Birds I'm watching: Spring Lake (Jan. 26, 2011)

I took a quick walk around Spring Lake yesterday. Although I did see my first Fox sparrow of the new year, there was nothing unusual. Still, a walk around the lake is always pleasant. The highlight was this Pied-billed grebe that popped up in front of me out of the glassy, still water.

For more information about Spring Lake and bird watching in Sonoma County generally, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Found Art: Sewer Lid and Parking Lot Blue, Santa Rosa, (January 25, 2011)

Where I live, parking spaces reserved for handicapped drivers are marked in blue, a fairly unusual color for pavement markings (most are yellow or white, occasionally they are red). This is a fragment of the blue marking a handicapped space that happens to be atop a sewer inlet. Found art.


For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Miscellaneous: Funny Crackers

I came across this display at Whole Foods this morning. An ordinary stack of cracker boxes. The boxes read "Assorted Entertainment Crackers." Then I read the sign.

Do they tell jokes?

Music I'm Listening to: Sharon Isbin and the Santa Rosa Symphony

Today I attended the matinee performance of the Santa Rosa Symphony's concert set with soloist Sharon Isbin. On the program were Suomalainen Tango, by Pablo Ortiz, Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, Piazzola's Tangazo, and Symphony No. 4, by Carlos Chavez--mostly unfamiliar music, all with a latin flavor. The Symphony was conducted by guest conductor Enrique Diemecke.

Once again, an energetic, enthusiastic guest conductor has given us a glimpse of what the Santa Rosa Symphony is capable of at its best. Although the concert on Sunday was uneven, its best moments were good indeed. The concert opened with Suomalainen Tango. I suspect I would have enjoyed this a great deal if the ensemble had been awake. I don't mean to be harsh, but throughout the piece I got the impression that the performers and the conductor were failing to communicate--I had that feeling you get when a film soundtrack is out of synch with the lips of the actors. Diemecke kept asking for volume and sweep that he wasn't getting and the players didn't seem to get the feel of the rhythms of the piece.

I had just the opposite impression when listening to the final work on the program, the Chavez Symphony No. 4--a piece that seemed to straddle the romantic and the modern; suddenly, the Santa Rosa Symphony was alive. Dynamics, tension, and timing all seemed right, but the music was rather more abstract and less engaging than the Ortiz--which is not to say I didn't enjoy it. It was a pleasure to see the conductor getting so much out of the performers, but it's often hard to fully take in an extended work like this on first hearing. I'd like to hear the Chavez again.

Piazzolo's Tangazo was interesting for its stark contrasts. The piece opens quite darkly, without a hint of the title's promised tango, only to suddenly break into the sort of strongly rhythmic music that makes you want to get up and dance in the aisle. The recognizably tango section is marked by the use of unusual percussion and extended techniques in the strings (such as bowing behind the bridge and sharp, fast glissandi), all to good effect--and sometimes startling enough to provoke a few giggles. Adding to the fun was the conductor's rather physical style, using his whole body, not just his arms. In places he seemed to be dancing to the music he was helping to create. He ended each piece (and began each of his appearances on the podium) by throwing his arms wide open in a flamboyant "ta-da!" gesture the crowd clearly enjoyed. The performers seemed to enjoy it as well. When called to stand for acknowledgment, several of the musicians threw the gesture back at him, much to the delight of the audience. After a somewhat melancholy, lyrical middle section, the music drifted back through more traditional tango rhythms before regaining the dark flavor of the opening. Well done all around.

Sharon Isbin was the reason most people were at the concert, of course. Every seat was filled (something I've never seen before at the Luther Burbank--I mean, Wells Fargo--Center for the Arts), and I noticed that a few people left at intermission, after the performance of the Rodrigo. Isbin's playing was beautiful, particularly in the slow middle movement. At times it sounded as though she was playing a lute and at others a harp. Although the clipped, precise, muted style the conductor chose for the accompaniment gave a somewhat less lush overall effect than it seems to me this piece should have, all in all the Santa Rosa Symphony handled it very well, I thought.

