The Wines
Food & Drink DMWFF PREVIEW
CHATEAU MONTELENA Most folks know Montelena as the Napa winery that beat out French chardonnays in a blind tasting (it became the premise of the 2008 Alan Rickman film Bottle Shock ). Fewer know that DMWFF co-founder Ernie Hahn’s grandfather was one of the winery’s founding partners in 1972.
CALERA WINERY Calera winemaker and pinot noir icon Josh Jensen spent two years looking for the perfect limestone-rich soil in California before finding it in Mount Harlan near Monterey. He’d eventually be on the cover of Wine Spectator and be named SF Chronicle ’s Winemaker of the Year. An icon.
RETURN OF THE WINE PUNK
MADE BY LIGHT Made by Light founder Mark Valin—who started as a busboy at The Bridges country club in San Diego, worked his way to wine director, then became a winemaker himself—is bringing his very first bottles DMWFF. “[Valin] is focused on Rhône and Sicilian varieties,” Glennon adds.
APERTURE CELLARS Aperture was founded by world-famous photographer Andy Katz (his photos are everywhere, including on the cover of albums by the Doobie Brothers and Dan Fogelberg) and his son, Jesse. “In 14 short years these wines have taken on a mythic status—rare creatures sought after by collectors and hedonists,” Glennon says.
Sommelier Ted Glennon comes back to San Diego for the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival
He’s a part-time DJ now. He’s a dad. He’s still got that sturdy—but not wild—beard. But, mostly, Ted Glennon is one of the country’s top wine minds, one who made a big impact in San Diego before he left. And now he’s back for the DMWFF. Years ago, as beverage director of Hotel del Coronado, he introduced me to various European white wines. He wanted to debunk the then- prevailing notion that whites were somehow suburban fluff. We tried Grüner Veltliners, dry German rieslings, little-known hits from the Loire. I was new to wine, didn’t know the decorum. I sipped self-consciously. That’s when Ted took a massive sip of a riesling, swished it, gulped it down. “It’s juice,” he said. “Just drink it.” Since then, Ted has spent four years as the beverage director for the Pebble Beach Wine + Food Festival (back then, it was the French Laundry of food festivals). And he became a winemaker himself, crafting cult California wines under Vöcal Vineyards. He’s returning for DMWFF to help curate some wines, from well- known to rare and quietly buzzy. He might even DJ.
SKYLARK WINE Winemaker Robert Perkins is coming home for DMWFF. “He grew up on Coronado and found his way to winemaking via being a sommelier in San Francisco,” Glennon says. “I have always loved these honest and delicious wines.”
BODEGAS ESTEFANIA “Raul Perez in Bierzo in
Northwest Spain is one of the world’s great winemakers,” Glennon explains. “Working with very old vines, he brings forward spicy, elegant, satisfying wines.” ROSS COBB Ross Cobb is well- known to California pinot noir fans. He’s a skate punk who grew up in Marin County and worked on his family farm in Sonoma County as a kid. Now in his 22 nd vintage, he gets his music fix by making wines with Primus bassist Les Claypool.
LA CACCIA La Caccia comes from “a Tuscan estate untouched for 1,200 years,” Glennon says. “The wines are now produced under the eye of Napa superstar Marc Gagnon, and they possess great potential for cellar aging.”
26 SEPTEMBER 2023
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker