Linne Calodo

It's clear that I enjoy many wines from the Paso Robles area. Most of the wineries I like best are on the west side of highway 101, although there are a couple on the east side that I like as well.

A few years back, my wife and I stopped by the Linne Calodo winery. It was more of a barn, really. Nothing fancy. Dirt Road. Big wooden doors. Not the shiny kind.

Tasted two or three wines. I don't remember.

And they were fantastic. So, we bought one bottle. The Outsider. A blend of about 63% Zinfandel, 20% Syrah, and 17% Mourvedre.

And I put it in my Vino Temp. Until last night.

We opened it as part of a home cooked Valentine's dinner. Shrimp Alexander. Baby Greens Salad. Grilled Cajun Prime New York Steak.

And The Outsider. The wine was fantastic. It had amazing structure. The nose was intoxicating. The food pairing was perfect.

The bottle was gone in less than an hour.

That never happens here. It usually takes 2-3 hours.

We couldn't get enough of it.

I'm going back for more.

Cheers!

Denner

Paso Robles would be nothing but a roadside truck stop if not for the wineries and vineyards there. And it would be just a bit more than nothing if the wine wasn't any good. Fortunately, neither is the case.

I know there are people who pride themselves on finding those subtle little wines whose flavors and nuances are buried beneath the surface and are more difficult to detect than Waldo but I'm not one of 'em.

I like flavor. I like complexity. And I'm of the opinion that if I have to spend minutes trying to figure out the little essences that make a wine special, then it probably isn't very special and I'm diluting myself into believing that the price I paid for it was justified.

This is why I like Denner. They make great wines. They make flavorful wines. They make complex wines. They make several wines that age nicely. They make wines that I keep coming back to.

They make wines that taste like wine. These wines have fruit flavors without being overly ripe and obvious but generously enough so that I don't have to hunt and peck to taste them. These wines also finish nicely.

And the go great with food.

I'm not going to go into many details but the Ditch Digger, Dirt Worshipper, and Syrah are fantastic. And, although I tend to focus on reds more often than not, their Theresa and Viognier are wonderful.

For the person used to dropping $10-15 per bottle on wine, Denner might seem a bit pricey, generally falling between $30-45. But I've paid $70-80 on wine that isn't even in the same league as the Denner wines.

Of course, we're not talking about everyday drinking wines (although to drink them everyday would be a distinct pleasure). We're talking about wines for special occasions, friends coming over for dinner, Valentine's day, birthdays, graduations, etc. (College graduations that is)

Denner. It's one of the reasons that Paso Robles is much more than a truck stop. It's one of the reasons that I keep going back to Paso Robles.

Cheers!

Regional favorites...

I love trying new wines. I wander aisles at various stores - grocery and wine warehouses - looking at labels, reading the tasting notes, ratings, etc... and comparing prices...

The underlying question I usually have is, how much great wine can I get for the least possible price?

This line of thinking clearly eliminates such gems as Insignia and Opus One. But it also eliminates such wimps as Charles Shaw and... well, plug in most under $4 bottles of wine here.

I also look at where the wines are from and I find that I have favorites from general areas, new world specifically, that I enjoy frequently and trust for quality while remaining somewhat within my budget.

For your amusement (and possibly mine as well) here's a short list. This is always subject to change and just happens to include wines that I'm thinking of now....

Washington State - Columbia Crest
Oregon - Ponzi
Napa Valley - Mondavi
Sonoma - Rosenblum
Paso Robles - Denner
Santa Barbara County - Sea Smoke
Lodi - Michael David
Chile - Concha Y Toro
Australia - Mollydooker

Of course, there are many more from these areas that I really enjoy.... but these are what come to mind today....

Cheers!

Wine notes from the road....

Let's start with a visit to Barnes And Nobles in Chico, CA... walking around during a rare visit with mom... not because mom and I aren't close, but because of geography... I find the Twinkies Cookbook. Something is very wrong here!Anyway, later that evening, I visited my dad... and we grilled up some rib-eye steaks - purchased at Costco for the bold price of only $7.99/lb. I've not found better meat at a lower price anywhere.

The wine we enjoyed was the 2007 Mollydooker Two Left Feet. I really like this wine and wanted to turn my dad onto it as he's a big fan of Australian Shiraz - the cheap stuff - because it's good and cheap. The Mollydooker is bold and full of flavor... dark berries, licorice, mocha, and holds up very well rib-eye steaks. Oh, did I mention that we cooked over oak and manzaneta?

Well, my journey had a few other detours as well. I had the distinct pleasure of visiting The Wine Room in Paradise, CA. This is a charming little boutique with quite an inventory of gifts, cards, and various trinkets that my wife might be more familiar with than I am.... but they have a very nice little wine inventory.... in fact, I found the magnificent 2005 Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet here and bought one.... I think they have 3 or 4 left. It paired very nicely with grilled slightly Cajun-spiced salmon - again cooked over oak.
Of course no visit to the Chico/Paradise area is complete without a stop by the Sierra Nevada Brewery. Dad and I enjoyed a nice lunch - a nice hoppy Torpedo IPA - and a small tour of the facility. If you're ever in town, visit the Sierra Nevada brewery. The food is great, the building is beautiful, the people are honestly friendly, and the concert hall deserves a peek as well. Oh, the tour area smells like fresh hops!

