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I always love trying new wines and when I was invited to taste the wines of Edaphos Wines from Sonoma I was excited. But I honestly did not expect to be so impressed with the wines. I fell in love with the unique varieties produced by Edaphos and wrote about it in the Napa Valley Register which you can read here. *************************** There are more than 425 wineries in Sonoma County. I know that I have not tasted wines from probably half of them. So, when I was invited to try a new Sonoma brand, I was happy to try it. I had some high expectations for the wines as the friend who invited me to taste them is San Francisco-based sommelier-turned-educator Eugenio Jardim, whose palate I respect and trust. While I anticipated the wines to be good expressions of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, I was in for great surprise. Edaphos (ee-dah-fos) Wines are exploring the bounty of Sonoma beyond Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and producing excellent wines that were nothing like what I expected.
When my girlfriends and I decided to plan a weekend getaway, we wanted to go to a wine region we had not been to. As wine writers, we thought that might be difficult but it turned out none of us had been to Mendocino County, located north of Sonoma on the coast of California. This hidden gem was the perfect place for a fun weekend and I wrote about it in the Napa Valley Register which I share here. It’s Mendocino, not Montecito. It’s Anderson Valley, not Alexander Valley. Located just over an hour north of Healdsburg, on the coast of California, Mendocino is the out-of-the-way wine country. It is not near any urban areas. It is remote. It is not carpeted with vines but rather interspersed with other agriculture. It is a secret corner of California and one that I went to explore with some girlfriends and fellow wine writers for a weekend. Mendocino County is a hidden gem filled with rolling hills along the coast. In addition to wineries, breweries and delightful New England-esque towns to explore, there are charming inns to stay in.
Drinking Barolo is always a special treat! Drinking Barolo with a bit of age on it is all the better because Barolo is a wine that needs time to age to be all the more drinkable. Giorgio Lavagna from Fontanafredda, the largest and oldest monopole of Barolo in Piemonte, came to Los Angeles with half a dozen different Barolo wines five, eight, nine, ten, 20 and 24 years of age. Drinking these wines from an historical estate was a treat as I wrote about in the Napa Valley Register and share here. It is that time of the year when the Italians come to the United States to showcase their newest releases of Barolo and Barbaresco wines. This is usually to the great delight of those who are able to taste them. And this year is no exception, as 2016 is reputed to be one of the best vintages in decades. But the issue is that when you taste a 2016 Barolo or Barbaresco in 2020, the wines are still babies. They are high in tannins and not ready to fully enjoy. What we want to drink are Barolo and Barbaresco wines with 10, 20 or more years of age. And that is what I got to do when Giorgio Lavagna from Fontanafredda in Piemonte came to Los Angeles for a wine lunch.
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