Hospice du Rhone 2012 will take place in Paso Robles, CA on April 28 & 29. You shouldn’t miss it. I certainly won’t.

Hospice du Rhone (HdR) is the largest event in the world focused on Rhone-variety wines. It draws producers and enthusiasts from around the world, not just the West Coast. “It’s my favorite event of the year,” Dave Powell, founder of Barossa Valley’s Torbreck winery once told me.

What is Hospice du Rhone?

Hospice du Rhone is an event for wine producers, trade, media and consumers who are passionate about Rhone variety wines. The event includes four seminars, each structured around a tasting of six to twelve wines. There are two (extremely) grand tastings and festive lunches. One lunch is focused on the rosés of Tavel. The other is a live(ly) auction. Attendees can buy tickets for events individually, or a weekend pass for the whole shebang. If you’d like to go, I highly recommend you purchase tickets in advance.

In anticipation of this year’s event, I interviewed John Alban of Alban Vineyards. His was the first winery in the United States to focus solely on Rhone varietal wines. John Alban has also been part of Hospice du Rhone from it’s inception 20 years ago and led the event for much of that time. [The interview will be posted in segments here at NorCalWine.com over the course of this week.]

HdR “is really a coming together of a fraternity... a trade-based celebration to which the public is invited,” John Alban told me.

Hospice du Rhone seminars often go into depth, but are not overly technical. “We urge presenters to keep things fun focused and not get bogged down in chemistry and various things,” says Alban. The audience at seminars often asks detailed questions, but those are as likely to come from consumers as trade attendees. “We have intentionally tried to structure the event so that there’s something for everybody, but not diluted so there’s not enough of anything for anyone,” he explained. “It’s a big lavish buffet {of events].” Here’s what’s on the menu this year:

Hospice du Rhone Events for Friday, April 27

Seminar One: Why Spain (continues to) Rock! 

 9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.
Presenters: European Cellars | Eric Solomon Selection Portfolio Producers
Exciting viticultural and winemaking practices have been taking place in the Priorat and beyond. European Cellars | Eric Solomon Selection will bring some returning and new producers from their portfolio to feature in this seminar. The panel will star Rhône variety practitioners from Spain.

Seminar Two: The Return of the Bionic Frog

Rosé Lunch

12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Friday’s lunch has always celebrated pink wines and for the 20th year we will continue to toast these beauties. Don your best pink attire as we raise our glasses to the vast variety of Rosé wines that have traveled far and wide to be with us for the 2012 revelry. To highlight these lovely pink quaffers, Chef John Toulze of the girl & the fig from Sonoma, California will return to delight guests with Rhône inspired cuisine.

NEW -- BIG Rhône Rendezvous Tasting

4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Twenty years calls for a BIG Rhône Rendezvous don’t you think. Producers from far and wide will be pouring BIG bottles at this BIG, lively affair. Many have dusted off wines from their cellar and others have created something unique to celebrate this momentous occasion. To complement this BIG evening of BIG bottles highly-acclaimed chefs hailing from esteemed Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee will be serving up a taste of the South in a BIG way. Tables flowing with charcuterie and cheese will span the Tasting Pavilion throughout the entire evening. An hour into the tasting, Blackberry Farm will unveil food stations billowing with robust and scrumptious bites. This will be the only event throughout the weekend that the "Number 1 Resort in the Continental U.S. and Canada" as voted by Travel + Leisure for their 2011 World's Best Awards, will showcase their culinary talents.

Hospice du Rhone Events for Saturday, April 28

Seminar Three: A Collective Quest

Seminar Four: Research, Revelations and the Art of Being Differen

Lunch and Live Auction

12:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Raise your fork and your paddle while dining on a meal carefully paired with Rhône wines in mind. Long-time friend, Chef Rick Manson of the Far Western Tavern from Guadalupe, California will treat the crowd to delectable dishes. Enjoy this unique opportunity to bid on rare and one-of-a-kind auction lots generously donated by Hospice du Rhône friends and Rhône producers. Wines for this lunch will be provided by the attending producers at the 2012 event.

