Events

California Wine and Cheese
Monrovia, Friday August 22
I'll be pouring a few wines at this great store - please visit their website for details and directions.

 

 

Stars of California at Two Rodeo
Beverly Hills, Saturday August 23, 7.30 to 10pm
Join fellow winemakers and me at this elite shopping destination, celebrating the best that California has to offer with live music and dining under the stars - and of course a generous wine tasting.
Please visit their website for more details.

 

Artisanal Grand Tasting at the 5th annual Pinot on the River
Russian River Valley, October 26
Pinot On The River is a full-immersion weekend of Pinot Noir, featuring a full program of in-depth tastings and seminars, vineyard tours and sumptuous food. Sit with the winemakers and other Pinot-loving consumers as we focus on highly-allocated, limited production West Coast Pinot Noirs. From Friday's kickoff dinner to a Saturday of intimate Pinot seminars and tastings all the way through Sunday's "Artisanal Pinot Noir Tasting," if you love Pinot Noir, it's a weekend you must not miss.

I'll be pouring at the Tasting on Sunday. Visit their website for more details.

News

Josh Raynolds on Stephen Tanzer's Wine Cellar reviewed one of my wines:

2005 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard Sonoma Coast
Vivid red. Intensely perfumed bouquet of fresh red and dark berries, incense, dried flowers and baking spices. Supple black raspberry, cherry-cola and musky herb flavors display good breadth and depth, picking up a candied anise quality on the back end. Finishes zesty and with very good lift, repeating the cherry-cola note. Pretty sexy stuff. 90

The May edition of Pinot Report featured two of my wines:

"After years of experience working with wineries on three different continents, David Vergari started making wine on his own in 2003. He's working with very interesting and unique vineyards including DuNah in the newly added section of the Russian River Valley, Sangiacomo in the Sonoma Coast and Van der Kamp on the slopes of Sonoma Mountain. David's Pinots are focused, balanced wines that greatly reflect the vineyard. He's a producer to watch."

Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Sangiacomo Vineyard 2005
Medium-deep ruby color; deep, spicy, black cherry and earthy aromas; rich and deep, earthy black cherry fruit, spice and forest floor notes, sweet oak; great structure and balance; long finish. Very deep and nuanced, this Pinot has many layers of flavor and a very silky texture. Score: 94

Pinot Noir Sonoma Mountain Van der Kamp 2005
Medium ruby color; earthy, red cherry aromas with gamey notes; deep red cherry flavors with earthy, game and mushroom notes, silky texture, sweet oak, good structure and balance; long finish. This Pinot shows some really unique and interesting earthy and gamey flavors that add complexity and make this a terrific match for grilled meats. Score: 95

Wow - what a great surprise I received the other day! Wine & Spirits magazine recently profiled their picks for the Top 108 Pinot Noir's of the year, and their list includes two Vergari wines! The editors blind tasted 628 wines, and then recommended 108 wines in their April issue. Their comments follow!

2005 Pinot Noir, Van der Kamp Vineyard 95 points
"An ambitious wine, this has the muscular structure of a grand cru from the northern Côte du Nuits It grows on rocky, volcanic soils 1200 feet up Sonoma Mountain, a blend of heritage clones and 777, fruit Vergari allows to ferment with native yeast. At first, the wine is mostly extract, with the scent of the charred edge of roast beef. Then, as the structure bears down with all its weight, the fruit begins to push up from beneath. It brings an opposing force of equal strength and makes this a dynamic wine to watch as it ages."

2005 Pinot Noir, Sangiocomo Vineyard 93 points
"Dark in tone, this wine's flavors of pomegranate and sour cherry yield a range of scents as complex as a forest floor. The savory notes of conifer and mushroom keep it baritone and gamey while higher notes of woodland flowers and wild cherry add dimension and harmony. This is focused and elegant , for braised duck."

Sometimes there are people you encounter in life who, the minute you meet them, you think "This guy has a story to tell and I bet he tells it well." David Vergari is that guy. He recently sat down with IntoWine to share with us his evolution as a winemaker and, most interestingly, the stories "behind the wine". Click here to read the interview.

 

"2006 Vergari Wines Corda Vineyard Marin County Pinot Noir Barrel Sample
Wine industry veteran David Vergari crafts Pinot Noirs from purchased grapes in Sonoma and Marin counties. He brings years of winemaking experience in both Europe and Australia as well as California to his label begun in 2003."

"This barrel sample is delicate with nicely spiced red Pinot fruits. The texture is quite silky and the finish, although a touch hot, is clean and satisfying."

"After a stumble with the wine service, we were quickly delivered the star wine of the night, the 2004 Vergari "DuNah Vineyards" Sonoma Coast Pinot. David Vergari makes this light but heavenly Pinot from grapes he somehow managed to talk Rick DuNah out of. Fans of DuNah's own wines would love this treatment as well. While lighter in body than most of the DuNah wines, it was in perfect form."

Click here to read the complete blog entry.

"David grew up in an Italian family where homemade wine was a way of life. It wasn’t until he attended college at U.C. Berkeley that he found out that white wine existed! He went on to get an MBA, but by the late 1980s decided he really wanted to pursue a career in winemaking. He attended U.C. Davis from 1989 to 1991 with many of his classmates who are distinguished winemakers today. After graduating, he headed to Australia to work under James Halliday at Coldstream Hills. I asked him how he happened to chose that course and he replied, “Anyone dumb enough to buy a ticket and work for peanuts could do it.” It turned out to be the foundation of his practical wine knowledge for he spent countless hours drinking wine from Halliday’s 30,000 bottle cellar. He went on to gain experience in Europe and then in California at Phelps where he worked for 4 years. Finally, in 2003 he decided to pursue the dream of most winemakers, his own label, and started Vergari Wines."

"David’s wines reflect their vineyard source and do not replicate a mirror-image style. Winemaking is essentially by hand, with minimal movement from crushing until bottling. A cold soak is followed by fermentation with native yeast for both primary and malolactic. The wines are barrel aged (1/3 each new, once-filled and neutral barrels) on fine lees for approximately 11 months."

Click here to read the complete article.

A modest man and good friend of Red Carpet Wine, David Vergari is as genuine as they come.
Vergari wines are elegant yet highly concentrated; accessible when young, yet structured for long life.
Red Carpet Wine - wine & spirits merchant