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Conn Creek Winey in Napa Valley has a cool program where you get hands-on experience blending wine. It takes place it their AVA Room (American Viticulture Areas), where you step into the role of winemaker as you sample 15 single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon wines straight from the barrel. These 15 wines are all from the 15 appellations, or wine growing regions, that are in the Napa Valley. Conn Creek uses many of them for its signature Cab blend, Anthology. Blending is a critical tool in the winemaker’s toolbox, because often a blend will turn out to be way better than a single vineyard wine.

These barrels are grouped according to flavor and body, going from soft and light to big and bold. As I taste and make notes, a few favorites pop out. Once I’d decided on the Cab components, I still had more decisions to make. One is choosing a blending wine to add spice. The “spice rack” wines are Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. I decide to use Merlot and Cab Franc. I asked why wouldn’t you use all 15 base wines, and the answer was that it would be like using all 64 crayons in the big box — you would end up with black. I certainly don’t want a black, muddy wine. What I chose instead:

Conn Creek Rutherford estate: Love the big nose, juicy finish and silky texture [Supple]
Volker Estate Chiles Valley: So good! Floral nose, well-balanced, excellent [Complex]
Stagecoach Vineyard Atlas Peak: Nice complex nose, soft tannins [Complex]
Frediani Vineyard Calistoga: Ohh the nose is wonderful, brambles, cassis, black fruits, chocolate [Bold]
Merlot: Velvety
Cabernet Franc: Lovely floral nose

The next decision is how much of each wine to put into the blend. This is trial and error time. I went with the wines I liked the most in bigger percentages.

30% – Chiles Valley
30% – Stagecoach
15% – Conn Creek Estate
15% – Frediani
5% – Merlot
5% – Cab Franc

You add wines to a graduated cylinder, and then once you have 100% you dump the wine into a glass, then swirl, sniff and sip. Well, my blend wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. It was a little too fruity and that made it seem sweet.  While there is a wine educator on hand for the blending experience, the idea is really for you to do it on your own.  But I was happy that Conn Creek’s winemaker, Mike McGrath, dropped by.  He tasted my wine and immediately knew what was missing. Richness, in the form of earthy. He suggested adding some of the Newton Vineyard Mt. Veeder [Rich]. So I reworked my blend. Still not there. Now it was missing acid. I added a very small amount of Truchard Vineyard from Carneros [Soft] and it was amazing to me that it instantly made my blend taste really good. It’s like a light bulb went on. This blending is an art, and much harder than I expected. Here’s the “recipe” for my final blend:

20% – Chiles Valley
20% – Stagecoach
10% -Conn Creek Estate
15% – Frediani
5% – Merlot
5% – Cab Franc

Plus new additions:
5% – Truchard
15% – Mt. Veeder
5% – Petit Verdot

Now that I had my blend down, it was time to design the label. I’m no artist, so I went very simple — rolling hills and a sun. Once that’s done, you fill the bottle, cork it and slap on the label. That’s it — a bottle of wine you can take home to enjoy with friends and family.

Last, but not least, you get to taste Conn Creek’s flagship Cabernet Sauvignon blend, Anthology and you can compare your results to the pro winemakers. Turns out the blend for the current Anthology is 76% Cab, 10% Merlot, 8% Malbec, 4% Petit Verdot and 2% Cab Franc. I didn’t get the breakdown of the Cabs blended — after all that’s their “secret sauce.”
Anthology is powerful yet smooth and rich.

When I got home, my husband wanted to taste the wine immediately, but we had to wait at least 40 days to let the wine settle and go through bottle shock. So he tracked it on his calendar. On day 41 he wanted to open it, but the dinner I had made wouldn’t be a good match. A few weeks later I was ready; we popped the cork. I was a little worried the wine wouldn’t be any good, so I was pleasantly surprised by the floral nose with a hint of vanilla. There was lots of dark red fruit, a little tobacco and mint. The tannins were there, but they were soft. I was happy with my wine.  And I want to do it all again!

Taking part in the blending experience at Conn Creek really shows that there is an art and a skill to blending wine. It also shows the diversity of Cabernet grown in Napa Valley — there is not a uniform taste or character. That in turn shows the influence of terroir on the grape. Being a winemaker for a day is a lot of fun, and its an activity you can share with friends or family.

