Perlis Picks: San Luis Obispo County Wine — A World Class History (Book Review)

April 3, 2021 by Michael Perlis

Reading San Luis Obispo County Wine — A World Class History by Libbie Agran and Heather Muran with the Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County brought back a lot of great memories and also filled in a lot of gaps.

I think Karen and I started visiting the Paso Robles wine region in the late 1980s or early 1990s. One of my earliest memories of visiting the wineries of Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County dates back to us driving down the 101 from the San Francisco Bay area and making a pit stop at Castoro Cellars. Around that time, we also had many happy visits to places like York Mountain Winery, Estrella River Winery [Gary Eberle’s first winery], Arciero, Pesenti and others that are no longer with us, at least in their former incarnations. Castoro, of course, is still producing great wines, along with a host of others that we have seen spring up throughout the area that we have come to consider practically our second home.

And while I’ve felt that my knowledge of the Paso Robles wine region has been pretty extensive, this book taught me so much about what I didn’t know and really filled in the connections between the various industry icons over the history of not only Paso Robles but Edna Valley and Arroyo Grande as well.

The Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County was founded by Libbie Agran in 2015 to study and document the vineyards, varietals, growers and winemakers of the area going back to the 1700s. Working with Heather Muran [who served as a historian with the project in 2019 and 2020], the book [Libbie’s second], presents the history of the region along with the interrelationships of the people involved in an extremely readable and easy to understand fashion.

Libbie’s writing style flows off the page. She went through numerous oral interviews to collect history and information. The book is also highlighted with many family photographs of the founding members of the SLO Wine region. At the end of each chapter, Libbie lists several historical sites to visit that were discussed in that chapter.

But wait, there’s more!

While the book is a must-read in its own right, I also highly recommend that you check out the Wine History Project’s website. There, you can dig deeper into what is presented in the book and support the work that Libbie is doing. Last April [wow, time flies] I wrote about the film 91 Harvests Perlis Picks: 91 Harvests (evewine101.com) which covers the Dusi family history, but the website provides all the information on the other work that Libbie and her team are doing, as well as exhibitions around the area – I am definitely looking forward to checking these out on our next visit.

Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County

https://winehistoryproject.org/

Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 30 years. He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who encourages him and shares his interest. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, he had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. Michael is also President of MCP Financial, which provides outsourced controller services. Michael can be contacted at michaelthezinfan@aol.com or mcpfinancial@aol.com.

Perlises Pick What Wines We Are Drinking At Home – Part 2

February 6, 2021 by Michael Perlis

I’ve written about Stillman Brown and the wines he makes somewhere in Paso Robles often enough over the last several years that people might think I owe him something. All I really owe him is a thank you for his delicious wines as well as for his witty emails. Karen and I have really enjoyed all his wines, but since this series of articles is primarily about the “lighter” wines that we’ve been enjoying at home, I thought I’d share with you two of those that were released most recently. And rather than bore you with my descriptions, I figured I’d just turn you over to Swilly himself:

The deal goes down with Stillman in the La Quinta parking lot — photo by Mike Ortiz (Photo is from this website’s library, taken well before Covid.)

“2019 Chateau d’Abalone Vermentino. It’s light and it’s big, it’s crisp and it’s soft, and it smells like….Vermentino, not like table grapes, dirt, and Muscat de Middleman was added instead of the best possible yeast for the variety. Unusual vine canopy management and my little enological tricks – a ‘secret ingredient’? – make a difference, I think: it’s the equal of the 2015, which … oh well, how about a more recent brag? The new swill slayed all comers at a post-Christmas party I was semi-forced to attend, There were some pretty good palates there, but a few belonged to “snobbeliers” so I didn’t mention that the wine was still in bottle shock at that point. It might have been interpreted as winemaker egomania watered down to mere smugness…

2019 Colossus Viognier. There would have been more if not for Bambi & family, who munched away undisturbed for the extra weeks it took to ripen everything this year, but I did manage to get enough to partly fill a beautiful Caucasian 265 liter barrel – second use, as when new it had held the previous vintage only three months. Second is not second best for barrel fermented whites, sez me. I also had enough to partly fill a 55 gallon stainless drum. (Fill >80% and ferment —> yeast lava flow.) No sweetness, no cloying warm climate perfume, no “it’s cool climate Viognier, it’s supposed to be thin and weird'” Santa Barbara marketing spin. It’s 31 proof.”

