The Wine Hacker.com

Chateau Davell Moves to Beautiful "New Digs"

Last weekend we stopped at Chateau Davell's brand new tasting room on our way to a jam sess in the Bay Area to pick up a friend's wine club shipment.  WOW!!  The view is spectacular, the grounds peaceful and inviting, and the wines are as good as ever.  

I am posting my first ever VLOG or video blog on our visit - which is here:  

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Two of our favorites were the 2015 Charlotte's Cuvee and the 2015 Verlyn.  The winemaker, Erik, names his wines after members of his family and includes beautiful portraits of them on every bottle.   Charlotte is his daughter, and she was happily doing cartwheels on the front lawn while we sipped her namesake wine.   Verlyn is Erik's grandfather.

We are definitely blend people, and both these wines are blends.  The Charlotte is an Estate wine and a blend of Cabernet, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.  Our friend John Worley served it at our jam sess where it was definitely a hit.   It has an inky deep reddish garnet color with a blonde coffee noise, big fruity middle tones, and a cardamom and clove finish.  It is both delicate and rich at the same time, and the blend has created just the right amount of lightness and complexity. 

The Verlyn is a stronger, heavier wine, with 45% Mourvedre and 25% Grenache.   It has solid, structured tannins and would cellar well.  I tasted cedar, toasted oak, rich black cherry and pomegranate flavors.   This wine would stand up well to any grilled meat or BBQ, and has plenty of spunk and character.

The longest finish wine is the 2015 Green Man cabernet - a great wine to drink on Summer Solstice.  I got eucalyptus, wood, and leather on the finish, with a ripe garden nose and early palate and blackberries with sun dried tomatoes on the mid palate.  Chewy tannins give this wine the structure one expects from a fine Cabernet. 

If you are up this way, a visit to Chateau Davell will be worth your while for sure!

 

 

Monday's Wine Hack - Drink a Toast to the SF Giants!

I am one day late on my wine hack of the week - but here it is.....drum roll  please......  This year once again, our beloved SF Giants triumphed in the World Series.   What better as a "hack of the week" but to drink a toast to our home team?  

I searched for logo SF Giants glassware, and didn't have far to go.  Amazon has an affordable set of two glasses (you have to have someone to clink glasses with) that can be ordered through the below  link.  I plan to get a full set as a good luck charm for next year.   Two years in a row, anyone?  

 

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Etsy Little Wine Lover STUFF!

I am a little late to the party, but I have just discovered Etsy.com which is a haven for artists, creative people, and people like me who love having unique trinkets with character to display.  A fun thing to do with Etsy is to create a "Treasury" , which is a collection of items around a theme that you choose from all the individual crafty stores on Etsy.  You select them and put them into a grid, and Etsy creates a URL around the title you give your collection.  It is as if you are a museum curator and the Internet world is your audience!  

My latest theme creation  is Wine.Roses.Romance, these corks are one of the amazingly romantic wine-themed crafts I found listed from a wedding store owner that were so beautiful, I had to share them. 

This is as much fun as going to an antique show or art and wine festival, without having to leave your easy chair.   My little collection of "finds" includes some hand painted wine glasses,  a wine glass painting, and a bouquet of roses and corks.   There are many wine themed items on Etsy, but this little collection is made of up special tidbits that were both wine themed AND romantic.   

I hope you enjoy my little treasury, I had fun creating it.  Etsy also has bulk wine corks for sale, which are great for crafts.