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Livermore Valley is one of my favorite wine growing regions in northern California. It’s easy to get to and is not over run with traffic and tour buses (not yet anyway!) If you’re not familiar with this area, it’s south east of San Francisco, in what the locals call the East Bay. As in many wine regions, there’s an annual barrel tasting weekend, where you can visit the wineries, talk to the winemaker and taste barrel samples.

The first stop was at Bent Creek Winery, where they were not only offering samples, they were also doing a blending demonstration. You first tasted samples of Cab from barrels with two types of wood — French and Hungarian oak. There is a difference, one was rounder and softer (French oak) the other much bigger in tannins (Hungarian oak). Then you blended the two samples and the result — it tasted better than each wine on its own — is a good example of the art and importance of blending. Adding just a drop of Petit Sirah showed us how a small amount of another wine can make a huge difference in taste and texture.

On to Big White House and John Evan. I’d heard of BWH, but not John Evan. Turns out it’s a family operation — like most Livermore wineries — and Big White House Winery is the father’s label and John Evan Cellars is the son’s. Winemaker John (Evan) Marion was sampling the ’07 Les Amoureux that’s a 50-50% blend of Cab from a vineyard in Calistoga and their Livermore estate Cab. It’s smooth and powerful. They also offered a vertical tasting of Syrah, starting with the ’09 and ’08 in barrel. There’s a big difference between the two, with the ’09 having spent just about six months in barrel. It’s all fruit, not a lot of complexity yet. Then, you tasted the finished wine in bottle, the ’07 Syrah “Rapscallion,” which was fantastic. It’s a Rhone style Syrah, a little smokey, meaty, spicy and fruity.
All the label art is painted by John’s sister Laura Marion, who has a distinctive style. The photos show her artwork for “Les Amoureux” Cabernet and Roussanne bottlings; her paintings are on display in the tasting room.

Last stop was at Page Mill Winery. Here they were sampling the ’08 Walker vineyard Cab from Livermore Valley. It’s drinking really well right now.

The barrel tasting event happened to fall on the 3rd Sunday of the month, and that’s also when Page Mill holds its BYOB event. On the 3rd Sunday each month you bring empty, clean wine bottles and for $8.49 per bottle, the winery staff will fill, cork and label your bottle. Winemaker Dane Stark says the program is very popular. Well, for under 10 bucks you get a better wine than you’d find at the same price point in the grocery store. Dane calls this “Recovery Red.” If you don’t have your own bottles, no worries, you can buy them for a couple dollars from the winery.

I have to say Saturday was a great day. It started with going to the Cartier and America exhibit at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco. Talk about bling! More diamonds, emeralds and rubies than I’ve ever seen in one place. The focus was on American women who bought or wore Cartier jewels. At the turn of the 20th century it was fashionable for women of a certain social status to wear tiaras, whether or not they were royalty, and you’ll see a lot of them here. Seems like a quaint trend, can you imagine wearing a crown now? Some of Grace Kelly’s jewels are on view, including her 10 carat diamond engagement ring. Then there’s the set of jewels that Mike Todd gave Elizabeth Taylor — diamond and ruby necklace, bracelet and earrings. Wow. And, many of the Duchess of Windsor’s pieces (aka Wallis Simpson). Also on view, a behind the scenes peek at the drawings and how the jewelry is made. If you go get the audio tour. Runs through May 9, 2010.

The rest of the day I spent walking around and tasting artisan chocolate at TasteTV’s Chocolate Salon at Ft. Mason. This is even better than Willy Wonka’s chocolate river! More than 50 chocolatiers were offering samples of their sweet treats, from across the country. I have to confess, I hit chocolate overload about half way through, so I didn’t get to taste everything. Here’s the best of what I did try:

Saratoga Chocolates - Strawberry balsamic truffle. One bite and the sweet concoction of strawberries and balsamic vinegar explode in your mouth.

Ococoa - They bill their chocolates as “the grownup peanut butter cup,” and the sunflower honey and butter cup is to die for.

Neo Cocoa – Here it’s the “heart” of the truffle — the filling — that takes center stage. Loved the lime zest chocolate.

Vice Chocolates – As far as vices go, chocolates aren’t so bad. Really like the fig and anise seed bar.

