Twelve Wines Winery

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  August 2009

  Twelve Pinot Noir 2006

  Snoothrank:

  No written review

  Wine review by BreezeScreamer

  
  
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  July 2009

  Twelve Pinot Blanc 2005

  Snoothrank:

  Tried at the Brooklyn in Seattle. Really enjoyed.

  Wine review by lisalawyer

  
  
• 

  January 2009

  Twelve Pinot Noir 144 2005

  Snoothrank:

  Solid Oregon Pinot ... in fact I think this is better pinot than some of the better known names. Very burgundian in style with silkiness and a nice earthiness with good layers of red fruit.

  Wine review by HondaJohn

  
  

• Jan 30

  Contact information edited for this page.

  Page modification by HondaJohn

  
  

• Jan 30

  Description added for this page.

  Page modification by HondaJohn

  
  

• December 2008

  With Black Friday and Internet Monday behind us with a swift kick to the start of the Holiday shopping season, PNC Wealth Management, the team that has been reporting annually since 1984 the total cost of the items in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” released this... Read moreWith Black Friday and Internet Monday behind us with a swift kick to the start of the Holiday shopping season, PNC Wealth Management, the team that has been reporting annually since 1984 the total cost of the items in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” released this year’s tally. The gifts will set you back $21,080.10.  Up 8% year over year (more than double the Consumer Price Index YOY).  So, in the holiday spirit, I thought I would take the liberty to recreate my own Twelve Days of Christmas inserting the wines on my wish list this year and the cost of these wines based on a simple Snooth search.  Let’s see if I break the bank. On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, My true love sent to me…. Twelve drummers drumming, This is my chance to beat the drum for a case of wine.  So, I’ll close my eyes real tight and hope the big man with the big beard and red sack is carrying twelve bottles of 1989 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis.  At $435 a bottle, that’s a fast start at $5,220.  But, hey, we’re in Italy, no better way to travel then in the breathtaking and beautiful reference point for racecars, a Ferrari. Eleven pipers piping, Pipers. How about Piper-Heidsieck Champagne?  Although good, I prefer Delamotte, Salon’s second label.  I’ll go Non Vintage on this one at $40 a bottle.  Total: $440. Ten lords a-leaping, Frog’s Leap, of course.  I’ll take ten bottles of 2003 Cabernet.  A Snooth search found the wines at $31/bottle.  A steal at $310. Nine ladies dancing, Champagne gets everyone dancing, but I got my fill already.  So, how about slow dancing with DuMOL’s 2006 Chardonnay “Isobel.”  Upon mailing list release the wine cost something like $60 a bottle.  That’s $540. Eight maids a-milking, Milk and wine don’t mix.  But the PNC report suggests that the “maids” would be eight minimum wage farmhands.  In California, minimum wage equals $8 an hour.  My favorite $8 wine is… who am I kidding?  I can’t remember the last $8 wine I drank and this is a wish list.  So, how about $50 a bottle; then, I’ll take ten bottles of Saint-Julien “Third Growth” Chateau Lagrange (2005).  There will be a great many wines on this list; some will need a little cellaring. $400. Seven swans a-swimming, It would be easy to insert a Joseph Swan Pinot Noir here, but instead, I am going to accept all seven Domaine de la Romanee-Conti wines (six Pinot Noirs and one Chardonnay).  Echezeaux, Grand Echezeaux, Romanee St. Vivant, Richebourg, La Tache, Romanee-Conti and Montrachet.  In the secondary market, DRC can fetch more than $3,000 a bottle for a recent vintage.  Seven bottles will break the budget, so why not spend $21,000 swimmingly. Six geese a-laying, Here are six bottles of wine I will need to lay down as well. A vertical of Haut-Brion starting from legendary vintage 2000 and ending with another legend, 2005.  That will cost a savvy shopper around $4,000. Five golden rings, Portia, the heroine of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, questions her prospective suitors with a choice between three casks filled with gold, silver and iron.  Win or lose her love, I’d think we’d all pick the gold.  So, I’m going with Oriel wine company’s golden delicious blend of Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Tocai, called Portia.  For twenty bucks a bottle; times five, that’s a mere $100. Four calling birds, I’ll give into buying by the label on this one and begrudgingly accept four bottles of Blackbird Vineyards 2005 Proprietary Red at 80 bucks a bottle.  $320 total. Three French hens, Viognier from Condrieu is so seductive, I’ll “cap” these French hens with Rene Rostaing’s 2004 La Bonnette Condrieu.  At a total of $141, and after consuming three bottles in one night, you’ll need more than a rooster to wake me in the morning. Two turtle-doves, In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is symbolized by a dove.  In the spirit of the passing of France’s finest Sauvignon Blanc maker, Didier Dagueneau, I will take a bottle of Silex and one of Pur Sang.  That’s $131. And a partridge in a pear tree! Sticking with an alliteration, my partridge in a pear tree will be a bottle of Petrus.  How about the Roberta Parker perfect scorer from 1990?  At auction recently, it hit a high of $3,872.  A fine finisher to a list that has gone way over budget.  $36,444.  An average of $467 a bottle, egad!  But, yes (maybe), Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  Hopefully he won’t be carrying any Virginia wines with him.  (Just kidding, you fine winemakers on the East Coast!) Dan Petroski is Assistant Winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley. Dan has an MBA from New York University and worked as an Ad Exec in New York for several years, before switching it up and trading his suit for a move out west.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic The Twelve Days of Christmas by Dan

