r o c k r o o m

Basic turkey

2011-11-24T20:52:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving pasture-raised roasted bird is good with a complex and elegant pinot noir. Like the 07 La Encantada Vineyard.

Last press of 2011

2011-11-21T14:22:00.000-06:00

Atlas Peak cabernet sauvignon is in the press today.

catch this cab

2011-11-10T17:47:00.001-06:00

Gorgeous Atlas Peak cabernet sauvignon finally began fermentation today. Look at that color! Smells like blueberry pie.

Cab loaded and ready

2011-11-02T10:53:00.000-05:00

Our Napa cabernet sauvignon ready to head to the winery. Mix of clones 337 and 8.

Last Rockroom pick

2011-11-02T10:28:00.000-05:00

Up on windy Atlas Peak we are picking cabernet sauvignon today.

Happy Hallo-wine

2011-10-31T22:13:00.001-05:00

Cheers!

Cold ferment chardonnay

2011-10-25T18:20:00.001-05:00

Bucking the no-oak trend, we are letting some nice Russian River chardonnay do its fermenting in French oak that has been used for previous wines. This allows for the benefits of traditional barrel fermentation without risking excessive oak flavors or aromas. And risking a slow (or stuck!) fermentation, we are doing this in a coldroom at 55 degrees in the hopes of preserving delicate aromatics that can blow off at high temperatures. Let's see how it all turns out - stay tuned.

a harvest saturday

2011-10-22T16:56:00.000-05:00

Wine with lunch as the new wine makes itself all around us. 2007 rockroom chard tasting mighty fine these days, as is the Zepaltas 2009 pinot on the table

Key winemaking skill

2011-10-22T09:26:00.001-05:00

After driving the truck back from the vineyard with a load of freshly picked pinot noir, Julie Lin hops down from the cab. Can't make the wine unless you can get the grapes! All of the Rockroom California pinot is now safely in the house. Fortunately Julie won't have to drive to Oregon for that fruit - the truck will be bringing it as soon as next week.

Press-zin

2011-10-20T00:24:00.001-05:00

Our Russian River zinfandel went to press and then to American oak - our first (and probably only for 2011) move away from French oak barrels. Zinfandel is the "all American" grape (OK, I realize it really hails from Croatia) so thought we should use some Missouri oak. While this bold spicy oak might be excessive for pinot noir it should work just fine for the zin.
Can't wait to find out.

Some special pinot gets pressed

2011-10-18T22:49:00.001-05:00

Today we pressed a small lot of pinot noir produced entirely from biodynamically farmed grapes. Beautiful Van Der Kamp Vineyard sits high up on Sonoma Mountain. Here you see a photo from today's result - Luke the master of the wine press hugs a press barrel before it heads to the cellar for a well deserved rest.

First press of the season

2011-10-16T09:26:00.001-05:00

Our first finished fermentation of the harvest is going to barrel bright and early this morning. Russian River pinot noir is in the press. .

Our last pinot pick for 2011

2011-10-15T09:02:00.002-05:00

The pick started at 2AM and by 6:30 we had our fruit. Clone 23 pinot from a Sonoma Coast vineyard in Occidental.

Wine Country Saturday

2011-10-08T19:32:00.000-05:00

Weekend at the winery is pretty laid back as we wait for our next pick on Monday: chardonnay from a new vineyard. Meanwhile we enjoy some summer tomatoes from an organically farmed vineyard and farm that we pulled fruit from last week. Van Der Kamp Vineyard - a very exciting source. Cheers.

Sunshine returns - so back to the vineyard

2011-10-07T16:59:00.001-05:00

Loading the truck with Russian River pinot noir to sort back at the winery. Hand picked in the morning and hand sorted all afternoon. Between sips of cold beer of course. Hey, it is Friday.

Harvest 2011 begins!

2011-10-01T08:10:00.002-05:00

With old vines zin! Each of these old "knarled head" vines struggles to produce 5 to 10 clusters of ripe zinfandel.

Bottling the 09 syrah

2011-05-26T22:17:00.001-05:00

Good times as the 2009 White Hawk Vineyard syrah goes to bottle. Note the sporty new capsule! Now for a few months of rest upside down in the bat cave...

Slow Food Austin considers Rockroom wines

2010-08-16T11:17:00.003-05:00

Rockroom and Greenling teamed up to present wines to the Slow Food Austin group as we discussed the various aspects of sustainably produced wines. From Rockroom we sipped an "experimental" chardonnay that was 100% natural processed (nothing added to the fresh-pressed juice as it fermented all on its own with no added sulfites and it was bottled unfined and unfiltered), then we sampled the 2007 La Encantada pinot noir made from organically grown grapes, and finally we tried another experimental wine: a 2005 cabernet sauvignon produced from grapes grown just west of Austin near Hamilton Pool. Greenling supplied some wines produced from organically grown grapes and there was some great discussion by the 30 or so foodies in attendance. I wonder though, did we resolve in any way the questions of what wines can we as a Slow Food community consume in Texas? Is it really time to start mead production in earnest?

A Giant Falls

2010-08-08T16:56:00.002-05:00

This 2001 Siduri Rosella's pinot was a big wine (pun intended). Fun to tap this Jeroboam and find the 9 year old beauty within! Those rumors about how large format bottles better preserve a wine for aging seem to be true.

Hand made from start to finish

2009-10-26T22:06:00.001-05:00

How's this for hand made wine? A few Rockroom wines get a dot of wax instead of the usual tin capsule right before we put them into bottle aging. We pull out the deep-fryer, melt a batch of wax and drip it on one bottle at a time. Is all this fuss necessary? Probably not but it seems to make sense to add this little hand-crafted reminder now and then. Like on this La Encantada pinot noir that was so carefully grown in an organically farmed vineyard in Santa Barbara's Santa Rita Hills. Hand crafted from start to finish.

Last pinot pick of 09

2009-10-25T12:53:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we sorted our pinot noir from this vineyard - Bohemian in Freestone. Here we are walking the rows with Tom the vineyard owner and Chris our consulting winemaker. This chilly site had a challenging season this year with all the Asian typhoon rain swirling around, but thanks to some quick pruning action and warmer dryer weather it looks like we got some nice fruit.

Pressing syrahhhhhh

2009-10-19T23:41:00.002-05:00

Santa Barbara County syrah came in beautifully ripe a couple weeks back and we pressed it today after a textbook fermentation. I just never get enough of that deep purple that syrah does so well.

Beached Syrah

2009-10-07T19:52:00.001-05:00

Our syrah was harvested from White Hawk vineyard in Santa Barbara County after last week's dash to the vineyard showed the grapes to be in great condition for the pick. Check out this shot of the vineyard when I visited it and youi can see that it looks like the vines are growing on the beach. Sure enough, while the vineyard is miles inland the soil is pure sand. It took a visionary grower to plant in this stuff and boy did it pay off - this fruit makes amazing wine.

