Winemaker's Celebration

Last Saturday we went to the Monterey County Winemaker's Celebration with Lisa & Nemanja. (for more pics click here) It was held in Monterey, not far from Fisherman's Wharf. There were tasting booths for over 40 wineries all located in Monterey County - and since we upgraded to the reserve tasting we got all of the tastings we could handle included in the price of admission. Many of the wineries are located literally within minutes of our house in Gonzales (Gonzales is the self-proclaimed wine capital of monterey county), but it was still great to be able to do side-by-side comparisons of the different wineries.

We have been at a loss when looking for a good wine here in Salinas. We don't recognize hardly any of the wine labels at the grocery store - which has been really disappointing. But not anymore! After tasting this last weekend, I went to the wine aisle at the local market and was very happy to find many of the wines that I had enjoyed tasting on Saturday. I guess it's good that the stores stock local wines, although I miss not being able to find my favorite Napa and Sonoma wines at the store. Guess we'll just have to make a trip up that way before too long to stock up. ;o)

Some of our favorites from our tasting adventure:
The Chenin blanc and Chardonnay from Chalone Vineyard was really nice. We had already stopped at this winery on the way back from hiking at the Pinnacles, but found that they held up especially well when compared to other wines. One of the best value wines were from the Hahn label. I really enjoyed their Chardonnay as well their Syrah and reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Manzoni and Paraiso both had great Chardonnays, although I thought the Manzoni was a bit on the pricey side. I found the Scheid Vineyard wines to be a little sharp for my taste -but their reserve Claret wasn't bad. Szalay Winery had a side by side tasting of the 2002, 2003 and 2004 red wine 'Cuvee' blend. The 2002 was excellent although they said it was sold out. However - I found one bottle of it at the Star market in Salinas and bought it. Nemanja really liked this wine and I'm looking forward to opening it with him next time we have dinner with Lisa & Nemanja. Monterey county is known for it's Pinot noirs and I was surprised that I didn't fine more that I liked at the tastings. Several wineries had decent pinots (Silver Mountain, Ventana, Belle Glos) but I didn't taste any just really fantastic pinot noirs (like those made by Siduri). I didn't like any of the wines that the Pessagno winery had except for their reserve pinot noir coming from Gary's Vineyard. It was quite nice and I'm pretty sure this is the same vineyard that sells grapes to Siduri. So I don't think that is a coincidence.

It was a great day.