Isbin played an encore from her Grammy Award-wining CD Journey to the New World, with Joan Baez and Mark O'Connor (Sony Classical 88697-45456-2), Andrew York's "Andecy." Oddly, Ms. Isbin did not get a full standing ovation. In Santa Rosa you can cough with a little bit of style and get the entire audience on its feet. No reflection on the performance: I got the impression that Isbin's presence brought out a more-than-usually geriatric crowd with a fair number of people elderly enough that they couldn't stand up. Sad, but true. Where are our young music lovers?

Photos of Enrique Diemecke and Sharon Isbin courtesy of the Santa Rosa Symphony.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Daphne Odorata, Candytuft (2011)

Somewhat belatedly I report that the first buds on the big Daphne under the coral bark maple tree opened recently--on January 21, to be exact. Soon the entire bush will be covered in the tightly clustered white blossoms blushed with pink and smelling of citrus and perfume. This is probably the most fragrant plant in the garden. It's a slow grower and finicky, but this one seems to be happy. A second bush planted last year appears to be coming along well (in bud, but not yet blooming), but it's toppling and needs to be staked; night creatures have been scraping at the earth at its base--probably raccoons or skunks, looking for food.

Daphne odorata bloomed on January 18 in 2010 for a year of 368 days. The plant bloomed on January 20 in 2009 (a year of 363 days). So far, Daphne has calculated an average year of 366.5 days--very close to an actual year. I imagine people of long ago who lived closer to the land and paid attention to these things didn't really miss calendars. The signs of the passing of time are everywhere.

I note also first blooms on the Candytuft (Iberis) in the garden--although this one's very hard to call. There are about five of these in the yard and they all bloom at slightly different times and over a long period. The first flowers open slowly and sporadically. It's hard to say exactly when the plant first comes into bloom. A month from now, the little bushes will be covered in starkly white flowers of very cheerful appearance--nice to have when the weather is still cold. Taking today (January 23) as the first day of bloom, however, the plant has calculated a year of 367 days (I chose January 21 as the first day of bloom in 2010) and a year of 364 days in the preceding year (first blooms were on January 22 in 2009). The average year so far is thus 365.5 days according to Iberis--again, very close to a calendar year.

Found Art: White-washed Graffiti, Santa Rosa, January 22, 2011)

High on a wall above an abandoned building I found this patch of graffiti, white-washed, but barely covered. The sun was just about to disappear under the horizon. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Books I'm Reading: Desperate Passage

Having just returned from a few days skiing at Lake Tahoe near Donner Lake and having several times in the past seen the lake that bears the Donner name and known it was associated with the ill-fated emigrants, I decided this time to find out exactly what happened to them. At a local bookstore I picked up a copy of Ethan Rarick's Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West (Oxford University Press, 2008). Carefully researched and based mostly on the primary sources, the book is a well-written history of the 1846 tragedy. It has an extensive bibliography and an excellent index (too often missing). At the same time, Desperate Passage  has the feel of a page-turner; I read the book in two sittings. I know it's a cliché, but I couldn't put it down.

In a nutshell, the group suffered its horrible fate primarily for two reasons. First, its leaders chose to take an untried "short-cut" that turned out to be entirely unsuitable for wagon traffic over the mountains that separate California from the deserts of Nevada; it ended up costing them a month or more rather than saving time. Second, the group got a late start on what was supposed to have been a four-month journey across the continent and suffered many delays along the way (aside from the problem with the so-called shortcut). A late arrival risked snow and entrapment in the Sierras even on the established routes into California. Unsurprisingly, the Donners and the families traveling with them became snowbound before they could cross the mountain range and into California. About eighty people were trapped (many of them children). Thirty-six of them died.

