My Wine Education

Guest Post: When You Wish Upon a Grape: Disney-Related Wines

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Tom Streeter and Carla Gesell-Streeter, who are dear friends and like me, they are fellow Disney addicts. Tom & Carla run the popular blog Hoperatives.com, a Cincinnati based beer blog aimed at Believers in Better Beer (In Cincinnati and Beyond), but they love wine too. Thanks Tom & Carla - and happy anniversary!
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We love Disney and we love wine (almost as much as beer).  For the longest time, we’ve been wanting to have friends over for a themed wine tasting.  There are three great Disney-related wines out there. All are from California, appropriately enough, though each is produced in a different part of the state.  These wines are frequently featured at restaurants at Walt Disney World, Disneyland and on the Disney Cruise ships and most are also available in the Cincinnati area.

Silverado Vineyards: Stags Leap District of Napa Valley, California

Image Credit: Joe Shiabotnick

Owned by Diane Disney Miller (Walt’s daughter) and her husband Ron Miller (former president and CEO of Walt Disney Productions), Silverado was established in 1981. The Millers purchased existing vineyards and originally intended only to grow grapes, but decided to build their own winery a few years after purchasing the land. The winery was designed by architect Dick Keith and is reminiscent of the old California mission-style structures found in the area. The name comes from a nearby abandoned silver mine.

Current winemaker Jonathan Emmerich produces Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and some special limited reserve wines.  Prices begin at about $20.00 a bottle.

Fess Parker Winery: Los Olivos, California

Image Credit: Spencer Cross

Fess Parker was an actor who is famous for playing the original Disney Davy Crockett. (He also starred in Old Yeller.) Fess Parker is no longer westerns and coonskin caps, however. His name is increasingly associated more with his wines. Much like the Millers of Silverado, Fess Parker and his family originally intended only to have a small vineyard and source grapes to local producers. They quickly added not only a winery, but also an inn. Son Eli Parker started as an assistant winemaker, moved into the position of winemaker in 1995, and now serves as President. Daughter Ashley Parker Snider started running the tastings and now handles the public relations, marketing and sales.  Blair Fox is the current head winemaker.

Fess Parker produces produces Reisling, Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Syrah as well as several red table wines. Prices start at about $12.00 a bottle.

MacMurray Ranch: Russian River Valley of Sonoma County, California

Photo from winery web site

Besides playing everyone’s favorite dad on My Three Sons, actor Fred MacMurray starred in several Disney live action films including The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, and The Happiest Millionaire.  In 1941, the actor purchased land near Healdsburg, which became MacMurray Ranch, from descendants of the tract’s original 1846 homesteader.

Australian Susan Doyle has been the MacMurray Ranch winemaker for more than fifteen harvests.  The MacMurray vineyards specialize in Pinot grapes so the wines produced are Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.  Prices start at about $18.00 a bottle.

Guest Post: Visiting the Suisun Valley Wine Country

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Jen Rizzo. Jen is a freelance motion graphics designer, part-time writer and Cincinnati transplant based out of San Francisco. She is a self-professed beer nerd living in the heart of wine country and spends her free time getting to know the area around her from the saddle of a thirty year old bicycle - she's also a good friend and I miss her. Thanks Jen!
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I moved to San Francisco from Cincinnati on Labor Day of 2008 and have made it a point to stay in the area for all the major holidays so I can learn how the city responds to them. I got to see the city empty out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, making it easier than ever to get a dinner reservation or sit at my favorite bar and not have to elbow people out of the way to get a drink. Of course, it didn't occur to me until two days before Memorial Day weekend that I lived in a major tourist destination. It was time to get out of the city.

This poses quite the challenge for me, you see, because I live in the Bay Area without a car. We're surrounded by all of this incredible terrain, and I see it all from behind the handlebars of a bicycle. This is great for being in the city, and it's very easy to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to get into Sausalito and toward the mountains, but anything beyond about fifty miles is certainly a breaking point for me. So, I consulted the power of the internet, specifically twitter, to decide my destination for me.

I'm not hugely connected in social media, and my twittering is sporadic at best, but I do have a number of wine connections as well as cyclists and San Francisco residents. My needs were simple: I had never been to wine country in the nine months I lived here, I needed to be able to do it without a car, and I wanted somewhere that was going to give me a good day of bike riding. Oh, and I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars to do it.

