It’s not every day that you get an invitation to celebrate Jordan Vineyard’s 40^th anniversary, but I recently received two.  The first, which unfortunately was usurped by the paying gig, was a retrospective wine tasting of Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon hosted by Winemaker Rob Davis and CEO John Jordan where I missed wines from 1976, 1981, 1998, 1999, 2002 and a super blend never released to public, 2008—most bottles had been pulled from John Jordan’s private cellar. It still makes me shed a tear to have missed this.

But, I did get to attend a poolside cocktail party at The Joule with Dallas’ beautiful people where we sampled a six-liter bottle of 1979 Jordan Cabernet, a three-liter bottle of the 2001 vintage and previews of the 2010 Jordan Chardonnay and 2008 Jordan Cabernet, which hit the Dallas market on May 1.

I talked to Lisa Mattson, Jordan’s communications director and one of my favorite wine PR folks, and asked her why Dallas was a part of Jordan’s four city celebration.  She told me about the deep ties that John Jordan has to Texas.  Jordan later addressed the crowd and talked about how his father’s career in the oil business and the support for Jordan wines in Texas has been strong throughout the years.

Jordan Winery also sponsored the 4 on 4 Dallas Art Competition, part of a coast-to-coast, four-city initiative to marry the distinct flavors of metropolitan cities with the essence of Jordan wines and Sonoma wine country. RISING Gallery hosted the Dallas-Fort Worth event and local artist Todd Ford won $5,000 in the competition.

I’ve written about the Chateau de Sancerre many times before and this was matched with a Cana de Cabra.  The goat cheese combined the acidity, creaminess and citrus of the wine splendidly.

Our next wine, the Café Mentelle Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon blend, was paired with the St. Pat Cowgirl Creamery, a seasonal cheese from California.  It was wrapped in stinging nettle leaves and was a whole organic cow’s milk cheese.  This was a powerful combination and one that worked very well.

I have fond memories of Newton and I really like Chris’ wines, so I was happy to see the 08 Unfiltered Chardonnay with the Capricious goat cheese from Achadinha Cheese Company in California.  This brought together caramelization with a dry jack style.  I loved them both, but not together.

The next match was the 07 Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir with a Pagliarino from Italy, a raw sheep’s milk cheese.  This was a nice match – the cherry was neutralized and the two combined had a great finish.

We then moved to the 07 Newton Merlot and the Cabot Clothbound, a cow’s milk cheese from Vermont.  The jamminess of the merlot and the sharpness of the cabot made this a buttery, nutty and caramel combination.  Very nice.

We ended with a Mahon Reserva, a raw cow’s milk cheese paired with the Termes (see link).  This was a nice mix of nutty and salt that was tempered by the richness of the Termes.

Also Rich gave some cheese advice to live by, “if a rind looks like something you shouldn’t put in your mouth, then don’t.”  Very smart advice from a very skilled cheese monger.   And cheers to another successful year of Savor Dallas making our city more informed about wine.

Our first flight was based on the Chardonnay grape.  The first wine, which was later revealed to be a Kissler 09 Dutton Ranch Chardonnay ($120) was very creamy with a toastiness, lemon, minerality and richness.  I liked it, but not as much when the price tag was revealed.  We moved to my personal favorite, an Old World French Burgundy from Louis La Tour Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru ($120) with more structure, minerality and vibrant fruit.  The last wine was the Francisco Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay from Sonoma, which was the value/price winner at $40.  It was a typical California chardonnay.  For me, the Old World took home this one except on price.

The next flight was Pinot Noir and we tried several wines very different in style.  Our first was the 08 Domaine Jean Grivot Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru ($150).  Lots of vegetal notes, herbal, roasted beet, earthy and aromatic.  It was an interesting wine, but one that needed food to sing.  Our next wine was the 08 Wild Horse Cheval Sauvage Pinot Noir ($60).  It was full of bright fruit and jamminess with almost a lushness to it.  The final wine was the 09 Kosta Brown Gaps Crown from Sonoma ($200).  It had lots of soft fruit and almost a cherry cola taste but it was lush and soft.  I loved this wine.  Score one for the new team, but this one came at a price!