Posh Chocolat - These sweets are made in Montana, not exactly the center of the chocolate foodie world. Doesn’t matter, the couple who makes these chocolates have created a world of interesting flavors with chocolates of single origin Ecuadorian dark chocolate. Some work very well, and one I wasn’t crazy about. Likes: The Turkish coffee caramel, the bacon caramel applewood smoked sea salt, and the coconut pineapple caramel Hawaiian pink sea salt. Salt is a common theme in their recipes. The strangest combo here is the white truffle oil caramel with flakes of Cypress sea salt. Putting bacon in chocolate is one thing – truffle oil is just going a bit too far.

Little Sky Lavender Farm – Something different – yummy brownies infused with lavender! They sell the brownie mix so you can make them at home.

Jade Chocolates – These Asian flavor-inspired chocolates win big in the eyes of the Chocolate Salon judges. Their Genmai chocolate bar made of milk chocolate, roasted brown rice, roasted green tea and jasmine tea won 1st place for Best Flavored Chocolate in this year’s salon. The Terracotta bar with tamari almonds and pink sea salt won New Product Award 1st place.

William Dean Chocolates – Got my vote for most colorful confections. But never did get to try, the line was way too long!

Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream Liqueur – vodka-spiked chocolate is an indulgence.

It’s always so much fun to discover a new designer or line of clothing. I just came across the Sarah Pacini line (from Belgium) and I just love it! Knits are the focus, and the shapes and construction are very architectural. They’re easy to wear and flattering. Moderate price point, so one piece won’t break your bank account, but you’ll get so much wear out of it.

The other line is the French company Crea Concept. A similar aesthetic as Sarah Pacini. Knits featured here too. Great layering pieces and easy and comfortable to wear.

What’s fabulous about both lines is that they are unique — and not so widely available that you’ll see lots of other women wearing it. No doubt you’ll get a lot of compliments wearing these tops, dresses, bottoms.

Do you know about Bottlenotes? It’s an online wine social media community, and totally unpretentious.  Here you can share your own tasting notes, learn about and buy wine. They have a well-edited selection in their wine portfolio. You can also get The Daily Sip, the wine equivalent of Daily Candy.

Bottlenotes also organizes wine tasting events, where you can meet up with other members and taste and talk about wine (yes in person!). Called Around the World in 80 Sips, it’s a great opportunity to taste wines you may not ever come across — like a passionfruit wine from Thailand.

This event was held at Crushpad, the custom crush facility in San Francisco.  Crushpad is relocating to Napa Valley, so this was probably my last time for visiting the city location.  The tasting takes place amid all the barrels of wine aging.

These wines stood out for me and should be on your radar:

2008 Tierra Secreta Malbec – really smooth!

2009 Eradus Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand – this was one of the best SB there.  Classic New Zealand, gooseberry with good acidity.

Radee Passionfruit NV and Pineapple Ambrosia NV – both from Thailand.  I preferred the Passionfruit which had true fruit varietal character. The Pineapple was not as sweet as some Hawaiian wines that I’ve had.

2008 Donelan Venus Rousanne/Viognier and 2008 Donelan Cuvee Christine Syrah – if you were a fan of the Pax Syrahs, the new owners are carrying on the Pax style.  This is the first vintage from Donelan Family Wines and it’s darn good.  Prices are a little easier on the wallet too, at $45.  The Rousanne/Viognier is lush and well-balanced; the Syrah is smoky and meaty.

Scholium Project.  I’ve read lots about Scholium and winemaker Abe Schoener and his unconventional approach to winemaking.  But I’ve never tasted them until now, and I totally get what all the fuss is about.  The 2008 Naucratis Lost SloughVineyard is made of 100% Verdelho, and has lots of good acidity and round fruit.  The 2007 Choephoroi , another white, is completely different and very unusual for a Chardonnay.  The 2006 Tenbrink Vineyard Gardens of Babylon is primarily Petite Sirah.  All soulful wines.

Skipstone wines were also there – and I’ve written about their wines before.  Two bottlings; the 2007 Viognier, is one of the best made in California.  Has all the wonderful peach and nectarine flavors.  The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon is powerful without being agressive.  The layers of flavor linger a long time.