Napa was out. The tastings were too high and the hotels were either booked on the night I wanted to be there or astronomically expensive. Plus, my point was to avoid all the Memorial Day nonsense, and a tourist destination was not the place to do that. Our very own favorite wine blogger Michelle suggested Sonoma, but the bus from the city is really the only way to get there with bicycles, and it was going to take upwards of three hours one way.

Then a friend suggested a winery in Suisun Valley, a place I had never heard of. The hotels would be cheaper, he said, and the winery was only an eight mile ride from the Amtrak station. Upon digging around, I learned that there were in fact four wineries in Suisun Valley, and to visit all of them would be a perfect 25 mile loop from the train station, ending up at a hotel that was less than half the cost of a stay in Napa. Oh, and I could take two trains there in an hour and a half, and it would cost me less than $20 to get there, and bicycles were allowed the whole way. Sold!

We loaded up two messenger bags, two bicycles, and headed out for our trip. Two trains and an hour and a half later, we arrived at the Suisun/Fairfield Amtrak station.

 

For a brief moment, it was easy to forget we were in Northern California. It was cold and foggy when we got on our first train in the city, but by the time we arrived in Fairfield it was sunny and about twenty degrees warmer. The longest part of our journey was the first: an eight mile ride to Wooden Valley Winery.

Wooden Valley is a great place to start your journey. Their wines weren't my favorite (though quite enjoyable), and the experience was much less personal than some of the others we would enjoy that day, but their tasting room and visitor's center is huge. The walls list the story of the Suisun Valley: the brothers that founded the first winery post-prohibition, the families that moved in and made it what it is today. We were invited to taste five of their wines for free - something you'll be much harder pressed to find in the more well-known wine regions of Northern California. I had a full bag on my shoulders and no ability to carry more, so I wasn't able to walk away with any bottles to take home. Lucky for me, it turns out you can order direct from their website, and at a price point of $10-16, they make great value wines. I particularly enjoyed the 2006 Cabernet and their 2007 Riesling.

Guest Post: Kentucky's Jean Farris Winery

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Shannan Boyer, a local parenting blogger and one of the driving forces behind Cincinnati Women Bloggers - also one of my close friends! Thanks Shannan!
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Every summer our family packs up the car and heads down to Somerset, KY for a little boating on Lake Cumberland.  The drive down is about 2.5 hours long, giving us plenty of time to play car games and check out the scenery.  On our drive one of the things I’ve often noticed and have always been curious about were the road signs posted along I-75 for local vineyards.

Well this past weekend we headed down for our first trip of the summer and this time, rather than driving straight through to Somerset, we decided to be a little adventurous. We decided to pull off outside of Lexington and visit Jean Farris, a cute vineyard located off the very scenic Richmond Road.

Not having heard of Jean Farris, we had no idea what to expect as we drove down Richmond Road. When we finally arrived, we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.  The drive up to the main building was lined with rows and rows of grapes.  It was like nothing we’d ever seen before.

While normally my husband and I would have sampled a few of the wines before buying,  the bistro was not open at the time we arrived, so we went with our guts and purchased a bottle of their Riesling ($16).

From the label:

Cold fermented to preserve the bright tropical fruits and citrus notes. This lightly sweet Germanic white has a delicate balance, and soft floral notes.

Keep in mind I am no Michelle Lentz (ed. note: I think Shannan is doing just fine!), but I have to say that this was one amazing Riesling. I found it to have a sweet taste and could definitely identify the citrus notes.  The wine was smooth and I really enjoyed the fact that it didn’t have a dry aftertaste.  If you like dry wines, this would not be the wine for you. This wine was extremely easy to drink, and in fact, my husband and I finished the entire bottle in less than an hour – a feat for me – as usually I am a VERY slow wine drinker.

We are heading back down to Lake Cumberland soon and I will definitely be picking up a few bottles of their Riesling to have at home. Overall if I was using Michelle’s rating system, I would give Jean Farris’ Riesling a giant smiley face.

A local parenting blogger, Shannan Boyer resides in northern Kentucky with her husband and two young boys. When she’s not blogging about her family’s many adventures on her blog Mommy Bits, she and her family are likely to be found out exploring and enjoying all that greater Cincinnati has to offer.

