Napa vs. Sonoma tasting

I had the chance to attend a blind wine tasting at another local restaurant (Chateaulin) a few weeks ago.  The tasting was put on by Columbia distributors, and pitted Napa vs. Sonoma against each other with five varietals providing the testing ground.  I’ll go over a few of the Sauvignon Blancs I had a chance to taste.

First off, I was late.  Our hosts had put out a delicious spread that I didn’t have a chance to touch, let along say hi to anyone else I knew before the wine started flowing.  While the cooler regions of Sonoma can generally give the telltale signs of huge fruit and green vegetable there were a few surprises.  The 2007 Hanna from Russian River was fantastic, crisp with lemons, fresh cut grass and a light underlying minerality with no oak and good acidity.  The Napa Valley Hall was a little more lush and subdued on the palate, but still a nice wine.  The two suprises were the Chateau St. Jean Etoile Fume Blanc (2006) and the Duckhorn (2007).  The Fume Blanc was a surprise because it was so heavily oaked for a Sauv Blanc that I could have sworn my glass was a miniature barrel, the Duckhorn was more pleasant.   The wine was actually only 75% Sauv Blanc with 25% Semillion tossed in.  By doing this it gave the wine a great mouth feel.  It felt fuller than the other, but also more in balance.  Not over oaked, not to ripe, and not raging with acidity.

The afternoon was off to a good start.

Up and running

As you can see from the previous posts, I have managed to get the Parents up and going for the blog. Yay for technology.

Entering the 21st Century

Some say I’m a bit behind on the times. But it’s not true. I’m just a bit behind in Blogging. I’m also a little behind in getting two of our rooms renovated, planning our new spring menu, the gardens weeded, keeping the deer and the pigeons away, and learning how our POS system works. Other than that…I’m on top of everything…if you don’t count needing a new training manual and painting our four buildings. No sweat.

Hospitality

Michael & I have been asked to teach Hotel Management 310 at Southern Oregon University. We bring 76 years of combined experience to the classroom. It’ll be an interesting spring. Our daughter, Cate, says “oh those poor students.”