September Uncorked! A New Crush of Events

My, who would have figured Idaho would be bubbling over with wine-related events? Well ... me. And I'm dying to share them with you!

Martin's award-winning wine
Photo by Meg McKenzie

-- First off, in honor of Oktoberfest (OK, so it's a few weeks early, but so what?) tres bonne cuisine is having a German wine tasting Thursday, Sept. 15, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. It's only $10 per person, and includes free hors d'oeuvres along with a big lineup of Riesling, Auselese, Liebfraumilch and more. Tres Bonne Cuisine is at 6555 Overland Road in Boise. Call 208-658-1364 for more info.  

-- Next, I have to congratulate Martin of Fujishin Family Cellars for the awesome shout-out Wine Press Northwest gave his 2009 Late Harvest Riesling. Columnists Andy Perdue and Eric Degermann included Fujishin's wine among their "Outstanding" selections this past week -- his scrumptious $15 vintage was mentioned side by side with much pricier Washington selections, and it was the only Snake River AVA wine in the column (read it in the Statesman this week).

Check out Twig Munro's place in downtown Boise
Photo by Meg McKenzie

-- I also want to give props to the Sunnyslope Festa Celebration of the Harvest: I saw Gregg Alger out workin' the crowd at Capital City Market last weekend, and I heard that more than 300 folks turned out for the grand finale at Ste. Chapelle on Sunday.

-- Tuesday found me at Twig's Cellar in downtown Boise this week, tasting a flight of Argentinian wines courtesy of the wine pickers at Tastevin distributors. There was a Torrontes (Argentina's answer to Viognier) that blew my mind. At $7 you get three different wines, and Twig Munro gives you a good pour of each. Plus it's a great place to relax with pals. She's talking about installing a flat-screen so you may soon be able to enjoy a Bronco game or Dancing with the Stars with your favorite Periple Tuesday Night White or Huston Chicken Dinner Red. Twig's is downstairs in the historic Hoff Bldg, 816 W. Bannock St. Call 208-344-8944.

Check out the cozy wine bar at Helina Marie's in Star
Photo by Meg McKenzie

-- Thursday night there will be an Idaho Distributor wine tasting from 5 to 7 p.m. and Saturday will bring another great wine and karaoke party, both at Helina Marie's funky rustic wine bar in funky, rustic Star. The fun goes from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. 11053 Hwy 44 in Star. Call 208-286-7960.

-- Also Saturday the 17th, two awesome-sounding Eagle events: The Eagle Food and Wine Festival is from 6-9 p.m. at BanBury Golf Club. The cost is $40 per, with local Idaho wines paired with local chefs.Tickets are available at Syringa and Three Horse wineries and at BanBury off of Eagle Road. Call 208-939-4600 for more info.

 -- From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Woodriver Cellars is having a grape stomp and harvest carnival, with family-friendly activities at their winery on Highway 16 in Eagle. Call 208-286-0291.

A visit to Periple winery

A pretty display of Periple wines
Photo by Meg McKenzie

Angie Reff's cavernous space (which backs onto Cinder's cavernous space in a warehouse on E. 44th Street in the Garden City suburb of Boise) actually has a pretty intimate feel. She's got twinkling fairy lights illuminating a surprisingly intimate-feeling little tasting room space that you're drawn to when you first come in. Though not as grand and modern as Cinder, it beckons you with its foosball table, wine-barrel tables and couches. And then there's Angie herself, an unprepossessing lady who seems more like a soccer mom than a winemaker.

Actually, she IS a soccer mom (to three boys). But Angie's story also attests to her dedication to the craft: A U of I microbiology grad, she apprenticed with some major California players, including Alexander Valley Vineyard and Marcassin Wine Co., where she became assistant winemaker.

Angie Reff sells wine to some customers
Photo by Meg McKenzie

For the past four or five years, Angie's been crafting her Periple wines out of grapes she sources from California, Oregon and Washington -- sort of the flip side to Coiled's Leslie Preston, who sources HER grapes from Idaho but makes her wine in California! Not sure I understand the reasoning behind Angie's not using Idaho grapes. But ... whatever.

