style service. PAON was recently named the Best Restaurant in the San Diego area for 2010 by San Diego Magazine. The wine list has an abundance of Cabernet and Bordeaux style blends. L’Aventure has been a Paso signature winery for some 13 years and tonight was spotlighting its new release 2008 Estate Cuvee ($85.), a blend of 50% Syrah, 36% Cabernet and14% Petit Verdot, served with an Angus Veal entrée. Asseo’s pledge is to make “balanced wines for your pleasure.” He asserted that “Paso Robles is one of the few wine countries that French Bordeaux style wines co-exist with French Rhone style wines. This is why I left France. I could not do a wine like the Estate Cuvee there due to restrictions on blends. I don’t have a formula when I make this wine. I do have the freedom to create what the harvest, the earth and the weather have given me. I try all the grapes in my vineyard, come up with 5 or 6 blend combinations before choosing the best that I have tasted. 2008 was not the best for the cabernet, so I made this blend mostly Syrah. You can see and taste the strength in the 15.9% alcohol and the purple/black tones and flavors, with the long, spicy finish. This is an enormously balanced wine which will get even better with aging.”

It was an adventure (which is English for L’Aventure) to engage with this firebrand of fine wine. We hope to see more of Stephan Asseo and his passionate love of French style wines.

I was also fascinated by PAON’s well-cared-for retail wine shop, presently at 170 carefully selected bottles of fine wine, soon to be up to 400 bottles. It’s managed by Jen Graves who has been crafting her abilities for a number of years in San Diego. Not a day later, PAON hosted an important Italian wine tasting in cooperation with Maddelana Brands of Southern California, representing may fine Italian vineyards and wineries. As many of my readers know, Italian wines are more earthy, acidic and made to compliment food, than their California brethren. Names to know from this tasting included: La Montecchia from Veneto, Marotti Campi from Marche and Fornacina from Montalcino in Tuscany.

Other interesting Carlsbad locations for great wine and food are: the new Tommy V’s in Bressi Ranch, Vigilucci’s two locations, West and Bistro West and the Mediterranean Café. All will reward you with a Carlsbad style wine and food experience.

Merlot’s Comeback

I have to admit I am one of these closet Merlot fans that maybe roots for an underdog and hopes that this comeback kid rises from the ashes.

Merlot was blind-sided with a sucker punch when the enormously successful Sideways movie and its main character, Miles, slammed Merlot and put Pinot Noir on a pedestal. Merlot growers like Beringer and Provenance in the Napa Valley and a number of Washington growers are fighting back. In my top ten tasting, I placed the Grgich Hills 2006 Napa Valley ($42.) as a leading edge Merlot. At its best, Merlots like Grgich have that velvety, black cherry at the front palate. Many have said the ’07 is equally concentrated in lovely flavor that builds to rich, cherry /oak finishes. You will have to spend more for peak Merlot, but the rewards will be there.

Wine Bytes
Bacchus Wine Market downtown San Diego has a 4th of July BIG Zin and BBQ event Fri. July 2 from 4 to 9pm. Cost is $15. pp. Details at 619-236-0005.

Falkner Winery in Temecula Wine Country is celebrating its 10th Anniversary Sat. July 3 – Sun. July 4. Includes free Jazz music 12 to 3pm, BBQ, tours, hourly raffles and big discounts on their award winning wine. More info by calling 951-676-8231 x1.
San Diego State University is offering its “Exploring Wine” course Tuesdays, starting July 6 – Aug. 3 from 6 to 9pm. It’s part of SDSU’s certification program. Call 619-594-6924.

The Temecula Valley International Jazz Festival is on for Fri. July 9 – Sun. July 11. Prices start at $35. Acts include Herb Jefferies and Freda Payne, Poncho Sanchez and Trini Lopez. Full details at 951-678-2517.

Temecula Valley Wines Win Big in SF Competition

by Don McAuliffe

Wines from the Temecula Valley walked off with 12 medals at the first wine competition of the year. Held during the second week of January at the Cloverdale Citrus Fair, the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition 2008 featured wines from nearly every major wine-producing region in the United States.

Among more than 4,200 wines from 1,500 wineries, Stuart Cellars 2006 Syrah ($35) won double gold and best of class in its price category. Falkner Winery’s 2006 Sauvignon Blanc ($16.95) also won a double gold and best of class in its price class.