Santa Rita harvest

2009-10-03T19:49:00.002-05:00

A 5 hour drive south of the winery we get our most distant fruit from Sanford's La Encantada vineyard. This beautiful hilltop vineyard is organically farmed and even went to the trouble to become the first certified organic vineyard in Santa Barbara County. We will pick pinot noir this week for the 2009 wine. Three different Dijon clones for those of you keeping score.

Howell Mountain crush

2009-10-01T21:50:00.001-05:00

Today our Napa cab was picked and hauled down from Howell Mountain for winemaking in San Francisco. We hand sorted the clusters and then sorted berries on a shaker table after destemming to pull out any fruit that was over or under the ripeness we are looking for.

Westlake's only California winery

2009-09-26T17:25:00.001-05:00

Today was crush for some very unique California cabernet as Cross Creek vineyards owner Richard Schwartz airlifted his Sonoma cab picked yesterday into Austin for crush today. Family and friends turned out for gourmet snacks, grape destemming and a fun sampling of vintages back to 1999. Here is Dave from The Grove taking his turn at the hand destemmer. Good times as the 2009 grapes look nicely ripened and prior vintages are tasting impressive. Standouts were the 2000 and 2004 and a 2007 barrel sample shows promise with some time for tannins to soften. There will soon be a way to try Richard's grapes in action as Spann Vineyards has done a 2007 Cross Creek Vineyard designated wine so watch for that. Maybe at The Grove?

wow - special occassion wine

2009-09-07T13:20:00.001-05:00

Special occassions like, say, an anniversary, deserve something special to sip. Two ways to do that: pull something from the cellar or pick a special bottle from the shelf or wine list. Tonight we popped a bottle of 1994 Gran Reserva tempranillo from Torre de Oria. Not a true Rioja as it sits outside that region of Spain, this beauty sure had me fooled. Well worth the $40 price tag and 8 year wait. When is your next occasion for a special bottle?

Takes a lot of beer to make wine?

2009-09-05T01:16:00.001-05:00

Today we finished bottling 2008 pinot noirs and to keep the machinery humming we cracked open a few Texas brews. And it struck me that every step along the winemaking path seems to involve beer. Which begs the question, what do they drink at the brewery? Beer I guess.
Anyway, with bottling out of the way we are ready for harvest. First grapes should be in two or three weeks!

WOW Club Seghesio

2009-08-30T20:13:00.001-05:00

Wine of the week this week is well known Seghesio but not the zinfandel you would expect. As a member if their wine club we get occasional shipments of their awesome zins of course, but this 05 Alexander Valley cab was included in a Spring shipment. A nice surprise wine that just goes to club members and winery visitors. Clubs are fun that way. Hmmmm - maybe Rockroom needs a club.....

Tasting in good company

2009-08-23T17:18:00.001-05:00

The wine of the week this week is one you will not find on the store shelf and probably not on the wine list of your favorite steakhouse. It is the Lail Bluebrint 2005 cabernet. A luscious big "cult" cab with demand far exceeding supply, this magnum was consumed as part of a tasting that Rockroom participated in about an hour west of Austin overlooking beautiful Lake LBJ. A hundred or so folks turned out to try this wine, along with our own 07 chardonnay and 07 Bohemian pinot and a few other treats. We also discussed the idea of a restaurant on the site to take advantage of the great views. I like the idea and saw a lot of enthusiasm among the folks attending. Could it really happen that we could get a taste of the Tuscan experience this close to home?

WOW - this wine is spot on

2009-08-16T19:48:00.001-05:00

Spot On is actually the winery name and this syrah is a beautiful fit with the name. It is a 2006 whole cluster fermented wine and it has all the funky complexity a good syrah should with minimal oak so the good stuff really shines. Outstanding wine. The only problem is tiny production so it may be a while before a Texas distributor picks it up. Watch for it though. We have a co-op member workin to get it here

Co-op bottling day

2009-08-01T22:54:00.001-05:00

After fining with a little bentonite we bottled our experimental Napa sauv blanc today. A nice bright wine but just not sure this source is worth taking in a commercial direction. For now this one will be co-op only wine, great for light seafood pairing on a hundred degree day. Plenty of those this year!.

2007 Cabernet bottled

2009-07-14T21:12:00.001-05:00

We had a great day bottling the Howell Mountain cab today. The label for 2007 features a painting by Austin artist Nancy Hoover as our first cabernet art label. With the wine bottled now comes the hard part: waiting for the release!

Bottling the first of the 08 vintage

2009-06-23T20:07:00.001-05:00

We lined up some barrel samples to get down to the serious work of coming up with our 2008 Rockroom pinot noir lineup. For such serious work it sure was fun as 08 gave us some really nice stuff to work with! The first went to bottle today: Bohemian Vineyard from Russian River Valley.

Memorial Day posting for Kiva

2009-05-25T11:59:00.002-05:00

The Rockroom blog is generally reserved for all things wine and so today is a good opportunity to remind folks of how at Rockroom we link wine with community. We started out doing this by making and sharing wine as a group of wine lovers. Then when we decided to make more wine than we could drink ourselves, we decided to sell it and use the profits to fund microloans in the developing world. Not a donation, these microloans fund entrepreneurs that go on to build small businesses that can dramatically improve the quality of their lives and the well being of their families and communities. And they generate enough income to repay the zero-interest loans in full at which time we get the funds back to deploy again. In this way we now have expanded our community to include dozens of friends that act as trusted agents for change in the world. And that's the connection to Memorial Day. What better way to honor those who have given their lives to protect our American freedoms than to participate in the perpetuation of those freedoms around the world? After all, it is widely recognized that the economic opportunity and hope embodied in these microventures is a highly stabilizing force for peace. That is why Muhammad Yunus, the creator of the microfinance industry, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, not economics. What we are doing is participating in a very clever grassroots movement in capitalist free enterprise for peace, one bottle of wine at a time!
And we do all this through Kiva, a San Francisco based social business that bundles funds from Rockroom and thousands of other participants into millions of dollars in funding for microloans, one entrepreneur at a time. So today we are promoting Kiva in the Rockroom blog and encouraging you to go check out our Kiva lender page, buy a bottle of wine, or even go to Kiva and start your own lending.
This blog post is part of Zemanta's "Blogging For a Cause" campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

wow - syrah by any other name

2009-05-21T10:10:00.001-05:00

Last weekend a few of us Rockroom co-op-ers got together to enjoy some spring weather, spring lamb and syrah. Syrah can have so many different personalities and the picture shows a couple that you might consider trying. First of course is Shiraz from Australia, but not your garden variety grocery store colorful critter wine. This 2003 Brokenwood is more serious, complex and chewy than those simple or over-amped cocktail wines. Aged for a few years too which makes a big difference in allowing flavors to integrate and mellow. And then there is the Cornas, a syrah from France's Northern Rhone River valley. A very complex and aromatic wine, this 1995 example just kept getting more and more interesting with color and aromas almost like a fine Bordeaux with a pinch of black and white pepper added. Both beautiful food wines and stellar with chargrilled rack of lamb.

