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Nini California Syrah I would like to introduce a new wine selfishly christened "nini." The name "nini" comes from Nini Lopez, a Parisian model who posed for Renoir a couple years before Margot Legrand. The painting below entitled "Au Café" actually depicts Margot and Nini "cheek to cheek" alongside a close friend of Renoir, Georges Rivière, at "La Nouvelle Athènes" (a café in the Place Pigalle in Montmartre). I like the inference that Margot and Nini were friends. I adore the joy of life expressed on the girls' faces as they face the waiter. I am mesmerized by Renoir's ability to paint young women so beautifully. For me, taking in a Renoir such as this one is like looking at my daughter's portrait. I seem to feel very connected to Margot with every portrait I chance upon. This painting almost makes Margot and Nini appear as sisters in my mind. Ever the paternal and born again winemaker, I have created a sister wine for "petite rousse" in 2005. If "nini" were produced 125-plus years ago it would have arrived at the table in a carafe or "pichet." And it would have been an unassuming "vin du pays" that even a struggling Bohemian artist could afford. Dare I say this wine would have pleased many French "artistes" at Puccini's "Café Momus" on a cold, snowy December night? OK. I've been reading too much Kermit Lynch or, as Mimi would say, listening to too much opera lately (I cry every time I hear Rodolfo sing "Mimi!" in the final act). Nevertheless, what did not escape me when designing the label was the fact that "nini" and "mimi" are spelled nearly identical. Coincidentally, Mimi's middle name is Nina and over the years I have found myself using the nickname "nini" on occasion. Much to Mimi's chagrin "Nini" was also one of my ideas for naming a baby girl after Maggie was born. The color orange was chosen for its significance in "feng shui." Accordingly, orange represents gathering. Orange is good as a highlight in social environments. Furthermore, orange is good for health and vitality. Speaking of ancient Chinese wisdom, the font here possesses a certain "chinoise" character which, admittedly, is unintentional. In fact the font was selected for its uncanny resemblance to Renoir's signature. The back label portrays a tale "when independent artists and their muses gathered at the café after a day spent painting the light…" Released on Bastille Day "nini" is once again 100% Syrah. More specifically, the first release equates to a blend of the 2004 "vin de presse" lots aged predominantly in stainless steel and three barrels of the 2002 Shell Creek Vineyard, a lot which never found its way into "petite rousse." The Shell Creek component comprises 15% of the blend, hence the wine's non-vintage label. Eighty-five percent of the blend comes from the Paso Robles appellation. Fifteen percent originates from Santa Barbara County. The back labels carries a "California" appellation as the phrase "vin de californie" has always impressed me. Blending so many vineyards together, it's safe to say "nini" is not driven by "terroir" which is perhaps the wine's biggest difference from "petite rousse" and Clos Mimi. Speaking of safety, "nini" is our first wine bottled with 100% Stelvins (a screwcap-like closure) in order to assure zero cork taint. Realizing that my wines handle exposure to air remarkably well (screwcaps automatically create a larger ullage in the bottle which can make some winemakers concerned about oxidation) and that "nini" is a wine meant to be consumed young and with little fanfare, I wanted to work with a closure that would be both easy to open and easy to reseal. For more information concerning the Stelvin closure visit: "Quand même," this wine was bottled without acidulation, fining nor filtration. Five hundred seventeen cases were bottled on Steve Rasmussen's mobile bottling line 24 June 2005. Alcohol is 14.5%.
Painted by Renoir 1876-1877
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