Philanthropy through Wine Buying: Check Out the Auction Napa Valley's Organic Vintners' E-Offerings

If you're feeling like becoming a philanthropist by buying wine, you can peruse the Auction Napa Valley online offerings, and find some fabulous Napa wineries' exciting offerings.

You can bid on these items online - or just fantasize about them. And then think about how much less wear and tear it is on you, not having to go to Meadowood for the auction, avoiding sweating it out in traffic, or the stress of finding shoes to go with your glamorous gown.

Now you can just enjoy the auction online with these offerings:

• Ehlers Estate

Lunch and tour for 4, plus a bottle of wine

• Frog's Leap

Large format Cabernet Sauvignon

• Gamble Family Vineyards

Overnight accommodations for three nights for 8 people plus wine

• Grgich Hills

Two night overnight stay for up to 6 people, tour, and wine

• HALL Wines - Dinner with Kathryn

Dinner for 12 with Kathryn Hall in the HALL Wine caves

• HALL Wines - Cabernet Vertical

Imperial bottles of cabernet sauvignon from a four year period

• Heitz Wine Cellars 

A 12 year vertical of their Trailside Cabernet Sauvignon (some are CCOF certified years)

• Inglenook

A magnum of 2005 Rubicon

• Madonna Estates

36 bottles of wine

• Neal Family Vineyards

Dinner for 12 and 12 magnums of wine

• Rocca Family Estates

Overnight stay for 2 nights, plus 6 bottles of wine

• Tres Sabores

Overnight stay for 2, including breakfast, lunch and dinner, and 24 bottles of wine, including 2 magnums

This Saturday Night: Concert at Grgich Hills with Violet Grgich and Les Violettes

Violet Grgich will play Saturday evening at 6 pm at
Grgich Hills winery

Now that Bottlerock is over, classical music can step into the spotlight. This Saturday Violet Grgich and friends will perform "Sweeter than Roses: Songs and Instrumental Music by Purcell and his French Admirers" at 6 pm at the winery in St. Helena.

"Sweeter than Roses" is the name of one of the composer's most famous songs.

Aside from Purcell, the concert will also feature cantatas by Clerambeault and Bousset as well as viol da gamba suite by Marin Marais.

Les Violettes, Violet's group, consists of soprano Corey Carleton, viola da gamba player Colin Shipman, and Violet on the harpsichord.

Wine tasting is included for the admission fee of $25.

To reserve a spot, call the winery or email them. Details here.

Dessert Wine for Your Valentine - Part 2

Since this is the season of sweets and sweeties, I covered the topic of dessert wines from organic vintners in a recent post - or so I thought. In the interim, I've remember some I forgot to mention in my earlier post...but I neglected them because of their price point, I think.

Here they are

1. Grgich Hills - Violetta ($85)

Named for the daughter of vintner Mike Grgich, this biodynamically grown, oaked white dessert wine is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Gewurztraminer, and ages 18 months in French oak barrels (75% of which are new).









2. Hawk and Horse Latigo (Cabernet) ($35)

From Lake County high end Cab producer in prestigious Red Hills comes a port style dessert wine made with Cabernet. Fortified with brandy, it is aged for 26 months in new French oak.

California Cabs - Wine Spectator's Top Organic Picks

Since I traveled in Italy, Sicily and Greece for most of the fall, I'm still catching up on my wine mags. It's a pleasure to flip through the pages all at once, and I almost feel like I'm tasting some great wines.

Wine Spectator's Nov. 15 issue features the 2009 vintage of California Cabernets. Many great Napa vineyards are featured and it's worth mentioning the organically grown ones on James Laube's recommendations.

Spottswoode's St. Helena Family Estate Grown Cabernet Sauvignon (96 pts, $145) makes the list for the best Cabs, in a very tight field where scores ranged from 96 to 97 among 13 wines. In fact, it almost seems like the "value" wine in the top 13 when you look at the prices for Schrader Cellars' Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard MM IX at $400 and Harlan Estate (96 pts) and Screaming Eagle (97 pts, both priced at $750 a bottle. Outta control, people.