WOW some good old Hangtime

2009-05-11T09:06:00.001-05:00

Waiting 5 years to pop this 2002 Carneros Hangtime pinot was well worth the wait. It made for good Mothers' Day wine with coconut curried chicken and red rice. More evidence that putting aside a few bottles now and then for special dinners is usually rewarded. Dark ruby red with cherry fruit and just a kiss of oak with only six months in barrel.

wow - gamay on a warm afternoon

2009-04-26T18:49:00.002-05:00

I recently read someone lamenting the warm weather as it prompted them to set aside the reds in favor of chilled whites. Oh, wait - that was me! But why fall into such "rule traps"? Drink what you like fer cryin out loud! So if warm weather means turning to lighter fare, maybe a light fruity red is in order. Pinot is a given. Gamay is great too and not as pricey. Here is a cru Beaujolais from Brouilly that is a great example. Perfect with coconut curried lentils and pan seared jerk snapper. The fruit driven juicy berry flavors are a nice balance to the warm (not hot) spices.

WOW as the weather warms pinot grigio chills

2009-04-05T22:25:00.001-05:00

It was a mostly warm weekend in Texas and promises to get warmer, so meals are likely to lighten up and wines cool down. Perfect conditions for pinot grigio with a nice caesar salad. Jamaican jerk chicken was the next course and it worked even better as the cool well-rounded fruit of the pinot grigio chilled the burn of the peppers and ginger in the jerk seasoning. Awesome! Experiment with a variety of pinot grigios: Italian for sure, maybe some California or Oregon and for sure try some pinot gris from Alsace - crisp and bone dry. And yes, those silver slivers are anchovies on the salad, and not the oversalted brown thingies from a can. Mandola's grocery on Lamar sells the real deal: anchovies in vinegar that are perfect on a good caesar. They come from the deli case so you can get exactly enough to put in your salad without a bunch left over to scent the fridgie. Of course all by themselves they make a nice little tapas plate...

Rockroom - built to last?

2009-03-29T17:35:00.004-05:00

As we say on the Rockroom website, one of the four Rockroom Winemaking Cooperative cornerstones is sustainability. That is a popular term right now, and not just in grape growing or wine making circles, and our view is that there is much work to be done to build clarity and understanding about just what sustainability means. For now we are happy to be part of that conversation and intend to make the topic of sustainability an important and growing aspect of what makes Rockroom wines special.
And so last week it was great to have some time to speak with Director of Vineyard Management Mitchell Klug. Mitchell recently joined the custom crush where we make Rockroom wines and that means we have access to this vineyard veteran as we continue to evolve our sustainability emphasis. (We could never afford access to a pro like Mitchell all by ourselves so here is another real plus to working with a premium custom crush facility.) By way of background, Mitchell has most recently overseen the development and management of a portfolio of over 25 vineyards and prior to that was in charge of nearly 1,400 acres of premium vineyards including the Opus One and To Kalon vineyards and he developed the sustainable farming program under the Mondavi Family wineries. Our meeting in San Francisco was a great discussion of the three legs of the vineyard "sustainability stool": environmental conditions, economics of the vineyard and social integrity of vineyard management. Look for more on this conversation in future posts, but for now I will say we are in good shape to continue evolving our sustainability mission.

Blending 07 syrahhhhhhh

2009-03-27T14:17:00.001-05:00

Here sits consulting winemaker Mike Z measuring out some samples for blending trials as we consider final thoughts before bottling the 2007 Rockroom syrah. Yes, bottling time is approaching for this our third vintage of the Santa Barbara County syrah from White Hawk Vineyard. "But I've only had the 2005!" you say, "What about the 2006?" Patience, grasshopper - you haven't missed it: it's in bottle aging mode. Now if you are a Rockroom co-op member (or know someone who is) you may have had some pre-release tastes. Tasted great whenever you tried it, right? - so why the long wait? Well, as anyone who has been tasting the 2005 since release will tell you, this wine gets better and better with a little time. So expect this year to see the 06 released and next year the 07.
And how did we end up with the blending trials? Well the baseline wine is really nice so we mostly just played with some small additions of syrah from other barrels to punch up certain bright flavors. And then for just a tad of dark fruit and tannin structure to fill out the mid-palate profile a bit, we went with a 2% add of dark, brooding petite syrah. This seemed to hold the wine together nicely, maybe because we were missing the contributions from stems that we got in prior years as the 07 was made with fully destemmed grapes. Whatever the reason, the minute tinkering was great fun and we look forward to a final verification test before bottling next month.

W.O.W. Irish eyes are smilin'

2009-03-17T19:55:00.001-05:00

What is a great pairing with Irish dinner of roast beef, cabbage, onions and new potatoes? Well, other than green beer? (Ugh) How about a Chateauneuf du Pape, 2003 from Domaine de Villeneuve? This wine sat on the shelf for a few years which allows it to show its great stuff. Just terrific with layers of bright fruit and more subtle spice and tobacco aromas. The lesson here is to get some Chat du Pee NOW and open today the one you got 3 years ago. Yum. These wines can be a little tight and one-dimensional in their youth and you think, "why did I spend forty bucks when I could have had a Spanish garnacha for twelve?". But then you age one for just a few short years and it just keeps opening up with layer after layer.

WOW club pinot

2009-03-07T23:05:00.001-06:00

Known as a producer of terrific single vineyard zinfandels, Seghesio has for several years now been turning out Russian River pinots. And each year they seem to steadily improve - the newly released 2007 Costieri may be the best yet. The way we have come to realize this is by being in the Seghesio wine club for years. While we would not normally seek out their pinots, it has been fun to see the evolution and enjoy the ever improving wines. And that is exactly why wine clubs are so fun - unexpected arrivals of unexpected wines that keep wine drinking interesting and spontaneous. Hmmm, maybe Rockroom should start a wine club...to be continued

Wine Spectator checks out Rockroom

2009-03-03T10:12:00.003-06:00

Exciting news for Rockroom as we just received our first reviews from the trade. Here is what Wine Spectator's pinot noir critic James Laube had to say about the 2 current release pinots:

Tasting Highlights: California Pinot Noir
10 exciting new California Pinot Noirs...

ROCKROOM Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Hein Vineyard 2006 Score: 90 $44 Flinty minerality joins snappy wild berry and black cherry fruit that's fresh and zesty. Medium-bodied, complex and focused, gaining depth on the pebble-laced finish. Drink now through 2013. 50 cases made. —J.L.

ROCKROOM Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Bohemian Vineyard 2007 Score: 89 $44 Complex and distinctive, if a tad earthy, with touches of herb in the dark fruit mix. Full-bodied and persistent, with lots of spice and sage. Drink now through 2012. 100 cases made. —J.L.

