Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/188061
PHOTO: DEBORAH PARKER WONG SAN FRAN INSIDER Winemaker Philippe Melka (left) with Mary Ann and Larry Tsai of Moone-Tsai. Relate, Innovate, Celebrate PHOTO COURTESY OF STEELHEAD VINEYARDS by Deborah Parker Wong Taking a look at what's inside the bottle, you'll find that Chappelle (who is also winemaker at sister winery Quivira) has hit a series of home runs with Steelhead's current releases: a tropical Sauvignon Blanc ($13) from a Bartolucci site in Lake County, a Maconnais-style Chardonnay ($13), perfumed and peppery Pinot Noir ($15) and a tasty, balanced Zinfandel-dominant red blend ($15) from the company's North Coast sites. 2013 will be a year to remember for Pahlmeyer's Kale Anderson, who is crushing his first vintage as winemaker at the winery's new facility within The Ranch in Rutherford. Jayson Pahlmeyer, who originally partnered with John Caldwell, has produced his Atlas Peak wines at the venerable Napa Wine Company since the early 1990s and will now have total control over their production. Anderson, a protégée of Melka's who also trains with sensory expert Kale Anderson of Alexandre Schmitt, and Pahlmeyer. vineyard manager David Wilson are optimizing every corner of the winery's 72-acre Waters Ranch Vineyard by inducing drought-like conditions to control vigor. The site is renowned for gorgeous aromatics and is planted to Malbec at the highest elevations. "I never thought I'd have an opportunity to work with this fruit," said Anderson, who has 300 new barrels and an optical sorter at his disposal. "This vintage is a milestone" any way you sort it. PHOTO: DEBORAH PARKER WONG Winemaker Hugh Chappelle of Steelhead Vineyards. W hen wine graces the table at state occasions, its presence there serves many purposes. For Moone-Tsai, produced by vintner Larry Tsai, an American of Chinese descent, and his wife MaryAnn Tsai, it's symbolic of a strong bond between two cultures. The Tsais were honored when the Chinese Consulate served their 2008 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit held earlier this year in Rancho Mirage. In actuality, MooneTsai represents a bond between three cultures, because consulting winemaker Philippe Melka, a native of Bordeaux, has a hand in the process. For the 2010s, Melka sourced a bright, herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc from Mt. Baldy and savory reds from John Caldwell's vineyards, where Moone-Tsai is housed, and Howell Mountain for a Napa Valley wine that is alive and aromatic with notes of garrigue, pipe smoke, cassis and brown spices. Tsai's Heart of the Loin, a blend of Pritchard Hill and To Kalon fruit, is popular in Asia where collectors marvel over Melka's ingenious blending of these acclaimed sites. Steelhead Vineyards winemaker Hugh Chappelle and Katy Leese, General Manager of parent company V2 Wine Group, brought 750ml. bottles of Steelhead Sonoma Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon to our home office, but the next time we encounter Steelhead, we could very well be tasting from their new W1ne for One packaging. Intended for ball parks and venues that prohibit glass, the single-serve plastic bottle fits neatly inside a glass connected at the screwcap. Steelhead "1s" can be found at The Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio. Let's hope AT&T Park is on deck. 28 / the tasting panel / october 2013 TP1013_001-33.indd 28 9/23/13 10:34 PM Aniv