  
  

• September 2008

  It has been a little over one month since we first harvested Sauvignon Blanc on a scorching summer day. In the weeks that followed, the seemingly endless heat wave that hit Northern California from middle August to early September subsided. Since then, we have harvested about 50%... Read moreIt has been a little over one month since we first harvested Sauvignon Blanc on a scorching summer day. In the weeks that followed, the seemingly endless heat wave that hit Northern California from middle August to early September subsided. Since then, we have harvested about 50% of our red wine grapes; starting with Merlot on September 4. A frightening thing happened when we started harvesting Merlot . When the small, tight, thick-skinned, purple pearls dropped from the destemmer our must pump would not carry the grapes to tank. So, we had to carry 12 tons of Merlot in five gallon buckets (about 40 lbs) up the cat walk and hand dump the grapes into tank. It was fun the first few flights, but when the day waned on, the only thought I had was, if this is a sign of things to come, this is going to be one physically demanding harvest. Thankfully, when we started picking Cabernet last week, the grapes were a bit juicier and the pump was working again. There was a bright spot in Merlot’s ominous start. Due to the extreme weather conditions in Napa this year, grape cluster weights have been abnormally light and berry sizes intensely small. As we tracked the vineyard’s development throughout the growing season, we anticipated these yields. But the old adage is, if you think you will have a big crop, it will be bigger, if you think you have a small crop, it will be smaller. In the Merlot section of our vineyard, where we typically farm four tons to the acre, we harvested less than two tons an acre. We consoled ourselves with the inherent quality that is expected in a small crop year. Small crops bring out the best in wine grapes - highly concentrated wines with firm structure and power that derive from low juice to skin ratios. At the time of today’s post, we’ll be pressing off the Merlot and settling the free run before barreling down the young wine to finish fermentation in barrel. In my next post I will outline in pictures the sorting process - the process that gets the grapes to the tank for fermentation. But today, I will talk a little about fermentation management. With the heavy lifting behind us, it was time to let the Merlot grapes soak for a few days on their skins. Many philosophies and studies have been done about pre-fermentation maceration, i.e. the cold soak. Some winemakers and some grape varieties react differently during this period, but the general consensus is that the optimal cold soak (whether three days or thirty days depending on the winemaker’s style) will enhance color extraction and stability during the pending fermentation process. You can control the duration of the soak with temperature, keeping it cold, to inhibit native fermentation from taking place. Fermentation occurs when the yeasts present in the fruit come in contact with the sweet juice releasing from the berries in a warm environment. Stick twelve tons of grapes in a closed vessel and I promise it will get warm and sticky pretty quickly. We chose to soak for four days before jump-starting fermentation by inoculating with an un-intrusive yeast strain that allows the fruit to develop its own character during the fermentation process. After inoculating, there are a couple of different fermentation management processes. In order to facilitate this process we choose to aerate the juice by using a method called pumping-over, a process the French call remontages. With the use of an impellor pump we drain the juice from the tank and sprinkle it over the top of the tank back onto the grapes. As the fermentation progresses we choose to aerate the juice to supply oxygen to the yeast to keep them active. On the front end it is a savage process and on the back end it is soft and subtle. Pictured at right is what we call a tub and screen pump-over. We drain the juice from the tank and it pounds through a screen, a sieve, before we pump the accumulating and aerated juice back onto the skins. On a daily basis, it is our goal is to have all the available juice come in contact with the grape skins to develop extraction. Think of macerating a tea bag in boiling water. If left to its own device, the tea bag will float on top of the water and produce little flavor. If gently bobbed in the water by the drinker’s hand, color and flavor will fill your cup gradually. This is an easy way to think about why we have to assist the grape juice to come in contact with the skins during this process. As the wine ferments, changing sugars to alcohol, its offshoot is carbon dioxide (CO2) that lifts the skins to the top of the tank. Think of the tiny bubbles in your carbonated water rising to the top of your glass. Add a lemon slice to your Pellegrino and it floats. At this point, it is said the “cap” (the grape skins) has risen, and if you do not continue your pump-overs (or punch-downs, the process of physically submerging the skins in the juice) you will not fully extract the wine’s flavors and structure from the grape skins. During this chemical process, the grape must heats up naturally, the tough berries soften and begin to release their sugary juice and the yeast strains feed on the sugar converting them to alcohol. We believe that the grape juice is “dry” (containing little or no sugar) at one gram per liter (of liquid). That’s 1/1000 th parts sugar per liter, 33 ounces of liquid. Or a scant amount of sugar in your (750 mL, 24 ounce) bottle of wine. When a wine goes “dry” it is not finished. Secondary fermentation (for red wine) needs to be completed. Secondary, or malolactic, fermentation changes tart malic acid into softer lactic acid. When this process is completed, it is necessary to remove the wine from the sediments (lees) that are formed during the process so the young wine can begin its maturation or development into the wines we drink on a daily basis. Or at least I hope you are drinking on a daily basis. In future, post-harvest, posts I will track the development of our Merlot so you can follow it into its final, bottled package, our Firebelle    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Harvest 2008, Merlot... by Dan

