The World of Wines in One Night

An idea we had for the first Wine Marketing Conference- bring a bottle of your favourite wine to share- was more than doubled at the recent Sonoma Conference. About 100 wine people, each with a bottle of wine from at least 12 countries. I tasted so many, it is hard to recall individual brands and wines. A few I remember: the Torbreck Juveniles 2002 (Grenache Mataro Shiraz with no oak treatment) surpised many people with its finesse and European style. A couple of pinots were will-noted- Sanford Pinot fromk Santa Barbara (near the Sideways area) and Mieze from Russian River in Sonoma showcased excellent American style Pinots. These were earthy and animal (Francois d'Hauteville's comment) wines with long lasting flavours, a bit more intense than Burgundy in the fruit area and little less in complexity. Very different from some of the more extracted or heavily fruit New Zealand and Australian styles. A Corbiere from the Southwest of France was also a bit funky, but stronger in fruit flavour and almost chewy. The Brown Brothers Patricia late harvest Riesling that Tony brought received tremendous admiration for its intensity, acidity, and length. I tasted a similar late harvest style from the Venice area, but cannot remember the grape or the producer. It was less sweet than the Australian, but with great length and intensity. A 1994 Mouvedre from the Sonoma area was more interesting than great. It had aged well in terms of intensity and smoothness, but like most Mouvedres was lacking in the front palate. Sonoma itself is very interesting in the number of climates available, from chilly coastal areas (day time temperatures around 20-22, and nights at 10C) to northern areas far from the ocean (with day temperatures near 40, but again nights near 12C) and everything in between depending on distance from the ocean, elevation (controls whether fog above or below the vineyard), and soils (mostly deep volcanic, but also some shallow rocky areas).