Did you follow all that? Yeah, me neither.

From Karen: But the wines were great. These wines go with all our “lighter meals” – turkey, chicken, fish and also what we like to call our “snacks” nights – shrimp cocktails or even steak tartare. Add some fruit, cheese and crackers and we can have dinner on the table in 10 minutes. We know these wines complement whatever we are having for dinner.

The bad news is that I expect these wines are long gone. The good news is they were released about a year ago, so maybe we can expect something equally exciting sometime soon. But the only way that you will know is if you get on his email list, so contact him at swillyidle@gmail.com. You’ll have the opportunity to get some wonderful wines and also some entertaining emails.

Perlises Pick What Wines We Are Drinking At Home – Part 1

January 30, 2021 by Michael Perlis

I’ve seen many wine article titles referencing the pandemic, many with riffs on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love In The Time of Cholera or even One Hundred Years Of Solitude. I didn’t want to go down that road, but I did want to share what wines Karen and I have been drinking over the last several months.

Karen Perlis, Heidi Wiedeman, Carey Babcock and Janell Dusi — photo by Mike Ortiz (2012, photo from this website.)

Our wine habits had actually shifted a couple of years ago. This may come as a shock for regular readers of this ZinFan, but we have been trying to practice eating a lighter diet and the color of the wines followed suit – mainly Whites and Pinks with Reds reserved for less frequent heavier meals and restaurant dining.

Fortunately, there are lots of great W&Ps to choose from, many from wineries that are already our favorites. Because it turns out, great winemakers make great wine, period.

J Dusi Wines (www.jdusiwines.com) is a great example. We’ve been fans of Janell Dusi’s wines ever since we tasted her first commercial vintage of Zinfandel from the iconic Dante Dusi Vineyard in Paso Robles. She makes several other great Reds as well, including various red blends, a Carignane and a Zinfandel from the Benito Dusi Vineyard, some only available to club members.

But for white wine, we really often look no further than what has become somewhat of our house wine, the J Dusi Pinot Grigio – crisp, clean and a great accompaniment to all manner of seafood and pasta dishes. And while I try not to focus too much on price, this wine is extremely well-priced, even more so by the case [and even more so if you are a club member].

And if it is Rosé that you are craving, Janell makes a fine one, a Rhone blend that is as complete as you’ll find anywhere.

The above two wines are both great for any occasion, but if you are looking for something a little more upscale, try the Paper Street Clairette Blanc.

Paper Street is definitely not a second label to J Dusi. Rather, it is a label in its own right, as well as the name of the Paper Street Vineyard, a property on the west side of Paso Robles in the Willow Creek AVA, acquired, cleared and planted by the Dusi family in 2013. Wonderful wines are coming from this vineyard, not just from Janell but from other Paso Robles wineries too, to great accolades. Currently, Janell makes a Zinfandel, a red Rhone blend and a 100% Mourvedre from this vineyard, as well as the aforementioned Clairette Blanc. Clairette Blanc is one of the lesser known [at least to me] white Rhone grapes but it shouldn’t be – this version is as rich and elegant as anything you could ask for.

We’ve been drinking a lot more wines at home, which I’ll write about soon.

Perlis Picks: Portalupi

December 26, 2020 by Michael Perlis

“Grandma was a bootlegger.”

Not something you hear every day, but this is what Jane Portalupi told Karen and me when we visited.

The tag hanging on the one-liter milk bottles of their Vaso di Marina red and white wines tells the story like this:

“This wine is inspired by my grandmother, Marina Portalupi, who immigrated to Northern California from Piemonte, Italy. She believed wine was a staple, like milk and bread, and kept a barrel of her vino di tavola in her small grocery store. Every day, customers would fill their empty milk bottles to take home and pass around the dinner table. Vaso di Marina is a rustic yet refined wine in that same tradition and we hope you’ll enjoy it the same way.”

The above was how this article was supposed to begin after our visit in 2019. For various reasons, it got delayed. My apologies to the Portalupis for that. Then, 2020 came and the pandemic happened, the world changed, and I think it would be more important for you to know what is going on now with the winery.

But first, a little backstory…

I first tasted Portalupi’s wines at WineLA’s 2019 Elevating Zinfandel event. Of course, I only got to taste their Zins that day, but they were excellent versions from the Russian River Valley Dolinsek Ranch. I knew we needed to taste the rest of their offerings the next time we visited Sonoma County, which we ended up doing later in the year.

