Howell Mountain American Viticultural Area (AVA), located within the Napa AVA, was the first sub-appellation to be designated in 1983. Howell Mountain is located on the northeast side of Napa Valley. The AVA ranges from 1400 to 2200 feet, putting it above the fog line.
The Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton had us tasting Right Bank Bordeaux vintages 2005 to 2009. All wines originated from Pomerol. Kind of. Except for one. George, the wine shop owner, was short one Right Bank wine for this vintage range, so he chose a Left Bank wine with the highest percentage of Merlot he had in his cellar. He knows how to improvise.
The Thursday night wine tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton was a study of five recent Bordeaux vintages. Two of these vintages, 2005 and 2009, are considered great. The growing seasons were warm and produced lush fruit and opulent, complex wines. The others, 2006, 2007 and 2008, just average.
We are planning a trip to Africa in July 2014. We will be visiting Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We will fly into Johannesburg then travel on to Chobe National Park via Victoria Falls. From Chobe we visit the Okavango Delta, then fly on to Kafue National Park in Zambia. Next, we fly to Zimbabwe and visit Hwange National Park before returning to Victoria Falls and then Johannesburg. Whew! This part of the trip is planned for us. We need only show up with our very minimal luggage.
Cabernet Franc is most often used as a blending grape because it has such a distinctive bouquet. But, it also makes a lovely wine all on its own. Our tasting this week was six Cabernet Franc wines from the USA, France and Argentina.
Just to prove to all of the regular wine tasters at the Thursday night tastings at Fine Wines of Stockton (1) that he really does not dislike Pinot Noir, George did a Pinot tasting himself. Generally, we taste Pinot noir on a Thursday night that George or Gail are unable to present the wine tasting.
We recently participated in a tasting of red wines produced in the Finger Lakes AVA (American Viticultural Area). The Finger Lakes AVA is located in central New York State.
We had the good fortune to spend some time recently visiting with Antonio Pasos of Pasos Vineyards. His tasting room is located in Vino Piazza, The Winery Plaza in Lockeford, California.
Dave, one of the other regular tasters on Thursday nights at Fine Wines of Stockton, presented this wine tasting. Dave frequently visits friends in Oregon and on a recent trip collected wines from three wineries in the Southern Oregon AVA (American Viticultural Area).
We recently completed a series of three wine tastings at Fine Wines of Stockton entitled Red Wines of Tuscany. We tasted six Rosso di Montalcino, six Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and six Chianti. We chose our top two wines from each tasting and those six wines were our focus for the Tuscan Taste-Off. We will choose our two favorites from this group of six wines.
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.