​On the Tuesday morning of SommCom I came prepared for the cold – thermal underwear, corduroy pants, heavy wool sweater, parka….   I didn’t wear a ski mask, of course – afraid I might be mistaken for ICE. 
The first session was one I was most interested in – the wines and wineries of San Diego County.  Very, very informative session, particularly if you have an interest in the more technical side of the wine industry.   And spend many afternoons at said wineries….
The most significant part of the presentation was given by Alysha Stehly.  She brought representative samples of San Diego County soils and the picture below.  It is a map of San Diego County where each color represents a different soil type.  As you can see, there are an awful lot of them.  In French wine terms, soil type is a part of what they call terroir, the set of conditions that affect the taste of the wines regardless of grape variety.  Climate, rainfall, and terrain are part of terroir as well, and we have plenty of diversity in those as well.  As a result, there is probably an ideal terroir in San Diego County for just about every grape variety except those that prefer cool climates. 

​I have listed on this website over sixty grape varieties that are grown and made into varietal wines in Southern California.  Turns out, there are about forty more grape varieties not on my list.  Now you know why.  Few if any wine growing regions come close to this variety.  A great example of the range of grapes is shown below, a white wine from Granite Lion Winery.  It is made from three grapes that you probably never heard of….

​Mia Marie’s winemaker, Kiara Boccia-Fenlason is making red wines using a process developed in the Beaujolais region of France, carbonic maceration.  For those of you who are bored by technical details, suffice it to say that the process produces a nice wine with very low tannin levels, one that is ready to drink.  We tasted her Merlot made this way, and it was nice, and she is also producing wines made from Tempranillo and Syrah grapes this way.  See the picture below for more details, and if this might bore you, skip the paragraph that follows.

​Carbonic maceration, as noted above, comes from the Beaujolais region of France where the red grape is Gamay.  The process entails putting the uncrushed grapes in a sealable container and replacing the air with carbon dioxide.  When you do this, something rather strange happens:  the sugar in the grapes turns to alcohol without the benefit of any yeast!  During this process, the tannins in the skins and seeds, and the dye molecules in the skins, are extracted, just as in normal fermentation processes.  Wine tannins have low solubility in water and high in alcohol, whereas the opposite is true for the dye molecules.  As the non-yeast fermentation results in a very low alcohol level, 1-2%, tannin levels are minimal without loss of dye molecules, i.e. the wine is red.  Eventually, the skins give way and the yeast on the outside of the skins converts the rest of the sugar to alcohol.  The tannins do not dissolve into the wine, so one has a light-bodied wine with nice color that is ready to drink immediately after fermentation is complete.  While most of the Beaujolais are aged in oak after fermentation, the first wines available in France from a given vintage year are made without oak aging, the Beaujolais Nouveau.  It should be noted that there is a trend in Beaujolais to make Gamay wines the traditional way, with hopes of producing a product that rivals their neighbor’s.  Their neighbor is Burgundy, and the grape they make wine from is Pinot Noir.  Good luck competing with them….
We tasted four wines:  the two mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, a rosé from San Pasqual Winery (an urban winery with a couple of tasting rooms in the city), and the red wine at the back of the picture shown below.  It is a very unique wine.  You see, a long, long time ago San Diego was a backwater port.  The sailors who visited the port had little money to spend so had no interest in fine wines.  Fortunately, there was a winery that catered to them in San Diego County:  Bernardo Winery.  To meet this demand they produced a pseudo-port wine.  They distilled some wine to a high alcohol level then mixed it with grape juice, giving them a concoction that was very drinkable but also could survive a sea voyage.  It is this ‘port’ that Ross Rizzo, Bernardo Winery President and Master Vintner, provided for this session.  It was surprisingly good.  Simple, but with very little of the brandy taste I really do not like.  By the way, this oldest winery in the county began operation in 1889 and has been in the Rizzo family for almost a century. 

