Wine 2.0 Spring Fling at Crushpad  - April 24, 2008


What a wild and crazy time we had at Crushpad (SF) for the Wine 2.0 Spring Fling Event!
People came out in hoards to try wines and talk with the winemakers and reps. from the various  wineries.  I'm guessing over 40 wineries were pouring, and people were really enjoying themselves.

This smaller venue was optimal for me.  I had wonderful conversations and feedback from the people that really drive our little business - the Consumer!

I told George the next day that if there were events like this once or twice a month, I would attend every time because it was the best one-on-one contact and exposure with the consumer I could hope for.  I was losing my voice towards the end of the night from presenting Vare and our story to so many beautiful, shiny faces like these!

 

There were plenty of consumer-direct service professionals on the floor as well, like Agent Red from WineSpies, Marshall Sontag from WineQ, the wine-blogger extraordinaire, Tim Elliott* from
Winecast, Phillip James from Snooth, and there must have been more than 5 reps. from our web partner, Inertia Beverage Group (IBG) at the event. 

* I quick shout out of THANKS to Tim Elliott for his very kind and thorough tasting notes of our newly released Bianco Riserva. I gave him a bottle at the event and within days he wrote it up on his website.  Check out:  www.winecast.net and scroll down to Tim's posting for April 28th.

This was a F-U-N event as a winery participant and (from what everyone told me) to attend as well.  Like I said, I'd show up again and again for the opportunity to meet so many wine enthusiasts and tradespeople in one evening.  It was what I'd call a "productive party" at Crushpad. 

Kudos to the Crushpad and the RadCru hosts - thanks, guys!!

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10 days in Italy

Nov-Dec., 2007

Trip description: Six days traveling throughout Northern Italy and Slovenia meeting winemakers George and Elsa Vare have befriended for years.  Four days in Venice sharing Vare with restaurateurs and feasting on their specialty dishes.  Nov. 25^th – Dec. 4^th, 2007.

Destinations:  Region: Italy > Collio del Friuli, Isonzo del Friuli and Venice.  Region: Slovenia, Brda. > Podraga, Goriska, and capital city, Ljubljana.
Wineries visited:  Italian vintners:  , Radikon, Miani, Vie di Romans.
Slovenian vintners: Sutor and Simcic

What an amazing and inspiring trip to Italy – especially for a first-timer like me. My parents have been making their annual pilgrimage to Italy for over 10 years.  It’s an information gathering journey as we bring our wines for them to taste and receive the honest feedback of vintners who have been producing Ribolla Gialla, Pinot Grigio, and blends like our Bianco for generations.

Most of the vintners we met with are small, hand-harvested, family-owned, and earth-friendly wineries just like Vare Vineyards.  Although, most are Father-Son vs. Father-Daughter ventures as we are.  An exception is Serena Palazzolo of Ronco de Gnemiz who is widely considered one of Italy’s most innovative women winemakers.   We visited Serena at her home and winery, and met her 10 year old son, Jacopo, who designed a couple of her labels including the one named after him, “Bianco di Jacopo.”  How cool is that?  

On the second day of our trip, we visited with the largest winery we were to meet the entire trip, Vie di Romans, who are predicting an approximate 25,000 case production this year.  Alberto Pelos, Assistant Winemaker, gave us a tour of their facility and shared some of their processes and theories, such as soaking the grapes, then crushing and cooling down the pipes – 60F – before the juice goes into the press. Why? Because cooler temps. increase the aromas! 

When it came time to taste our wines with Gianfranco Gallo, Owner and General Manager, he referred to Ribolla Gialla as a “feminine wine” and commented that Vare’s Ribolla Gialla has a good combination of fruit and minerality, adding that “it’s an expression that is your own compared to Italian Ribolla Gialla because the organic minerality in your wine isn’t possible to create here.”

We met with Sasa Radikon, son of Stanko Radikon, since Stanko was out of town during our visit.  Sasa took us out in the vineyard where their vines are planted more densely than ours.  They had a bit of a rough harvest since it was dry the first part of the year and lots of rain and hail the second half. 

