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Friday
Nov052010

HOME: WINE TASTING IN YOSEMITE NOVEMBER 2010

DateFriday, November 5, 2010 at 11:13AM

Since there is nothing better than drinking in the afternoon (except drinking in the evening and the morning), I decided to crash wine tasting sessions at the Ahwahnee this week.  Part of the Vinters Holidays gig at the hotel that attracts big wig winemakers and less famous wine tasters, the event takes place over 6 weeks every autumn in Yosemite National Park.  Yosemite generally lacks cultural diversions that may be compensated for by this single event - tasting incredible wine and food in a spectacular historic national park hotel in crisp autumn weather.  On Wednesday I was particularly excited about attending the Schramsberg session because it meant tasting really expensive sparkling wine from California.  If you are getting visions of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider, just stop it.

Sparkling wine is the term for any Champagne style wine that is not actually created in the region of Champagne, France.  Champagne is also a place name, a wine name and appellation, a special wine glass, an annointment for French kings, a village in Switzerland, a stakes race at Belmont, a type of horse gene, Oasis' best song (as in Supernova), and my personal favorite of alcoholic beverages.  So Champagne is always sparkling wine, but sparkling wine is not always Champagne.  And according to Hugh Davies, the president and head winemaker at Schramsberg Vineyards, 25 times more Champagne is produced in France than sparkling wine produced in Napa Valley.

We tasted five utterly delicious Schramsberg sparkling wines: all Brut (dry) and all retail for $70 a bottle if you can get them.  It seems the winemakers often bring their best hooch for the Vintners Holidays event and show off small batches of reserve wines that are available only at the vineyard.  Lucky me!  I can assure you that it's been awhile since I've tasted $70 wine.  Besides becoming tipsy, I also learned a thing or two about sparkling wine/Champagne grapes: namely the 3 varieties that are used - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (only in France).  The terms Blanc de Blanc and Blanc de Noir (white of white and white of black in French) refer to the type of grape used: Chardonnay is white and Pinot Noir is black.  Hugh Davies was inordinately proud of the fact that Nixon took Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc to China with him in 1972 and popped the bottle of bubbly for Premier Zhou.

Photo courtesy Schramsberg Vineyards

Photo courtesy of Schramsberg

Photo courtesy of Dr. VinoAs if sipping a lot of expensive wine is not enough to create a fun-filled afternoon, the Schramsberg session closed with a demonstration of sabrage - the art of opening a bottle of Champagne with a saber.  Apparently this was a hobby of Napoleon's troops (along with conquering other countries and referring to their leader as Le Petit Tondu "Little Shorn One").  Dramatic when performed with a saber, you can also use a kitchen knife.  Please try this at home and let me know how it turns out.

 

Earlier in the week I attended the Benziger session and sampled some mighty fine white and red wine from this Glen Ellen winery located in the Sonoma Valley.  Representing the Benziger Family Vineyards, the winery's national sales manager, Chris Benziger, talked at length about the biodynamic production of their wine.  Mentioning things like sheep manure, silica sprays and equinoxes kept me riveted - because I like farming - but ultimately the wine just tasted really good.

Jamie Drummond on Food and Wine #24 Chris Benziger from GoodFoodRevolution on Vimeo.

 

Photo courtesy of Benziger Family WineryChris returns to Yosemite for the Vintners Holidays year after year and has consequentially befriended our friends, Ron and Laura.  We accompanied Ron, Laura and Chris that evening to Yosemite's finest drinking establishment (need you ask? The Curry Village Bar!) after sampling more darkly delicious Benziger Tribute wine, and generally having a good laugh with good company.  Chris and Ted made plans to assault the Sierra as a team and somehow (Ron) I ended up with a bottle of Tribute to take home with me, but maybe Chris doesn't know that.  Even if you can't always afford an $80 bottle of Benziger Tribute wine, I bet you can afford the Benziger app for your phone that will tell you all about it, and by all means acquire a bottle of Benziger wine when you can.

Junket Ratings:

Vinteners Holidays at the Ahwahnee: Junk-in-the-Trunk!

Schramsberg 2005 Brut Napa Valley Carneros: Junk-in-the-Trunk!

Benziger Tribute Vintage 2006: Junk-in-the-Trunk!

 

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