Winegrower's Blog

Our Annual Estate Subscriber Wine Club Event

Every year we hold an appreciation event for your Estate Subscriber Program wine club members.  This year, Alyssa decided it would be fun to have a pizza maker and pasta.  Out on the lawn in front of the winery building, on a perfect afternoon, our club members enjoyed pizzas, wonderful wines and a lovely pasta meal.  Words cannot describe the "fun" but a few photos might.

Estate Subscriber event in progress
The pizza maker	Pizzas fresh from the oven
Toss a cork, win a magnum of wine	Great library and current wines
A fun day at Talley Vineyards

 

WOPN

This weekend is WOPN! World of Pinot Noir is the must-attend event for any serious pinot noir enthusiast.  This experience features hundreds of pinot noirs from all over the globe through seminars, walk-around tastings and dinner events.  Renowned producers of this coveted varietal pour tastes of their current release wines at the grand tastings, while rare and old vintage wines are usually poured in special seminars and dinners.  As an added bonus, the event is primarily held on the bluff in Shell Beach at both the Dolphin Bay and Cliffs Resorts, overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean.  (Oh, and Brian Talley was one of the founders of this event!)

This year, Talley Vineyards will be the focus of one of the educational “breakout sessions”.  This sold-out seminar will feature Rosemary’s and Rincon Vineyard wines from 2007-2010.  It is my opinion that these wines are some of the best we’ve ever made, and now is a wonderful time to taste them side by side.  Many pinot noirs have a relatively short shelf life, but the Talley wines are known for their exceptional ageability.  Our pinot noirs show incredible structure and depth and can begin peaking more than 4-5 years after bottling.  Brian Talley and Eric Johnson will be hosting this special event and discussing what is unique about each vintage and what contributes to the beauty of these wines today.

If you want to taste as many pinot noirs as possible, I recommend going to both the Friday and Saturday afternoon tastings.   Each day features a different group of wineries. If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, it’s not too late.  You can still purchase them at http://www.worldofpinotnoir.com.  This event provides the opportunity to enjoy the many variations of this wonderful varietal in a fun, educational and beautiful environment.

Tasting Room Trip to Paso

If you’ve visited the Talley Vineyards tasting room, you would know that we have a lot of faces behind the bar. It takes a lot of people to cover our staffing needs to be open seven days a week and it’s not very often that we can get them all in the same place at the same time. Earlier this month, however, we were able to get sixteen of us together for an awesome day of wine tasting in Paso Robles.

Entrusting our tasting room to ex-tasting room employees Michele (now our operations manager), Alyssa (now our direct sales manager), and Belinda (now our direct sales assistant), all sixteen of us were chauffeured to Paso Robles, in style, on the Central Coast Trolley. We hit some of the best on the far west side of Paso Robles – Justin, Tablas Creek, Halter Ranch, and Jack Creek.

Beyond tasting a broad variety of different wines, from the delicious cabernets and Bordeaux blends at Justin and Halter Ranch, to the Rhone varietals at Tablas Creek and Jack Creek, the day was a great opportunity for the staff to build camaraderie. Many of our staff members work a few days or less a month, some only on the weekends, and some only during the weekdays. The ability to have our entire team together, learning about wine and witnessing how other wineries operate and being able to socialize and catch up with one another was priceless. It was also a great success in that staff members have given us valuable feedback on the experience, including many ideas that could really strengthen us as we move forward.

For me, the one universal theme that I noticed is that what impressed our group wasn’t so much about the actual winery, but more about how the staff presented them.  A visit to the new tasting room at Tablas Creek, the vineyards and caves at Justin, and the new winery facility at Halter Ranch are enough to make anyone in the wine industry very jealous. Following those up with a stop at Jack Creek, an equally remarkable facility at a sliver of the size of the other three, allowed us to see that it’s not all about size of the building. With great hospitality at all four locations, and knowing what a beautiful place and great people we have here at Talley, the key thing I learned is that a successful winery isn’t all about the facility, it is about a group of people with enough passion to produce a great product anywhere.

Restaurant Month in California

As a way to encourage dining out during an otherwise slow time of year, California celebrates January as “Restaurant Month”.  Each participating restaurant creates a generous fixed price menu offering 3 courses for $30. This is a fantastic opportunity to get in on some incredible culinary values, particularly in some restaurants where that’s less than the cost of just one entrée.