Grand Tasting


3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Private Hour for Media and Trade (tickets must be purchased in advance)
             
4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Consumers

One of the most comprehensive tastings of Rhône variety wines, this event boasts producers from throughout the world. It has been noted that to duplicate this tasting one would require a passport, numerous flights and a few weeks of travel. To complement the wines poured, Specialty food purveyors will be stationed throughout the venue to share their wares. In addition to food and wine tables, nationally acclaimed chefs will show-off their talents in the demonstration kitchen.

Farewell BBQ

7:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Gather at the Farewell BBQ with all of your friends for one last hoorah as we close out 20 years! A BBQ with a fiesta twist will be prepared and served by Chef Maegen Loring of The Neon Carrot of San Luis Obispo, California. Beyond the food and conversation, try your hand at the Blackjack table or give the craps table a whirl. Cash in your “chips” for Rhône prizes that are oh-so-ever Hospice du Rhône inspired! Dance the night away to local favorite and legend Monte Mills and the Lucky Horseshoe Band! Wines will be provided by the many attending producers and importers in attendance.

Jeff Cohn got into the spirit at last year's Hospice du Rhone Farewell BBQ.

Learn more about Hospice du Rhone.

Buy tickets for Hospice du Rhone.

Watch #HdR2012 on Twitter for updates before the event and live coverage during.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Event descriptions courtesy of Hospice du Rhone. Photos by Fred Swan. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.

The 2012 Wine Road Barrel Tasting in Northern Sonoma took place on the first two weekends of March. More than 140 wineries participated, opening both their doors and their barrels to the public. One fee of $40 per person gave wine lovers a glass and a wristband for tasting access to all of the wineries for a given weekend. I tasted on March 10 and 11.

I visited these wineries:

• Saturday - Freestone Vineyards, Red Car, Siduri
• Sunday - Stonestreet, Soda Rock, Kendall-Jackson (downtown Healdsburg), Joseph Swan

About the Experience

I enjoyed the weekend thoroughly. On the whole, the wines — in barrel and in bottle — were good. The tasting rooms I visited were well-equipped for the volume of people I saw there. The staff were largely helpful and friendly. I felt welcome and unhurried. Altogether, I sampled 75 wines, 20 of them barrel samples. I’ll only detail the barrel samples within this article.

There has been talk about rowdy behavior and intoxication on the part of some attendees. I have no doubt that it occurred, but I saw none. Attendees at my stops were cheerful but sober and responsible. I know though that the crowds were much bigger at places like Stonestreet and downtown Healdsburg on Saturday than on Sunday when I was there.

The Red Car tasting room has a hip vibe and was the most festive of the tasting rooms I visited.

About the Barrel Samples

Freestone Vineyards poured two barrel samples. Both were components of what will be their 2011 Pinot Noir. They will age another 11 months in barrel before blending. The Pastorale Vineyard component is from 777 and Calera clones with 11% whole cluster. It’s nose was sweet and fetching: baking spice, red cherry and vanilla with a hint of earthiness. The palate is medium-bodied with fresh acidity. The Quarter Moon Vineyard barrel is based on clone 459 with a whopping 100% whole cluster. That leads to a fuschia color with tart raspberry and strawberry flavors complemented by brown spice. The acidity is generous but so are the drying tannins. It will be a useful partner with the fleshier Pastorale, but isn’t endearing on its own.

Red Car offered a “barrel sample” of rosé which was light and fresh with an almost orange hue. There was also a barrel of 2011 Red Car Dreamland Platt Vineyard Pinot Noir. It’s medium-minus in color with flavors of raspberry, sweet tart and some resin from partial whole cluster fermentation (usually about 10% at Red Car). There are additional aromas of vanilla and spice. The acidity is brisk. It’s a promising sample and one can see its developmental arc resulting in something quite similar to the delightful 2010 Dreamland Pinot Noir.

