Bahl Fratty from Dan Berger

Dan Berger has brought his Bahl Fratty Riesling in today, along with other wines to taste with Daedalus Howell on California Wine Country. It was back in February of 2024 that Dan Berger introduced Bahl Fratty on this episode of CWC.

Both Dan and Daedalus attended the Harvest Fair was last weekend and they both noticed that the room was dark. That made it hard to read the labels. Dan reports that there were several interesting wines. Everything was a gold medal or a double gold. Across the board, the food was excellent. The atmosphere was casual and enjoyable.

Earlier today Dan visited DaVero winery in Healdsburg, where they have just launched the brand Avivo. There are three wines, a white, a rosé and a red. They sell for about $20 a bottle and Dan says they are excellent. The wines are regenerative and organic. The white wine is a 100% Vermentino. The rosé is made from Sangiovese, which is also the red. Very little oak, very low alcohol and a good example of fine wine making. In Italy a pink wine made from Sangiovese would be called a “rosato” in Italian, where that S is pronounced with a Z sound. The grapes come from the cooler region around Lodi.

Montagne Russe

Daedalus was at Montagne Russe last night, which has an extensive vinyl record store attached to the tasting room. Kevin Bersofsky was on CWC recently, on this episode.

Melissa Galliani joins us in the studio for a taste of a Riesling from the Saar River Valley in Germany, the label is Willems and the name is Fineherb. (“Fines herbes” means chives, in French.) That is the name of the winemaker’s choice. This one is sweet going in and dry in the aftertaste. It’s 9% alcohol, which is rather low. Dan notices the iron ore character from that region.