Then the big boys came out.  The first wine was a 07 Chateau Margaux (priced between $600-$1,000).  Lots of earthiness,  barnyard, cedar, structure and elegance.  I could just smell this wine for days.  It was a wonderful expression of what an Old World wine could be and got my vote.  We moved into a 08 Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve ($135) that I had tried with much success earlier that day.  Our last wine was a 08 Paul Hobbs Beckstoffer Cabernet Sauvignon ($255) which came out of the same To Kalon winery.  It was a rich, full wine.  All great expressions, but how can Chateau Margaux lose?

We then moved into dessert wines.  We had the Chateau Suduiraut Sauternes ($85) that was honeyed, smooth with notes of mushroom and a great balance.  The second was the Dolce Napa 07 with its apricot and big fruit.  The final tasting was the citrus, intense, orange blossom and passion fruits contained in the Inniskillin Vidal Gold.  I actually liked all of these, but the Inniskillin was special.

We then got to taste some special portfolio wines from Clos du Bois and Mondavi specifically.  The 01 Clos du Bois Briarcrest was elegant with lots of berry and tasted fantastic.  This was a big black fruit, cabernet style.  I went through a vertical of Mondavi cabs – 1978, 1995 and 1998. These wines aged well – no two were alike, but they were all fabulous.

It was another fun tasting.  Thanks to Mark de Vere, Republic Beverage Company and Constellation Wines.

Recently I had the chance to sit down for lunch at Stephen Pyle’s Restaurant with two notable Napa characters – Gary Midyette, director of winemaking operations at Robert Mondavi, and Sean McKenzie, winemaker for Clos du Bois.  The two were on an annual Texas Tour that Constellation was doing for wines in its luxury portfolio. 

Gary told me the tour was designed to encourage retailers to try other wines in Constellation’s fine wine portfolio they may have not had the opportunity to try before.  Sean talked about how it provided the wine makers the opportunity – especially those with diverse portfolios – to show the differences of the portfolio wines and the versatility of the different coasts. 

We started with the Mondavi Fume Blanc Reserve from To Kalon Vineyard.  It was a crisp and fruit forward white that was clean with a floral finish and nice minerality with nectarine and stone fruit.   Only 1,500 cases are bottled of this wine.  Ironically I brought home the non-reserve version my  very first trip to Napa many moons ago.  That wasa  good wine.  The reserve version is great.  It’s my kind of sauvignon blanc and I’m doing what I can to get a hold of some even though most of it is sold directly at the winery.  It was a perfect first course starter.

We moved to the Clos du Bois Reserve Chardonnay that is sourced from the Russian River Valley.  Clos du Bois has a “wineries within a winery” philosophy and they source grapes from 150 long-term growers in Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley, Carneros and Knights Valley.  The 2010 Chardonnay comes from vineyard sites in the Russian River Valley.  I tasted baked apple, lemon, caramel cream, baking spices and toasted marshmallow.  Sean talked about how he fashions his wines to fit times when he is relaxing with his friends with great food and wants to create layers of complexity and depth to match.  This was an Old World almost Burgundian in style wine.

We moved to the 09 Mondavi Pinot Noir from Carneros.  Lots of red fruit and Asian spice, this was a great food wine and matched my entrée perfectly.  It was a powerful, Old World Burgundian style wine and I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

Next up was the 08 Sonoma Reserve Merlot, which had lots of wood, tobacco, plum and big berry along with chocolate and espresso.  It defined what a good Merlot should be and was soft on the tannins and well balanced.

We then moved into Cabernet Sauvignon and both wineries had strong showings.  The 08 Clos du Bois Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley was structurally a big wine with tobacco leaf, chocolate, black cherry and oak.  It was drinkable today but would age well.  The 09 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon from the To Kalon Vineyard was another powerful wine with great balance.  Full of blueberry, mocha and oak, it was delightful. 

My favorite part, and you could tell both guys were good people, was when we saw a group of ladies that were intrigued with what we were doing and the fact that so many bottles remained on the table.  Not only did they give them the rest of the wine, but both graciously posed for pictures in spite of having to dash to the Republic Portfolio tasting that afternoon.

