On a hot summer’s day, there are few things quite as refreshing as a cold glass of white wine. When we went to The Quality Chop House in Farringdon, it was roasting. The hottest day of the year, in fact, and as much as I would have liked to indulge in a ‘kick-you-in-the-teeth-red’, as my husband has decided to call our ‘style’ of red wines, it was just too darn hot.
During our recent – and utterly outstanding – meal at The Quality Chop House in Farringdon, we enjoyed two fabulous white wines which quenched our thirst and offered us something else to contemplate besides the fantastic food.
Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited to a barrel tasting at Ridge Vineyards in Cupertino, California. Ridge is located near the top of Monte Bello Ridge up in the Santa Cruz Mountains – thus the current name of the winery, Ridge, and the name of their most special wine, Monte Bello. It was started in 1885 and made its first vintage in 1892 under the Monte Bello Winery label.
Here’s another great V. Sattui from the depths of the closet in the spare room. This Zinfandel is from the Gilsson Vineyard in the Russian River Valley whose climate is much cooler than other vineyards in the wine country thanks to the fog that rolls in from the Pacific ocean, making it a great place to grow Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. Those wines from this region are well known and appreciated, but perhaps a more surprising success in these cooler climes is Zinfandel.
A fellow food blogger, The Winegetter, posted a link to this really useful tasting sheet and I thought it would be a good thing to use in future to write up my wine notes and I’ve put it here for anyone else who may find it helpful. It’s not always easy to pinpoint exactly what you want to say about wine, so hopefully it’ll prove a useful guide!