The winery was founded in 2002 by Jane Portalupi and Tim Borges to showcase their Italian heritage and its connection to California wine in a true Cal-Italia celebration. Jane and Tim knew each other as children and when they reconnected as adults, they married and combined Tim’s winemaking experience with Jane’s fashion marketing background into Portalupi Winery. Founded in 2002, Jane and Tim wanted Portalupi to honor their own Italian heritage along with the deep roots that Italian immigrants have in California’s wine industry.

Karen and I met up with Jane at the winery’s charming tasting room in downtown Healdsburg. Starting out, we were surprised to find they had a sparkling Barbera. What a delicious and fun wine to get our palates ready to taste some serious stuff.

We then tried a couple of whites, the 2016 Vermentino and the 2018 Arneis, both classic Italian varietals that were couldn’t wait to bring home and enjoy.

Enough playing around though, we were ready for the big boys.

Portalupi makes two Barberas, one from Shake Ridge Ranch in Amador County and one from Pauli Ranch in Mendocino. We tried the 2016 versions. I was very slightly partial to the Shake Ridge bottling, but I might have been a little prejudiced since I love Amador Barberas.

We also tasted through a selection of Charbono, two Zinfandels and a Petite Sirah. It’s hard to find much Charbono these days. Portalupi gets their Charbono grapes from the Venturi Vineyard in Ukiah, certified organic and vines over 100 years old, which is also where they get their Petite Sirah. I mentioned above that the Zin comes from Dolinsek in the RRV. As I said, these are “big boy wines”, delicious and able to stand up to whatever food you might throw at them.

I did check in with Jane on how things are going and this is what she told me:

“It has been a crazy year for sure. In Sonoma County we have been only able to serve outside. So our beautiful interior space is not being used although we have found out that our temporary outdoor seating has worked very well, especially on weekends. We are still not getting many tourists except from the bay area. People are loving the outdoors and everyone hopes this will go beyond Covid. We are approved by the city to go through December 2021 and I hope beyond, especially since we plan to build a beautiful outdoor space soon…Just wonder what our new normal will be – I have learned to be light on my feet and can make a change on a dime. So, as hard as it has been, we all have grown. We are fortunate to have a loyal following and are grateful every day for the people who support us.”

Jane said that Portalupi is all about food and wine with friends and family and celebrating the moment. We appreciate her letting us in to share that.

Portalupi Wine

www.portalupiwine.com

107 North St, Healdsburg, CA 95448

Perlis Picks: Vintners Resort!

December 19, 2020 by Michael Perlis

The last time Karen and I visited Vintners Resort in Santa Rosa was in 2019. At that time, the additions of the modern luxury suites and rooms and amenities such as the new spa and pool were in place and the transition from Vintners Inn to Resort was complete.

My plan was to write about this for your reading pleasure late last year or early this one. Delays on my part pushed this farther out than anticipated, and then the world changed. Trying to tell you about the place we visited late last summer seemed perhaps a little irrelevant. What is relevant is what they are doing now and going forward.

Don’t get the wrong idea. The changes made last year are pretty exciting, completing the vision of a property modeled as a modern Mediterranean village, including a harvest table in the onsite vineyard for celebratory meals. And with Vintners Resort now in its 40th year, there is a lot to celebrate.

It’s just that celebrating is a little different right now.

Vintners Resort, in addition to being our favorite place to stay, is known for hosting amazing events, both indoor and out. Those are currently on hold, but staying at the resort certainly isn’t. They’ve indicated that guests are not put in adjoining rooms in order to maximize social distancing, and rooms are given extra sanitizing as well as 24 hours of non-occupancy between guests. So, capacity is reduced accordingly.

Meals are as great as ever, just a little different too. With the River Vine café temporarily closed until next spring, in-room dining is the next best thing. Admittedly, I was a little worried about how my poached eggs would weather the journey across the property, but they were perfect. [Yes, poached eggs are a thing for me.]

Late afternoon and evening dining are available at The Front Room and of course, at John Ash & Co., either dining on the patio or to-go back to your room. Both options are stellar [we know because we tried both] but I highly recommend you don’t miss the opportunity to dine at John Ash under the stars.

When I asked General Manager Percy Brandon what he would like people to know, he responded: “We’re open. We’re ready. And we are following protocols.”

Their website lists in detail what all these protocols are:

https://www.vintnersresort.com/experience/covid-19-policy/

We always love our visits to Vintners Resort. This one was no exception. For as long as I can remember, the property has always had the slogan “Celebrate Everything” but that can easily be augmented with the mantra of “Be Respectful” and the staff has really taken this to heart as well.

Not only is the property itself beautiful and quite peaceful, but it is also ideally located for day trips to the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley, the Sonoma Coast and more. I can’t imagine a better place to stay in Sonoma County Wine Country.

Be sure to sign up on their website and follow them on Facebook. Now is the time to get great deals.

Vintners Resort

https://www.vintnersresort.com/

4350 Barnes Road
Santa Rosa CA 95403

Perlis Picks: Comstock Winery Experiences

December 12, 2020 by Michael Perlis

When Karen and I started thinking about making our first-in-a-long-time visit to a winery [or anywhere for that matter] we wanted to take into account certain criteria – protocols followed, outdoor seating, an exceptional experience and of course, great wine.

Comstock in the Dry Creek Valley immediately came to mind.

Photo from Comstock website.

We’ve been fans of the wines and people from Comstock ever since meeting the General Manager of the new winery, Kelly Comstock Ferris, at the Sonoma In The City traveling road show in Beverly Hills in 2014, later that year visiting Kelly at the under-construction winery, and then visiting about two years after that and staying on the property for the ultimate wine country experience. We knew they were the right choice.

Of course, things are a little different now. Like everyone else, Comstock has had to pivot. Tastings are by reservation on the large scenic patio.

A central feature now is paired tasting experiences. We had the pleasure to try the Grilled Cheese Pairing, which included:

2018 Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc paired with a Confit Tuna Melt with Shallots, Celery, Kumquat Kosho & Estero Gold on House-made Rye English Muffin.

2015 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay paired with House-made Country Ham, Gruyere, Dijon & Bechamel on Sliced Sourdough.

2017 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir paired with Applewood Bacon & Smoked Cheddar on Brioche, Tomato Soup Shooter.

2014 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel paired with Akaushi Cheesesteak with Peppers, Onion, Mushroom & Smoked Provolone on House-made Roll.

Definitely not your Grandma’s grilled cheese.

We were excited that the Sauvignon Blanc was on the list. We were out of the supply that we had ordered earlier in the year so it was a great chance to see how it was tasting and replenish our stock – which we did!

We don’t drink Chardonnay often anymore. We have nothing against it, there are just so many other varietals out there. But this one was outstanding, hitting all the right notes with a little bit of bottle age to mellow it out. This might have been our favorite pairing, although the Pinot Noir with the twist on the classic grilled cheese and tomato soup gave it tough competition for sure. Actually, they all did.

Especially the last one. Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel is always great, and paired with the cheesesteak. Well…Mmmm…Steak.

As I mentioned to Karen, who then passed my observations on to Tracy Fabro Bidia, Comstock’s Hospitality Director when she stopped by our table to check on us, many people say that pairings are overrated – until they try the right ones by people who know what they are doing.

In this case, we were really blown away. Of course, it helps to have someone like classically trained Chef Jude Affronti putting these together. Chef Affronti said that his approach is actually fairly simple: he tries to make 1 + 1 = 3, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Well, it definitely works.

Another experience that we didn’t get a chance to try but I expect to be equally as delicious is labeled Wine & Woodfired, paired as follows:

2017 Viognier with Thai Chicken Skewer the Estate Peach Chutney Kumquat Kosho Slaw, Sweet Corn Ginger & Citrus

2015 Chardonnay with House-smoked Local King Salmon with Roast Trevisa, Watermelon, Cucumber, Mint & Garden Radish

2017 Pinot Noir with House-made Sausage with Portobello Summer Squash, Mushroom Conversa & Plum Gastrique

2014 Cabernet Sauvignon with Espresso Crusted Akaushi Coulotte Steak with Horseradish Ricotta, Heirloom Shelling & Wax Beans, K1 Steak Sauce

Next time for sure. Mmmm…Steak.

We rounded out our tasting with a few other gems. Karen especially loved the 2019 Sonoma County Rosé, the 2016 Rockpile Petite Sirah was outstanding as well, and the 2016 Bennet Valley Syrah, in spite of tasting so many excellent wines, was my favorite wine of the day. We finally got to meet winemaker Chris Russi too. He had significant winemaking experience before coming to Comstock, with Geyser Peak in Sonoma County, Peter Lehmann in Australia and Christopher Creek in the Russian River Valley all on his resume, among others. Unlike some wineries and winemakers that might have a “house style”, Chris’s approach is to let each vineyard speak for itself without undue influence. [I also noted after visiting that he owns an old vine vineyard in the Russia River Valley that is listed on the Historic Vineyard Society website, which always earns extra points with me.]

Thank you to Kelly and Tracy for taking such great care of us. In chatting with Kelly near the end of our visit, two things became crystal clear:

One: the future is bright for Comstock no matter what it holds.

Two: we need to visit more often.

Perlis Picks Mazzocco Sonoma’s Zinfandels!

December 5, 2020 by Michael Perlis

I think I need to finally admit something…

About Zinfandel.

Back when I first started developing my appreciation of Zin, there were the three Rs of Zinfandel – Rosenblum, Ridge and Ravenswood.

More recently, although still about 20 years ago, my own tastes elevated Turley and Carlisle to the top spots. Bedrock, the relative newcomer [first vintage was 2007] was added to round out this trinity a decade or so ago.

ANTOINE FAVERO

This is not to say that there aren’t other great Zinfandel producers out there. But the abovementioned three always seem to rise just enough above the others to stay in that top spot of Zins that one cannot do without.

But at a recent visit by Karen and me to Mazzocco Sonoma in the Dry Creek Valley, it dawned on me. We’ve visited this winery several times and have never failed to be totally blown away by the quality, especially the famous Zinfandels. This properly socially distanced visit with winemaker Antoine Favero was no exception.

Mazzocco is doing all the right things with their tastings, of course: reservation only, outdoors, tables far apart, masks worn except when seated at tasting table [all subject to change as protocols change, of course].

We had pulled Antoine away from harvest duties, so as we awaited his arrival we started out with a taste of the Kenneth Carl Brut [named after winery co-owner Ken Wilson] followed by the 2018 Chardonnay Reserve Stuhlmuller, Alexander Valley which had just won Gold at the 2020 Sonoma County Harvest Fair. [You’ll note a lot of Gold and above winners at Mazzocco, more than just about any other winery that I’ve encountered and from fairly local and extremely legitimate events where the judges know of what they speak – and taste!]

Antoine’s arrival prompted air hugs, followed by tasting through some of the wines he suggested we try, along with conversation about the crazy year that we had all experienced.

Now Antoine makes a lot of wines at Mazzocco, mostly Zinfandels, far too many to taste all of them, so we put ourselves in Antoine’s hands and off we went.

But, put on the brakes just for a second. Before trying the Zins, we wanted to try the 2018 Grenache Chemise, Dry Creek Valley. Made in a totally different style from the Zinfandels, this really emphasized the softer Grenache fruit. Of course, multiple Golds for this beauty.

But Antoine knew we were there for Zinfandel, so he led us through a tasting of some amazing ones:

2018 Sullivan Reserve – Dry Creek Valley [Captivating aromas of violets and wild cherry with hints of sweet star anise lead to rich layered flavors of black cherry preserves, dark chocolate, cinnamon stick, and spice in the mouth. The crisp, dark concentrated berry finish is framed with luscious tannins laced with baking spices, a dash of Habanero pepper, and a smidgen of cacao.]

2018 Serracino Reserve – Dry Creek Valley [Wonderful aromatics of baking spices, blackberry, and wisteria lead to a harmonious flavor medley of chocolate truffle, nougat, and vanilla bean with hints of gooseberry in the mouth. The tannins are velvety, ending with a smidgen of French oak, a hint of dusty rose, and a dusting of cacao.]

2018 Warm Springs Ranch – Dry Creek Valley [Captivating aromatics of violets, wild cherry, and potpourri meld seamlessly in the nose followed by a fleshy palate of boysenberry and hazelnut framed by luxurious and inviting tannins. This is a well-balanced Zinfandel with round plush tannins and a long caressing finish, hinting of exotic spices, Madagascar vanilla with a smidgen of coffee bean.]

