A Tasting and Comment on Rios Solovino Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

Last night I had an opportunity to try a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from Rios Wine Cellars.  The name on their label is 'Solovino'.  'Solovino' means, 'he came alone'.  I purchased the bottle the previous weekend up in Calistoga at the Rios Wine Tasting Room.

It was there that I spoke with Albert Rios, the youngest of the Rios brothers.  Albert's two older brothers are Manuel and Rafael; Manuel being the oldest.  The Rios family seem to all have their hands in the wine industry in one form or another.  The pride they take as a family in grape growing, wine making and all round wine production is evident in the bottle I had last night.  It was excellent!

Albert shared with me that there 2005 Cabernet is from a single vineyard and is strictly from the 2005 harvest.  No blending from the previous year and no blending with fruit outside the particular vineyard.  You'll see this approach most likely in the smaller wine producers, who are not out to make every year of any given wine the same as the year before.  They focus on that year's fruit and focus on producing the best wine that specific fruit has to offer.  The result is that each year you necessarily have a different wine and often that difference is noticeable if you were to conduct a vertical tasting.

Getting back to my personal tasting experience, I found this particular wine excellent!

The clarity and deep ruby color is the first thing that you will notice.  When you put your nose to the glass you immediately pick up perhaps a tint of chocolate which is immediately replaced by ripe dark blackberry.  When you take it into your mouth and coat your tongue, you will pick up not a sweet chocolate but more of a dark chocolate.  As it lingers the fruity blackberry tones come forth. I didn't pick up oak but I was pleased with that.  Why?  I think the oak takes away from the pureness of the natural character the fruit has to offer which is different year after year when the winemaker believes in the single vineyard, single season approach. 

I wonder if that's how the Rios family came up with the name 'Solovino'?  I'll have to ask them.

If you have time I would encourage you to visit the Rios Wine Company web site at www.rioswinecompany.com .

Let your congressional representative know: Oppose HR 5034

This is a short but very important post about HR 5034, a bill that would allow states to discriminate against small wineries who import into their state in favor of that state's distributors and their local wine industry.  For a good legal analysis of the bill click here.  At the end of that article/analysis, their is a link to notify your congressional representative about your opposition to the bill or you can just click here and go directly there.

Remember it is for the generations who follow that we need to keep a vigil on our future's course. 

Pulling on a Thread

This is Omar on the Tractor and his father Ric off to the side.  Grandchildren come to mind when I think of family.

I've been thinking of family lately  (Mother's Day and all).  In part I imagine it's because I've been working on a web site for our family wines.  Part of last week and now this week, I've been working on getting our family wine site up and running.  I sent out the initial set up to my list of family and friends last week and have received great comments.  Most were how do we order.  Well, that's the part (the sales room) that I'm working on this week.

What does this have to do with my title "Pulling on a Thread"?  Nothing really, only that as part of my self educational process I receive a blog/newsletter "The Daily Sip by bottlenotes".  I took time out of my core project and read it.  The article was about blind tasting and Yellow Tail wines (the tasting took place in New York).  I didn't find the short article that great.  What interested me initially was the advertisement about the Auction Napa Valley E-Auction.

Being interested,  I clicked on the link (pulling on a thread so to speak) and began looking at the auction items.  I encourage you to do the same.  I don't know if I will be bidding on anything, but it gave me an opportunity to see wines produced by people I personally know.  I like to see my friends doing something good or producing something like . . . wine.  The other thing I immediately picked up are a few ideas on how our family sales room might be laid out on the new web site. 

Well, having given my friends a heads up on the E-Auction, I'll be getting back to my core project.

Have fun tasting wines.

Happy Birthday

Well this last week our family had a birthday party for Arabella and Omar. It was in celebration of their first birthday. Arabella turned one on April 22nd and Omar turns one on the 29th of April. Here are a few photos of that momentous occasion.

Just a note: The name I chose for my 2009 production of Cabernet was 'Mis Ninos'. It means 'My Children'. I don't think I could have chosen a more meaningful name.

The first is Rick and Omar, the next is Zeke and Arabella and the last is Ana and myself with the two little ones.

New Season of Promise

Like newborn children so comes the new season. Like the vines I've been dormant in my posting, the last being January 13, 2010. Now that the buds are beginning to push out, I find myself rejuvenated and find the need to write once again.

