Local Urban Wineries Visit

FOW Members and Friends,

Sunday, November 15, 2009
Join us for a different sort of winery tour and tasting at five local Urban Wineries, located near downtown San Jose and downtown Campbell. Afterwards, please join us for an optional dinner at Buca di Beppo, a very fun place!

12:00 pm – Coterie Cellars, 1805 Little Orchard Street, Unit 110, San Jose, (408) 828-3046.
Coterie Cellars is owned and operated by its founders, winemaker Kyle Loudon and his wife Shala. Together they are pioneering the Urban Winery movement in the South San Francisco Bay Area. As one of the smallest wineries in California, they produce wines made by hand, berry to bottle, from highly regarded vineyards in the Russian River Valley, Santa Lucia Highlands, and Fiddletown. Their philosophy is to work only with small, exemplary growers, to understand the unique characteristics that each vineyard offers, and to respect those characteristics through gentle winemaking in order to produce the most flavorful and evocative wines for each site. We will taste their current releases from each of the aforementioned winegrowing regions.

1:30 pm – Stroth-Hall Cellars, 165K Cristich Lane, Campbell.
Owners Paul Stroth, Sequoia Hall and Stu Slack set out to create vineyard designated Syrah from around California, striving to display the personality and charm of the Syrah grape from various locales, with each wine reflecting the soils and climate of its origin. We will taste and compare this variety from two different vineyards, each from two different vintages, and possibly a barrel sample or two.

2:15 pm – Travieso Winery, 165F Cristich Lane, Campbell.
The philosophy of Travieso owners Mats Hagstrom and Ray Sliter is to produce limited quantities of wine from select vineyards, keeping tight control over the grapes by purchasing only by the acre and doing the great majority of the vineyard management themselves, and using minimal intervention in the winemaking, allowing many of their fermentations to take with
wild yeast. “We have seen others try to make French wine in California, but we want to make California wine in California.”
We will taste their current releases of Sangiovese, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Red Wine blend.

3:00 pm – Pinder Winery, 165K Cristich Lane, Campbell, (408) 377-1937.
Pinder Winery began over ten years ago in the kitchen and garage of John and Marie Pinder and, like for so many others, quickly became a passionate hobby. After completing coursework at UC Davis and years of home wine making, they moved to the Campbell facility in January 2001 and now produce Viognier, Chardonnay, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mouvedre, Merlot,
Petite Sirah and Pinot Noir. We will taste a selection of their current releases.

4:00 pm – Heart’s Fire Winery, 165K Cristich Lane, Campbell, (408) 858-6029.
Owners Julie and Dan Scheve began making wine at home in 1997. Kristen and Brian Link joined “the home winemaking madness – and the idea of starting a winery began to ferment soon after”. Specializing in Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, they source their grapes from single vineyards in Dry Creek and Redwood Valleys that best reflect what they value in the wine and
then minimize the manipulation in the winemaking process, thus letting the wine “speak for itself”. We will taste their current releases.

5:30 pm - Optional Dinner – Buca di Beppo, 1875 S Bascom Ave, Campbell, (408) 377-7722.
Buca di Beppo is a fun place! We will enjoy a dinner served family-style including Bruschetta, Chopped Antipasto Salad, Lasagna, Penne Basilica (Chicken, Broccoli and Pesto Cream Sauce) and Veal Parmigiana, with Tiramisu for dessert. Wine is available for purchase on your own, or you may bring in your own wine (any size bottle!) for a $15 corkage fee.

Cost: Wine Tasting Only – Members $5, Non-members $8.
With Optional Dinner– Members $43.00, Non-members $53.00.
RSVP with check payable to FOW no later than Saturday, November 7 to:
Cheryl Markman (408) 578-8315
4982 Collomia Court
San Jose, CA 95111
Up-coming events:
December 10 (Thursday) – Holiday Dinner Dance
January 9 or 23 (?) – Guest Speaker Master Sommelier Reggie Narito