Specific occasions call for specific wines. There are mating occasions (courting, seducing, or celebrating a loved one), impressing occasions (brown-nosing the boss or in-laws), and sommelier occasions (perfect wine for picnics, dinners, or yummy desserts). So here is a little guide to help you decide when to buy boxed wine (hopefully never unless you are in college) and when to buy Chardonnay versus Merlot versus Cabernet Sauvignon and how much to spend.

Gauge the situation! Before you purchase a bottle of wine, try to accurately judge the wine-purchasing-event. In those instances of mating, this is of utmost importance. The act of providing wine for a mate, be it on a first date or a 20^th anniversary, requires elegance to “wow” your partner of choice. This is not a time to pinch those pennies and opt for a two-buck chuck. There is also no need to destroy the wallet on a high-end name brand purchase (save that for the boss and in-laws). Know your partner’s preferences in wine varietals so you do not make the wretched mistake of giving a white wine lover a red varietal or a fruit-forward lover an aged dry varietal. Buying a bottle of wine for a special someone (or hopeful special someone for date numero uno) is just like buying that ring (just like it!). You want to get him or her a ring that is the right size (like a wine varietal) and that shows you care and is meaningful (AKA you can not buy the ring/wine with straight coins).

Next occasions – impress those guests! Occasions that require you to drop your truly awkward, typically embarrassing, never-really-say-the-right-thing personality, and mask it all with a great bottle of wine. These are the I’m-going-to-knock-your-socks-off situations, which might include your boss, your in-laws, or maybe even your favorite wine blogger. In these situations, you may impress them with your wine knowledge (obviously obtained from my previous wine posts on wine history, varietal types, aging processes…) or you may simply impress them with the bottle itself. A large brand-name label is obviously a choice, but an extremely impersonal one at that. Why not choose a more humble and unique bottle of wine? One from a family-owned winery who invites you to their home for tastings and food pairings? Am I making it clear enough that Palmeri is obviously the perfect bottle to impress those that need to be impressed!? Red wine is characteristically associated with classiness, more so than white, and with Palmeri’s array of delicious red varietals, you are sure to literally “wow” your audience with our known “it” factor that distinguishes us from all the others.

Our final occasion: food and wine, wine and food! A sommelier is a person knowledgeable in wine, specifically with the appropriate combinations of wine and food. One does not necessarily need to be a sommelier in order to have a successful dinner party, but here are a few do’s, and certainly do not’s, to guide your next food and wine oriented party. The first, most important do, is that wine is involved. Requirement. Next, plan the menu. Do not have separate people involved in the wine for the event and the food for the event. There must be communication between those two essential items. Do understand some of the properties behind wine varietals and food tastes. For instance, do not serve Sauvignon Blanc with a hearty meat dish. You want a wine that will stand up, but not over power or be over powered, by the food. The wine should be a compliment that takes the oral sensations to the next level. Whites are typically paired with lighter foods such as seafood, salads, sometimes poultry, and pasta depending on the sauce. Reds on the hand are often found with red meat, rich pasta sauce, casseroles, and other hearty foods. There are certainly exceptions to these broad generalizations, but you might not want to get too wild and crazy in your first sommelier experience. But don’t worry; even if everything fails on the wine-food pairing front, you always have the back up plan of serving all the wine first so the taste of the food no longer really matters…

So enjoy that next occasion while being heartfelt with your partner or wowing your boss (or giving a heartfelt wow if your partner is your boss), with the perfect bottle of wine paired beautifully with the meal.

After growing up in California, one could say I have become a bit California-centric in my wine preferences. It was not until I literally left the Golden State for college that I decided to explore the vineyards of other regions within the great U.S. of A.

My initial hesitancy in other state’s vino does not completely lie on my Cali pride (though I will without a doubt admit I have a lot of that), but my hesitancy steamed from my knowledge of wine production.

