10/03/06 – The Livermore Valley

By Jesse on October 1, 2006

Dear friends,

October, traditionally, is one of the twelve months of the year.  During October, we’ll be visiting several of the world’s most famous wine regions, including Napa and Sonoma in all their glory.  We’ll hopefully also be taking a field trip (more on that at the meeting) and there will probably be a party at some point, since we just cleaned the carpets over here and they look way too clean.  For now, lets talk about historically significant wine.

Our continued exploration northward has landed us in the Livermore Valley, one of California’s most historically significant regions.  Cuttings from France were planted in Livermore around the turn of the twentieth century; these vines provided cuttings for vineyards all over the state.  The Valley itself is about 40 miles east of San Francisco, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll make Tuesday a catch-all meeting for wine from the general area east of the bay, including Lodi and Stockton (which means that I’m finally going to break out that legendary bottle of freaky Lodi wine that I’ve been talking up for months…. you guys are in for a treat).  In terms of your bottle, please feel free to bring either red or white.  Expect to find the big California varietals, such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet, and Zinfandel, and probably some Rhone varietals (Syrah, etc) and Rhone blends as well.

We’ll be meeting a la casa de Theresa y Joe. I’ve been advised to let you know that they have two small dogs, and they request that you don’t allow them to have too much wine.  Chill your whites, and we’ll see you on Tuesday at 9 PM.

Jesse