2018 Pony Reserve – Dry Creek Valley [Alluring fragrances of red rose, marionberry, and cherry cola lead into a complex medley of blackberry, raspberry preserves, and Ceylon vanilla. This Zinfandel’s velvety tannins frame a fusion of ripe fruit laced with maple syrup, French oak, and a smidgen of dark chocolate truffle in the finish.]

2018 Maple Reserve – Dry Creek Valley [Inviting aromas of blueberry and rose petals fuse with cacao-scented oak and hints of toffee, showcasing the intense flavors to follow. An opulent entry opens the way to wild cherry marmalade, blackberry, and spice with a smidgen of vanilla bean and traces of hazelnut with cardamom and spice residing in the background. As the layers contribute to the complexity, so do the round supple tannins and integrated oak.]

There are a lot more, but we had to draw the line at some point.

I’ve never been good with tasting notes and I am not going to try to BS my way through with some here. The notes above were provided by Antoine. Suffice it to say these were some of the hardest wines that I’ve ever had to pour out from my glass in order to move on to the next one, and in some cases the only pouring was into my open mouth. Just outstanding.

A tasting with Antoine wouldn’t be complete without a taste of one of the Three Amigos wines, ultra-premium versions of the best the winery has to offer, each one named after a key person with the winery, Kenneth Carl, Juan Rodriguez and Antoine Phillippe. We tasted the 2017 Antoine and it was truly amazing, not surprisingly.

As we tasted we talked about the changes they had to make during the pandemic, both within their now eleven-winery organization as well as with tasting experiences. Of course, problems were exacerbated due to the fires, with many vineyards experiencing fire and/or smoke damage.

Smoke taint can be the kiss of death to a wine. Its impact can be a matter of degree, but no winery wants to put out a product that shows even a hint of it. The amount of samples from the entire area being submitted to labs for testing create a huge backlog. Antoine needed to run some preliminary micro-fermentations on his own to get a handle on things before getting the actual lab results to confirm his findings. He let us taste one result from a vineyard that he declared a total loss for 2020.

This was actually quite interesting. The sample did not taste bad. Antoine compared it to mezcal; we also noted distinct BBQ notes. It just didn’t taste like wine and it was definitely an indicator of a vintage lost for that particular vineyard. And Antoine saved this for the end for a good reason, as after tasting this our palates definitely needed a rest.

Now Antoine had to get back to finishing harvest and we needed to make our purchases and be on our way. As we walked back to our car [wearing masks, of course], I thought – “the Zinfandel trinity has officially become a quaternity”. Long past due, for sure.

Perlis Picks: Some Wine History Books

May 23, 2020 by Michael Perlis

I find myself reading more lately, so I thought it was a good time to catch up on some books to review and suggest to our readers.

We’re going to start by going way back.

Painting by Ferdinand Deppe, photo credit California Historical Society.

In Tasting the Past: The Science of Flavor and the Search for the Origins of Wine, journalist Kevin Begos chronicles his first taste of a red wine from his hotel mini-bar in Jordan made by the Cremisan Winery and Monastery. The wine and winery were both unfamiliar to him [and definitely to me and I expect probably to you too]. That bottle set him off on a multi-year, multi-country quest to learn about the grape varieties that went into the truly old-world wines, many of which are not known of at all in the United States, such as Jandali, Hamdani and Baladi. Tracing the history and combining that quest with a healthy dose of wine science results in a fascinating story that left me wanting to learn more. Told in an engaging and witty style, Begos is definitely someone I’d like to share a bottle of something obscure and interesting with.

Tasting the Past: The Science of Flavor and the Search for the Origins of Wine

By Kevin Begos

https://www.amazon.com/Tasting-Past-Science-Flavor-Origins/dp/1616205776

Jumping forward (a lot) is Crush: The Triumph of California Wine by John Briscoe. This book traces the history of wine in California from the 1700s, with the theme of the crises over which the California wine industry has triumphed. While Prohibition might be the first thing to come to mind, the author also discusses the San Francisco earthquake, world wars and phylloxera, as well as economics and politics, as impediments over which the California wine industry has been ultimately triumphant. Briscoe, who lives in San Francisco, is himself a poet, lawyer and author of other published books as well as being co-owner of the fifth oldest restaurant in the United States – Sam’s Grill.

