Robert Sinskey Vineyards

Stubborn POV...

Our point of view has changed little over the past three decades. We still believe wine is not an athletic event and that the best wines are grown, not manufactured. We continue to prefer a wine that evolves slowly, becoming more interesting as it ages, instead of a wine that screams for attention before fading into oblivion. And we firmly believe that the craft of growing and making wine takes time and short cuts will always bite you in the butt.

Observation, restraint, and total engagement from dirt to bottle is the name of our game. Since RSV planted every vine for every wine, we live and die by what our vineyards produce. We believe the only way we can make consistently elegant wine is to know our vineyards, accumulate knowledge year after year, and learn how to respond to the idiosyncrasies of vintage. The better we grow it, the less we need to do in the cellar and, instead of interventionist winemaking, we can elevate it with pure, minimalistic techniques.

But the downside of growing our own fruit is that we are at the mercy of the vintage. We can’t suddenly scale up by buying more grapes when we have a short crop or a “hit” wine. We limit ourselves to what nature and our farms provide.

Our POV, the wine, was, and is, impacted by these issues. The small crops of the 2010 and 2011 vintages came at a time when wine drinkers were discovering how elegantly delicious the POV is. As a result of short crop and demand, we have now sold out of the 2011 vintage in record time and, just a few short months after its release, we are now releasing the 2012.

Don’t worry, POV can handle this early release. Since we grow our own, we let each block express itself and then select by character which blocks go into the POV, Libration, or Marcien. The blocks that go into POV strike that fine line between early expression and evolutionary appeal. In other words, the selected lots are naturally a little more fruit forward, yet retain good acidity and supple tannin for age worthiness. Now, the wine may not age as long as Marcien, but it’s also not going to fade in the glass during dinner. From our POV, this wine is delicious now and will keep giving for at least the next decade.

Cool Comfort

I love to cook for POV. As the days get shorter and the weather begins to cool, that’s when I lean towards the comfort of pasta with a hearty sauce made from lamb kissed with tomato. I slice the lamb leg thinly for tenderness and to reduce cooking time. This keeps more of the flavor and texture of the meat intact. This dish really sings with the gorgeous, bright and beautifully textured 2012 POV.

I recently found a pasta brand I love called Fallicetti Monograno that makes pasta from freshly milled, organic, single variety hard wheat that is packed with protein and fiber. One single grain variety called “Matt” is particularly delicious with “a mouth-watering flavor of freshly baked bread drenched in farm-fresh butter and the delicate aroma of dried coconut and spring hay fields”. (I took this quote off their website because the cooked pasta really does have these aromas and flavors!) If you can find it, buy it and sauce it with this recipe. You won’t be disappointed.

Until the Next Wine....
Maria

EAT: “Quick-braised” Lamb Pache (Paccheri)

If the best wines promise to be elegant, balanced beverages for the dinner table, POV delivers. When most people think about Bordeaux varieties from Napa, they tend to think of big, rich, sweet Cabernet Sauvignon. That is not POV.

Grown in RSV’s organic cool-climate Carneros Vineyards, this wine has more in common with the Right-Bank of the Old World than the Left-Bank of the New World — and for good reason. RSV’s Vandal Vineyard is in many ways like the Right-Bank of Napa with a heat summation similar to Saint-Émilion. No wonder Cabernet Franc and Merlot thrive here with vibrant fruit that has just the right amount of naturally-occurring, mouth-watering acidity. Combine those two varieties with a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon for backbone and longevity, and you have a wine that in our POV strikes a perfect balance of supple fruit and elegant structure to be the perfect dinner companion.