Rarick follows the crossing of the continent starting at Independence, Missouri, the entrapment in snow by Donner Lake (then known as Truckee Lake) near the California-Nevada border, the ordeal of months of starvation and cannibalism, and the rescue of the survivors--which was as perilous (or more so) than most of the crossing--all in heartbreaking detail. The sections on cannibalism are gruesome, but fascinating. Rarick discusses the course it took in the case of the Donner Party but also touches on the history of cannibalism in extreme situations more generally and he even manages to get in data that give a good idea of how starvation affects the human body--and the mind--without allowing the momentum of the story to wane. Although the author maintains a somewhat detached tone that neither sensationalizes nor downplays the trials the group lived through, the portraits of the people involved--both those trapped and their rescuers--are vivid.  If I remember correctly, Thomas Hardy once said that a good story should deal with the experiences of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The tale of the Donner Party certainly fits that bill.

On a personal note, I realized as I was reading that I followed almost exactly the same route across the United States as the Donner Party (although in the opposite direction) when in the summer of 2009 I felt compelled to hop in my car and drive to Ohio. I crossed into the Lake Tahoe area from the California side; drove across Nevada (much of the way along the course of the Humboldt River); crossed the Ruby Mountains in Utah and south of the Great Salt Lake*; I followed the Platte River, by Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff in Nebraska (prominent landmarks for wagon trains); and passed through Independence, Missouri, the jumping off point for most of the wagons that headed west. It was a very long trip even in an automobile. That I traveled old roads is not that surprising, I suppose; in France, the highways are often built on top of Roman roads; the US highway system often follows the routes of the westward-moving pioneers and the overland express services that flourished before the telegraph. Still, it all seemed a bit eerie.

In a recent post about the skiing, I uploaded a photograph of Donner Lake taken from Donner Pass, the point at which most of the survivors eventually made it out of their little hell. While writing about my trip in the summer of 2009, I posted a few comments about the Scott's Bluff area, although at that time ignorant of the connection with the Donners.

*Come to think of it, I passed north of the Salt Lake on the way east. I did the section south of the Salt Lake on my return trip, going the same direction the Donner Party headed.

Wines I'm Drinking: 2004 Newell Vineyards "For 2" San Antonio Valley Cabernets/Petite Sirah

Tonight I tasted the 2004 Newell Vineyards "For 2" San Antonio Valley Proprietary Red. The wine is from a producer and wine growing area I know little about, but I see from Internet research that the San Antonio Valley is at the southernmost end of Monterey County at a fairly high elevation in the Santa Lucia range, not far from the ocean, which provides the warm days and cool nights wine grapes respond to so well. Wine growing in the area goes back to the Spanish period and Mission San Antonio. The wine is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, and 15% Petite Syrah. Brief tasting notes follow.

Medium-deep purple-red. Oak, vanilla, tobacco, and leather predominant on the nose. Good tannin, concentrated. Still seems quite young, especially at first. Only moderately fruity and fairly soft (in the sense of not being at all sharp or acidic). Decent length. Fruit seems masked at first. Some chocolate flavors on the finish. Later, the tannins softened markedly and some nice cherry flavors developed. Not especially profound, and the wine still seems young, with veiled fruit, but a decent bottle that seems likely to continue to improve for a few years. Might be worth laying down a bottle or two if you can find it at the Grocery Outlet price (see below). If you drink this now, I recommend decanting it and allowing it some time exposed to air before pouring. Reasonably priced at $7.99 a bottle at Grocery Outlet in Santa Rosa. The wine sells for $18.50 a bottle at the winery.

I write about many subjects. Use the labels at right above to explore this blog. For more wine reviews, use the Wines I'm Drinking label. 

Found Art: Lichen in the Sierra Nevada (January 18, 2011)

While skiing at Sugar Bowl and Tahoe Donner over the long weekend, I encountered wonderful lichens on the rocks and trees at over 8,000 feet. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Places I'm Visiting: Skiing at Lake Tahoe (January 18, 2011)

Got back from skiing last night at Lake Tahoe. It was unseasonably warm, the snow slushy, the sun merciless. It was fun nevertheless. I got in two good days of skiing. Went to Sugar Bowl for the first time. I rather liked it. I'd like to ski there again. There's a lot of the upper intermediate/expert terrain I like and it's less expensive than places like Squaw Valley.

