Wine Tasting

On Friday night I went to a great wine tasting - the wines were great and the location was very close to my house :) A wine store I go to, the Duke of Bourbon, has a number of tastings a year. Their "Hot August Nights" tasting is my favorite. I look forward to this line-up every year. The wines are from Napa (Napa is where I learned to love wine) and so I am quite partial wine from the region.

The panel consisted of (from left to right):
KR Rombauer - Rombauer Vineyards
The Duke (from The Duke of Bourbon) - Silver Oak/Twomey
David Phinney - Orin Swift Cellars
Phil Ross - Diamond Creek


The cheese plate is also yummy. There is Fontina, Brie and Extra Sharp Cheddar. Tasty rolls and grapes round out the food (much needed with the 15 bottles we tasted).



All of the wines were great, as always.

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2007 Zinfandel were my favorite from Rombauer.

We were pured 3 2007 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon's. Every time I took a taste, I decided that one was my favorite. It might be the Volcanic Hill, but I'm sure with another taste of each my allegiance would have wavered.

Yesterday post showed all 3 poured, and two of them on our table :)

The 2005 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley was the best vintage of Silver Oak I had tasted in a couple of years!

Orin Swift Cellars was the biggest surprise to me. I had never tasted their wines, and was really impressed.

The labels were all works of art, and had stories to tell (but by that time I don't remember all of the stories).

The 2006 Mercury Head Cabernet Sauvignon was good. The bottle has a mercury head dime on every bottle (we saw MANY table trying to take the dime off the bottle but they've got it stuck on their extremely well):




The 2006 Papillon (a Bordeaux blend) was very jammy with herby undertones. The label looks really cool and the wine is named for a butterfly the owners daughter pointed out:

The biggest, and most pleasant, surprise of this wine tasting, at least for me, was the 2007 Prisoner (another Zinfandel Blend). I am normally not a big fan of Zinfandel's, but this one was pretty darn amazing! Looking back on my notes, all I wrote was AWESOME!!

Overall, the wine tasting was entertaining and informative (KR Rombauer informed us that most wines were still good 12-14 days after opening the bottle).

What a great Friday night!