So much seems to be going on with Uncorked Ventures right now.  That being said, I wanted to take a minute to stop and smell the roses or should I say the Pinot Noir.  Last year, when Uncorked Ventures was a thought, not a fully formed concept, there were a few wineries I absolutely wanted to partner with.  One such winery was ROAR Wines.  As of this week, I am happy and proud to be offering one of ROAR’s pinots in our on-line store.

For those of you unfamiliar with ROAR Wines, I highly encourage you to give them a try.  ROAR is run by the husband and wife team, Gary and Rosella Franscioni.  Gary’s family has been farming in California’s heartland for more than 100 years.  Having a good farming sense, the Franscioni’s have developed two of the more well-known vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands.  The Rosella and Garys’ vineyards are planted on the southeast portion of the mountain range overlooking the Salinas River Valley.  In addition to their fantastic pinots, ROAR Wines also crafts some incredible syrahs and starting last year a chardonnay.

So why am I so excited to be partnering with ROAR Wines?  It is pretty simple, I think their wine is just fantastic and while not cheap it isn’t crazy expensive.  In fact, their 2008 Santa Lucia Highland Pinot at $38 – $40 seems like a real value once you have had the opportunity to try it.  Given that there are less than 1100 cases produced,  I am pleased Gary has given our little upstart wine company an opportunity to offer it to our customers.  Beyond the quality level of the wine, Gary also seems to be a genuinely good guy.  Those of you who have been reading this blog a while, may remember that I had the opportunity to meet Gary Franscioni and Gary Pisoni at a tasting in San Francisco last summer.  Well as it turns out, Gary F. also remembered our encounter and was happy to grant me access to his limited production wines.

So on Friday, I trotted up to San Francisco to pick up my Pinot allocation for Uncorked Ventures.  Yes, I said San Francisco.  ROAR Wines is one of five or six bonded wineries in the city limits of San Francisco.  It turns out that by locating the winery in San Francisco they are able to take advantage of the cooler climate, thus reducing their air conditioning costs substantially.  The winery is nothing fancy to look at from the outside nor the inside.   While some of you who may be familiar with ROAR might have expected them to have a more temple like winery and tasting room given the success of their wine,  I myself somewhat enjoyed the practicality of it all.  I also like the thought that their continued investments in the vineyard will yield more benefits for their enthusiasts versus building the next behemoth winery.  That being said, if they build that gorgeous winery … I will come.

Finally, I want to also acknowledge Ed Kurtzmanm, ROAR’s winemaker, who set aside a bit of his Friday to talk to me a bit more about ROAR and also walk me around the winery.  I look forward to trying a bottle of Ed’s 2008 Buckhill Vineyard Zinfandel – Sandler Wine Co.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  I look forward to cracking open a bottle of ROAR Wines very soon and encourage you to do the same.

Me and Gary Franscioni