The resort is a stone's throw from Donner Lake and the Donner Pass. On the way home, we stopped at the monument marking one of the Donner Party camps. Above the monument and the lake, at the summit of the pass, is an excellent view of the area that trapped the group. After rescue, the survivors climbed up the rocks that were at my feet when I took the photo below. A fabulous sunset followed this. At a local bookstore, I picked up a copy of Desperate Passage (Ethan Rarick, Oxford University Press, 2008), which looks like a good account of the tragedy. On the wall of my mother's house there hangs a small drawing of a bird in a red frame by Tamsin Donner--a direct descendant of the original Tamzene Donner, wife of George Donner, one of the leaders of the ill-fated group.

[Update: After writing this post, I read and reviewed Ethan Rarick's excellent book about the Donner Party and its ordeal, Desperate Passage.]

Miscellaneous: Rain (Jan. 13, 2011)

It drizzled most of the day today, but there were some periods of heavy rainfall as well. In total, we got 0.45 inches. That brings the 2010-2011 rainy season total to 17.95 inches at our location. The historical average for January 13 in Santa Rosa is 14.88 inches. We remain well above average. More rain appears to be on the way.

Found Art: Shadows at the De Young (January 11, 2011)

Another photo from the backlog in my iPhone. These were overlapping shadows around a pedestal at the de Young Museum, in San Francisco, created by multiple spotlights illuminating a sculpture. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Wines I'm Drinking: Six Inexpensive Wines from Spain (Jan. 2011)

Trader Joe's has quite a few inexpensive Spanish wines at the moment. I wanted to know if any of them are good values, so I picked six to taste blind. There were two stand-outs--one costing a mere $3.99, the other only $4.99. These are not great wines by any means, but they're solid everyday wines at very attractive prices. The wines I tasted were all made from Tempranillo or Garnacha (the local name for Grenache), or from a blend of the two grapes. With one exception--a Rioja wine--they were from Calatayud, Carineña, or Yecla, all south and east of Rioja (Yecla considerably to the south). The wines were very young, all from 2009, with one exception (2008). The most expensive was only $5.99. Brief tasting notes follow.

• 2008 Condesa de Sarabella Calatayud Garnacha
• 2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo/Garnacha
• 2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo
• 2009 Marques de Montaña Calatayud Garnacha
• 2009 Bodegas Darien "Darien" Rioja Tempranillo
• 2009 Terrenal Yecla Tempranillo

2008 Condesa de Sarabella Calatayud Garnacha
According to the labels, this wine and the following three were all made by the same producer, despite the different brand names. They are quite different wines, however. The Condesa de Sarabella was a medium red with a hint of garnet in it, the palest of the six wines. It had an attractive nose, suggestive of cranberries and vanilla and under-ripe plums. Later it began to suggest something smoky along with coffee, and roasted grain. Later still, the nose began to shift in the direction of leather. On the palate, the wine was rather tart, but not unappealing, although there wasn't a lot of fruit apparent at first. Despite some grainy tannins on the mid-palate, the wine overall seemed light, short, and tart. With a little time, it gained more balance. While it remained rather too sour for my taste, it at least gained some redeeming fruitiness and a little more structure after sitting for about an hour. Acceptable everyday wine and not the worst of the lot (initially this seemed fairly interesting, but over time some of the other wines opened enough to eclipse my initial impressions of this one; see below), but I probably wouldn't buy this again. Reasonably priced at $4.99 at Trader Joe's Santa Rosa.

