Big Sur Food and Wine Festival Nov. 2-5 2017: The Best Of

WINE TALK
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Ventana, site of Opening Night.
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Edwin and Rick reappear for the final night at Deetjens.
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Awwright, Merrill…no need to mock me for my TN style. [snort.gif]

I just thought it unusual in that most such reports on such events are simply a collection
of TN’s. George’s format was like a breath of fresh air and quite creative.

Tom

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Is that Chappellet Ranch Rico property the NapaVlly Chappellets, George?
Tom

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Yes. They split time between two very different worlds. At the lunch we had all Chappellet wines including very good Sonoma-Loeb wines with real terroir and a very underpriced Cab Franc. I tried about ten Chappellet wines over the weekend. Although I don’t know her personally, Carissa Chappellet, wearing glasses in the pumpkin lunch picture, is one of my all time favorite people.

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My chiropractor wants to know where to send his bill after all the neck craning I’m doing in this thread.

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And your proctologist knows where you should put that thought.

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Golf clap!

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George,
Thank you for the notes on BSF&W. It’s a great event in a great place. One of the best parts about it is the intimacy with producers and landscape it affords, and that it acts as a showpiece for everything that makes Monterey County wonderful, not the least of which is people like Carissa, Aengus, Matt and Matt (event organizers), the Big Sur community and the somm community at large who volunteer their time.
I’m glad you’re looking forward to the Birichino tasting room opening, John and Alex have done a great job building and expanding their label. The Besson Grenache is a flagship vineyard (the only other wineries to get it are us and Angela at Tribute to Grace), but they have many interesting old vine sites done in their particular style. The Chenin is on the leaner end of Chenin and in my opinion needs a few years to come around under screw cap, but is clean, balanced and beautiful. Make sure to try out the Lilo Pinot, and look for upcoming bottlings off of the Boer Vineyard in Chalone and the Enz Vineyard in the Lime Kiln Valley.
Gavin Chanin’s wines under Lutum and Chanin are great, among the best done in Cali right now. He pursues less press than some of the more active winemakers, but he deserves everything he gets and more.
Best,
Ian

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We met the very welcoming Gavin Chanin at the Lutum winery in Lompoc about a month ago. IIRC he told us he had spent ten years with Jim Clendenen and Bob Lindquist at the Bien Nacido winery of Au Bon Climat and Qupe. No doubt he learned a lot from those two masters, and I think that puts him a little older than fifteen. [basic-smile.gif]

He also runs his own Chanin Wines brand out of the same winery. We purchased 2015 Lutum and Chanin Pinots but he also had some 2013 Chanin Zotovich in stock, so we bought a couple of those too. Drank one last weekend and yes, these are very special wines.

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Me fake interviewing a patient Josh Jensen about his great wines and great life story. Wine bottle as microphone prop. Yes this was late in the evening.
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neener Or rim shot

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Better than a slam dunk!!!

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Ian,

Can you please provide me with a little bit of detail on the Boer Vineyard? I don’t believe I know anything about it. Thanks!

Drew

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Josh has that “late evening with George” look on his face.

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If you’re posting the photos from an iPhone, try this trick - edit the photo in any way at all (lighter or darker, anything, no matter how little). I think once you do that, then they appear oriented correctly on WB.

Great post. Thanks for taking the time. Are Kosuge’s wines just labeled under his name?

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Yes. He was the Saintsbury winemaker years ago.

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Never been, although a local. I’ll need to rectify that. Thanks George!

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Drew,
The Boer vineyard is the small home vineyard of Richard Boer, who has managed the Chalone property for over 30 years. It is, in the opinion of Hector Bravo, who has worked under Richard for about as long, the best of the vineyards in the appellation. Ed Kurtzman, who knows his way around the bench as well as anyone, seems to concur. I believe its the only Pinot he continues to make from up there, though I could be wrong. Flywheel gets the Grenache off the property. I think the vineyard is like 5-6 acres in total, pretty varied in terms of aspect and slope. The oldest vines date back to the early 80s I think, but the Grenache is newer.
Ian

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You might want to attend just one event to start.