Second day of Intro to Wine Making whirled by. Tons of information on just the second day. We covered varietals, pie charts of percentages of income, production, export, import, etc...in addition to disease intros, and planting methods. Then off to real work, then finally Friday drank some wine.
We had a lovely and exhausted easy dinner of Sparkling and Caviar. I had swooped two ozs of Dean and DeLuca brand last visit and it was perfect for the Domaine Chandon Le Reve, Late Disgorged. We side by sided it with Mumm DVX and the Mumm was much less subtle and supple. The Mumm on it's own is a fine wine, yet the Le Reve is so delightfully smooth, creamy with a slight nutty finish.
Saturday and Sunday were spent in Napa and Sonoma. Saturday we opted for quick and easy Thai food with accompanying Syrah. A local man in the neighborhood makes a delicious deep, dark fruit Syrah. He is a doctor and takes his chemistry knowledge skill and good will into wine making. Senders Syrah was wonderful with the blend of exotic spices from our local Thai restaurant, owner also another neighbor. Oh, and enjoyed another date with Mr. Foley.
Sunday found us at the top of Mt. Veeder walking and scouting an amazing 'billy goat' property along the ridge straddling both the Sonoma and Napa county line. It is for sale for a mere 1.4 million. If we had 5 million handy it would have been a fun, worthy, fabulous effort into 1st class Cabernet grapes. Alas, we had to settle for our first encounter with Cantinetta Piero in the new Hotel Luca in Yountville. Our friend is associated and had been talking it up for some time. We gave it a whirl. The settling is comfortable, the staff were a perfect blend of sweet, interested with enough distance and the food was interesting and original. The menu was very authentically Italian with more rustic and old country items modernized. It certainly was more unusual, yet still basic and simple foods, than most Italian menus. Somehow we indulged in a 1985 Dominus. I am not sure what the occasion was... hmm.
Monday night is French class... but Monday day found me back in Sonoma and discovering Green Valley and Suisun AVA. We are also reviewing properties anywhere we feel good grapes could grow and we could potentially afford. Thus, the property of the day included 5 acres of Merlot. I obviously thought a side by side of good old common place Merlot was in order. Under 8 dollars for a bottle of Boogle Merlot and under $15 for a bottle of Merlot grown and made just a block away from the subject property to go with our CostCo pizza... please forgive! Both were easy to drink, easy to buy and no wonder the premium wines are struggling. Damn Costco. Bonne nuit!
