February 8, 2010
Stomping Girl’s Inaugural Release Party was held on Saturday February 6. I will venture to say that a stomping good time was had by all. We poured our newly released 2008 Pinot Noirs: Split Rock Vineyard (Sonoma Coast) and Lone Oak Vineyard (Santa Lucia Highlands.) We had a lively crowd, Deborah Crooks and her trio playing music, excellent “volunteer” helpers, and even the weather cooperated in the end. Thanks to everyone who turned out!
February 2, 2010
crystallized violets
You know those crystallized lilacs or violets that you’ve always wanted to buy and put on a cake but they are so hard to find and expensive and often all broken that you never do? Like those on top of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s White Lilac Nostalgia Cake, in The Cake Bible. For several years I have admired this cake from afar. I have always wanted to attempt it. But then I take one look at the beautiful crystallized lilacs carefully laid by hand and I freeze…for the reasons above. I suppose you can make these crystallized edible flowers–lilacs, violets and roses. Ms. Beranbaum makes it sound pretty straightforward. But even in my days of more free time, they didn’t seem easy. So I have resigned myself to just admiring the photo in the cookbook.
Tonight, we opened a bottle of Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir to go with Uzi’s impeccably grilled bacon-wrapped pork chops. Yes, my husband is a non-observing Israeli. And yes, this is related to White Lilac Nostalgia. Hang with me for another minute. The Oregon Pinot paired perfectly with the pork, both parts of the pig. That was no surprise. I have yet to meet a pork and Pinot pairing I didn’t like. What surprised me was that this wine was not love at first whiff, as I’d imagined it would be. I wasn’t getting much aroma at all at first. I was worried. Did we buy this bottle under the spell of Oregon wine country tasting room allure? Thankfully, it turns out it just needed a little time. Once the aroma came through, this Domaine Drouhin suddenly took me back to the days of dreaming about baking that beautiful cake with candied lilacs because that what I was getting on the nose–candied lilacs, or maybe candied violets. Later, after sitting open for an hour or two, the aromas evolved into those of soil and earth. I didn’t get a lot of fruit, this is different from some of the more fruit-forward Pinots of California. In fact, it is a different Pinot than most. Lovely smells of…gardening. And nostalgic thoughts of that gorgeous cake that I just may try to conquer now.
January 18, 2010
The moment we’ve all been waiting for is here! Come join us in celebrating the inaugural release of Stomping Girl wine. We’ll be pouring our newly released 2008 Pinot Noirs, serving food and enjoying good music.
What: Stomping Girl Release and Pick Up Party
When: February 6, 2010, 2:00 – 4:00pm
Where: 2323 4th Street, Berkeley, CA
Cross street is Bancroft, our driveway is across from Kiss that Frog
RSVP: Party@StompingGirlWines.com
Please RSVP by February 1
Why Pick Up? If you order wine by February 1, you can pick it up at the party, get 10% off and pay no shipping. Order wine at stompinggirlwines.com using coupon code “PreRelease” or by calling 707-317-6617.
January 14, 2010
After much anticipation, we are proud to announce the inaugural release of Stomping Girl Wines. Our two 2008 Pinot Noirs are so seductive that it is difficult not to keep it all for ourselves! Alas, we are releasing it…
Order Now and Save
Order yours before February 1st and save 10%. Just put your order in the shopping cart and use the coupon code: PreRelease.
Celebrate with us at our February 6th 2-4 PM Release Party at the winery at 2323 4th St, Berkeley, pick up your wine there and also save on shipping. Just place your order by February 1st and designate Pick up/Local as your shipping option.
Otherwise, wine orders will be shipped out on February 1st, weather permitting.
Unique Opportunity
Stomping Girl produces very small lots of handcrafted, artisanal Pinot Noir and 2008 is our first commercial vintage. Consider this an opportunity to buy some to enjoy now and some to tuck away in your cellar for future special occasions before it’s gone. After all, there is only one first release of Stomping Girl Pinot Noir.
January 4, 2010
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! We had a great 2 week break starting off with a road trip to Seattle. On the way, we spent 2 days in Oregon seeing a couple of friends and wine tasting in the Willamette Valley. We wish we had had more time to spend in the Willamette Valley but we had just enough time to taste some impressive Oregon Pinots at the incredible Domaine Drouhin; the serene, indeed, Domaine Serene; and the beautiful Stoller Vineyards.
Domaine Drouhin vines in winter
Domaine Serene
Stoller Vineyards
After a fun, relaxing and indulgent Christmas week with family in Seattle we rushed back to spend the 2nd week with our big, “stomping girl” who was home from college for a short break. I know it’s cliche but all I’m going to say about that is they grow up way too fast!!
Now it’s back to work and we are in high gear preparing for the release of our 2008 Pinot Noirs–putting the final touches on our online ordering site, printing up tasting and technical notes and planning the February Release Party. Stay tuned and we hope to see some of you there!
