A first time for everything I’m at the Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla and Craig Camp from Cornerstone Cellars Napa has just poured us a 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, their 1st of this varietal. 500 cases produced. Dry, crisp, elegant… Nice way to start.

Each winery has 5 minutes to tell us about each wine as we taste it. John Concannon has just joined us and has a 2008 “Conservancy” Chardonnay. He is a 4th generation Concannon. The winery has had a Concannon at the helm for 127 years. Priced under $15. Good value, food friendly, 13.5% alcohol.

Tom Lynch from Worthwhile Wine has brought us a 2009 South African “unwooded” Chardonnay from Neethlingshof. Great nose, good finish, one person at our table described it as complex. Again a value wine priced around $15. Enjoying the finish. Nicely balanced.

It’s time to pay a visit to Australia and taste a Verdelho from Molly Dooker called the Violinist. It retails at $25. 2.7% RS, but it doesn’t taste overly sweet. Molly Dooker is Ozzy slang for left handed. Sparky Phillips is the winemaker, wife Sara designs the labels. From Adelaide, Australia.

House Wine from Charles Smith of the Magnificent Wine Company. $13, a Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat blend designed as an affordable, everyday drinking wine. Faint nose, but easy drinking with good balance and a long finish. Comments at the table included caramel and orange.

Sonoma County is in the house with Dry Creek Vineyard’s ’09 Dry Chenin Blanc. No wood at all and no RS, but a beautiful representation of the varietal. A versatile wine, crisp and refreshing and at $13 won’t bite your wallet or pocketbook. What a nice summer wine!

We’re in the Walla Walla valley and L’Ecole No 41 is tasting us on their ’08 Columbia Valley Semillon. 11% Sauvignon Blanc has been blended in. It presents a subtle nose, but it’s anything but a meek wine. I can see drinking this with linguini and clams or sipping poolside in the summer. Average retail price $15.

We’re taking a taste of Mendocino County now with Parducci’s ’08 “Sustainable White”. I love this nose! Keep in mind this is live and it’s a challenge to listen, write and taste at the same time. Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat and one other varietal. Yummy!

Pithy Little Wine Company is now pouring their ’09 Sangiovese Rose. They leave the skins on the juice and then blend in a little Syrah to add more color. “Jolly Rancher” watermelon is one description and it is apt. This $22 wine hails from San Luis Obispo, due west of Paso Robles.

It’s Ortman Family Wines time from Paso Robles and their ’07 Edna Valley Chardonnay. Another great nose. Nice and buttery, priced at around $22. Mathew Ortman says the Paso climate is ideal for this wine and loves the tropical notes. This is wine number 10 with 2 to go.

Oh my, here comes a box wine!!! It’s Pepperwood Grove’s “Big Green Box”. A Chardonnay blend from the famed Sebastiani family, I’m very pleasantly surprised by the quality. I may have to change my mind about box wines. At about $19 for 3 liters, this is hard to beat!

Okay, here we go, the final wine. This is Desert Wind’s ’09 Viogner from the Wahluke Slope, the hottest growing region in Washington State. The nose offers what I like about Viognier. It has very little time on oak, less than 10%. Again a great value and a wine I would jump on at $15.

I hope this has been as fun for you to read as it has been for me to write. Tomorrow we do live blogging with reds.

Bob Olson & Mike Tingley

“If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be in Southern California as a winery owner I would have told you you were crazy!” Filsinger Winery was one of the first wineries in the Temecula Valley. William Doc Filsinger produced wines on the De Portola Wine Trail for nearly 30 years. Recently, Doc sold the property to Bob Olson and Filsinger Winery is being transformed into Danza del Sol. I met with Bob and his winemaker Mike Tingley recently, got a tour of the property and Read more »

Gray skies, temperatures on the chilly side and a few drops of rain couldn’t deter hundreds of wine lovers from enjoying the World of Wine barrel tasting event presented this past weekend by the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association. 27 wineries offered tastes of their wines, though not all offered barrel samples. If you check out my ticket on the right side of the page, you’ll note I paid a visit to every single participating winery. Ah, the sacrifices I make in being a wine writer.

I tip my cap to the Temecula Valley Wine Society who did a stellar job checking people in, pouring wine, serving food and so much more. It was great to see Marshall Stuart, Jim & Christine Hart, Dorian & Les Linkogle, Ray Falkner, Nick Palumbo, Marcelo & Damian Doffo, Robert Renzoni, Bob Olson (owner of Danza del Sol, formerly Filsinger), Jennifer & Rick Buffington, Phil Baily, Steve & Valerie Andrews and to meet South Coast’s head Chef Dean Thomas, Van Roekel winemaker Gus Vizgirda and Dave & Gail Bradley, owners of Read more »

“All we wanted to do was make good wine and get people coming here.” I first met Audrey Cilurzo at Wilson Creek Winery during last year’s Harvest Celebration. Audrey was signing copies of Temecula Wine Country, the book she and her husband Vince wrote with Rebecca Farnbach,  part of the Images of America series. Vince had spent years as a television lighting director in Los Angeles and in 1967 they were on the waiting list to open a McDonald’s franchise in Escondido. On the way, they passed through the sleepy town of Rancho California (later to become Temecula), population: 350. They did some exploring and met Brack Hale, grandson of the inventor of the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar, who was one of the valley’s two real estate agents. Audrey says “We just fell in love with this whole valley and Read more »

This past Thursday at The Wine Company in Temecula, twenty fortunate souls had the opportunity to visit with John Ogden from Sonoma County’s Olson Ogden Wines.  John brought five of his wines along, two Pinot Noirs and three Syrahs all from the 2007 vintage, and shared the Olson Ogden philosophy of winemaking with us while we sampled his fares. John started the winery with good friend Tim Olson in 2002. Tim is the winemaker and John handles publicity. They source all their fruit and have no tasting room, but if you call ahead, you may be invited for a barrel tasting. He told us that their focus is on food friendly wines with good acidity. The first was Read more »

It was a picture perfect day in Temecula Wine Country for Valentine’s Day. I’ll let the photos do the talking. Read more »

Dan Atwood

Dan Atwood launched the Counter Club at the Wine Company in Temecula several months ago. His idea was to have his distributors bring in a selection of wines and let his customers, for a nominal fee, taste the wines with him, waived if you purchase any of the wines presented. It’s been a runaway success. I’ve only missed a few of these events and yesterday’s raised the bar to a new level. Les and Dorian Linkogle, the owners of Briar Rose Winery stopped by with a generous sampling of their wines. They brought former Major League baseball player and Read more »