From: The BrightWines Beacon Subject: Mendo blendo! A Mendocino double-feature, Steele and Jaxon Keys. Date: June 6, 2014 7:25:30 PM CDT To: The BrightWines Beacon

The BrightWines Beacon for June 6th, 2014: Mendo blendo! A Mendocino double-feature of Steele and Jaxon Keys

This weekend at BrightWines we'll be having a double-feature of wineries that both offer a wide range of great , and classic styles, from Mendocino county in . Head north on Hwy 101 (the Redwood Highway) an extra half-hour from Healdsburg in Northern Sonoma and you'll find yourself in Mendocino, home to several historic names in California - varied microclimates suitable to everything from and to and , as well as hops and other "green" crops too - and most importantly for BrightWines newsletter readers, a range of impressive classic California wines at very reasonable prices!

** TASTING of wines from Mendocino, RSVP tasting on Saturday evening at 6:30pm. See The Lamp is Lit. ** A brief primer on Mendocino wines in The View from the Top. ** See BRIGHT LIGHTS today for Dave's Top Picks from Mendocino, at some great SALE/feature prices. Highlights include: 40% off the Wine Spectator rated retail prices on two single-vineyard, old vines (century-old) - plus - first-time in Minnesota, and just $12.99 per bottle, new favorite BLENDS (a red blend and a white blend) - plus - two impressive Chardonnay's (one is unoaked) by one of California's undisputed masters @ 33% to 40% off - including - BARGAIN ALERT (Flash Sale, only 15 cases available): a great unoaked Chardonnay! Just $7.99 per bottle (regularly $12.99)

THE LAMP IS LIT: Store Hours and Tasting schedule

** SATURDAY June 7th: OPEN 10am to 6:30pm plus RSVP Class/Tasting on Mendocino wines at 6:30pm -- tasting details -- Saturday June 7th at 6:30pm will be a guided tasting of new arrivals, great wines and great values from Mendocino County, California. It's a Mendo blendo! Please RSVP by e-mail if you would like to attend. Space is limited to approximately 25 tasters. This Class/Tasting will focus exclusively on whites and reds (maybe one dry ) from the wineries listed in today's newsletter (while supplies last) with a special focus on the wines of Mendocino County, California. There will be a special treat to taste. This tasting will begin as close to 6:30pm as my regular Saturday business allows. Please RSVP by e-mail if you would like to attend.

** NEXT WEEK: Monday June 9th through Saturday June 14th, OPEN REGULAR summer HOURS most of the week

This coming week begins "Summer Hours" here at BrightWines, which means BrightWines will be OPEN, except as noted for events or time-off, Monday through Saturday using the following schedule: Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday: OPEN 11am to 6:30pm daily (note: this coming Weds/Thurs I will be closing at 5:30pm both evenings to attend dance recitals, I'll put a sign in the window) Thursday/Friday: OPEN 10:30am to 7pm daily, with in-store tastings to be announced Saturday: OPEN from 10am to 6:30pm, with in-store tastings to be announced

THE VIEW FROM THE TOP: meandering up towards Mendocino

If you head north on Highway 101 (the Redwood Highway) for an extra half-hour from Healdsburg in Northern Sonoma, you'll find yourself in Mendocino. Mendocino County is home to several historic names in - varied microclimates suitable to everything from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to Zinfandel and Grenache, as well as hops and other "green" crops too. Mendocino is one of the leading wine growing regions for organically produced wine , nearly 25% of the acreage in Mendocino County is grown organically - and you thought I meant another "green" crop (one of which is also famously grown in Mendocino) like hops, didn't you? Well, one of the main towns is even named Hopland, while the big "city" at the north end is Ukiah, and the other nameless green crop is a bit of counter-culture. Speaking of which, perhaps the most interesting town in Mendocino is Boonville, which is famous for micro-brewing (moreso than wine) and also for it's own peculiar historic regional language called "Boontling" (look it up, its kind of fun).

The region is part of the larger "North Coast" and one of California's largest and most climatically diverse wine growing regions with two distinct climate zones separated by the Mendocino Range. On the eastern border of the county are the which separate it from nearby Lake County, and within the county the Mendocino Range essentially divides the Mayacamas Mountains which separate it from nearby Lake County, and within the county the Mendocino Range essentially divides the region in two. To the west of the range, closer to the coast, tends to have more maritime climate that includes cooling and fog/rain influences from the Pacific ocean - while east of the range the climate turns warmer and more Mediterranean around Ukiah and along the path of the Russian River (the river itself, not the famed wine region) as it makes it way southward to Sonoma County. This includes most of the large general area of the Mendocino County AVA (American Viticultural Area) but there are actually ten different AVA's designated within Mendocino County. The majority of Mendocino County plantings are in the eastern side of the county, in the areas near the cities of Ukiah and Hopland and Redwood Valley (which has it's own AVA).