  
  

• September 2008

  Harvest 2008, Merlot Fermentation. It has been a little over one month since we first harvested Sauvignon Blanc on a scorching summer day. In the weeks that followed, the seemingly endless heat wave that hit Northern California from middle August to early September subsided. Since... Read moreHarvest 2008, Merlot Fermentation. It has been a little over one month since we first harvested Sauvignon Blanc on a scorching summer day. In the weeks that followed, the seemingly endless heat wave that hit Northern California from middle August to early September subsided. Since then, we have harvested about 50% of our red wine grapes; starting with Merlot on September 4. A frightening thing happened when we started harvesting Merlot . When the small, tight, thick-skinned, purple pearls dropped from the destemmer our must pump would not carry the grapes to tank. So, we had to carry 12 tons of Merlot in five gallon buckets (about 40 lbs) up the cat walk and hand dump the grapes into tank. It was fun the first few flights, but when the day waned on, the only thought I had was, if this is a sign of things to come, this is going to be one physically demanding harvest. Thankfully, when we started picking Cabernet last week, the grapes were a bit juicier and the pump was working again. There was a bright spot in Merlot's ominous start. Due to the extreme weather conditions in Napa this year, grape cluster weights have been abnormally light and berry sizes intensely small. As we tracked the vineyard's development throughout the growing season, we anticipated these yields. But the old adage is, if you think you will have a big crop, it will be bigger, if you think you have a small crop, it will be smaller. In the Merlot section of our vineyard, where we typically farm four tons to the acre, we harvested less than two tons an acre. We consoled ourselves with the inherent quality that is expected in a small crop year. Small crops bring out the best in wine grapes - highly concentrated wines with firm structure and power that derive from low juice to skin ratios. At the time of today's post, we'll be pressing off the Merlot and settling the free run before barreling down the young wine to finish fermentation in barrel. In my next post I will outline in pictures the sorting process - the process that gets the grapes to the tank for fermentation. But today, I will talk a little about fermentation management. With the heavy lifting behind us, it was time to let the Merlot grapes soak for a few days on their skins. Many philosophies and studies have been done about pre-fermentation maceration, i.e. the cold soak. Some winemakers and some grape varieties react differently during this period, but the general consensus is that the optimal cold soak (whether three days or thirty days depending on the winemaker's style) will enhance color extraction and stability during the pending fermentation process. You can control the duration of the soak with temperature, keeping it cold, to inhibit native fermentation from taking place. Fermentation occurs when the yeasts present in the fruit come in contact with the sweet juice releasing from the berries in a warm environment. Stick twelve tons of grapes in a closed vessel and I promise it will get warm and sticky pretty quickly. We chose to soak for four days before jump-starting fermentation by inoculating with an un-intrusive yeast strain that allows the fruit to develop its own character during the fermentation process. After inoculating, there are a couple of different fermentation management processes. In order to facilitate this process we choose to aerate the juice by using a method called pumping-over, a process the French call remontages. With the use of an impellor pump we drain the juice from the tank and sprinkle it over the top of the tank back onto the grapes. As the fermentation progresses we choose to aerate the juice to supply oxygen to the yeast to keep them active. On the front end it is a savage process and on the back end it is soft and subtle. Pictured at right is what we call a tub and screen pump-over. We drain the juice from the tank and it pounds through a screen, a sieve, before we pump the accumulating and aerated juice back onto the skins. On a daily basis, it is our goal is to have all the available juice come in contact with the grape skins to develop extraction. Think of macerating a tea bag in boiling water. If left to its own device, the tea bag will float on top of the water and produce little flavor. If gently bobbed in the water by the drinker's hand, color and flavor will fill your cup gradually. This is an easy way to think about why we have to assist the grape juice to come in contact with the skins during this process. As the wine ferments, changing sugars to alcohol, its offshoot is carbon dioxide (CO2) that lifts the skins to the top of the tank. Think of the tiny bubbles in your carbonated water rising to the top of your glass. Add a lemon slice to your Pellegrino and it floats. At this point, it is said the “cap” (the grape skins) has risen, and if you do not continue your pump-overs (or punch-downs, the process of physically submerging the skins in the juice) you will not fully extract the wine's flavors and structure from the grape skins. During this chemical process, the grape must heats up naturally, the tough berries soften and begin to release their sugary juice and the yeast strains feed on the sugar converting them to alcohol. We believe that the grape juice is “dry” (containing little or no sugar) at one gram per liter (of liquid). That's 1/1000 th parts sugar per liter, 33 ounces of liquid. Or a scant amount of sugar in your (750 mL, 24 ounce) bottle of wine. When a wine goes “dry” it is not finished. Secondary fermentation (for red wine) needs to be completed. Secondary, or malolactic, fermentation changes tart malic acid into softer lactic acid. When this process is completed, it is necessary to remove the wine from the sediments (lees) that are formed during the process so the young wine can begin its maturation or development into the wines we drink on a daily basis. Or at least I hope you are drinking on a daily basis. In future, post-harvest, posts I will track the development of our Merlot so you can follow it into its final, bottled package, our Firebelle Dan Petroski is Assistant Winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley. Dan has an MBA from New York University and worked as an Ad Exec in New York for several years, before switching it up and trading his suit for a move out west.      (hide)

  From the article Harvest 2008, Merlot Fermentation.

  
  