After leaving Paradise, I made my way down to Moss Beach to visit family and enjoy more wine and food. The Seal Cove Inn is a wonderfully charming chateau located within walking distance from the ocean, a bunch of seals, and a fantastic sunset! Looking over this while enjoying the 2006 Rosenblum Lyons Reserve Zinfandel from Napa Valley is a pleasure all by itself.

Well, two days at Moss Beach and we were back on the road, stopping in Paso Robles at the Denner Winery to check out their new member facility. It's beautiful. The view is sensational. The people are very nice. The wines are great. Enough said.

The trip culminated with a visit to friends in our local area to enjoy some homemade pizza and a nice bottle of 2004 Columbia Crest Walter Clore Reserve. Well, we also opened a bottle of 2005 Turnbull Cabernet and a bottle of 2006 Provenance Cabernet and.... needless to say, we slept very well that night.

When all is said and done, a couple of nights ago, an old friend visited and we duplicated menu items from the Morton's Steak Bible - bacon-wrapped scallops, Cajun rib-eye steaks (I'm a big fan of rib-eye)... their signature spinach salad (in the cook book but no longer on their regular menu)... and washed it all down with a bottle of 2005 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir and a 2006 Justin Isosceles.
It's been a great month... a tasty month.... and one filled with good food, tasty wine, and, most of all, great friends and close family. It doesn't get much better than this.

Justin Malbec

I love the Justin wines, for the most part. The good stuff is really freaking good. I mean, world class good. The Isosceles is year by year one of the most consistently good wines I've ever had... and I've been drinking every vintage 9 years running.

Their reserve wines... especially the Savant (Cab/Syrah blend) and Cabernet, are simply wonderful, as is the Justification. If you know anything about Cheval Blanc, taste the Justification - Merlot/Cab Franc.... wonderful wine with amazing structure, tannin, and dark fruit.

The Justin white wines... well, I'm not going to focus on these... that's not what they really do best.

But the reds.... that brings me to the 2007 Malbec. We opened a bottle last night with some DiGiorno pepperoni pizza (I always add more cheese and pepperoni) along with a nice romaine salad... and the wine was perfect! It has luscious fruit - blackberry, boysenberry, with some nice cocoa power and mocha on the finish. Great wine - especially for the $20 that it's easily worth.

Congrats to Justin again for a job well done.

Cheers!

Central Coast Musical Road Trip

Okay, I can't visit the Central Coast of California without thinking about wine. Everywhere I go, drive, walk, stay, there are reminders of the rich winemaking that exists all up and down highways 101 and 1 - extending from Santa Barbara up to Paso Robles and everywher in between. Hotel lobbies are full of brochures on wine trails and vineyards that one can visit. There are simply too many to catch in one day... or one week.... I estimate it would take 2-3 years for a serious wine lover to vist all of the wineries in this area.... over 500 of them.

Thing is, we weren't there for the wine... we were there for the music. My daughter, Jamie and I perform as The Beckers - a Rockin' Family Friendly Father Daughter Musical Duo. We performed at Bernadette's on July 4, Last Stage West on July 5, and returned to Los Angeles for a show that happened to be cancelled at the last minute. This didn't matter... we had a great trip, met some really cool people, and tasted some good food! Also, thanks to Hotwire and Priceline, we were able to get some semi-premium lodging at rock-bottom prices.

Along the way, however, I did manage to have some wine. We stopped in the Olive Garden in Santa Maria on Sunday night and I had a glass of the Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot... 2006, I think - anyway, this is a great wine. After two days of bbq food, burgers, ribs, etc, I settled on their breadsticks and salad bowl. My daughter (who is only 14) had the Poratabella Mushroom Ravioli.... she shared a bite with me and I washed it down with the merlot.... very nice!

This stop was after a 3 hour show at the Last Stage West in Atascadero... if you're ever in the area, stop by, have some incredible slow-cooked baby back ribs and say hello to Tom. The folks there are more hospitable than many that I've seen at fancier places, and the food is simply fantastic! Tom also has a small wine selection from local vineyards in Paso Robles - diverse enough to please anyone who likes wine with bbq.

On Monday morning, we drove down Highway 1 through Lompoc and stopped at the warehouse at 333 Highway 246 to pick up my 2007 Sea Smoke purchase. I can hardly wait to open one of these bottles. It's one of my favorite wines a few years running and I've no reason to believe that the 2007 will dissapoint. Although I believe there's been some personnel changes at Sea Smoke, the location of their vineyards and the high expectations will make the production of top notch Pinot a mere link in a very successful chain of great Pinot from Sea Smoke.

Well, I realize this is a bit incoherrent, but I don't really care. It was a great weekend.... some wine, lots of music, and good times with Jamie and my wife, Eva. Heck, even Michelle and Kristna joined us from UCSB on Saturday at Bernadette's.

