Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Sonoma Summit under the guidance and auspices of Evan Goldstein, his team from Full Circle Wine Solutions, The Sonoma County Vintners Association and the Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission.

Less than 48 hours were jammed packed with tastings, seminars and even an Iron Sommelier Competition!

Day One:  The very first night we were taken to Francis Ford Coppola's new digs and marveled at the movie paraphernalia while sipping Gloria Ferrer's Royal Cuvee. I have forgotten how great those sparkling wines really are!  Before dinner we tasted through a mish mash of varietals from great producers large and small, A few highlights included the Capture Sauvignon Blanc, (If you haven't had it...find it! ) Baletto's Pinot Gris and  Acorn's Heritage Vines Zinfandel. It was fantastic that all the winemakers were on hand at every meal to comment and discuss their wines with each course.

Day Two  We started day two with a Chardonnay Double Blind Smack Down at St. Francis.  We had ten glasses in front  us six of which were from Sonoma County and four were were wild cards. The usual humbling nature of blind tasting brought us all to ground level as we picked through the wines.  This seminar was led by Evan, Drew Hendrick's, MS, David Ramey and Kent Ritchie.  The banter between the group and of course the irreverent comments and diversions with David Ramey was at times hilarious. I loved how the room was especially quiet every time Kent Ritchie spoke (no offense Drew :)  He is such a low key guy and hardly liked to to put his two cents in about the blind wines in question. He considers himself a poor judge and no more than a mere farmer.  I think for most of us we enjoyed and were able to identify most of the Sonoma County wines and producers. The big surprises of the day in the blinds were the "non" Sonoma wines like the Evening Land (many of us thought it was Burgundy), Brewer Clifton and the most contentious of all the Bindi Quartz.

No rest for the weary as we headed directly to Seghesio for an Old Vines Zin tasting and lunch. Evan broke out some fun daring pairings looking beyond the usual suspects with zin to find some new, interesting and unusual flavor combinations. The panel was headed by Elyse Lambert and veterans Ed Sbragia and Ted Seghesio. Between the four of them-what an awe inspiring wealth of information on  food and wine pairing and history of wine making families in California. My favorites of the tasting were the Sausal "Private Reserve" and the Bella "Big River Ranch" Zinfandel they were the two I kept going back to even with the unusual pairing of pappardelle with fresh porcini mushrooms and parm cream sauce.

Some good coffee and Lagunitas Pils on the bus got our palates geared up for our next tasting at Mac Murray Ranch. It was so sad it was pouring rain because the day started out so beautifully. Kate MacMurray and Gina Gallo themselves greeted us and welcomed us to taste in a beautiful reconverted barn, This was one of the major tastings where you could really see the diversity of Sonoma County with everything from cool climate pinot from Clouds Rest to big rich Cabernet from the likes of Jordan and Simi.

We headed back to the hotel for our 1 hour and 15 minute rest time. Which I chose to see as my opportunity to take a cab ride over to Russian River Brewery to cleanse my palate with some good old Blind Pig and Consecration and get myself geared up for the evening.  (should I really be telling you guys this part?!?)

By the end of the first day we were all pretty exhausted but the event that was to come really got us fired up!!  Pun totally intended.   Kendall Jackson Winery pulled out all the stops for us and hosted our Iron Sommelier Challenge. It  was a blast! The group was divided into 4 teams, and were given three wines. Each team had a "kitchen" with a chef to help create and execute the perfect dish for our wines. We had a pantry of ingredients including a brick pizza oven. We were given approx 45 minutes to prepare three dishes for a panel of esteemed judges. We really had such a great time and again congrats to team "C" (my team of course!! )  for bringing in home gold!   

Day Three Our final day began with a tasting of single vineyard Russian River Pinot Noir.  We compared young and old vintages of Martinelli's "Bondi Home Ranch" and Patz and Hall's "Burnside."   We also did a comparative tasting of four versions of the UV Vineyard Pinot Noir with Ulises Valdez there to share his inspiring story. The panel for this tasting was Darius Allyn, MS, Megan Baccitich of Paul Hobbs, James Hall of Patz and Hall, Bryan and George Martinelli and Ulises Valdez.  An extremely lively discussion ensued surrounding the idea of oak, clones, yields and prices of Pinot Noir in the marketplace today, We talked about where pinot has been, where it is going and the role of the whole Sideways effect came into play. This discussion could have lasted hours if it were allowed to run its course.  

The grand finale to a fantastic two days was lunch at Chalk Hill. . I had the opportunity to take part as a panel speaker with Evan and Amy Currens of Prospect in San Francisco. The premise of the lunch was a dual pairing for each course. A top of the line Sonoma County Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were paired with each course. The objective was to see not only which was the better pairing but how the wines worked with different elements of each dish.  Amazing wines were shown from Kosta Brown, Flowers, Chalk Hill and La Folette.   I had a great time bantering with Amy and Evan like we were on an SNL skit sharing our views on pairings. I think we all learned something new and the greatest part was the fact that often we had disagreements over whether the pairings worked not only amongst ourselves but from the audience which was fantastically provocative.  I will definitely continue in another post some ideas and thoughts on food and wine pairing and revelations from this tastings.

What a great trip all around. It was fascinating to be reminded just how diverse Sonoma County really is and how the agricultural nature and the "farmer" mentality really brings a certain humility that is so different from many other areas of California. That is what keeps the area so exciting and vibrant.

~MM