I’ve blogged about Fenestra before and their very large wine selection, picnic area, and historical old barn winery. This winery isn’t to be missed! We just finished a bottle of their Lodi sourced Alvarelhao and I want to make a quick mention of it. This is a Portuguese wine that is rare in California. It has medium body with a light-medium nose and finish. I enjoyed the soft fruit and aromatic finish.

On its own it is interesting and enjoyable but we paired it with crab and shrimp and that makes this wine pop. I recommend dropping into Fenestra and trying this unusual wine. You may find it a treat.

- jim

We recently finished Tenuta’s 05 Livermore Syrah.  It is a full-bodied robust wine but doesn’t bite.  We found it interesting to explore from the nose through to the finish.  It oxidizes well and tasted great the second day the bottle was open.  Tenuta has some softer wines but big reds and the friendly tasting room staff are why we visit.

Tenuta Winery picnic area and tasting room

Tenuta’s cozy tasting room and long curved bar make an idea place for friends to gather to enjoy a tasting and conversation.

If the timing is right then catch Richard for his enthusiastic winery tour experience. OK, he gets pretty excited about the wines and the processes but he does calm down for questions.

Tenuta Vineyards was established in 2002 and today produces wines from a wide variety of  varietals such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, Zinfandel, Primitivo, Syrah, Petite Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and various blends. Tough to beat this great selection!

Tenuta  welcomes holiday parties, picnics, and other private events.  Live music often accompanies the public events.

- Jim

Recently we drove to Livermore for a photo-shoot at Tenuta’s winery, a favorite.  Since we were in the area we decided to explore Deer Ridge Vineyards, a newer winery with nice Tuscan architecture.

Deer Ridge winery, tasting room, and events area.

Besides the pleasent ambiance and very friendly staff they have a nice choice of wines available.  In the last few days we’ve worked over their 2004 Livermore Valley Cab and a killer “Chocolate Silk” Port from Madera grapes. Their Port is VERY addicting

Their Cabs work for us. We like decent nose, full body, and a long finish. Wines have been softened so much for the broader market that we struggle to find interesting reds.

We enjoyed all of their wines but especially the Cabs, Merlot, Zin, and a Pinot with great aroma.  The selection should please most tasters.

The staff is friendly and talkative.  The tasting bar is curved and comfortable.  There is a little art gallery in the hall and sometimes in the meeting hall during events.  Outside is a patio with a nice view of the mountains.

Adjacent to the winery is an early California style  2 bedroom guest house.  It is new, beautiful, has a great view, and a large oak shelters it.  $375 for the first night is probably competitive. We would love to hang out there for a week – with a good stock of Deer Ridge wine.

- jim

On Saturday December 13 we had our first Wine Questers Tweetup Tasting.  Three of us from the Twitter wine community met for lunch at Gerre Vineyard and Winery’s wonderful cafe.  We then proceeded to taste and micro-blog our impression on Twitter at 6 wineries starting with Garre’s tasting room for the next five and a half hours.  (We poured out.)  Many in the wine community followed and discussed our impressions during the tasting room visits.  Our Tweetup was exposed the hundreds of tasters around the US and the world.

We will be developing the Wine Questers Twitter Tastups into regular events.  The wineries quickly recognized the value of live micro-blogging at their tasting bars and offered us nice discounts.

Below are the wines that I bought that I considered to be particularly interesting to taste. Red Feather and Little Valley had some killer wines that they wouldn’t sell us because their labels weren’t approved yet.  We tasted them and wanted to try them in a home context.  I’ll be blogging about the wines below as we try them.  If you are looking for interesting and tasty wines please try these and comment on them.  None are too soft to be boring but they won’t bite you.  The list below is in the order I pulled the wines from the case and bags.

Charles R Vineyards:

• 2006 Livermore Valley Zinfandel.
• 2005 Livermore Valley Cab Sauv.

Crooked Vine Winery:

• Stony Ridge Malvasia Bianca undated sparkling wine.
• Stony Ridge 2005 Livermore Valley Cab Sauv.
• Crooked Vine 2004 Livermore Valley Cab Sauv.
• Crooked Vine 2007 Livermore Valley Charve – Chard & Viogneir blend.
• Crooked Vine 2004 Aromatica Dessert Wine.

Red Feather Winery:

• 2004 Livermore Valley Merlot.
• 2005 Livermore Valley Jaiden’s Dessert Wine – unusual, dry, and tasty!

Les Chenes Estate Vineyards – specializing in very small case lots of Rhone style wines:

• undated Livermore Valley Deux Rouge – red wine.
• 2007 Livermore Valley Roussanne.
• 2007 Livermore Valley Mourvedre.  We finished the bottle over two days and sipped before dinner, during, and after.  Katya and I considered it better after it had time to breath and open up. Good quality and interesting but it this varietal takes a little getting used to for those unfamiliar with it.  Worth the “learning curve” though!

Little Valley

• 2002 Livermore Valley Cab Sauv.

Gerre

• 2005 Livermore Valley Syrah.
• 2006 Livermore Valley Merlot.

Livermore wineries hosted a nice harvest festival on Sunday and Monday of Labor Day Weekend.  The weather was perfect and the wineries worked hard to make the event interesting with food vendors and live music at most of the locations.

However, almost half the wineries hosted loud nightclub type bands.  In some instances we could not hear anything the tasting bar staff was trying to tell us.  To preserve our hearing for later life and to only taste what we would enjoy, we promptly left without tasting.  We heard other complaints. We certainly don’t feel compelled to ever visit those wineries again.

There seems to be enough neurological research evidence to support the statement that senses cross influence each other.  Hearing can affect taste.  Overloaded senses such as hearing can also overload taste. Those senses are near each other in the brain and somewhat connected.

Loud bands have the following effects and should never be paired with wine tasting:

1. Taste is greatly impacted and sensitivity reduced.
2. People can’t have real conversations.
3. Hearing is damaged.

We attend wine events to enjoy wine and, equally important, to met other people.  Loud music ruins the experience.  If folks want to drink fine wine in a nightclub they can go to downtown San Jose on a Friday or Saturday night and blow their ears off.

Several wineries such as Concannon, Tenuta, and Garre had wonderful groups that created a pleasant background music.

- jim