California makes about 90% of the entire United States fermented grape juice production. That is approximately 634,400,000 gallons of the estimated 711,200,000 gallons produced in the U.S. annually. The main reason for this, in my humble opinion, is the sheer greatness of the state. No, no, no, it has everything to do with the climate (and nothing to do with how “great” Cali is). The climate of California, in comparison with the other 49 states, is extremely unique. As (hopefully) everyone knows, California is on the West Coast, hugging the Pacific Ocean. It resides below Oregon and Washington and is extremely long and skinny. There is a definite temperature difference between the summer and the winter, but it is not a dramatic one. For instance, all of my East Coast friends snub their noses at California’s lack of “four season,” because the fall and spring in Cali sort of blend together into summer and/or winter with no big season distinctions. Besides the lack of dramatic temperature change, the humidity (or wetness) scale is also optimal for vine growth. In the summer, this state of sunshine is extremely dry. The lack of rain, though it seems counterintuitive for agricultural growth, actually produces more flavorful grapes. When the vines have to work to create grapes, instead of easily producing water-filled grapes through over irrigation, more nutrients goes into the grapes themselves, which provides a more complex and enjoyable fruit.

This distinct climate profile is what lends itself perfectly to a wonderful place to live as both a human and a vine. Such a rare combination of temperature and humidity is not found in many other places in the world, let alone in the U.S.

The next main wine-producing states are not immediately obvious because of this lack of climate similarity with California. They are the super chilly New York and Washington. Together they comprise about 7% of the total annual U.S. wine production. Wine slushee anyone!?

If you so desire, go out and taste some of those other states varietals. But let me just say, if California makes 90% of the total wine production, there might be a reason why. Drink that Golden State juice! Drink it on up!

Hello there again! Sorry to all you wine knowledge lovers out there who have been unable to sip on this “fermented grape juice 101” for a couple of weeks! My deepest apologies.

I actually had to head back to college to finish my degree so come next May I can join society and contribute my higher education learned activities of procrastination and cram studying.

As a young wino, just trying to soak up all that the industry has to offer (besides just the “good stuff”), leaving in September is actually quite frustrating. Pre-harvest is one of the most exciting times. One may even deem it the “easy livin’” time of the year. Most wineries are still cruising on their successes from the summer’s tourist season and are excited about the potentially high-yielding juicy fruit from their healthy crops. Live it up now because after these sweet grooving pre-harvest moments are over, you’ll find yourself in the thick of harvest with crazy hour work days, inevitable set backs, and enough manual labor for a life time (especially if you’re a behind-the-computer-kind-of-person like me). And then you finally reach the after harvest “bliss,” which is only a bliss because harvest is done and the next crises of crush and actually producing the wine has yet to begin. So as you can see I left town a little too early and am not living up the pre-harvest glow. Instead you can now find me in the “glorious” library contributing to society even more analyses on over researched topics instead of providing the people with what they really want- wine.

I hear college is the best years of your life, but one thing I know for sure (by trial and error, obviously) is that in college they do not allow wine consumption in the classroom or at meetings, which is quite contrary to the high-life in the wine country. So I say “nay” to the erroneous statement that they are the best years of my life (even though I have very little responsibilities, my friends are constantly right next door, I don’t have to make my meals/ do the dishes, and am not actively paying for housing/education/utilities), I still say “nay!” Maybe.

So to all those living the life and suckling from the wine industry’s juicy flows this fall, consider yourself being vicariously lived through. Go enjoy that pre-harvest honeymoon stage! And life of a college-student-dreaming-about-the-wine-country aside, get ready for some consistent posts about the wine world through the lens of a little-money-to-her-name, but all about classy-before-trashy young grasshopper in the wine industry.  You can now rely on me (again)! Or at least rely on me as much as you would any college student- so hopefully you’ll keep your expectations fairly low to give me a chance to “wow” you.

As many may know, there are many different types or “varietals” of wine. This means you get to pick your fermented grape juice of choice based on your specific tastes or if you’re in college, based on your budget. In California, these varietals correlate exactly with the grape type. So if you are drinking Merlot, the grape that went to produce it is Merlot.

For a label to have the right to slap on that “Chardonnay” or “Pinot Noir,” there legally must be at least 75% of that said grape in the bottle. After that 75% is reached, many wineries like to blend a little bit of other varietals to create a different nose or texture or palate, which allows for a unique taste. This is one component that makes a Zinfandel from one winery distinct from a Zinfandel of another winery.

