Columbia Home & Lifestyle - January/February 2009 - (Page 15) 2007 Marsanne, $21 Marsanne is a white grape grown in the Northern Rhone and is normally paired with roussanne. This wine was nutty and smelled like peaches and honey. It was very elegant with good acidity. What blew me away was how well this white wine ages. Lindquist said if you lay it down for 15 years, it will just get better. 2005 Roussanne, $43 Limited cases are available of this rich and mellow beauty. It smelled like honey custard and orange peel. It coated my mouth but was still fresh. Pair it with scallops in a rich butter sauce. While we were tasting, Vernon made the crowd warm up the glass so we could get the brighter fruit nose. Both the whites are barrel aged in French oak for months before bottling. 2006 Central Coast Syrah, $20 Syrah is easy to grow on the Central Coast. A few years back, many people jumped on the syrah planting bandwagon and created a glut. Now the market for syrah is very good. “Syrah delivers what merlot promised,” Lindquist told the crowd. This wine is bright and very approachable. Food and Wine awarded the wine its “best syrah under $20” award, and Wine and Spirits declared it a “best buy.” 2006 Grenache Purismo Mountain, $35 Grenache is a southern Rhone grape that needs more heat to ripen than syrah but has been doing well on the Central Coast. This wine smells and tastes spicy and of dark cherries. Vernon said: “Don’t judge Grenache by it’s color,” meaning this wine is big and full bodied, even though it’s color would suggest otherwise. Syrah Bien Nacido, $35 Bien Nacido Valley is the ideal place to plant grapes and produces some of the best Rhone varietals in the world. The soil is rocky and hilly, which makes a perfect environment for grape growing. This syrah was earthy and slightly vegetal with aromas of cherries. Nicely balanced. Bien Nacido Hillside Select 2005, $45 Lindquist deemed 2005 one of the best vintages, and this wine is a perfect example. The best grapes go into the Hillside Select wines, and the wine goes into the most expensive French barrel. Lindquist pays almost $1,500 for these barrels and will use no substitute. This wine was rich and toasty and had terrific forward fruit. LEFT: Dave Fender, Pinnacle Imports, Alan McClure and Bob Lindquist RIGHT: Alan McClure, owner of Patric Chocolates Click on this Top Ten Wines www.toptenwines.net Patric Chocolates www.patric-chocolate.com Qupé www.qupe.com At the completion of the Qupé wines, Alan McClure, of Patric Chocolates, stepped up to wow the crowd. McClure is a Columbia native who lived in Paris and started Patric Chocolates in 2007. McClure describes himself as similar to a winemaker in that he harvests, ferments and ages his cacao beans to make his delicious dark chocolates. We tasted bits of his Madagascar bar, made only with aromatic singleestate cacao and pure cane sugar. Vernon poured some port from his own collection for all of us to pair it with. The chocolate was fruity and amazing; it was heaven. columbia home & lifestyle 15 http://www.toptenwines.net http://www.patric-chocolate.com http://www.qupe.com
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