Of the Spottswoode, Laube writes, "Beautifully crafted, showing a subtle mix of dried herbs, baking spices, and floral scents, with a light core of currant and blackberry flavors."

In the Top Values category, you'll find Chappellet, of Pritchard Hill, on the list with its Mountain Cuvee Napa Valley (89 pts) at $32 a bottle. They make more about 15,000 cases of this annually. This wine, alas, is not sourced wholely from their own organically certified vineyards, but it's worth noting here that their more expensive Cabernets will be, starting with the 2012 vintage. Note that it takes three years of organic viticulture to become organically certified, so any of the estate grown vintages since 2010 would also be organically grown.

There's also a short feature on the Pritchard Hill area in the mag, featuring several photos of Chappellet which is nice to see. I look forward to finally getting up there and doing some tasting when the weather gets a little nicer.

Other Cabernets that are grown organically that are listed in the A-Z section of the 2009 Cabs feature include:

94 points
• Dana Howell Mountain Hershey Vineyard ($325)

93 points
• Dana Napa Valley Lotus Vineyard ($325)

92 points
• Araujo Eisele Vineyard ($305)
• Dana Rutherford Helms Vineyard ($325)
• Staglin Family Cabernet Rutherford ($185)

91 points
• Ehlers Estate St. Helena 1886 ($95)

90 points
• Chappellet (in transition) Pritchard Hill ($135)

88 points
• Longmeadow Ranch (($45 - Napa Valley - but is this estate grown?)

86 points
• Grgich Hills ($60)
ª Inglenook, Rutherford Cask ($75)

85 points
• Volker Eisele ($45) (2008)

Having listed them in point order, I should say I don't believe in the point system, but am just aggregating information on WS's rankings.

Wine & Spirits' The Year's Best Syrah and Zin - The Organics Among Them

The February 2013 issue of Wine & Spirits arrived in my mailbox with their top picks for U.S. Syrah and Zin this year...and the usual organically grown powerhouse wineries made the lists.

Storybook Winery predictably placed second (with 94 points) on the Syrah list for its 2009 Napa Valley Estate Reserve ($65).

Grgich Hills' 2009 Napa Valley Estate Grown Zinfandel (biodynamic) ($35) rated 92 points, the same as Storybook's $48 Napa Valley Eastern Exposures Zinfandel.

Frog's Leap's 2010 Napa Valley Zin rated a Best Buy at $27. (Their estate wine is organically grown but the winery says they use grapes from other growers that are organic but not certified, so they can't label it organic).

Storybook Mountain, the only winery with three Zins on the list, also rated 91 points for its 2010 Napa Valley Mayacamas Ridge Zin ($36).

(On the Syrah list, Bob Lindquist of Qupe, a legend for Syrah, had three top wines, but none of them were from his organically certified vineyards.)

The Grape Stomp is ON! Daily at Napa's Grgich Hills

Want to get in on the grape harvest stomp? Grgich Hills in Napa offers visitors a stomping experience complete with stomping, teeshirt, and wine tasting (for $30) now through October. Offered 10-4 daily. No reservation needed.

Details here.

Wine & Spirits Best Chardonnays: Organically Grown Among Them

"Chamomile and pear": Ceritas' 2010 Sonoma Coast Porter-Bass Vineyard Chardonnay ($52) topped the organically grown Chards, rating at the same level as Au Bon Climat's 2010 Santa Maria Valley Nuits-Blanches au Bouge, master Chardonnay vintner Jim Clenenden's 30th Anniversary bottling (not organic).

I can't imagine a vineyard more beautiful than Porter-Bass. Ceritas is one of the boutique star wineries, its wines selling only by allocation (or in restaurants). It specializes in single vineyard Burgundian wines, rating high marks from an inner circle of the winerati.

"Distinctive": Grgich Hills Napa Valley Chardonnay ($42), a blend of grapes from American Canyon and the winery's top quality Carneros vineyard (both biodynamic), the 2009 vintage garnered 91 points in the article. (Personally I prefer their more expensive Chardonnay, solely from the Carneros vineyard, and don't know why it wasn't included. It lists for $75).

