Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/101724
SAN FRAN INSIDER A Toast to Resolutions story and photos by Deborah Parker Wong Now's the time to raise a glass to resolutions we've fulfilled and to those that lie before us both fermented and distilled. Chateau Montelena winemaker Bo Barrett and daughter Remi at the Westin St. Francis Oak Room. Winemaker Paul Hobbs (left) and author Ian Mount share a behind-the-scenes look at Argentina's wine industry. 30 / the tasting panel / january 2013 One of only two dedicated tasting rooms in San Francisco, the Chateau Montelena tasting room sits tucked like a jewel box in the lobby of the Westin St. Francis. Tasting there is the next best thing to visiting the winery and even more so when winemaker Bo Barrett and daughter Remi took time away from a Giants play-off game to host a ive-course dinner at the hotel's Oak Room restaurant. Barrett opened the tasting room in 2010 and his fondness for the hotel led to an evening designed to showcase a parade of gorgeous older vintage wines, including a magnum of classic 2002 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon that was redolent of sandalwood and star anise with intense, focused black fruit. The role of winemaker Paul Hobbs in the madcap history of Argentina's wine industry has been chronicled by Ian Mount in his new book The Vineyard at the End of the World. Hobbs and Mount teamed up for a memorable holiday lunch of grilled liver and pickled onions at the Presidio Social Club and dished up a little behind-thescenes perspective. "The Argentine government is restricting the importation of cork, capsules and barrels," remarked Hobbs whose visionary work there began in 1988 when he drove over the Andes from Chile to visit Bodegas Catena. Hobbs sources old vine fruit from Luján de Cuyo and Valle de Uco to produce small, exquisite lots of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec for his label Bramare. The name was inspired by the Etruscan word for" yearning." Chablis producers are looking west as American palates warm up to the idea of unoaked Chardonnay and Jean-François Bordet, a 13th-generation winemaker and President of the Chablis Wine Board, made a swing through Northern California with a line up of impressive wines including La Chablisienne 2009 Côte de Léchet, William Fèvre 2009 Vaulorent, Drouhin-Vaudon 2008 Les Clos and his own Domaine SéguinotBordet 2010, which he poured during a tasting at our home ofice. "Chablis couldn't be any easier for the U.S. consumer," said Bordet. "We grow one grape and make one color of wine." With French producers competing in a Lo Jean-François Bordet of Domaine Séguinot-Bordet, a 13th-generation winemaker representing the producers of Chablis. quality for value-driven global market, there's been a push to increase wine quality across the Chablis AOP. "U.S. importers have already selected superior quality wines for their markets, and that makes it even easier for consumers to be conident when buying Chablis." Bordet favors a fruit-forward style for his complex wines which show citrus, ripe apple, trufle and lint aromas with tropical fruit on the palate. All in all, it's @purechablis.