El Bloggo Torcido - Twisted Oak Winery

Tweets About Skulls!

At the Wine Bloggers Conference last month, I decided to preview the 2007 Calaveras County River of Skulls during the "Live Tasting" event - with idea of generating a little buzz about the impending release (did you know the release is August 15th?), and maybe even some reviews.

A bit of poking around on Twitter showed quite a few reviews and comments about the Skulls, so we (OK, I) decided to make use of some of the better ones on the new product page.

While the capsule reviews in Wine Enthusiast and other print magazines are certainly tweetesque in their brevity, this is the first instance I know of that Twitter reviews are being used this way.

What do you think?

(Pictures of me and the River of Skulls at the Live Tasting here (scroll down) and here (scroll too) and here.)

A New Varietal Grows in the Sierra Foothills!

Wednesday we are releasing a new wine, made with a varietal that we believe has not been cultivated in the New World, at least not here in California. This varietal is the extremely rare Poulet Caoutchouc, which is found only in the foothills of the Ardennes forest in France. Fortunately here in Calaveras County, we have similar forests and hills, and this variety has taken root - and indeed, flourished!

This wine is 100% Poulet Caoutchouc. Our Twisted winemaker Fermento (the Magnificent) describes this wine as having the classic varietal character, "This varietal shows strong earthy aromas and a different sort of sweetness on the front, moving to a sort of sharp astringency in the mid-palate. The mouthfeel is very chewy, and the flavors stay with you for a long time. A very, very long time."

All Twisted Oak wines are well known for pairing very well with rubber chicken; the Poulet Caoutchouc may actually be our most perfect pairing to date. Production on this wine is very limited, so you'll want to grab yours before it's gone!

(And be sure to mark your calendar for the evening of May 2nd when we will be holding our first ever Rubber Chicken Roast at the Twisted Oak Winery in Vallecito. This event benefits the Rubber Chicken National Forest and the Calaveras Big Trees Park. Tickets are $35 and include BBQ roasted chicken, wine, and all the fixins - and are available in advance from the winery at 209-736-9080x10. No foolin'!)

(photo by Farley Walker, 2008 Take Your Rubber Chicken to Work Week finalist)

2008 Calaveras County Rubens Blend Geeky Stuff

The 2008 Ruben's Blend is 46% Roussanne, 41% Marsanne, and 13% Grenache Blanc. This is the first vintage that we have been able to source Grenache Blanc and it won't be the last. The GB gives this blend a brightness that is a little different from previous vintages - I'm pretty excited about it!

This is also the first vintage that we can proudly say is 100% Calaveras Grown fruit, with Marsanne and Roussanne from Dalton Vineyards and Poole Station Vineyard, with the Grenache Blanc also from Poole Station. The wine was 60% barrel fermented (that would mean 40% in stainless steel) and was aged in 1-yr and 2-yr old French oak.

Fermento's tasting notes indicate aromas of pears, cream, peaches, truffle, ginger; and flavors of lemon, pears, walnuts, fig. The mouthfeel is full-bodied and bright as well, clean, soft, well-balanced, and it finishes long with pears, fig and some lingering lemon. Ah, that lingering lemon...

You don't have to use any of these technical details to win the contest (no one ever has, actually), but it might help!

Just for fun, below is a recent image of our puppy Garnacha Blanca ("Nacha" for short). Seemed appropriate.

Rave Reviews for River (of Skulls)!

Several online reviews for the 2006 River of Skulls. have been posted recently - check these out! There is still time to get this limited-release wine, so go to the mailing list signup now (or click one of these attractive glowing red skulls you see everywhere!)

Richard Auffrey on The Passionate Foodie

Joe Roberts on 1WineDude

Dr. Debs on Good Wine Under $20

Sonadora on Wannabe Wino

John on Anything Wine

Loweeel on The PSychos' Path

UPDATE - Sept 28 - another review!

Tim on Winecast

and Jill made a nice mention of the River of Skulls on her Domaine 547 blog!

River of Skulls List Now Open!

We have now opened the mailing list for the 2006 River of Skulls. If you think you would like the opportunity to get this limited-release wine, go to the mailing list signup now (or click one of these attractive glowing red skulls you see everywhere!)

