Wine Stars

This week in Bus 305W, 48 millennial students tasted through 6 excellent California white wines.  It was the beginning of the semester introduction to classic white varietals:  chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, riesling, chenin blanc, and semillion.  We also threw in a 6th “extra credit” wine, which was a gewurtraminer.  The class did very well guessing the varietals correctly – even though we tasted blind.  Just to refresh your memory, there are only 5 classic white varietals in the world, even though there are more than 24,000 different names for grapes, and 150 commercially produced varietals.  However, in order to be considered [...]

One of the highlights of this semester was the SSU Wine Club tasting with Iron Horse Vineyards located in the Green Valley AVA of Sonoma County.  Green Valley is a small special section of the Russian River Valley which has a cooler climate and more fog than surrounding areas.  Located just 13 miles from the Pacific Ocean, it is an ideal place to grow chardonnay and pinot noir.  Iron Horse is one of the largest of the 8 wineries in this appellation, and has become quite famous for its sparkling wines.  The wine tasting was hosted by Joy Sterling, CEO [...]

If you haven’t visited Anderson Valley yet, in Mendocino County, you are missing a magical wine region of California.  About an hour’s drive north of the Sonoma State University campus (and 2 hours north of San Francisco) you will enter the enchanting Anderson Valley.  It is filled with rolling vineyards tucked into the hillsides and hollows of the valley, with many charming small family wineries.  Legendary for their highly rated pinot noir and chardonnay, the cooler climate of the Anderson Valley also sets itself apart by being one of the only wine regions in California to specialize in white Alsatian [...]

What better way to start a new Fall semester on campus than with a wine tasting of Sebastiani wines.  For this first tasting, the room was filled to capacity with over 50 Millennials.  Julie Butler from Sebastiani’s Hospitality group brought 6 wines to taste.  Three were from Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery located in Sonoma, California, plus an additional 3 wines from Firestone Winery in Santa Barbara County.  You may not be aware that the 100+ year old Sebastiani Winery was acquired by Foley Family Wines in December of 2008.  Foley Family also owns 8 other wineries, including Firestone, Merus in [...]

With the hot weather we’ve been having this summer in Sonoma County and other parts of California, I had a craving to taste some summer wines such as dry roses and off-dry muscats. I’m sure that some of this had to do with the fact that I’m currently reading the book, Extremely Pale Rose, which is a fun romp through the wine regions of France looking for the lightest pink colored rose wine. Anyway, I headed to some of my favorite wine stores and also had some wines donated by friends and we had a relaxed tasting by a swimming [...]

You’ve heard of food and wine pairing, but have you heard of music and wine matching?  According to an informal focus group of 42 Women for Wine Sense members and guests at Nicholson Ranch Winery, the right type of music really can impact what you taste in the wine.  We experimented with two wines – a chardonnay and pinot noir, and matched them to different music genres.  Focus group members were asked to vote on their favorite.  The results were amazing!  The 2007 Estate Chardonnay on its own has a lovely nose of orange blossom with peach and butter on [...]

(By guest author, Matt Lapides) The last wine club of the 2008-2009 school year celebrated by tasting a flight of reserve wine from Chateau St. Jean and enjoying the dynamic of a food and wine pairing hosted by the wonderful Tammy K. Wight.  Tammy opened the meeting with a taste of the 2005 Sonoma County Reserve Chardonnay.  It took four different private vineyards of chardonnay grapes from the best parts of Sonoma County to create the multi layered complexity of this glass.  It had a finish that tasted like crème brulee.  The 2005 Sonoma County Reserve Malbec was next. This [...]