Wine of the Week goes Foodie

2009-03-02T09:05:00.004-06:00

For wine of the week this week let's just say it's anything that matches what you are eating. Or another way to do it (my preferred approach) is to figure out what to have with that wine you are going to open. So to help with that I have finally found (and installed on the Rockroom blog!) a handy dandy wine selector that I like. Use it to either suggest a wine for your food or a food for your wine. I have tried it out a number of ways and can say it is (mostly) an excellent quickie tool for making wine and food pairings easy. The only bug I have found so far is that to find duck dishes you have to look in the food listings under chicken. IMHO this does not elevate duck to the status it deserves but maybe that is just my personal taste coming through - I tend to love any meal that combines duck, mushrooms and pinot noir. So give the wine selector a try - it is over there on the right side of the blog. Fun!

Chardonnay 08

2009-02-22T15:08:00.001-06:00

Today we racked 2008 chardonnay to keep it moving to clarity by natural settling. Malolactic fermentation is done in the primary chard batch although we have a small "commando" batch that is doing its own thing (native yeasts, etc.) that is still creeping along. A few more months to let things sort out and we should be ready to bottle.

Rockroom on Facebook

2009-02-20T14:52:00.001-06:00

Taking a break from sorting out vineyard choices for the 2009 harvest (it's only 7 months away!), we thought it was time to get Facebookin'. Check out our new page which will include updates from the rockroom winemaking cooperative blog. Come have a chat!

WOW - a little age is a good thing

2009-02-15T23:17:00.001-06:00

I know I just posted a pinot with a little age on it a couple weeks back but this week the wine is older and the staying power even more impressive. This 2002 Siduri pinot from Van Der Kamp Vineyard was stunning with bold fruit and a silky texture that was perfect with mushroom and tomato saute on pasta. So just a reminder to pick up an extra bottle or two when you buy the good stuff. Then leave at least one bottle alone and pop it for a special occasion at least a year later. You will almost certainly be rewarded for your patience. Oh and yes, Saturday night qualifies as a special occasion. Or even Friday. And sometimes Monday...

WOW - Ridge with paella

2009-02-09T08:55:00.001-06:00

Appropriate I think that with this Wine of the Week we honor the memory of Donn Reisen who died last week after 32 years building Ridge into one of only a few true icons of California wine. Remember that Ridge, with its Montebello cab blend, joined with a few other California wineries (like Stags' Leap Cellars, the ultimate winner) to beat the French at the 1976 "Judgement of Paris" pitting California cabs against some of Bordeaux's finest. A much more humble wine, Ridge's Three Valleys is a Sonoma County blend that is mostly zin with a splash of petite sirah and carignan. It is pretty easy to find, easy drinking and like most Ridge zins is a friend to food. A hit with paella Saturday as we celebrated Eugene Sepulveda's birthday. Happy birthday Eugene!

Racking the 07s

2009-02-02T06:37:00.001-06:00

While 2007 whites and lighter reds like pinot noir have already gone to bottle (and in some cases table) many of the bigger reds are being moved (racked) from one barrel to another one last time before bottling. This will help settle out any remaining solids and clarify the wine without requiring filtering. Here is a shot of our experimental zinfandel being racked. This week I will be in CA to check on syrah and cab too.

wine for your valentine

2009-01-30T10:13:00.005-06:00

We just did a bit of a news flash about a couple specials on rockroom wine for Valentine's Day wine buyers. Wine is such a no-brainer for Val Day and our super sexy food friendly pinot noirs and chardonnay should be on more tables for dinner. Fun thing about niche wines like ours is that gift recipients won't see them on store shelves everywhere so it feels like a unique gift instead of just checkin' off the box with chocolates or roses. Anyway, enough of a ramble and I know I'm mostly preaching to the choir on this one!

wine science

2009-01-24T23:13:00.001-06:00

Co-op member Dave and daughter Sam have some dark pink plonk here as we made some science fair wine from grocery store grapes. A fun learning experience about fruit and yeast and what happens when they get together. And how's the wine, you ask? ...Uh, a fun learning experience...

WOW Burgundy by any other name

2009-01-18T18:35:00.002-06:00

A wine factoid that many of us learn early on is that a red French wine from Burgundy is always made from pinot noir. Great rule of thumb for us varietal-focused Americanos, right? Only it's wrong. Wine of the week this week is Beaujolais. Named for a region that sits inside the Burgundy appellation, these red wines are 100% gamay, not pinot noir. And it often says right there on the label "Red Burgundy Wine" as well as "Red Beaujolais Wine". Confusing, no? Now maybe you sip Noveau Beaujolais each November when it is released but this is different stuff - same grape but built for aging, these wines are beautiful. All fruit, no oak with soft tannins and aromas of fresh flowers, cherries and subtle spices. Simple wines that don't persist on the finish or keep up with bold foods, but for $12-25 these are a great deal. Especially look for the Francois Labet 2006 (the off-the-bottle label in this photo). Terrific wine. The other two pictured here are very good as well. Avoid the cheapest that just carry the "Beaujolais" name and spend an extra buck or two for "Beaujolais Villages" or one of the subregions like Julienas, Morgan, Brouilly or Fleurie (especially a hit on Valentines Day - which is coming soon!)

wow - great American pinot still showing great

2009-01-11T22:02:00.001-06:00

Loring pinot noirs are generally made in a style to be big, bold and fresh immediately upon release with less emphasis on how the wines will age. That is not just my experience over the couple dozen Loring wines I have had - it is the stated goal of winemaker Brian Loring. So when I ran across this 2004 Keefer Ranch pinot I thought it might be past its prime. So did I snub it? Sorry, no - curiosity got the better of me. Well not to worry! The wine was fabulous starting off with smoky, earthy aromas and finishing strong with bold fruit and soft oak nuances. Maybe the screwtop (an unusual feature on a $50 wine) held in all that goodness, but probably just good winemaking from a great vineyard. So don't hesitate to pop some American pinots that are a year or two or three past release - most hold up pretty well.

wow - Not Champagne

2009-01-04T18:39:00.001-06:00

Where the heck is Limoux? Because if it's on the way home from work I will definitely stop in to have some bubbly! Well Limoux, situated in southern France just up from the Spanish border, is just one of several regions in France making sparkling wine. In fact locals there claim sparkling wine, labeled as either Blanquette or Cremant if from Limoux, was invented in the early 1500s by the Benedictine monks at the local abbey and that dom Perignon stole the idea by taking it to Champagne when he was just passing through. Fun tempest-in-a-teapot rivalry that of course will never be settled since it is all REALLY ancient history. So what's the diff when compared with better known French bubbly? Well there can be a healthy dose of chenin blanc and little if any pinot noir so the wines will lean toward leaner, crisper style. Think fresh green apples. And there is no Champagne regional pedigree so you may have to search a bit for something like this Cremant de Limoux Brut from Domaine Collin. Now if you are in Austin don't search: just go downtown to Austin Wine Merchant on 6th Street and get a bottle. A screamin deal at 17 bucks.