I tasted her Tuesday Night white ($16), which is a blend of Washington Chardonnay and Riesling grapes, and very smooth. Her Russian River Pinot is made in California, tucked in a barrel and then bottled and distributed in Idaho. Angie's first vintage was in 2007, and she started selling her Periple (a French word that means "odyssey") wines in '09. Her reds are in the $30-$40 range, and thus not in this wordsmith's budget, and are truly boutique (less than a thousand cases of each vintage).

Bus tours help pay the bills
Photo by Meg McKenzie

Like most other area wineries, Periple has a wine club (those are going to be the topic of a whole separate post very soon -- it's a lot of research, and I'm only half done) that lets the winemaker send you new releases at a discount and gives savings on cases and entree to special wine events. Periple wines are also sold at Twig's Cellar, a cute little wine bar on Bannock Street in downtown Boise, and at Bown Crossing green market some Sundays. Her wine will also be featured at the upcoming Eagle Food & Wine festival.

I could have stood chatting with Angie under her twinkling lights all day, it was that pleasant and comfortable. Back outside, I couldn't believe I was still in the wilds of Garden City.

Foosball table's a nice touch
Photo by Meg McKenzie

Periple Wines
107 1/2 E. 44th St.
Garden City, ID 83714
(208) 941-5641; periplewines.com

Owner/winemaker: Angie Reff

☻☻☻ I'm glad there's a winemaker as talented and down-to-earth yet savvy as Angie Reff producing quality wines in the Boise area, and making it happen close to downtown. Her space is inviting and appealing. I just wish she'd give those excellent Caldwell grapes another shot and produce a Snake River Valley vintage that gives a nod (and props) to her new hometown.

My ratings go from one grape (poor) to five (excellent) and are based on accessibility, ambiance, overall experience and, of course, the wines.

A visit to Koenig Vineyards

Koenig has a lot going for it. For one thing, the location is right across from Lowell (read Ste. Chapelle) Road on Route 55 in Caldwell. That means that when the concert is over on Sunday afternoon, the vineyard/distillery about a half-mile away down Grape Lane is where a lot of thirsty Idahoans head, since the tasting room is open until 5 p.m. on weekends, and guess what, gang: No tasting fee!

 

I really enjoyed the short ride past actual farms and the Snake River, up a little hill and past peach and apricot trees with ripe fruit hanging off them to the tasting room/distillery. The building itself is a big, boxy rectangle with a little balcony hanging off the second floor and some grape processing equipment down front. There’s a big circular parking lot with usually a half-dozen visitors’ cars parked there and a picturesque stack of fruit crates in the background. And that’s about it.

The distillery
Photo by Meg McKenzie

But inside is a different story. There’s a cool little ante-room at the bottom of the curving staircase, with a view of the crazy-genius-looking copper distillery for the potato vodka the Koenig brothers produce along with their wines. But you’re here for the vino, so up, up the steps you climb toward the sound of laughter that greets you in the second-floor tasting room. 

OK, so it looks like every other tasting room you’ve visited in Canyon County: the bottles adorned with medals, the shelves of wine, books about wine, glassware and logo-adorned clothing, at 30 percent off. But Koenig has several amenities that gives their tasting room a leg up. There’s that little table off to the side, with Carr’s crackers and a chunk of Jarlsberg cheese: Help yourself and munch between tastes. It really does clear the palate, and with that lineup of reds waiting for you, it can help you distinguish between the Merlot and the CSPV (Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot blend). 

Belly up to the bar -- don't be shy!
Photo by Meg McKenzie

Then there are the gals who pour the wines – pleasantly, eagerly, without fuss, able to talk knowledgeably about the wines, but also to shoot the shit with patrons in a friendly way. Kelly and Caroline were there one afternoon. I got to swap stories about children with Caroline, who moved here from England with her husband, an American.