• August 2008

  I am about one week away from dedicating three months of my life (ten to twelve hour days, seven days a week) to the 2008 Harvest.  My hope in my future Snooth posts is to impart some of what is going on, in words and pictures, during harvest to relay some insight to the 'crush.' ... Read moreI am about one week away from dedicating three months of my life (ten to twelve hour days, seven days a week) to the 2008 Harvest.  My hope in my future Snooth posts is to impart some of what is going on, in words and pictures, during harvest to relay some insight to the 'crush.'  My first thoughts on harvest are - we don't crush anything!  The word 'crush' in relation to winemaking is one of my wine word pet-peeves.  To 'crush' something connotes an act of violence which pulverizes and destroys the entity.  To paraphrase the great Angelo Gaja, anyone can make wine, but only a few can make an elegant wine. So, here and in the future, I promise not to use the word 'crush,' again.  (And I hope you don't either.) Although our neighbors have been, we haven't harvested any fruit yet.  Sauvignon Blanc is hanging in the wings with a decision to be made by the time you read these words.  So, to begin the begin, I will give you a short back story to the current vintage year.  But first, I must say that there has been a great deal of hype on the effects of climate change on wine grape growers.  A conference as part of the World Meeting on Climate Change and Wine took place in Sonoma last week.  Sadly, I was unable to attend, but after reading the news reports and the research posted online, the one thing we can deduce for certain is that we don't have the empirical data to prove anything at the moment.  Earlier this year, the Napa Valley Vintners Association released a statement regarding the issues surrounding the climate threat.  It reads, "The headlines are frightening and frequent and suggest Napa Valley is [being] singled out as the winegrowing region at risk due to global warming."  Napa vintners are not trying to pass the buck on the issue, but the reality is that Napa's brand name speaks volumes more than the actual amount of wine produced in the State of California - Napa produces just 4% of all wine from California.  The debate will continue on, for the good of all of us, but thankfully beneath the sheen of travel and tourism and commercial cult wines, the vast amount of Napa wine growers are fiercely loyal to preserving their agricultural wherewithal and those who aren't have the money to help plot out the 'road map' to deal with climatic changes to protect their investments. So, what's going on?  What follows is a short history of the roller-coaster ride that Mother Nature, dressed as Al Gore, has been driving the last couple of years in Napa. 2004.  After a cool start to the year, an oppressively hot summer produced a small crop of tight, ripe berries and high-octane wines that received critical acclaim for power and structure.  Most Napa wines from 2004 are still unapproachable in my opinion. 2005.  A long, cool, growing season with record rainfall allowed slow, balanced maturation of grape clusters that produced elegant, nuanced wines that have been drinking decidedly well since release last year. 2006.  Rainfall returned to normal levels, a heat spike in July and temperature drop off during the picking months of September and October left the grapes hanging on the vines a little longer than anticipated causing the creation of intense, concentrated wines with firm, gripping tannins.  Most 2006 wines have just been bottled and their outlook is age-worthy.  Age-worthy being the term for 'look out for youthful tannins attacking your palate.' 2007. Drought conditions, warmer than average Spring temperatures and a massive heat wave in August threatened the quality of the vintage.  The above factors restricted yields, not necessarily a bad thing, and when cooler temperatures returned during the harvest months, patient wine growers saw grape clusters re-hydrate and come into balance.  From the start of harvest, the quality of the '07 wines have been considered exceptional.  The wines are showing intensity offset with elegance; concentration with complexity, power with refinement.  