Q & A with TJ Evans: A Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir tastes like a Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir

Domaine Carneros is a well known sparkling wine Estate, has this shaped any part of the still Pinot Noir program?My tutelage while working with Eileen Crane at a sparkling wine property has been instrumental in the development of our still wine production. With that said, Domaine Carneros has four estate ranches and 300 acres are planted exclusively for still Pinot Noir production- and that always has been the case. The Pinot Noir program was not born out of sparkling, but rather conceived due to the potential of the vineyard site from the very beginning.

Why were you drawn to Carneros to make Pinot Noir? Carneros speaks to my mission in winemaking; it has immense potential, but needs a winemaker to help coax it out. The Carneros climate is ideal for Pinot Noir grape growing. The long, moderately cool growing season tempered by the maritime breezes and lingering fog of the San Pablo Bay provides optimum conditions for slow, even ripening in Pinot Noir. But beyond the physical reasons, Carneros has never really provoked the fanaticism that other regions have. I’m excited by that. I want people to taste the Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir and say “these wines just keep getting better and better.” I believe that the things I’ve learned- the lessons, the trials, the experiments, the crazy leaps of faith- they are all part of learning what Carneros wants to do.

What is it about Pinot Noir for you? Making Pinot Noir is hard; you have to get everything right. It takes a lot of patience and experimentation before you know you are even getting 50% right. I’ve been trying for 15 years. But what I love about it, is to do it right you have to spend the time in the vineyards, you have to get out of the truck. Pinot requires a winemaker to be devoted to working with the land, the climate, the people, it requires someone with patience, and someone that is truly excited about what can be produced. Winemakers move around, they chase hot spots, hot varietals, but I can’t imagine not making Pinot Noir.

Would you consider Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir a New World or Old World style? To be honest, I'm tired of the critic's preconceived "darling" Pinot regions and their need to categorize different styles of Pinot Noir making. I don't feel that California Pinot Noir should be justified by its likeness to Burgundy. My time spent in the northern Rhone taught me a lot about how different CA is to France, and why people can’t compare the two in the same way. While working in the Rhone my biggest challenge was how to balance the immense amount of natural acid. You find yourself adding sugar. While in California, as a winemaker you often add tartaric acid, because the grapes’ natural acidity is so low. So, to answer your question, I consider Domaine Carernos Pinot Noir to be in the Carneros style.

What elements of the Domaine Carneros Estate add to the uniqueness of your Pinot Noir? The clonal diversity on the Estate offers a palate of flavor, texture, complexity and aromatics with which to work with while blending. Take for instance a well-known and loved Pinot region like the Russian River Valley, predominantly only two different clones are used there: 667 & 777. In Carneros over 15 different clones are planted on the Domaine Carneros Estate. Also, the history of organic and sustainable farming at Domaine Carneros has resulted in exceptionally healthy vines. 100% of all Estate vineyards at Domaine Carneros have been certified organic by the CCOF. Our vineyard manager, Roberto Gonzales, has managed the vineyards at Domaine Carneros for 23 years. He knows the vineyards better than anyone in the company and is a constant resource to me.

You mentioned earlier that experimentation and crazy leaps of faith are helping you learn what Carneros is capable of. Are you willing to share any of your discoveries? I love to whole cluster press- it adds an exotic spiciness that I think Pinot Noir benefits from and needs. However, the stems in Carneros don’t get ripe enough to add all the most desirable characteristics of whole cluster pressing. So I experimented with de-stemming each cluster and I allowed the stems to sun ripen separately. Each day I soaked the stems and tasted their readiness, and then added them back in. I was once told experiments like these make up the difference between a man who is just making Pinot and man who is obsessed with the Pinot he is making.

TJ Evans in the hot chair

Welcome to Wine Lands!

