Meet the Winemaker: Thacher Winery

Last week my fiance and I went to an awesome event at Grateful Red, a wine shop in Clarendon. It is the "sister" wine store to Screwtop Wine Bar (which I have reviewed before here).

It was a "meet the winemaker" event, and this was my first ever event like this. 

They had a long picnic table set up inside the shop, so people could sit down and relax while tasting the wines (and eat the various meats and cheeses, yum!).

Winery: Thacher

Winemaker: Sherman Thacher

Varietal, Region: Sauvignon Blanc & Zinfandel (both pictured above), Paso Robles, California

Arlington Store, Neighborhood: Grateful Red, Clarendon

Price: bottles range from about $22-60

We tried 5 or 6 wines, a few reds and a few whites. The ones pictured above are my favorites. Sherman stood at the front of the room while we tasted the wines and explained the history of each one, and how he got started which was very cool. 

History: Sherman Thacher said he took wine and beer making classes when he was in school at UC Davis (although I'm extremely proud to be an ECU pirate, they definitely didn't have those classes there!). 

He then worked for a brewery for 15 years including when he was starting up his winery. In 1993 he went and bought one ton of Zinfandel grapes that were planted in 1910. How cool is that?! The following year, he bought another three tons of grapes and before having his own land he used several different wineries in Santa Cruz for production.

In 2004, he and his wife bought property in Paso Robles and four years later Thacher Winery and Vineyard opened.

Another thing I really liked that Sherman pointed out was that he makes all of his wines with minimal interference, as to not interrupt the natural process. An example he gave about this: one of the white wines was too acidic because of an especially hot summer season so he blended it with another white grape to mellow it out, instead of using an additive.

All in all, a great experience and I'm looking forward to future events.

Cheers!

Black Salt Restaurant & Vino

I recently visited a restaurant in DC called Black Salt. My bottom line...The wine and food was superb!

Restaurant: Black Salt, Palisades neighborhood, DC
Wine: Taittinger Prestige Rose, France
Varietal: Blend of Pinot Noir & Petit Meunier grapes
Tasting Notes: Notes of strawberry (and other berries I can't quite put my finger on) on the palate, a tad bit creamy, slight hint of hazelnut.
My Verdict: I know this wine is no secret, but for me it was exciting because I was finally able to try a "higher end" brut rose. I have to say it was quite tasty. The bubbles were a bit smaller (not a bad thing, but worth noting) and it was very refreshing. 

*Fun Fact about this Rose: "The Taittingers were a family of wine merchants who, in 1870, moved to the Paris region from the Lorraine in order to retain their French citizenship after the Franco-Prussian War and the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871)." (Wikipedia)

On to number two...


While I was waiting at the bar for my table to be ready, I had a delightful wine from their by-the-glass menu.

Wine: Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2010
Price: $16.95/glass
Tasting Notes: Dark color, rich aromas on the nose, medium to full bodied, notes of black cherry and currant
My Verdict: While the price-per-glass of this Cab is a tad steep, it's totally worth it because the wine glasses are the size of mini-fish bowls (yet still oddly enough, very elegant looking).

 


Food-wise... I had tuna with yucca frites and a black bean aoili. Very good.

And the dessert, house made ice cream. Exquisite.

Cheers!

Return to Cafe Cattura

I am here to announce my triumphant return to ...Cafe Caturra! I used to go there quite often when I lived nearby, maybe a little too much but I LOVE it! 

This was my first time there in about a year and what made it even better, I got to go with my awesome friends Brenna and Trina* and do some serious catching up (although one was missing because she recently moved...miss you Tay!)

*Brenna and Trina have an awesome hair/beauty blog. You MUST check it out here!

Since we didn't make it there in time for happy hour, I was faced with the decision of "which red" to go with. Caturra always has a good selection but that can make it hard to choose! Luckily, Brenna knows her reds because she picked this one and I decided to just follow her example instead of doing my usual tasting routine.

Arlington restaurant: Cafe Caturra, near Shirlington

Wine: Di San Marzano, Puglia, Italy

Varietal: Primitivo

Price: $26/bottle, $8/glass

Tasting Notes: spicy and hints of cherry and vanilla on the nose, plush tasting, slightly sweet but just the perfect amount (and I don't usually do sweet wines).

My Verdict: Caturra is a little out of the way from where I currently live but it never dissapoints. Also they sell (only by the bottle though, one of my faves Trinchero Chicken Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon).

I was so excited about their dessert trio, I completely forgot to take pictures, haha! I promise in the future, it will appear in its very own post.