Grubtrotters

Flora Springs 2005 Trilogy from Napa Valley is our wine pick of the day. I had an opportunity to sample half a dozen Flora Springs wines at a dinner hosted by the third-generation, family-owned winery at Wilshire, one of my favorite Santa Monica restaurants, back in March.

The 2005 Trilogy is a Meritage blend of traditional Bordeaux varietals, 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec mainly from the Komes Ranch estate vineyards surrounding the winery. The wine spent 22 months in new French oak barrels, and it’s wonderfully rich, full-bodied and balanced.

The best wine of the night was actually the 1996 Trilogy, but that one is a lot harder and more expensive to get your hands on at this point. The ‘05 Trilogy retails for $65, but I found it offered online for as little as $39.99.

The family behind Flora Springs owns 650 acres of vineyards in Napa Valley, a total of 10 vineyards in five appellations: Rutherford, St. Helena, Oakville and Carneros. All the vineyards are sustainable, and 20% are certified organic, with another 240 acres to be certified this year. A full 90% of the grapes used in the Flora Springs red wines are from organic vineyards. That means no spraying of harmful chemicals. Instead, they use natural methods such as cover crops, hawks and owls to control problems such as pests.

A quick summary of our dinner to whet your palate: We started with a delicate hamachi seasoned with ponzu and wasabi, which was paired with Flora Springs 2007 Soliloquy Sauvignon Blanc. That was followed by ricotta gnocchi with hedgehog mushrooms, Cippolini onions and chestnuts, which we enjoyed with the 2007 barrel fermented Chardonnay. For our third course, we savored a rich and delicious Moroccan spiced lamb stew with fregola sarda (a healthy pasta from Sardinia), cauliflower, piquillo pepper harissa (a hot sauce) and banana raita (a cool, yogurt-based sauce). This dish was accompanied by the 2006 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. And finally, we sipped the ‘96, ‘99 and ‘06 Trilogy wines with some artisinal cheeses before capping off the evening with a dessert of pain perdu with meyer lemon, huckleberries, port reduction and vanilla ice cream. Yum. — Jenny

My wine pick of the day is Rocca Family Vineyards’ 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, made from organic, estate-grown grapes in Yountville, Napa Valley. This was Rocca’s first Cabernet, and it was just re-released. You can purchase it directly from Rocca for $85, but the supply is limited so there’s a three-bottle limit. Having tasted this wine, I suspect it will go fast despite the price. I recently had the opportunity to meet the owners of Rocca Family Vineyards at a Campinile wine pairing dinner hosted by Mary Rocca, formerly a dentist, and her husband Eric Grigsby, a renowned specialist in pain management. (No, he doesn’t manage peoples’ pain with his wine, although I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt.)

While it’s probably unfair to compare wines when you’re not tasting them side-by-side in a blind tasting, I also attended a special Opus One wine dinner at Whist a couple months ago, and Rocca’s wines hold up against (and even surpass) some of the excellent Opus One cult wines I tasted. I’m not the only one who thinks so, either. A couple of vintages of Rocca’s Cabernets have placed first in blind tasting competitions against some pretty heavy hitters in San Francisco and France.

The ‘01 Cabernet (with 22% Merlot) was blended by winemaker Celia Welch Masyczek. After six years of bottle age, it’s smooth, complex and elegant — a very yummy, drinkable wine. Campinile paired it with sauteed trenne pasta that was crispy and had the look of French fries, as well as beef bolognese, peacock kale and Parmesan. I also enjoyed their earthy 2005 Syrah ($45), which was paired with rabbit sausage, beluga lentils, apples and pea tendrils. Delicious. Napa may not be known for Syrah, but Rocca proves it can be done quite well. Their new winemaker, Paul Colantuoni, a young hipster and Princeton grad who majored in molecular biology and Italian, is a big fan of Syrah so expect to see more of it in the future.

Our third course was a sage and rosemary crusted slices prime rib with creamy, cheesy aligot potatoes, paired with Rocca’s silky 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon ($75). Aged in small French oak barrels for 20 months, the wine is 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 4% Perdit Verdot. Smooth, smooth, smooth. If you can’t get the ‘01 Cabernet, buy this one. I wasn’t quite as impressed with Rocca’s ‘06 Bad Boy Red ($32), except for the hot cowboy on the label, who I learned was Grigsby himself. The Cabernet, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot blend is big and fruity and lacks some of the elegance and complexity of the other wines we tasted. But you might not notice if you’re not drinking them side-by-side, and the price is certainly right.

Grigsby and Rocca also run a foundation training doctors in Malawi, where 20% of the population has AIDS. They help doctors there provide palliative care at the end of life. So while you may be drinking something called Bad Boy, you can feel warm and fuzzy knowing your money went to some good folks who are spreading the love. I’m so grateful I got the chance to meet them. — Jenny