SHOP HOURS
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Mon - Wed: 11 - 6
Thurs - Fri: 11 - 8
Sat: 11 - 6
Sun: 12 - 5
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It's another exciting week here at cork.
The hard work Sara and I did running around Napa and Sonoma in January
has finally paid off big. We've landed our first major winery
with a magical past that wasn't being sold in Oregon. As a
Zinfandel fanatic, I have long held Joseph Swan in the same company as
Ridge and Ravenswood. Over the last 4 decades, the two 'R'
wineries have grown and changed, some for the better and some for the
worse. But Joseph Swan has remained pretty true to its roots - a
very small, family run operation with long-term contracts on two of the
most esteemed Zinfandel vineyards in the state - Stellwagen and
Zeigler. They've added other grapes and vineyards to the mix, but
have always kept production small for each lot.
This
week's email is all about the Joseph Swan Winery. Friday's tasting will
be a Joseph Swan coming out party and we will be pouring all 6 of the
different wines we received this week from the winery. If
you can't make it, stop in over the weekend to pick up a bottle or two
for yourself. Since we have procured some library vintages, these
wines will not likely be available again and are in limited supply!
A
few tastings coming up in the next two weeks are also listed
below. Sign up soon if you want one of the last few seats in the
Alma Chocolate & Wine Tasting next week!
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JOSEPH SWAN WINERY
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The Joseph Swan Winery
is located on a small farm on Laguna Road near Forestville in Sonoma's
Russian River Valley and has been producing Zinfandel and Pinot Noir
since the late 1960's. Joe Swan was an artist and a pilot with a
passion for wine, spending his spare time taking winemaking courses at
UC Davis. The winery is small - really small. Set on a 13
acre estate, the old barn served as the initial winemaking
facility. In 1974, with the help of a few friends (including Joel
Peterson who
would make his first Ravenswood wines here in 1976), he erected what we
jokingly referred to as the tin shed.
 According
to his daughter, Lynn Berglund, "Joe really believed that, when it came
to grape growing and winemaking, small was beautiful. A small vineyard
could be tended by one person. Small crops led to more intense,
ageworthy wines. A small winery allowed you to oversee every aspect
from fermentation to bottling. Joe (pictured left) was a perfectionist
and felt that if the wine was to carry his name, then he should be
personally responsible for every aspect of its production." From
the winery's website: "The models for his wines, with a couple of
notable exceptions, were all
French. He took many trips to France and visited noted vignerons,
asking their advice and trying to determine why the wines were the way
they were. One of the lessons he took away was that low production was
necessary for high quality. Because of this, he chose low production
clones to plant his estate vineyard and pruned and thinned to keep the
production very, very, low." Winemaker Rod Berglund says "it is largely
due to Joe's
encouragement that I became a winemaker in 1979. In 1986, when Lynn and
I were married, Joe became my father-in-law. In 1987 I had the
opportunity to give Joe a hand and help finish the 1987 harvest. Joe's
last vintage was 1987. He was quite ill in the latter part of 1988 and
passed away in January 1989. Although he is gone, his legacy lives on"
in the wines and spirit that Rod brings to his work everyday.
This
is the type of 'small-minded' visionary we love to celebrate here at
the shop. What is truly impressive with the Joe Swan wines is
their elegance. While the vintage will dictate, to some extent,
whether a wine is lighter or very ripe and full, for the most part the
Swan Zins are more akin to wines from Burgundy - earthy and nuanced
with notes of the specific terroirs where the grapes are grown.
If there is one flaw to these wines, it is that Rod often allows the
grapes too much liberty in dictating the end result, so it is not
uncommon in a particularly vintage to have one wine in the bunch that
is just too heavy and high in alcohol. But the contrast then
becomes more striking when you taste and appreciate the other wines
made that same vintage.
 Okay,
without digressing into too much wine geek speak, let's just leave it
at knowing these are truly special wines with a special history in
California winemaking. We are pleased to be the first to sell
these wines in Oregon in a long time. To properly introduce
Joseph Swan to you, we tasted through a selection of library vintages
at the winery and have brought in a selection of different vineyard Zinfandels
from vintages dating back to 2001, so you can see just what a well-made
Zinfandel tastes like with some serious bottle age on it. We also
have the current release Pinot Noir
from Saralee. Don't think the Swan Winery has jumped on the
Sideways bandwagon and started making Pinot just because it is in
vogue. Perhaps the most widely planted clone of Pinot Noir in
Sonoma is called the Joe Swan clone for good reason - it was propogated by Joe on his vineyard in the early 70's!
FRIDAY NIGHT FLIGHT · Joseph Swan Zinfandels & A Pinot
Friday, April 11 · 4pm - 8pm · $15 tasting fee
Join us this Friday as we taste these 6 wines: 2001 Stellwagen Zinfandel, 2002 Zeigler Zinfandel, 2003 Lone Redwood Zin, 2003 Mancini Zin and 2004 Trenton Station Zin along with the just released 2005 Saralee Vineyard Pinot Noir.
Most of the Zinfandels will sell for $28/bottle and the Pinot is
$36. If you join us for the tasting on Friday Night, you'll receive 10% off
any Joseph Swan wines you purchase at the tasting (cork club members
will receive 15% off). $15 tasting fee includes all the wines and some
light appetizers. Drop-in tasting, no reservations required.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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WINE & CHOCOLATE with ALMA · Thursday, April 17 · 6:30pm · $25/person
This
class was so much fun when we taught it back in February that we have
decided to try and do it more regularly. Sarah Hart from Alma
Chocolate will join me as we talk about pairing chocolates with wine.
Because Sarah uses such interesting flavors, more common to the savory
side of the pantry, it makes for very interesting wine pairings. Oh,
and you get to eat chocolate and drink wine! Sarah will bring plenty
of extras for this evening and you'll receive 15% off all Alma
Chocolates and the featured wines the evening of the class. Limited to
14 people. Email for reservations. Just a few seats left!
2006 GERMAN RIESLING Backroom Tasting · Wed, April 23 · $20 · 6:30pm
Morgan
will guide Riesling lovers down the Mosel River and discuss the 2006
Vintage while tasting a selection of new arrivals she's picked for the
shop. Last year's Riesling tasting was one of the best of the year, so
don't miss this look at what's new!
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