A Trip To The Vintners Market

I went to the Vintners Market event a while back on a rare, sunny, SF November day.

A few wineries stood out from the crowd:

Deux Punx – a partnership of two, ahem, punks Dan Schaaf (le punx above) and Aaron Olson. First off, I love the labels. As for the wine:

2012 Pinot Blanc (label with dapperly dressed gentlemen, with a reel-camera as his head) – super concentrated and rich, almond and marmalade. This was my fav wine of the bunch, grapes sourced from Russian River. $22
2012 Viognier (cat label) – crazy tangerine flavors, a crisp note of acidity, unlike any Viognier I’ve tried, in a good way. From Scribner Bend Vineyard in Clarksburg. $18(!)
2011 Pinot Noir (the tree label) – Cherry pip, quite crisp too with some elegance. Grapes are sourced high off the 101 in Humboldt County from a vineyard called Elk Prarie. $36
2011 Grenache (owl label) – Savoury black olive and ripe blackberry. From Tejada Vineyard in Northern Lake County. $22

Thralls Family Cellars
2008 Alder Springs Vyd Syrah, Mendocino County – $34
There’s great depth to this wine. Rich blackberry, and a whole bowl of blueberries; crunch spicy fruit with a hit of minerality too. Ed, the man himself, makes this on the side of his marketing job at Flowers. He wants to concentrate on Pinot…too bad because his Syrah is pretty f’in awesome.

Wesley Ashley Wines
This is a pretty small project with only a few hundred cases a year and the grapes are sourced from that huge vineyard in what is best known as Santa Barbara highlands, a massive vineyard up near the Los Padres.
2011 Intelligent Designs – Santa Barbara County Cuvée
Rich blackberry and cherry, some licorice but quite herby and juicy.

Larner Vineyards
This quite dapper fellow is Michael Larner, patriarch of the vineyard (and hopefully own estate winery) of the same name. Michael was one of the main drivers of the newly appointed Ballard Canyon AVA….he is also on the front of the line battle against the SB County planning commission to get his winery approved….it’s been a few years.
Regardless, the Rhône varietals grown on his property have fast become one of the more sought after in the county.
2009 Larner, Syrah, Santa Ynez Valley – soft berry jam fruit, quite an easy drinker but full, $38

As massive consumer tastings go, I quite liked this one. Apparently, the wineries are separated in tiers, with the first part of the hall being the less expensive ticket, and two supposedly more exclusive tiers after that…. oddly and slightly surprisingly a gorilla-like bouncer stopped me from entering the top-tier, maybe it was my unshaven, disheveled look, or just the fact that I had a press pass….I will never know.

The next one is on April 12th and 13th — it’s worth a go.