The first vineyards in Mendocino were established in the 1850s in the Redwood Valley by returning farmers who failed to strike it rich during the . Most of these wineries stayed small and disappeared during Prohibition as vineyards were replaced with nut and fruit orchards. The oldest continually operating commercial winery in Mendocino County is Parducci Wines, founded in 1931, and Parducci remained the only commercial winery in Mendocino until the late 1960s when Fetzer Vineyards was founded (and would eventually grow to be the largest wine producer in the county). Fetzer would also become a leader in steering the viticultural practices of the county towards more sustainable agriculture and production. Today roughly 25% of all the vineyards in the Mendocino County are certified organic, the largest percentage of any county in California.

Although most of the vineyards in the region produce wine under the larger blanket of the Mendocino AVA, there are 10 delimited AVA regions within Mendocino County, The best-known of the Mendocino AVAs are Anderson Valley, McDowell Valley, Redwood Valley, and to a lesser extent Potter Valley and Yorkville Highlands. These wine regions are climatically diverse, with some of the warmest and also some of the coolest sites in California. For example, Anderson Valley is one of the coolest wine growing regions in California, being deeply influenced by the cool Pacific fog coming in off the coast, and is well-known for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and especially for Brut production from those same varietals. At the other end of the spectrum, the warmer eastern regions near Ukiah and Hopland are famed for growing warmer climate varieties like Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, , Cabernet and more recently Grenache too.

If you are not already familiar with the wines and the styles and the quality (and the quality-to-value) that Mendocino offers, or even if you are already a fan, be sure to read on to Bright Lights for "Dave's Top Picks" of NEW arrivals from Mendocino. Interestingly, in Dave's Top Pick white wine today, Mendocino County is home to both the warmest vineyard site and the coolest vineyard site in the cuvee. That's Mendocino for you. Add to that some old vine Zins, a red blend and a white blend by Jaxon Keys, an affordable luxury made by Rich Parducci, plus the Mendocino-based wines (and more) from Jed Steele from Mendocino. It's a Mendo blendo!

BRIGHT LIGHTS: Dave's Top Picks of a Mendocino double-feature!

** BARGAIN ALERT **

Unoaked yet full-flavored and classic Chardonnay by one of the true masters of Chardonnay, Jed Steele. Retail price of $12.99 per bottle and $108 per case (special pricing on the winery website). A BrightWines "Flash Sale" of 15 cases at just $7.99 per bottle!

SHOOTING STAR 2011 Mendocino County CHARDONNAY @ $7.99 per bottle (sale price = $95.88 per case) Dave says: Shooting Star is Jed Steele's (Steele Winery) value label, and features different styles of his signature wines like Chardonnay and Zinfandel at value prices as well as "fun" varieties like Aligote and Blue France too. In the case of this Chardonnay, it is an unoaked Macon- Villages styled Chardonnay that is sourced from some of the best spots in Mendocino County for Chardonnay. In fact, a large portion of the fruit for Shooting Star Chardonnay comes from the Dupratt Vineyard in the very cool "Mendocino Ridge" appellation. Crisp and fresh style with mineral and apple flavors. Great value for the quality and the pedigree too.

** FEATURED WINERY: JAXON KEYS (Hopland, Mendocino County) **

Wine Enthiusiast magazine noted that "Jaxon Keys is a new Mendocino County producer operating out of the former Jepson Winery, which has been completely redone" and BrightWines is proud to introduce JAXON KEYS to Minnesota! The first shipment of these wines to our market was the week of Memorial Day, and I am proud to say that BrightWines was the first to order half-a-pallet mixed of these two wondeful blends from Mendocino County. Only about a thousand cases of each of these "Farmhouse Red" and "Farmhouse White" were produced. Jaxon Keys is part of the Wilson Artisan family of wineries, which includes revamped famous names like Mazzocco, De Lorimier, Pezzi King, and Soda Rock. At the farmhouse on Hyw 101 in Hopland, formerly home to the well-known Jepson winery, they are also distilling an alambic potstill brandy in addition to a wide range of great white and red wines. To make the brandy, they use a large and historic planting of older vines French (formerly a Mendocino "staple" variety) and some of that also goes into the blend of the historic planting of older vines French Colombard (formerly a Mendocino "staple" variety) and some of that also goes into the blend of the Farmhouse white too. On their red soils they have a range of classic Mendocino red vines like Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, as well as newcomer Grenche. The only two wines that have enough production to come to MN are the blends, but no complaint here!

