We had arranged a Virtual Happy Hour/Birthday Party last week with friends — his birthday fell on a weekday this year, so we opted to gather on the Saturday following his big day — and I decided to toast him with a sparkling wine.
Which wine, however, was the question. It’s a commandment around the BrockShah household that at least two bottles of sparkling — Champagne, Sekt, Lambrusco, Cava, or another variety of bubbly wine —be chilled and ready to serve at all times.
On that auspicious Saturday, I had the following bottles from which to choose: a Riesling Sekt from Loosen Bros., a 2011 DVX from Mumm, a Lambrusco from Cleto Chiarli, a non-vintage Billecart-Salmon Rosé, and a Monfort Rosé from Cantine Monfort. I chose the latter bottle, and we celebrated our friend’s birthday in Italian style.
Trentino, in the countrys’ far north, is the home of Monfort, and Trento DOC is an appellation about which you should know more (if you don’t already). The sparkling wines made there are of great value, and the producers are fine practitioners of the metodo classico.
The Monfort Trentodoc sparkling we drank possessed a beautiful pale-salmon hue in the stem. Perlage was distinct, fine, lively, and vigorous. We drank it with Goldfish, and loved the pairing. You will note appealing aromas of wild strawberry and citrus; hints of toast and nuttiness are the flavor profiles.
This Rosé is 50 percent Chardonnay and 50 percent Noir, and alcohol comes in at 12.5 percent. Residual sugar, you ask? That would be 8 grams per liter, decidedly dry. Look for this wine at the $30 price point.
How’s your summer going? Is it summer? Judging by most of the conversations I’m having, it’s a summer like no other … I do not count among my friends or acquaintances anyone who remembers the global pandemic of 1918-1919.
As usual, I’ve been tasting a lot of wines, for review purposes and otherwise, and every time I sit down to write about them, I hear a voice in my head saying something along these lines: “Wine? You are writing about wine? The world is falling apart, the alleged leader of the U.S. performing on par with the leaders of Russia, India, and Brazil, a pandemic is killing hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens, and you are extolling the wonders of Riesling?”
I listen to the voice, and I know it has a great point. “I am writing about wine, I respond to the voice, but I am also working on a piece that will attempt to lay out my emotions and thoughts about the chaos and dysfunction we are all experiencing.” The voice grows quiet, for a moment …
Yesterday, I published Wine Talk, this one featuring Bibiana González Rave, and today I’m going to sample one of her wines, a Syrah. She makes a Sauvignon Blanc that I wish everyone could taste. Get to know her, and buy some of her wines.
My Summer Wine Guide was published last week, at PaperCitymag.com. It is a selection of bottles I love, wines from, among other places, Italy and Oregon and California and Germany. Give it a read here.
I love to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink, and we learn a lot.
In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well.
Bibiana González Rave is a complex individual.
She learned how to make wine while attending university in France (the Lycée de L’Oisellerie in Angoulême and the University of Bordeaux); developed her skills in Cognac (Lycée Agricole de L’Oisellerie), Burgundy (Domaine Devevey), Bordeaux (Château La Dominique, Château Haut-Brion, and Château La Mission Haut-Brion), and Côte-Rôtie (Domaine Michelle & Stéphane Ogier and Domaine Clusel-Roch), and Alsace (Domaine Scheidecker); in a particularly hectic three-year period worked six harvests; has a degree in chemistry, earned in her hometown of Medellín, Colombia; and is married to a fellow winemaker, Jeff Pisoni, with whom she makes wine under the Shared Notes label.
Did I mention that Rave, who resides in Santa Rosa, owns Cattleya Wines and Alma de Cattleya? She does, and the wines she is making at both operations are worthy of attention — the former brand encompasses her high-end offerings, while the latter comprises her entry-level range, including one of the best Sauvignon Blancs ($22) I’ve tasted in a long while. (I forgot to tell you that she was the San Francisco Chronicle Winemaker of the Year in 2015.) As I said, Rave, the mother of two sons, is complex, busy, and a great winemaker.