2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo/Garnacha
This was my favorite wine of the group initially, by a small margin (at first, all the wines seemed rather disappointingly thin and sour), but this really improved as it got some air. By the end of the tasting (and tasting the wines again the following day), it had blossomed, acquiring tasty black cherry flavors and a depth not at first apparent. The wine was a comparatively deep blackish purple-red. It had some floral scents and hints of vanilla at first, but was less fruity on the nose than the wine above, and, although  there were some nice coffee, chocolate, and plum notes soon afterward, the wine seemed quite closed at first. Tasting the wine, it had a bright, fruity attack, and there were some attractive coffee flavors on a moderately long, slightly astringent finish. The La Granja Tempranillo/Garnacha had noticeably more body than the above wine. Again, this wine changed most dramatically with air and time in the glass. In the end, I thought it the best of the group. Light and a trifle tart, but not without some complexity. Recommended for everyday drinking. If you buy it, consider keeping a few bottles back for a couple of years. If you drink it now, decant it and let it sit at least an hour or so before you try it. Look for the bi-colored (red and black) zebra on the label. (Don't ask me.)  $4.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo
Much the same as the above wine in terms of color, but rather more distant on the nose than either of the first two wines. A hint of cucumbers, perhaps? Tannic, masked fruit on the palate. Seems short, thin, and tart. Not very interesting. Slightly astringent finish. With time, the wine gained a little fruity sweetness, but ultimately seemed unacceptably light. Not recommended. This wine has a pig on the label. (Don't ask me.) $3.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 Marques de Montaña Calatayud Garnacha
A medium to deep purple-red, this wine was fairly nondescript on the nose, but what I did detect was different from any of the other wines. The initial impression was cola, but there were also light vanilla and wood scents and something vaguely suggestive of citrus. The wine was light and quite tart on the palate, with no real grip. It was rather short and had a slightly bitter finish. Although it gained a bit of presence with some time and air exposure, it remained quite tart and seemingly insubstantial even after standing open for several hours. Not recommended. $4.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 Bodegas Darien "Darien" Rioja Tempranillo
A medium to deep purple-red, with light berry scents on the nose. Again, quite closed at first, although there were some suggestions of wood and vanilla. Despite the rather distant nose, the wine had markedly more fruitiness on the nose than either of the above two wines, with hints of cola and chocolate as well. Moderate length with light, fine-grained tannins. With a little time and air exposure, this wine began to show some earthiness. Something about it put me in mind of roots and fresh soil. Later there were hints of chocolate. Overall, not a bad wine. Quite acceptable for everyday drinking. Although this is the most expensive of the six wines, at $5.99, it's not overpriced. Like some of the other wines in this group, I suspect this would repay a bit of cellaring, but I preferred both the La Granja 360 Tempranillo/Garnacha and the following wine.

2009 Terrenal Yecla Tempranillo
A medium-dark red with considerably less purple in it than most of the other wines. Light, floral scents. There was something perfumed about the nose. There were hints of paper, wood, and white pepper. Overall, the nose was fairly closed, but it opened up appreciably with time. Initially, the wine had some rather woody flavors, suggesting something medicinal—which is not to say unattractive. Moderate to good length and with more fruity sweetness and less acidity than most of the other wines in this group. In other words, this had rather more balance. Over time, the balance seemed to improve further, with the tannins becoming more forward, giving the wine noticeably more grip than it had at first. I enjoyed this one from the outset, and it continued to improve. Ultimately, it was my second-favorite wine of the evening. It has a rather more European flavor profile than many American wine consumers are likely to find attractive, I suspect—the tannins are more prominent, the fruit more subtle and less ripe than a typical California wine, for example—but this had a poise lacking in most of the others. Recommended for everyday drinking. Again, however, I highly recommend decanting this wine or cellaring it for a bit or it's likely to seem rather hard and ungenerous. Give it time. All of the six wines were markedly better after air exposure, lending support to the notion that inexpensive wines often benefit most from decanting. A very good value at only $3.99 at Trader Joe's.

Found Art: Playground Art (January 9, 2011)

Going through the photos on my iPhone this morning (three years of photos), I found a number that I never got around to posting. This is more found art from the playground of my son's school last year. Beautiful.

If you like this sort of thing, I've recently created a new blog that brings together all my Found Art postings of the past three years in a single location. I call it Serendipitous Art. I will continue to post Found Art entries on this blog as well.

Birds I'm watching: Lake Ralphine, Spring Lake (Jan. 8, 2011)

Having recently decided it prudent to get more exercise, I'm now attempting to take a walk of at least half an hour a day every day. This morning I went birding around Lake Ralphine and then walked the perimeter of Spring Lake. You see, I thought I'd kill two....never mind.

