Which Winery is this car parked at? Answer correctly and receive a Free membership to Color and Aroma!   

Photo by Colin Michael

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and we will contact the winner with more details!

Drive Safe!

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Guess where this room is and receive a Free membership to Color and Aroma!

Photo by Colin Michael

Leave your guess and email in the comments section below

 and we will contact the winner with more details!

Cheers and Thanks!

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by Colin Michael

 www.colinmichaelphoto.com

Join us this Summer for a season you will never forget…

Our 2010 Summer Editorial Calendar:

a. Wine and Surf

- Seafood

- Surfing

b. Wine and Travel

- OC Beach Cities

- San Francisco

- Seattle

- Chicago

- Sydney

- The Maldives

c. Wine and Boats

- Yaughts

- Pontoon

- Houseboats

- Many more…

Safe Travels!

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Do your best to make it up or out to Paso Robles, CA this weekend for one of California’s Best Wine Festivals! There are still tickets available! http://www.pasowine.com/events/winefestival.php

Make sure to visit Castoro Cellars while in town!

www.castorocellars.com

Live and Love Paso!

www.pasowine.com

See you there!

C&A

By

Brandon J. Beeson and Stan Brin

Photography by Eric Stoner

Welcome

 This is no secret to anyone who grew up in California. If you remember anything from elementary school, you remember Father Serra’s missions to convert California’s “Indians.”  If your fourth-grade teacher took your class on a field trip to the rebuilt missions at San Juan Capistrano, San Fernando, Santa Barbara or San Rafael, it made it part of your heritage.  

 If you didn’t attend grade school in California, you might find it hard to believe that a giant place like California could have its start around 200 years ago as a string of 21 mission churches. Like much of California’s history, it’s unlikely, and it’s true.

 Take a trip to a mission, if you haven’t already. Living anywhere near the coast of California almost guarantees that you’re within driving distance to one that is still standing today. There’s one south of Point Reyes in Marin County, Northern California. There is one in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, the famous one in San Juan Capistrano and San Diego. All were founded during a 60-year burst of activity by a few dozen people at a time, most of them with nothing but the best of intentions.  Ultimately, there were some tragic results.

 If you listen to the traditional view taught to generations of school children, the missions were islands of tranquility dotted with happy people living a safe and bountiful life under the benevolent rule of pious and kindly friars.

If you listen to revisionist historians, the missions were slave labor camps into which the native population was forced, a process the Spanish called “reduction.”  Men and women were separated, unless married in a church, and forced to live under a highly rigorous schedule of work and prayer regulated by the famous and what we now consider endearing church bells.

 A more moderate view refutes both arguments. There is little evidence that the native Californian Indians were kidnapped, dragged off their land and chained to plows. As Jim Graves, a docent at the San Juan Capistrano Mission, says, “How could two padres and six Spanish soldiers force a thousand Indians to do anything?”

 Robyn Beeson, who has taught mission history to Irvine fourth-graders for 22 years, tends to agree with Professor James Sandos, a Farquhar Professor of the Southwest at the University of Redlands. “The Spanish injected a complex system into these rather simple people. Father Serra was sincere in everything he did and never hurt a fly. But the Native Americans weren’t allowed to retain their language and culture.

 “They gave up their freedom very easily. They were very docile, but the actual dynamic was difficult to understand. I want the kids to make up their own minds based on what we now know.”

 When the missions were dissolved by the fiat of the Mexican government in 1833, their population had been reduced by two-thirds. The survivors were left leaderless and destitute; the lands the Franciscans had held in trust for the Indians were sold or given to wealthy Mexicans to build vast ranchos, which have also left their mark on California.

 The missions, most of them built of adobe, rapidly fell into ruin and simply washed away. The California missions lasted for roughly 60 years; they were forgotten for about as long and have been romanticized and exploited even longer. But by the turn of the 20th Century, Californians’ search for a past turned the missions into legends. Vast sums were raised to rebuild the churches and grounds, often much grander than the originals.

 As a result, Californians have been living with faux mission-style buildings for more than 100 years.  Sandos believes much of the legend was created to finance reconstruction. Builders still feel the urge to capitalize on the mystique of the missions with false tile roofs on taco stands and supermarkets. And we keep buying the myth.

 Most California missions were named after angels and Roman Catholic saints who were important to the Franciscans. Under their original names, some might be familiar to English speakers:

- San Francisco was Saint Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order.

- San Gabriel was, or is, an archangel.

- San Luis Rey in Oceanside was named after King Louis IX of France, who was canonized for his religious devotion.

