Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Calder Wine Company 2017 Chenin Blanc, Galleron Vineyard Rutherford, Napa Valley

Written by Allison Levine on August 21, 2019

Wine

The versatile Chenin Blanc is an easy wine to love. The primary white wine grape of the Loire Valley in France, Chenin Blanc is also widely grown in South Africa. In California, throughout the 1980s, there was actually more Chenin Blanc planted in California than in France. Thirty years ago, there were more than 2000 acres planted in Napa Valley, although most was planted in the hot Central Valley and used as a workhorse grape that added acidity to blends. Plantings of Chenin Blanc declined and only 17 bearing acres were reported in 2016. Luckily, a number of California producers recognize the beauty of Chenin Blanc and one of these producers is Rory Williams of Calder Wine Company. The Calder Wine Company 2017 Chenin Blanc, Galleron Vineyard Rutherford, Napa Valley is the Please The Palate Wine of the Week.

Calder Wine Company is the label of winemaker Rory Williams. Named after his middle name, Rory comes from a winemaking family. His parents founded Frog’s Leap Winery and Tres Sabores, both located in Rutherford.

Rory sources the Chenin Blanc from the organic, dry-farmed Galleron Vineyard in Napa Valley. The grapes were foot stomped and spent three hours on the skins. The grapes were fermented in neutral oak and stainless steel and then combined and aged on the lees for 6 months.

The resulting wine is rich and savory with aromas of stone fruit, citrus and honeycomb. This is a wine of texture and it finishes with fresh acidity and depth of flavor.

Only 49 cases were made of the Calder Wine Company 2017 Chenin Blanc, Galleron Vineyard Rutherford, Napa Valley which retails for $22 per bottle.

Please The Palate Pick of the Week: Provisions Tasting at Soter Vineyards, Willamette Valley

Written by Allison Levine on August 17, 2019

Lifestyle Food Wine

Today, a visit to a winery can offer so much more than a wine tasting. There are vineyard tours, reserve tastings, meeting the winemaker, food pairings and barrel tastings. Each of these experiences enhance the wine tasting experience, leaving a lasting memory. On my visit to Soter Vineyards in the Willamette Valley, my friend and I sat down for the Provisions Tasting, which offers a sampling of the current release wines paired with small plates crafted from the produce and meat grown on their biodynamic farm. From the moment we pulled up to Soter Vineyard until the moment we drove away, the Provisions Tasting at Soter Vineyards was extraordinary and that is why it is the Please The Palate pick of the week.

Mineral Springs Ranch is a 240-acre oak savanna in the heart of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Soter Vineyards is the 32 acre estate vineyard and the entire property is a biodynamic estate owned by Tony and Michelle Soter.

We drove up the long driveway to the top of Mineral Springs Ranch.

At the top of the hill is the Soter Vineyards Tasting Room. The rectangular wood barn looks rustic from the outside but is anything but rustic on the inside. Read More +

Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Maysara 2015 Immigrant Pinot Noir, McMinnville, Oregon

Written by Allison Levine on August 14, 2019

Wine

Spending a week in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, I drank a lot of really good Pinot Noir, as well as Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chardonnay and more. I drank so many delicious wines, it would be hard to pick just one as the Wine of the Week. However, one wine did stand out, not only because it is a Pinot Noir, but because it communicates an important message that resonates with me and should all of us. That is why the Maysara 2015 Immigrant Pinot Noir from McMinnville, Oregon, is the Please The Palate Wine of the Week.

Maysara, which means “house of wine” in Farsi, is the wine produced by Moe Momtazi and his family. The 532-acre (orignally 496 acre) Momtazi Vineyard was was purchased in 1997. There are 260 acres planted to vines and the vineyard was Demeter Certified Biodynamic in 2005 (and the winery was certified in 2007).

Moe Momtazi is originally from Tehran, Iran. He came to the US originally in the early 1970s with his family and went to University in Texas. Moe returned to Iran but in 1982, when his wife was 8 months pregnant, they had to flee Iran and went to Spain and eventually came to the US. Moe worked as a civil engineer and then bought the property and built a beautiful winery with re-purposed materials. Moe and his wife raised three daughters who today all work for Maysara – the oldest is the winemaker, the middle daughter handles national sales and the youngest daughter manages all of the events.

Moe and his family are the quintessential example of the immigrant experience….coming to America to make a better life for their children. This is what American was founded on. This is what makes America great. This is why I love the idea behind the Maysara 2015 Immigration Pinot Noir.

Maysara Immigration Pinot Noir is made from estate fruit, like the other Pinot Noirs in the portfolio. But this wine is “dedicated to all the immigrants, including our own family members who risked their lives to escape and make it to America for the values of freedom and opportunity that this country stands for. Coming from many cultural backgrounds worldwide, immigrants have played an integral part in making America the great nation we call home.”

The Maysara 2015 Immigrant Pinot Noir retails for $45 and 33% of proceeds will be going to Refugee & Immigrant programs servicing permanent residency, family based visas, low-cost immigration counseling and much more.