Some California wineries take the idea of blending to a completely different classy level with Meritage. A Meritage is a California-specific way of skirting the ugly titles “table wine” or “red wine.” It also gives glamour and sophistication without having to infringe on Bordeaux, France and its legality with names due to origin (i.e. why Champagne produced anywhere but Champagne, France must be titled sparkling wine).

There are though, obviously, a few essential requirements to use the coveted “Meritage” title. For one, there is the fee. You must pay to put that title on your label for each consecutive year and for each Meritage (different percentages of varietals for a blend). You can’t just go around willy-nilly calling any sort of grape juice a Bordeaux blend without paying for it! Next there are the actual requirements of the liquid content. A Meritage must have at least three of the five noble Bordeaux wines. They include: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec.  Finally, sticking with the desire to separate California wine from all the others, Meritage label requires all grapes to be grown in this Golden State.

At Palmeri Wines, we do our own unique form of blending. We are not jumping on the bandwagon of the rule-guiding Meritage, but instead are blending solely with Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Our blend typically has the sturdy backbone of more than 75% Cabernet Sauvignon. In tradition actually, we display around 80% of that bold yet tantalizingly smooth grape. In this regard, we could certainly dub this blend strictly Cabernet Sauvignon because it’s higher than 75% of that varietal. We decided against that though because we thought the uniqueness of the combination of a bold Cab and a structured and fruit forward Syrah creates a very intriguing wine experience.

Our addition of Syrah to the blend provides a furthering complex flare because apart from blending two compatible yet independently strong grapes, these varietals come from vastly different regions in France. As you may have deduced in the Meritage discussion, Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Bordeaux while Syrah places its origins in the Rhone region. This difference is due primarily to a particular varietals’ ability to grow in specific terroir. We are fortunate enough to allow for both types of terroir compatibility within the Wine County that can be attributed to our use of high altitude mountainous fruit. So these Romeo and Juliet varietals of traditionally different backgrounds find sweet companionship within our blended bottle of fine wine.

So try something new and different this wine time around! Get a little cultured from two of the most decorated regions for wine varietal production in France. One bottle of our Cabernet Sauvignon/ Syrah blend is basically a two for one in fine wine experiences (AKA deal of the century, vino-style).  Oh and did I somehow forget to mention that our 2005 blend just won Gold at the Riverside International Wine Competition? Oops! Sorry I’m not sorry about that shameless plug for our award winning wines!

Thus far, this basic-wine-education-for-you-interested-folks has revolved around our quaint and very local winery, Palmeri Wines. Kerry and Daisy Damskey created their personal label after years of working in the California wine industry. Kerry is the winemaker for numerous Sonoma County wineries, as well as for Palmeri, and Daisy is the brains behind this actually-not-that-quaint operation.

Palmeri began its travels down the wine road in 1998. That was the first year the Damskeys planted grapes and our Napa County vineyard, Stagecoach, began! In that same year we also planted vineyards in Nashik, India (talk about an aggressive year on the grape planting front)!

Nashik is extremely well known for producing “table grapes,” or those delicious purple and green things you love to consume (unless you’re allergic) and do NOT crush into pulp and ferment. So Kerry brilliantly surmised that if an area is a hotbed for table grapes, it is most likely quite fertile for vino grapes as well.

As you may know, India is not the Russia-of-Asia with spirits and doesn’t drink-beer-quite-like-Germany, so adding an alcohol to a culturally dry-ish country required a “warming up” period. Wine, with its characteristically low alcohol percentages and high elegance, smoothly transitioned into the rising desire for classy alcoholic beverages in India. Wine had in fact been in India for some time, but it was not until the expansions through Kerry’s engineering that the wine industry just skyrocketed. Prior to this time, much of the wine consumed in India was actually grown in faraway lands (like France). But since India did not want to outsource all of its services, they increased their wine production and quality (within country) with the Indian wine “pioneer,” Kerry. Kerry has been the winemaker for Sula Winery, one of the most acclaimed wineries in India, since the beginning.

