Wine Country with Lesli - September 23
Images 1-7
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[St. Francis]
[Chateau St. Jean]
[Matanzas Creek]
[Pride]
[Domaine Chandon]
St. Francis
Lesli and I drove up to Sonoma and met her parents, who were vacationing in the area, at the winery. St. Francis has some of my favorite wines so I always enjoy going there. We tasted the Reserve Chardonnay, "Old Vines" Zinfandel, Reserve Merlot, Nun's Canyon Reserve Merlot, Reserve Alicante, and the Pagani Vineyards Zinfandel. I wasn't particularly impressed with the Chardonnay this year. The Reserve Merlot, as expected, was very silky and elegant. The Nun's Canyon Merlot was very good, but not quite as smooth (perhaps a little age would help) and is pricier than the Reserve Merlot. The Pagani Zin was also very enjoyable. Last year, Wine Spectator rated the "Old Vines" Zin in their Top 100 wines, but I actually thought the Pagani Zin was better and I thought this was more so the case this year. I ended up buying a case of the Reserve Merlot, 4 bottles of the Reserve Cabernet (had a bottle earlier in the week), and 2 bottles of the Pagani Zin. Since I'm part of the Platinum Club here, I fortunately received a 15% discount.
Chateau St. Jean
We then drove across the street to Chateau St. Jean. This winery has been through a bit of construction earlier in the year and it shows. They have a nice little area when you first walk in. We actually didn't do any tastings here. We browsed the gift shop/non-reserve tasting area which was pretty nice. I ended up just buying two bottles of late harvest Riesling, one 1996 and one 1998 bottle.
[St. Francis]
[Chateau St. Jean]
[Matanzas Creek]
[Pride]
[Domaine Chandon]