I sat down with Jason Jardine, president of Flowers Vineyards last month at Pogo’s and had an opportunity to taste some of the Flower’s wine portfolio.  I’ve been a fan of the Flowers Pinot Noirs in the past and served them at my daughter’s Baptism several years ago. Jason told me about growing up in Central Valley and how his passion for wine began.  He lived in the tank house behind his grandmother’s house with vineyards everywhere, but not on his family’s property.  At 12 years old, he needed to go to work and did so in a neighbor’s vineyard.  That path eventually took him to Oregon into vineyard management.  He sold that business at 21 and went to Mondavi to learn the art of winemaking.  He later returned to Oregon where he planted and managed Domaine Serene – one of my favorite Oregon wines.

Jason has a belief in sustainable farming, organics and biodynamic wines.  In 2010, he started working for Flowers, which coincidentally is the year the label changed, and is proud to say that all of the wines there are now biodynamically farmed.    You’ll find Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier,  Syrah and Chardonnay planted. 

• The 09 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay was clean, mineral, full of citrus and lemon curd.  It’s the type of Old World style that I like without being a butter bomb.  Six vineyards send grapes to make this wine.
• The next wine was the 08 Camp Meeting Ridge, which was the first Flowers vineyard planted.  The land features six types of soil mostly comprised of rock.  This was a wine that showed the essence of its terrior – earthiness, berry and a complexity that surprised me.
• 10 Pinot Sonoma Coast, which was just released the end of March, was full of bright fruit like cranberry and pomegranate.  It had soft tannins and was drinkable today, but will definitely evolve over the years.
• The 08 Sea View Ridge had a funkiness to it and that’s not a bad thing.  The vineyard is located higher than the others on volcanic rock.  I tasted cherry, cardamom and a definite spiciness.
• I find that I really enjoy blends and the 08 Perennial is no exception.  This had all of Flowers offerings blended together.  It drank like a pinot, but had a depth to it.  I tasted spice, berry, tea leaves, tobacco and almost a gaminess, which again was a good thing)  

I worked with the good folks at Pioneer Wine Company to come up with affordable, yet off the beaten path wines.  We served Secco Italian Bubbles, 2010 Tikal Patriota and 2010 Glatzer Gruner Veltliner.

My favorite part of the event – keep the wine was good and the art was awesome – was the opportunity to bring in a great charity, Cafe Momentum.  Chefs from Café Momentum, a nonprofit restaurant concept conceived by Parigi co-owners Chad Houser and Janice Provost, transforms young lives by equipping at-risk youth with life skills, education and employment opportunities.   They catered the food and were the recipients of the raffle.

It was an awesome event – more than 80 of you came out to support me and made me realize that the most fun part of this blog (other than drinking wine of course) is getting to hang with you guys.  And when you can give something back to the community, that’s the icing on the cake.

Michael Honig, a funny and charismatic winemaker, gave some background on the winery and the wines that we were going to try that night – many that you could no longer find even with a long network of contacts and unlimited pockets. Each year, there is one fund-raising event, Premiere Napa Valley,” that Napa winemakers participate in to take care of the winery workers.  Only 200 Napa wineries can auction special wines made exclusively for the auction and they pull out all the stops.  Honig was no exception.  The winery only produced six cases of the 2002 Honig Cabernet, “Bartolucci Vineyard,” designed to showcase two generations of winemakers working together and celebrate heritage.  Five of the cases were acquired by Centennial in Dallas and Jennifer acquired them when it sold its fine wine collection. More to come on this wine later that was marked 46 out of 60 bottles.

We begin with the Honig Napa Valley 10 Sauvignon Blanc paired with absolutely fantastic Pan Roasted Sea Scallops, Water Cress Salad, and Ruby Red Grapefruit Emulsion. This was a food/wine marriage made in heaven.  Still a crisp, refreshing wine, but with enough tartness to be interesting.

The next course took us to Agnolotti pasta, braised lamb, wild mushrooms and caramelized onions paired with the aforementioned 02 Honig Cabernet, “Bartolucci Vineyard.”  I tasted a burst of raspberry, followed by tobacco, cedar, earthiness, mocha.  It was an intense wine with a finish that wouldn’t end that evolved in the glass over the meal and I was sad when I had my list sip.  Crazy good.  You can find one of 13 remaining bottles on Bailey’s wine list at $300 as the vines have now been replanted.

