The Silk Road of Wine: CONRADO CELLARS BOTTLING PARTY

This past Saturday we were honored to be invited to the Conrado Cellars 2005 bottling party courtesy of our friends Russ (center) and Susan Perry. Head winemaker Paul Conrado (right) also operates The Conrado Company, a homebuilder specializing in the construction and remodeling of luxury custom homes in the foothills of Silicon Valley -- as a service to his clients, he also (astutely) plants and helps with the operations of nearly a dozen vineyards on their properties, for which he receives half their fruit as payment in exchange for bottling their wine. It works out nicely for all concerned.

Saturday morning, 9am: 145 eager friends and family assemble to begin the process of bottling 96 cases of wine (zinfandel and carignane).

There was lots, and I mean lots, of work to go around. The work was well organized, though, and at times seemed akin to a Civil War fire brigade with everyone pitching in wherever needed. The highlights, working our way down the assembly line:

Washing and drying the bottles -- very important to the end product.

Bottling the juice -- have to watch fill levels for all 6 bottles at once, feels a bit like a video game ...

Topping off each bottle, like Michaelangelo putting the final brushstroke on the Sistene Chapel. Perhaps I'm being generous; this was more like the "Goldilocks" job (not too full, not too low ... want the cork to fit juuuuuuuust right)

Corking each bottle. How long until Paul goes to screwtops?

Wait a minute ... I thought they only poured one glass for "quality control"?

A few mechanical difficulties with the pump, quickly repaired before the workers get antsy ...

Sealing each masterpiece with the distinctive foil wrapper.

Labeling each bottle -- steady hands required here, to be sure. Note the extra-large font, designed to accomodate dinner parties where they need to read the label after sampling a little extra product ...

In the end, another award-winning effort for the Conrado team. Great fun all around, we look forward to the next one!

Recommended books on wine

Andrea Immer Robinson's excellent teach-yourself course on wine
The other great wine & food pairing book on the market
One of the two best wine & food pairing books on the market
Encylopedic reference tome on all regions and wines. Very educational.
Well-written and very informative.
A great compact reference book -- extremely helpful when trying to decipher wine labels in other languages.
Easily digestible sections for each micro-region in the world. Fantastic maps
The gold standard -- read this cover to cover and you'll know more than most wine shop employees

Great wine shops

Vintage Wine Merchants
More than a destination shop -- you can easily spend the whole day talking with Alex, Joe, Mike, Harry and the gang and learning a ton about fine wine. Santana Row wouldn't be nearly as much fun without their shop!
K&L Wine Merchants
Great selection and newsletter. One of the best-designed wine websites around.
The Wine Club
Some real hard to find gems, good futures prices and a great newsletter.
Joseph George Wines
Think about it -- how many wine shops do you know that are 3rd generation family-owned, provide you the owner's name and phone number on their website (and invite you to call for assistance in selecting wines), and are only open noon-5pm Monday through Friday ...! A sign of how well the shop is doing.
Vin, Vino, Wine Bottle Shop & Tasting Bar
Tucked away on California Ave. in Palo Alto, this is truly a shop for the connoisseur -- not as comprehensive as some of the bigger shops, but they more than make up for it with deep collections of exceptional red and white Burgundies. Their newsletter is required reading each month.

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