Fiddlehead Cellars Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary
I have been working in the wine industry for over 15 years and one of the first winemakers I met was Kathy Joseph of Fiddlehead Cellars in Sta Rita Hills....
30 October, 2018
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A Vertical Tasting of Napa Valley Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
There are challenges to planting vines on the mountains but there are many advantages as well. My recent story in the Napa Valley Register, which you can read below, is about Cardinale Winery, who focuses on a single Cabernet Sauvignon that is a blend from four mountain vineyards. Each vineyard contributes different characteristics to make the elegant wine year after year.
When mountains were created millions of years ago, volcanic eruptions resulted in extrusive and intrusive lava soils. These mountains were less fertile, and it was realized long ago that food crops and orchards thrived off the fertile land of the flats.
But up on the angled slopes of the mountains, some winemakers found a perfect location for vineyards. The Napa Valley produces four percent of California’s wine, yet only five percent of Napa’s wine production comes from mountain fruit. One of these wineries is Cardinale.
25 October, 2018
Nero d’Avola, the Flagship Grape of Sicily
There are many wine regions in the world known for one or two flagship varieties. Burgundy is Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Piemonte is Nebbiolo, Tuscany is Sangiovese, Napa is Cabernet Sauvignon and so on. In Sicily, the flagship grape is Nero d'Avola and I had the privilege to explore this grape through the wines from Planeta which I shared in a recent column in the Napa Valley Register and you can it read here.
In Italy, more than 80 percent of the grapes grown are native varieties. One of the most cultivated indigenous varieties is Nero d’Avola, the flagship red grape of Sicily. It makes up 60 percent of Sicily’s agriculture. When speaking about Nero d’Avola from Sicily, it is like speaking about Nebbiolo from Piedmont, Sangiovese from Tuscany and Montepulciano from Abruzzo.
One of the leading producers of Nero d’Avola is Planeta. The Planeta family in Sicily dates back five centuries and 17 generations. After a long history in agriculture, Grandfather Vito Planeta transformed their small family winery into a large cooperative winery in the 1900s.
18 October, 2018