Lake Ralphine had its usual winter mergansers (I counted 36) and about half as many ring-billed gulls (pictured above). There was nothing uncommon, although I did see an orange-crowned warbler, which is unusual at this time of year. Other birds I saw were: Bufflehead, Ruddy duck, Double-crested cormorant, Great egret, Snowy egret, Black-crowned night heron, Coots, Belted kingfisher, a female scaup, and Crows.

At Spring Lake, I saw 37 species--not especially good for Spring Lake, but not bad. Most interesting was another Orange-crowned warbler. I also saw a nice Lincoln's sparrow--first one I've seen in quite a while--and the Osprey. Otherwise, I noted: Canada goose, Mallard, Bufflehead, Common merganser, Ruddy duck, California quail, Pied-billed grebe, Double-crested cormorant, Great egret, Snowy egret, Turkey vulture, Osprey, Sora, Common moorhen, Coots, Ring-billed gull, Mourning dove, Anna's hummingbird, Acorn woodpecker, Nuttall's woodpecker, Northern flicker, Black phoebe, Scrub jay, Crow, Western bluebird, Raven, Oak titmouse, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Robins, Yellow-rumped warblers, Spotted towhee, California towhee, Golden-crowned sparrow, Dark-eye junco, and House finch.

For more information about Spring Lake Park, Lake Ralphine, and bird watching in Sonoma County generally, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Found Art: Metal Patterns, Richmond (January 5, 2010)

While in Richmond during the year-end holidays I found in a parking lot one of those thick iron plates used to cover holes in the ground during road construction. It was scratched, weathered, and worn. It was rusted in places. The whole had an interesting effect. Found art.

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: White Japanese Flowering Plum (2011)

Two or three blooms opened today on the white Japanese flowering plum behind the house. This is Prunus mume, a wonderfully fragrant plant when in bloom. It's usually among the first plants to flower in the new year, but this is earlier than usual. The plant first bloomed on January 21 in 2009. In 2010, the plum first bloomed on January 19, for a year of 363 days. A year according to Prunus mume was was considerably shorter this time around, at 350 days.

[Update: The pink-flowered version of this plum bloomed January 19, 2011. I don't have a record for the first blossoms of the tree in earlier years.]

Miscellaneous: First Rain of the New Year

Belatedly I report the rain we had on December 31 and on the first Day of the New Year. Rain on those days added 0.65 inches to our total for the 2010-2011 rainy season, which now stands at 17.5 inches. Some areas of Santa Rosa have had a couple of more inches than we have. The historical average for January 4 is 13.26 inches in Santa Rosa, so we remain well ahead of normal.

Found Art: Frost Patterns (January 4, 2011)

Fascinating patterns today on the tops of cars. Early morning found art. Found art of a few hours' duration.

Found Art: Street Arrows, Berkeley (January 2, 2011)

More found art from Berkeley at the end of last year. This arrow painted over another arrow on a black asphalt street caught my eye.

Birds I'm Watching: Sonoma Valley Christmas Bird Count (2010)

I participated in the 2010 Sonoma Valley Christmas Bird Count today. This was the 111th year of Christmas bird counts in the United States. I helped count in seven different locales in the Sonoma Valley, most in the hills above Hwy. 12 in the Glen Ellen area, many of them ordinarily closed to the public (private preserves and ranches) but including three places open to the public--Quarryhill Botanical Garden, the grounds of Imagery Estate winery, and Cavedale Rd. In total, we saw over a thousand birds of 55 species: Canada goose, Bufflehead, Hooded merganser, Common merganser, Pied-billed grebe, Double-crested cormorant, Great blue heron, Great egret, Turkey vulture, White-tailed kite, Cooper's hawk, Red-shouldered hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Kestrel, Merlin, Killdeer (pictured), Wilson's snipe, Mourning dove, Anna's hummingbird, Belted kingfisher, Acorn woodpecker, Red-breasted sapsucker, Hairy woodpecker, Northern flicker, Black phoebe, Steller's jay, Scrub jay, Crow, Raven, Chestnut-backed chickadee, Oak titmouse, Bushtit, White-breasted nuthatch, Bewick's wren, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Western bluebird, Hermit thrush, Robin, Wrentit, Mockingbird, Starling, Cedar waxwing, Yellow-rumped warbler, Townsend's warbler, Spotted towhee, California towhee, Song sparrow, White-crowned sparrow, Golden-crowned sparrow, Dark-eyed junco, Red-winged blackbird, Purple finch, House finch, Lesser goldfinch, and American goldfinch. A very cold but entertaining day.