WOW - pinot vertical

2008-12-25T10:36:00.001-06:00

Some terrific pinots are coming from Zepaltas and they made a great Christmas Eve pairing with truffled mac n' cheese. Zepaltas holds back a tad on the oak with the vineyard driving the wine's profile. This makes for especially good vertical tasting [that's different years from the same winery and vineyard source]. 05, 06, and 07 from Suacci vineyard were all good with the 07 showing well what a great vintage that is. Get some soon!

W.O.W. - It's Bohemian

2008-11-29T12:30:00.001-06:00

I hope you got to enjoy a great pinot noir with your roast turkey - I know I did. If there is more roasted turkey, duck, lamb or even a juicy, lean filet mignon in your remaining holiday plans, then you really should consider popping a bottle of our very own 2007 Bohemian Vineyard pinot from Russian River California. Just released, this wine is already showing beautiful lush fruit and great acid balance, and is the ideal partner for food with some heft. Turkey leg anyone?

Austin ferments

2008-11-25T12:39:00.001-06:00

Our co-operative wines for 2008 are fermenting along nicely and the sangiovese and zinfandel (pictured here foaming like mad during punchdown) will be ready to press within a week or so. Barrel fermented Carneros chard is just now completely dry and gets a stir daily to move it along the way to smoothing out and gaining complexity. All to say that if you want to see your wine at this early stage of its life you better do it soon!

WOW-Franc-ly tasty

2008-11-15T17:27:00.001-06:00

Some interesting (if a tad funky) cab francs lined up at Uncorked in East Austin. Volante from Sonoma was big and bold while Bernard Baudry, from Loire Valley in France where they lead with cab franc, was earthy and complex. Try a cab franc when you get a chance - it's not just for blending anymore.

WOW - Malbec Tasting

2008-11-10T20:56:00.001-06:00

Hard to say there was a clear favorite as we gathered for a malbec tasting. Most of the wines were from Argentina with a couple of French Cahors thrown in for variety. All wines were dense, dark and pretty tannic and benefitted from pairing with food: good with flavorful chorizo or an empanada. Flavors ranged from simple bold fruit to vegetal and herbal with fennel, mint, asparagus, and even spinach. In some wines the most pleasant aromas came from the oak. Overall verdict: blend this stuff! It adds interesting depth, color and tannin structure to a blend but on it's own can be a bit chunky and one-dimensional. Having said that, if grilled meat is on the menu these wines can be a great value as most are under $25 retail. Makes one wonder if the rockroom co-op should try our hand at a malbec or malbec-driven blend!? Maybe in 2009...

WOW - Old world Chianti

2008-10-26T20:59:00.001-05:00

We all fall for great labels sometimes and this 2005 Fattoria Monsanto Chianti Classico really pulled me in. Looks like a postcard someone sent from Italy 40 years ago. Nice wine too - big dose of sangiovese like a good Chianti should have with 7% Canaiolo and 3% Colorino for those of you keeping score at home. Here in Austin pick it up for $24 at Tony Mandola's (along with some great Italian groceries or takeout).

wine with gravitas

2008-10-16T18:59:00.003-05:00

Here we go draining free run wine by gravity from a bin of Anderson Valley pinot noir. By separating free run from press wine we can later bring together the mix that makes the best wine after seeing how the flavors, acidity and tannin levels settle out.

it was a dark and chilly morning...

2008-10-11T11:53:00.001-05:00

Starting at 6am (and 40 degrees - brrr) we are picking Russian River pinot noir today. Well, the pros are picking it and I am taking pictures and driving the truck. Dijon clones 115 and 667 today, more next week. More pictures later of the truck assuming I survive the Friday rush hour ride to the custom crush through downtown San Francisco in a 13+ ton 24' diesel rig. Gulp!

Hey, syrah syrah

2008-10-09T18:33:00.002-05:00

White Hawk Vineyard down in Santa Barbara County picked yesterday and we destemmed the fruit today. Well most of it - as we did last year we will do some whole clusters of grapes still on the stems. A little nod to France's Rhone valley approach to syrah. And see those brown patches in the bin? Another French touch is to include a couple percent viognier grapes in the mix, so we will do likewise. Did it last year and the results (still in barrel) are promising.

vineyard news and views

2008-10-02T10:52:00.006-05:00

For you serious wine geeks here is some great information direct from the vineyard manager about La Encantada pinot noir vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills near Santa Barbara. We should be getting grapes next week for our second rockroom vineyard-designated wine from this organically farmed vineyard.

It takes a lot of beer to make good wine

2008-09-30T11:51:00.001-05:00

That is the saying anyway. For rockroom there is a time when both the beer and the wine come from California's Anderson Valley. This week we will harvest pinot noir just outside Philo CA and as we work with the grapes there just may be a few Boont amber ales floating around. It is good stuff. Or in the local Anderson Valley dialect known as Boontling, it is Bahl Hornin'!

wow - Sonoma Coast pinot

2008-09-28T09:27:00.001-05:00

Wine country's answer to Austin's Oasis restaurant has got to be River's End. Perched on a cliff in Jenner CA, you can watch the sun sink while sea lions frolic down below. This is where the Russian River spills into the Pacific ocean so the quaff of choice is a Sonoma Coast or Russian River pinot. Man I can almost taste our own 2007 Bohemian Vineyard pinot now! Oh well, while we wait for that there are some other good examples from this area. Siduri and Zepaltas are my faves but makers like Kosta Brown and Gary Farrell do some dandy wines as well. So pick up one of these Sonoma charmers soon and enjoy with a grilled slab of wild-caught salmon. You'll be glad ya did.

start the presses

2008-09-25T19:27:00.001-05:00

Today we pressed Napa cabernet sauvignon to barrel. Flavors were nice and full with an added bonus of good acidity given the somewhat early harvest. Tannins were relatively soft for this Howell Mountain vineyard as cab from 1000 ft. altitude can be a bit aggressive. We are using Sylvain and Taransaud barrels with tight grained French oak so will watch for subtle oak infusion over the next 18 months or so. This is our first pressing of the year so we are off to a great start!

08 Napa cab is born!

2008-09-20T17:25:00.001-05:00

Harvest is well underway with heat spikes in several spots pushing grapes to ripeness a week or two earlier than last year. This means our Napa cabernet is already happily fermenting away. These grapes came in very clean and the fermentation is going well so we will probably extend maceration (fancy word meaning sit there with the skins and juice all together) to get the full wow out of this super-premium Howell Mountain fruit. Then it's pressin' time into French oak barrels for that important 2 year nap!

