Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/97133
SAN FRAN INSIDER Seasonal Greetings DE by Deborah Parker Wong PHOTO: DEBORAH PARKER WONG Eileen Crane celebrates 25 years as CEO and founding winemaker of Domaine Carneros with 15 vintages of Le R��ve. Matteo Lunelli, Chairman of Italy���s luxury sparkling house Ferrari, debuted the ���01 release of his prestige cuv��e ���01 Guilio Ferrari at Spruce. Matteo Lunelli, chairman of the Italian sparkling house Ferrari, brought his portfolio and newly-released Giulio Ferrari 2001 Metodo Classico to Spruce for a tasting that conirmed Trentino as the home of ultra-premium Italian bubbles. The cuvee, created in honor of winery founder Guilio Ferrari, who irst brought Chardonnay to high-elevation sites in Trentino in the early 1900s, was ebullient with baked apple and rich notes of roasted pineapple and marzipan underscored by striking minerality. Lunelli co-markets Ferrari wines in Italy 28 / the tasting panel / december 2012 Savor slowly. with fashion houses including Versace and Gucci as a founding member of the Altagamma Foundation, which promotes the ���Italian Art of Living.��� ���When we think of Italian luxury brands, we know these products are not only produced with great attention to detail and quality but that they will be fashionable as well.��� C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Graham���s Rupert Symington and cookbook author and restaurateur Joanne Weir comparing notes at Parallel 37. Tawny port is the trendiest and most food-friendly of all fortiied wine styles, and Rupert Symington, Joint Managing Director of Symington Family Estates, helped explain why when he hosted a component tasting and luncheon at The Ritz Carlton���s Parallel 37. The hallmark of port cellarmastering is blending, and Symington demonstrated how the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts when different lots are artfully blended to achieve the perfect 20, 30 and 40 year tawnies. ���There has been a shift in the way the older wines are inished,��� said Symington. ���They are refreshed with a small percentage of younger port prior to bottling to brighten and freshen them.��� Noticeably missing from Graham���s tawnies is any sign of ���Douro bake,��� the overt oxidation that occurs when port is aged in excessive heat. �� 2012, Spirits of Gold AB, Sweden, Karlsson���s Gold Vodka, Vodka, 40 % Alc./Vol., Imported by MHW, Ltd., Manhasset, NY. www.karlssonsvodka.com PHOTO: DEBORAH PARKER WONG M any ���up valley��� Napa wineries achieved milestone anniversaries in 2012. Stony Hill turned 60, Chateau Montelena marked 130 years while Schramsberg Vineyards reached its 150th (see our story on p. 76. ���Ed.) In Los Carneros, Eileen Crane celebrated 25 years as founding winemaker and CEO at Domaine Carneros with a rare 15-vintage tasting of her t��te-decuv��e Le R��ve Blanc de Blanc at Farallon in San Francisco. Crane, whose winemaking career spans 35 years, pioneered sparkling wine production in the Carneros district. Le R��ve, so named for Claude Tattinger���s dream of producing a California super cuv��e, was irst released in 1992 and shows the graceful development of a signature style that is created with the intention of ���optimizing the expression of each vintage.��� The spiced apple, lemon and mineral expression of the winery���s estate vineyards, planted to Pinot Noir and Stony Hill Chardonnay by Tony Soter in 1981, lirted with white peach and hazelnut in warmer years and revealed layer after layer of nuance as they unfurled.