This Sauvignon Blanc is now on my always-have-on-hand list.
Rave’s journey took her to California in 2004, when she moved to Sonoma and began immersing herself in the Golden State wine world. She took positions at Qupé, Peay Vineyards, Au Bon Climat, Lynmar Estate (where she was winemaker from 2009 through early 2012), and Pahlmeyer, among others. She founded Cattleya — name after the national flower of her homeland — in 2012, and launched Alma de Cattleya in 2015.
Several weeks ago, I participated in an informative and fun virtual tasting with Rave, which marked the occasion on which I met her. The session also included her husband, Jeff, and Mark Pisoni, Jeff’s brother, who is vineyard manager at Pisoni Estate. We tasted the 2019 Alma de Cattleya Rosé of Pinot Noir, the 2019 Sonoma County Alma de Cattleya Sauvignon Blanc, the 2018 Lucia Vineyards Sonoma County Chardonnay, and the 2018 Santa Lucia Highlands Lucia Pinot Noir (the latter two made by Jeff Pisoni), all off which are drinking well.
While I much prefer in-person meetings and conversations, this long-distance talk demonstrated more than clearly that Rave is a passionate perfectionist when it comes to making wine. When I mentioned to her that I noticed a slight haziness in the sample bottle of Sauvignon Blanc I had received, she responded with what approached alarm, apologizing profusely. A few days later, she sent an email explicating the haziness, which had to do with temperatures during shipping. I like drinking wines made by such people.
I look forward to meeting Rave and her husband in person, but until then, sampling her wines, including a 2017 Syrah that I cannot wait to open, must suffice. (Reviews to come soon.)
Here is Rave’s Wine Talk.
James Brock: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one?
BR: First, the 2019 Alma de Cattleya Sauvignon Blanc. I love making Sauvignon Blanc wines, and the weather right now is just perfect for it. This summer we’ve been cooking a lot of fish with roasted vegetables, and the Alma has been a staple for the season.
Next, the 2019 Lucy Rosé. I am a big fan of my husband’s rosé of Pinot Noir — unbiased, I promise! It’s made entirely with estate fruit, farmed sustainably, and just overdelivers on quality for the price. This rosé is so flexible with food pairings, or simply an apéritif all by itself.
Finally, the 2018 Château de Saint Cosme – Côtes du Rhône. It is the entry-level wine produced by this property, but a great wine that should be perfect for outdoor dining, BBQs, light salads, pizza-to-go, etc.
JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why?
BR: I am a huge fan of Chatêau Haut-Brion, and their Bordeaux Blanc is far out of my budget. If cost was not a consideration, I would have every single vintage of that wine. I gained a very special appreciation for their wines when I worked there during the 2003 vintage. I attended the University of Bordeaux and had the opportunity to do my thesis research with them. I was able to spend six months working with an extraordinary team focused on excellence — and some of the best fruit I have ever tasted from a vine.
I know the wines are ultra-expensive, so it is hard to talk about a brand that very few people taste . However, working there day to day, you learn why those wines have mystique surrounding them. Their focus on crafting wine is remarkable. I wish I could have a vertical of all their wines going back to 1945, red and white.
Rave, a native of Colombia who knew from an early age that she wanted to make wine, moved to France and learned to do so.
JB: What is your favorite grape, and why?
BR: I would say it is very hard for me to have a favorite grape, especially because I love working with all the different varietals for my three different brands, but if I have to choose one that I am very passionate about, I would say Syrah.
I find myself saddened by the bad reputation (or lack of appreciation for) of Syrah from California, while someone may feel fine buying a $500 bottle of Guigal or Domaine Stéphane Ogier from Côte-Rôtie (both totally worth that price, especially the Ogier wines). (Full disclosure: Ogier is one of my dearest friends from my time in France.) I think Syrah’s quality in the United State has increased tremendously, mostly from small family estates that continue to put a lot of care into and focus on the making of those wines, such as Alban Vineyards, Dehlinger, Pisoni Vineyards, Peay, and Donelan, among others.
