Poring Over California Offerings

For the grand tastings staged as part of the California Wine Experience, a major wine symposium in San Francisco, the coordinators put together a souvenir tasting notes booklet that had a listing of each wine poured and other details on the winery.

All wineries also were asked to supply a quote for inclusion at the top of each page, kind of a statement of the moment for the winery. And most such quotations in the book are rather straightforward, generally comments on the house style or the wine maker’s goals. Pretty dull stuff.

A few producers, however, caught the spirit of the moment and offered lighthearted comments, such as the one offered by Buehler Vineyards. Its quotation, attributed to an anonymous wit, read, in full: “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”

Then there was the quote on the page for Dunn Vineyards, obviously typed by wine maker Randy Dunn. The complete quote: “ ‘Daddy, do all wine makers have to do this?’ Kristina Dunn, Age 6.”

Firestone Vineyards chose a quotation from Plato, “No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God.” And Fisher Vineyards delved into Shakespeare with, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

Chagrined was the word that best described Sam and Vicki Sebastiani at the check-in desk at the Wine Experience. But first a bit of background.

Sam had taken over operation of his family’s huge Sebastiani Vineyards after the death of his father, August, in 1980. Sam had a more flamboyant nature than his father, and in 1986, Sam and Vicki had a major falling out with Sam’s mother, Sylvia, who fired her son from the winery and put Don Sebastiani, Sam’s brother and a former state legislator, in charge.

Sam struck out on his own wine-making venture, producing wines first under the Sam J. Sebastiani label. However, that name was unsatisfactory for a number of reasons, and finally after agonizing over another name for their fledgling winery, Sam and Vicki came up with Viansa.

The first two letters in Viansa come from Vicki’s first name; the an comes from and, and the last two letters in Viansa come from Sam’s first name.

After all this notoriety, Sam surely would have thought his name well known. But when he checked in to pick up name tags at the Wine Experience, he discovered that they read, “Sam Viansa” and “Vicki Viansa.”

Good natured folks that they are, Sam and Vicki wore the badges as is throughout the three-day event.

The fourth edition of the Winewrights Register has been released, and it’s the best combination offering of wine and catalogue I have ever seen.

The Winewrights Register is a concept of Sonoma County wine educator Bruce Cass, who got the idea that small, under-financed wineries usually need help getting their wine marketed. His idea was to cut out one of the layers of the traditional marketing system and to offer wine direct to the consumer by mail, on an order-as-you-wish basis.

In 1988, the membership organization represents 75 prestigious wineries and among them are some wineries that produce wines always in demand and thus very limited in many areas of the state. They are wines you read about occasionally, but sometimes can’t find -- wineries such as Laurel Glen, Gainey, Sea Ridge, Sarah’s, Qupe, Au Bon Climate, Ahlgren, and Wolfspierre.

Membership in the Winewrights Register is $40. For that, members are invited to special tastings staged around the state unveiling new wines; they receive a newsletter telling of new wines and news of the industry, and they have the right to buy wines at liberal discounts.

Some of the wines available from Cass were made in infinitesimal quantities, such as Ritchie Creek Viognier (112 cases), Handley Sparkling Rose (100 cases), or 1984 Golden Creek Merlot (40 cases). Others (such as the Laurel Glen Cochina de Oro, a dessert wine) are not released commercially except through this program.

Other wines made available occasionally are small amounts of very high-quality imported wines, notably from tiny but very select Australian wineries.

The highlight of membership, however, is the annual catalogue, and the newest edition is a magnificent work. In 246 pages, Cass writes flowingly about the California wineries he represents, including pictures of the participants and minutiae on how the wines were made.

Nearly 100 pages are devoted to essays on wine making, grape growing and other incidentals of the business including notes on corks, growing regions, cellar management and even a market forecast.

For details on membership in the Winewrights Register, call 1-800-321-4300. (For book collectors, the catalogue alone, without membership, is $15.)