December 17, 2009
About a year ago, Uzi wrote about the “chore” of topping off. Back then we only had 2 half barrels in our home cellar and 4 barrels at the winery to worry about. This year we have 17 barrels at the winery to stir and top. While we still don’t see it as a chore, it is a bit more work. They are stacked two high in the back of the barrel room and special maneuvers are required to properly stir the lees and top off the barrel without overflowing. But it is still a great opportunity to smell and taste the wine and to, for lack of a better word, touch base with the wine…even while it is resting snugly in the barrel.
So earlier this week at the winery, we sniffed, stirred, topped and tasted all 17 barrels of our 2009 Pinot Noir. Pinot always seems to be evolving, from the moment of harvest all the way to the last drop in your glass. But at this point in time, we found that our Carneros Pinot has an incredible nose, our Russian River Pinot already has a luscious mouthfeel and luscious flavors and our Sonoma Coast has nice fruit forward character. Can’t wait to see what we discover next time…
in the barrel room
December 6, 2009
Last Thursday we bottled the last of our 2008 wines. “Last” sounds like we made many wines, we only made wine from two vineyards, but it does feel good to have our 2008 vintage safely in bottles. Now we wait for the delicate Pinot to recover. As many of you know, wine goes thru a shock when it is bottled and needs some rest to recover before it is ready to drink.
Even though the bottling process is mostly automated, contrary to our home wine bottling in the last 7 years, we still make sure we touch every single bottle and leave our prints on it. Such are the joys of winemaking.
Take a look at the steps in pictures:
First the bottles are emptied of oxygen, filled with wine and the wine level is adjusted.
Bottling Machine
Corks are inserted and the red sleeves are put on and spun into place.
Corks inserted and bottle sleeves put on.
Next, the labeler applies our lovely label to the bottles.
Labels applied to Stomping Girl Pinot Noir
Then the bottles come off the line and are boxed by hand.
Kathryn boxing Stomping Girl Pinot
November 30, 2009
This past Sunday we participated in the annual Corona Creek Olive Harvest. Corona Creek, in addition to it’s excellent Pinot Noir vineyard, has an olive grove. Chris makes the most incredible olive oil out of these olives.
A crowd of about 50 volunteers descended on the olive grove early in the morning and got busy pulling, shaking and generally having a good old time helping Chris, the owner, bring down as many olives as we could before the lunch feast at noon.
Picking olives
Kathryn setting up the olive capturing tarp
Ben 'working'
french baby picking olives
One of the main reasons we elected to source grapes from Corona Creek is due to the fact that it is a small family farm with sustainable practices growing a variety of vegetables in addition to the grapes and olives. In other words, it is far from a mono culture farm. In fact, it is quite multi-cultural.
In any case, olive picking was a lot of fun. We met a lot of people from all walks of life. The kids and dogs had a great time through the trees and the vineyards and we learned a bit about what makes good olive oil while enjoying our fellow pickers’ company. Afterward we enjoyed a lovely meal along with some of Corona Creek’s own Pinot Noir. To top it all off, a lively singing trio was on hand to entertain the crowd during lunch.
Singing trio
November 22, 2009
Berkeley turkey
Everyone this time of year seems to be either writing or wondering about what wine goes with turkey. Personally, we always serve three types of wine for Thanksgiving at our house — a bottle of bubbly, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir. We open the sparkling wine to drink with appetizers while the turkey finishes in the oven. Then the Chardonnay (which goes well with traditional side dishes such as sweet potatoes) and the Pinot (which goes well with turkey) are opened and served with dinner. But you can find articles in the Wall Street Journal, Wine Spectator, SFGate, etc., to tell you what wines to serve at the Thanksgiving table.
What I want to tell you about is what went really well with Uzi’s famous spit-roasted pork loin seasoned with rosemary and garlic the other night–Pinot Noir. We opened a special bottle of premier cru Chambolle Musigny to go with it. And just to gauge our winemaking expertise against this Burgundy benchmark, we also opened a bottle of our 2007 garagiste Carneros Pinot Noir. Though they are very different wines and I almost hesitate to mention the two together in the same breath, they were both fantastic and both went splendidly with the pork.
So go cook one of these later this week when you’re tired of turkey and open up a bottle of Pinot Noir. And next year, when you’re planning your Thanksgiving dinner, consider a 2008 Stomping Girl Pinot Noir to go with the turkey.
Pork roast and Pinot
November 7, 2009
1991 Calera Mt Harlan Chardonnay
We recently had our good friends over for dinner and were looking forward to opening a special bottle from the cellar. It was a 1991 Calera Mt. Harlan Chardonnay we had picked up on a visit to the Calera winery last year. Calera has an incredible and inspiring story and their wines are really quite unique for California Pinots and Chardonnays.
Look closely at the picture above and you will see the large (some may say disturbing) amount of tartrates. Tartrates had solidified and ended up on the bottom of this old bottle of Calera. Looks bad but it is not a fault. It was a 1991 for god’s sake. And, in fact it is a testimony to the quality of the wine and the natural winemaking methods used. Read more about tartrates here. The Calera was fantastic and was a perfect match for rich halibut we served.
By the way, for those of you looking for Thanksgiving wines, an old Calera Chardonnay Mt. Harlan would make an excellent addition to your turkey dinner…so would a Pinot Noir.