I can’t speak for what happens in other counties, but in San Luis Obispo there’s an added bonus of wineries partnering with these restaurants.  In most cases this means that for a small additional fee, the restaurants will offer either a flight of wines or individual glasses to complement each course.  For the most part, these added wine pairings are designed to be as great of a bargain as the meals so you have the chance to taste some incredible, and in some cases rare wines, all for a nominal price.

This brings me to the Talley Vineyards tie-in… I’m in marketing, can you blame me?  We are delighted to share that we are partnered with the fabulous Marisol Restaurant at The Cliffs Resort in Shell Beach. They are well known on the Central Coast for their exquisite food prepared by Chef Greg Wangard in a beautifully scenic location perched right on the cliffs of Shell Beach.  This month only, for $30 you can choose from a large selection of gourmet appetizers, entrées, and desserts for each course that pair perfectly with some delicious Talley Estate wines.  Check out this link to see their complete menu,  but I highly recommend the beef short ribs with our Talley Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir, the best I’ve ever had!

A Company Christmas Party, Talley Style

Last night we had our annual Talley staff Christmas party at Giuseppe’s Restaurant in Pismo Beach- and no, the night didn’t end with karaoke.  As you can imagine, this is an exceptionally fun event where we have the amazing opportunity to taste a wide variety of rare, old vintages of Talley single vineyard wines.  Even better, the wines are all from large format bottles which are not only festive, but are known to age better than small format bottles.  The only difficult part is pacing oneself enough to fully appreciate what you’re tasting.

We kicked off the night with a 5 liter bottle of 2001 Rosemary’s Vineyard Chardonnay- which in the words of our direct sales manager Alyssa Ball, “Smelled and tasted rich, nutty, and delicious like a perfectly aged chardonnay”.    I totally agree with her, and I’ll add that it was a wonderful complement to the creamy stuffed mushroom appetizer they were serving.  That bottle disappeared pretty quickly (there were a lot of us), so we moved on to another 5 liter bottle, the 2007 Rincon Chardonnay.  The Rincon was surprisingly fresh and citrusy, showing very youthful.  If you have this wine in your cellar, it is drinking well now, but it definitely has a lot of years left to age.

So, with dinner on the way, we needed to fill our seats and our glasses- this time with a few pinot noirs.  It was a moment I was waiting for, the ceremonious opening of the 9 Liter bottle of 2001 Rincon Vineyard Pinot Noir.  We recently revisited this wine in our library tastings and I remember it scoring top rankings.  The larger format bottle didn’t seem to differ from its 750 ml equivalent.  It had very distinctive earthy characteristics, and the palate was silky and smooth. 

Since I don’t have room to fill in the details about all the wines we shared, I would like to finish with the highlight of my evening, the 1999 Rosemary’s Vineyard Pinot Noir.  This wine had bright and distinctive fruit with perfectly balanced acidity and a silky, tannin structure.  This delicate yet robust pinot noir is still a star after roughly 12 years in bottle. 

Once again, I was reminded of what a wonderful producer we work for.  Even though those incredible wines were all made before my time at Talley Vineyards, it was very special to get to experience these vintages with the family that produced them.

Thanksgiving is Just Around the Corner

Thanksgiving, is just around the corner.  It's my favorite holiday because I love to cook. This year I plan to brine my turkey then roast it in my wood burning oven. Every year people ask me what I drink with the meal. My favorite choice is our Estate Pinot Noir because of its balance and elegance, which I find works well with the complex flavors of the meal. The magnums we're featuring this month are perfect for extended family. I asked our crew here at Talley Vineyards what they plan to serve. Best wishes to everyone for a joyous Thanksgiving!

Nicole Bertotti-Pope, Assistant Winemaker, 2010 Rincon Pinot Noir

“Pinot Noir is a great match for turkey and all the usual side dish suspects, and what better excuse than Thanksgiving to pull out those single vineyard pinots you've been saving all year!  The 2010 Rincon Pinot Noir is tasting great right now, and has just the right balance of fruit, spice and earthiness to pair with just about everything on the table.  I think it will go perfectly with my dish of maple chipotle mashed sweet potatoes.”

David Block, Sales Manager, 2011 Bishop’s Peak Riesling

“I vote for the 2011 Bishop’s Peak Riesling. I would serve that as the cook’s prep wine to be consumed in copious amounts with light snacks such as seasoned nuts like Rosemary almonds or wasabi spiced peanuts.Drink up sailors it’s time to cook!”

Alyssa Ball, Direct Sales Manager, 2010 Oliver’s Vineyard Chardonnay

“One of my favorite fall foods is butternut squash and I always like to include it in my Thanksgiving meal.  This year I plan to roast the butternut squash and serve it with browned butter and fresh herbs.  I recommend enjoying a glass of Oliver’s Vineyard Chardonnay along with this delicious and simple side dish.”

