Sunday, June 13, 2010

Titus Vineyards Silverado Trail Visit Napa Valley




Prior to our visit to Napa Valley I knew little if anything about Titus wines. Talking with my friend Matt in Florida mmWine about my visit he put me in touch with Christophe cork_dork one of 2 employees and director of marketing (along with many other duties), and the taste was set up. Talking with both my wine store friends here in Iowa both said Titus wine is awesome and its a great opportunity to be introduced to their wines.


Titus happened to be my 4 visit of the day. Still feeling the effects of the travel from Iowa to California (lets not blame anything on all the wine I had tasted so far today) I was excited to see we would be sitting outside tasting wine under a nice shade tree looking out over the vineyard. Friends of Christophe's were there as well tasting and at times the jabs were flying leading to a very relaxed tasting (you could even call it comic relief).


We started with a Sav Blanc (my purchase) and worked out way through Merlot, Cab Franc, Zin, Cabernet and finished with a Petite Syrah.  We had a few bonus pours in the mix due to some wine club members visiting earlier and as as Christophe put it "They didn't drink it all so you get too". Loved the complexity of the fruit flavor in all the wines and the finish on each begged you to drink more. The Cabernet Sauvignon with its blackberry, cherry, raspberry flavors perfectly balanced to the Cabernet Franc with its blueberry and oak combination really finished my day 1 tasting nicely. I loved his explanation on the Petite Syrah pour "Now time for purple teeth". I even asked for a second pour as we headed out to look at the vineyard.


Really cool to walk out into the vineyard and see the buds starting to dry up and soon replaced by fruit. The weather had been very rainy and the hope now is for the rest of the summer to be hot and dry. I admired how clean the vineyards were with the area in between rows plowed and free of weeds. I also found it interesting how fast picking crews can get the fruit off the vines and ready for wine making.



Glad we had the opportunity to taste Titus wines with Christophe (an excellent host) and introduced to their history. I asked the fewest questions on this visit of any and focused more on how the wines tasted. I'm usually not that quiet but it had been a long day tasting. Thank you very much Christophe for the time you took and making us feel welcome. Absolutely fell in love with each wine and as I said earlier to you I'll be keeping more Titus wine on hand to drink. I do hope you get a chance to come to Iowa either for a tweet up at one of our local wine shops to introduce others to Titus wines or to visit and drink the wine produced here from Iowa wineries. Either way we will hook up and I'll share a bottle or two with you.


Cheers
Dan

1 comment:

cellarmistress said...

I think I want to visit them. Those photos are great and I bet the wine is lovely! Thanks for such a nice post!