The last thing is that lineup of bottles. There are at least eight different wines to sample. I started with the Viognier – light and fruity, a real crowd-pleaser. Then I switched to the reds: the Sangiovese – what Americans used to know as Chianti. Koenig’s was dry, really dry. I moved on to the CSPV, which had a great nose, but was also a little dry for me, flavorwise. After some crackers and cheese, I moved on to the Merlot, which was smooth, high-alcohol and pretty good. 

Exterior of the tasting room
Photo by Meg McKenzie

But something was missing. You guessed it: the winemaker. Greg Koenig – who also makes wines for his neighbors, the Bitners. “Does he ever show up in his tasting room?” I asked Caroline, who shook her head and volunteered that she herself had only seen the maestro once. Dang it! Making my way down the winding staircase, I reflected once again how much an AWOL owner subtracts  from the vineyard experience. Not that chatting with Caroline and enjoying a free smorgasbord of wine wasn’t awesome. But I guess I would liken it to going to a dinner party without a host. You feel kind of cheated.

Koenig Vineyards
20928 Grape Lane
Caldwell, ID 83607

208-455-8038, www.koenigvineyards.com

Owners: The Koenig brothers
Winemaker: Greg Koenig

Cheese and crackers, baby not included
Photo by Meg McKenzie

☻☻☻☻ The Koenig tasting room, which I've visited a couple times, is light and airy with a convivial atmosphere. There always seems to be folks standing around chatting and swirling their wineglasses. It's located conveniently off Sunny Slope, and is open Friday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. There's no tasting fee, and a lineup of wines that includes sparkling vintages and cordials. But the busy winemaker doesn't have time to hang out at his winery. Bummer.

Ratings go from one grape (poor) to five (excellent) and are based on accessibility, ambiance, my overall experience and of course the wines.

A visit to Cinder

Welcome to Cinder
Photo by Meg McKenzie

I was pumped about visiting Cinder. Despite its somewhat off-putting name, I had heard many tales of wonder about winemaker Melanie Krause, who makes award-winning wine for Huston Vineyards as well as her own label. I knew that she was a chemist and had been described as "very shy" but that her outgoing husband Joe had personality enough for two.

Naturally, according to the unwritten rules of my wine quest (so far), by the time I got to the unprepossessing warehouse off Chinden Boulevard, Cinder was closed. In fact, after driving around back to scope things out, I almost spent the night there, since a woman (Angie Reff from Periple, the adjacent winery at the front of the building, it turned out) was just locking the gates.

The following weekend I returned, just in time to see a big black party bus roll up. Great, I thought grouchily, not looking forward to an elbowing shoving match a la the ever-popular Ste. Chapelle tasting room. But luck (sort of) was on my side this time, as the party bussers trooped in to Periple first, leaving me with the lovely Cinder tasting room all to my little self.

Don't let the industrial vibe fool you.
Photo by Meg McKenzie

Let me say this: It's one of the most compelling tasting rooms I have ever been in. Beautifully and dramatically lit, it had a soaring ceiling and a concrete-y SoHo gallery kind of feel, but with rustic French oak barrels, wine racks and workers' galoshes lining the walls instead of avant-garde artwork. Two attractive, blonde pourer-people, Kristen Laurence and Adele Nyqvist, welcomed me with friendly smiles and talked knowledgeably about the various wines that Melanie had crafted. Alas, however, neither Melanie nor Joe was there, which bummed me out. But the delicious wine almost made up for it. I wasn't feeling the dry rose, but immediately warmed to the dry Viognier, which is aged in steel tanks, as opposed to the off-dry Viognier, which is aged in new French oak.

While I was tasting, we chatted. Melanie, Kristen told me, attended Washington State University and had worked at Ste. Michelle, the ne plus ultra winery of Washington state. I also tried her Cabernet Merlot blend, which has won a bunch of awards and was very good but up there in price (for poverty-stricken types like myself) at $27 a bottle.

