I was pleasantly surprised to see that the October issue of Food and Wine is featuring two of my favorite wineries in Napa . Pride Mountain Vineyard, which is known for its "highly extracted, dense and chewy wines" is located at the top of Spring Mountain. My favorite wine from Pride, surprisingly, is not their Cabernet Sauvignon but the Carbernet Franc. Also their Merlot, which is amazingly complex, is what my hubby and I fondly classify as a "Cabernet pretending to be a Merlot". Incidentally their winemaker, Bob Foley, just won F&W "Winemaker of the Year".The second winery is the Joseph Phelps Vineyard . Now this is a winery you should visit, not only for the wine but for the spectacular view of Spring Valley as you sit there tasting wine outdoors. Their signature blend, the Bordeux-esque Insignia, is quite pricey but if there is one fruit bomb, then this is it! It’s hard to describe the deep jammy, oaky, even dark chocolatey flavors of this wine but it is definitely worth it for special occassions. Their other wine that we like is Le Mistral, a blend of Rhone varietals.
*Note: I did not purposely put the vintages of the wines because they have been consistently good. The F&W article specifically mentioned Pride’s 2005 Cabernet Franc and 2005 Syrah and Joseph Phelp’s 2003 Insignia and 2005 Le Mistral.
Isn't that a beautiful view? You really make the flavors sound so enticing!