I was going to put a witty limerick in here but stumbled up this http://www.scribd.com/doc/34057/two-glasses-of-wine The reason for the limerick was in homage to Limerick Lane Vineyards http://www.limericklanewines.com/ , an estate in Somoma which I was luckly enough to be taken around. Old vine zinfandel, syrah, grenach and interstingly Furmint. With an extreamly talented team, headed up by Ross Battersby, who cover all aspects of wine production. The wines were great, lovely character, tannins and balance, if you can find them, buy them, these are fantastic, honest wines.
I spent the afternoon in the Napa valley taking the 128 from Geyserville down to Napa, en route passing some fantastically built wineries, taking all of modern architecture into consideration then merging it around a working winery. Huge amounts of money must have been sunk into this area, all in the pursuit of that perfect expression of the grape. I was to keep moving, keep going though, to reach a winemaker who is crafting top notch Chardonnay for Aubert de Villaine, of Romanee Conti. Stéphane Vivier is winemaker for HDV Wines http://www.hdvwines.com/ and manages to produce around 5,000 cases of wine just by himself. The wines that stood out for me were the Chardonnays, some of the most Burgundian chards I've tasted in California. This does have to be taken in context though, as one of the chardonnays weighed in at 15% ABV, thats 2% more than most French Burgundys out there. The fact that even at 15% the wines showed balance goes some way to demonstrating Stephanes skill as a winemaker.
So this evening with my microwavable noodles I'm drinking Lagunitas I.P.A http://www.lagunitas.com/. Its probably one of the better IPA's I've tried. Its hoppy and green, hay and straw come through on the palette with citrus, and grapefruits smacking about in wallops. Very refreshing and very drinkable. So tomorrow holds another day of wine tasting, sunshine and Cabernet, Cabernet, Cabernet.
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