Brandon Brassfield makes pinots with Heart. Photo by Christina Waters.
Up at the former summer estate of Alfred Hitchcock, the Brassfield family makes extremely small amounts of hand-crafted pinot noir wines for its Heart O'The Mountainlabel, continuing a tradition of winemaking on the lofty Santa Cruz Mountains site that began back in 1881. With Brandon Brassfield at the helm, the family, once investors in Felton Empire Winery, replanted the sun-soaked vineyard with four different pinot noir clones, and with its first vintage in 2005 made a distinctive, terroir-driven impression. These wines are very rare (roughly 500 cases a year are released), and while you can find the Estate Pinot Noir blend (of Dijon clones 777, 667, 828 and 115) in stores such as Shopper's Corner and New Leaf, the spice-laden pure clones, such as the latest 2009 One Fifteen Clone (a clove and cinnamon beauty), are available to Heart O'The Mountain wine club members only. Food for thought.
More Wine Speak Of course winemaking is women's work. Just ask Windy Oaks Estate matriarch Judy Schultze, busy cultivating her own sector of the legendary Corralitos vineyard. Her debut spring release is a 2009 Judy's Block Pinot Noir. “Judy's Block was trained and pruned by moi,” the winemaker reports happily. The half-acre block, planted with the single pinot clone 777, usually goes into Windy Oaks' Reserve bottlings. But one taste and the winemakers knew they had something special. “We'll only make 24 cases—and we may not do it again,” Schultze admits.
Field NotesLast year Outstanding in the Field, the traveling al fresco wine dinner party started by former Gabriella chef Jim Denevan,travelled to eight countries, designed 87 events and served more than 13,000 well-heeled foodies. The 2012 season is already flying along, with events in Florida and Hawaii and, in early March, some highly ambitious collaborations with growers, winemakers and chefs in South America. The outfit has had to pull the plug on its Europe plans for the year, though. “Extraordinarily expensive,” is the explanation from Denevan's crew. Meanwhile, if you're looking for the perfect Burning Man vehicle, Outstanding's vintage 1962 GM bus, with eight bunks, a kitchen and bathroom, is available for $20,000 OBO. Interested? Email [email protected].
Hot Stuff: TheincredibleMeyer Lemon Tart @ Gabriella, a slick of intense lemon custard atop a crisp pastry embedded with sage. . . . and the Avanti opening has been pushed back into March, according to co-owner Paul Geise.
Send tips about food, wine and new dining discoveries to Christina Waters at [email protected]. Read her blog at http://christinawaters.com.