- Santa Barbara was a 3rd Century Christian martyr.

On the other hand, not very many people, other than Franciscans, remember some of them:

- San Diego was founded on the feast day of Saint Didacus of Alcala, a 15^th Century Franciscan famed for healing the sick.

- San Luis Obispo is named after Bishop Louis of Toulouse, who died in 1297 at the age of 23.

- San Juan Capistrano is named after Saint John Capistrano, a 15^th Century Italian priest who fought heresies and helped the Hungarians defeat the Turks in 1456.

- San Buenaventura in Ventura was named after Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, a 13^th Century Franciscan leader and philosopher.

Please visit your local Mission.

 Have a Blessed and Happy Easter!

colorandaroma

Napa Vineyards

By Ken Friedenreich

Photography by Colin Michael

Napa Valley could occupy your time, your soul and your liver for more than a year at a rate of one winery a day.  That’s how much it’s growing.

Like other famous viticultural areas around the globe, Napa Valley is compact while still demonstrating considerable variations of climate, soil, topography and varietal — not to mention attitude and approach to making wine.

The first commercial vineyard opened 152 years ago.  Success did not always come easily. After Captain Gustaf Niebaum wowed the 1889 Paris Exposition with his Rutherford Bordeaux-inspired Inglenook wines, came the 1892 phylloxera plague that ate up much of the valley’s rootstock. About 140 wineries were affected.

Recovering in time for WWI, Napa growers greeted the end of a plague but faced a new obstacle. Her name: the fervent Prohibition activist, Carrie Nation. And, with her hatchet, she dispatched the nectars of the gods (paradoxically except for sacramental purposes) down the river of perdition. 

This is one example of what historian Paul Johnson calls the “law of unintended consequences.” In this case, Prohibition mixed mobsters and “swells,” people who imbibed their bootleg hooch into a heady cocktail of supply and demand. When the alcohol ban ended on December 5, 1933, the country stood in the grip of a worldwide economic Depression. It needed a drink.

Not until shortly before the Second World War did Napa’s wine trade recover, thanks to the efforts of imaginative, technically adept men like Georges De la Tour and André Tchelistcheff, who raised the standards for producing fine wines. Innovations that transformed grape juice into fine wine included cold fermentation and aging in oak casks.

In the postwar years, America still preferred spirits to wine and Napa Valley products were reputed relatively locally, some regionally. One exception was its jug-wine buzz bombs whose popularity on college campuses probably helped contribute to the implication behind the phrase, “If you can remember the 60s, you weren’t there.”

Taster Up!

But then there was Paris. The wines tasted at the 1976 Exposition put Napa Valley on the map for the rest of the wine-drinking world. The number of vineyards began to swell, and in the small society that comprises Napa’s cash crop, scions from established wine families branched out on their own.

Robert Mondavi left the family business (CK Mondavi) to start his eponymous winery, opening his celebrated Oakville landmark in 1966. Over the next 40 years, this dynamic man not only set a Napa gold standard, he helped many others launch wineries. His passion for wine parallels Julia Child’s influence on the output of American kitchens. Mondavi taught a generation to love wine as a food crafted from the handiwork of man and nature.

The Winding Road

Of all of California’s destinations, Napa Valley has become an adult Disneyland, and only the “happiest place on earth” surpasses its 3.6 million visitors a year. In all, there is around 400 brick-and-mortar wineries that make wine grown or sourced in their own facilities cover the valley.  90+ more small producers source their grapes from Valley growers and cooperatively use local contract crushing and bottling facilities.

“The most surprising statistic,” says Terry Hall, communications director of the Napa Valley Vintners Association, “is that Napa Valley produces only four percent of all California wines, about half as much as in neighboring Sonoma County.” With its high profile, one might expect Napa’s output to be greater.  Indeed, about 45,000 acres in all produce wine. The wine industry, says Hall, is committed to maintaining a high standard of quality as well as preventing the valley from becoming a victim of over-development.

Into the mix came people from other industries or big players in the spirits business. They drove through the valley, snatching up wineries like Wimpy at a fast-food drive-through.  Historically, dilettantes and conglomerate bean-counters rarely become great winemakers.

However, a thread of sanity and foresight preserved the essentials. The state university system encouraged enological study, producing qualified people to operate one of California’s greatest agricultural resources. A second phylloxera outbreak — sort of a hundred years’ plague — occurred in 1983. Ironically, it provided the chance to remove certain vines in favor of others that produced better fruit with more character.

