Duck Duck Duck Zin!

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Sonadora

I recently found a butcher near our house and I am SO excited. I really missed having someone to order meat from and to cut what I want exactly like I want it to be cut.  So I stopped by the butcher and picked up a couple fresh duck breasts. YUM! Matt played chef for the evening and made seared duck breast with a Zinfandel fig reduction sauce. We chose the 2004 Foppiano Zinfandel to both make the sauce and drink with out dinner.  I purchased this at the winery in 2008 for $15, it had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 14.5% alcohol by volume.

This sat out on the table open for about 4 hours and it still seemed really hot right off the bat. It took a while for the alcohol to integrate into the wine.  After a while, I went back to the wine and found brown sugar, blackberries, pepper, herbs, spice, grape hard candy, and vanilla cream on the nose.  In the mouth I thought the wine was grapey.  I also got berries, spice, pepper, vanilla, cedar, and chocolate.  Overall, the wine was smooth and is probably at its prime.

Filed under: California, Foppiano, Red, Sonoma, Wine, Zinfandel | 2 Comments »

Visting Foppiano

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Sonadora

For some reason I didn’t take my camera out to take pictures of our visit to Foppiano. We stopped in on our spring Sonoma trip before our appointment at Acorn Winery. I’m a little ambitious and we arrived quite early for the appointment, so we had some time to kill. Foppiano is just down the street from Acorn, and I recognized the name as a great Petite Sirah producer.

From what I remember, the tasting room is fairly small, longish and thin. The walls are covered with images from the history of the winery and awards and ribbons decorate the tasting room.

2004 Merlot: $15, Blueberry, fruity, peppers, a bit spicy on the back palate.

Lot 96 Bin 002 NV: $12. Blend of Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sangiovese. Leather, dark fruit, earthy, tannic. We took home one bottle.

2006 Pinot Noir: $28. Cherries, raspberries, cola.

2004 Zinfandel: $15. Blackberry, licorice, pepper, spice. One bottle came home with us.

2004 Cabernet Sauvignon: $17.50. Holy pepper! Red berries, tannic.

2004 Petite Sirah: $25. Blueberries, dark fruit, slight vanilla, tannic.

2001 Petite Sirah Reserve: $48. Blueberry, cream, great nose vanilla, drinking really well. We took one home and I brought it to the Petite Sirah tasting we went to recently, where it wa sa huge hit. I wish I had several more to cellar for the next 5 years or so!

Filed under: California, Foppiano, Vineyards | 1 Comment »