Radikon produces natural wines and doesn’t believe in SO2 with white wines as “it’s not good for health, and additives are not good for wine.”  Sasa continued, “Maceration is important without SO2 as it protects the wine tannins, and tannins provide a natural antioxidant.” 

They leave their whites on the skins for 3-4 months and rack after 3 years of barrel fermentation.  Wow – this is a way different process and taste than anything I’ve experienced (except maybe our Bianco – “Sulle Bucce” which is fashioned after this style of winemaking).  And guess what?  They are currently selling their 2003 Ribolla Gialla since they leave the wine in the bottle for one year before release.  Production: approximately 2,500 cases.

The next day, I was excited to head across the border to Slovenia to meet with Primoz Lavrenèiè and newlywed wife, Mateja, of SUTOR.  We stopped in the town of Vipava for a bite to eat and I felt like I was in an old Yugoslavian movie with narrow, cobblestone streets, a small river flowing through the town, and old men half asleep outside the local pub catching a bit of early afternoon sunshine.  

Primoz met us at the highway exit and it’s a good thing because finding SUTOR is not easy!
Primoz is a young, energetic guy who pours his heart into his five wines.  They are all magnificent and I was looking forward to hearing his feedback on ours.  He is quite knowledgeable about Ribolla Gialla (a.k.a. “Rebula” in Slovenia) and explained that its characteristic is “very delicate – don’t panic.  She needs time to develop…let her open in her own time.”  These are soothing words to a novice of this new varietal. 

Mateja and Primoz invited us out to dinner that evening which turned out to be quite an adventure and one of the most memorable experiences of our trip.  George, Elsa, Mateja, Primoz and I jumped into Primoz’ sedan and took a journey up, up, up and over the mountain to the capital city, Ljubljana, to dine with his friend, Gasper Carmen’s, family’s restaurant, Pri Danilu.   Gasper is a Sommelier and has created his own int’l wine distribution business, eVino.si.  Primoz and Gasper are stand-out, Slovenian wine professionals and super fun to hang out with. 

We had a blast trying sparking Ribollas from Movia and Bjana.  The ’01 Bjana Cuvee Prestige Brut was my favorite.  George has decided to experiment with sparkling Ribolla, so we have a half barrel from our ’07 harvest that we’ll make sparkling from – fun!

 

I’ll try not to gush over my experience meeting with Enzo Pontoni of Miani..  This man works 365 days of the year and is so passionate about what he does that it oozes out of him.  You can’t help but fall in love with this guy and his intense work ethic.  Enzo is so unpretentious and unassuming, even after being named one of the top winemakers in Italy.  And his wines!  His production is similar to ours – a mere 700 cases – so imagine the demand! 

It was an honor that he took the time at the end of his day to meet with us and taste our wines.  He enjoyed all of our wines and gave us some very insightful tips as to how we can improve our process in reaching our goal of freshness, complexity and concentration in the wines we produce.  See what I mean?  He’s happy to share his knowledge freely and wish you well. 

Our last stop was with Aleks Simcic.  Aleks has been instrumental in helping Vare with the first and only planting of Ribolla Gialla in the U.S.  He has made himself available to answer questions about vineyard practices and production techniques.  For this we are very grateful to have him in our corner as a trusted advisor. It was a special treat to finally meet him and his family. 

Similar to Radikon, Simcic bottles in August and leaves the wine in bottle for 3-4 years. His 2002 vintage is best right now.  We brought him barrel samples of our ’07 Ribolla Gialla and were pleased to hear his approval of how they are integrating, as well as what to look out for and we may want to consider moving to stainless for the final months after fermentation.

I learned volumes from these “wizards” (as George calls them), and hope to exemplify their wisdom and passion with our coming vintages.  The collaborative efforts and willingness to share their knowledge with us is not only a testimony to my parent’s ability to foster wonderful friendships from a great distance, but also to the character of each of our winemaking “heroes” in Italy and Slovenia.

Gianfranco of Vie di Romans said, “Asserting your own personality and style in wines is the way to go vs. going with common trend in the industry.”  We’re doing just that, and happy to be sharing our journey with you.

 

We spent the last four days of our trip in Venice.  George was in heaven!