Eric Johnson, Winemaker, 2010 Rincon Chardonnay

“At the Thanksgiving meal, my favorite food on the plate is stuffing.  I like a stuffing that uses tart green apples as a primary ingredient, because the apples add so much extra flavor.  Rincon Vineyard Chardonnay is the perfect wine to pair with apple stuffing and I plan to enjoy a glass or two for the holiday. ”

Michele Good, Director of Business Operations, 2010 Talley Vineayards Estate Chardonnay

“I’m going Estate Chard.  Love that wine and goes good with Turkey, gravy, potatoes, appetizers, and everything else I eat on T-day.”

Anna Heacock, Marketing Manager, 2005 Rosemary's Pinot Noir

“I plan on bringing a few bottles.  I’m finally going to open a 2005 Rosemary’s Vineyard Pinot Noir.  While I know this wine still has many good years left, I’m not very patient and I know it’s drinking beautifully now.  I will savor this wine from appetizer to dessert- it doesn’t need a complement. Because I will want to enjoy at least a full glass (or two), I need to provide a distraction that I can feel good about.  For that, I will also bring a few Bishop’s Peak Chardonnays, absolutely delicious as an aperitif and a perfectly refreshing pairing to all the traditional Thanksgiving flavors of savory, nutty and fruity.”

Belinda Christensen, Direct Sales Assistant, assorted Talley and Bishop's Peak wines

“If you were to come to the Christensen family Thanksgiving table, you would find Prime Rib, not turkey.  And at the very crowded table, would be multiple bottles of wine including Stone Corral Pinot Noir, some Rincon Pinot Noir,  Bishop’s Peak Cabernet,  maybe some Elevation Red, a bottle of Riesling for my mother, and a bottle of Rosemary’s Chardonnay for those white wine drinkers.  Something for everyone."

In Case You Missed It...

This past summer Brian Talley packed his bags and set out to meet with some of the top food and wine writers in the country to share our 25 year portfolio of chardonnays.  This precarious mission to meet with these most discerning reviewers and host a retrospective tasting has proven to be an incredible success.  Over the past few months, numerous articles have surfaced in magazines and around the web about the true age worthiness of our wines.  One of the most flattering in our recent accolades was when Food and Wine Magazine named Talley Vineyards as one of “The World’s Most Trustworthy Wineries”.   We’ve been regularly sharing this press with our friends on Facebook, but just in case you missed it, here are a few exciting highlights of what the experts had to say:

• I would confidently put any of the Talley wines toe-to-toe with Grand Cru French Burgundy.  Talley’s wines definitely made a statement; not all California Chardonnays are equal, and California Chardonnays crafted in a classical style and grown in cooler climates deserve a second look. They also merit a place in your cellar, to be savored today and twenty years from now.- Katie Kelley Bell, Forbes
   
• Talleys wines don’t have to be old to taste good. We also tasted five delicious Chardonnays that were brand new. The important thing about these wines is that they have generous acidity and restrained fruit. In other words, they are far more reminiscent of a European wine. - Austin Chronicle
   
• Made in a Burgundian-style with an emphasis on the vineyards and creating a true sense of place, instead of manipulation in the winery, Talley Vineyards succeeds in delivering a lively white filled with citrus and stone fruit notes, balanced with layers of spice and nuttiness. Enjoy a bottle young, and then let one age for a few years and you’ll see the flavors develop into rich caramel notes while maintaining the acidity and brightness of the fruit. - Hayley Hamilton
   
• The two best surprises came from the oldest bottle we tasted, the 1994 Talley’s Vineyard, as well as the 2001 Rosemary’s Vineyard which both maintained their consistency in structure, balance and acidity, proving that these wines could easily continue to age an additional number of years. – D Magazine
   
• Talley remains one of the great estates in California that has yet to be fully discovered. As a result, prices remain exceedingly fair considering the quality of what goes into the bottle. - Antonio Galloni, The Wine Advocate

“Can I Revisit the Rosemary’s?”

August has arrived in seemingly no time at all, which is great because I look forward to this month the entire year. While summer traffic begins to die down, a whole new crowd descends on our tasting room. They are here to taste our Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs from Stone Corral, Rincon, and Rosemary’s Vineyards.  These three wines, all set to be released on August 25th, represent the best of what each respective vineyard has to offer. If you enjoy the Edna Valley and Estate Pinot Noirs, these wines share the same winemaking style, but with more structure and intensity. I have admitted that it is the Chardonnays here at Talley Vineyards that are my favorites, though I have two reasons to love our pinots – the vast range of food pairings and the even better people watching.

