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Friday Night Wine Tasting

We had a very busy wine tasting weekend. It’s hard to figure out where to start. We started at our usual Thursday night tasting with Grenache, then on Friday we were invited to a wine tasting by some friends and Saturday we had them and another couple over for dinner. We tasted a lot of wine!

If it’s Thursday, it must be Grenache!

Our Thursday night tasting featured Grenache. George gave us some background on the origin of the grape which may have originated on a Greek Isle. It was probably taken to Spain by the Moors and from there to France and eventually to the area of Provence along the Rhone river where it has arguably reached it’s highest and best use. […]

Dinner with Acacia

We had our weekly dinner with Dave on Tuesday this week. Nancy made spaetzle with some sausage on the side. She also roasted some beets and cooked the greens. I don’t care for the beets but I will eat the greens while both Nancy and Dave like the beets, too. To accompany the meal I chose an 2006 Acacia Pinot […]

2005 Sodaro Private Reserve Estate Blend

The 2005 Sodaro Private Reserve is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc, 20%Petit Verdot and 5% Malbec. The color was a dark garnet. There was ripe dark fruit, green pepper and a little vanilla in the nose. The flavor had dark ripe fruit with a burst of cedar. There was a light round body with smooth tannins […]

White Burgundy

White Burgundy was the theme for this Thursday night’s tasting. We had a pretty good turnout this week, about 15 people showed up. White Burgundy is interesting because it is the Chardonnay grape but in an entirely different style than we are used to in this country. So many American Chardonnays go through a malolactic fermentation and then are so […]

Birthday Wines

Saturday night we celebrated my birthday with some great wine. Nancy’s mom and a couple of our friends came over for dinner. We decided to make pulled pork for dinner. We bought a pork shoulder roast, mixed-up a dry rub and “rubbed” the roast Friday night. It sat in the refrigerator all night with the rub on it, and then […]

Thursday Night Riesling

The wine tasting this week at Fine Wines of Stockton was presented by Brad Alderson, winemaker and wine consultant. Brad was the founding winemaker for the Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Winery. He has a particular affinity for and broad knowledge of German Rieslings. He has spent a lot of time in the German wine growing areas and has many friends in […]

Napa Valley Wine Trip Part 2

After Tasting all the wines at Provenance we decided we wanted to get some food before tackling any more wine. Also, having spent 2 hours at Provenance it was past lunch time so we went down the road a mile or two and stopped at the Rutherford Grill. They said it would be an hour wait and it had started […]

Napa Valley Wine Trip

We decided on a whim to take a drive to Napa last Sunday. The weather forecast was for overcast, showery weather, so no working in the yard. The weather became drizzly as we passed Rio Vista. The smell of the first rain was earthy and wonderful. By the time we got to Napa it was raining very hard. The grape […]

2007 Santa Ema Amplus Cabernet Sauvignon

2007 Santa Ema Amplus Cabernet Sauvignon – This Chilean wine is a dark ruby color with hints of violet around the edges. It has a earthy dark fruit nose. The flavor is a light amount of green pepper, big dark fruit and bitter chocolate. There is a medium length finish. Overall quite a nice flavorful wine. It was aged for […]