Limited time discount – 07 Grenache

Discounted 30% and free shipping for one week only.

$22.99 or $19.75 for volume purchases of 6 or more. Order here

Accolades

• 88-91 points Wine Spectator “Well-structured, with a dark fruit medley of ripe, zesty red cherry, currant, boysenberry and blackberry. Ends with a smooth, tapered finish and fine-grained tannins.”

Located in eastern Santa Barbara County in the Cuyama Valley, Alta Mesa Vineyard sits perched above Barnwood Vineyards at 3200 feet in elevation. Planted in 2000 to 8 X 5 spacing (1089 vines per acre), this vineyard is home to 9.5 acres of Grenache (Tablas clone A on 1103P & 101-14 rootstock). The soils consist of decomposed granite and clay loam with large rocks of schist, quartzite, basalt, and gneiss. There is a massive swing of daily temperatures that is very beneficial to the growing of these grapes, most often a 40 – 50 difference between day and night. Daytime high temperatures are lowered by the arrival of cooling breezes from the north at approximately 2:00 in the afternoon.

Our tasting Notes:
Ridiculously good wine! Very dark and extracted color in the glass. Red berry fruit nose. Tastes of cherry, vanilla, raspberry – just like trying fruit samples at the farmers market. Incredibly long finish with a little bit of tannins. Give this a few more months and then dig in.

Click here to find out more about this wine

2006 Syrah, Tierra Alta Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley

Discounted 30% and free shipping for one week only.

This flagship wine comes from side-by-side blocks planted on the very top ridge of Tierra Alta where the afternoon winds gets stronger and the limestone-infused soil gets thinner. The fruit was handpicked just before dawn, then carefully sorted before it was laid down nice and cold in 1.5 ton open top fermenters. 80% of the fruit was de-stemmed, and 20% was left whole cluster. This entire picking, sorting, and destemming effort is finished by around 8:30 am.  The Syrah has two different clones of Syrah ENTAV Clone 877 (80%) and UC Davis Clone 1 (20%) and just a touch of Viognier (2%) to add elegance and lift to the finished wine.

Our tasting Notes:
Clear dark ruby red color. This wine has medium viscosity with clear tear drops. It has great focus with blackberries and a smokey bacon nose. The tastes are similar along with some pepper that was not picked up before. Well structured, the wine has a velvety feel in the mouth. Nice medium-long finish.

Click here to find out more about this wine

Tasting Notes – Mexican Wine

Ok, just returned from a short trip to Puerta Vallarta. Stayed at a RIU hotel which offered Santa Isabella Reserve wines from Aguas Callientes, Mexico. The wine region is in the middle of Mexico, not too far north of Mexico City. The wines have a long way to go! Here are my notes on the two Reserve wines:
Vino Tinto: 11% – Color – clear red, no variation and no legs. Hot nose, no fruit a bit of herb and burnt rubber. Almost no flavor other than smoke and a very quck finish.
Vino Blanco: 11% – Straw yellow clear color. Nose has some fruits, mainly citrus. A mineral, tart taste with some grapefruit flavors. Again a bit of burnt rubber on the finish.

Wine Tasting Techniques

If you know the characteristics of a wine varietal, you can blind taste a wine and give a pretty good estimate of the type of wine, age and region it came from. We’ve created a powerpoint that gives you a methodology to build these skills. We hope you enjoy and let us know if you have any success stories after following this process.

Here is the link to the powerpoint

Sale – Kosher Wine from Napa Valley

Hagafen Cellars 2006 Prix Reserve Pinot Noir

Now $37 only on Indie Winemakers.com

Only 275 cases produced

This block-designate release from California Soleil Vineyard’s thirty-plus year old vines are reserved for Hagafen Cellar’s top-of-the-line “Prix” label. Indie Winemakers has a limited allocation of this 100% Pinot Noir wine available this week only.

Our website contains all technical data, tasting reviews and a suggested recipe to pair with this Pinot Noir.

Napa Wine Sale Alert

Don Ernesto Napa Valley Rose

Now $10.50 only on Indie Winemakers.com

Sold Out Everywhere Else

A great rose is light and refreshing, food-friendly and interesting to drink without requiring a lot of thought to appreciate. We want to quaff, not ponder…. Indie Winemakers has a limited allocation of this 100% Pinot Noir Rose wine available this week only.

Our website contains all technical data, tasting reviews and a suggested recipe to pair with this Rose.

Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir

Pacific Ridge Vineyards 2005 Pinot Noir

Retail $45 Now $31 only on Indie Winemakers.com

Only 241 Cases Produced!

The Santa Maria Valley is one of the crown jewels of California viticulture – producing some of the best cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This Pinot Noir was sourced from 4 vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley AVA. Whole cluster fermentation was used with only a portion of the fruit, a fermentation of intact clusters as picked from the vine with no intervention of machines – all stems and berries are intact. This technique contributed to achieving a wine of greater complexity.  Indie Winemakers has a limited allocation of this wine available this week only.

Our website contains all technical data, tasting reviews and a suggested recipe to pair with this Pinot Noir.

30% off Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay – 94 Points!

Pacific Ridge Vineyards 2005 Chardonnay

Retail $30 Now $21 only on Indie Winemakers.com

Only 171 Cases Produced!

 

The Santa Maria Valley is one of the crown jewels of California viticulture – producing some of the best cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This Chardonnay was sourced from 2 vineyards that are arguably the most famous vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley AVA. Indie Winemakers has a limited allocation of this wine available this week only.

Our website contains all technical data, tasting reviews and a suggested recipe to pair with this Chardonnay.

 

Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir SALE

Tamayo Family 2006 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir
35% off retail, now only $21 plus shipping fees on Indie Winemakers  website only.

Accolades

• 92 Gold 2008 World Wine Championships
• Gold Best of Appellation - Appellation America
• 90 POINTS Wine Enthusiast
• Bronze ‘09 San Francisco Chroncle Wine Competition
• 88 points April 2008 Connoisseurs Guide

About this wine
This heavily awarded Pinot Noir is a blend from the famed hillside vineyards of Sleepy Hollow Vineyard and Santa Lucia Highlands fruit. Seductively smooth and rich with luscious fruit, this new world Pinot begs to be enjoyed with alfresco dining and true friends.

 
Food and wine
The 06 Pinot Noir is well-suited to pair with poultry, beef, fish, ham, lamb and pork. It will enhance creamy sauces and spicy seasonings. We suggest you pair this wine with Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Pinot Fig Sauce. See our Recipe Tab for preparation instructions.

Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon – $19 available this week or until we sell out

Tamayo Family 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
35% off plus shipping fees. $19 this week on Indie Winemakers website only.

Accolades
Double Gold Best of Appellation – Appellation America
Silver ‘08 San Francisco Chroncle Wine Competition
88 points April 2008 Connoisseurs Guide

About this wine
Classically crafted, this Cabernet displays a unique personality and complexity coupled with power and refinement of previous vintages. A truly wonderful expression of earth, vine and art of the winemaker combined!

Deep, persistent aromas with dark fruit and subtle French oak aromatics. This wine is all power and finesse on the palate. Full and round with concentrated red fruit essences that linger long through the dry finish. This is a wine that will benefit from cellaring however remains approachable now with airing or decanting.

Food and wine
Pair with Rack Of Lamb Dinner With Herb Crust And No Fuss. See our Recipe Tab for preparation instructions.