Now that Sula and Palmeri are in their late 20s (vineyard equivalent), they are stable, producing great product and not umbilical-cord-attached-to-mom-and-pops, it became time for Kerry to get another energized infant in the family. So just last February, the Damskeys planted “grapes de vino” in Costa Rica! So naturally we are all learning Spanish and embodying the inner vibrant, yet suave, Latino within us. This will be the first ever commercial winery in Costa Rica and let me just say, to all those beer-haters-but-good-time-lovers, you are most welcome. So prepare yourself for the launch of Costa Rican wine in 2015- it will certainly please your palate with its “rolling R’s, wine-style” all over your tongue.

P.S. Sula wine is the alcoholic liquid of choice in the recent movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel!

Sula Wine used in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Knowledge about wine is a shoo-in to impress (or pompously disgust) your friends, but to seal the deal on your cultural proficiency, you must know a little something-something about the vessel in which one serves wine. If you are a college student like me, the vessel of choice is a no brainer- drink from the bottle, duh! But that has little class, especially at a dinner party with the boss. Now you certainly have the option (though I greatly discourage it) of using mugs or water glasses, but yet again that reeks cheapness. This therefore lends itself to the (only) solution of glass stemware. This may or may not be surprising, but there are actually numerous different kinds of stemware (some are even stemless) depending upon the type of wine being consumed (red or white or sparkling) and even the varietal (Merlot, Cabernet, etc). The selection of these different glasses will inadvertently demonstrate your rank on the sophistication (or snobby) scale so here is a little “insight from an intern” to direct you on your path to the rank you so desire.

The most important difference between glasses is found between red and white glasses. White glasses have a much smaller “bowl” or area in which you pour the good stuff. If you are particular about wine, it is important to have two different glasses present to allow for the separation (and therefore no contamination) between red and white. If you do not care much and only carry one form of glass, typically a white wine styled glass is the go-to because it is not as imposing (and precarious) and often much cheaper.

Next point to note on the Wine Glass 101 front is the shape of the bowl itself. Among red wines in particular, there are dramatic changes between varietals. For the average consumer (or at least for me), this is often an unnecessary fret because I am going to drink it and enjoy it whether it is in a glass shaped for Pinot Noir or for Syrah. For high scaled restaurants and ultra-classy people the shape of the glass is of utmost importance. There are two main types of red wine glasses: Bordeaux and Burgundy glasses. Neither glass style has been officially proven to support their claims, but the ideology behind the styles is that the Bordeaux lends itself to bolder, more full-bodied wines with its large bowl and allows for greater aeration. These wines would include blends (Meritages), Cabernets, Zinfandels, and Syrahs for instance. The Burgundy glass on the other hand is for more delicate wines and directs the initial palate contact to the tip of the tongue. Wines often specified for Burgundy glasses are Pinot Noirs and Merlots. There is certainly even more variation among these two glass categories (sub-styles for Pinots or Cabernets), but studying that will instantly throw you into the “obnoxious wino” classification among your friends.

The final glass style is for sparkling wine. These are called flutes and are straight and narrow (and not compatible to sudden movements with its top heavy demeanor).

Wine glass style aside, the next order of business is the glass quality itself. I, as a little-money-to-my-name kind of persona and quite the klutz, I prefer the glass that isn’t glass but actually plastic in the shape of fancy glass. Or, I go for stemless because they are much more stable in the presence of flailing appendages and uneven surfaces. Stemless (and not plastic) are actually becoming quite the fashion in the chic wine world. The only problem being that it forces you to hold the bowl itself and inadvertently warm up the wine (and that is a typical no-no). If you are looking for tradition glasses (with stems) that actually are made of glass, you obviously have the decision on a wide scale of expense and quality. In this regard, the only important factor is that it does not get super spotty or at least you can rub out the spots easily. Another expense-quality factor to consider if you are practical and efficient is if the wine glass is dishwasher appropriate. Hand washing stemware gets old super-fast!

For Palmeri Wines, we most certainly suggest red wine Bordeaux styled stemware. We have already laid down our mountain fruit varietals for multiple years (our current releases range from 2005-2008), which has allowed the tannins to soften and provides a smoother full palate sensation. Due to this cellar aging process and specific fruit content, the large breathable bowl found in Bordeaux stemware for our bold wine is not a necessity. We just want you to enjoy our wines in whatever receptacle you like and honestly, in my college bank account funded research, Palmeri Wines tastes just delicious straight from the bottle.