Not the winemaker, but friendly pourer Kristen Laurence
Photo by Meg McKenzie

Next-door, I could hear the party bus people being herded out for their attack on Cinder, so Adele took the opportunity to show me around the wine-making room, which was enormous and very interesting. I felt like I was being taken backstage, which was a very nice feeling indeed.

Cinder

107 E. 44th St.

Garden City, ID 83714

joe@cinderwines.com; (208) 407-4347

Owners: Melanie Krause and Joe Schnerr

Winemaker: Melanie Krause

The party bus has arrived!
Photo by Meg McKenzie

☻☻☻☻- Located a stone's throw from downtown Boise, down a tree-lined lane (East 44th Street) just off the mishmash of commerce that is Garden City, Cinder Winery appears to be a shabby, weird warehouse on its face. But once you climb up the metal steps and step into the tasting room, it's like entering another world. Beautiful! Even though the winemaker was MIA, the pourers were so charming and affable, it almost made up for my disappointment. Plus the wines are really very good. No tasting fee. Open Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. (One grape deducted for absence of winemaker/owner and for having extremely limited hours; otherwise, it's a full-on five-grape experience).

A visit to Syringa Winery

Welcome to Syringa
Photo by Meg McKenzie

Why does this Sauvignon Blanc have to be so gosh-darn good? The 2008 vintage took a bronze in the state competition, and you can see why: it’s light, flowery and downright tasty. But why does Wine Girl seem so grumpy about this fact? Because of her visit to the Garden City tasting room, that’s why! 

The whole Syringa experience is a bit of a paradox: Named for the beautiful state flower, the tasting room sits on an ugly stretch of Chinden Boulevard among the used car lots and convenience stores just west of Boise. So it’s close and convenient to downtown, with ample parking. But loaded with vineyard ambiance and charm? Not so much.

Owner/winemaker Mike Crowley
Photo by Meg McKenzie

I stopped by on a Thursday afternoon about an hour after the tasting room opened, and walked in on owner Mike and his retail manager, Ina, having lunch with a friend at one of the tables out front. Oops. They hastily reconnoitered behind the counter, and then we all dealt with the fact that I had come unprepared with a five-dollar bill to pay for the tasting. I smoothed over the awkwardness by agreeing to buy a bottle – because, in fact, after tasting the Sauvignon, I wanted some more. At $16, it wasn’t cheap, but not crazy expensive, either.

The Chinden Blvd. ambience
Photo by Meg McKenzie

Mike told me the grapes were sourced from the Snake River Valley, but wasn’t much more forthcoming than that. In fact, I felt like I was keeping him from checking his iPhone messages, which he did the whole time I wasn’t trying to converse with him. 

Mike gave me a sample of the Fume Blanc, which tasted kind of sour after the sweet notes of the Sauvignon (though the wine course tells you they are the same wine, apparently they're not). I guess since I had already committed to buying a bottle of white, it wasn’t deemed practical to open a bottle of red for me. So I can’t report on Mike's Cab, his Merlot or any of his other red blends. 

According to his website, Mike has a degree in enology and viticulture and makes the wines himself. Syringa, it says, was conceived out of his love “for wine, for winemaking and the winemaker lifestyle,” whatever that is. Ina said the tasting room has been open about a year. You can find Syringa wines at some local grocery stores, including Fred Meyer and the Albertsons on ParkCenter.

Owner/winemaker: Mike Crowley
Retail manager: Ina R. De Boer 

Syringa Winery
3500 Chinden Blvd.
Garden City, ID 83714
208-433-1616
www.syringawinery.com

☻☻☻ Syringa gets points for being close to town and for having a nice Sauvignon Blanc. But I didn’t get a good warm feeling from my tasting room experience – in fact, I felt like I was bothering the owner and store manager after I interrupted their lunch. I was offered tastes of only two wines, both white, even after I bought a bottle. I wanted to tell Mike, “Dude, you’re representing the Idaho wine industry here!” Open Thursday and Friday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. $5 tasting fee.

Ratings range from 1 grape (poor) to five (excellent) based on accessibility, ambiance, tasting room experience and, of course, the wines.