Crush: The Triumph of California Wine

By John Briscoe

https://www.amazon.com/Crush-Triumph-California-John-Briscoe/dp/1943859493/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588273558&sr=8-1

About the only thing not covered in great depth about California wine in Crush is the story of wine in our own Los Angeles area. Thomas Pinney nicely fills that gap with The City of Vines: A History of Wine in Los Angeles. I first became familiar with Mr. Pinney’s work when I read his exhaustive two volume A History of Wine in America (which I highly recommend). This book enables Pinney to provide a much more micro analysis of how much wine dominated our local area and environs. Of course, I had known for some time that the wine industry in L.A. today is a mere shadow of what it used to be, but I had not realized to what extent this was true. The list of street name origins alone is enough to drive this point home. Alas, those are mostly about all we have left of that legacy. Many factors contributed to the demise of the Los Angeles wine story – prohibition, rising real estate values, population changes, Pierce’s disease are just some of them.

The City of Vines: A History of Wine in Los Angeles

By Thomas Pinney

https://www.amazon.com/City-Vines-History-Wine-Angeles/dp/1597143987/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=city+of+vines&qid=1588273634&sr=8-1

The last part of City of Vines touches a little on the resurgence of winemaking in LA County, with mentions of Rosenthal and Moraga along with Reyes up here in the Santa Clarita Valley. But followers of Eve’s Wine 101 know there is a lot more than that going on. In the SCV alone we have Pulchella, Hoi Polloi, Pagter Brothers, to name just some of them. Farther northeast is Golden Star and down in Los Angeles are Byron Blatty as well as Angeleno in downtown L.A., among others. While these developments were probably not considered significant enough at the time to be included in the book, there is actually even more going on, which I will tell you about soon.

Perlis Picks: Women Winemakers

May 2, 2020 by Michael Perlis

I like to think that I am fairly genderblind when it comes to professions. But, when I saw the Women Winemakers website and recently released book, I got to thinking. Karen and I have been seriously interested in wine for over 30 years. Over that time, we have gotten to know dozens of winemakers. But, to be honest, very few of them have been women. I can only think of a few that we can say we know personally (Janell Dusi of J Dusi Wines, Jordan Fiorentini of Epoch Estate Wines, Shauna Rosenblum of Rock Wall Wine Company and Sonja Magdevski of Casa Dumetz come to mind) and I expect that not all of them would admit to knowing us.

The website’s official title is Women Winemakers of California and Beyond. Per the website: “The primary goal of our searchable web-based resource is to illuminate the lead women winemakers of California wineries, those who have primary responsibility for producing the wine…Our new…Beyond California section of the site illuminates the lead women winemakers in international wine areas we have visited…”

Gilbert, Penedes region Spain

The “search” feature of the site is especially fun to use, to look up information on the winemakers who I do know, those who I have just heard of, and those who are new to me.

Women Winemakers is the brainchild of Lucia Albino Gilbert, Ph.D. (Professor Emerita of Psychology at Santa Clara University and Professor Emerita of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin) and John Carl (Jack) Gilbert, Ph.D. (Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Santa Clara University and at the University of Texas at Austin).

Dr. Lucia Gilbert’s studies of women’s career paths in male-dominated fields, Dr. John Gilbert’s expertise in organic chemistry and their love of wine resulted in the Women Winemakers website. I asked Lucia and Jack if they could elaborate:

“During our years on the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin, we were close friends with wine aficionados who were financially able to purchase excellent European and California wines. They often invited us to join them for dinner, and they encouraged us to develop our palates for wine. When we relocated to California, joining the faculty at Santa Clara University, we were already quite familiar with California wines but only knew of male winemakers.

We had read, and were told by staff at many of the wineries we visited, that there were many lead women winemakers in California, but these many individuals were not able to identify any women winemakers other than Helen Turley and Heidi Barrett. We were surprised, to say the least, and decided that this was an important area to study. Given that Lucia’s research focused on women working in male-dominated fields, of which winemaking is certainly one, we set out to identify the women winemakers with the intent of learning about their experiences and how it compared to women in engineering, another applied science field with relatively few women. To do this, we developed an extensive and comprehensive database to obtain the actual number of lead women winemakers in California’s then 3200+ wineries. We found that only 9.8% of the lead winemaking positions were held by women, a percentage that was surprising to the wine industry and has now been widely cited in the field.