The road from grape to glass is quite a wine-dy road. It requires enormous amounts of time (and therefore patience) as well as human and natural resources. It is understanding this process that makes me extremely respective and overwhelmed to the point that I need to sit down with a glass of wine to calm my excited nerves with this newfound knowledge.

As probably expected, the grape to glass process begins with the grape in the vineyards. Growing the grapes is one of the longest waits. The grapes are planted and through the months the vines are irrigated, pruned, and overall pampered. Wine country grapes honestly have the life. Then traditionally come September and October the grapes are harvested. Different varietals and different clones of varietals mature at scattered times so harvest often lasts a couple of weeks. Grapes are collected not via machine-robot-outsource means, but instead through some good ol’ manual labor. The bushels are then crushed, unfortunately not stomp-style like old Italy, but through presses, which turn the batch into not-quite-ready-for-consumption grape juice. At this point, the winemaker really steps in. Kerry Damskey tastes the wine at various intervals to better understand the identity (alcohol percent, texture, ripeness, etc.) of the grape. The next couple of ladder rungs in the vino-making process highlight the true talents of the winemaker. The fermentation step is traditionally in oak barrels (French, American, Hungarian… only the finest designer wood brand) or stainless steel barrels. Wine then ages and is chemically altered during this process for multiple months.

After the wine is finished fermenting, and the winemaker has approved the palate and blends, the wine is finally bottled. Typically this occurs on giant conveyor belts that include every bit of the bottling process: the wines are filled with the “good stuff,” a little blast of nitrogen, the cork is thrown in with super suction, the foil is wrapped on, labels are delicately placed on the front and back, twelve bottles are put back in the original cardboard case, the case is taped up and labeled and the process is done! Some of these machines can churn out finish product at ridiculous speeds with extremely high quality. If everything then goes according to the game plan, the wine is sold and the consumer enjoys that delicious glass of well-traveled wine.

Palmeri Wines is unique since it uses only high elevation mountain fruit. We therefore lay down our wine for a couple of years after it has been bottled and packaged before we release it. This allows for a second form of aging of the grape to provide a fuller-body flavor with more intense fruit.

So next time you are about to drink that high-class glass of wine (and certainly not that mass produced boxed wine), remember the long arduous road those grapes took to get to your taste buds and how your long arduous trip home that night no longer seems so bad (especially if you are drinking on your porch).

Alright alright alright! It’s that time again to do another shameless plug via blog post for the winery that is paying me! Yesterday was quite an exciting day at the office. Besides the fact that every day is an exciting day when there is a puppy in your presence that is not house broken, Palmeri Wines was striking some serious gold in wine competitions! A few wine tasting competitions released their results yesterday and on the Palmeri front I must say we like the shimmery yellow hue some of our wines received.

Here is the breakdown of our podium standings:

Los Angeles International Wine and Spirits Competition:

*Gold/ 92 points – 2006 Stagecoach Syrah

*Gold/ 90 points – 2006 Stagecoach Cabernet Sauvignon

*Silver – 2007 AND 2008 Stagecoach Cabernet Sauvignon

In this competition there were 3,298 wines entered from 999 different wineries.

Competition number dos:

San Francisco World Spirits Competition:

*Double gold – 2006 Van Ness Syrah

AND! (yes the list does continue in this PR shout out), we are Wine of the Week in the Press Democrat! Click here for the article.

A rose by any other label would smell so sweet. Yes Shakespeare, duh, but that is not the point. Labels are actually one of the biggest selling points for wine (and not the actual flavor). In fact, the design of the label and its appeal to the customer is often the main reason for purchase at supermarkets and liquor stores (where tastings do not occur). Consumers are clearly judging the wine by the label and because of that, wineries spend lots of time and money on deciding the perfect wine bottle’s “billboard.”

Palmeri Wines began its search for the perfect label one afternoon and stop about an hour later at Linda Schroeter Studios in Geyserville with a bottle of wine in hand. Linda Schroeter is a neighbor and dear friend AND an incredible artist. She is a student of commercial art and illustration in wildlife realism. Her local involvement continues with our proud mantra of a quaint family-owned winery and instilled our connection to mountainous fruit with her wildlife depictions. So we sat her down that afternoon, gave her a bottle of wine to picture her new commission’s canvas and shared the vino until she agreed. Luckily it only took one bottle to convince her!

