The Russian River Valley, in Sonoma, CA, is arguably the best place in the U.S. for Burgundian varietals (a case can also be made for Carneros).  It is a ruggedly-beautiful stretch of river-front farms, vineyards, woods and winding country roads.  The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from this area are tough to beat at any price.  I wish I could tell you more about this wine.  Cory served it along with a great dinner, and it tasted great.  But a bottle split five ways goes so fast.  Before I could slow down and think about what I was enjoying, it was gone and the bottle was drained.  Oh well, I'll have to get a bottle for myself.  Be watching for another review...

As any one working in consumer goods or grocery marketing will tell you, private label brands have been an increasingly powerful force on the grocery shelf for the last five years, and they show no sign of slowing down.  While "generic" brands were synonymous with inferior quality with plain labels, today many store brands offer quality and variety comparable to national brands.  The wine industry has, for the most part, lagged behind this trend (like most trends in CPG marketing).  However, a few clever retailers are starting to catch on.  

Whole Foods, a master at niche marketing, has started selling premium CA wines from Nominee co-branded with their 360 Degree Every Day Value private label.  This is a great marketing move for Whole Foods, an innovative grocer that always strives to be relevant to their customers' lifestyle.  Central Market, Signature and Flagship chains should take note.

Oh, and the wine's pretty good too.  I like Paso Robles for Cab (see J. Lohr Cab on my Best Bottles page).  This one's rich and chewy, lots of plumb and cherry.  Dry, earthy and delicious.  Worth a try, as long as you're there shopping for tofu, granola and organic milk.

The origin of the Zinfandel grape was a mystery from the time of the California gold rush until the mid 90s, when DNA fingerprinting made a definite identity possible.  Popular theory held that Zin was a clonal offshoot of a Hungarian or Serbian grape.  Science proved other wise:  Zin is another name for southern Italy's humble Primitivo.  As the name suggests, Primitivo never reached the fame in its homeland that it found in California.  But today there are several Italians bottling 'Tivo, usually labeled as Zin, for the American market.

This is not a great bottle of Zin.  A harsh tartness that did not settle down over time.  Very little complexity.  Not awful, but there are better Zins to be had at the price (think Ravenswood, Cline, or Pedroncelli).  You can do much better.

I'm a sucker for a clever wine label (Bonny Doon's 'Critique of Pure Riesling' comes to mind).  What a disappointing wine snob I can sometimes be. Goats do Roam is a play on the French Cotes du Rhone appellation (a favorite of mine) so I couldn't resist trying it.  Besides, on May 9 I spoke so poorly about a South African wine, but promised to review a better one soon.

Goats do Roam is a very pleasant wine.  It has a rich black cherry, coffee and tobacco flavor.  Very rich.  Despite its great taste and texture we didn't finish the bottle after opening it; and I thought the wine tasted even better the next night.   A combination of traditional Rhone varietals and South Africa's own Pinotage clone.  Very tastey...  and a cute label... 

Dylan and Julie and I had a wonderful dinner hosted by Stefanie, a coworker, and her husband and two girls.  Along with a fantastic meal and never ending Shiner Bock we were treated to a very nice Texas Fume.  Pleasant Hill is in (read as kind of near) Brenham.  That's where Bluebell ice cream comes from, which seems appropriate considering the creamy texture of this wine.  Fume typically has a crisp tartness that was missing in Pleasant Hill, probably because the temperature does not get cold enough to develop acidity.  Still, I was pleasantly surprised (uh?  Pleasant Hill?  Get it?)  There were none of the skunky tastes or off odors I've noticed in so many Texas Sauvignon or Fume Blancs.  A very good flavor.  Most impressive. 

Marques de Caceres, 2000 Dry Rose, Rioja, Spain.  $6.  Recommendation:  Drink.  White Zinfandel has trained us to associate rose, or blush wines with sweetness.  This isn't necessarily the case.  There are many excellent dry roses from France, Portugal, and Spain.  This Rioja from Marque de Caceres is a little tart, refreshing and fruity, but without a hint of sweetness.  Like the Vinho Verde reviewed June 24, this is a simple, fun summer wine.  Side note: See my Jan. 18 review of  Marque de Caceres White.

Laurel Glen Vineyard, Reds, 1999, California.  $9.  Recommendation:  Drink. American wine consumption during the 60s, 70s and early 80s was dominated by "generic" wines.  These blended wines, typically sold in three liter jugs with screw caps, were atrocious.  The "varietal explosion" of the 80s saw the popular renaissance of American wine making and wine drinking.  Instead of "Hearty Burgundy" Americans started drinking Cabernet, Chardonnay and Merlot.  While the wines have gotten much better, there was an unintended consequence: the lack of interest in any wine without a grape species printed on the label.  This is a shame because many of the worlds best wines are blends.  Consider Bordeaux, Chianti and Porto.  

Today we're starting to see a renewed acceptance of blends while still demanding quality.  Reds is one of a recent trend in respectable California red blends priced around $10 (others include Bonny Doon's Big House Red, Gundlach Bundschu's Beritage and Niebaum Coppala's Rosso).  Very Mediterranean in style, heavy on Zin with a motley crew of Rhone varietals thrown in.  Nothing too adventurous, but a good earthy red with lots of cedary flavor.  

Petite Sirah is a confusing grape.  Like Zinfandel, it just started showing up in the record of California viniculture in the 1880s; a mystery that went unraveled until the arrival of DNA fingerprinting.  It turns out that there are actually a few grapes in North & South America going by that name, most of them close relatives to (or hybrids of) an almost-extinct French varietal called Durif.  To add to the confusion, there is no relation to the "true" Syrah grape of the Rhone, although Petite Sirah does have a similarly peppery flavor.  It gets worse: sometimes in the Americas Petite Sirah is written as Petite Syrah, and in France there's a Petite Syrah that is related to Syrah. 

Good Petite Sirah has an earthy, Cab-like texture, but with the spiciness of a Rhone blend.  Kempton Clark (an upscale label by R. H. Phillips) is definitely there, but with a twist I had not encountered before.  A citric, almost lemony flavor was very pronounced when the bottle was first opened.  After about fifteen minutes the wine opened up, but the lemon remained.  Very curious...  but a good drink.  Note:  Julie loved it.