People from around the world flocked to Outside Lands, one of the largest music festivals of the year, taking over Golden Gate Park. Headliners at this year’s Musicpalooza included The Strokes, My Morning Jacket, and Kings of Leon, along with dozens of other great bands. Music was not the only thing worth going for. The food and wine were on a level that only San Franciscans could appreciate. There were booths offering Anchor & Hopes BBQed oysters, Grumpy’s tater-tots with lavender honey mustard, and Namu’s Korean tacos.

You just can’t have great food without great wine. If you wanted to go with your typical concert beverage, you could easily get a Coors Light, but many music fans this year were lining up for glasses of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc to enjoy at the next show.

CCA was there with DeLoach Vineyards, one of the lucky few wineries in Wine Lands, an oasis of reputable wineries. Music lovers from near and far lined up to taste dozens of California wines all in one Wine Country-influenced pavilion. “Only in San Francisco would there be a place like this for people to taste all these different wines at an event where you would only expect beer and soda. It was a great opportunity for DeLoach to reach an audience that doesn’t normally drink wine.” – says Sonia Meyer, CCA's newest team member who helped pour at the event.

DeLoach Vineyards poured a refreshing and balanced Pinot Blanc, a succulent Zinfandel and a favorite for many, their Pinot Noir, which was so popular that the barrel was dry before the afternoon headliner.

The DeLoach Pinot Noir was so popular that the barrel was emptied in record time.

CCA clients in good company at SF Chefs

San Francisco has long been an innovator in the world of winemaking, spirits and of course cuisine. We saw a great benefit for our clients to showcase their wine and cuisine among their peers and appreciative fans for a very appreciative and qualified audience, upwards of 5,000 people this year. Our client, Wente Vineyards, had a prominent role in the opening night festivities as Karl Wente cut the ribbon with the city's top chefs, as well as, performing with his band the Front Porch and serving the Wente Family Estates portfolio of wines. Bar Bambino's arancini stole the show according to Eater SF and Tablehopper. Events allow attendees be they trade or consumer to interact in a more meaningful way with our clients, and we strongly believe in choosing the right events to best spotlight brands.

Kimberly Charles pouring wine for Wente Vineyards to an enthusiastic audience

Boisset's Taste of Terroir Opening

For his entire career Jean-Charles Boisset has always had a vision beyond the day-to-day in the wine business. Whether it's converting the DeLoach Vineyards property he bought in 2004 to a biodynamic farm and vineyard, challenging the industry to come up with lower carbon footprint packaging, or in the case of his newest endeavor, bringing a new twist to the wine country tasting room, Jean Charles has defied convention yet again. His Boisset Taste of Terroir salon on the square in Healdsburg, CA invites the visitor to explore the nuances of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with three dozen selections from his Burgundian portfolio including Domaine de la Vougeraie, Bouchard Aine & Fils, Jean-Claude Boisset and Louis Boillot as well as DeLoach Vineyards and his eponymous series, JCB. Nine different themed flights invite the curious to better understand the subtleties of terroir and the art of blending, and his unique barrel to barrel offerings of vineyard designate Pinot Noirs from DeLoach demonstrate a back to the future technology. The design of the salon is reminiscent of a left bank boutique, cozy, elegant, inviting, so make sure it's on your itinerary the next time you're headed to Healdsburg, it's not to be missed. Read more

Innovative packaging or environmental fail?

Dr. Vino reports about a new, adventurous kind of wine packing. How would you like a single-serve plastic glasses of wine? Apparently a lot people in the UK like it a lot.

I can see that there's a market for it - for all those picnics, camping trips etc. that we all hopefully get to go on during the summer. But without knowing about the quality of the wine, I think that I can safely say, that I'm not in the target group for Le Froglet. It's just too unromantic for me, and I'd much rather bring a nice wine and my fine glassware to the park, even at the risk of breaking a glass or two.

But perhaps a more important concern is the environmental impact of this kind of packaging. I don't know the numbers, but I'm guessing that the impact is huge compared to regular bottles and even more compared to bagged or boxed wine. And I'm also guessing that the cost of the Le Frog-packaging is relatively higher than more traditional solutions - you simply get less wine for your money.