Winery Week: Chateau Thomas

We veered off of our well-beaten path this past weekend and visited the Chateau Thomas tasting room in Nashville, IN. Chateau Thomas also has a winery you can visit in Plainfield, just outside of Indianapolis. However, I've been going to Nashville, a cute crafts-oriented village, since I was a little girl. This seemed a great opportunity to go back.

Nashville is located just outside of Bloomington and is a fun little retreat. It boasts two different tasting rooms: Chateau Thomas and the Brown County Winery. Chateau Thomas is located in Coachlight Square, right as you pull into town.

The tasting menu blew us away. There are around 54 different types of wine listed. Of that list, you can pick 5 to try for free. Kevin and I each picked 5 and shared, giving us 10. We still didn't make a dent in the list. We came back later in the afternoon and tried another couple wines, plus 5 wines off of the reserve list. (The reserve tasting is $7.) The list is rather overwhelming. Looking at it now, I'm noticing things I didn't while in the tasting room, such as a 1991 Chardonnay library release. Had I noticed it then, I would have loved to try it!

The list is nicely organized based on Dry White, Classic, Dry Red, Sweet Wines, Slender, and Reserve. The back of the sheet offers a nice little quiz, magazine style, that helps you establish your wine tasting preferences so you can jump into the correct portion of the list.

In case you're curious, Chateau Thomas doesn't grow their own grapes. They import their grapes from Canada, Washington, California, and Oregon, and then all the blending, aging, and fermenting happens in Indiana.

As usual, the endorsement is in the wines we came home with. We brought home 1 each of the three Slender wines, because we want to give them a more in-depth review. Kevin is even taking a white Slender to the Wine Bloggers Conference with him. We also brought home a Teroldego and a Late Harvest Viognier.

After the jump, find our quick notes on the wines we tasted:

Winery Week: Harmony Hill

Harmony Hill is by far my favorite place to end a day. They now have a farmer's market on Saturday afternoons, as well as live music on Fridays and Saturdays.

We've been here so many times that we didn't really have anything new to taste, but we did get a special treat. The Ovation is one of my favorites at Harmony Hill and winemaker Bill Skvarla let us try some right out the tank. The Ovation 2008 was going to be bottled last Wednesday.

Ovation is a blend of traminette (there it is again) and cayuga. It's was bright and fruity, with some spice behind it. This is a back-porch / back deck white if there ever was one. I have always wanted to buy a case of this for summer, but it hasn't happened yet. I really want a case of this particular wine. Why? Because Kevin and I helped harvest the grapes!

Bill told us that he ran into the high alcohol issues as well. What I love about Bill is that I can ask him a winemaking question and he'll answer me in regular old English. He loves to share the knowledge and he is great at explaining things. He told me that high alcohol tends to result from a long, hot growing season, coupled with a drought. It crankes up the brix, cranks up the alcohol. What's brix? I like this definition from Wines of Canada:

The measurement of soluble solids in grapes at harvest, taken with a refractometer and expressed in degrees. In unfermented grapes, degrees of Brix are approximately the same as percent of sugar. After fermentation, the alcohol concentration is roughly half the sugar concentration of the juice. Thus, grapes harvested at 22.5 degrees Brix will produce a wine with an alcohol content between 12.5 to 13.5%.

While we were at the winery, we also tried the 2006 Rhapsody, which is a blend of 94% Cabernet Franc and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. I have no doubt we've tasted this many times before. This time, however, it surprised us. It seems to be turning into something similar to a Sangiovese, softening up the tannins and retaining the structure. Who knew? I love wine because it's dynamic, and this was the perfect example.

Opening weekend, Harmony Hill was packed. If you plan on going one evening this summer, make sure you get there early and bring your own picnic. With all the people, you might want to bring your own lawn chair or blanket as well. And even your dogs (on leashes) and kids if you want.

Winery Week: Meranda-Nixon

We'd met Seth and Tina, winemakers and proprietors, at the Wine Festival this year but hadn't had a chance to get to the winery. Since they're also in Ripley, not that far from Kinkead Ridge, we popped in before heading to Harmony Hill.

The first thing I learned is that Meranda-Nixon is wonderfully scenic. I got some great photos, despite the rainy, cloudy weather.

The next thing I learned is that Meranda-Nixon is open year-round, except for January. On weekends, they also offer dinner. Their tasting room/restaurant is lovely, decorated in a decidedly Tuscan style.

Like any winery after my heart, they have a couple vineyard dogs hanging around as well.

