December 7, 2007
 Winemaker to Watch: Robert Pellegrini, Pellegrini Family Vineyards Robert Pellegrini doesn't want people to drink his wines only at Christmas or other auspicious occasions. And if one of his wines is on your Christmas list, he hopes it will be in your glass, not under the tree. Pellegrini, who oversees the vineyards and the winemaking for Pellegrini Family Vineyards near Santa Rosa, betrays his Tuscan heritage by the way he views wine - as an integral part of a meal. The veteran Sonoma winemaker prides himself on top-quality wines, all produced from single vineyards, including Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the family's Olivet Lane property in Russian River Valley; plus Cabernet Sauvignon from Cloverdale Ranch in Alexander Valley and Merlot, also from Cloverdale Ranch, that made this year's Chronicle Top 100. He is businessman enough to want a fair return on his investments. But he refuses to let prices go so high that only the wealthy can afford to crack open a bottle. His wines sell from about $14 to $45, a price range that allows most wine lovers to enjoy a bottle with a meal. It's a traditional view of wine for someone who could charge dearly, considering that the Pellegrinis' grapes are sought after by prestigious winemakers like Merry Edwards. He could easily plant the acreage now devoted to Merlot with something flashier, but his loyalty to this traditional grape is yet another reminder that the Pellegrinis have been a part of Sonoma County's wine culture since before Pinot went hot and Merlot went cold. The Pellegrini name has been linked to California wine for three generations. Grandpa Pellegrini arrived on Ellis Island from the town of Lucca as a 16-year-old, following a brother who was already working in the United States. After a brief stint in the lumber camps of the Pacific Northwest, the brothers went into the wine business, shipping and distributing wine and, eventually, making their own. The Olivet Lane property was acquired in 1933. For that matter, the wine that Pellegrini and his family drink does not necessarily come from their own production. He thinks it's boring and limiting to drink only your own or, for that matter, your immediate region's wines, and shops regularly at such places as Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley for bottles from many regions and producers. What wine he favors, he says with a laugh, depends on what he is eating and what mood he is in. "I don't have any permanent preferences. Wines are just like children to me - no favorites." As it turns out, the winemaker has the same laissez-faire attitude toward his actual children. If they go into the wine business, fine; if they want to do something else with their lives, that's fine, too. He was allowed to choose his career, though growing up in a winery family, he admits, you are pressed into work early, "even if you just push a broom around." However, he was allowed to major in Italian in college (Santa Clara University), studying viticulture and enology at UC Davis after he already worked for his dad. Family is definitely important for the Pellegrinis. When patriarch Vincent died, neither Robert nor his brother, Richard, and sister, Jeanne, wanted to assume title of president. "So we are all vice presidents," Robert Pellegrini reports, with him overseeing the vineyards and winemaking and putting in a fair amount of travel to work with distributors. He likes the fact that their business is small enough, at 35,000 cases, that everybody has to multitask, or, as he prefers to call it, "be ambidextrous." At no time is that more apparent than during harvest. "What do I do at harvest?" he asks. "I wash out bins and cook for the crew." If some of the food he cooks sounds trendy, he is quick to point out that he grew up with things that are now in vogue: "My grandpa grew radicchio, and on our first date, I treated my wife to pasta with pesto" at what is now Tommaso's in North Beach. It's the same restaurant where the Pellegrinis held two recent winemaker dinners. Robert loves those - they round out the whole experience, he says, tying together the early work in the vineyard to tending the grapes as they mature, harvesting and making the wine and, finally, witnessing people enjoy the wine and talking to them about it. "You'd never get that full experience in a mega-winery, where everybody has just one tightly defined responsibility," says Pellegrini, a Renaissance man among winemakers. Karola Saekel is a former Chronicle staff writer. E-mail comments to wine@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on page F - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle Divine Import ..."Any way you slice it, those are big numbers," says Ed Lehrman of Vine Connections, an importer of Argentine wine and Japanese sake based in Sausalito, Calif. "Sake is becoming more of a requirement as part of a complete program for distributors and major importers." Lehrman began as a wine connoisseur and marketer, tasting about 3,000 wines a year, before starting Vine Connections with wine partner Nick Ramkowsky and importing what has become a 12-brand sake portfolio, which accounts for about 30% of the company's sales.  