For instance, if you enjoy Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon, how many clones of those varietals can you name? If the answer is none, it may not be that you don’t love your favorite wine varietal as much as “Pinophiles” love theirs. It’s just that while you are drinking your favorite wine, they are spouting off a list of letters and numbers from 2A to 777. Pinot Noir drinkers as a whole tend to want to be more educated more about their wine – they want to know about the punch downs, the cold soak, the yeast, the forests from which the wood for the barrels was harvested. If the last sentences leave you feeling lost, but you want to learn more, visit us for a Harvest Tour to learn all about how we make our Pinot Noirs.

Now to explain my blog title.  Pinot Noir drinkers love the word “revisit,” especially as it pertains to tasting more of one of our most popular wines, our Rosemary’s Vineyard Pinot Noir. This definitely qualifies as one of the “well-used phrases in the tasting room,” although it is rarely said so eloquently. My favorite version: “Can you hit me again with another shot of that Rosemary’s Pinot?”

Whether you are a diagnosed Pinot Noir addict or just appreciate the varietal, visit us on August 25th for our annual Pinot Noir Release Day. We will be featuring a flight of all five of our 2010 Talley Vineyards Pinot Noirs, plus a secret selection from our library in a five-liter format. Not to mention there will be food available for purchase by a great new food truck, Anna Andriese’s Haute Skillet, and music by Doug Groshart of the JD Project. I hope to see you there!

Two Kinds of Summer Fun

It’s the middle of summer and there’s lots of fun stuff going on.  I just returned from a wonderful family vacation to San Diego.  This is an annual family get-together that includes the entire extended Talley family.  San Diego has lots of fun things to do:  we visited college campuses, we went to the zoo, we went to Sea World, we went shopping, we hung out by the pool.

We had some wonderful food and wine experiences during the trip.  Highlights included dinner at JRDN at Tower 23 in Ocean Beach.  They pour our Estate Chardonnay by the glass, which is a great match for all the seafood they have on the menu.  Everyone loved Donovan’s, widely regarded as one of the best steakhouses in the United States.  2009 Rincon Vineyard Pinot Noir and prime New York steak is a great pairing.  The biggest revelation was dinner at the Marina Kitchen, the signature restaurant at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina.  Beverage Manager Josh Orr is a Cal Poly graduate who started in the wine industry in San Luis Obispo before moving to Las Vegas where he met chef Seth Aaron.  The combination of a well selected and well priced wine list, and “modern comfort food” featuring local sustainable food, was unbeatable.  We finished the evening with a fireworks display over the marina and the signature Makers Mark Milkshake with fresh baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  Three generations of Talleys were in heaven after that dinner!
Closer to home, veraison makes for fun in the vineyard.  This is the time of year when the grapes change color and begin to accumulate sugar.  Its our signal that harvest is just around the corner.  To learn more about veraison, check out my short video  on the subject.

Best wishes for a great summer to you!

Summer's Here

Summer is officially here!  This is my favorite time of year, it’s beautiful outside and there are wine events to attend almost every weekend.  Whether we’re hosting an event here at the winery, or pouring off site it’s very inspiring to be surrounded by great wine, good food and a happy group of wine enthusiasts. 

Last weekend I had the pleasure of pouring at Pinot Days, San Francisco with our assistant winemaker Nicole Pope. For those unfamiliar, Pinot Days is a varietal specific event held in the Fort Mason Building in the heart of the city.  This event draws a large crowd of serious Pinot Noir drinkers from all over the country.  Now in its eighth year, Pinot Days has certainly garnered the respect of the top pinot noir producers in California as even the smallest, and top reviewed wineries can be found pouring their finest selections. 

We poured our flagship 2010 Estate wine and a preview of our 2010 Stone Corral and Rincon Vineyard Pinots.  These wines are already showing beautifully.  As usual, and right on schedule, Stone Corral’s enticing bouquet is already well developed and Rincon is beginning to reveal its layered depth and rich minerality.  It was great to see such excitement about our wines so early in their youth - we had many repeat tasters! It’s always so rewarding to get such a positive response to our wines, especially in a venue of such great company. 

Some other noteworthy wines we tasted: 2009 White Rose from Dundee Hills, 2009 Failla from Sonoma Coast and a 2006 Scherrer from Russian River.