JAXON KEYS 2013 Farmhouse white @ $12.99 per bottle (case price $149.99 = $12.50 each) Suggested Retail: $15 (see Wine Enthusiast, and winery website) An exuberant fresh and lively dry-but-fruity blend of , unoaked Chardonnay, French Colombard, and (roughly 15% - 33% of each variety depending on the vintage). This will likely be one of my favorite "fun" whites of summer and it's a fresh as can be as a 2013 vintage. If you are getting tired of too much grapefruit or too much mineral "zing" in so many Sauvignon Blanc options, the exuberant melon tones and floral/fresh crispness of this dry white will likely hit the spot!

JAXON KEYS 2012 Farmhouse Red blend @ $12.99 per bottle (case price $149.99 = $12.50 each) Suggested Retail: $15 (see Wine Enthusiast, and winery website) Fans of Runquist "1448" red blend looking for a summer-weight version of this sort of Zin/Syrah/Petite Sirah blend with rich smooth oak and spice need to check out the Jaxon Keys Farmhouse red. This wine is a bit lighter on its feet than the "1448" because the Farmhouse Red blend has a large percentage of Grenache in the blend. Flavors of cherry and blackberry with hints of lavender and vanilla, a medium-to- full bodied red blend that is just begging for anything from the bbq grill this summer.

** Affordable Luxury: a BrightWines favorite Cabernet Sauvignon, made by Mendocino's own Rich Parducci **

McNab Ridge 2009 Family Reserve TRIO Cabernet Sauvignon @ $24.99 per bottle (sale price, very-very limited) (retail price $40, winery-club price $32) This wine is called "Trio" because of the threeway vineyard sourcing of 43% Napa Valley, 34% Sonoma, 23% Mendocino Cabernet Sauvignon. McNab Ridge is the family winery for the venerable Parducci family, and fourth generation winemaker Rich Parducci (and his emeritus winemaker father, John Parducci, who passed away just this winter). This truly "reserve" Cabernet spent 22 months new french oak. Only 143 cases were produced of this fantastic Cabernet, which could easily pass for a $50 Napa Valley (or top-end Sonoma/Alexander Valley) and each vineyard source of Cabernet was "harvested, crushed, fermented and barrel-aged separately" and blended masterfully by winemaker Rich Parducci. As mentioned above, the Parducci family was the "first family" in the second era of Mendocina wines after Prohibition. Note: these are the FINAL few 6-packs, of 70 total, that came to MN - exclusively to BrightWines.

** FEATURED WINERY: STEELE (with a special focus on Mendocino-based wines) **

Jed Steele is quite simply one of the best and most famous winemakers in California. I love his wines and feature then whenever I can get great deals. For someone of his stature (figuratively, as well as literally) he could have "sold out" many times over. Actually though, one of the things that makes Jed Steele so widely respected is that his career path is the opposite of a quote/unquote sell-out. You see, although Jed Steele is widely credited as the genius behind the juggernaut that was (and still is) Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay, he chose to leave that behind to create wines of smaller production and individual personality. He is particularly known for Chardonnay and Zinfandel, no surprise given that his career began at Stony Hill (classic famed Chardonnay) and then Edmeades (great Mendocino/Redwood Zins) and then to Kendall-Jackson (Chardonnay, anyone?) before creating Steele Wines.

By way of introduction, in case you don't already know his wines, here is a brief bio on Jed Steele, written by Jed Steel himself: "From my start as a cellar worker at Stony Hill in Napa Valley in 1968, to UC Davis for a Master’s Degree in Enology, to starting Edmeades in the Anderson Valley and being there for ten years, to then starting Kendall-Jackson and working there for the first nine vintages of that wildly successful winery (I left the year we broke the million cases per year production mark), to the start of our own STEELE Wines in 1991 - it has been an incredible ride. During this time I have been able to produce wines from just about every top quality wine region in the state, from Santa Barbara to Mendocino. The line-up of vineyards which we either own or from which we purchase grapes has evolved slowly over the years to where we consistently draw on some of the finest vineyards in California. From viewing the actual number of wines we bottle, you might think that we are a large winery. However, this is not the case, as we specialize in many wines where the final bottling is less than 1,000 cases. This reflects my never ending fascination with many different varietals and vineyard locations. This approach allows us to maintain the practice of true craftmanship in the production of our small lot bottlings. We thank you for your patronage, and hope you enjoy our wines. Jed Steele - Owner/Winemaker." - AND - Here at BrightWines, after sampling through a wide range of wines from Steele, Shooting Star, and Writers Block (all part of the portfolio) I have selected 5 highlights to feature, coincidentally several of them have Mendocino connections or attributes. The other two are Lake County wines, just across the range from Mendocino. (white/rose selection) SHOOTING STAR 2011 Mendocino County CHARDONNAY @ $7.99 per bottle (sale price = $95.88 per case) Dave says: Shooting Star is Jed Steele's (Steele Winery) value label, and features different styles of his signature wines like Chardonnay and Zinfandel at value prices as well as "fun" varieties like Aligote and Blue France too. In the case of this Chardonnay, it is an unoaked Macon- Villages styled Chardonnay that is sourced from some of the best spots in Mendocino County for Chardonnay. In fact, a large portion of the fruit for Shooting Star Chardonnay comes from the Dupratt Vineyard in the very cool "Mendocino Ridge" appellation. Crisp and fresh style with mineral and apple flavors. Great value for the quality and the pedigree too.