Red Car proprietor and winemaker Carroll Kemp also poured reserving wines, inlcuding his 2010 Dreamland and 2007 Heaven & Earth Pinot Noirs.

Siduri offered up a grand assortment of wines. With their broad selection and revealing representations of terroir, the tasting was like a stroll through a gallery of vineyards. Siduri showed just one wine in barrel to the public though, the 2011 Siduri Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir. Sexton is a new vineyard for Siduri. It is on Sexton Rd. off of Bodega Highway. The wine is focused with raspberry flavors and a hint of wood framed by very moderate, light-grained tannins and acidity approaching medium-plus. The finish is generous. Very nice.

After the light-footed Pinot Noir and silky Syrah which made up most of my Saturday tasting, Sunday morning at Stonestreet Winery gave my tongue some new sensations. The Bordeaux-varietals and blends from their estate vineyards on Alexander Mountain are excellent but built for lengthy cellaring.

The 2010 Stonestreet Legacy is a multi-vineyard blend consisting of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 5% Petite Verdot, 4% Malbec and 2% Cabernet Franc. Focused aromas of black currant and currant leaf announce the Cabernet Sauvignon while a background of dark chocolate and smoke make reference to the French oak barrels. The body is medium-plus with notable acidity and prominent, chalky tannins that coat the mouth but aren’t drying. Pure flavors of black currant, blackberry and currant leaf persist for nearly a minute. This is a very good wine and will be accessible upon release but will improve for at least a decade in the cellar. It will be released in September, 2013.

The 2010 Stonestreet Christopher’s Cabernet Sauvignon will be released in December, 2013. It’s the company’s flagship wine and 300 cases will be bottled. It is a single-vineyard wine coming from the highest of all the Stonestreet estate blocks at 2,400 feet. In the glass, the wine is dark ruby with deep aromas of black currant, currant leaf, black cherry, mocha and redwood. The wine is medium-plus in body with flavors that echo the bouquet until silenced by strongly drying, chalky tannins. This wine will want cellaring for several years after release, but will reward the wait.

From Stonestreet I headed down Hwy 128 a short distance to Soda Rock Winery, having never been there before. Re-opened in January 2011 by it’s new owners, Ken and Diane Wilson, it is still under-going restoration and renovation. However, it’s already an airy and attractive place with an old-timey feel. It appears to be geared for events and was a popular stop for carloads of attractive 20-somethings.

Soda Rock offered four barrels of it’s own wine and two from Pezzi King. [Pezzi King had just been purchased by Ken Wilson.I found the 2010 Soda Rock Primitivo the most attractive of the Soda Rock sips with purple berry and vanilla flavors carried by moderate tannins with very fine texture. The 2010 Pezzi King Harris Kratka Vineyard Zinfandel was also fun with bright blueberry and blackberry fruit.

After Soda Rock, I made a stop at the Jimtown Store for lunch. I had a good time looking through the mix of food items, knickknacks and antiques in the general store while waiting for my Flying Goat Coffee espresso and a reuben sandwich. Once fortified, I drove into Healdsburg and quickly found a parking spot on the square. A short walk took me to Kendall-Jackson.

Kendall-Jackson had one barrel to taste, the 2010 Highland Estates Hawkeye Mountain Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard, on Alexander Mountain, provides Cabernet Sauvignon purity reminiscent of the Stonestreet wines, proud flavors of black currant, black cherry, redwood, spice and cocoa. However, the Highland Estate tannins, while still chalky, are gentler and promise earlier accessibility. The wine is also more fruit driven, lacking the currant leaf aspect. It’s a very good wine that also has crowd-pleasing potential.

On the way home, I stopped in at Joseph Swan Vineyards (no relation). Their setup was the most fun. They had six barrels open, each providing samples via a shiny glass wine thief. Spitting and dumping was accommodated by large wood, sawdust-filled boxes on the floor. There was no place for me to sit my glass down, so I couldn’t take notes.