​After Nizza came lunch, then an afternoon session.  I chose to attend the one on Armagnac.  I am not a particular fan of brandy in any form; brandy being defined as distilled wine.  I was hoping that Armagnac might be a more palatable form of brandy.  I was wrong.
Not knowing (or caring) much about brandy, I have had to do a bit of research to write this blog.  As pointed out in the presentation, Armagnac is produced in the Armagnac region of France (hence the name), an area south of Bordeaux.  The more well-known French brandy, Cognac, comes from the Cognac region which lies north of Bordeaux.  There are some significant differences other than geography.
First, Cognac is double distilled, whereas Armagnac undergoes only one distillation step.  Hence Armagnac has more of the complexity of the grape.  While Cognac is made almost exclusively from the Ugni Blanc grape, four grapes are commonly used to make Armagnac:  Columbard, Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, and a hybrid grape, Baco 22A.  Whereas Cognac is produced in great quantities by a few very large companies, Armagnac is made in small amounts by a large number of small producers.
Our presenter was Toshio Oeno.  He had us taste seven versions of Armagnac, as shown below.  Labeling is somewhat complicated.  VS means the brandy has been aged for at least one year in wood.  Age it for ten years and you get to label the brandy XO.  Now, if you age the wine at least ten years and it is all from the same year you can label by that year – as seen in the wine labeled 2005.  If you have multiple vintages in one bottle you label it with the number of years the youngest vintage was in the barrel.

​The fifth Armagnac on the table is labeled both 20 ans (i.e., 20 years minimum aging in oak) and Baco, meaning it was made from Baco 22A grapes.  Now things get very interesting.  You see, Baco 22A is a hybrid produced in 1898 by Francois Baco, combining the French grape Folle Blanche and the American grape Noah.  To make things even more interesting, Noah itself is a hybrid of two American grape species.  Thus, Baco 22A has DNA from three of the five grape species used to make wine!
Now for a technical/historical interlude.  If you do not wish to be bored to death, please skip what follows.
When Leaf Ericsson came to North America, he found some many grapes growing that he named it ‘Vinland’.  It should have raised great interest in Europe were it not for his father naming one of the most inhospitable places on earth ‘Greenland’.  Anyway, turns out that North America east of the Rocky Mountains was populated by four grape species.  That is four times more than Europe.  Unfortunately, it was also populated by a voracious root louse, phylloxera.  This nasty varmint eats the roots of grape vines.  The American grapes species have natural protection from this nasty insect; the European vines do not.  Hence, when some idiots brought potted North American grape vines to Bordeaux in the 1860’s the phylloxera that hitched a ride almost destroyed the European wine industry.  It was saved by an American, Thomas Munson (remember that name).  Munson was able to graft European vines to American roots, saving the world wine industry.  The French were so grateful to him that he was named a Chevallier, their highest civilian award.  The vines for the grape Folle Blanche were not as successfully grafted to the American vine roots as vines from other grape varieties, so Baco created the hybrid as a potential replacement for Folle Blanche in the making of Armagnac.
End of technical/historical interlude.  On to the tasting.
I’m guessing Armagnac is an acquired taste, sort of like scotch, which, in my much younger days, was my preferred alcoholic beverage.  Well, I have not acquired a taste for any brandy.  While I tasted all seven samples, I cannot say which I preferred since all of them tasted absolutely terrible, though different.  Towards the end of the session the presenter pointed out that you taste Armagnac straight but drink it diluted with water.  My question then if it is so bad tasting that you need to dilute it to drink it, why taste it straight?  Shouldn’t you taste it in the same condition that you drink it?  Perhaps, but wineries often serve their tasting pours of red wine at temperatures well above the proper serving temperature….

