UNCORKED WINE TRAVELS

Musings Along The Wine Trails

Etude Winery Artfully Handcrafts World Class Pinot Noir With Old World Elegance

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On a recent jaunt to Napa Valley, I stumbled upon Etude Winery on the very outskirts of the Napa city limits.  Tucked off a sleepy two lane country road, I thought I’d stop in and check out the old Remy Martin Brandy Distillery site which is now home to Etude Winery.  Out with the Cognac and in with the Pinot Noir.

For a better appreciation of the wines, it’s key to understand the terroir.  Carneros AVA is shared by Sonoma County and Napa County and is revered for its cool growing climate, replete with fog and maritime breezes off the Pacific Ocean and San Pablo Bay. The combination of  low daytime temperatures, an array of volcanic, coarse sand and gravel soils and the influence of the Petaluma Wind Gap,  make for ideal growing conditions for both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  Etude‘s flagship Grace Benoit Ranch is planted to seven clones of Pinot Noir, nine+ clones of Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and two clones of Merlot and Malbec.

Nothing prepared me for what I was about the discover inside the old distillery.

Not only was Etude‘s tasting room a show-stopping masterpiece, but the wine tasting experience was one of the best I’ve encountered in a long time, thanks to Greg Sweval, Hospitality Sales Manager and the amicable and knowledgeable Wine Club Ambassador, Angel Aguirre-Benites. [Read more…]

NEW BOOK RELEASE: A Perfect Score ~ The Art, Soul and Business of a 21st Century Winery

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unknown-3A Perfect Score ~ The Art, Soul and Business of a 21st Century Winery is an interesting read for wine aficionados everywhere.  Written and narrated by Craig and Kathryn Hall of Napa Valley’s Hall Wines, the book takes readers on an arduous journey from the vine to the glass.

Kathryn was rooted in the family wine business in Mendocino County long before meeting Craig in 1991.  Circumstances drew Kathryn away from her beloved vineyards and into a political career in Dallas, Texas where she met Craig by happenstance.

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While Kathryn had winemaking in her ancestral blood, Craig had the business acumen to financially launch their dream of making world-class Cabernet Sauvignon in the then-sleepy Napa Valley.

Together they forged ahead and purchased a neglected vineyard with a fixer-upper house and began custom crushing wine.  The rest, per se, was history.  And what a great history it was!

The Perfect Score narratives between Craig and Kathryn painted the colorful, yet often heart-wrenching tale of building a wine business from the vineyard to the bottle.  Intimate details of the toil in the fields, marketing snafus and disappointing crop failures resonated throughout the book, yet the will to succeed was tantamount. Emotions ran raw as the losses mounted  Yet, the Halls prevailed. [Read more…]