A knock-out vintage. 2008.  Drought conditions continued into Winter '08; combined rainfall from the past two years does not even equal the average level of rainfall reached in 2006.  Spring weather has been the coldest in thirty-plus years with a month-long frost that reeked havoc with grape growers.  Consecutive months, starting in May, saw freakish heat spikes during a relatively cool summer.  Vineyards that weren't hit hard with frost are seeing variable cluster growth and maturation and yields lower than the previous year.  It is too early to forecast the quality of the vintage year because everyone who has been managing vineyards in the Valley for the prior decades have seen nothing like it.  So, stay tuned and I can hopefully share some insights as we move forward with this year's harvest. Dan Petroski is Assistant Winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley. Dan has an MBA from New York University and worked as an Ad Exec in New York for several years, before switching it up and trading his suit for a move out west.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Harvest 2008 by Dan

  
  

• July 2008

  As old and fabled of a pairing as bacon and eggs or Adam and Eve, Barbera and tomatoes hardly need an introduction. But I feel like cooing, so here goes. While tomatoes aren't as extensively utilized in Piedmont cooking, the region where Barbera thrives, as they are in say in... Read moreAs old and fabled of a pairing as bacon and eggs or Adam and Eve, Barbera and tomatoes hardly need an introduction. But I feel like cooing, so here goes. While tomatoes aren't as extensively utilized in Piedmont cooking, the region where Barbera thrives, as they are in say in Bologna, Sicily, or Tuscany, you can be sure that they are often on the table together. This is when the magic happens. Now, just like with other grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay, there are many ways to make the wine called Barbera. Some expressions are oakier, richer, and riper. In general, these are styles of Barbera that are good with food, but in my opinion are best generally utilized as as a cocktail wines. The traditional style of Barbera, on the other hand, is fermented, lower-oak goodness that puckers lips and leaves one searching the room for something to cut the high acidity, like a slice of butter. This is the type of Barbera that we're looking for. These are the Barberas that live for tomatoes. Barbera is a high acidity Piedmontese grape with a juicy cherry, strawberry, and often tar-like touch. A tomato is a fruit-vegetable (hereafter referred to as a freg) with sweet overtones and a high acidity bite. This pairing is a classic case of matching like to like. Although it might sound somewhat asinine to pair a freg known for its acidity with a wine also known for the same (maybe it sounds as silly as the first time you use brown and white sugar in a cookie recipe, for example), it works amazingly well. Case in point: Zachary's deep-dish spinach and mushroom pizza with Borgogno Barbera D'Alba. Zachary's deep-dish is known around the SF Bay Area and exists as a topic of conversation in Chicago for its crispy, buttery crust, that's jam-packed with oozing layers of mozzarella and massive amounts of tomatoes. It's so tomatolicious, in fact, that some pizza purists insist that it is more casserole than a true pizza. Whatever. It's the best and only thing really worth ordering on their menu that inspires sure-bet bliss. And its better heated in the oven the next day. My point is, anyhow, that it is the tomatoes that makes this pizza such a perfect match for the grape. If a tomato ever seemed sweet to you, just wait until you try it with Barbera. This is when our freg friend transforms to tomato candy. The high acidity in the gape emphasizes all hints of sugar in the freg, but it doesn't make the tomato too sweet so that the wine tastes metallic or sour. And the tomato returns the favor for the wine, twelve-fold. It transforms this tart little grape into a complete table pleasure. But that's just my opinion. Try it with an overlaoaded deep-dish near you. Do you have any favorite tomato wines? Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Barbera and Tomato by Kirstin

