A Taste of Sacramento

Friday night we went to a food, wine, and beer event in Sacramento, A Taste of Sacramento, a benefit for Easter Seals. It featured over 70 local wineries, breweries and restaurants who showcased their wine, beer and food to ticket holders. As you understand there was not enough time, nor room in my stomach to tasted everything at the event but I did want to share a few thoughts with you on some of the participants that I particularly enjoyed (or not).

Let's start with the food. Best BBQ in town was served up by J.R.'s Texas Bar-B-Que who plated mesquite smoked brisket and baked beans. This is what BBQ should taste like. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse had sliced steak with mashed potatoes. Yummy. Rubio's flavorful, juicy and tender carnitas in flour tortilla with guacamole was surprisingly good considering it being a chain restaurant. Someone was serving a good mahi mahi taco roll as well, but I can't recall who it was... I also had shrimp with a great cocktail sauce that I think it might have come from Pilothouse Restaurant...
For dessert I had two favorites, The Berry Factory (owned by Shari Fitzpatrick of Shari's Berries) with their chocolate dipped strawberries (to die for) and a local chocolate maker that I had not heard of before, Chocolate Silk The Chocolate Architect. They had a wide variety of fudge. The toffee chip chocolate fudge and espresso chocolate fudge were my two favorites.

On to the wine. Holly's Hill Vineyards from Placerville, produces Rhone varietals, and poured a 2006 Viognier that really stood out with intense white peach on the nose and pear at the palate. Sometimes viognier can be a little bit over the top for me but this one did not have to sweet fruit and was lighter and more refreshing then most viogniers. They also had their 2005 Patriarche, a blend of Mourvedre, Syrah, Grenache, and the lesser known Rhone varietal Counoise. Very nicely balanced with large, but not to ripe fruit, and savory tannins. Good wine for food.

Montevina was there and I only tasted their Barbera and it was a disappointment to me. The entry level Barbera was bland and diluted and lacked the concentration this grape can have. Tasting the one-step-up Terra d'Oro Barbera didn't do it for me either. I moved on...

Cosentino Winery was there and poured a long line of wine. As a former wine club member I know their wines very well. I tasted their 2005 Franc (Cabernet Franc) and the 2005 CigarZin (Zinfandel). These two wines have a very constant quality trough vintages and these were not an exception. They were as big, concentrated and plush as ever, with good tannins.

R. Merlo Estate Vineyards, poured one of the few Pinot Noir that was at the event. The style of this 2002 Pinot Noir was more delicate and less concentrated, compared to the central coast Pinot I usually drink, with red cherries and red berries and only hints of darker fruit. I usually prefer some more of the later, but it was never the less a really nice Pinot Noir. I also tasted their 2002 Syrah. This one full of ripe, big berries and tannins to match. Very good.

Last but not least M2 Wines was there, with owner/winemaker Chris Matheny and his wife Diana pouring the wines. This was one of the best pourings at the event. I have tasted their wines at a wine tasting a while back and reviewed them in a prior post. They had the same line up at this event and you can read my thoughts on their wines here. One extra wine was poured that I had not tried before, the 2004 Clone Six Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. A great wine with dark cherry, black currant, oak and high on firm tannins. Will definitely drink well for many years to come.
Chatting with Chris and Diana they told me about the M2 Autumn Winemaker Dinner they will be hosting October 20th at Fair Oaks Nursery. When seeing the menu and the wine they'll be pairing with the four courses, it was hard to say no, and we did not... They are hosting a gourmet meal with appetizer, choice of crab bisque or roasted beet salad, for entree beef tenderloin or plank grilled salmon, and then a chocolate creation for dessert. All paired up with M2's exciting wines, for a very reasonable $80. To get more information, and join in on the fun call Diana at (916) 838-7914 or email her at dmatheny@m2wines.com. Maybe I'll see you there...

With that I am wrapping up my thoughts on the 2007 A Taste of Sacramento event. I'll be back next year.

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Rideau Vineyard

Rideau Vineyard Tasting Room

During our weekend in Santa Barbara we took a little trip up to Santa Ynez Valley to do some wine tasting. Our favorite during this tour was Rideau Vineyard which was founded in 1997 by New Orleans native, Iris Rideau (at photo to the left). The tasting room is a historical 2 story Adobe built in 1884. Through the years it has served as stagecoach stop, a famous inn, a guest ranch, and a working ranch. Iris Rideau bought it in 1995, after the property had sat abandoned for 10 years, and restored it to it's current condition.
The estate grows exclusively Rhone varietals and we decided to do the Reserve tasting at a $15 cost per person.

The first pour was the 2006 Estate Viognier. It has not been bottled yet so this was a futures sample. Cloudy due to coming straight from the barrel this was a nice Viognier but a little bit to fruity and sweet for my taste. After this we got to taste the 2005 Estate Viognier. A year in the bottle makes a huge difference and this was much more balanced, not to sweet, and had a slight crispness to it. A really good Viognier but at a pretty steep cost of $52.
Next we moved on to another barrel sample, the 2005 Santa Barbara County Syrah. Lush with ripe, dark berries and young tannins. Followed by the 2004 Santa Barbara County Syrah. Again you could taste the difference a year in the bottle makes. The 2004 was more balanced with less jammy fruit, and the characteristic hint of peppar. Both very good Syrahs.

The 2004 Chateau Duplantier, a blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre, was my favorite red. Beautiful fruit, not to jammy or ripe, with nice balance, a hint of spice, and adequate tannins. What a great Rhone blend!

Last but not least the 2004 Petit Sirah, dark and fruit forward but a little bit more elegant than many other Petite Syrahs. A nice finish to our tasting.

Me and friends in tasting room

Did I mention the very friendly and extremely knowlegable tasting room staff?
This all adds up to a great winery to include in your next tour of the Santa Ynez Valley, and I highly recommend it.

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