MARCH 2022
EVENT REPORT:
THE HIGH NOON STAG THAT GOT HIJACKED BY DISASTER
ALSO INSIDE • Winery Profile: Turley Wine Cellars • Blast from the Past • Upcoming Omaha Branch Events
A publication of the Omaha Branch of the International Wine and Food Society
CORNER
EDITOR’S I
f you want to savor high end steakhouse food, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse Omaha is one of the best in the city. We enjoyed the use of their back room, which assures us a measure of privacy. This year, our 51st Stag faced some difficulties when a pipe broke at the restaurant the day before the event and we had to reschedule. It is inevitable that when this happens, especially when you move from a Saturday to a week night, you lose a number of individuals who cannot go to the new date. We lost 11 people. The tasting of some great California Cabernet Sauvignons was a real treat, however, and those that were able to come had a great event. I continue my Paso Robles mini-series with Turley Wine Cellars. We have examined Daou, Halter Ranch and Adelaida in recent months. This is the first house in the series mainly focuses on Zinfandel, and some Petite Syrah, although they also have started to do Cabernet Sauvignon. In 1993, emergency room physician Larry Turley started his eponymous winery in Napa Valley. Now they have wineries in Paso Robles and Amador County as well. Rich, round and fruity, Turley is one of my favorite Zin producers. Some members have had trouble reading the Gazette on issuu.com, Or, they don’t want to sign in, which means you can’t even read the Gazette at all. They prefer a PDF since all you have to do is click it open. We have decided to offer it in both formats. In your email, a PDF will be sent along with the issuu.com link. The advantage of issuu.com is that you can see both right and left pages, like a paper magazine. Our PDF only lets you view one page at a time.
Tom Murnan Cover Photo: Turley Wine Cellars near Paso Robles, CA. Photo by Tom Murnan
“The worst thing about going into business for yourself is that it takes the fun out of payday.” F ro m T h e B est o f t h e C o c k l e B u r c o m p i l e d a n d e d i t e d by H a r ry B Ot i s, 3 r d P r es i d e n t 1973-1974
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A publication of the Omaha Branch of the International Wine and Food Society
EVENT REPORT: The High Noon Stag That Got Hijacked by Disaster Story by Tom Murnan // Photos by Tom Murnan & Ron Policky
N
othing like a disaster to play havoc with one of our favorite and traditional events: our January High Noon Stag. This year was our 51st noon stag. Saturday morning. January 8th, the word went out via calling tree and email that there had been a pipe break at Fleming’s and the stag was off until an alternate date could be determined. A pipe broke over the bar area and flooded the lower level of the restaurant. The water had to be turned off, and the fire department closed the building since there was no fire sprinkler protection. Paul Davis Restorations was called, and everything was quickly restored. Our usual Thursday that we have used for stags was booked, so Tuesday January 11th at 6:00 p.m. was the new day of the event. Those who now couldn’t come were refunded their tariff. So the original number of 38 shrank to 27. But then there were still 4 no -shows. Despite these headaches and travails, we none-the-less had a great time. On board was a fantastic Hall three bottle tasting. Out of his own cellar, Mike Wilke treated us to a 4th bottle, the 2016 Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon. Quaffing found us with a Cristom Pinot Noir Estate 2014, a St. Henri Shiraz 2009, a Château Haut Batailley, and an Allegrini Amarone 2011. A little bit of something for everyone. The huge Fleming’s Onion Rings, some of them quite “meaty” with a large portion of onion, perfectly breaded and deep fried came out with their own Jalapeno Aioli Sauce which complemented them to a “T.” Chicken Satay with Soy Ginger Sauce, each with its
Blind Tasting Winners L to R Tad Singer, Gary Epstein (guest), Joe Goldstein, Wayne Markus, and Mike Atkins (guest).
