Darioush “Caravan” 2008 Chardonnay, Russian River

Lesson for the day: The region called Shiraz in Iran does not grow Shiraz grapes and has no connection to the variety or Australia. Thank you for your help, Wikipedia.

However, Shirazi winegrowing once did flourish – up until the Islamic/Iranian Revolution in 1979. Having grown up in the greater Shiraz area, Darioush Khaledi, proprietor of Darioush Wines, has fond memories as a child of sneaking tastes of wine from his father’s garagiste hobby that later lead him to a substantial chapter of his life.

In the early 1970′s, Khaledi packed his bags and set out from Iran to Southern California, land of promise, with a former career in construction and a love of fine swill. He set up camp with his brother-in-law and the two funneled their finances into the purchase of a crumbling grocery store, which is now one of the most lucrative independently-owned grocery businesses in the country.

After the success of the store and eyeing the sensation of wine in the retail world, Khaledi scoured northern California for the most premium vineyard to set as his estate for the winery. Today, the Darioush estate vineyard property itself now spans over 95 acres with plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz (the grape!), Merlot, Malbec, Petite Verdot, Chardonnay and Viognier.

I am a party animal – Part Deux

My social calendar has finally decompressed, mostly due to this snow thing and that holiday deal, but let me tell you – it was needed.

Now conflicted by guilt for not chronicling something sooner, I will now reflect on my wine and food induced coma that I have been residing in since two Saturdays ago.

Thursday night brought myself and two girlfriends to Seattle Magazine’s Party of the Decade at the Seattle Design Center. With the exception of our Georgetown location and the undeniable fact that we stumbled out of a van cab from behind a bush, I nearly felt like we were at a grandiose affair on the Sunset strip. Ke$ha pumping from the outdoor speakers, a purple carpet, a line at the door – this was as Hollywood as Seattle gets.

Once in the door, we were greeted with a glass of Nicolas Feuillate Champagne and a plethora of chichi dressed ladies and dapper gentlemen, cluttered in their finest bling and designer labels. The main floor had decor in the highest fashion from the restaurants and wineries on show to the stage in the center of the room with the hipster band setting up their instruments. And that was just the beginning – this building went on for literal miles with three different floors of gorgeous furniture showrooms all featuring different wineries, different restaurants, different performance stages and a nightclub at the top.

It was unreal, it felt like I had been transported to another town. However, this party was very much this city, brought to you solely by the people that make it up from Tom Douglas to the Presidents of the United States of America to Teatro Zinzanni performers.

French Wine Scholar™ Program, taught by global wine expert, Joel Butler MW (Master of Wine)

December 7, 2010
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
December 14, 2010
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
December 21, 2010
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
December 28, 2010
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
January 4, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
January 11, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
January 18, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
January 25, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
February 1, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
February 8, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
February 15, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
February 22, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm

WineKnow LLC, Seattle’s newest wine appreciation and education company, is the sole provider of the excellent and nationally praised French Scholar Program, a nine week intensive course (including exam) for those who really want to get at the heart of the most highly acclaimed wine country in the world for the last 2 centuries!

Classes include Course Manual, visual presentations, Wine tasting and Final “exam”. When you pass the exam (optional but strongly recommended), you will have the right to the wine-industry recognized post-nominal: French Wine Scholar (FWS) AND on line support. Go to Registration section on mywineknow.com website for class details/dates

WineKnow LLC is: Joel Butler MW (Master of Wine), one of the first two Americans to hold this distinguished Certification, the highest in the wine business (1990), and one of only two MW’s in Washington,and former Director of Education for Ste Michelle Wine Estates, and a global wine judge and writer. He also instructs Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) courses (Look for WSET courses offered by WineKnow starting soon!), the most widely recognized global wine education program.

Karen Graf is: currently Director of Retail operations for DeLille Winery in Woodinville, holds the Advanced Certificate from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, and has worked in the Washington wine industry for over a decade.

Urban Enoteca
4130 1st Ave. South (south of West Seattle Bridge overpass about 2 blocks)
Seattle, WA 98115
ph. 425-765-4080

ONGOING December 7 2010 – Feb. 22, 2011

I am a party animal – Part Un

Once upon a time, I used to write wine reviews… This ain’t no fairy tale! This is real life! It just hasn’t been in a while, as I’ve been socializing it up like Kim K., crushing the wines and attending the nearly eight million different events that have occurred in the past week and now this is an attempt to write something about them.

Lazy? Never. Tardy and over-exerted? Maybe. I promise to continue with normalcy next week with reviews since I know the big city of Seattle (and quite possibly the WORLD) are so perplexed as to what to drink every night. People, I apologize. Please refer to the lesser known publications – Wine Spectator and Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar. I’m sure they can help you out.

In the mean time, I’ve been able to sneak in (basically) to a few heavy hitter soirees with a few more to come.

This last Saturday brought me up to my hometown, Marysville the Great, to drop into the Taste of Tulalip, held in the luxurious and fairly spankin’ new Tulalip Resort at the Casino. Beautiful, classy and bold – and that’s not just Riedel-clutching party-goers – the resort itself is extremely chic in a place that 10 years ago relied on fast-food joints and a dated blackjack crowd to rouse the local economy.

Nearly 1200 people brimmed the walls of the Orca Ballroom and two side rooms featuring colorful wine and cooking seminars. Familiar faces popped up like Charles Smith of Charles Smith Wines, Bob Betz of Betz Family Wines, Chris Gorman of Gorman Winery and Mark McNeilly of Mark Ryan Winery which made me realized how much winemakers lack creativity in their business titles…

The new kids on the block meshed in with the best of them, with a couple handfuls of names I had never heard of. The lesser known to note: 21 Cellars, Convergence Zone Cellars and Flying Trout Wines.