The last thing I learned? They make a large variety of wine. Whether you like sweet or dry, red or white, they've got it. I know we tried at least 10 different wines, of varying vintages, although I didn't get notes on all of them. Once again, I get busy chatting and my note-taking skills suffer.

As usual, a good endorsement is the fact we left with some wine. In this case, we took home 2 bottles of 2008 Traminette and 1 bottle of the Red Oak Creek red blend. Not that there weren't others we wanted -it's just that by winery #2 we were already up to a case.

After the jump, you'll find notes on several of the wines we got to try.

Winery Week: Kinkead Ridge

I never hide how much I love our local vineyards. We always try to put in appearances several times over the course of a summer. When the wineries opened this year on Memorial Day weekend, we were there. Of course, we chose to go on a rainy Monday, but that was alright. Even the rain couldn't dampen the fun.

Our first stop was Kinkead Ridge in Ripley. If you haven't been to Kinkead Ridge, the winery is in a little house on a residential street. The first time we went, we thought we were at the wrong place. Then you walk in and you see barrels and tanks everywhere. And people. The winery always seems to be filled with happy people mingling, tasting, and enjoying the wine.

This year they were able to release a bunch of new whites, including a Riesling, Traminette, Viognier-Roussanne, and the Revelation blend. Since their whites are actually my favorites, I was excited to try them. We were also lucky enough to get to taste the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from the tank, and even two 2008 reds from the barrel.

I thought I'd taken better notes. When I sat down to write them up, I realized they're terrible. So my apologies on that. The best endorsement of all, of course, is what we went home with: 3 bottles of Viognier-Roussanne, 3 bottles of Revelation White, and 2 bottles of the River Village Cellars Traminette. We're thrilled enough with these that Kevin is taking a bottle of Revelation White and a bottle of the Viognier-Roussanne to the Wine Bloggers Conference with him in July.

Rob Barrett, the winemaker, creates what the grapes tell him to make. These releases are slightly higher in alcohol than you might expect. I heard that from several local winemakers this year though. The wines are balanced, however, so the alcohol will sneak up on you, as opposed to banging you on your head.

My absolute favorite of the Kinkead Ridge wines is the Viognier-Roussanne. The 2008 is 14.8% AbV, which means that I'll happily drink an entire bottle and then probably happily fall down. I am usually fairly sensitive to high-alcohol wines, but this one isn't hot at all. Ron may have contended with high alcohol, but he dealt with it superbly.

After the jump are the few notes I managed to scribble down. Did I mention how poor my notes were this time?

Harmony Hill Opens This Weekend

I talked about Kinkead Ridge last week and said that as I heard from each winery, I'd let you know their schedule. Looks like this weekend you can go visit Kinkead Ridge and Harmony Hill. I imagine you can throw in a stop at Meranda-Nixon and Lakeside as well.

Harmony Hill has changed their hours to make their weekends a bit more accessible to those of us who aren't morning people. You can now spend your afternoon well into your evening relaxing on their patio with a bottle of wine. Not only is the winery open on Friday evenings, but you can hang out on Saturdays from 2-9 pm. That also applies to Memorial Day and Labor Day Mondays.

Harmony Hill also has live entertainment on the patio sitting atop their wine cave. You can check the musical guests at their new online calendar. The first act plays from 2-5 pm and the "headliner" takes the stage at 5 pm until close.  

As always, Harmony Hill is dog and child friendly. They offer cheese plates, but you're welcome to bring your own picnic lunch and buy a bottle of wine. Don't forget to bring blankets or lawn chairs, as the place can get packed on Friday (and now probably Saturday) nights.

The winery was actually chock full of news in their latest email missive but this might be the best of the news flashes. They're going to be hosting The Market on The Hill - a farmer's market "in the truest sense" - from May 23 through Oct 3. The farmer's market is

... a one-stop shopping destination featuring grass fed beef, Icelandic lamb, free range poultry, eggs, seasonal fresh vegetables, artisan breads, cheeses and of course, wine. Our farmers are proud to offer only home grown, raised and processed food from within a 30 mile radius of Harmony Hill. We are the LOCAL that farmer markets SHOULD be all about. No reselling of bulk produce-yard vegetables here. The market will run every Saturday , rain or shine, from 2-6 on the winery grounds.

