I’ve been studying menus for years. The bookmarks on my web browser read like a Beard Foundation nomination shortlist. Some of these restaurants are close, some are far; most are places I’ve visited, others I dream of. A few are the spots where I will celebrate the attainment of personal goals in the coming years.
I’m starting to feel my way around the wine list and when I find one posted with the online menu I have whole new detail over which to obsess, research, and cross-reference. I’m also begun to understand the benefit of the corkage fee.
Living in a city famous for barbecue does not offer the same bottle choice as I experience in my travels to the west coast. As my palate is only beginning to develop and I’ve focused my initial exploration of wine on Sonoma County, it often helps for me to bring a bottle I already know I’ll love when enjoying the work of my favorite local chefs.
When Sami offered me a taste of Zero Manipulation from Peterson Winery, I knew exactly where I would take the bottle. My favorite weeknight haunt focuses on naturally raise livestock. Their dishes are inventive and full of flavor, it is almost possible to taste the earthy space from which the animals came. From my sample glass, consumed while standing in a Geyserville storefront to an open kitchen 1,847 miles away, the connection was real.
It took a few weeks to get my wine shipment because of the summer heat, but one evening not so many weeks ago, I headed out with two bottles; one for the owner, who always treats my kids and I well, and one for the table. We feasted on fresh salads, stinky cheese and the sausage from both goat and lamb. Our knives and forks chattered amidst the clinking of glasses, another celebration made better by the hands of local producers.
Peterson Winery ‘Zero Manipulation’ Philosophy:
At Peterson Winery we practice the philosophy of Zero Manipulation. Our definition of Zero Manipulation is using the most gentle winemaking techniques possible to maximize flavors, aromatics and the original essence of the wine. The less you do in the course of a wine’s tenure in the cellar, the more of that essence you’ll have to bottle. Every time you do something to a wine, you take out a little of what you started with.
Great wine has to be about place. Place in wine is only achieved if the bottled wine reflects where the grapes were grown. There is a huge difference between a great wine that carries a sense of place, and a wine made to taste more appealing with the overuse of new oak, or the presence of residual sugar. When you taste a Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel or a Bradford Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon and you have a sense of where that wine originated, then the essence of place has been captured. Our goal is that every vintage captures that sense of place in every wine we produce.