​The third session I attended at SommCom was once again in a very cold room, though not quite as cold as the Super Tuscan room.  Hopefully my gripes will reach the hotel management and they will try to make the rooms a bit more hospitable for future events.  Nah, that’s never going to happen….
Anyway, after warming up a bit outside I entered the not-quite-as-cold room for a presentation on Nizza.  Despite its similarity to a well-known food, Nizza is a wine-growing region in the Piedmont province of Italy.   The most famous – and probably best – red wine out of Piedmont is Barolo, made entirely from the Nebbiolo grape.  Playing a weak second fiddle to the Nebbiolo grape is the Barbera grape from which the Barbera d’Asti wine is made.  Nizza is a sort of subset of Asti which as of 2014 is recognized as a DOCG, a level Barbera d’Asti achieved in 2008.  Conceptually, Nizza DOCG Barbera is a better version of Barbera.

​Being a part of a DOCG means the winery has to follow some very strict rules on such issues as planting the grapes to guarantee the quality of the grapes.  You can see this in the picture below.  Note that the grapes must be grown on the side of a hill facing south.  Don’t have a hill facing south on your property?  No DOCG for you!

​We tasted eight versions of the Nizza DOCG Barbera.  I liked the first one best, actually quite nice for a Barbera.  I was put off by the price tag – suggested retail price is $55.  Not sure the speaker should have put that on the slide….

​“Putting the Super in Super Tuscan” was the second session I attended at SommCom in a very, very cold room.  It was about 90 F outside and must have been barely 60 F inside.  Not sure why, but hotel conference rooms are always this way.  Guess they are intent on bringing on global warming….
Anyway, great title for a session if, indeed, one knows what a Super Tuscan wine entails.  I was under the impression that to be a Super Tuscan some of the grapes would have to be Sangiovese.  I was wrong.  According to Wikipedia the first Super Tuscan wines were made from French grape varieties!  Well, I was only a little it wrong.  The first successful Super Tuscan, one that caused a major change in Italian wine regulations, was a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. 
Released by Marchese Piero Antinori in 1978, Tignanello, as it was called, was a great hit with the public.  At the time of its released, Italian wine laws were based on the French AOC model.  Groups of wineries in a specific region could get together and agree on a set of criteria for specific wines.  If the government approved, they could label their wines ‘Denominazioni di Origine Controllata” (DOC).  If they went a step further they could add ‘e Garantita’ to the name, shortened to DOCG.  The wines then became controlled and guaranteed by the Italian government.  Tignanello did not meet the DOC or DOCG criteria so was considered a table wine.  Seeing his success, other Italian wine makers released a wide variety of very successful of non-DOC wines.  The demand was such that the Italian government in 1992 added an additional designation, IGT, between table wines and DOC wines into which these Super Tuscans could be put.  Some regulation, but much looser than DOC level. 
As it turns out, Piero’s uncle was the first to start selling “Super Tuscan” wine in 1973 using only French grape varieties from Bordeaux grown in Bolgheri.  The presentation at SommCom reviewed much of this history then introduced us to some of these wines.  I took it as my task to find the Super that they claimed they had put into the wine to make it a Super Tuscan before I froze to death….

​The rest of the first row were similar, as was the one behind it.  But the fifth wine (shown above) tasted very different, much like a Syrah.  Sure enough, it is a Syrah blend, and a good one at that.  Had I found the Super?  Or is the Super what was not in any of the wines, and we were tasting what the Super Tuscans were like without the Super?  After all, the first Super Tuscan to make it big was a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Or is the Super in Super Tuscan that the Super Tuscan is made from whatever grapes the winemaker wants to use?

My first session on the Monday of SommCom was at 9 am but did not start until 9:20 or so.  The reason given was that the session entailed some blind tasting, calling for wrapping the bottles so the attendees could not tell which was which.  This seemed dubious to me since we were not allowed into the room until the wine was poured (see picture above).  My journalistic instincts in full force, I set out to learn the truth.  And it was quite amazing.
You see, the session was on the Pinot Noir family, with four different members.  I’ve heard it from a totally unreliable source that to emphasize the similarities, they brought in small pots of the four vines.  This got out of control, according to my totally unreliable source, when the plants jumped out of the pots and started dancing and singing a variation of “We Are Family”:
We are family
I got all the pinots with me
We are family
Get up, everybody, and drink
Attempts to quiet the vines were unsuccessful, so they finally removed them and got on with the very informative presentation – with wine.  In addition to great info on the four key family members, the speaker, Alan Tardi, asked us to decide between “old world” wines and “new world” wines.  More on such comparisons at the end of this blog.

