Urban wineries, this one near Oakland, lack the incredible ambiance of say Dry Creek Valley.  That doesn’t mean they aren’t interesting to visit.  Periscope is in an old submarine plant near the San Francisco Bay in Emeryville just west of Oakland and Berkeley.  They make less than 5,000 cases with a focus on blended red wines and grapes from small family growers.

We brought home their 2006 Cab Sauv and tasted a little each of three days. It held up beautifully during that time.  We loved the oak, long finish, and light tannin.  This Cab is a blend of two Sierra Foothills grapes; 75% Cab and 25% Petite Verdot.

If you’re exploring SF Bay wineries we suggest Periscope for good wine at great prices plus hospitality.

- jim

The first Wine Questers Live Blogup (then called Taste n Tell) was at seven SF urban wineries last January 10th.  Tiny A. P. Vin was one of those.  Andrew makes only Pinot and from various California regions.

This evening Katya and I are doing a little comparison tasting of his 2007 Alexander Valley and Santa Lucia Highlands (Salinas Valley) Pinots.

Both are soft with finely tuned Pinot nose and taste.  The differences are subtle and interesting.  We feel that the Santa Lucia is slightly more robust.  The fruit will taste a little different but you have to really pay attention.

As usual I’m not going to tell you what you will taste. Everyone’s taste varies in many ways and is affected by mood, environment, experience, and more.

I will suggest that if you are in SF you make an appointment with Andrew and try his Pinots from various regions.  This is an usual venue with a fine winemaker and an interesting selection of Pinots available for a broad comparison tasting.

- jim

On Saturday January 10th about 60 wine questers met at a warehouse winery operation on Treasure Island in SF Bay for our first Wine Questers Taste n Tell.  We tasted from these tiny boutique wineries: Vie, Blue Cellars, Treasure Island, Morningwood, and Sol Rouge.  Too much wine to review here but we loved them all.  The wines will be reviewed on Twitter as they are consumed.

The vintners presented their wines to the group sequentially and then set up on a nearby table so we could explore them more.  I was busy shooting video and doing event organizing things so I missed a lot of the presentations and wines.  Everyone seemed to be having fun and format was very good.

Katya Preston got up at 5 AM on Saturday and made over a hundred Russian peroshki.  These are little pies or turnovers stuffed with different meats, potato, and apple.  There were many comments that they went great with the reds.

Later we moved to A.P. Vin near the SF Design Center and then to the shoreside home of Canihan Wines with an incredible view of the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge!

These wineries are not open to the public on a regular basis.

I wouldn’t consider Treasure Island or even San Francisco a wine tasting road trip destination but it seems to be getting there.  The vintners are in various stages of opening tasting rooms and we can expect to see some soon around Fisherman’s Wharf.  They are enthusiastic about developing San Francisco as a wine tasting destination and their wines are terrific!