It’s Mourvedre!

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Sonadora

Now here’s a grape I don’t see a lot of as a stand alone wine.  I see a lot of it blended in small amounts into other wines, but rarely do I get one labeled as Mourvedre. I love it though, and tend to squeal with excitement when I see it on a winery’s tasting list! And if I see it and they aren’t pouring, I try hard to make friends with the host so he or she might give me a little taste. I almost always buy some when I see it, so it’s worth it to give me just a little taste….!  Tonight I chose the 2005 Navarro Mourvedre. I bought this at the winery on our 2008 CA trip, but it wasn’t on the tasting menu so I didn’t get the price written down.  It clocked in at 13.6% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure.  I want to say I paid $26 for it, but don’t quote me on that!

On the nose I found smoke, juicy fruit (the gum), mulberry, blackberry, blueberry, pepper, and cedar. Despite all that, I would still describe the nose on the wine as reserved; it took quite some time for the aromas to emerge, and the wine was served at cellar temperature.  In the mouth I got blueberry, mulberry, pomegrante, cranberry, sandalwood, anise, and tart red fruit.  This wine has great acidity and structure, I’d love to try it with a roast beef or a tri-tip!

Filed under: California, Mourvedre, Navarro Vineyards, Red, Wine | 4 Comments »

Getting Springy With It

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Sonadora

The weather seems to have turned a corner here! We’ve had 70 degrees or better the last couple of days and I’m breaking out the white wines I’ve been craving. I must stock the cellar though, as white wines are in short supply around here.  Perhaps we’ll hunt for some nice whites on our Spring CA trip.  we leave in 36 days!  Tonight I chose the 2006 Navarro Gewurztraminer to sip while Matt went out with some friends.  We picked this wine up at Navarro last spring, it had a real cork closure, clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, and cost $19.

I found the nose to be incredibly floral.  I also got aromas of white pepper, lychee, orange blossoms, white flowers, and honeysuckle.  In the mouth I found flavors of lemon, mandarins, lychee, almonds, minerals, and oranges.  I really enjoyed this wine and found it to be crisp and refreshing with excellent acidity.  I drank it with some grilled haddock and it went perfectly.

Filed under: California, Gewurztraminer, Navarro Vineyards, White, Wine | 2 Comments »

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pinot Gris

Posted on September 30, 2008 by Sonadora

I plucked a bottle of the 2006 Navarro Pinot Gris out of the basement for the evening. We drank this on its own after dinner, as is our modus operandi these days given the nature of our schedules, no time to chill a white wine before we eat, so we end up drinking it mostly after dinner or at the very tail end of our meal. I picked this bottle up when we visited Navarro this spring, it cost me $18, clocked in at 13.4% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.


The first thing I noticed about the wine happened to be the very pale straw color. I really liked the way this wine looked in the glass. On the nose I found aromas of melon, lemon (ooooh, anagrams), lime, honeydew, orange blossom, and citrus. I wanted to jump in and swim in the glass based on the aroma alone. In the mouth I got flavors of grapefruit, lemon, citrus, green apple, and wet stone.

Overall, I thought the wine had a great mineral characteristic. In the mouth, I found it to be tart, dry, and refreshing, with good acidity. I’d serve this with a light white fish in place of my normal choice of Sauvignon Blanc.

PS-How are you finding my attempt at two pictures of each bottle? I’ve been trying it out for a couple of weeks now.

Filed under: California, Navarro Vineyards, Pinot Gris, White | 3 Comments »

Can You Pronounce This?

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Sonadora


The wine for the evening happened to have a very strange name, the 2006 Navarro Edelzwicker. We picked this bottle up at the winery on our March Sonoma trip, it cost $12, had a real cork closure and clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume. Navarro bills the wine as “Mendocino Table Wine,” and it’s a blend of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Gris.

In the glass, the wine displayed a pale yellow color, which unfortunately, you can’t see from my photo. Even though I got a new camera, I’m still working on the settings and actually taking good photos. Perhaps I should just give up and accept the fact that as a photographer, I suck.

On the nose I found perfume, spice, flowers, some underlying citrus, and 7-Up. Really, I said to Matt, “This wine smells like grapes.” No, I don’t mean to suggest it smells like the folks over at Smells Like Grape, though it could, I’ll let you know after the Wine Blogger Conference as I’m sharing a room with Taster B. In the mouth I got flavors of lemon, lime, (so really, if I knew what 7-Up tasted like, this might be it in wine form), flowers, honey, and a touch of spice. The flavors and body of the wine were quite light, though it did have just a hint of a creamy texture. Overall, an excellent bargain for the price.

Filed under: California, Gewurztraminer, Navarro Vineyards, Pinot Gris, Riesling, White | 3 Comments »

Our First Stop in Sonoma

Posted on June 4, 2008 by Sonadora


As you may know by now, we took our annual spring time pilgrimage to Sonoma this March and spent out first day tasting in the Anderson Valley. The main purpose of heading up that way was to stop at Roederer Estates, a vineyard we visited 2 years ago on our first trip to Sonoma. However, we had some time to kill before they opened (I’m a little eager when it comes to visiting wineries, and since I was doing the driving, I had us up and ready to taste well before most places opened) so we popped into Navarro Vineyards. I had previously heard of Navarro from many other bloggers but had never tasted any of their wines myself.

Kind of needless to say, but we were the first people to sidle up to the tasting bar that morning, so we had the full attention of the tasting room attendants. Navarro has an enormous selection of wines, Matt and I each tasted 8. Even though I was spitting and intended to all day, I didn’t want to taste through the whole line-up that early in the morning. I remember another occasion where the first tasting of the day consisted of around 24 wines, and even though I was spitting, it sorta killed me early on in the day. We had a full day planned and I wasn’t getting waylaid by my first stop this time!

Navarro’s tasting room is of modest size, though it had a gorgeous porch overlooking the vineyards. I’m sure on a busy day it gets crowded inside, though they did have a second, smaller tasting bar right off to the right when you first walked in.

2006 Pinot Gris: $18. Citrus, dry, orange, crisp, tart, very refreshing. We took home one.

2006 Sauvignon Blanc: $17. Light floral, melon, tart, acidic.

2006 Gewurztraminer: $19. Spicy, floral, orange blossoms, dry, mineral. One came home with us.

2006 Edelzwicker: $12. Blend of Gewurzt and Riesling. Spice, dry, but sweet than the Gewurzt alone, a cinnamon essence. One made it into our purchase.

2005 Pinot Noir: $28. Vanilla, cherry, tar.

$2005 Zinfandel Old Vines Cuvee: $29. New release at the time. Berries, dark, juicy, peppery. One came home with us.

$2005 Mouvedre: Not listed on the menu, so no price. Reserved, very good, not overwhelming. Understated fruit. I liked this one a lot, one made it into our box.

2005 Syrah: Dark currants, cherry, pepper.

2004 Petite Sirah: $27. Blueberries, pepper, spices, berries, nice fruit. We bought one bottle.

And finally, we also took home a bottle of the 2006 Riesling Cluster Select Late Harvest. I didn’t actually taste this one, Matt did. He’s the dessert wine guy in our house, but I took his word for it and one of the little bottles came home with us at a cost of $29.

All in all, a nice first stop, though you can see that I was eager and itching to buy some wine….6 bottles on the first stop of the day!! That pace didn’t slow too much the whole time, and I think we amassed just shy of 7 new cases of wine (if you count the futures case that we’ll get in the fall….).

Filed under: California, Navarro Vineyards | 5 Comments »