We had a great visit at Elyse, a quaint small botique Winery with most wines only available direct or through their wine club. Among the favorites was a 2011 Jacob Franklin from their Hoffman Vineyard with a nice pepper nose and smooth finish.
Kristen ran the Napa marathon yesterday, and qualified for Boston!!! We’re celebrating at our first stop of the day at Domaine Chandon for some morning bubbles. The reserve tasting starts off with a 100% Chardonnay which boasts a crisp finish. The second is 80% Pinot Noir 20% Chardonnay, it hits your palette with a nice apple start and a robust finish. The final glass is a 2009 vintage brut from Yountville that’s 76% Pinot and 24% Chard. It’s just a bit more sweet than the second and has a little more of a fruit flavor. Overall, very happy with our reserve tasting selection.
On to Sequoia Grove!
Halloween is just over a week away! Whether you are throwing a party or attending one, you are probably planning to pick up some wine to serve or bring as a hostess gift! For this month, I want to highlight a Paso Robles winery called Chronic Cellars because it’s yummy, affordable and in the Halloween spirit! This wine is sure to get a laugh, enhance your décor, and be enjoyed by guests!
October is the perfect month to highlight Chronic Cellars because of the Dia de los Muertos inspired label artwork and clever names! Chronic Cellars aims to produce drinkable, approachable wine for a casual lifestyle and they clearly have fun while they are doing it!
Two of our favorite wines from Chronic Cellars are the Sofa King Bueno and Dead Nuts. We recently paired Dead Nuts with pulled pork sandwiches and mac & cheese. The combination was Sofa King Good!
2012 Sofa King Bueno
The Rhone King! We take the best of the best, carefully blend them together – and you get Sofa King Bueno. Dark Color, black and red fruits, big game, full tannin and savory flavors are a dream come true.
2012 Dead Nuts
Zinfandel is California’s heritage grape. We love zin and love to blend with it even more. It has all the fruit that one could want and is always accepting to bring in some friends to play with. The added spice of Tempranillo compliments the white pepper of the zin. Then there’s the meat, smoke and leather of Syrah, which one can never go wrong with. Add in petite sirah and tannat with its big tannins, and it will always be a game winner.
I’ve found both of these wines at the following stores and price points:
Pinot is for Breakfast
On one of our trips to Napa, Jason and I visited Caymus for a private tasting with his brother and my partner in Napa shenanigans, Sharon. We were thrilled to finally get a reservation at the infamous Caymus Vineyard’s, which was rumored to be one of the snobbiest wineries in Napa. We made sure to arrive on time, so we didn’t ruffle any feathers, and we sat front and center! We were feeling quite inquisitive, asking question after question during the tasting. At one point, I asked if Caymus made a Pinot Noir. The gentleman leading our tasting looked up at me and without any further explanation said, “Pinot is for Breakfast.” It was the ultimate wine snob comment and we LOVED IT! We quoted him all weekend! Now, anytime someone suggests a Pinot among the four of us, someone is guaranteed to say, “Pinot is for Breakfast.”
When I asked about Pinot Noir, I was referring to the red grape variety, most famed for producing wine in the Burgundy region of France, Oregon, and California. I came to later discover that Pinot Noir is the prominent grape used in Champagne and other sparkling whites. It also makes a delightful rosé. Pinot Noir is actually a genetically unstable grape that can mutate into a white grape, called Pinot Blanc.
That tricky little grape can swing both ways! Of course it’s a breakfast wine! Who hasn’t had a Champagne brunch or indulged in Sunday morning bottomless Mimosa special.
After 4 years of joking about having Pinot for breakfast, we finally decided to try it and invited some friends over for a Pinot Noir inspired breakfast! The menu consisted of bacon & spinach quiche, sausage links and a fresh fruit salad! We had a line-up of three wines to sample during breakfast, which included a sparkling, a rosé and a red listed below:
So what was our conclusion you ask? We loved it! The sparkling was an obvious success, the rosé was the surprise hit of the meal and I personally enjoyed a little red to get the day going! I think that the red worked with the quiche and the sausage, but I would stick to a sparkling or rosé for breakfast foods that are on the sweeter side.
What are your breakfast plans for the weekend? Maybe you should consider skipping the orange juice in your Mimosa or trading in your Bloody Mary for a glass of Pinot this weekend. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Kobalt 2011 Window Pane Red Blend
Kobalt is a small production winery in Napa Valley. My husband and I first discovered their 2011 Window Pane Red Blend over Valentine’s Day dinner at Cowboy Ciao in Scottsdale. For those who are familiar with Cowboy Ciao, you probably know they have an extensive wine list. Rather than trying to navigate it ourselves, we love to ask for help selecting something unique and unexpected off their menu. We fell in love with this delightful recommendation at first sip and have been stocking up ever since.
It seems that we are not the only ones stocking up! When we first discovered it we could only find it at AZ Wine Company in Scottsdale for $35. I have since seen it at Costco for $29 and at Fry’s, which we purchased 6 for $25 during their 30% off sale (save an additional 10% when you buy 6 bottles).