  
  

• July 2008

  Barbera and Tomato As old and fabled of a pairing as bacon and eggs or Adam and Eve, Barbera and tomatoes hardly need an introduction. But I feel like cooing, so here goes. While tomatoes aren't as extensively utilized in Piedmont cooking, the region where Barbera thrives, as they... Read moreBarbera and Tomato As old and fabled of a pairing as bacon and eggs or Adam and Eve, Barbera and tomatoes hardly need an introduction. But I feel like cooing, so here goes. While tomatoes aren't as extensively utilized in Piedmont cooking, the region where Barbera thrives, as they are in say in Bologna, Sicily, or Tuscany, you can be sure that they are often on the table together. This is when the magic happens. Now, just like with other grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay, there are many ways to make the wine called Barbera. Some expressions are oakier, richer, and riper. In general, these are styles of Barbera that are good with food, but in my opinion are best generally utilized as as a cocktail wines. The traditional style of Barbera, on the other hand, is fermented, lower-oak goodness that puckers lips and leaves one searching the room for something to cut the high acidity, like a slice of butter. This is the type of Barbera that we're looking for. These are the Barberas that live for tomatoes. Barbera is a high acidity Piedmontese grape with a juicy cherry, strawberry, and often tar-like touch. A tomato is a fruit-vegetable (hereafter referred to as a freg) with sweet overtones and a high acidity bite. This pairing is a classic case of matching like to like. Although it might sound somewhat asinine to pair a freg known for its acidity with a wine also known for the same (maybe it sounds as silly as the first time you use brown and white sugar in a cookie recipe, for example), it works amazingly well. Case in point: Zachary's deep-dish spinach and mushroom pizza with Borgogno Barbera D'Alba. Zachary's deep-dish is known around the SF Bay Area and exists as a topic of conversation in Chicago for its crispy, buttery crust, that's jam-packed with oozing layers of mozzarella and massive amounts of tomatoes. It's so tomatolicious, in fact, that some pizza purists insist that it is more casserole than a true pizza. Whatever. It's the best and only thing really worth ordering on their menu that inspires sure-bet bliss. And its better heated in the oven the next day. My point is, anyhow, that it is the tomatoes that makes this pizza such a perfect match for the grape. If a tomato ever seemed sweet to you, just wait until you try it with Barbera. This is when our freg friend transforms to tomato candy. The high acidity in the gape emphasizes all hints of sugar in the freg, but it doesn't make the tomato too sweet so that the wine tastes metallic or sour. And the tomato returns the favor for the wine, twelve-fold. It transforms this tart little grape into a complete table pleasure. But that's just my opinion. Try it with an overlaoaded deep-dish near you. Do you have any favorite tomato wines? Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.    (hide)

  From the article Barbera and Tomato

  
  

• July 2008

  Okay, I've gotten to the point where I can admit that I love wine. However, I ... Pinot Gris ($20 each) - Twelve Wines Pinot Noir ($25) - Panther Creek Winemakers Cuvee ($25) - Witness Tree Estate Pinot Noir ($28) These are my choices. As you can see they are almost all... Read moreOkay, I've gotten to the point where I can admit that I love wine. However, I ... Pinot Gris ($20 each) - Twelve Wines Pinot Noir ($25) - Panther Creek Winemakers Cuvee ($25) - Witness Tree Estate Pinot Noir ($28) These are my choices. As you can see they are almost all west coast (US) wines. What can I say? It is where I live. Let me know what your every day wine choices are    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Every day wines... by HondaJohn

  
  

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