(white/Rose selection) STEELE 2013 ROSE of (Lake County) @ $10.79 per bottle (feature price) Perennial favorite here at BrightWines, I just received my shipment of this limited/seasonal production Dry Rose. Cabernet Franc makes a wonderfully aromatic rose wine, and this crisp dark/vibrant pink wine is going to be one of my most popular, I'm sure.

(Dave's Top Pick white) STEELE 2012 cuvee CHARDONNAY @ $12.99 per bottle (sale price = $155.88 per case) Suggested Retail: $19 (see Wine Spectator and winery website) = 33% off the retail price on this winery feature! Dave says: the Steele cuvee is the flagship Chardonnay from Jed Steele, and absolutely my best Chardonnay under $18 right now. Creamy and juicy with plenty of richness yet a sense of elegance too. This cuvee is a blend of some of the most famous, and complex and compelling, sources for Chardonnay in all of California. From Bien Nacido and Goodchile in the Santa Maria region of southern Cal, to the famed Sangiacomo family vineyards in Carneros, to the Durell vineyard too; and further north into the great Chardonnay sites of Mendocino like Lolonis in Redwood Valley and Dupratt in Mendocino Ridge - all of these are blended together to make a signature Jed Steele Chardonnay that will appeal to all yet, inspire the connoisseur. Interestingly for today's topic, Mendocino County is home to both the warmest vineyard site and the coolest vineyard site in the blend. The Lolonis Family has been farming in Redwood Valley since the 1920’s, farming organically since the 1950’s. To the west lies DuPratt Vineyard, located above Anderson Valley in the Mendocino Ridge.

(Affordable Luxury) STEELE "Catfish Vineyard" Century Old Vines 2010 ZINFANDEL @ $15.83 per bottle ($189.99/case) Suggested Retail: $26 (see Wine Spectator). Savings of 40% off retail for this winery feature! Wine Spectator notes: "Release Price $26. Crisp and zesty up front, with bright cherry flavors, finishing with briary wild berry notes that show cracked pepper and sassafras accents. Drink now through 2018. 1,000 cases made. 88 points." Sourced from century-old vines in Clear Lake AVA, Lake County (across the ranges from Mendocino, and north of Napa Valley). Had good body and richness, reminiscent of Napa or Lodi or Dry Creek styles. Catfish Vineyard Zinfandel is actually a field blend of a number of varieties, including small amounts of , alicante bouschet, cabernet sauvignon , petite sirah, and cinsault.

(Dave's Top Pick red) STEELE 2010 "Pacini Vineyard" Old Vine ZINFANDEL @ $11.99 each ($129.99/case = $10.83 mix/match) Suggested Retail: $18 (see Wine Spectator). Savings of 40% off retail for this winery feature! Hot off the Press! May 31, 2104 Wine Spectator notes: "Release Price $18. Sleek and appealingly understated, with bright cherry, herb and peppery cedar flavors. Drink now through 2017. 3,000 cases made. 88 points." Sourced from 70 year old vines in a famed Mendocino County vineyard site. Has the spicy/bright personality of a textbook Zin from Mendocino, think Edmeades perhaps?

That's all for today. My apologies for the later-than-usual "send" on today's newsletter. I had to wait until just a few minutes ago for the pallet-worth of Steele wines to arrive from the local warehouse into BrightWines. Since they represent such a large portion of my Mendocino selections, and some of the best "deals" of the feature - I dared not send it until the cases arrived. I am well-stocked with Mendocino wines for this weekend, and will do my best to continue this feature into next week and for Father's Day too. Remember, there won't be tastings the next couple of Friday nights due to the car show downtown North Saint Paul, but please do feel free to RSVP by e-mail to attend the Class/Tasting of great wines and great values from Mendocino here at BrightWines this Saturday evening.

"Please stay with me here in Mendocino" -- Mendocino. Song by the Sir Douglas Quintet, featured in the movie Easy Rider.

The Right Wines are BrightWines! www.brightwines.com 651-748-0793 2420 Margaret Street North Saint Paul, MN 55109