"Perfectly poised": Bethel Heights had two Chardonnays on the list - its unoaked 2010 Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay ($18) was rated at 93 points and designated a Best Buy. (I'll take a 93 point, $18 wine any day!) Its 2010 Estate Grown Chardonnay ranked 90 points, selling for $25, another Best Buy.

"Lavish": Bergstrom's 2010 Sigrid Chardonnay ($80) weighed in at 92 points - as usual one of the most expensive bottles on the Chardonnay list.

"Restrained": At 88 points, Matthiason's Napa Valley Linda Vista Vineyard (I believe this is organic) ($25) at a very respectable price point was also listed as a Best Buy.

I look forward to tasting the Best Buy wines on this list and adding them to my new wine app (almost done).

Family Winemakers of California: The Organically Grown Among Them

The folks at Urban Legend (proprietor Steve Shaffer on the left) have the SB as well as a Lake County Riesling with grapes that are in transition to being certified

Voss was new to me - this one's got newly certified grapaes

You can sample the Voss Sauvignon Blanc at Napa Wine Co., says Voss marketing and sales coordinator Crista Johnson. The grapes are just about to be certified (this is the third year on the path to certification).

I hadn't met the folks at Canihan before either...they've got some pretty impressive awards under their belt

Looking forward to visiting Canihan soon - they're in Sonoma. That's Bill Canihan on the right.

Adastra of Carneros

The folks at legendary Calera have just started putting Certified Organic on their back label - Marta Rich shows it off with panache

Josh Jensen of Calera holds up a bottle of their Viognier (I can put their half bottles in my new app since they're under $20)

That would be Calera - for how many years now?

Bucklin and his infamous field blend map dating back to the mid 1800s

Richard Arrowood's Amapola Creek from Sonoma

Another label that I didn't know about and didn't know was organic - Audelessa - from Glen Ellen; Parker's a fan

Oakland's Aubin/Verve makes a Pinot Noir sourced from Oregon's Momtazi vineyard's biodynamic grapes

Greg Graziano from Mendocino has Eddie Graziano's organic Zin (but it's almost all gone)

And the always impressive Grgich Hills (completely biodynamic)

Mila Handley from Handley Cellars - I saw some newbies here getting blown away (and rightly so) by their sparkling rose (I agree - it's soooo good)

Spencer (of Elizabeth Spencer) and I had a brief chat about how do you know something is organic if it's from Italy...to be continued

The always wonderful Mike Dashe and I realized we both worked together at Apple long, long ago (a previous lifetime, to be sure) - I am a  huge fan of the wines he makes from McFadden's grapes

Corley of Monticello has some in transition wines

I ran into the wonderful former wine director of Fish Ehoud Amos, and his wife - they wanted to make sure I got a chance to try the wines from Stone Edge - definitely going to visit them soon (Sonoma/Mount Veeder) - that's Dorothy Moller-Racke, Stone Edge Farms' marketing director, on the right.

Stone Edge's Surround is a blend of four nearby vineyards (all certified organic)

Stone Edge's Cab

Jim Milone from Terra Savia pouring  - almost all of his wines are in my forthcoming app. Look for tasting videos to follow in later posts.

John Fetzer and Patty Rock from Saracina - their new Chardonnay is AWESOME and especially for $16

Saracina's inaugural articles was on display (2004)

Definitely the best dressed award goes to Jason Haas from Tablas Creek, who was doing a fabulous  job showing off their newest vintages (one of which made the Chronicle today) - he was kind enough to do some spur of the moment videos, too - of which later

Grgich Celebrates 35th Anniversary of Judgment of Paris

I will be heading up to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Paris Tasting tonight and tomorrow. Sunday there will be a tour of some of the estate vineyards.

In the meantime, you can enjoy a virtual visit of Grgich Hills here in this very nicely done professonal video made by UPS:

GOOD: Green Winery from GOOD.is on Vimeo.

If you'd like to know more about the Paris Tasting, read George Taber's famous account of the event here. It is one of the best books on California wine.