Do you live in Asheville and like wines from California? If you answered yes, you should stop by our little South Asheville store this Friday, May 11 to “winedown” your week. T.J. Gardner from Empire Distributors will be on hand to pour a wonderful and varied selection of wines from the Golden State. We’ll sample wines from several different regions and you won’t be able to leave without buying at least one. The fun gets started at 4:00 and ends at 6:30, and the cost is just $5/person or it’s free if you’re a Grape Nut. We hope to see you.
1. Carmel Road Pinot Gris – This Pinot Gris hails from Monterey, where the warm, sunny days combined with cooling ocean breezes provide the perfect climate for the grape. The wine is nicely textured and fuller bodied with lovely notes of lemon, peach, honeydew and flowers. Great with food…..great without food.
2. Silver Palm Chardonnay – This no-oak Chardonnay is made with fruit from Sonoma and Mendocino Counties and 2% Viognier is blended in to add nice aromatics. It offers up a fruit forward personality with lovely notes of ripe peach, apple, Meyer lemon and honeysuckle.
3. Hartford Court Chardonnay – Jennifer and Don Hartford craft Chardonnays that typically receive similar praise as those produced by Kistler and other notables. I can see why, as this wine is like a hypothetical blend of really good Burgundy with really good Cali-Chard – sleek, refined and complex, it offers up a nice mix of ripe apple, pear, lemon oil and mineral. Just stop by and taste it.
4. Carmel Road Pinot Noir – This is just sweet spot Cali Pinot for a lot of folks. Ripe, supple and fuller bodied, it offers up rich notes of wild strawberry, cherry and raspberry with a nice spicy oak component that will appeal to many.
5. Edmeades Zinfandel – Dr. Edmeades was one of the first grape growers in Mendocino County, getting his start in 1963. For years, the fruit was sold to other wineries, including Seghesio, until they began estate bottling their own wines in 1972. Today, they’re still going strong, and this Zinfandel is fully flavored, luscious and friendly with ripe notes of wild berries along with hints of vanilla and spice.
6. Archipel Meritage – There’s good news and bad news about this wine. The good news is that it’s made by Pierre Seillan, the same fella who makes Verité wines, which almost always score 95 to 100 points. The bad news is that I only have 12 bottles to sell! I might be able to get more, but who knows. This is all mountain fruit and it is simply delicious.