Bottom line is that takes a lot of talent to make good wine.

Like most things, it takes years of practice, refinement, tweaking and perfecting.  In the world of entertainment, musicians rehearse, practice, audition, rehearse some more and practice again and again.  Here in our corner of the world, we hold a little thing called San Marcos Has Talent . . . it’s designed to let folks who want to sing, dance, play an instrument or do whatever their talent drives them to do.  For us, it’s about providing entertainment.  As a rule, awards galas are right up there with getting a shot of penicillin.  Most people arrive early and leave as soon as they can.  We believe that as important as it is to recognize and award special people for amazing accomplishments, it’s also important to recognize and award special talent.  Brian had the opportunity to see first hand a couple of nights ago, the passion that performers have when given a stage and a microphone.  They write songs; play instruments; create dance moves and fuel their passion for excellence.  As a microcosm of a national television program, San Marcos Has Talent simply seeks to find four performers to help make the awards gala something memorable – for the award winners and the attendees.  And, on November 8th, these four performers will take the stage and sing and dance and play their hearts out for hopefully a crowd of 600 or more people.  For us, it’s about providing entertainment, for them it’s about the talent.

Tonight we opened a 2009 Dry Creek Vineyards Heritage Zinfandel.  Talk about talent.  This family owned and run winery is celebrating 40 years of winemaking in Sonoma County, California.  They are now on their third generation of family involvement, and the wines just keep getting better and better.  We first tried their wines about four years ago; being fans of Zinfandel, it was a shot in the dark to try this wine we’d never tasted before.  We were hooked. . .immediately, and at a price around$16-$17 it was a treat for us ‘Zin Fans’!  Very jammy, the flavor of the wine is intensified with dark chocolate.  Now we can give you tasting notes, but what this wine has that makes us keep looking for it, is taste.  Pure and simple, this is a drinkable wine without a lot of fanfare.  You can tell by drinking this wine, that the winemaker knows exactly what is going on – that years and years of ‘practice’ have brought them to this vintage.  We  have to admit, this blog has helped us read up on the wineries making the wines we’ve enjoyed, and Dry Creek Vineyards is no different.  We have never visited this one, but can promise you that on our next trip to the Napa area we will.  They’ve honed their talents over the past 40 years – 40 years, think about it.  Pre-1976, the California wine industry was anything but respected, but hard work, practice, passion and commitment have all combined with this particular winery.  This particular wine is widely available at the establishments we’ve talked about previously, and we recommend that, if you like Zinfandels, then try this one.

As Brian listened to each of the semi-finalists during San Marcos Has Talent, it became obvious that all of them brought their ‘A’ Game that night.  From youth to adult, everyone of the performers looked like they were on a mission.  Even if the prize is $500 and there probably isn’t going to be any fame and fortune beyond the night of November 8th, it’s impressive to see people who are willing to put themselves out there–push to be the best and willing to practice over and over again to get it right.  It ‘s probably why we liked this wine so much because the family that makes it is obviously never satisfied – constantly striving to improve their product and the experience of their customers.  Hopefully, when the finalists of San Marcos Has Talent have their opportunity to make the most of their moment on stage, they, too, will have practiced and not have been satisfied until that night.

For those of you interested in learning more about the four finalists, you’ll be able to view their semi-final performances starting on October 1st at http://www.sanmarcoshastalent.com and if you’re not interested in that, but you ARE interested in tonight’s wine, try it, you’ll love it.  Until tomorrow, have a great last day of the work week.

Please remember to enjoy responsibly and recycle whenever possible.