The River of Skulls is a Mourvedre-based wine that is grown in the Dalton Vineyards of Angels Camp, not far from the actual River of Skulls (thus the name and logo.) But this wine is more than a pretty face - it's a full delicious red that tastes great with all kinds of meats and "many starches" (as Fermento succinctly put it.)

To learn more, cruise on over to the web site to learn all the technical details about the wine, including the back story on River of Skulls!

River of Skulls Coming Soon!

 

Stay tuned! Qualified bloggers (meaning you have been regularly publishing a wine or a wine&food blog on a regular basis) interested in receiving a sample should contact me at TastingRoom@twistedoak.com ASAP.

Wine Blogging Wednesday: "The Letter 'S'"

As it says over on the Grape Juice blog, today's Wine Blogging Wednesday is brought to you by The Letter "S" - meaning to pick a wine that has something to do with the letter "S": Syrah, Sangiovese, or Souzao would be obvious choices.

I had a long hot day today sssshlepping wine down to the Ahwahnee hotel (not complaining, they love our Viognier down there!) All I wanted to do was munch sssome take-out carnitassss, get sssome work done, and ssssip sssomething nice and cool. Ssso, I grabbed a bottle of our 2006 Verdelho. On a hot, ssspooky, and ssssmokey day, the Verdelho is perfect for sssating a parched throat. Aromasss of bananasss and other tropical fruitsss, with flavorsss of grapefruit and honeydew, make it a perfect quencher.

But, I thought, the Verdelho hasss nothing to do with the letter "S". Then I remembered! It comesss from SSSSILVASSSPOONSSS VINEYARDSSS!!! I'm sssaved!

Hope you enjoyed your WBW wine too!

Wine of the Month!

Just a quick note to say that the 2005 Calaveras County Petite Sirah is Wine of the Month over at Wine One Six, a Sacramento-based wine website . David writes about wines and wineries in the Sierra Foothills - check it out!

I know I have been a little light on my blogging lately, but stay tuned! Got some pictures to catch up on, and a new bit of fun we'll be telling you about, starting next week....

Wine Blogging Wednesday #40 - Petite Sirah

Wine Blogging Wednesday, created by Lenn over on Lenndevours, has been a monthly fixture on the wine-aware web for as long as I can remember (probably like for maybe 40 months?) This month the Wannabe Wino is hosting, and the subject is (yay!) Petite Sirah.

We held our own little impromptu blind tasting at the Twisted Oak offices Tuesday afternoon. Two random bottles of Petite Sirah were selected from the pile of "trade wines", along with a bottle of our current 2005 Calaveras County Petite Sirah, and all three were hidden into paper bags by Steph in the Tasting Room.

Wine #1 had nice scents of cherry, along with a bit of the ethyl acetate, finishing with almost meaty or even bacon-y flavors.

Wine #2 had pure aromas and flavors of blueberry and cherry, along with spicy wood and vanilla notes. The staff generally agreed this must be the Twisted Petite Sirah.

Wine #3, on the other hand, had a weird asparagus scent (one staffer said "smells like weed!" - we'll have to take her word for it...) and an unpleasant astringency.

Revealing the wines showed that Wine #1 was a Lucchesi 2004 Lodi Petite Sirah, Wine #2 was our own Twisted Oak (yay staff!), while Wine #3 was a... PINOT NOIR?!?!? Blech! Someone clearly needs new glasses...

The Twisted Oak Petite Sirah got polished off first, needless to say, and when it was all gone the bottle laid flat and deflated on the table... right. Actually, the bottle in the picture is our 2002 Petite Sirah, and it was flattened by our neighbors up the road at Quyle Kilns - and they picked today to drop it by! (Coincidence? Why, yes, actually...)

This 'Ho Get Around!

Two recent hits about the 2006 Silvaspoons Vineyard Verdelho:

First, in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine section, "What We're Drinking", check out the last item... "a ballerina wearing steel-toed boots" - nice!

Second, another hit on Cellar Tracker - seems like a consensus on a 92!