Ray Falkner of Falkner Winery - Photo Courtesy of Valley Business Journal

Maurice Car’rie’s 2007 Sauvignon Blanc ($12.95) received a gold, a reflection of the region’s emphasis on quality wines. “The Temecula Valley region is proud to have won some of the more prestigious awards at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition,” said Ray Falkner, winery owner and president of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association, which represents more than 60 growers and vintners. “To have two of our wines win Best in Class reflects that the quality of wine produced in Temecula is every bit as good as that of any of the wine regions to the North.”

Also receiving medals were Falkner Winery’s 2006 Viognier ($21.95), 2004 Amante ($24.95) 2004 Meritage ($29.95), 2004 Syrah ($24.95) and 2004 Merlot ($21.95); Stuart Cellars 2005 Tatria ($38) and 2005 Long Valley Red Meritage ($65); La Cereza Winery’s 2006 ($24.95) Viognier and Girlfriends ($16.95) white blend; and VR Winery’s 2006 Gewurztraminer ($14.95)

Bordeaux ’05 Vintage Over the Top

by Frank Mangio

The world’s largest fine wine growing area, the mighty Bordeaux appellation on France’s west coast, has proven once again, it is the yardstick to measure all great wines. Its’ “Bordeaux Style” was the blueprint for a once neophyte Napa that took this blend and made it their own. Now, the Bordeaux 2005 vintage is showing up in wine departments and shops everywhere and the raves are unanimous. The prices are sure to please.

Of course you can pursue at Chateau Lafite Rothschild, one of a handful of premium, so called “first-growth” wines at hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars, but the good news here is that most ’05 Bordeaux wines are beautifully crafted and priced within reason. For the price of the Rothschild, you can pick up some 30 bottles of most others. The Bordeaux terroir claims some 12,000 vineyards in two distinct districts: the West Bank consisting of Haut-Medoc (oh meh doc) and Pessac-Leognan (pay sac lay oh nyahn); and the Right Bank with St-Emilion (san tem eel yon) and Pomerol ( pohm eh roll). Both areas grow Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, as well as Cabernet Franc. The really great Cab blends are found on the Left Bank, with luscious aroma and taste of the earth with significant black currents, plums and spice. These wines can be very dry for the first few years with heavy tannin influences. Eventually they will show complex bouquet and soften to a velvety texture. The Right Bank wines of Pomerol and St-Emilion are different in that they mature faster, with more of a Merlot influence which makes them less tannic.

Recently, Meritage Wine Market in Encinitas hosted Aquitaine Wine Company of Bordeaux, a “negociant” ( representative) for a number of small, well-known wineries on both sides of the “banks.” Three of their vineyard clients ( shown in accompanying photo) presented their ’04 and ’05 offerings: Kirwin from the Margaux district, Canon La Gaffeliere, D’Aiguihe, Peyreau, Lussac, Vieux Maillet, Franc Mayne, Dassault and La Fleur, all from the St. Emilion district.

Jean-Christophe Calvet, President of Aquataine was excited about the excellence of the ’05 harvest and the artisan style, handcrafted wines he represents. “Our wines are especially food-friendly with this harvest. With the right bank, you have the kingdom of Merlot, growing beautifully in our clay and limestone. In all of the Bordeaux terroir, you have, like spices in food, five different varietals blended together, the others being Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, Petite Verdot and Malbec.” I asked him about the great number of small production vineyards and how they all fit in. “There are over 50 appellations in Bordeaux”, he answered. “Over 800 million gallons of wine are produced. Over 12,000 chateaus grow grapes and they average about 50 acres each. Our winemakers here are from the St Emilion area of Bordeaux, truly the most exciting of the Merlot growing areas in the world.”

Count Stephan von Neipperg, a German owner and winemaker from Chateau Peyreau and a “Grand Cru” grower whose family of winemakers dates back to the 13th century, was pouring the ’05 Peyreau and Canon La Gaffelier, two high quality “luxury” wines. “Only 5% of all these vineyards in Bordeaux are really making great wines and paying particular attention to four fundamentals of these excellent wines: the soil or terroir, the knowledge of making quality wines, the patience to understand how to make great wine and the money to invest in the number of years it takes to make great wine. You cannot make great wine and make a lot of wine. In our business, small production means a better chance for great wines.”