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Naughty Boy Vineyard my tube Entry for June 24, 2009
The bright yellow words
“Naughty Boy” stop you as you scan the rows of wine bottles. You then spot the dog, a Boxer, cowering slightly and looking up sheepishly. Impossible to resist, your first bottle of Naughty Boy Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Dolcetto may be bought for the novelty, but the taste will bring you back for more. Gold Medal Wines Naughty Boy wines have a long list of accolades including gold medals at the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for the 2006 Naughty Boy Pinot Noir and 2007 Naughty Boy Chardonnay; a gold medal for the same 2007 Chardonnay and a silver for the 2006 Naughty Boy Dolcetto at the 32nd annual Mendocino County Fair Wine Competition; and a Top 100 rating by the San Francisco Chronicle for the 2004 Pinot Noir. The Naughty Boy Pinot Noir, estate-grown and the inaugural grape of the vineyard, is held in new French oak barrels for 18 months prior to bottling, is described by Jim Scott, Naught Boy co-vintner with wife Emjay, as “Burgundian-style Pinot Noir.” The wine is earthy with a hint of spice intermixed with flavors and aromas of strawberry, red cherry, herb and rose petal. At $26, this lighter Pinot Noir is very reasonable priced, especially when compared to similar Pinot Noirs from California. The Naughty Boy Chardonnay, grown in a neighboring Potter Valley vineyard within sight of Naughty Boy Vineyards, is crisp and elegant chardonnay, with a fair amount of oak and bright fruit flavors. However, my personal favorite Naughty Boy wine is the medium-bodied and slightly tannic Dolcetto, a wine that engages flavors and aromas of plum, cherry, herb and pepper. Defined in Italian as “the little sweet one,” this varietal is a black grape usually grown in the Piedmont region of Italy. Naughty Boy sources this grape in Mendocino near the small town of Talmage. This wine is an ideal choice for summer barbecues at Donner Lake or Lake Tahoe. Wine as the New Art Recently I had the pleasure of sharing a bottle or three with Jim and Emjay at Cottonwood Restaurant in Truckee. As Jim popped the first cork of the canary yellow bottle of Naughty Boy Chardonnay, he recounted the story of how two artists met while working in San Francisco and ended up growing wine in Potter Valley. It all started at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984, when Jim and Emjay met while working together on Video Art. Artists all of their lives – Jim, a painter and custom- fireplace designer, and Emjay, a puppeteer and poet – the couple found a mutual love for art and each other. Together, the couple produced a local Public Access TV show in San Francisco and developed several award-wining video art productions featured on KQED and in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Then, in the late ‘80s, the Scotts decided to make the considerable leap from the tumultuous Bayview/Hunter’s Point neighborhood in San Francisco to rural countryside living. On a spontaneous trip to Potter Valley, they came upon a parcel of land with a barn and a creek running through it. “It was the creek that sold us,” Emjay said. The following decade was somewhat of a struggle, with multiple jobs, moves back to the Bay Area and even an attempt to sell the land. The Scotts found their calling, however, when they researched farming possibilities and learned that the Potter Valley property was a viable grape growing region. Jim and Emjay planted the first 3,800 vines themselves. After initially selling the grapes to other wineries, they eventually brought on their own winemaker, Greg Graziano of Domaine St. Gregory, to create the first Naughty Boy Pinot Noir. The label, designed by a friend, is a character of Little Ricky, the vineyard’s first Boxer. Before passing on from cancer, Little Ricky used to patrol the vineyards with Jim during frost checks at 3 a.m. Jim has always farmed the 5- acre parcel of Pinot Noir grapes using sustainable and organic growing practices while working with recycled or rebuilt equipment. They believe “that the care and love of the grapes is the first process in producing a perfect Pinot Noir.” To the Scotts, their wine is their new art form. Not Your Everyday Wine Club In addition to a fairy-tale story and fantastic wines, Emjay and Jim offer a wine club, the “Wine Salon,” that matches their artistic character – a combination of wine and poetry. Three times a year, two wines are shipped to members, one pinot noir, and one other varietal, with an original poem on vellum paper. Even amongst grapes, Emjay has figured out a way to use her poetic license. ~ Discuss this article with the author. Email stephanierogerson@ moonshin-eink.com. For information on Naughty Boy wines or Jim and Emjay Scott, visit naughtyboyvineyards.com. 2009-06-24 19:57:46 GMT
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