For more information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Birding Spots

Wines I'm Drinking: 2007 Wellington Vineyards Sonoma Valley Petit Verdot

I opened a bottle of the 2007 Wellington Vineyards Petit Verdot a few nights ago, not expecting too much from it. That is not intended as a reflection on the producer. On the contrary, Wellington is one of my favorite Sonoma County wineries. I say it simply because Petit Verdot  has always seemed to me a grape best used in blends. Most single-variety bottlings I've tasted have been fairly uninteresting. The grape was traditionally planted in Bordeaux for qualities similar to Cabernet Sauvignon, but it appears to have fallen out of favor there because it tends to ripen very late--even later than Cabernet. According to Jancis Robinson, Petit Verdot is at its best only when it's able to fully ripen, and that frequently doesn't happen in Bordeaux. It would seem then to have greater promise in California, and it has increasingly been planted here in the past 20 years or so. If this wine from Wellington is any indication, it deserves more attention than I've been willing to give it in the past.

The wine was an inky, deep, purple-red. Besides red fruit, it had interesting hints of citrus and cinnamon on the nose and even something a little suggestive of curry, along with floral undertones. The nose was complex and it continued to evolve as my evening with the wine progressed. Later, the wine suggested gingerbread. There was something spicy about the flavors as well. The wine was nicely balanced between a solid core of subtle fruit; bright, fine-grained tannins; and good acidity. The tannins suggest this wine will benefit from another two or three years in bottle--although it's certainly drinking well now. With a little air and time in the glass, the wine softened to reveal some chocolatey flavors and it developed a silky, almost creamy mouthfeel. Delicious wine. Highly recommended. Purchased directly from the winery.

I tasted an excellent 2006 Merlot from Wellington Vineyards as well not long ago. Otherwise, I recommend this winery for its white wines made from Rhône grapes such as Rousanne and Marsanne, for its single-vineyard Cabernet wines, and for its Victory bottling--a Bordeaux-style blend made only in superior years. Wellington has also made some truly excellent Grenache. The tasting room is one of the friendliest in the Sonoma Valley, and the wines are very reasonably priced--which is a welcome change from the usual pattern in California--expensive wines that don't deliver. I also like the fact that Wellington Vineyards is a completely solar-powered winery.

[Update: I was in the winery today (April 20, 2010). Jannis behind the counter reminded me that this was a very small single-variety bottling of extra grapes leftover from a batch that went into the Victory--which is to say, there is no more of this wine....]

Wines I'm Drinking: 2009 Girard Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc

I recently tasted the 2009 Girard Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.  The wine was an attractive pale gold. The nose was fairly closed, but offered hints of toasted grain, and limes. There was little of the typical Sauvignon Blanc gooseberry scent at first, although, with a little time in the glass, the wine began to suggest its origins a little more distinctly. Crisp but with a rush of fruity sweetness on the mid-palate. Good length. Decent acid. The wine seemed fresh and clean, but I wouldn't have objected to a bit more raciness. Not exciting, but decent everyday wine. Not too outrageously priced at $11.89 at Costco.

Found Art: Berkeley Sidewalk (December 29, 2010)

More found art found in Berkeley on a recent visit. Look down. There is art under your feet almost everywhere you go--but especially on city streets.

Found Art: Mannequins, Berkeley (December 28, 2010)

On a recent trip to Berkeley, I snapped a few photos of interesting things I saw. I liked these mannequins in a shop window. I liked the light on them. They seemed like sculptures, or like figures painted by De Chirico.

