Before I arrived to kill a couple days, I had heard tell about this strange city in the mountains of New Mexico. Okay, I heard it was a cool place to visit, but nobody ever really explained why. It was always left rather vague.
Here is why Santa Fe is kind of a cool place: the culture. Few cities in this country have a culture... or at least a culture that is anything other then American. Most cities in this country look and act like every other city in this country, with a few exceptions:
New Orleans: .... trust me. You know when you are in New Orleans.
Portland, Oregon: And you can smell when you're in Portland.
New York: ... Or so I am told. Honestly I've not spent any time there.
I would add Santa Fe to this list. There's something about this place. It's not quite Mexican. It's not quite Native American and it definitely isn't American. .... It's just Santa Fe in all it's quiet glory.
And that's the best way I can describe Estrella Del Notre Vineyard. There is something at work here that couldn't really exist anywhere else. And that is just kinda cool.
Vino De Manzanas:
A wine made from apples on the property. This wine had a cidery taste that you would
expect, but it was much cleaner and much drier.
It was fairly light, just a little sweet and quite refreshing.
Symphony: So
apparently, this is an actual varietal of grape.
Some mad scientist in California cross-bred a couple grape varietals over
the course of a couple decades and finally came up with Symphony. The result is a wine a that reminds me a
little of muscat, but totally different.
It has the grapefruit and pear fruit inside, but there’s also a dry,
floral quality to it especially at the end.
It’s a lighter refreshing wine that is truly awesome.
Pino Noir: When you drive up to the winery you see rows upon
rows of grape vines. These are the Pino grapes. I picked up
some black cherry, and some light floral qualities on the nose. The palate contained some black cherry, and
some raspberry. It was light for a style, but nice.
Barbera: Another grape varietal that I had not heard of.
This one apparently came with the first monks that established monasteries in
the region almost 600 years ago. Fun fact,
New Mexico is actually the first American wine region. It had a very light aroma, but it’s palate
was earthy, woody with a generous helping of pepper spice and a slightly floral
finish.
Rio Nambe: A blended wine.
The first thing I thought when I put my nose in was… it was hoppy. I smelled northwest citrus hops. It didn’t make sense, but there was a
citrusy, floral quality about this wine.
The flavor had lots of floral earthy notes to it with just a hint of
spice.
Tinto Del Soul: This was actually something they had from
Santa Fe Vineyards, but what the hell.
This was noticeably sweeter then the previous wines I had up to that
point. I picked up some caramel and some
raspberry among the pepper and spice that filled this one.
Holy Moly: Here’s were,
in my opinion, true Santa Fe culture begins to take hold. It’s a zinfandel infused with chocolate,
almonds and chili pepper. The result is a
wine that’s smokey and spicy on the nose.
The flavor has some chocolate covered cherry with a generous, but not
overpowering spicy background that arrives and disappears like pepper in a
beer.
Pear Wine: We get a little into the desert category here, or
as much as I am willing to go. It was
sweet just on the edge of being syrupy.
Pear and apple flavors were, of course, very very strong. It was sweet but manageable and rather nice.
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