Kevin and I will be doing our best to get to Kinkead Ridge, Meranda-Nixon, and end our day at Harmony Hill on either this upcoming Sunday Saturday or Monday. If you see us, make sure to say hello!

WBW #57: California Inspiration

Today's Wine Blogging Wednesday is sort of a memorial to Robert Mondavi, who passed away about a year ago. It's hosted by Jeff at The Good Grape, and he asks us to taste a California wine that was part of a memorable chapter in our life, and tell that story.

The easy route for this theme would be to taste a Mondavi wine, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Mondavi would have preferred an air of openness.  No good is accomplished by a singularity of purpose that acts as an exclusionary barrier for others.

Please go buy or pull from your stash, a bottle of whatever that California wine was that created a memorable chapter in your life, revisit the bottle, and share your story.

Well, I am taking the easy route - partly due to lack of time and partly because one of my favorite evenings ever took place at the Mondavi Vineyard summer concert series in 2005, with a lot of Mondavi wine. One wine, in particular, stands out for me.

In July of 2005, we stayed in Santa Rosa, which proved to be the perfect vantage point to access both Sonoma and Napa, and then enjoy a brewpub or sushi in Santa Rosa come evening. Because Kevin attended an annual conference in San Francisco, our trips tended to lead up to, and occasionally cross July 4th. On this particular trip, the Mondavi Summer Concert series was hosting the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and celebrating July 4th. (2005 Mondavi photos)

On the recommendation of the folks at Domaine Carneros, we stopped at the Oakville Grocery before the concert. Oakville Grocery is practically across the street from Mondavi and in the "front yard," so to speak, of Opus One. It's surrounded by vines. Inside, it was crowded with people and Kevin and I split up to pick up specialty sandwiches, yummy pastries, and cheeses, as well as a bottle or two of water. It all went into a box, and we wandered into Mondavi.

We spread our blanket out behind a young family. Turns out these folks lived there in Napa, which seems positively wonderful to me. What a great family! We all purchased our various wines in the Mondavi wine shop and we shared.We talked about the wine and enjoyed the wines with complete strangers as the uplifting strains of New Orleans jazz floated over the evening. In the back of the courtyard, tables were set up at the vineyard edge. Robert Mondavi and his wife, Margrit, were there. At times they were up and swing dancing, and looking very much in love. At the end of the evening, fireworks exploded in the sky, lighting up the vineyards and the mountains.

It was really one of the most perfect nights of my life. Vineyards, wine, beauty, music, history, and good company. I remember one of the wines the young couple shared with us, and I promptly bought two bottles.

Sorry Jeff, it's a Mondavi, but a suitably impressive one to fulfill the WBW qualifications, I hope.

2001 Robert Mondavi Stag's Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon, $55 @ winery

This wine was actually made by Robert's son Tim, but it shows that talent runs in the family. I know a lot of my friends associate the Mondavi brand with low-end wine, but the man (and his family) can make some great mid- to high-end bottles, without a doubt. After all, Mondavi was one of the guys behind Opus One.

This particular Cabernet was fruit forward, gravelly and volcanic. It was a bit sulfuric on the nose, but it blew off after a bit. I suspect two things: we should have decanted for a few hours (although we never think that far ahead) and our second bottle of this will age nicely for another couple of years.

Perhaps because I am emotionally attached to this wine, or perhaps I think it was my fault for not decanting in the first place, I still give this wine a .

'Tis the Season for Ohio Wineries

Kinkead Ridge, 2008

In a few weeks, our Southern Ohio wineries will open for summer business. Kevin and I love to head out to Ripley and visit Kinkead Ridge, then take backroads and swing by Meranda-Nixon, then finish up at Harmony Hill. Harmony Hill has that lovely patio and live music to accompany your wine. It opens for summer on May 22.

Kinkead Ridge re-opens on May 23 and May 25, from 10 am - 6 pm on both days. You can meet winemaker Ron Barrett and taste their 2008 vintage: Viognier-Roussane (my absolute favorite), Revelation blend (Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon), Riesling, and Traminette. They'll also be offering their 2006 River Village Cellars Cabernet Franc. The rest of the reds will be released on Labor Day weekend, Sept 3 and 5.

If you can't make it on May 23 or 25, Kinkead Ridge will be open on Saturdays throughout the summer (a change from last year) from 11 am- 5 pm.

As I get more information from the other local wineries, I'll keep you updated.