2007 Joseph Swan Vineyards, Carignan, Cotes du Rosa, Russian River Valley

"There are few more Civilized pleasures in life than good company, good food, and good wine." -Joseph Swan

The winery was named by Joe Swan when he founded it thirty years ago. Joe came to wine making from an unlikely background. He grew up the son of teetotaler parents in the farm country of North Dakota. He was an avid reader, and he happened to read about wine. Not lacking for imagination but definitely lacking for grapes, he set out to make wine. Using his mother's ringer washing machine, he squeezed the juice from some rhubarb from the garden, and, in a crock he had secreted in the attic, proceeded to produce his first "wine".

Joe really believed that, when it came to grape growing and winemaking, small was beautiful. A small vineyard could be tended by one person. Small crops led to more intense age worthy wines. A small winery allowed you to oversee every aspect from fermentation to bottling. Joe was a perfectionist and felt that if the wine was to carry his name, then he should be personally responsible for every aspect of its production.

Joseph Swan passed away in 1989, but his legacy and vineyard lives on thanks to the talents of Swan’s son-in-law, Rod Berglund. Rod became a winemaker in 1979, largely due to Swan’s encouragement. Rod is now the owner & winemaker of Joseph Swan vineyards, along with his wife Lynn, Joe's daughter.

The Cotes du Rosa started out being a "Mystery Wine" at Joseph Swan. They wanted to maintain a bit of allure by withholding the wine's grape variety. Eventually, word got out that this lovely wine, draped in bright fruit and minerality, was indeed Carignan.

Aromas: fresh red raspberry, strawberry and ruby grapefruit. lush ground black pepper, violet, ripe Bing cherry
Color: rich garnet, magenta
Body: refreshingly medium-bodied
Taste: zingy red fruit and marvelous acidity, understated yet stern tannin, rose petals and white pepper.
Case Production: 119 cases
Alcohol: 13.5%

This wine is picked late in season, around late November, from 90 year old vines from the Mancini Ranch Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. Much to my liking, this Carignan is 100% whole cluster and native yeast fermented in neutral french oak for six months.

 Another fun fact? The Cote du Rosa is pressed by the loving feet at Joseph Swan. No machines necessary! Drink young, or age to your heart's desire.

This is our 18th vintage of this wine! Over the last year we have gone to the closed stacks of the library and pilfered a few bottles to see how they are doing. The fascinating thing was that while the winemaking and vineyard management has resulted in less rustic, more refined wines over the years, the basic fruit character has remained constant. Bright aromas of fresh red berries, ruby grapefruit and liquid black pepper. In the mouth it is quite fresh, a little tight and a bit leaner than the last couple of vintages. These old, dry farmed vines and the whole cluster fermentation has delivered again. from the Joseph Swan Feb newsletter.

2007 Imagery Estate Winery Viognier, Russian River Valley

Imagery Estate Winery is owned by the Benziger family who is dedicated to Biodynamic farming practices and has made wine in the Sonoma Valley since 1980. “Dedicated to crafting small quantities of rare wines from uncommon varieties and character rich vineyards, Imagery Estate Winery was born of a thirst for experimentation and willingness to take risks.”

The first Imagery wines were introduced in 1985, at a time when Winemaker Joe Benziger's family was forging the fighting varietals category with their Benziger brand. Despite the demands of producing wildly popular value wines, the Benzigers' indefatigable desire to experiment inspired and energized the winemaking team, who were given exceptional blocks of fruit, over which they had complete creative freedom. The best of these wines were bottled to become the Imagery series.

For these handcrafted, limited-production wines, Joe Benziger wanted labels as evocative as the winemaking. He fortuitously met a local artist named Bob Nugent, whom he commissioned to create an original work of art. Nugent's inventive triptych Chardonnay label was the beginning of the Imagery artist series. During the last 20 years, Nugent has served as curator of the Imagery art collection, commissioning hundreds of international artists to design one-of-a-kind artwork for Imagery labels.

Aromas: peach, apricot, honeysuckle, citrus
Body: medium
Color: yellow

From their website: Vintage: A dry winter led to a fairly early bud break in 2007. Overall the growing season was evenly paced with a just a few heat spikes in the early summer. Warm August weather started harvest early, but then a cool September slowed things quite a bit and grapes hung on the vines another few weeks. This cool period helped to develop complexity in flavors while keeping sugars under control. 2007 was one of the longest harvests Sonoma County has seen in recent years, spanning almost three months from start to finish. This vintage was certainly smaller in quantity than 2006, but in many cases the lower yields meant more concentrated flavors.

