I left my heart in San Francisco.. And Napa.. And Sonoma..

Quintessa Winery, Rutherford CA

My trip to San Francisco last week was just all sorts of wonderful. The sun, the food, the conversation, the wine.. It was all perfect.

We spent one glorious day in Sonoma, and a second in Napa. We somehow managed to find ourselves in the middle of the harvest-- All of the grapes shined a glorious indigo under the warm fall sun and looked like they were about to burst off of the vines. They were practically begging to be pressed, fermented, and aged into our favourite wines.

Notable stops in Sonoma were Deerfield Ranch and Landmark. We tasted a wonderful Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at Landmark, and absolutely loved the Shiraz at Deerfield Ranch. Sonoma was the kind of place where you felt like it was perfectly acceptable to kick up your feet with a glass of wine in the tasting for hours. The people were incredibly friendly, and the wines wonderful. Run, RUN there, my friends. It's wonderful.

Quintessa Property

We spent a more serious day in Napa. By serious, I mean serious wine tasting. Our first stop was Quintessa, which is a beautiful boutique winery in Rutherford. They produce only one red bordeaux blend (cab sauv, cab franc, and merlot) each year under the Quintessa label. I fell in love with the 2008: It's a bit more delicate than the others that we tasted, with aromas of beautiful red fruit, cola, and chocolate on the nose. On the pallet, it opened up with more black fruit and gorgeously elegant tannins. This is the kind of wine you could drink in perpetuity.. If it weren't for the price. This wine retails for roughly $120/bottle! All is not lost, however. The lovely people at Quintessa also make a secondary label called Faust with the grapes that don't quite meet the Quintessa standard, but luckily, meet my own. The 2008 cabernet sauvignon has been released at the LCBO, and I've been certainly scooping up my fair share. For those of you who think "fruit bomb" when the words Napa Cab come to mind, hear me out: This wine is nuanced. It's lovely. It's perfumed. It has some beautiful asian five spice on the nose, dark ripe fruit, and some underlying earthy notes. It's delightful to smell, and even more delightful to drink. The tannins are silky and integrated, which means it's advisable to go and purchase (and drink!) this wine now. It won't have the best aging potential in the world, but all the better-- Go drink it now!

More Napa adventures to come.. Stay tuned.

Happy drinking,
AK