What's happened since our last meeting? Well, at the Little Ranch in St. Helena, a trellis system was put up on the Cab block (about 3 acres). The frost of last year gave the large orange tree at the ranch a rough time of it and the fruit wasn't juicy but very dry. We lost a family member, my uncle Ike and we learned my oldest son Zeke and his better half Kim are expecting another child in June/July. Aribela will be one year old this month on the 22nd. We learned my son Rick and his family are relocating to the east coast (he got a great job). The good news in that is that Omar (Ric's son who'll be one year on 4/29) will be closer to his other grandparents Hilda and Manuel. My son Albert and his better half Kami are doing well and looking into buying a house up in Calistoga. Ana and I are doing well.

Now a little bit about this years preparations for making wine:

1. I will be refurbishing the corking device I used last year. That means I will be sanding it down and painting it.

2. I haven't done much on finding out what it would cost to make the crushing device operable but it is my intent to do so.

3. I'm still looking for another two five gallon containers because I plan to make at least three dozen bottles of wine. I will be making both a Zinfandel and a Cabernet from the second crop. My first year I made a small amount of Zin and last year I made a small amount of Cab. My thought is to make roughly 15 bottles of each so that I can make a blend of both using a fifty fifty approach and getting 10 bottles of the blend in addition to the bottles of Zin and Cab.

4. Remember last year I mentioned that I wanted to cover the cork on the bottle of Mis Ninos with a red wax. Well I tried and it didn't come out very well, so I have last year's production with a great label "Mis Ninos" (My children) but no foil or other cover for the neck and cork.

5. I've rethought the introduction of a commercial yeast. I am going to go with the natural yeast on the fruit. Why? Because I've tasted the fruits of our labor.

This will bring a smile to your face, I sampled a bottle of the Cabernet from last year and I presented my brother Cio with a sample to get his impressions. He thought it had great fruit, good color (deep ruby), and pleasant fruity aromas. He also picked up a little spritzer element. His guess was that it might be that there was some fermentation that took place in the bottle. His next question was if there were any corks pushing out (it's what you would expect from fermentation taking place in the bottle). No corks have pushed out, nevertheless he expects the spritzer element will go away with time in the bottle.

If there is anyone who might know what that spritzer element is, let me know. Until next time we touch basis, be sure and spend time in the bottle.

Steak and Zin

I'm a lover of T-bone steak and I am also a lover of Zinfandel. Over the weekend I had the once again opportunity to have both. Ana and I, along with our dear friends Chico and Sessy, stopped at the Harris Ranch off of I-5. Ana and I had been there many years ago but this was the first time for our friends to try it out.

From my opening line you know what I had. The only thing in addition to the T-bone and Zin was garlic mash potatoes and vegetables. I choose the 2007 Harris Ranch Zinfandel only because I wanted to do a whole Harris Ranch thing. I wasn't disappointed with my choice of wines. It was aromatic with sweet fruity tones, the color was clear and sharp ruby. The taste was equal to the aromatic tones and I picked up light black berry and what I think was black currant. The only disappointment in the wine was the lack of any lengthy after taste. I enjoy more the wines that linger in my mouth. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy this particular wine, I did. I'm only saying that I was disappointed in that the aromas and flavors that I was experiencing wasn't staying long enough.

I hope you all have an opportunity to stop and eat at Harris Ranch and try their Zinfandel. Here's to all of us in this new year. Cheers!

Happy New Year

Well it's been some time since my last posting. Since then, Ana and I have gone to New York and back. The trip was fabuloso!

We stayed with family during our stay and had the opportunity to try some home made moonshine. Yes, you heard me right. It was moonshine from the Dominican Republic or at least the cook was from there. They call it Pitorro. We were able to bring a bit back with us to California and were told to let it stand for a year and that we should put some fruit of our choice in the bottle and hide it from any light for that year period. It was recommended that the fruit we choose be cherries. Someone suggested we mix in some plumbs as well. Someone told us to bury it in the ground but I am reluctant to do that as I will most likely forget were I bury it.

In addition to the Pitorro we tried Rum from Puerto Rico called "Ron del Barrilito" and we tried a liquor from Greece called "Metaxa" both very very good. I was surprised when I was told by a certain Puerto Rican that though Bicardi is from Puerto Rico not many their in New York drink it. They prefer Barrilito.