WOW - 2006 Hein pinot released

2008-09-14T23:05:00.003-05:00

Official release of the first of the 2006 vintage - Anderson Valley, Hein Vineyard. Get some - yum.

www.rockroom.com

WOW - 2006 is a wrap

2008-09-08T08:36:00.002-05:00

With a bottling session Saturday we got the last of the 2006 co-op wines (our experimental not-for-sale stuff made right here in Austin) safely in bottles. 120 bottles give or take a few. Thanks to those who stopped by to help. Hopefully the takeaway bottles made it worthwhile. Some very promising stuff here. The really big news from Saturday is the barrel-aged bordeaux blend (BDX for short) that is a 60/25/15% blend of merlot/cab/cab franc. These grapes, from different Napa vineyards, were co-fermented so have lived together now for about 20 months. It is a happy partnership that is so far showing up as a really big wine. Finally, at the other end of the spectrum, is our simple blend, tagged simply Red #2. This is mostly a second wine made from pink "bleed juice", taken from our zinfandel and BDX grapes to concentrate them, fermented on merlot, cab, cab franc and zin press skin. The resulting wine was a light fruity red that was then blended with a little barrel-aged zinfandel to give it a little heft. Still an easy-drinking red that will be fun this fall. Finally, we bottled a small test batch of a new zinfandel vineyard blended with a bit of our standby zin (both Russian River AVA but very different grapes nonetheless). Early indications are that this best suited to being a blending zin as it displays some striking peppery and herbal aromas that might be too much all alone. We will watch to see how it develops but it is an interesting contrast to our fruit-driven standby vineyard.

W.o.w. - shiner anyone?

2008-09-01T22:22:00.001-05:00

So in Texas when we talk "shiners" we usually mean beer and usually bock style Shiner Bock beer at that, but in the case of this week's wine of the week it is an unlabeled bottle of wine - a shiner - that happens to hold our own inaugural sparkling wine. The base wine for this was our 2006 Santa Lucia Highlands chardonnay and the wine is currently in champagne bottles becoming, we hope, our own tasty blanc-de-blancs. If you have wandered through the storage (or "elevage" as the French would say) caves/warehouses of a decent sparkling wine maker you have seen these shiners by the thousands laying humbly with their bottlecaps on waiting for a year or two or three to allow layers of flavor to develop in that bottle. This is methode champenoise and is the only way to laboriously make decent bubbly. How do you get a sparkler of your very own? Hang with us - we're willing to try making anything! And in this case it is going quite well I would say. Maybe we should pop one of these at the next co-op get together so you can see how good it is getting...

rockroom's white debut - 07 chardonnay

2008-08-23T09:47:00.002-05:00

Here it is folks, going into bottle after 9 months in barrel - our Alder Springs Vineyard chardonnay. This wine saw oak by way of previously used French oak to avoid an overdose of barrel influence to this wine as we get to know the vineyard and it's ability to handle oak. Remember these grapes had an extreme hang time going well into November before they were picked from their hillside vineyard way up in Mendocino County and we really want this premium fruit to lead the way on this wine. So far it has a very food-friendly crispness to it with nice citrus and pear aromas and flavors. A couple months to get itself together in the bottle and we should have a great seafood wine come spring 2009. Sorry to make you wait, but we will sell no wine before its time. Hey, that could be a good tagline. Let me check to see if anyone has used it before...

Pinot bottling 2007 - graduation day!

2008-08-20T19:16:00.001-05:00

Our 2007 pinot noirs developed beautifully in barrel over the last 9 months or so and were ready for their big day today to go into bottle. Sort of high school graduation for our babies - brings a tear to your eye, right? There's Pete in the photo making sure labels stay lined up as bottles get filled, topped with a blast of nitrogen to eliminate oxygen, corked (with our own custom rockroom corks of course) and topped with shortie capsules. Now for some bottle aging so that all those flavors can integrate and the wine can grow up a little more. Expect a spring debut for our 2007 pinot noirs if all proceeds quickly, fall of 2009 if maturity comes slowly. Hey, you can't rush greatness, it just has to come!

WOW Austrian White

2008-08-10T20:48:00.002-05:00

Dipping south from Germany we visit the land of edelweiss fame and find some stellar white wine. Greuner Veltliner, the name of the grape and the wine, is a terrific food wine with crisp acidity, some pleasant grassy meadow aromas and a soft mouthfeel with a finish that lingers nicely. Works great with Weiner schnitzel (around here pork is the only, not the other, white meat) and is just as nice with cheese or as pictured with mousse pate. You may have to search a bit to find one of these in the U.S. as Austria does not get its own section in many American wine shops. I would say it is worth the search for these moderately priced beauties if you have a hankering for an interesting white.

Not so Bad-en

2008-08-05T09:42:00.001-05:00

Baden is the southwest corner of Germany and is home to the Black Forest and much of the country's production of red wine. It is a stretch to call these "rotwein"s red as most are more like rose'. Many are sweet and are consumed blended with water. The kind of things you do when the flavors are not that great. It is mostly just too dang chilly for red grapes to ripen enough such that wines like these Spatburgunders (pinot noir outside Germany) taste much like what you would expect from France or California. Still, they do seem to work just fine slightly chilled and served with mildly flavored weisswurst or bockwurst. Prost!

Wines of Wurttemburg

2008-08-03T03:53:00.001-05:00

Several days in western Germany just east of the Black Forest provided enough time to try a few regional specialties. The reds were light and fruity, the whites very crisp. Lemburger red was fine and the surprise was a barrel aged chardonnay that was in all ways a white Burgundy proxy. Really outstanding with that whole cool weather chard profile of acidity and minerality but softened by the barrel treatment. Unfortunately, many reds in this region are not really made from fully ripened grapes so are more of a rose and are bottled with residual sugar, probably to cover what would otherwise be some unripe weirdness. The final travesty is that these semi-sweet wines are often mixed with water by the locals to make a thin beverage that is really no more than a thirst quenching alternative to beer. The key to finding the better wines is to look for the word "Trocken" on the label (that "dry" auf Deutch) and "barrique" indicating that it was actually in a small wooden barrel at some time in its life. Be ready to pay a whole 2 to 5 euros extra for this - well worth it. Prost!

WOW - cool pinot

2008-07-30T09:35:00.001-05:00

As expected we are fitting in a few stops for wine as we trek across France and into Germany. In Alsace near the eastern border of France we ran across the full pinot family: blanc, gris and noir. Here in Strasbourg we had a typical pinot noir for the region: light, crisp and served chilled. Almost like a full flavored rose. Great with veal and mushrooms.

WOW - Just Merlot?

2008-07-20T09:30:00.001-05:00

Now this is not a wine of the week you will find at HEB or anywhere else in Austin or Texas or the Ooh-S-Ahh for that matter. It's just that with lunch at the floating Cafe Seine just steps from the Eiffel Tower, Just Merlot was just fine. But then drinking any French wine in Paris is probably just fine. Watch for more totally useless wine picks as we wind our way across France and into Germany. Doing important research to keep rockroom at the forefront of winemaking!