So if you're looking for an innovative, practical wine packaging, look for brands such as The French Rabbit from the Boisset family. You can also read more about the French Rabbit on Fast Company. It's ecofriendly, cute - and you get to drink more than just one glass!

A Danish foodie feeling at home

When my husband, our two cats and I moved to Berkeley about 7 months ago, we didn't just escape the coldest and longest winter in Denmark in my entire lifetime. We also landed in what appeared to live up to its reputation as the land of opportunities. So quitting a great job in the Copenhagen communication business to follow my husband to Berkeley, where he had gotten his dream job as a post doc at the University of California Berkeley, has turned out to be a very wise decision - though not in the way I had imagined.

Being a wine lover for many years, I immediately started to suck up all the knowledge (and wine) within my reach. It's a time- and money-consuming hobby, so luckily my wine mentor Bruce Cass helped me get in touch with Kimberly Charles - and now I'm here. Working with my hobby, learning even more every day and enjoying the company of my sweet and talented colleagues at Charles Communications Associates. I would never have imagined this before I left Denmark - but maybe that's one of the best things about jumping into something new: You never know where you're going to land.

One of first things I learned after arriving from Copenhagen to the magnificent Bay Area was that Danes and people in the Bay Area have at least one thing in common. We don't eat to live. We live to eat. And so, I have no trouble blending in among the foodies and winos, who seem to have occupied the larger part of this area, which I for the next one and a half years will call home.

I guess many were surprised when the Copenhagen restaurant NOMA came out on top as the World's Best Restaurant at this year's. But it didn't come as a surprise to most Danes, because we have witnessed an amazing transformation of the restaurant scene in Copenhagen over the past 10 years. Today Copenhagen takes great pride in the fact that it has 12 Michelin Star awarded restaurants. I know, it doesn't sound like much compared to the Bay Area's amazing 36 Michelin restaurants. That's really unique - and I love it! But taken into consideration that the population of Copenhagen is around 1 million (the Bay Area is 8 million) I can't help feeling proud of my good old hometown.

NOMA is the crown jewel of this little kingdom of gastronomy. Their concept is pretty unique and they stick with it. They only use ingredients from Denmark or further north. (NOMA = Nordisk Mad = Nordic Food). No olive oil, no sundried tomatoes, no foie gras, no black olives. Instead they will serve you musk ox, Atlantic halibut, wild salmon, skyr (a yoghurt-like cheese) wild berries and water from Greenland, lamb from Iceland, different kinds of grains and leguminous fruits. And they use techniques that are very traditional for Denmark such as smoking, salting, drying and pickling - and they make their own vinegars and Akvavits (distilled spirits). In addition to these traditional methods, they are also influenced by so-called molecular gastronomy, which has earned El Bulli in Barcelona its worldwide fame.

But it's not the top restaurants that seduce me when I fall in love with a city. It's the many smaller (and more affordable), fun, everyday restaurants, which play just as important a part in a well-developed and diverse restaurant scene. Like San Francisco, Copenhagen also has many wonderful small gems of ethnic cuisines, funky restaurants, cocktail bars, grand cafes and bistros. Some of my favorites are located in Copenhagen's equivalent to San Francisco's Mission District. Here you find the former meatpacking district, which has been transformed into a Mecca of funky, lively, exquisite restaurants mixed with galleries of modern art, offices for creative designers and bars - and what's left of the industrial meatpacking factories, catering companies and Copenhagen's public culinary school. It's all located in the heart of Copenhagen's red-light district, which, if I may put it this way - adds a distinct flavor and edge to the area. If you ever go to Copenhagen, do yourself a favor and visit Fiskebaren (The Fishbar) or Karrierebar (Career Bar) - you won't regret it.

Meanwhile, watch this interview with the young chef and owner of NOMA, Rene Redzepi, who seems almost speechless after receiving the San Pellegrino Award, but manages to tell the story about Ali, his dishwasher who had fallen afoul of Britain's immigration laws and wasn't granted a visa for the occasion.