A Trip to a Napa Winery on the Silverado Trail

Earlier in the year I got the opportunity to drag the wife to be on a short trip around Napa, would have liked it to be a longer trip, but we did have lot of things planned that we wanted to do, so as you do, I bought several bottles home with me. The first winery we visited was the Black Stallion winery, which is situated on the Silverado Trail, in the Oak Knoll district which is the southern growing region in the Napa valley.

The 32 acres site originally housed an equestrian centre, the Silverado Horseman's Centre, hence the name Black Stallion, after several years of construction they opened there doors in 2007, the original indoor track now houses the wine making production, but if you look around closely you can still see remnants of the original horse stalls. At present they only produce in very small case lots, and unfortunately only available through the tasting room and there online store, which they are only able to ship within the US, however, I thought they are definitely worth mentioning in case you get to go to Napa and get the opportunity to visit them.

The two wines that we brought back with us were their 2008 Shiraz which we purchased; they only produce 510 cases of this wine, just to show you how limited there production is, and the 2009 Pinot Grigio from Monterey, which we’d been given.

On pouring the ‘08 Shiraz, it had a deep almost opaque ruby colour, with very pronounced aromas of dark fruit and spice, which was just amazing. On the palate you instantly got the flavours of dark cherries and black currants, then came through the sweet spices of clove cinnamon and a touch of black pepper, after that in the background you could also find the flavours of cocoa and violets coming through. This Shiraz was, if you hadn’t guessed absolutely stunning, it had great complexity and length of flavours that just came at you wave after wave, combined with a touch of acidity to make your mouth water and juicy tannins, the wine maker really had crafted a well balanced and beautifully drinking wine.

For the ‘09 Pinot Grigio, they only produced 610 cases of this particular wine, in the glass it had a pale apple white colour, with delicate aromas of peach, grapefruit and slightly florally characteristics. On the palate it was much more pear and grapefruit, with a hint of honey thrown in, than the peach aromas you got on the nose, with a good amount of acidity it was a well balanced and enjoyable wine, which would be great chilled on a really hot day.

As I’ve already said, these wines are not available in the UK, but if you are heading out to California then I would highly recommend a stop off at the winery, it was beautiful place, with a great winery and some fantastic wines for you to try!

A Stunning New Zealand Pinot Noir

I was looking for a bottle of wine to go with dinner the other night and I came across a little gem that I’d forgotten all about. The wine in question was bought for me as a present a couple of years ago and was a bottle of Villa Maria Marlborough Reserve Pinot Noir 2002. As you’ve probably realised from previous posts I’m a big fan of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, but I’ve never really tried many of their reds, so now seemed as good an opportunity as ever!

The guys down at Villa Maria have spared no expense in producing this wine; firstly the fruit is all hand harvested, destemmed and crushed in open-top fermenters. While undergoing fermentation it is hand plunged, then after being allowed to go through Malolactic fermentation, it is moved to French Oak barrels to mature for 14 months before being bottled.

On pouring the wine there was quite a bit of anticipation as to what we were going to be drinking, and what we got, had definately been well worth the wait. The colour was a beautifully deep ruby colour, even though it was eight years old, I’d been expecting it to be more tawny than ruby.

On the nose there were these wonderfully pronounced aromas of plums, dark cherries and a touch a spice, predominantly clove. To taste you got all these flavours come through layer after layer with a touch of cocoa to finish it off. Their was a good level of acidity combining with fine silky tannins, creating a beautifully balanced wine with fantastic flavours of fruit and spice.

Is this a wine that I’d recommend, how can I put this, YES. I’ve only seen 2006 and 2007 in the shops lately, but if they’re as good as the 2002, then they are definitely worth buying and cellaring for a couple of years.

The King of Zin Does it Again

At the 2008 London International Wine Fair, I got the chance to meet Joel Petterson who’s more affectionately known as the “King of Zin”, and is the wine maker behind the great wines from the Ravenswood winery in California. Unfortunately and I’m not quite sure why, I didn’t taste any of his wines that day, so I’d been looking for an excuse too, not that I ever need one!

I opened a bottle of Ravenswood Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel 2006 (Adegga) the other day, for myself and friend to enjoy as she’s a huge fan of Californian Zinfandel. Now despite saying Zinfandel on the label it is actually a blend of Zinfandel (76%) and Petite Syrah (24%) which just helps to give it a greater depth and complexity of flavour.

It had an opaque purple colour with pronounced aromas of Plums, Blueberries and a touch of spice from the oak ageing in the background. You got all these aromas coming through on the palate, where the spicy notes revealed themselves as Vanilla and Liquorice, you also got a touch of cocoa just to add to the mix. All these flavours, with the good levels of acidity and juicy tannins went on to produce a fantastic and beautifully balanced wine which is definitely worth more than the £8 price tag it has at the moment.

If you like your red to have plenty of flavour and body then you can’t go wrong with this wine, which can be enjoyed equally on its own or with food. It definitely goes into my top ten 10!