Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great new year! Ours was pretty low key, we had good friend J over and our friend M. We had some FABULOUS wines. We tried something new. We have this great guy at a local wine store who is really fun to work with and he is super helpful always recommending some interesting new wines. So when we stopped in on Friday to see him, I asked him about some wines that were from wineries owned by locals. He selected three for us, and the first was my favorite.

Terra Valentine Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District 2006. This is a vineyard in Napa Valley which is owned by a couple originally from Deephaven, MN. When they were ready to retire, they bought the vineyard, and have been producing some pretty great wines ever since. Highly recommend this one, I believe it retails for about $40.

The next was a 2006 Pinot Noir from Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve, this one is from Dayton, Oregon and is owned by a local couple from Plymouth who also started and founded a local pharmaceutical company that produces heart drugs. Their Pinot Noir has won multiple awards and has been written up all over. It is quite an accomplished vineyard. The wine was not quite as good as the Terra, but still a wonderful Pinot Noir. Retails for about $64.

The last was another Napa Valley vineyard wine, 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Ladera. Nice smooth finishing wine with some great flavor. Anne Stotesbery one of the proprietors of the vineyard is a native Minnesotan from Wayzata, the same town that we are currently living in. This was another great wine. Retails for about $38.

The whole tasting was a lot of fun that opened our eyes to some great new wines. We paired it with a lasagna and some bread, very simple and it was nice to just showcase the wines in this manner.