Having identified the lead women winemakers, we decided that it was important for others to know who they are, and hence developed our website, California Women Winemakers of California, which we later expanded to include lead women winemakers in other important international wine regions.”

Expanding beyond the information in the website, the Drs. Gilbert have recently released their new book Women Winemakers: Personal Odysseys which allows them to take the project further, with the stated goal “to make women winemakers more visible.” Researched over several years, the book tells the stories of several women winemakers both in and out of California, focusing on two primary questions:

First, “When did you know you loved wine?” and then determining which of four pathways best described the winemaker’s career – Sensory [coming to love wine from the aromas of food and wine; Family [coming to love wine while growing up in a winemaking family]; Science/Agronomy [coming to love wine from a grounding in science or agronomy]; or Enology [coming to love wine while formally studying enology].

The resulting conversations with winemaking luminaries such as MaryAnn Graf, Zelma Long, Merry Edwards, Cathy Corison, Carol Shelton, Mia Klein, Angela Osborne, to name just a few, were not just fascinating in their own right but also in how the various women winemakers’ careers had intersected. This was brought home to me early in the book with a photo from the Robert Mondavi Winery from the 1970s that included both Zelma Long and Carol Shelton, among others. The conversations extended well beyond those two questions and into their entire careers. Reading how they coped with the challenges of working in traditionally male roles brought out not only the variety of approaches used but also that gender-blindness is not as common as I’d like to think it is.

Check out the website here:

https://webpages.scu.edu/womenwinemakers/index.php

And the book is available here:

https://webpages.scu.edu/womenwinemakers/personalodysseys.php

Perlis Picks: 91 Harvests

April 18, 2020 by Michael Perlis

On March 19, 2020, members of the J Dusi Winery wine CLuB (including me) received the following email regarding the film “91 Harvests”:

Initially set to premiere this week at the SLO Film Festival, because of the Coronavirus situation the Film Festival has been cancelled.

This short movie has a very special place in our hearts, not only because we can talk about family, but it is beyond precious to us because our Uncle Beni is in it, as well as Dante Dusi’s wife Dottie, whom have both passed away in the last seven months. This is a personal look into the lives of the people we have loved and learned from. We have memories of time together, and conversations that we cherish.

THANKS TO THE WINE HISTORY PROJECT OF SAN LUIS OBISPO, WE ARE THRILLED TO SHARE AN ONLINE VIEWING EXPERIENCE WITH YOU.

[From the website of the Wine History Project https://winehistoryproject.org/:

“The Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County collects and presents two centuries of local viticulture history. Through research, interviews, films, exhibitions, publications and presentations, we work with local vintners and growers to bring to life the wine history of San Luis Obispo County.”

The website is a treasure trove of information on the area’s wine industry and you should definitely spend some time enjoying it. I definitely plan to.]

The email included a Vimeo link and a passcode that was good for that weekend only. I shared the information on Facebook, including to our Eve’s Wine 101 group page. Did you see it? If not, hopefully you will get another chance.

Karen and I really enjoyed watching this film. Janell Dusi and her family have held a special place in our hearts for a long time. We first met Janell and tasted the inaugural commercial vintage of J Dusi Wines at a Paso Robles traveling road show held at a Santa Monica hotel several years ago. We were immediately hooked.

Since then, we’ve visited many times, first at the family house at the Dante Dusi Vineyard just south of Paso Robles and then later when Janell acquired the property on Highway 46 West for her winery and tasting room. We’ve loved hanging out with her and her family and seeing the progression of the winery with new and creative bottlings and now with the new Paper Street vineyard and label.

But the film was not just about the J Dusi Winery, of course. As the title of the film tells you, the tale of the Dusi family is integral to the story of the Paso Robles Wine Country – 91 harvests is a long time! Learning more about this rich history that started with the emigration from Italy of Janell’s great-grandparents Sylvester and Caterina Dusi gives the viewer a greater appreciation of all that has been accomplished. And Janell only uses about 10% of the Dante Dusi Vineyard harvest for the J Dusi wines, so there is plenty left for certain select other wineries (like Turley and Ridge) to carry on the tradition as well.

Admittedly, our favorite parts of “91 Harvests” were the scenes with Janell and her mother Joni. We really miss these two wonderful women and are looking forward to being able to visit them again.

J Dusi Wines

https://www.jdusiwines.com/

1401 CA-46, Paso Robles, CA 93446