Today, Napa’s wine business retains some remnant of its humble past, all rolled into a major viticulture industry. Properties have become so valuable and numerous that a once crazy-quilt of tin-roof tasting sheds has become as manicured as lawns in Beverly Hills.

Tasting and sales facilities have morphed from modest to substantial, if not palatial. A battle of blends may loom large in the near future or become a tempest in a Riedel. And nature’s backhand is never far away: the glassy-winged sharpshooter insect carries the vine-wasting Pierce Disease parasite.

In the Rhone Valley, locals have been producing wine since at least the 6^th Century B.C.  So Napa Valley has come quite far in a comparatively brief span. It’s a Horatio Alger’s success story built on innovation and inspiration plus plenty of improvisation, and, unlike Alger, lots of jack.

Napa has retained its low-key agricultural profile but sometimes the presumptuous do wander through.  One well-known winery evicted two gentlemen setting up linen-clothed tables for their family reunion as if in a public park.  Adding to the affront of trespass, they didn’t muster the etiquette to purchase wine from the site they commandeered. Another veteran wine docent recalled finding two young women, having fallen away from their tour group, happily skinny-dipping in a vineyard fountain. ”I explained I would not leave until they dressed to rejoin their tour,” he said with a wry smile.

Tasting Odyssey

In Napa Valley, one drinks appreciable to superior wine as if by divine right. Our notes highlight seven stops along the way that might inspire extending your visit.

10 a.m.: Hess Collection Winery, 4411 Redwood Road. The day starts with a 2006 Small Block Series Syrah Rose. Hess produces 14 different wines, many of them grown in small vineyards on Mount Veeder on the western side of the valley.

Hess Collection Tasting Room

The big-boy Cabernets have trademark minerality and proportion typical of the high, cool elevation.  Located on the former Christian Brothers property, the first vineyards were planted here by German immigrants after 1876.  The main building dates from 1903 and was finally leased by Donald Hess in 1986. The two-year renovation that followed put 13,000 square feet of gallery space into the old winery where some of Hess’ modern art collection is on permanent exhibit. The barrel chai (cask storage) is beautifully illuminated, the casks arranged like soldiers at review.

12 noon: Altamura Vineyards, 1400 Wooden Valley Road. Frank Altamura established his namesake winery in the Wooden Valley in 1985 nine miles northeast of Napa. The vegetation on the eastbound drive from Hess is reminiscent of a scrub-oak hillside in a Texas western — a telling demonstration of the variations nature plays in Napa Valley.

Of 400 ranch acres, 65 are planted with Cabernet, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Sauvignon Blanc. “I like it out here,” Altamura remarks while driving an open 1943 Dodge Hummer prototype to the vineyard’s tasting caves. “You really want to come here if you find us.” In the caves, we were glad to drink to that. Wine guru Robert Parker rated Altamura’s 2004 Cab impressively at 94; its $75 price tag makes it worth cellaring.

The ‘04 Sangiovese and ‘05 Sauvignon Blanc are singularly good ($45). The 2002 Nebbiolo is a knockout, available only online or on premises and worth its $70 tag. It retains the depth of its Italian counterpart, which is the only grape to produce Barolo. Altamura’s translation is supple and delicious. Don’t forget to pet Woody the Wine Dog.

2:15 p.m.: B Cellars; while its business office is located in San Juan Capistrano, B Cellars uses the custom crush facilities for artisan wineries at Silenus Vintners in the Oak Knoll district of Napa Valley at 5225 Solano Avenue (parallel to Route 29). Duffy Keys and Jim Borsack put their idea together while enjoying a Southern California barbecue. Partner Ken Westbrook, a serious wine collector, told Borsack, “Go to Napa; it has the best juice.” And so, Borsack, who is as intense as the blends he produces, did just that.

B Cellars numbers its blends, sourced from nine first-class vineyards.  “Most people who buy wine drink it within a week, so where the grapes come from rarely means much. To us, though, these growers are superstars,” says Borsack. The blending of varietals yields intense, spacious flavors with great fruit, fine balance and dazzling finishes.

Laird Family Estate

Borsack loves to cook; so the wines are meant for food. We sampled ‘04 and ‘05 blends 24 and 25, the latter blend of Cabernet and Syrah particularly rewarding. The Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay blend from 2006 possesses unique character, creating something “rich and strange” that offers a break from the typical California Chardonnay or Italian Pinot Grigio, but, alas, it is sold out. B Cellars’ price-points for current releases run under $50 and provide an object lesson in producing a superior product without farming one’s own grapes.  Don’t forget to pet Hannah.

