TNs: "The Stonekings Take Over Rosso" and other HVS offline stories

We met last night for our 2nd annual pre-HVS old vine offline at Pizzeria Rosso in Santa Rosa. It was a small crowd this year that turned even smaller when Larry and Lori were a last minute scratch due to the flu. Get well for today you two! Mike and Dana, Mike Dildine and myself likley scarred newcomer David Mortara for life. Actually I think he had as much fun as we did. 5 people, 12 bottles of wine with 2 duds. A White blend, a Pinot, 7 Zins and 3 Petite Sirahs.

Of course we had lots of Rosso Pizza. I think Dana has pics of all the food.

Mother Nature hit us with triple digit temps which made the lineup a little tougher to fully enjoy but we did our best. We started with an '11 Bedrock Casa Santinamaria that was really beautiful. Sad that this was a one off wine as this was my last of 6 bottles. If anyone has any they would like to sell please PM me.

Mike D brought a 2010 Rochioli West Block Pinot (vines planted in 1968) that was singing. Still showing some young fruit but maturing very nicely.

As for Zinfandel there were 1995 St Francis Pagani Reserve that was DOA,

1997 Hartford Court High Wire that was still plugging along with tart red fruit and soft tannins though the nose was starting to show some oxidation,

2003-2004-2005 Martinelli Jackass Zinfandel vertical of which the '04 was tops. These all had a lot of alcohol on the nose but surprisingly not so on the palate,

2004 Turley Hayne Zinfandel was pretty tasty, Dana sure liked it, the nose on it was just beginning to turn with age but the rich black fruit kept that in check,

2008 Joseph Swan Stellwagen Zinfandel needed a good swirling and/or 30 minutes to really start expressing itself. Typical strawberry notes and abundant fine grained tannins, still drinking fairy young. No rush on these.

1980 Sotoyome Russian River Valley Petite Sirah was well past its prime and was shelved with the Pagani.

2001 Field Stone Staten Family Petite Sirah is in its prime drinking window nicely integrated and seamless.

2003 Jaffurs Thompson Vyd Petite Sirah my well have been my WOTN next to the Rochioli. Probably the fruitiest of the lineup but perfectly balanced and very enjoyable.

Of course Mike Stoneking is not comfortable unless he is spreading the word on Old Vines and the HVS. He crashed the table next to us and the party shifted. Actually we noticed they were pouring a Joseph Swan Viognier so we figured they couldn’t be all that bad and we started passing bottles over to their table to sample. Ended up with everyone stuffed in their booth until the bottles were all empty.

As usual a fun time. Happy to welcome another victim to the mold in David. Missed not having Larry and Lori and many other past participants but we managed. there’s always next year. Or maybe I need to host another Old Vine Offline at Mi Casa.

Awesome notes Brian- looks like a ton of fun! One of these years I’ll make it there (darn young kids…always getting in the way of my wine drinking

On A side note, I REALLY hope that 80 Sotoyome was just a bad bottle and not representative of where the wine is at across the board (I know…no great wines and all that). Birth-year wine for me and i recently snagged a few off Winebid (guessing this one was too??)

A 12.5% petite sirah?? Definitely old school. Too bad you couldn’t report on it. I never heard of the winery before (a little before started getting into wines). What was wrong with it?

I would imagine storage issues which didn’t surprise me. Not cooked like the St Feancis just spoiled (yeah Rich, it was a WineBid purchase) but for thre $15 I spent on it I wasn’t too disappointed.

Birth year? Oh man, by 1980 I’d already been arrested a couple times.

Ha ha ha! It was a few years later…but I eventually got there too

Some high-octane offerings there! Pretty cool to read that they seemed to present as well-balanced, nonetheless. Looks like a very fun time.

Looks like a great event! Maybe next year.Always have a good time when Mike & Dana are around!

Cheers!
Marshall