A few minutes after photographing them and moving on, I walked back down the street, passing the window again. The figures had been dressed and the lights had been moved. Found art of a few minutes' duration.

Miscellaneous: Rain (Christmas Week, 2010)

It's rained off and on the entire past week or so. Today we got something of a respite, but more rain is predicted for tomorrow. We've had another 1.45 inches since last reporting (on the 21st). That brings our total for the 2010-2011 rainy season to 16.85 inches. The historical average accumulated rainfall for this date in Santa Rosa is 11.52 inches, so we remain well ahead of normal.

Found Art: Drying Peppers (December 27, 2010)

Drying bell peppers in the sun for a while seems to intensify their flavors. They're also very pretty to look at when cut up and arrayed in the sun--even if it's feeble late-afternoon sun, in the winter, between showers.... Found art. Beautiful.

Wines I'm Making: 2010 Sangiovee Rosé bottled

On the morning of Christmas Eve, I bottled the 2010 Sangiovese rosé, a simpler process than it often is because I had already racked the wine a couple of weeks earlier and there was no sediment to deal with. We got thirty bottles of rather pale wine--disappointing compared with the lovely 2009 I made. The weather in the past year was some of the worst in memory. A very wet spring, a cold summer, and late rains were all a problem. Some vineyards made no wine at all. We survived the sudden hot spell in late August (I think it was) that ruined many vines (growers pulled leaves earlier in the year to try to prevent mold and encourage ripening, but that left the grapes exposed to the blistering heat and sun, causing many to shrivel). In the end, our Sangiovese grapes never really ripened, and the wine is an expression of the year we had. Quite drinkable, but thin and not very satisfying. One can only hope for better weather next year....

Miscellaneous: Lemons and Christmas

I spent the morning bottling wine again (more on that subject soon). Working out in the driveway, I was admiring the bumper crop of lemons and other citrus fruit we have on the trees this year.

It reminded me of Christmas holidays I've spent in Europe (this being Christmas Eve, it seemed natural to think of such things)--specifically Christmas in Italy. In Italy (at least in Tuscany) it's the custom to decorate with branches of lemons and oranges, which is very pretty (although to someone living in Tokyo at the time--the land of the $3 lemon--it seemed terribly extravagant). Italy is a nice place to spend Christmas, although Paris isn't bad either. I spent most of the summer in France this past year (2010). Wish I were there now--although I hear the weather is wretched at the moment....

Wines I'm drinking: 2005 Bodegas Gran Ducay "Monte Ducay" Cariñena Reserva

I recently tasted the 2005 Bodegas Gran Ducay "Monte Ducay" Cariñena Reserva from Trader Joe's. Although not indicated on the label, I suspect this is made mostly from Tempranillo, probably with some Grenache thrown in. It comes from Cariñena, one of the four Denominación de Origen wine growing regions in Aragon, in northeast Spain. Cariñena was originally known for its native grape of the same name, although we more commonly see the French spelling, Carignan (or Carignane in the US; confusingly, the locals often call it Mazuelo), but today Tempranillo, Grenache, and other grapes appear to be grown more widely here. Traditionally Cariñena made rough, highly alcoholic red wines mostly for blending, but a switch to better grape varieties, lower alcohol levels, and modern equipment has resulted in lighter, fruitier wines more suited to modern palates. This wine is a good example of the modern style. It comes unusually packaged, the entire bottle wrapped in paper. Tasting notes follow.

The wine was a medium blackish-red color, not really showing much age but without any of the purple hues of a young wine either. Bright, cassis-scented nose with hints of vanilla suggestive of aging in American oak. Generally, a fresh, attractive nose, if not highly distinctive in any way. Later there was a hint of cloves. Light but balanced on the palate. Good acidity with a rush of fruity sweetness on the mid-palate, balanced by fine-grained tannins. Overall the impression the wine gave was a trifle rough, but appealing. Light, fruity, tasty, and with a buttery quality on a moderately long finish. Good everyday wine and an excellent value at $5.99 at Trader Joe's.