Palmeri Wines features four distinct wines from two counties (in order to not play favorites among the competing wine counties). From Napa County, we have the Stagecoach Vineyard Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Cabernet/Syrah blend. Then from Sonoma County (our office’s stomping grounds) we have the Van Ness Vineyard Syrah. Each of the four wines has their own label to pay tribute to the wild animal within the Palmeri staff and among our high elevation fruit. It’s debatable which Northern California natural mountain habitant best represents the members of our Palmeri staff, but I am most certainly trying not to identify with the boar. In total, the animals include the bat for our Van Ness Syrah with its elegance and incredible ability to catch mosquitoes (so sommelier this and maybe eat a few mosquitoes with this syrah next time…). Then there is the wild boar, for our not-at-all-stinky, but certainly full-bodied (or big-boned if we’re being polite) Stagecoach Syrah. Our Stagecoach Cabernet is represented by the poised cougar, the animal, and NOT the kind that you would find in a bar hitting on younger men. Finally we have the fox with its power yet grace for the Stagecoach Cabernet/Syrah blend.

So next time you are walking down the isle and willing to choose a wine based on the label that you have never tasted, pick a Palmeri Wine! The original illustrations that possibly catch the passer-by’s eye and give homage to our local roots helps create a more personable feel for our extraordinarily delicious and unique red wines.

Agriculture is a very egotistical field. You may plant it in ocean-front real estate, spoil it with food and sun, and day-spa it with pruning sessions. In the end though, come harvest, those stubborn photosynthesizers may die or produce poor quality products. In those cases, the appropriate response (maybe even in all cases) is to blame everything but you. The weather may not have been perfect or the soil was providing the wrong nutrient to the plant’s diet. Or, in the bleakest of conditions, the crop may have developed friendship that quickly turned to enemies as insects or mildews. There are two insects that as a farmer you hope never decides to “join the party” at your previously healthy vineyard. With the peculiar names, the insects are glassy winged sharpshooters and phylloxera.

The glassy winged sharpshooter. It seems like the name of a plane in Top Gun or of a killer bird. The name has much too much class for an insect that looks like a slug with legs. This unsuitably named insect carries Pierces Disease, which if not quarantined and treated with pesticides or insect-eating wasps, can destroy an entire vineyard. Fortunately this ugly mobile slug rarely makes guest appearances in Northern California.

Phylloxera is an extremely grotesque insect that likes to dine on vines. In about three years phylloxera can completely wipe out a vineyard and hold no survivors. In the 1800s, when trading “cuttings” or vine roots was the “it thing” in the wine world, phylloxera got ahold of a few cuttings and killed over half of Europe’s vineyards will the greatest casualties in France. This then sparked the development of grafting, which allowed original rootstock to stay in the ground, but produce different grapes. This seemed to terminate the phylloxera epidemic until the outbreaks in the 1980s took hold of the California wine country and created widespread crop failure and forced numerous vineyards to replant. Luckily Palmeri Wines has never been affected by this nasty little bugger, and since we use rootstock with immunities towards phylloxera, hopefully those vineyard-loving insects will stay far away.

Now that you’re skittish with the imagery of phylloxera and glassy winged sharpshooters crawling around everywhere, it is time to move onto mildew and rot! There are three main diseases, which without the help of insects, greatly affect vineyards and lead to crop failure. Powdery mildew, Downey mildew, and black rot all take refuge on leaves, roots, and grapes, which cause poor juice quality and vine death. Often times these diseases can be controlled with small amounts of pesticides though like most infections can develop resistances over the years.

Palmeri Wines supports the natural predators of these annoying insects, such as rattlesnakes, but often times that is not enough to assure the health of our vines. We do use pesticides, as all wineries must, but with the lowest dosage and only in the most necessary of conditions. This helps guarantee the production of natural and healthy grapes that are environmentally friendly and ready for harvest year after year.

Glassy Winged Sharpshooter

Phylloxera