In this, our final post, we take you along as we sit down with winemaker Mitch Cosentino to create a blended wine.
Day 2 of the Masthead blending project promised to be busy. We gathered in front of the Scotto Cellars’ tasting room in downtown Lodi early that morning. Our first stop would be Scotto Cellars’ winemaking facilities.
Ryan Sherman loves to talk wine, but he loves making wine even more. He grew up in Lodi which means an exposure to vineyards and winemaking was inescapable. He grew up with kids whose parents were farmers and winemakers, though his parents were not. Ryan’s family was in real estate and he pursued a career in commercial real estate himself. He eventually circled around to winemaking, establishing Fields Family Wines with partner Russ Fields in 2008.
We recently had a great vineyard tour at Stolpman Vineyards, located in the Ballard Canyon AVA within the Santa Ynez AVA. It was a warm December afternoon and we were met by Joe Neenan who took us on a driving and walking tour of the vineyards. We wrote about that tour in a prior post.
Wine tasting is fun any time of year, but tramping through a vineyard in December? It might sound crazy, except that we recently did just that and had a great tour thanks to Joe Neenan, ‘Passionista’, from Stolpman Vineyards.
Pillsbury Wine Company recently opened a tasting room at their vineyards in Willcox. They call it their Vineyard Cottage and Tasting Room. Sounds cute, doesn’t it? Well it is. Not only that, the drive provides a great sense of what the Sulphur Springs Valley is like.
Allegrini Estates a large wine producer by almost any standard (1 million cases per year), is a family-woned winery with a long history. The estate was founded in 1858, though family winemaking dates back 500 years. Production has been handed down through the generations since. The estate is located in the village of Fumane within Valpolicella Classico, near the city of Verona in northeastern Italy (find Venice and go due west to find Valpolicella).
Usually when someone mentions Rosé wines from Lodi I don’t get too excited. In the past I have found them either too sweet or to high in alcohol and lacking in flavor. I am happy to say that has changed.
Thursday night at Fine Wines of Stockton, we completed the third in a series of four Red Wines of Tuscany tastings.
George and Gail of Fine Wines of Stockton have devised a rather clever way to teach us about the wines of Tuscany.
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.