I certainly put a lot of attention to my Syrahs. I used my most expensive barrels on my Cattleya from the Soberanes Vineyard and treat the wine the same way I would treat, for example, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. I tend to do very slow fermentations for a long period of time in tank, then age in barrel between 15 and 24 months.
JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day?
BR: The 2018 Cattleya The Initiation Syrah from the Soberanes Vineyard in Santa Lucia Highlands. I just tasted that wine today before pulling out of barrel for bottling. I decided for this specific vintage to leave the wine in barrel for 22 months. I loved what that extra aging did for the wine. It is a 100 percent French new oak barrel-aging, and the wine is just delicious. It will be about 85 cases total production only, but I do believe the wine is going to reach a beautiful point in 10 years from now. I was so excited about the taste of the wine that I called my grower to tell him how beautiful it was tasting, and of course, to thank him for his hard work. (He happens to be my brother-in-law, Mark Pisoni.)
JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle?
BR: If we have time to escape for a date, I love to go to San Francisco. The city is a place where my husband, Jeff, and I love to go for special meals. There are just so many remarkable wine lists that have everything you want. We love finding white Burgundy gems on wine lists, from small producers that always excel at their craft and Rhône Valley wines with some age on them. Boulevard Restaurant is one of these spots I have always loved, for food and wine. Their list is phenomenal.
Locally, we enjoy going to a great restaurant called Bird & The Bottle. They have a lot of great dishes and my kids are big fans of their sliders. They also carry the Alma de Cattleya Sauvignon Blanc by the glass, so that often becomes our selection for lunch or dinner.
Rave, whose wines I want more people to know about and taste, holds Syrah in high esteem.
JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?
BR: Purity. I believe that even when consumers tell me that they don’t know about wine, or that they are not wine connoisseurs, our bodies always can sense purity in food and wine. So, when you find wines that are intense on the aromatics and with a refined texture, with volume and velvety tannins, then you have found something special.
JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?
BR: 1994 Domaine Romanée Conti, La Tâche
I tasted that wine in 2004, just before departing France to come to California for my first harvest in the United States. The wine already had 20 years of age, and it was just brilliant. I was speechless, having one of those moments you rarely get with wine, when the world disappears around you and all you hear, think, and see is the image of the wine going through the process of being smelled, tasted and consumed. It was the first time I drank Pinot Noir that made me want to produce wines from that varietal, and here we go. California became that place for me.
JB:What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career?
BR: The way I got accepted into my first school in France was both pivotal for my career, and very strange in the way it happened. All my initial mailed enrollment applications from Colombia were rejected (11 of them, since I wrote to all 11 schools in France that focus on the BTS of Viticulture and Enology), so I decided to just visit the schools in person. When I arrived at the first school, near Cognac, I met with the school’s principal. He spoke only French, and I spoke only Spanish —yet, somehow, we carried on a conversation for more than an hour!
When he said “Tractor” I was very excited, because Tractor sounds the same in French and Spanish. At the end of our conversation I left convinced that The Lycée of L’Oisellerie would become my new school for the first few years of my education in France. A month later I got a call and the confirmation that I was enrolled in the program I never knew for sure how it worked, but I assumed it was my passion and persistence that convinced him, that and the belief that it was just meant to be.
It’s all about Sancerre …
JB: What is your favorite wine reference in a work of literature or a film?
BR: Sancerre in the book “Fifty Shades of Gray.” I heard from so many people that Sancerre has become their favorite wine after they read the book or watched the movie. Cool to see that Sauvignon Blanc could become popular after being referenced that way.
I love to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink, and we learn a lot.
In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well.
