My apologies for not maintaining contact with everyone. This, my final semester of college, has kicked my butt! My head is full of useful and useless information, and I have had little time to decompress. However, spring break has allowed me to at least step away from the agony and focus on what lie ahead in my future endeavors. Enough about me, let's talk about what's new in the wine world...at least from my experience.
Two weeks ago, my cousin and I volunteered to pour wine at a winery in Santa Rosa called Sunce Winery. It had been a few years since my cousin poured, and I have to admit, my pouring arm was out of shape for the heaviness of the wine thief. We got through the day by sampling the myriad of 29 different wine barrel samples that were offered and treating their guests as if they were royalty. That's how we do it, and we both have the industry reputations to back this minimal amount of bragging up!
Sunce is a small family owned winery tucked into a little piece of rural susburbia Santa Rosa, California. From the road, the winery looks as if a small family lives among the barely noticeable vineyards located in the back of the property. The house is small, and is situated among two very beautiful barns where winemaker Frane' works his mojo!
Frane' is a small, quiet, un-pretentious, vino extraordinaire who passionately develops wines in the style of his homeland, Croatia. Each wine is meticulously pampered by Frane allowing the wines to age to perfection. because he makes several varietals, including an unreal estate Pinot Noir, there are no two alike. I was particularly enamored with his Cabernet Shiraz blend, but it was the Pinot Noir that took my breath away.
Pinot Noir is not my favorite grape. I have tasted Pinot's all over California, and an unfortunate experience with Oregon Pinot's solidified my distaste for this randy varietal. Let's be fair, they are not ALL bad. Just the one of at least 70 that I have tasted. Enough said! Pinot's by structure are not the heartiest of varietals, and usually they are light red to nearly pink in color. They can be quite perfumey, is this is a word? Often, they are very tart with little characteristic. I call them "training wheel wines." Again, as a Petite Syrah drinker and a dirty Cabernet lover, Pinot's don't work in my game...until I tasted Frane's!
Orgasm in a glass! I'm being gentle here. BIG ORGASM IN A GLASS!!! Enough said. Wow! Does someone have a cigarette? The estate Pinot Noir was incredible! No, it was unreal, writhing on the floor, call someone and curse them out good! This Pinot Noir had the makings of a big red wine without being too big...girls, are you following me? The wine was artistically crafted with a gentle touch of lust. The mouth feel was silky, the body was intense, and the aromas of dark cherry with a hint of aged cedar was almost too much to bear. I wanted to turn on some Anita Baker, crawl up in my blankey on the couch, and leave my troubles in the bottom of the glass. This wine was amazing...for a Pinot Noir.
Frane does his mojo on several other varietals and blends. He is truly a master at his craft. Visit Sunce Winery in Santa Rosa. They are located at 1839 Olivet Road.
I hope you enjoyed this post, and I will do my best to keep up in my writings. Thanks for reading!
Karen