​The first grape discussed was Pinot Blanc.  I’m not sure if I had tasted wine made from this grape before, but suffice it to say that it does not make a particularly memorable wine.  As noted in the bad picture of the slide shown below, it does not have the gene that gives Pinot Noir its color.  It appeared sometime in the 14th century.  Got the old/new answer right.

​The second grape was Pinot Gris.  This is a mutation of Pinot Noir that appeared prior to Pinot Gris.  Slide did not say why it does not have the color.  You have certainly tasted Pinot Gris.  You see, this grape made its way to Italy where the name was changed to Pinot Grigio – and the US imports more of it than any other wine.  I missed this one.  Not sure how, but I missed it. 

​Grape number three was Pinot Meunier.  It has tiny white hairs on the leaves, much like I have on my head.  Probably the reason they (allegedly) wanted us to see the vines.  Anyway, the grape appeared about five hundred years ago and is one of three grapes used to make Champagne.  Everyone easily selected the rosy wine as coming from the old world.  Very tasty!

We finally reached one of my favorite grapes, Pinot Noir.  I got this one right as well.  Big curve ball on this one.  Alan chose one wine from a winery in Burgandy and one from a winery in Oregon – with the same owners and the same winemaker!  Perfect comparison between old and new world wines.
Food for thought:  A blind tasting was held in Paris in 1976, an event known as the “Judgement of Paris”.  Seven French judges were asked to rate red (Cabernet Sauvignon) and white (Chardonnay) wines from California and France.  Much to everyone’s surprise, American wines won both competitions.  During the competition, it has been reported that one of the French judges held up a glass with American Chardonnay and declared it to be a great example of French Chardonnay.  In other words, the judges could not tell the difference between old and new world wines…

​Putting together this website is quite a task, involving travelling to many wineries around the world and tasting vast quantities of wine, all without any compensation – well, I do get to drink a lot of wine. Anyway, even for me SommCom San Diego 2025 represented a great effort, as the wine tasting began at 9 am -- on a Monday, no less!  But, as they say, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it….
The conference was held at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in Rancho Bernardo (duh!), the northeast section of San Diego known for red tile roofs and old people.  Quite a beautiful setting.

​The first event that I attended was a welcoming affair held in a garden on a Sunday evening.  Over the next two days I sat in on seven sessions, all of which included wine tasting, and a tasting experience in the conference Exhibit Hall.  Over the next few weeks, I will give you my take on the sessions, hopefully in a coherent fashion, noting that I did imbibe quite a bit of wine….

​The basic structure of the conference required more organization than most conferences in that many of the sessions involved tasting.  Hence, they had to have a good feel for attendance to know how much wine, water, et al., they would need, so you had to sign up in advance.  Your name tag included a code that was scanned much as a ticket before you entered a session room.  Given that much of the tasting involved alcoholic beverages they put your schedule on the back of the name tag.  I found it particularly useful….

​Avensole Winery is no more.  While it is sad to see a winery close, in this case not so much.  Robert Renzoni, his wine maker Olivia Blue, and Domenic Galleano have purchased their facility and reopened it after a year of renovations under the name Truffle Pig Winery.  So we mourn the loss of a old winery while we celebrate the opening of a new winery.  After a visit to Truffle Pig I am happy to report that there is a lot to celebrate!
Now if you name a winery Truffle Pig it should be expected that you will have a restaurant that serves meals with truffles.  Sure enough, the Renzoni gang reopened the Avensole restaurant (with significant changes in décor) as Domenico’s Italian Chop House, with lots of truffle dishes.  If that is not enough truffles for you, they will come by your table and shave some more on your dish.