own skewer were also available. Good, but there was some tough chicken on the plate. We were called to table for our blind sit down tasting. I immediately noticed the high end menu card graciously provided by Omaha Magazine. Heavy paper was used. A photo of last year’s stag attendees, in black and white, was on the cover, and on the end page a list of the current membership. That actually is pretty nice. The only reason we know who was in the Branch for the first formal dinner in 1971 is because they put the names of the members on the card. Otherwise, it would have been lost to history. Inside we had tasting notes of the Hall wines, and the menu card. Very professional and upscale because our graphic artist who
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does the gazette, Mady Besch, framed everything so beautifully. Nice job, Todd Lemke. We might get used to this and have upscale menu cards for every event! LOL. It was a real treat to have an ‘almost horizontal’ tasting of Hall Napa Valley’s great wines. Two of the three came from the 2016 vintage. The Hall Bergfeld vineyard was originally planted in 1859 by New England mariner Captain William and was among the first in Napa Valley. Bergfeld is in homage to wine pioneer Robert Bergfeld, who owned the property from 1894 until 1910. The vineyard itself comes from the St. Helena valley floor, along the path of an ancient Napa River tributary. >
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< The vineyard is protected from western winds and warmed by the heat reflected off the hillsides. As a result, St. Helena is one of the warmest sub-appellations in Napa Valley. The Kathryn Hall is a flagship label of Hall Napa Valley. Named after the founder, Kathryn Walt Hall, a former ambassador to Austria, the Kathryn Hall label is always special. Partially sourced from their famed Sacrashe vineyard in Rutherford, which provides dark, deep cassis flavors, they always use fruit from other partner vineyards, typically mountain ones. Rutherford is a small area, only 6 square miles, but it receives more sunlight than many areas in Napa. The Sacrashe soil also has volcanic ash. A hilltop vineyard, its 750 foot elevation lowers vigor and yields for more concentrated fruit. Two 100 point wines have come from this vineyard. The Hall Coeur comes from a vineyard in St. Helena. It has gravely, low vigor soil and is cooled by winds from the Pacific Ocean. Steve Hipple was our tasting guide. Neither Steve or Wilke knew the answer to the tasting. Our job was to decide which wine was which. The glasses were placed in a diamond shape. We were given about a quarter hour to decide which wine was which. They were the Hall Coeur Cabernet Sauvignon 2015; the Hall Bergfeld Cabernet Sauvignon 2016; the Hall Kathryn Cabernet Sauvignon 2016; and the Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon Napa 2016. Mike Wilke had decanted all the wines at home from 11:00 to 2:00 that afternoon. He poured the wine into a decanter, shook it twice, then poured it back into the bottle but without the cork until 4:00, when the stoppers were put back in. Thanks for the extra work, Mike. The wines really needed that to reveal themselves. Cabernet Sauvignon is so closed in when young. It takes some nudging and TLC to coax them to shine. When time was up, a game of last man standing began. If you got it wrong, you had to sit down. To me, the most different wine was glass number one, which I assumed that it was the Inglenook, as the only outsider wine to the Hall line up. So, I was immediately eliminated on glass one. If you miss one, that means you missed two. I did correctly place the Bergfeld and the Kathryn. Most of the room got something wrong as we only had 5 winners.
Back Row, L to R: Tony Blessie, server; Mike Wilke; Steve Hipple; Front Row: Brad Van De Lune Senior Manager/Wine Manager; Rafael Ponce Chef Partner, Katie Keuck, server.
Our First Course was a Fleming’s Salad, a large Iceberg lettuce salad which included Walnuts, tomatoes, dried cranberries, red onion, lemon balsamic vinaigrette. I liked the garlicky toast, which added crunch to the salad. The Duckhorn Napa Chardonnay 2019 was a nice match to the salad. The Second Course was French Onion Soup. Baked with Gruyère & Parmesan Cheeses. I’ve had a lot of French Onion Soups. One of the worst was at the Denver airport a few months ago. This was excellent. I liked the combination of the two cheeses. The classic recipe only calls for Gruyère. With Parmesan added, it had a better texture (not so stringy) and more complex flavor. The broth was deep and beefy. Our Bethel Heights Aeolian Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Oregon 2014 was overwhelmed by the complex flavors and seemed weak. The Third Course brought us to our entree, a 20 oz Prime Bone in Ribeye. It was fabulous hot, straight out of the kitchen, without a sauce. It was accompanied by Fleming’s Potatoes au gratin, creamy cheddar & Monterey jack cheese blend, leeks, and jalapeno. Chef Rafael’s Famous Street Corn was our second side. These were all served family style in their own serving dishes. We had a pair of Cabs to try, both from 2015: Daou Paso Robles Caber-
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net Sauvignon and Raymond Generations Cabernet Sauvignon. These two were the perfect foil for a hearty beef ribeye. The Daou was tannic and densely tight and very nice. It needed more cellar aging time. But the same could be said for the Raymond Generations. It was also tightly wound, tannic but quite good as well, with dark fruit flavors and a hint of chocolate. The Raymond family came to Napa Valley in 1933. Roy Raymond worked for Beringer as a winemaker until 1970, when he purchased 90 acres and started his own winery. The first vintage was 1974. They primarily made great Cabernet Sauvignon based wines. In 2009 they sold the winery to Jean-Charles Boisset, whose family hails from Burgundy, France. His Boisset Collection now owns 28 wineries in the USA, Canada and France. Raymond’s top of the line wine is Generations, which we tasted. We ended with Orange Olive Oil Cake that included orange segments in the cake. A house made orange Chantilly Cream & Curd was nicely drizzled on the bottom, and it was crowned with whipped cream with some orange zest on top. The Guiraud Sauternes 2005 was a spot on great match. Many thanks to the Fleming’s staff, who had to endure the pain of a water pipe break. They really recovered quickly.
