It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth.

- Pliny the Elder (A.D. c. 23–A.D. 79)

Everybody Must Get Rhoned
By Tim Hayes & John Koetzner
Photography by Margie Koetzner

Elvis was not in the building, but there was certainly no shortage of Rhone style wine producers at the 8th Annual Rhone Rangers tasting held at Fort Mason in San Francisco. As in past years, the Festival Pavilion was festooned with all sorts of Rhone Ranger regalia, and the atmosphere was charged with excited tasters elbowing their way to the tasting tables.

One producer who has consistently amused us at each of these outings, Bonny Doon Vineyard, did not disappoint. The staff looked as if it stepped out of some Francois Marot painting at the Palace of Versailles. Once again they amused the crowd, while pouring wines that touted the Stelvin® closure, including the Vin Gris de Cigare (Rose) that retails for $11.00. By the way, Bonny Doon has a film about a French Sommelier who seeks closure after chucking his corkscrew collection at their web site (http://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com). The rose tastes good, and the film does justice to the whole Bony Doon endeavor.

Tim looks at Bonny Doon's Le Cigar in a precarious position.

Not allowing Boony Doon Vineyard to stand alone with its sense of humor was Domain de la Terre Rouge (http://www.terrerougewines.com ). It had buttons with such slogans as “Born to Rhone” and “Everybody must get Rhoned.” Their Viognier (Shenandoah Valley, $30.00) was quite pleasant, leaving yet another smile.

Adding to the levity was a vendor that has shown up for a couple years called Wild Women on Wine (http://www.wildwomenonwine.com ). They sell a variety of gift and novelty wine items that have their logo. Before we left their booth they placed stickers on our chests that read, “I love wild women on wine.” They weren’t wrong.

So, we had our laughs, and some tastes of wine that made its impression. However, we were on the hunt for more elusive treasures. For the past three years running, we had been impressed with a producer from Washington State, McCrea Cellars. The wines were clean and had some of the best fruit and complexity we had tasted. We returned to their table in anticipation. We tasted several Syrahs, a 2003 Mourvedre (Ciel du Cheval, $28.00), a 2003 Counise (Ciel du Cheval, $28.00), a 2003 Grenache ($28.00), and a 2003 red blend, Sirocco ($32.00). We were not disappointed. All were exemplary examples of clean winemaking with excellent fruit forward, acid balance, and complexity that made a taster want to linger there all day. Alas, there were other tasters thrusting their glasses out begging for a chance to sample.

One of our bigger surprises of the day was when we sampled wines from Justin Vineyard & Winery (http://www.justinwine.com ) in Paso Robles. They had two Syrahs for tasting. The 2002 Syrah ($25.00) and the 2002 Syrah Reserve ($35.00). Both had great fruit forward and a hint of mint. They were our best new discovery at this tasting for Syrah.

Still other producers did not even appear in the tasting booklet such as Michael-David Vineyards (http://www.lodivineyards.com/index2.html ) out of Lodi. They had a Syrah called Sixth Sense ($17.00) that was rich, full of fruit and had enough contact with oak to make its complexity toy with our palates.

What we realized was that there are still great wine discoveries every week, and there is much more to Rhone varietals for everyone to get Rhoned. As as some famous folk-rocker might have sung, "Everybody must get Rhoned."

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For further information about Rhone Rangers, check out their web site with events, membership information and more at: http://www.rhonerangers.org/ .