Vinification: We whole berry press and use only the free run juice to preserve the wine's beautiful delicacy. Cold fermentation in stainless steel tank maintains the delicate flavors during fermentation. In this vintage, 15% of our Viognier went through barrel fermentation in French oak to add body and mouthfeel to the final blend. The wine was bottled in February of 2008. 664 cases

Eat with: pastis scented steamed mussels, garlic, leeks, herbs, grilled bread

Website: www.imagerywinery.com

Check out Imagery Estate Winery labels at http://www.imagerywinery.com/labels.html

Arrowood Winery 2006 Viognier, Russian River

Dick Arrowood, the winemaker and owner, is one of the pioneers of Viognier in the Golden State. He first planted in 1991 when the grape was diminishing in its birth place of France. Since then, Viognier has made a resounding comeback in both California and France.

Aromas: apricot, peach, honeysuckle, light honey
Body: medium
Color: yellow

Good words: 90 Points - Robert Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate, #174 December 2007

From their website: Winemaker's Notes - The cool climate and long growing season of the Russian River are well suited to Viognier. The slow ripening of the fruit results in a powerfully heady bouquet backed by wonderful acidity. Our 2006 is teaming with apricots, peaches, honeysuckle and a dash of honey. The flavors are rich, intense and wonderfully exotic.

Viognier made its debut with great fanfare in California more than two decades ago. A handful of winemakers -- including Richard, who produced one of the state's first Viogniers back in 1991 -- proclaimed this nearly extinct grape (only 30 acres were remaining in 1965) had the potential to do grand things in the Golden State. Turns out they were right.

When planted in the proper location, Viognier yields wines that are beguiling and compelling. In France, that location is the town of Condrieu in the Northern Rhone Valley, where Viognier has been cultivated for nearly 2000 years. For us, it's Saralee's Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. This rolling 275-acre site is one of our favorite sources for Rhone varieties in Sonoma County. Viognier was first planted here back in 1989, making it one of earliest cultivations of the grape in California. (Subsequent plantings have since raised the vineyard's total to 7.3 acres.)

Located on a hillside just outside the town of Glen Ellen, overlooking the Sonoma Valley, Arrowood Winery is the real life dream of Richard Arrowood and his wife and partner, Alis Demers Arrowood. Completed in 1987, the winery is modeled after a New England farmhouse. With its winemaking facilities hidden from view, the building sits in perfect harmony with the surrounding countryside.

Eat with: cheese & fruit, three selections of cheese, seasonal fruit, house-made fig cake & baguette

http://www.arrowoodvineyards.com

2007 Novy Family Wines Viognier

Adam & Dianna Lee of Siduri, together with Dianna’s Texas-based family, the Novy’s, formed Novy Family Wines in 1998. Adam & Dianna wanted the challenge of working with varietals other than Pinot Noir and the Novy’s, who traveled each year to work harvest and bottling at Siduri, longed to expand their involvement in the wine business. While Novy Family Wines specializes in producing single vineyard Syrah from Napa, Sonoma and Santa Lucia Highlands, Adam and Dianna’s zeal for finding exceptional vineyard sites has resulted in small bottlings of other varietals as well, including Zinfandel, Grenache, Viognier, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. The name Novy means “new” in Czech and celebrates and embraces the families old heritage working with new world wines.

Aromas: ripe, crisp peach and pear, hints of fresh apricot and jasmine
Body: medium
Color: straw yellow

From their website: Quite frankly, we love Viognier. There is something so beguiling about the nose, the crisp acidity, and the pure fruit that it is difficult for us to refuse a glass (or two), especially when the weather warms up. We try to capture that lively spirit of the grape in our Viognier by picking fairly ripe fruit (but not over ripe), by fermenting the juice entirely in stainless steel, and by eschewing malolactic fermentation. All of these techniques seem to help preserve the wonderful fruit while retaining the crispness that keeps the wine fresh.

The 2007 Novy Viognier was picked on September 27 and immediately pressed to bins to settle for 24 hours, racked to two different tanks and fermented using a combination of yeasts. At dryness the wine was racked to stainless steel barrels where it was kept until bottling in May.

With crisp pear and peach aromas, wonderfully forward and sweet tasting fruit, and a long, crisp finish, this is the perfect wine to serve at the beginning of a meal.

Eat with: Atlantic diver scallops, fingerling potatoes, English peas & shoots, red pearl onions & pea vinaigrette.

http://www.novyfamilywines.com/index.html