Wines of Bordeaux, France [ March 19th, 2010 ] Posted in » Darryl Beeson's Review, Virtual wine country, Wine Article archive, Wine review

East of the Bay of Biscay, Bordeaux is a leading French seaport on the banks of the Garonne River, near the point where the Garonne and Dordogne rivers meet to form the Gironde River. The city administers five deepwater ports downstream were the large quantities of the famous Bordeaux wines are exported.

As far back as the time of the Roman Empire, Bordeaux was a flourishing city, called Burdigala. In 1154, when the husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine became Henry II of England, the Bordeaux region passed under English control. It became French again at the end of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453. During the Franco-Prussian War, and briefly in each world war, the French government moved to Bordeaux.
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Cristom

1999 “Willamette Valley”
Reserve Pinot Noir

cristomIt’s easy to get two bottles down at dinner, just give it a try.

When Pinot drinkers are drooling over the thought of an exceptional bottle of Pinot Noir from the great Northwest, there are about 15 wineries that are on the “must get my hands on” list. Cristom Vineyards is one of them. Small production, handcrafted and consistently “freakin’ great”. Some of the vineyard designate releases are made in small amounts ranging from 300 cases to a bit over 500, and the Reserve usually comes in at twice that depending on the harvest. This release of the Reserve came in at about 1150 cases. That’s enough for some of us to get our hands on it.

The 1999 vintage provided a nice cool and surprisingly dry spring and a mild and warm summer. This follows two very good vintages in 1997 and 1998, and gives fans of Willamette Valley wines something to cheer about. Cristom has taken advantage of this like they should, and they keep releasing killer Pinot’s.
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February 8th, 2010 | Leave a Comment

The Mountains, not the Bayou

the-mountains-not-the-bayouWhen we say “Fogarty”, you think of a reefer-smoking hippie singing Born on the Bayou, right? Well stop it. As much as we love doobie hittin’ singers from CCR (John Fogerty, see they aren’t even spelled the same), we love winery-owning doctors named Thomas Fogarty even more. Why? Because the good doctor has a winery located up in the Santa Cruz Mountains that puts out a plethora of good juice, and it’s all handcrafted by a damngood and seasoned wine making all-star; Mr. Michael Martella.

The Thomas Fogarty Winery and Vineyard is located about 2000 feet up in them there hills and has been there since 1981. The Estate sits on 325 acres, with about 25 acres dedicated to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and small lots of Merlot and Sangiovese. Right now the good doctor and Mr. Martella are producing 13 different wines and case production is rather limited on many of their offerings and reaches the 3500+ case boundary with just a few of their wines.
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February 6th, 2010 | 1 Comment

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