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A publication of the Omaha Branch of the International Wine and Food Society
WINERY PROFILE: TURLEY WINE CELLARS Story by Tom Murnan
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urley Wine Cellars was preceded by Pesenti Winery, founded by Frank Pesenti, who immigrated in 1914. It took him until 1919 before he started a ranch near Templeton, CA. The land was covered with oak trees, so he cleared the timber and sold charcoal to the railroad. He used the money he made to further clear and prepare the land for a Zinfandel vineyard in 1922 using a team of horses. 1922 was also the year he sent for his wife Catarina. [Editor’s note. That’s a heck of a long time to be separated from your spouse!] It wasn’t until 1934, a year after Prohibition ended, that Pesenti Winery was bonded. It was founded on 65 acres of land, off Vineyard Drive, just as it is today. They sold generic table wines and jug wines of Zinfandel. The land itself was perfect for Zinfandel, composed of an ancient sea bed of calcareous mudstone. This gives the fruit a sweet-tart character. Only 8 miles from the Pacific Ocean, it gets cool breezes through the Templeton Gap, making for a Mediterranean-like climate of hot days and cool nights. Frank expanded the winery in 1941 and again after World War II, in 1947. They expanded their offer-
Just memories of the past, now: the old Pesenti Vineyard purchased by Turley in 2000.
Larry Turley
ings by adding Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Rosé of Zinfandel. The Zinfandel was raised in redwood casks. Interestingly, Frank planted the various blocks of the vineyard in aspect-oriented blocks that captured as much sunlight as possible. This was a very progressive thing to do at the time. Aspect-oriented blocks creates various ripening rates for the grapes and numer-
ous pick days during harvest. It makes for perfectly balanced Zinfandel grapes. The vines are head trained and today are raised organically. Larry Turley was raised in the South on a tobacco and dairy farm, but got a medical degree and worked in an emergency room. He is the brother of Helen Turley, well known wine consultant. The web site says
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A publication of the Omaha Branch of the International Wine and Food Society
Turley tasting room, Paso Robles, CA
“After moving to California in the mid-seventies, Larry came home from the ER one night to discover someone camped on his property. After first driving his motorcycle through the tent (this was, after all, the 1970’s in the “wild wild west”) he met its occupant, John Williams, the soon-to-be winemaker at Spring Mountain. After sharing a glass of wine, they became friends; a few bottles later, they became business partners.” He got the wine bug. In 1981, the two decided to start their own winery, Frog’s Leap. He would drive a tractor by day, and work the emergency room by night. But Larry wanted to explore his favorite grapes more: Zinfandel and Petite Syrah, especially from old vine vineyards. He sold out to Williams and started Turley Wine Cellars in 1993 in Napa Valley. He purchased and leased 50 different vineyards, using his surgical and resuscitating skills to revitalize old vine vineyards that were weak and had decaying, requiring tender loving care (read organic farming) to restore them and yield concentrated fruit. A few vineyards Turley uses hail from the 19th century. In 2012, Turley started a branch winery in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in Amador County. In 2000, Larry Turley purchased the Pesenti Vineyard, where the Turley Winery in Templeton currently sits on Vineyard Drive. Turley’s premier vineyard is the Hayne Vineyard in a breezy spot west of St. Helena is a leased property that Larry has worked with since 1993. It is head trained and dry farmed, and the wine raised in used oak barrels, mostly French. They harvest Zinfandel and Petit Syrah from that site. It is probably produces the greatest old vine Zinfandel in California, where Zinfandel vines were planted in 1902 and 1903. But it is a mixed vineyard, primarily Zinfandel, but also Petite Syrah (1953) and Carignan. But the second most planted variety in the
Hayne is Trousseau Noir. Other vineyards, from Contra Coste, Lodi and the Sierra Foothills (Amador County), however, are non grafted, or on their own roots. With the phylloxera disease all over California, this is unusual. Turley uses a non-interventionist approach to winemaking. It is all native yeast fermentation. No enzymes or acid is added. A Paso Robles site, the Ueberroth is one of the oldest Turley Zinfandel vineyards. Located just a few miles northwest of Pesenti, you can smell the Pacific Ocean air from the top of the vineyard hill. These ungrafted, head-trained vines are planted on very steep limestone slopes. The high pH of the soil makes for a very high-acid wine, elevating the ripe fruit flavors from this historic certified organic vineyard. I first visited Turley in 2007, at the Templeton winery near Paso Robles. I was so impressed I asked to be on the wine club list. Then I was informed that this would take three years. Sure enough, in three years I got in. They are one of my favorite Zinfandel producers. Vineyard sites are from all over California and include Paso Robles, Napa Valley, Amador County, Sonoma, Howell Mountain, Lodi, Contra Costa County, Mendocino Ridge, Atlas Peak, and
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Alexander Valley (Sonoma). They make 47 different wines from over 50 vineyards, the vast majority being Zinfandel and Petite Syrah Recently, Turley has offered some Cabernet Sauvignon in addition to the usual Zin and Petite, but also Cinsault, Red Blends and White Blends. I like my Zins rich, round, ripe and full bodied. I don’t like them tasting lean and dry, like a Cab. If you are the same, the Turley is your provider. They have two locations which the public can visit: Amador County and Paso Robles. While many of the vineyards are in Napa, this location is the family home and is private. To check out all the different areas where Turley either own or leases vineyards, click on the link below. • Amador County • Atlas Peak • California • Contra Costa • Howell Mountain • Lodi • Mendocino • Napa Valley • Paso Robles • Sonoma Valley Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paso_ Robles,_California; http://www.turleywinecellars.com/pesentiprofile; https://winehistoryproject.org/pesenti-winery/
A publication of the Omaha Branch of the International Wine and Food Society
Photos from Mike Dunn & Roger Peterson
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A publication of the Omaha Branch of the International Wine and Food Society
UPCOMING OMAHA BRANCH EVENTS
Mark Your Calendars!
