wine: Los Tesoros de Joaquin (Murrieta's Well)

We got this bottle of wine while wine tasting at Murietta's Well earlier this year.  We are hard pressed to pass up a purchase of a Cab Franc.  Big fans, people, we are big fans of Cabernet Franc.  If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, my favorite grape of all the grapes is the Cab Franc.  (Actually I'm not sure if I've ever stack ranked my grapes, but if I were to, Cab Franc would be my #1.)  We learned a valuable lesson however on this bottle of Cab Franc.  It needs to be decanted - or just open the bottle, let it breathe, put in your stopper and come back to it in 24 hours.  This wine was good fantastic on day 2.  Not day 1, and not day 3... definitely drink the entire bottle on day 2. You won't regret it...well you might if you drink the entire bottle by yourself.  Grab a buddy and drink it on day 2, then you'll be good as gold.  We were so much more impressed with the flavors that came out on the second day.  It seemed so much more well rounded.  (I took piano lessons and played tennis to be well rounded...this wine just needed to be uncorked for a day...to each their own.) 

We enjoyed this bottle a lot while tasting at the winery.  And I think the reason why we liked it so much at the winery but then were disappointed when we opened it at home, is that we didn't realize how much this wine needed to air out.  I cannot even begin to tell you the difference it made from day 1 to day 2.  And the reason I cannot tell you is that I remember it being really good on day 2, however I didn't write any notes about it and now I have forgotten. Whoops.  Sorry about that. You would have thought I'd learn by now!

wine: Murietta's Well - Los Tesoros de Joaquin Zinfandel

A jalapeno and a strawberry walk into a cedar closet...

That to me, should be the start of a great joke, but sadly I'm not that funny or witty enough to come up with the punch line, so instead, I'd say that those are the very first three (spice, fruit, wood) flavors that hit me when I tasted Los Tesoros de Joaquin Zinfandel from Murietta's Well.  I loved it. 

This is one of the two bottles of wine we bought while tasting at Murietta's Well recently. This wine is $30.  A bit more expensive than a normal Tuesday night wine, but let's face it...Mike and I are pretty stingy in all other spending aspects of our lives and we have expensive taste in wine, so if we want to open a $30 bottle of wine while making dinner at home (which is what we do 99% of the time) we will, and we won't feel too bad about it.

This wine isn't mass produced.  In fact on the back of the label it tells you that only 400 cases were produced.  Sweet.  I love that.  Totally makes it a hot commodity in my book.  The word "Commodities" is big lingo in our house (we watch more CNBC while the stock market is open than you would believe), so just another reason to like this wine.

This wine isn't super bold on the start, which to me says, it would be great paired with food since it wouldn't over power your meal.  It does however leave some peppery heat in your throat during the finish (hence the jalapeno walking into your cedar closet).

Enjoy.

If you do go to Murietta's Well, invite me along. I'm fun.  And I do like their wine. 

winery: Murietta's Well

Murietta's Well - Our first stop in our wine tasting expedition in the Livermore Valley.   We had very low expectations, which were blown out of the water after the first sip of wine. 

We've been meaning to try out some of the wineries in the Livermore Valley for a long time.  Then we heard that the Livermore Valley is known for its Zinfandel...and the following weekend, we made a point to go try them out.  We were blown away.  One employee at Murietta's well said that Livermore's atmosphere today reminds him of what Napa was like about 20 years ago. 

This valley is friendly, relaxed and makes good wine.  I'm sold.  We love it here.  The East-West orientation of the valley allows for cooling off quickly at night even though the summer days can be quite warm (this valley is in the East Bay, after all, and I'm sure you are all too familiar with my complaints about how stinking hot it gets here in the summer.) 

We ended up taking home a bottle of the Cab Franc and a bottle of the Zin.  We also loved the merlot (always shocks me when I have a good merlot - darn you, Sideways!) and the Spur (their red blend) were also totally worthy of being purchased.  We just like to save our pennies, and we live close and know we can always go back.  And we definitely will.  The people at Murietta's well were fantastic, employees were stopping us on our way out the door asking us which bottles we bought.