Cheers!

Justin and Denner...

Hi. Just for fun, I thought I'd take a couple of pictures for this post.... a 6 year vertical of Justin Isosceles - 2001-2006.... and 4 of my favorite wines from Denner... The Dirt Worshipper, Ditch Digger, Syrah, and Zinfandel...

Free dinner and a bag of pasta????

About a week ago, I got this white paper bag from Carino's restaurant (www.carinos.com) that provided for one free create-your-own pasta dinner (value $9.99) and the restaurant would fill the bag with one pound of uncooked pasta. Not a bad deal.

So, I went to the local Carino's here in Whittier and - yeah - brought my own bottle - a 2007 Justin Cabernet. I've been wanting to sample the wine anyway and figured a pasta dinner would be a good pairing.

I was right. I ordered bow tie pasta with a spicy marinara sauce and meatballs. Simple.

First off, the food was actually quite good. There was just enough spice to give the dish a kick; the pasta was cooked just the way I like it - slightly firm... and the meatballs were yummy.

The Cab was very nice; the 2007 Justin Cab is a bit more... dare I say it... 'refined' than some of the prior vintages... I like this one... it's not a fruity beast as many Paso Robles cabs tend to be. Instead, it's got lots of medium berry fruit with almost a dusty cocoa powder finish, all wrapped neatly in soft tannins...

No, didn't finish the whole bottle... or the whole meal, for that matter. Got leftovers! Besides, I want to see how the cab tastes tonight after being open for 24 hours...

That's my story.

Cheers!

Location, Location, Location

Why are wine grapes grown in amazingly beautiful areas? Is it the grapes over rolling hills that create the majesty or are the vineyards merely an enhancement to a beauty that is already there?

One of my favorite things to do is drive the back roads at Paso Robles, Los Olivos, Santa Ynez, or Sonoma County. Although Napa certainly is beautiful, the other areas I mention are predominately made up of winding roads through hills and valleys... sharp turns... actually, quite fun... and beautiful.

For me, this adds so much to the romanticism that I associate with enjoying fine wine or even just tasting... it's almost like disappearing into another time and space.

You see, I grew up in a town called Paradise, CA... a place with rivers, trees, and - you got it - winding roads... roads that don't even have yellow or white lines dividing opposing traffic. However, for the last 25 years, I've lived in Los Angeles. Living in the city has given me a perspective on the areas where what I call the blood of the earth grows.

We keep saying that, someday, we're going to live in one of these areas... or nearby. That hope and dream is still alive and I give it over to timing as several family schedules and educational/graduational events need to coincide for the timing to be right. But, when those planets collide, we're there.

The wine is wonderful. The locations are beautiful. The experience is unforgettable.

Paso Robles.... quick trip...

Okay. Visited Denner Vineyards on Wednesday. I had much driving to do so I decided that one wine-tasting visit was all that was appropriate... stopped at Denner and tasted their 2007 Zinfandel, 2005 Syrah, and 2006 Ditch Digger.

Damn, these guys do a nice job! The Zinfandel is phenomenal... just wildly spicy and filled with wild berry flavors... and the finish hung around like someone in line for ride a Disneyland. Exciting wine!

From there, I dropped off a couple of bottles (from my cellar) as a gift to a friend, and continued my journey to Berkeley to pick up my daughter.

That's it. I love what they are doing at Denner; if you're in the Paso area, check 'em out.

Cheers!

Passing through Paso...

This week I drive up to Berkeley to pick up my daughter.... this is always a joyful occasion as we are a very close family and we're looking forward to a few days together. Meanwhile, driving from Los Angeles to the Bay Area also presents another opportunity... to cruise on up the 101...

This charts a course through Santa Barbara and Paso Robles... certainly presenting opportunities to stop in and see what's going on at some of the local wineries...

On this trip, I will most likely stop at Denner and Justin... two of my favorite wineries. The folks there are as hospitable as can be and the wines are always fun and tasty. It's also possible that I'll make a stop in Los Olivos... perhaps taste some Andrew Murray (in the words of Miles from Sideways, "Well Okay").

The highlight, of course, is picking up my daughter. But along the way, stopping by wineries is much more fun than just cruising non-stop on the freeway.... maybe I'll check hotwire.com or priceline.com and book a room - turn the whole thing into a mini-vacation.

Cheers!

Denner Vineyards in Paso Robles

Okay. Nobody pays me to say this, but I love Denner wines. I just opened a bottle of their 2007 Viognier and it was spectacular.... tasted like - well, fruit... peaches, maybe some nectarine, nice acidity... didn't even have it with food... but that's not all... the Denner Syrah from 06 is really wonderful - balanced - white peppery and blackberrish... (how's that for a word)... of course, I also recommend their Ditch Digger and Dirt Worshiper... great with steak... damn, I love a good steak... oh, and their Zinfandel. I've had the 05, and 06, and I can hardly wait to taste the 07. Paso Robles is the perfect breeding ground for Zin and Denner does a fine job of producing a silky smooth, somewhat spicey - cinnamon, clove, and nutmet anyone?

Just buy it.