San Francisco Pinot Call-it-a-Day

2008-06-29T22:23:00.001-05:00

Rockroom managed to pull off our first ever industry tasting today at San Francisco Pinot Days big finale tasting at Fort Mason and I must say it went well. Pouring the pre-release (as in so far only available to you co-op faithful) 2006 and the current release (as in almost sold out) 2005 Hein Vineyard pinots we got many cudos on the wine. Reactions ranged from "hey that's nice" to "wow, that's really good". So I would say our joint winemaking collaboration is working out well, which of course comes as no surprise to those of us that have been sipping and sampling along the way. So for now we will keep on pushing the boundaries of small production winemaking, OK?

06 Napa cab bottles

2008-06-28T13:57:00.001-05:00

The last of the 2006 rockroom custom wines goes to bottle today. Hurray! Pete made the bottling line hum and we knocked it out in an hour or so. And now, after waiting 20 months or so since harvest, we wait some more. After a few months settling down in the bottle the hard edges will ease up and we should have a very nice food-friendly Napa cab. The predominant character in this wine comes from Howell Mountain fruit selected from 2 vineyard blocks with about a 5% dash of lush fruit-forward merlot and a similar dash of deep dark malbec rounding it out.

w.o.w. - gettin your vino bang for the buck

2008-06-21T19:50:00.001-05:00

Next time you want something special but a $50 wine from a top boutique producer is a bit over the top, consider an appellation blend. Like this killer 2006 Sonoma Coast pinot from Siduri. Siduri makes wine from dozens of vineyards in California and Oregon and uses a small batch approach to experiment with different yeasts, fermentation approaches, barrel selections and press fractions. As bottling time approaches the best of the best barrels go to the vineyard designated wines with the next tier of barrels going to blends from multiple vineyards within the same appellation. So for example, while about 20 barrels of Sonatera Vineyard wine made it into the vineyard designated bottling, another 13 or so barrels (still really good juice!) went into this bottling, along with wine from two other Sonoma Coast vineyards. So you get solid regional character year after year and pay about 40% less than the vineyard wines that make up the blend. Making for a great Saturday wine to serve with wood-grilled salmon and walleye!

w.o.w. - ya gotta start saving

2008-06-14T22:33:00.001-05:00

As a fan of ripe bananas I figured out long ago that today's banana is edible but in a week it will sweeten and gain flavor. No added cost, just time. Same deal with wine, especially reds. Everyday wines are fine today but will often improve, sometimes dramatically, with even a year or two of aging. So if you are not already, you must start setting aside some wines to revisit at a later date. This 2000 Guigal Crozes Hermitage is a great example. A simple 20 dollar wine a few years ago, this French syrah has matured into a flavorful intense wine that went great with an order of County Line smoked brisket. Well worth the wait with flavors way beyond its unpretentious status and price tag. So how do you end up with a few humble gems like this? My suggestion is that each time you do a wine buy, get enough bottles to get the volume discount and include a couple picks for the cellar. Maybe grab an extra bottle of a red you like that has just a bit more tannic edge or acidic tang than the typical juicy jam-bomb. Even if your cellar is a dark corner of the coat closet, you will be rewarded over time with a couple cases of eclectic wines to be popped after a year or two of bottle aging. Can be fun to share these with friends over a special meal.

wow - time to break out that chard!

2008-06-10T17:08:00.001-05:00

One summer favorite that just screams for a full flavored chardonnay is grilled seafood and veggies. Toss some sliced squash, zucchini, onions and mushrooms in a ziplock with a splash of balsamic vinaigrette and grill along side a slab of fresh salmon (or in this case fresh steelhead trout). Either of the 2006 rockroom co-op chards we made goes great with this simple supper so if you ended up with some, pop that cork! Remember, the wine we made here in Austin is not cold stabilized so if you chill it for more than a few hours you might end up with a bit of tartrate crystalized in the bottom of the bottle - a natural grape byproduct, it is cream of tarter for your next lemon meringe pie!

Dry Creek Co-op

2008-05-31T14:14:00.001-05:00

I spent the last few days meeting with grape sources and crush alternatives and did a healthy dose of field reseach bellied up to winery tasting bars around Sonoma County. Michelle Baker was our gracious hostess with the mostest at Family Wineries in Dry Creek Valley. With 8 wineries under one roof (including my personal favorite Collier Falls who recently got that best of show trophy you see on the bar) it really reminded me of our own little co-operative effort in Austin. As we chatted with her Michelle revealed that she is not only a friendly face behind the Family Wineries tasting bar but also writes about wine for Wine Country This Week, Spotlight’s Wine Country Guide and Jane magazine. It was a great stop and I highly recommend it as you work your way through Dry Creek on the way to the Dry Creek Grocery for picnic supplies, water to rehydrate and toothpaste to get scrub your zinfadeled teeth. Cheers!

wow - patience rewarded

2008-05-26T17:07:00.001-05:00

I was reminded this Memorial Day weekend about the benefits of aging and breathing to a big red wine. Like this 2002 Napa syrah from Novy. A good fruit forward syrah in its youth, it has gained even more smoky, gamey complexity with a few cellar years. But it took being open a couple hours for the really great stuff to kick in. Glad I waited (well for part of the bottle anyway).

wow - pinot of a different color

2008-05-24T22:08:00.003-05:00

Related to pinot noir, little green pinot blanc grapes make a great refreshing white that is a tad more serious and complex than you average quaffer but still not as heavy as most chardonnays. Tart and tangy, these grapes thrive in Alsace France and into Germany (call it "weissburgunder") and also do quite well in the cool Willamette Valley in Oregon. Great seafood wine or a complement to creamy sauces or cheese. On the healthy side, it really brought out the lemon in a lemon-pepper roasted chicken. Or just sip it on a hot day - yum! I picked this 2006 Adelsheim up at Austin Wine Merchant - 17 bucks.

wow - unAmerican white?

2008-05-18T08:45:00.001-05:00

Pine Ridge makes this crisp delicious dry white using 80% chenin blanc and the rest viognier. Now do you ever see such a wine on a menu or at a tasting? You would in France and certainly would in South Africa where, sometimes called "steen", chenin blanc is one of the most widely consumed wines. Stateside, however, chenin blanc has a bad rap as something that should come in a big green jug. All because the grape was never raised carefully for flavor but was instead turned into a workhorse of Central Valley California bulk wine where it flourishes but becomes unremarkable. At probably its most lofty form, French Vouvray can be $100 a bottle chenin blanc that can age well for decades. This much more humble Pine Ridge ages just fine on the front seat of the car on the way home from Whole Foods where I picked it up for $9. As Texas winegrowers search for grapes to grow that fit our hot climate, they would do well to consider this high-acid grape that can produce great refreshing wines ranging from dry to sweet.

