Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/122527
NEWSMAKERS Faces& Forums Rhone Rangers Offer U.S. Versions of French Classics Randall Grahm honored with group's first Lifetime Winemaker Mike Owen, part owner of Crystal Basin Cellars in Camino, Calif., gets ready to pour a 2009 El Dorado Reserve Mourvèdre. Steve Felten, owner and winemaker at Klinker Brick Winery in Lodi, Calif., makes Farrah Syrah from the Mokelumne River AVA. Winemaker Amy Butler of Ranchero Cellars in Paso Robles, Calif., says Grenache Blanc is her favorite Rhone wine grape variety. Tasting room manager Christopher Whaley pours single-vineyard Syrah vinified at Wrath Wines in Monterey County, Calif. Gideon Beinstock of Oregon House, Calif.-based Clos Saron winery makes cuvees from Viognier, Cinsault, Roussanne and other Rhone varieties. Skylar Stuck and Katie Glenn pour wines from Halter Ranch Vineyard in Paso Robles, Calif., which creates table and dessert Rhone wines. Achievement Award S an Francisco, Calif.—Winemakers at the Rhone Rangers event at Fort Mason in San Francisco on March 23 discussed adding stems back to must for fermentation, extended reductive barrel aging, whole-cluster fermentation and some all light stem and skin contact for white wines during seminar discussions about making photos: wine with grape varieties from the Rhone andrew Valley in France. Randall Grahm, who also received the adams group's first Lifetime Achievement Award for his support of Rhone wines in the United States, discussed a novel way he's aging his Le Cigare Volant Reserve wine, which is a blend of mostly Grenache and Syrah. Grahm said he stores the wine on lees in small, airtight 5-gallon carboys with magnetic stir bars. Periodically Grahm will stir the lees by running a magnet past the bottles. During a session about the red variety Mourvèdre, winemakers from different areas of California and Oregon discussed the challenges and benefits of the late-ripening grape, which grows well in a variety of soils. More than 100 wineries exhibited their wines during tastings for the trade and media as well as a grand tasting open to the public. —Andrew Adams 28 w in e S & v i ne S M AY 2 0 1 3