We moved to the 04 Honig Cabernet Sauvignon “Bartolucci Vineyard,” Napa Valley, so we could compare the vineyards.  This had more of a sweetness to it, but had many of the same notes.  But, in comparison, it was just a baby.  However, served with the Japanese Akashi New York Strip Steak with grilled radicchio and huckleberry marmalade, it was a nice match.

We ended with the 08 Honig Sauvignon Blanc Late Harvest, Napa Valley, a wine that I am very happy to say is currently in my cellar.  It was served with rhubarb “sponge” and cream and was a great match.  Lots of honeysuckle, apricot and make it often referred as “nectar of the gods.”

Note: since this dinner both Grant Morgan and Jennifer Jaco are no longer with Bailey’s.  And, that is an absolute shame as they built something pretty special.

In 2008, I began the journey of Greenhill School with my only daughter in Pre-K. Greenhill has a fabulous reputation as one of Dallas’ top private schools with an impressive list of some of our city’s most illustrious names in attendance. And then there was my husband and myself – definitely not at the top of the aforementioned list. So, I was a little nervous about meeting some of the parents in her class and wondered if we’d be the square peg in the round hole. Once I was there, I found a group of moms who were pretty much as new to this whole oldest child in a new school thing as I was. So, we navigated it together and became quick friends in the process.

Fast forward to 2012, and we are all still good friends as are our children. The group is diverse – a few stay at home moms, a partner at a law firm, one in marketing at Southwest Airlines to a pediatrician at one of Dallas’ top practices – we like wine and we have a blast.

I’ve been saying that I’d set up a wine tasting event for … about three years … and I finally made that happen at Kozy’s, my usual casual BYOB mixed with good food venue. I brought six wines that I’d been sent to review from Napa Cellars and Ravenswood. It was a mix of only white and only red drinkers, but overall everyone agreed to give everything a shot.

The only white wine of the night, 10 Napa Cellars Chardonnay, got good reviews from the group. It had lemon, apricot and a nice balance. It was described as “being lighter in nature” as and “more mellow than a typical chardonnay.”

The other two winners from Napa were the 08 Cabernet, which was one of the evening favorites for its blackberry, tobacco and mocha notes as well as its balance. The 09 Merlot was also described as “the non-Merlot drinkers Merlot.” Of the two, I preferred the Cabernet.

We tried several wines from Ravenswood – the 08 Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel and the 09 Petite Syrah. The 08 Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel was the favorite with its notes of currant, blackberry, smoke and spice was the favorite of this offering.

When I started this blog, I knew I wanted to get closer to the wine industry, but I wasn’t sure how to do it.  I was talking with Corbin Adams from Crossmark, a local recruiting company, and he asked me if you’d be interested in finding out about how to break into the business.  I thought it was interesting, so here goes the Q&A with Corbin along with an immediate opportunity.  Keep me posted if you apply. 

ME: So you want a job in the wine industry?  How do I break in?

Corbin: The wine industry as a whole has a plethora of jobs; but I always get asked questions on how to land a job in the wine industry. Most of the time companies require some type of experience, but it takes experience to get experience, right?

The key to entering the wine industry is finding an opportunity to get your foot in the door. It would be nice to be referred to as an expert, but building these skills takes time. Many people are unaware that there are positions readily available that will give you this experience outside of being a bartender or sommelier.

Events are the perfect way to “get your feet wet” in the wine and service industry. Part time work, in grocery stores handing out samples of Wine and talking to customers about it is great experience. This will translate into many different types of positions in the industry, and can allow you to go into wine logistics and merchandising or a sales role.

ME: What skills will I learn from a Wine and Spirit Specialist position?

Corbin: Actually you will learn more than you think.

-Interacting with Customers to determine their level of interest in your product.

-Using selling techniques to suggest wine and spirits for purchase.

-Keeping wine and spirits organized

ME: How do I apply?

Corbin: If you are interested in learning more about a job in the Wine and Spirits industry, please check out CROSSMARK for more information or apply at: http://crossmark.jobs/search?q=wine

Go forth and pour.