Well, it was meant to be a quick trip. It turned out to be a lot more fun then I had planned. I pulled up to the winery just as the owner, Barbara Predmore just happened to be walking by. She greeted me enthusiastically and showed me to the tasting room where three other women were have a glass or two themselves.
It's always fun when the vintner happens to be available to talk wine during the tasting. For obvious reasons the tend to be very passionate about their trade and their business. I've learned so much about wine from these sessions it's one of the main reasons that going out to the wineries for a taste is such a worthwhile endeavour.
This was different. Barb sat behind the counter and held court about any number of subjects. Everything from caesar salad dressing to supermarkets, the State of Arizona and, of course her winery. "This is my Shangri-la. We work very hard, but it's our dream and we're living it."
Alcantara winery is the largest winery in the Northern Arizona wine region. That being said, in terms of output, Alcantara is still a small, intimate operation, a fact that Barb almost relishes. "It's still a small winery. It might be the only thing about me that is small." Then she laughed. Barb has a laugh makes it almost physically impossible not to laugh along with her.
So the four of us sat down and laughed as wine was poured and Barb talked about the finer points of the wine world like how the movie Sideways boosted the quality of Two-buck Chuck Merlot, the difference between red and white wine as far as image and the evils of the supermarket wine rack.
(Sideways caused people to gravitate to pinot noir grapes leaving high-quality merlot on the vine; apparently people perceive red wine as a more sophisticated drink; the harsh lights of supermarkets degrades the quality of wine.)
So let's talk wine. Of the sixteen wines they had available, I was able to sample seven. It should also be noted that, with the exception of the Sangiovese, all of the grapes for these wines were grown at the winery itself. Also, it should be noted that, yes, I focused on the reds. It's a matter of personal preference, although they had a fairly large selection of lighter whites as well.
Mesa Blanca: This was the one white I had during my visit because I'm much more a dry red fan and Arizona wine country is the Mecca of dry reds. This was kind of a nice blend with a pear, peach aroma. It was fairly tart with grapefruit and pear flavors.
Syrah: I picked up some raspberry and strawberry on the nose. The flavor was peppery and fruity and quite tart, but it was mentioned that this wine was a little young.
Confluence IV: This blend turned out to be my favorite. It has a very subtle berry and pepper aroma. The flavor was exceptionally smooth with raspberry, cherry and peppery notes. It finishes just slightly dry.
Merlot: Aroma is earthy and peppery with a little dark fruit. The fruit is more pronounced in the flavor with some added leather flavor and finishes very dry.
NV Grand Rouge- Zabibu A Amani: Another quality blend of six grape varietals. I picked up some plum and a little pepper on the aroma. It was a very smooth wine with cherry, leather and pepper flavors coming and going through the palate. Very good, complex wine.
Zinfandel: I'd like to stress, not a white zinfandel. As Barb said, "friends don't let friends drink white zin." Here a zinfandel pours dark red with a light pepper aroma. It's just slightly dry with some dark cherry, leather, and floral flavors.
Sangiovese: The aroma had some cherry and some vanilla flavors as well as lots of peppery notes. The flavor is a wonderful mixture of cherry, leather and vanilla.
No comments:
Post a Comment