The casino and its five restaurants produced food to feed the literal masses, highlighting the best of each dining hall’s focus including caramelized halibut, Ahi tuna tacos, pulled duck sliders and several flairs on local prawns topped the charts but there was one dish that stood alone amongst the rest – a smoked duck, chanterelle mushroom and olive romano lasagna roll. The originality was brilliant and ambrosial. I could have eaten seven to 25 more…

From one malnourished event to another, I ate my way through Wednesday night at Chef Lisa Dupar’s cookbook release, Fried Chicken and Champagne, at the newly remodeled Engine Room at the old Rainier Brewery (RIP). I stuffed my face like the lady I am, inhaling intricately presented bite-sized delicacies from the catering guru herself.

The title pairing was surprisingly meant to be – (lightly) fried chicken, juicy and succulent, was complemented by the citrus and easy mousse of the Champagne. Note for awesome dinner party offering and the dish itself about as chic as the crowd present at the party.

The drinks – including the ginger mango margarita that was far from shy of tequila – and the food served – not excluding everything else, but the Cuban sandwiches and the mini pecan pies were particularly noteworthy – can all be found in the chef’s new lavish cookbook now available on the book stands.

Not to mention the chef herself is tiny and adorable, giving hope to those of us who are small and have unconditional love for food.

Stay tuned for coverage of my “page 6″ attempt at Seattle Magazine’s Party of the Decade and tonight’s “hip to sip” event of 20something – the new vintage!

Jed Steele Let Me Make His Wines

International stardom is not easily attained without narcotic notoriety, an active courtship style or a small golden man that rests picturesquely on your mantle. However, winemaker extraordinaire Jed Steele has done it.

Starting at Stony Hill Winery in Napa as a cellar worker for the 1968 harvest, Jed fell hard for the juice and drove his love to the University of California, Davis for a Master’s Degree in Enology. With the highest of certifications, Jed was recruited to Edmeades Vineyards in Mendocino as vineyard manager and winemaker. After helping launch this new winery for the better part of a decade, Jed moved on to what skyrocketed his stardom in 1983 – a Sonoma County venture in mint condition at the time called Kendall-Jackson.

K-J is where Jed wrote the book. The man literally created the now famous and one of the best-known domestic Chardonnay recipes to date. For nine vintages, Jed achieved ultimate success with the brand and brought it to the one-million case mark which is when he made his exit in 1991 to inaugurate Lake County’s Steele Wines.

Jed’s hands have been in a lengthy list of pots for his consultant projects, taking him down to Santa Barbara’s Fess Parker, up to Walla Walla’s Northstar, keeping it home with his second brand, Shooting Star, and aiding with his son Quincy’s Writer’s Block wines. He has been recognized for his related research papers by the American Journal Of Viticulture And Enology, was named Winemaker of the Year by numerous publications and received the Robert Mondavi Trophy from the International Wine and Spirits Competition in London. His wines have been able to speak for themselves alongside their high-ranking scores and credit.

And about three weeks ago, I made wine for the Jed Steele.

Nicholas Cole Cellars: Rock Solid

When we first got our hands on a few bottles of wine from Nicholas Cole Cellars, they came with a word of sage advice from Jeanie Inglis-Chowanietz, the General Manager of NCC: “For optimum experience, please decant or wait a day after opening before tasting.” She said that while they were elegant, they are powerfully built. Truer words were never spoken.

Never one to follow instructions exactly as they’re given, the first time we gave these wines a go, we cracked open the bottles and let them sit a mere eight hours before tasting. We revisited the wines a couple of weeks later (new bottles), and this time we gave them a full twenty-four hours to breathe before diving in.

While a decanter or aerator would have adequately done the job, it was interesting to see the difference the extra time did to the wines. They were all really impressive and delicious at the eight-hour mark; but at twenty-four hours, further complexity became evident, adding a lot of points of interest not noticed on the first go-around.

Taken together, these wines are something to behold. They’re all sturdy, structured and balanced as a brick shithouse, while still pretty, graceful, interesting, sexy and nuanced as a chapel designed by Steven Holl. You could take shelter during a hurricane and find satori in the parallax at the same time.

Disease Detectives Tackle the Mystery of the Fall Colors

WSU plant pathologist Naidu Rayapati and his colleagues are carefully unraveling the intricate biochemistry and molecular biology of grapevine leafroll disease.

Grapevine leafroll is a complex viral disease that can cause a marked decline in grapevine vigor, grape quality, and fruit productivity, according to Rayapati. The disease can reduce yields as much as 50 percent or even more, depending on the severity of infection. A few years ago, it was estimated that nearly 10 percent of Washington’s vineyards have grapevine leafroll disease. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the disease is more wide spread than previously thought, raising alarm among industry stakeholders. Grapevine leafroll disease accounts for about 60 percent of the production losses of grapes worldwide, Rayapati said.

One of the most perplexing questions Rayapati is addressing is one of symptomology: why do some grape varieties show the “fall colors” symptoms in their leaves while others do not?

Gård Fall Release Party (Ellensburg)

November 5, 2010
5:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

Join us for November’s First Friday Art Walk to celebrate the photography of Royal City Native, Annie P. Warren. Gård will release five new wines, including our new vintage of our Don Isidro Red Blend and our new Riesling Ice Wine. Admission is FREE! 5-9 PM. 509-925-1095

Gård Ellensburg Tasting Room
311 N. Pearl Street
Ellensburg, WA 98926