MAR
HAPPY HOLLOW CLUB March Madness Noon Stag Producer: Joe Goldstein
APR
BIAGGI’S RISTORANTE ITALIANO President’s Event, Couples Producer: Mark Stokes
MAY TBD
DATE & VENUE TBD Producer: Dan Thrasher
JUN
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AU COURANT Burgundy vs. Pinot Noir Couples Event Producer: Tom Murnan
JULY TBD
DATE & VENUE TBD Producer: Hasan Hyder
AUG TBD
DATE & VENUE TBD Producer: Tad Singer
SEP TBD
FIFTH ANNUAL FESTA ITALIANA DINNER POOLSIDE Doctors Iris and Gary Moore Residence Couples Event Producer: Mike Wilke
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HOSTING AN EVENT? Let us know when, where and a little bit about what’s going on! We would love to include YOUR event on the calendar! Email details to: murnantom@gmail.com
A publication of the Omaha Branch of the International Wine and Food Society
March 2022 Purpose: To meet communication and service needs, to broaden participation and understand and to be an information exchange for the membership of The International Wine & Food Society in the Americas. Publisher: Todd Lemke Editor: Tom Murnan Graphic Designer: Omaha Magazine, LTD.
THE INTERNATIONAL WINE & FOOD SOCIETY OF LONDON, ENGLAND OM A H A, NEBR A SK A BR A NCH - E X ECU T I V E COM MIT TEE This Quick Response Code (QR-Code) can be scanned with a scanner app on your smart phone to take the reader directly to the Omaha Branch web site.
PR ESI DENT: Mark Stokes............................................................... mark_stokes@aig.com V ICE PR ESI DENT / SECR ETA RY: Dave Thrasher.................... dave@supportworks.com TR EASU R ER: Duke Matz................................................................ dmatz@darland.com W I N E CELLA R M ASTER: Duke Matz....................................... dmatz@darland.com M EM BER SH I P CH A I R M A N: Joe Goldstein.............................. goldie2@cox.net
B OA R D O F D I R E C T O R S : Joe Goldstein Hasan Hyder
John Matthews Duke Matz Tom Murnan
Tad Singer Mark Stokes Dan Thrasher
Dave Thrasher Mike Wilke
KEEP IN TOUCH! Please notify Club President, Mark Stokes, 402-679-7317 or via email at mark_stokes@aig.com to let him know if you are interested in hosting an IWFS event.
ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THE MEMBERS WILL BE POSTED ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. Like us on FACEBOOK (IWFSOmaha): facebook.com/IWFSOmaha and follow us on TWITTER (IWFSOmaha): twitter.com/IWFSOmaha All versions of Wine & Food Gazette are published monthly by Omaha Magazine, LTD, P.O. Box 461208, Omaha, NE 68046-1208. Telephone: (402) 884-2000. No whole or part of the contents herein may be reproduced without prior written permission of Omaha Magazine, excepting individually copyrighted articles and photographs. Unsolicited manuscripts are accepted however no responsibility will be assumed for such solicitations. The opinions expressed in this publication, except as specifically stated to the contrary, are solely the opinion of the author and do no necessarily represent the views of the Board of Governors of the Americas. The International Wine & Food Society, LTD., the publisher and any officer, director, member or agent thereof. The international Wine & Food Society does not endorse advertisers’ products and is not responsible for damages incurred from the use of such products nor does it guarantee such products.