WTN: RPM at Ordinaire

With the recent very sad closing of the Punchdown, I was on the search for a new favorite winebar in Oakland . . . Ordinaire in Grand Lake was on my radar and with the delightful experience I had last night, it easily slides into the top spot. Fantastic selection with lots of the cutting edge Californian stuff that is capturing my fancy these days along with a very cute and spacious interior and very passionate and helpful staff. With Bradford's guidance, I selected a bottle of the 2012 RPM Gamay Noir El Dorado. This was my first experience with this collaborative label of Nathan Roberts and Duncan Arnot Meyers of Arnot-Roberts and Rajat Parr of Sandhi/Michael Mina/RN74. The Garmay Noir comes from Barsotti and Witters vineyards. On this particular chilly Saturday night I was in the mood for something fuller and more robust than my typical acid-driven ways and I was delighted to discover how on-point Bradford was with his description of this wine--which indeed is a fuller and richer expression of Gamay while still very much 'in pursuit of balance'. Depth, layering, lots of interest, very very easy to drink a bottle on its own, uberapproachable at the moment and difficult not to return for another bottle.