I was waiting on Michael Kennedy at the bar. I had tasted his wines the week before, and was looking forward to meeting him in person. Email correspondence had given me a good idea of the man — thorough, enthusiastic, intelligent — and I’m always happy when my initial assessment is verified. In Kennedy’s case, I was correct.
He had come to Houston to sell his wine, which I was representing with Monopole Wines. Component is Kennedy’s label, and wines bearing the name hail from Napa and Bordeaux. He and his partners have three lieux-dits (left and right banks) in Bordeaux from which they source fruit (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon), and in Napa they have made wines with grapes grown in the Yount Mill Vineyard (Semillon), the Caldwell Vineyard (Cabernet Franc), and on Pritchard Hill (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot).
Lunch was a glass of wine and a croquet madame, paired with lots of conversation, and afterward, I was convinced that Kennedy was someone I would be glad to know. We visited a few restaurants, and a country club or two, and sold some wine. We had dinner that evening, at Tony’s, joined by a few people Kennedy had met on Grand Cayman — he was a sommelier at Blue by Eric Ripert at the Ritz-Carlton — and the conversation continued (and continues).
Kennedy’s career includes serving as the beverage director at the Cayman Cookout, and his first vintage at Component was 2013. If you haven’t tasted what he is making, you will be in for a pleasant experience. I look forward to again sharing a table with him after the pandemic’s demise allows such pleasures.
Here is Kennedy in Wine Talk:
James Brock: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one?
Michael Kennedy: In our portfolio, I have really been loving our Sémillon this summer. It’s über fresh, with a bit of saltiness — perfect with raw oysters or other beach foods like ceviche. I have also been drinking quite a bit of our 2017 reds from Bordeaux. It’s a “fresh” vintage, so that means they’re drinking well young. Unlike in 2016, where our wines were austere and serious, the ’17 allows for some immediate pleasure out of the bottle. Strange, of course, to say young Bordeaux at this price point is drinking well, but I love vibrancy and acidity, which it delivers.
I am drinking these wines with summer meats — meaning pork tenderloin, crispy-skin chicken — especially if prepared simply on the grill, perhaps with some herbal friends like grilled rosemary. This will really trigger the herbacious qualities of the wine, while allowing the juicy acidity to play well with mid-weight meats. (2018 Component Semillon, Yount Mill Vineyard, Napa $68 a bottle, 2017 Component La Carrière Cabernet Franc, Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux $170 a bottle.)
JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why?
MK: If cost was no matter … I’d love to have a cellar full of Château Lafleur. I truly have not had an experience quite like I had visiting the estate and learning from their winemaking team. The wine is so light, almost hard to believe it comes from Bordeaux, but what it doesn’t have is where I fall in love. It replaces weight with flowery elegance and toys with your mind. At one moment, the wine is intense, in the very next it is subtle. Alternatively, I’d love to acquire all of the old American Zinfandels out there — the classics from Ravenswood, Ridge, Swan — even further back from Martini and others. This varietal is so underappreciated — in fact, I like it that way.
JB: What is your favorite grape, and why?
MK: I wish I was cool enough to say something like Palomino or even Chenin Blanc, but I have to say the white wine I drink most at home is Chardonnay. I am a sucker for Bourgogne Blanc. Benjamin Leroux described it as the “red wine of white wines,” and that’s true. It can be so complex — texturally, aromatically — and confounding as well. If there’s another varietal I love, it’s Cabernet Franc — the feminine to the masculine Cabernet Sauvignon.
Component has roots in Bordeaux and Napa.
JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day?
MK: Buy more American Zinfandel — something like Bedrock from a historic vineyard site (Monte Rosso, planted in 1886, is a good start). Not many people realize that some of the consistently oldest vines for commercial production are right here in the US. Plus, Zinfandel ages beautifully.
JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle?
MK: All I want to do right now is go sailing with a bunch of friends and a cooler filled with entry-level white Burgundy, Vinho Verde, Muscadet and Pinot Grigio. Maybe next year …
JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?
