A few weeks ago, on November 11, The Whole 9 hosted a wine tasting in their fabulous and multidimensional art gallery in Culver City. The theme of the tasting was ‘Divas that Drink,’ and the powers that be (those powers being Lisa and Heidi, of course) invited me to help select a few tasty libations made exclusively by women winemakers and come up to the gallery to pour and talk and sip. Naturally, I jumped at the offer, and I’ve been itching to share the night with you since.

In attendance were both the expected (artists, photographers, wine professionals) and the unexpected (a golf instructor, a soon-to-be Christmas Elf from Santa’s Kingdom in the Westfield Mall). Indeed, the crowd was manifold, a collection of Whole 9 community members, gallery frequenters, wine enthusiasts, and those who came out in support of the ‘girl power’ theme of the tasting. The wines were equally diverse in terms of style and varietal, but in some ways the New World is a few steps ahead of the Old World of wine, so seeped in tradition it is, and there are many more female winemakers on the domestic front. For this reason we stuck primarily with American-made wines, with a dash of Spain for good measure: Domaine Carneros Brut, Carneros 2005 (Eileen Crane); Beringer Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley 2006 (Laurie Hook); Chateau St. Jean Pinot Noir, Sonoma County 2007 (Margo Van Staaveren); Bodegas Montecillo Crianza Tinto, Rioja, Spain 2005 (Maria Martinez-Sierra); and Covey Run Winemakers Collection Merlot, Columbia Valley, Washington 2004 (Kerry Norton).

The big hit of the night was unquestionably, and unsurprisingly, the Chateau St. Jean Sonoma County Pinot Noir 2007. Margo Van Staaveren has been making wine and waves at St. Jean (rhymes with bean, by the way, not pawn!) for 25 + years and was named the Wine Enthusiast 2008 Winemaker of the Year—the first woman to be granted the coveted distinction, incidentally. The quality of Chateau St. Jean is no secret, and its widely distributed wines are some of the most well known in Sonoma County. Truthfully, I think all of this has very little to do with the fact that I opened significantly more bottles of the pinot noir than anything else that evening. Simply put, people love pinot. We are still mildly suffering from the cultural backlash following that movie—you know the one. And wine consumers are just like consumers of anything else; we like, wholeheartedly and quite sincerely, what’s trendy. That said, the Chateau St. Jean Sonoma County Pinot Noir is perfectly gorgeous in the glass and on the nose, a glowing garnet smelling of leather, dried roses, and fresh raspberries. On the palate—dun dun dun duunnnn…it falls flat.

I don’t know what it is about this wine. It has all sorts of fabulous reviews from people much more important than I. It sells like you wouldn’t believe. But I imagine it’s like dating a model, or maybe Jessica Simpson: you feast your senses and you get all excited, thinking you’re in for a real treat, but pretty soon you realize there’s just not much going on. Similarly, I like Jessica Simpson; I think she probably has a good heart and I want to believe in her, the same way that every time I taste this wine, over multiple vintages, I feel a warm burst of hope when my nose comes near the glass, but by the time it gets to my mouth, it’s the same sad shake of the head.

The highlights of evening for me were the Domaine Carneros Brut 2005, an effervescent dream of a bakery full of fresh flowers, jasmine and orange blossom, big bowls of citrus scattered on the counters among the dough and the yeast. Domain Carneros also hosts one of my favorite tasting experiences of all time, by the by, and I highly recommend you stop there next time you are cruising though either Sonoma or Napa (as Carneros is so generously stretched in between the valleys, it is convenient for either). I was also a big fan of the Rioja, the Bodegas Montecillo Crianza Tinto 2005. The Crianza is the youngest of the Rioja wines (the word means ‘something raised or nursed’), and this $11 tempranillo is a vibrant, spicy treat full of ripe Bing cherries and vanilla bean. Maria Martinez-Sierra is known as a wildly charismatic yet shrewd businesswoman who occasionally invites the local Spanish growers over, gets them drunk, and then secures her grapes at the prices she wants to pay. If I said this didn’t make me like the wine just the teensiest bit more, I’d be lying. Girl power, baby.

Thank you to The Whole 9 for hosting such a fabulous event, and here’s to having another one soon.

Cheers.