wow - one swede pink

2008-05-13T14:42:00.002-05:00

Here from Italian producer Letizia, another really good dry rose ("rosato" in Italian) from a pretty interesting Italian, well Sicilian actually, varietal: nero d'avola. This variety does well growing in the Sicilian heat (Texas grape growers should take note!) and can produce big barrel-aged reds, but in these grapes give heft to a very full flavored aromatic pink that is great with prosciutto and a sliver of sharp cheese. Yet another terrific summer quaffer! I was sipping this wine with lunch in Sweden (!) but don't go that far for a bottle - look for a nero d'avola rosato near you.

w.o.w. think pink

2008-05-04T21:16:00.001-05:00

As summer approaches you just gotta think pink. I know all the pushback: pink wine is sweet, pink wine is not "real" wine, and of course my favorite: real men don't drink pink....ANYTHING. Well, set aside those cliche's for a minute and consider, there is a LOT of dry rose out there that is not the least bit sweet - just as dry as a chardonnay or sauvignon blanc but with more heft and complexity. So while whites may do fine, something like, say, a good spaghetti carbonara with that bit of egg and pancetta (hmmm... Asti comes to mind), is a whole different dish with a dry rose. Like this UNTI 2007 Rose: 65% grenache 35% mourvedre, all farmed at UNTI's own vineyards in Dry Creek Sonoma. Now that is real wine. Can't find UNTI at the store? Order direct like I did - go to the link above and you are a few clicks and a credit card away from having some wine within a week. Hurry though - this is not a wine to have shipped in the heat of the summer. So now, should I address that real men drinking pink wine issue? Guess not, as coming from someone that likes pink wine it might sound defensive.

wow - unexpected bargains

2008-04-28T14:08:00.002-05:00

Sure, Ken Brown pinot noirs are really good stuff and are a good pick when you run across them, but I call out this bottle of 2005 Santa Rita Hills for a specific reason. On a recent R&R trip to San Francisco we ran into a small grocery to pick up some wine, cheese, etc for a picnic lunch. Gorgeous spring day and it had to be done. Scanning the wine shelves it was easy to see they organized horizontal by varietal and vertically by price. Down there on the bottom shelf, not where I expected to find a wine I was willing to buy, sat a few Ken Brown pinots. No price. Asking a busy checkout clerk, she had someone run check and came back with $9.99 - bottom shelf, right? I went back and got the other two bottles, so ended up with $120 worth of great wine for 30 bucks. The point? When you know the wines you love (in this case pinot noir) always consider lower-priced bottles that have vineyard designations or special appellations (in this case Santa Rita Hills) that indicate limited production. The wine industry is complicated and mistakes often get made, so price is not always a good indicator. In fact, let me know sometime if you want to hear about a bottle of 1973 Stags Leap Cellars cab that was on a clearance shelf in the busiest wine shop in Houston on the busiest day of the year. . .

07 barrel samples ready to taste

2008-04-20T20:39:00.001-05:00

The 2007 wines are ready for tasting! I recently brought chardonnay, syrah and cabernet samples so we can monitor progress in our most recent barrels. Certainly not finished wine but fun to try as we watch the evolution. Hope to see you in the rockroom Austin headquarters this week for a sniff, swirl and sip.

wow - big ol pinot

2008-04-13T00:15:00.001-05:00

Yeah I know what you're thinkin. You're thinkin "why more hype about pinot?", right? I mean yeah it is heavenly stuff when done right, but there are so many more wines out there so why does it always have to come back around to pinot noir? Well keeping in mind that the rockroom approach is that wine is meant to be enjoyed with food and friends, you generally will not do better than a pinot noir. Take for example this 2003 Lucia pinot noir - their Santa Lucia Highlands(that's loo-see'-ya, not loosh-ee'-ya for those playing at home) appellation blend. Big, fruit forward and flavorful enough to drink like a wine cocktail, it is more at home with a really flavorful dish, like this braised lamb shank with cabbage. It works because the wine has enough acidity to act like a little sip of sorbet in between each bite. The oak influence is there but not overdone and the fruit is dark but not jammy so it doesn't compete with the food flavors. Got it? The concept I mean. Getting Lucia wine, made by Jeff Pisoni in Sonoma County, CA, is a little tougher. Google it or call 800.946.3130 - you'll be glad ya did.

wow - messy is a good thing

2008-02-24T19:23:00.000-06:00

Here is a beautiful and balanced white that has it all going on. Floral aromas, citrus and pear flavors, and a honeyed mouth coating quality. Yummy Soave from Verona Italy. $16 at Tony Mandola's on Lamar. Oh, and messy in that it is not cold stabilized so after a day in the chiller it will snow a little cream of tarter.

blending fun

2008-01-27T22:11:00.000-06:00

This week I got a chance to do some experiments with master blender Kian Tavakoli on our 2006 Napa cabernet sauvignon. Staying with 100% Napa wines it was amazing how small dabs of a different cab or malbec can punch it up. Our favorite by a long shot was a small addition of a Napa benchland cab (remember our base wine is Howell Mountain) and a tiny dab of Malbec from Coombsville (far southern Napa Valley). The blend will continue to barrel age and could even see more blending later.

wow - good godello

2008-01-13T08:40:00.000-06:00

Always good to have a few interesting whites on hand for the porch-sittin' warm spells we get every winter. Here is a charmer from cool northwest Spain: godello grapes turned wine by Abad Dom Bueno. About 20 bucks - delish.

crankin some zin

2007-12-14T06:42:00.000-06:00

While the grownups yakked Alex supplied the muscle to separate our Russian River zin from its skins. Our co-op reds are now pressed and will age for a year or so in their barrels.

pinot press

2007-12-09T16:07:00.000-06:00

Our Carneros pinot noir finished primary fermentation and we pressed it today. 2 different pinot clones from the same vineyard - UCD18 for color and bright acidity, Dijon clone 115 for earthy aromas and flavors. Now for malolactic fermentation in barrel and aging. While we worked we sipped on a Loring Rosella's Vineyard pinot from 2005 - great inspiration for our humble little wine!

uh-oh, wine is happening

2007-12-08T08:11:00.000-06:00

During Prohibition there was an enterprising company that would send out blocks of dried zinfandel grapes with a label on the package that said "warning - do not add water and yeast or wine may result". Well I feel I must warn you that those grapes we had delivered to Austin are now turning into wine. Just the way it goes, expecially when you pitch in a little wine yeast. Here is a photo of the pinot noir frothing away as yeast eat sugar and spit out alcohol. The process is moving fast and we will be pressing pinot and zin in the coming week.

grapes arrive!

2007-11-30T07:21:00.000-06:00

The grapes for our 2007 rockroom winemaking co-operative wines are now in Austin! Two different clones of Carneros pinot noir, 250lbs of primo Russian River Valley zinfandel and enough Santa Lucia Highlands chardonnay juice to make a nice little quarter barrel of chard. Moving these grapes toward wine-dom starts today and the weekend will certainly see some key steps take place. Call or email if you want to drop in and see how your wine is starting life!