Amapola Creek's New Rhone-ish Blend - Only 95 Cases Made

Amapola Creek's new estate grown (certified organic) wine - named Cuvee Alis, for proprietor Richard Arrowood's wife - is a blend of 55% Syrah and 45% Grenache - which marks a departure for Arroowood who built his previous brand on the California reliables of Chardonnay and Cabernet.

The new Rhone blend sells for a more affordable $48 a bottle (compared with his Cabs at $80). Only 95 cases were made.

Cuvee Alis the first Rhone blend from Amapola which already has been making Syrahs, Cabernet, and Zinfandel on a mountainside in Sonoma.

Richard Arrowood

The grenache was grown on 8-year-old Syrah vines that were rebudded.

Holiday Wine Discount Deals

The emails are flying fast and furious - with some good deals in them thar digital doodoo!

Don't miss out on chances to buy organically grown wines at great discounts:


1. DASHE CELLARS, OAKLAND


On these dates only - Nov. 14-21: 25% off on cases (mixed or singles)

code DCPF25


The organic offerings include:

Dashe - McFadden Rieslings (organic) (2010 and 2011)
http://www.dashecellars.com/shop/Riesling

Dashe - Heart Arrow Zinfandel (biodynamic)
http://www.dashecellars.com/shop/Zinfandel/2010-Zinfandel-Heart-Arrow-Ranch

(I don't advise getting Dashe's Thanksgiving bundle as it includes mostly non-organically grown wines).

One of the great plusses about Dashe - they are right here in Oakland so you can drop by and pick up the wines yourself - no shipping charges.

2. BONNY DOON, SANTA CRUZ

Bonny Doon is running three special deals - choose from different bundles - or packs, as they call them.

Pack 1 - 4 wines for $80

The sparkling Moscato is a great aperitif or goes well with the meal or dessert.

The Clos de Gilroy is a grenache, a red on the lighter side (and one of my personal favorite varietals) that pairs well with turkey, ham, or other fare. But it is not whole-ly organic (partially).

The Muscat is not your usual muscat and is definitely on the dry, dry side (not sweet). It comes from the Italian moscato giallo grapes, a yellow muscat found in northeast Italy.

Vinferno is clearly a sweet wine and great for dessert.

Pack 2 - 4 wines for $90

I am not sure if the following are organically grown (pending winery response): This pack includes a new sparkling Riesling (again, a great aperif or accompaniment to the meal), a viognier (light white), a carignane/mourvedre blend (medium bodied red) (might not be fully organic - to be confirmed pending winery notification), and a light port (viognier with added eau de vie and raw grape spirit (also unknown if this is certified organic).

There's also a Holiday Brunch pack - 5 wines for $78

This one includes:

• a nonalcoholic grenache, which can be drunk as it or mixed with sparkling water.

• a hard sparkling cider, which is a blend of apples (51%), pears (40%) and quince (9%)

• a rose (70% grenache and 30% cinsault)

and the aforementioned dry (yellow) muscat and grenache blend.

In addition, Bonny Doon is offering free shipping on orders over $125.

3. AMAPOLA CREEK, SONOMA


Amapola Creek is offering free shipping on any order of 6 or more bottles - offer good until 11.23.11.


All of their estate grown wines are certified organic. (They offer a Monteo Rosso Zinfandel which is not estate grown). 


Their estate grown wines include a new Rhone blend of grenache and syrah (Cuvee Alis), Syrahs, Cabernet, and Zinfandels. 

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