​The food is great, as is the décor as shown in the pictures below.  Just a wonderful restaurant, on the level with the best in the Temecula wine country – which is saying a lot.

​As for the wines, well, the area of Italy famous for its truffles is in and around the city of Alba in Piedmont (northwest region of Italy).  Nebbiolo rules that part of Italy and does so in Domenico’s.  Not a Barolo version, but very, very drinkable….
They have not opened their tasting room yet, but have opened what used to be the Avensole wine club lounge, now named the Pig Pen.  It is clearly too early to evaluate their wines, as they only purchased the winery a year ago.  However, I did taste another wine made from a grape variety found mostly in Piedmont, the rare white grape Arneis.  Very nice wine….

​We made our first visit to Rashelica since COVID, and I am happy to report that they Chaljon collection is still there, and maybe even better than before COVID.  As you can see in the picture above, they have a marble casting of the Pieta sanctioned by the Vatican (see certificate below).

​They still have a chess board with unique pieces.

​Our guide, shown below, told us that you can play chess there, but if you lose Medusa turns you into stone.

​They did let some of the horses out to graze and frolic on the lawn.

​Everywhere you look there are magnificent pieces of art sculpture.  Even in front of the bathrooms.

​Rashelica is located on Rte. 67 on your left as you drive from Poway to Ramona.  Oh, I should add that they do have wine….

​I am happy to report that the spirits that haunted the woods of Three Hills Winery are no longer a problem.  Their wines are now the only spirits on site.  More fun as well, they are in the process of upgrading their facility and now have an indoor venue with some food available.  A new building is being put up to house the wine making.

They have added to their list of wines.  Of note is their Vino Nobile blend.  Vino Nobile relates to the Sangiovese blend produced in and around the town of Montepulciano.  There is also a grape named Montepulciano.  However, the Montepulciano grape is not grown in Montepulciano.  Rather, the major grape used to make Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is of the Sangiovese variety.  Very confusing.  Anyway, this Vino Nobile blend at Three Trees shows great promise.  A second wine of interest is their Zinfandel/Syrah blend, Serenity Now.  Both these wines should get better over time, especially if they pick the grapes when they a bit riper.
The best of the lot was their Double Trouble port-style red.  It is quite nice, much better than the wines of similar price range that legally call themselves Port.

Meanwhile, their World Peace blend has done very well.

As the woods are now filled only with wine spirits, and the bees are currently not a problem, it is wonderful place to visit.  Stop at the counter for wine, then head on down to the lack for a picnic....

​Our latest adventure took us much closer to home, the northern San Diego County community San Marcos.  This is not an area known for its wineries, largely because the land is so expensive, but it was there that we found Sunshine Mountain Winery.  This boutique winery has been in operation for around ten years so I should have been there a long time ago.  I can assure you that there are others I have missed….
Anyway, we visited there on the fourth of July.  Quite a nice facility, with a pretty nice view, as shown in the pictures below:

​For the wine tasting, they don’t follow the expected path.  You try two wines, then select either glass or bottles from the list below.  We started with their Viognier and Zinfandel then went on to try a vertical tasting of their 2020 and 2021 Syrah.  Sometimes a wine just hits you right, even if it isn’t exactly what you expect.  The Viognier was just that – a much brighter version than normal.  As for the vertical tasting, it was a clear demonstration that one must pay attention to vintage.  From our perspective, the 2021 was clearly the superior wine. 
​The wine list is shown below, clearly taken after I had finished two tastes and a glass of the 2021 Syrah....

Sunshine Mountain has a wine club, but it is a bit different from other clubs.  Members receive two bottles of wine a month.  There are three categories of membership:  white and rose at $49 per month, white and red at $69 per month, and all red at $89 per month, all members’ choices, with a 15% discount for any other wine purchases.