4 p.m.: Laird Family Estate, 5055 Solano Ave.  Known as the “Pyramid” for its pointed roof, what started as an orphaned acre-plus vineyard in 1970 has become the place for contract crushing and production for about 46 winemakers. Laird wines are well-crafted, such as the ‘04 Diamond Mountain Cabernet ($60) and the ’02 Suscol Rand Merlot ($48). Whites include Cold Creek and Red Hen Chardonnay ($35 each), a suave Chardonnay from Carneros ($28) and a turn-on Pinot Grigio (also Cold Creek, $18). Laird’s beautiful tasting facility offers many small-lot wines to taste and take home.

9:45 a.m. the following day: Rubicon Estate, 1991 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford. This property looks to the past. It belonged to Captain Niebaum whose innovations included a gravity process for extracting the juice, bottle sterilization and the development of a rootstock that survived the first plague.

Francis Ford Coppola’s restoration here underscores his understanding that a place tells a story, too. Beneath the contemporary, says historian Simon Schama, is “the ghostly outline of an old landscape” that makes us “vividly aware of the endurance of core myths.” Coppola had to make two parts of The Godfather to acquire some of this property in 1975, and a vampire movie, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1995), to attain the rest, thus restoring all 1650 acres of the original Inglenook estate.

As narrated by Howard Frances, who may be the valley’s version of archetype greeter the dashing Grover Whelan, one realizes that Coppola, the great storyteller of film, also wants wine to tell its story. The estate produces Blancenaux ($45) and Cask (100 percent Cabernet at $100-plus a bottle). Also featured is Pennino, a Zinfandel that honors Coppola’s maternal grandfather (about $60) and the eponymous Rubicon, a Meritage that tips the cash register north of a C-note. For those unfamiliar with the species, a Meritage is made in the style of Bordeaux, but the name “Bordeaux” is a legally protected trademark jealously guarded by the folks of that famous appellation of Southern France. Currently, wineries from the U.S., Canada, and Australia are licensed by the Meritage Association to use the name “Meritage.”

Every detail of the villa pays homage to the history of Napa Valley with that vision fast-forwarded to Coppola’s other projects, including the makeover of the Chateau Souverain property in Sonoma County. As a wine tour, Rubicon is the mother lode.

Makers of excellent Chardonnay that represents the classic style of this varietal, ZD also makes its Cabernet from aggregated vineyards that are separately aged in oak before blending, returning the mix to oak to age more, before finally bottling. The Chardonnay grapes come from the cool Carneros district, aged in American oak, fermented slowly without malolactic help to retain varietal character and fine acidity. There are six current releases with the ‘06 Cab priced at $60 and the ‘05 Reserve Chardonnay offered at $53. A reserve Pinot Noir (Carneros, $65) is elegant with just enough fruit and a satisfying finish.

3:45 p.m.: Miner Family Winery, 7850 Silverado Trail, Oakville. The Miner family respects its Assyrian and Persian roots; its label features an Assyrian symbol.  The wine offered at tasting included a 2006 Napa Chardonnay and a 2006 Viognier from Simpson Ranch ($30 each). Their high-impact reds revolve around their Oracle, a Bordeaux-style blend sourced from the Stagecoach Vineyard.  The blend changes each year.  Several now are available retail at $70-75.  The tasting room resides on the eastern slopes of the valley offer a stunning vantage of the Oakville surrounds.

Miner Family Vineyards

Life is short but art is long, said Oscar Wilde. When you sample the wines in Napa Valley for yourself, you’ll ask yourself what took you so long?

We will be elegantly blending wine, art, music and entertainment from March 20 through June 20, 2010!

Stay tuned for our special guest contributors…

Cheers,

colorandaroma

Wine Tasting for two at Rubicon Estate in Napa Valley, CA

In those few hours between the grind of work and the labor of making dinner and finishing out the day, we often come together for happy hour at our favorite pubs, wine bars, restaurants, and saloons of all sorts for deals on drinks and eats. Celebrating leisure, laughter, and libations, happy hours can help folks chill out after a long day.

Where’s your favorite place to spend a few happy hours with friends? What’s on the menu at your favorite happy hour destination? Which happy hour has the best deals, atmosphere, food, etc.?

If your restaurant/bar/whatever has a killer happy hour that you want to share with color and aroma readers, submit menu info and contact information to happyhour@colorandaroma.com or simply post it to the comments section below.  We’ll help get the word out about the best spots to relax and have fun on a school night.