I do remember my favorite from among their wines though. It was the 2010 Joseph Swan Trenton Estate Syrah. It is dark and medium-plus in body, supple with deliciously earthy and leathery dark fruit flavors. Another standout was the 2010 Tannat Matthew’s Station Vineyard. Tannat is best-known as an inky, astringent and often rustic wine from southern France. I sipped the darkly-tinted barrel sample suspiciously. The flavors were also dark but they and the texture were polite, even urbane. “Hey, that’s pretty good,” I said to myself. If you’d like to aopdt a fully-housebroken Tannat, give this one a try.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Photos by Fred Swan. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.

When sommeliers talk about wines that pair well with food, Zinfandel doesn’t usually make the top ten list. Nonetheless, there are many foods for which it’s a great match.

Each year at the ZAP! festival, there is an evening devoted to showcasing how Zinfandel goes with food. Scores of wineries pour one wine each. Each winery is teamed up with a restaurant whose chef prepares a dish to go with that wine. Attendees wander from table to table, trying the combinations.

This year’s pairing event, dubbed Epicuria, was the best I’ve attended. The quality of the wines was very high. The food was consistently good. There were also some truly excellent dishes — not an easy feat to pull off for hundreds of people in an exhibition hall. And there were a few revelatory pairings.

Fried foods are often served with sauce that adds a counterpoint of tangy sweetness: ketchup with french fries, remoulade with crab cakes or honey-mustard with chicken fingers. Paul’s Paella of Alameda served up deep fried balls of paella, sans sauce. Very similar to arancini, they were crisp on the outside but soft and almost creamy on the inside. With R & B Cellars 2009 Zydeco Napa Valley Zinfandel to sip on, the sauce wasn’t missed.

My favorite plate of the evening was from Rose Pistola. It won a James Beard award for best new restaurant upon opening in 1996. The cuisine is inspired by the food of Liguria, a region on the northwestern coast of Italy. [Trivia: Rose Pistola is located on Columbus Avenue. The street is named for Christopher Columbus who was born in Genoa, which is within Liguria.]

Rose Pistola’s dish was black truffle and ricotta ravioli with golden raisins, orange zest and delicately-browned butter. Never before have I been tempted to lick a paper plate. It was paired with the 2009 Storybook Mountain Eastern Exposure Estate Zinfandel from Napa Valley.

This Storybook Mountain wine tells an interesting tale, but doesn’t shout. Complex and textured, it offers delectable berry fruit adorned by a range of spice, mineral and oak derived notes. A splash of Viognier, unusual for Zinfandel blends, contributes white floral notes and expands the spice box. In the pairing, black truffle and warm butter played off the earth in the wine, the orange zest danced on the berries and picked up the Viognier spice and flowers. Meanwhile, the fruit were a natural pairing for the ricotta cheese and provided a clean finish.

One of my favorite bites was from Componere Fine Catering. They braised and finely shredded pork cheek, made it into small patties and then pan-fried them until crispy. Resting on a pillow of smoked mashed potatoes, they were garnished with spicy pickled fennel. Mauritson’s 2009 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel added a punch of ripe dark fruit, making a complete dish: savory, sour, salty and fruity.

Pican, an Oakland restaurant offering cuisine with a Southern accent, took braised pork in a different direction. They smoked a Berkshire pig before braising it in an intricately-flavored molé sauce of peanuts, chiles, Coca-Cola and chocolate. It was served hot in cup on creamy grits elevated with black pepper. The dish echoed the attributes of Carol Shelton’s Old Vine Zinfandels, rich in texture and flavor with both sweetness and a spicy kick.

Blue cheese is a tough food to pair. It’s intense, tangy flavors and saltiness overwhelm most wines, be they red or white. A boldly fruity wine with noticeable sweetness and only moderate oak is called for. Many people surrender and grab a bottle of Port. Zinfandel can work though and allows you to move from a meat course into cheeses without changing wines and swapping glasses.