MK: Wine is wine, you know? One of the coolest guys in the business is a man named Alessandro Masnaghetti. He’s an Italian mapmaker, and he said something that struck me recently in regard to “famous” winemakers. He talks about the phenomenon of “genuises” in winemaking being compared to Einstein or Dante — and the ridiculousness of this. One of those men discovered the theory of relativity, winemakers make wine for people to consume. I don’t know, I guess I just wish people would enjoy wine more — and stop “analytically tasting” wine. Just love what’s in your glass (but make sure it’s tasty).
JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?
MK: I feel like I’ve been talking a lot about Bordeaux, but, oh well. I have two moments, and both over a bottle of Bordeaux.
First, a 1996Château Montrose with my then-mentor, Allyson Gorsuch. We had worked a long tasting event and one of the benefactors of the event put out cases of wine from his cellar for us (the sommeliers working the event) to enjoy. I was just studying for my Certified Sommelier, and Gorsuch was studying for her Advanced. Everyone immediately took the Burgundy and Napa big shots, and we went with Montrose. It was in the “bret” days of the estate — and man was it awesome. We popped the bottle, sat down, and talked for two hours, watching the wine evolve. Over that conversation (which was arguably better than the wine), we saw this wine take a wild ride. It taught me about complexity.
The most important wine lesson I learned over a bottle of wine happened in 2012, when I had been given a bottle of 2005 Carruades de Lafite (the second wine of Lafite). I opened it with essentially the only wine collector I knew at the time. He had an excellent old-world cellar, and in an effort to prove to him that I knew something about wine (I had recently passed my Certified Sommelier) I googled everything on the internet I could find about the estate, the winemaker, the vintage, etc.
I opened the bottle and started babbling through everything I memorized earlier that day. This kind and experienced collector was so gracious; he listened and engaged sparingly. And when I ran out of information, it was a much quieter turn in the evening. After some time of silence, he started telling me things like, “This wine has really improved since I tasted it shortly after release five years ago,” and, “It reminds me of how the 1990 tasted at this stage,” and, “It seems to me that this wine will have a similar path of aging to the 1996”. It was in that moment that I realized I cannot “memorize” experience and that I should shut up, listen, and drink as many great wines as I can. To this day, I have to fight the urge to say too much, because I don’t want to miss something of meaning from someone more intelligent, experience, and generous than myself. (Although look how much I wrote here.)
JB:What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career?
MK: Too many to mention. It’s an industry filled with characters! One of my favorites, though, is also one of my most embarrassing. I was 21, first month in the industry — straight out of college — and my brother’s friend who owns a really excellent distribution company invited us to a portfolio tasting. We of course decided to attend and loved every minute of walking around experiencing the different wines and producers.
It was all well and good until we walked up to the table of a top Italian winemaking family, hosted by the beautiful daughter of the founder. She was in a stunning white dress and had opened some of their family’s top red wines. There was even an older vintage in a large, wide-based decanter. I tasted through, somewhat starstruck about the wines, and when it came for her to pour us the older wine, I took a deep sip of it. My wonderful brother whispered a comment about her not being able to use the decanter well right as the wine hit my palate, and I sprayed the family’s rare red wine all over this woman in the white dress. I was mortified, and basically blacked out and ran away. I saw her years later from across the room at Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and immediately changed course to avoid her in the off chance she recognized me. So, yeah.
And it was good …
JB: What is your favorite wine reference in a work of literature or a film?
MK: I feel like there are plenty of deep and philosophical references out there, but I recently started looking at biblical wine references. I found a diagram of a wine press from Jesus’ times and then decided to see exactly how much wine Jesus made as his first miracle. Turns out, we know quite exactly how much wine: “Six stone water jars, containing 20-30 gallons each”. That’s about equal to 1 ton of grapes or two standard barrels, or 50 cases of wine. Man, I would have loved to have tasted that.
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