Lehrman says that sake's lack of tannin structure and its low acidity compared with wine make it a drink that's hard not to like. "Our role is part evangelist and part educator," he says. He educates restaurants and retailers on sake's finer points, which, he says, can be approached through a lens of wine knowledge. "The kind of wine you like is the kind of sake you like," he says. "It seems to be a direct crossover. If you like white Burgundy, you'll like Niigata-style sake. [The taste is] clean."... Sake buyer Paul Tanguay says more information in English on the label is key to U.S. sales. And he's one to be heard. Having worked with every distributor in the U.S. while he was the beverage director of Sushi Samba restaurants nationwide, Tanguay is a formidable player in the popularization of the drink and imported sake's upward trajectory. "So much of what goes into developing brands in this business is distribution," says Sidel. "This is true of management of any luxury good or product--who is buying it, who is drinking it--and that is determined by distribution." Tanguay plans to continue educating sake drinkers as Vine Connections' national sake ambassador. "Paul will add significantly more bandwidth," says Lehrman. "He brings a lot of experience from the buyer's side." Tanguay says growth in sake consumption may not be evident in places like New York City, but it's definitely heading inland from the coasts. Read full article here August 22, 2007 Houston Chronicle Gives "2002 mapema primera zona" 4 Stars! • History: Twenty-five years ago, Argentine wines were made the old-fashioned way, with too much oak and too much time in the aging cellars. The results were not for the American or even international palate. All that's changed, and now Argentina is trying to outperform its neighbor, Chile, in the global marketplace. It has monster production, plus a niche for malbec, a red-wine grape that thrives south of the equator better than in Bordeaux. Two winemaker friends, Mariano di Paola and Pepe Galante, recently teamed to produce Argentina's Mapema wines, using the first two letters of their first names.They make malbec, sauvignon blanc, tempranillo and a red-wine blend. The 2002 Mapema "Primera Zona'' - **** - is a red Bordeaux mix of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and malbec, made in a restrained Bordeaux style, with good red and black fruit, a hint of leather and tobacco. At 5 years of age, this wine is at its peak and drinking very nicely, indeed. • Pairings: The winery suggests veal chops, duck with fruit sauce, beef, lamb, chicken and game birds. • Retail: $28. • From: Horizon Wines; 713-413-9463. Link to Article
A pinotage - from California?08:30 PM CST on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 - Dallas Morning NewsIn 1976, Fort Ross Vineyard owners Lester and Linda Schwartz moved to California from their native South Africa with no thought of making wine. He was an attorney. She, a musician who worked with the arts and international trade. Twelve years later, they were looking to reclaim Lester's agrarian roots and stumbled upon property on back roads north of Jenner on California's Sonoma coast. "U.S. 1 was closed," recalls Lester on a recent Dallas visit, "and we had to go around, above the fog." They fell in love with the ridge, built an unusual house there, and eventually decided to try grape-growing. They figured out that pinot noir and chardonnay would thrive in their 44-acre vineyard, and they imported pinotage cuttings from South Africa, nostalgic for the popular pinot noir-cinsaut cross. The cuttings were quarantined in California for five years. The wait was worth it. The Fort Ross 2002 Pinotage, one of only a handful produced in California, is a marvel. Deep inky purple, it gives off concentrated aromas of dark red fruit, dried strawberries, blackberries, black cherries,spiced with white pepper and infused with smoke. The fruit grows luscious, creamy and mouth-filling but not in a big-wine, jammy way. Rather, it's like dipping through layers of mousse, with dry tannins and nice acidity that roll to a chewy finish.
May 01, 2006 2002 SYMPOSIUM, Fort Ross Vineyard, Sonoma Coast WINE OF THE WEEK! A touch of Pinotage varietal intensifies the color and taste of “Symposium.” At first sip, the wine rests on the tongue with concentrated cherry and plum. Complexity and minerality add layers of flavor, making this wine well worth the investment.
Ever been to France's Burgundy region? It's chilly and damp, even in the summer. Ever been to California's Sonoma coast? It's chilly and damp, even in the summer. What are the best wine grapes in Burgundy? Pinot noir and chardonnay. Best on the Sonoma coast? The same. Pretty obvious connection, isn't it? More Info |
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