Cuvee Napa prepared tasty truffles with a core of Shaft Creamery’s Elies Vintage Blue Cheese rolled in crushed black walnuts from Mendocino. It was a powerful bite: mouth-coating and strongly flavorful. The 2008 Saddelback Cellars Old Vine Zinfandel harmonized and cleansed the palate.

Good Zinfandel is an excellent match for food. It can provide a fruity contrast or spicy accent. It will cut through oily and creamy dishes or act in place of a zesty sauce. The right Zinfandel can take you all the way through a meal, from fried hors d’oeuvres on to a seafood course, a meaty main and then the cheese. Just save some for dessert.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. Photos by Fred Swan. All rights reserved.

Events

The first event is called Epicuria. For three hours beginning at 6pm on Thursday, January 26, attendees will walk the hall, tasting food from fine Bay Area restaurants paired with specific Zinfandel wines. There will be 50 combinations available. Nobody is going to leave hungry! There will also be cooking and pairing demonstrations featuring the chefs and sommeliers from San Francisco restaurants A16 and Wayfare Tavern. Tickets are $125 for the general public, $95 for ZAP members. This event will probably sell out. Act soon if you want to go.

Friday night’s winemaker dinner is premium reception, dinner and auction at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. It is scheduled to run from 5pm to 10pm. The $225 admission gives you access to special wines and the winemakers as well. The event is almost sold out.

Saturday’s ZAP! Grand Tasting is truly a Zinfandel extravaganza. 200 wineries will each pour multiple wines. There will also be a seminar with five sommeliers and a cooking demo. The tasting runs from 2pm to 5pm and tickets are $69 at the door. Buy in advance for a $10 discount. ZAP members pay just $49 and are admitted for tasting at 1PM. They can also enjoy winemaker workshops.

Recommendations

The Grand Tasting is an amazing tasting opportunity, but the number of available wines can be daunting. Here’s a short list of wineries sure to wow at ZAP! (in alphabetical order):

• Bedrock Wine Company - Morgan Twain-Peterson makes excellent old vine Zinfandel varietal wines, but don’t miss the “heirloom” wines, old vine, mixed-black blends.
• Black Sears - I’m high on their black peppery estate Zinfandel from the top of Howell Mountain.
• Cypher Winery - Cypher produces single-vineyard Zins and off-the-hook, off-the-wall blends.
• Gamba Vineyards and Winery - The Gamba family, in it’s 6th generation of grape growing, makes characterful Russian River Valley Zinfandel.
• McCay Cellars — McCay proves that old vine Lodi Zinfandel can be both delicious and balanced.
• Ridge Vineyards - Ridge was one of the first wineries to take Zinfandel seriously. They still do it well.
• Scott Harvey Wines - Their 1869 is history in a bottle. It comes from the Sierra Foothills vineyard recognized as California’s oldest productive plot of Zinfandel.
• Storybook Mountain Vineyards - Zinfandel hooks up with Cabernet Sauvignon and they live happily ever after.
• Tres Sabores - Rutherford’s magic fairy dust works on Zinfandel too. A recent Wine of the Day.
• Valdez Family Winery - Spinal Tap fans will love these delicious Zinfandels that go to 11 and taste like 90+.

Logistics

This year, ZAP! will be held at the The Concourse (8th and Brannan in San Francisco). In previous years it was held at Fort Mason. The new venue won’t offer marvelous bay views, but it will be warmer in temperature and ambience. Walking the carpeted hall will also be easier on the feet than was the hard concrete of Fort Mason. More importantly to many, parking will be plentiful and public transport convenient. There are 1,200 public parking spaces in the vicinity. The Concourse is just five long blocks from Caltrain and seven from BART (Civic Center/UN Plaza). Shuttle transport is available.

If you'd like to follow the events via Twitter, the hashtag is #ZinFest. The #Zinfandel and #ZAP hashtags and the @TheZinfandelOrg handle will also be useful searches.

For more information about the ZAP! Festival and to order tickets, go to Zinfandel.org.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.