Here is the blend break down:
Tasting Notes from the Winemaker:
The 2011 Window Pane oozes with very fragrant ripe black raspberry and blackberry jam aromas. It is juicy, full bodied and loaded with extracted fruit yet balanced and very suave. The aroma and flavor profile consists of: ripe black currant and blackberry with complex hints of dark chocolate, boysenberry, and plum with notes of cinnamon and hints of black cherry. The finish is accentuated by wisps of gentle oak and dry but moderate tannins that integrate with the dark fruit and linger nicely on the palate
Where to Buy:
I have found this wine at the following stores at the following price points:
Reconsider Riesling
The first bottle of wine I ever ordered was a bottle of Riesling on a Carnival Cruise, during my senior year of college spring break. I loved it so much, that I proceeded to split a bottle with my dear friend Marisa every night of our 5 night cruise. Many college students like to forget about what happens on spring break, but I couldn’t forget my new found love for wine. I took that home with me! After college, I slowly began to venture out into other white wines, then into red, and eventually I became the self-proclaimed wino that I am today. Riesling became a distant memory that I related to an immature palate. A “Starter Wine” if you will. My perception was likely perpetuated by the negative stereotype of Riesling in the US due to the number of butchered, overly sweet Rieslings that were exported to the US in the 80’s and 90’s giving the grape a bad name.
In reality, Riesling is a very sophisticated and elegant grape enjoyed by many of the wine world’s most advanced palates. In fact, many wine critics consider it to be finest white grape variety.
It’s a grape that is renowned for its high acidity, aging potential, complexity and ability to express “terroir” (expressing characteristics of the region or soil where it was grown). While Riesling is primarily known for producing sweet white wines, it can also be fermented to complete dryness. In fact, it was a dry Riesling from Germany that completely opened my eyes back up to Riesling. When I was in search of something white, crisp and refreshing, I started seeking out dry Rieslings as an alternative to my go-to Sauvignon Blanc.
Some of the most renowned Rieslings come from Germany and Alsace, France. Other major Riesling producing regions are Austria, Australia, California, New York, New Zealand & South Africa.
Typical Characteristics of Riesling are:
I decided to put Riesling to the test and organized a tasting among 6 of my friends ranging from the big red wine fanatics, to white wine lovers. I started by asking everyone their thoughts on Riesling:
I organized a sampling of three different Rieslings ranging from dry to off-dry. I purchased all three from Total Wine. Here is the line-up and the group’s feedback:
2010 Exception Riesling from Alsace, France
2012 Dr. Heidemanns Riesling QbA from Mosel, Germany
2007 J.J Prum Riesling Kabinett from Mosel, Germany
Overall everyone agreed that they would give Riesling another try and even planned to seek it out again on their own. For those of you like me who abandoned Riesling for the bigger, bolder more mature red, maybe it’s time to go back to your roots! After all, what’s wrong with enjoying a wine that was so easy to love to begin with!
Next time you are in the mood to try something different, give Riesling another try and let me know your feedback. Some ideal pairing to try it with:
Celebrate with Sparkling White
Celebrations are the perfect time to bring out the bubbly! You can hear corks popping around the world on New Year’s Eve, as people ring in the New Year. On any other given day of the year you can hear the cheers of friends and family participating in a champagne toast to celebrate any number of major life events such as weddings, promotions, anniversaries and the list goes on! On July 2nd 2014 my husband and I welcomed our son Preston Taylor to the world! To celebrate this life moment my husband and I toasted with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot from Champagne France. For this month’s post I thought it was perfect time to put the spotlight on sparkling wine!
People often times refer to all sparkling white wine as Champagne; however, actual champagne can only come from the Champagne region in France. In France and most of Europe, wine is actually classified by its appellation rather than by the varietal of the grape, which is how we typically classify wine in the US. The appellation is defined by the region or terroir where the grape is grown, the varietal, and by a set of rules that govern quality and methods used to produce the wine. It is a complex classification system that is often why people find French wine so hard to understand.
Champagne is made from three primary grapes: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. It can range in sweetness. Here is the scale from driest to sweetest:
Champagne usually comes with a price tag. There are many other wonderful sparkling whites from all over the world that are just as wonderful and make less of a dent in your wallet. Try:
Prosecco
An Italian sparkling wine primarily made from Glera grapes and is typically Brut or Extra Dry. It is best to drink Prosecco at a young age.
Cava
A Spanish sparkling wine primarily made form macabeu, parellada, and xarel lo grapes. Cava is made with a range of dry to sweet styles.
Sparkling Shiraz
Is a sparkling red from Australia, primarily made from Shiraz grapes and is typically on the sweeter side.
US Sparkling Wine
The US makes a wide variety of sparkling white wines using a wide variety of grape varietals and styles.
What do you have to celebrate this month? Sometimes we just like to celebrate Saturday with our friends and family! Find something to celebrate this weekend and share what bubbles you choose to toast with!