From Mount Palomar Winery

Mount Palomar Winery, located in the Temecula Valley wine appellation, is a fine wine estate dedicated to making wines of distinctive taste and high quality. Located among rolling hills and mesa lands at 1400 feet elevation, Mount Palomar is a working wine estate with 40 acres of producing vineyards overlooked by the Palomar Mountain range.

Mount Palomar makes a range of fine wines with special emphasis on classic, Bordeaux style blends and Italian varieties. Mount Palomar also has a twenty five-year history of producing excellent Port and Solera Cream Sherry. The winery uses two main brands: Mount Palomar and Castelletto. The Castelletto name ("little castle" in Italian), used by Mount Palomar for our Italian style wines, comes from the family of our founder's wife, Olivia de Reya Poole. The name "Castelletto" is a title awarded in Italy to Antonio and Sebastiano de Reya in 1735. The Castle and Star image on the label is found on the original Castelletto crest.

Recognitions our wine has earned include four Best of Show awards at major wine competitions and numerous Best of Class and Gold Medal distinctions. A Mount Palomar wine has been named "Best Wine of the Southern California Region" by the California State Fair five separate times, most recently in 2005. Mount Palomar has also been recognized for sustainable environmental practices in viticulture.

The winery itself is stocked with a number of fermentation tanks and bins of varying size, allowing a variety of techniques to be used, even on a single wine. These unique lots of wine bring interesting flavor complexity into the final blend, or may be kept separate for reserve bottling. This also allows us to make several wines each year that are available only to our Family Wine Club Members.

The heart of a fine winery is its barrel aging cellars. To support this, we have an extensive barrel program, with new French, Hungarian, and American barrels added every year. A number of our best wines are aged in new and one-year barrels, while other varieties benefit from aging in more neutral, three to five-year barrels.

Mount Palomar Winery
33820 Rancho California Road
Temecula, CA 92592
(951) 676-5047
http://www.mountpalomar.com/mtpalomar/index.jsp

From Domaine Carneros By Taittinger

The main Château and terrace are open 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. daily (except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day).

One of the few wineries where you can relax at a table and enjoy the view. Table service is provided. Wines may be tasted in flights, by the glass or by the bottle. Caviar and artisan cheese plates matched to our wines are also available.

Club members enjoy a private room and terrace.

The Domaine Carneros château is a landmark of the Carneros region. Completed in 1989, the classic 18th century château-style building was architecturally inspired by the historic Château de la Marquetterie owned by principal founder, Champagne Taittinger. The Pinot Noir Facility sits just behind the main chateau and was styled after a French carriage house. Built in 2003, this state-of-the-art facility houses one of the largest photovoltaic systems on any winery in the world.

Public tours are conducted daily, at 11:00am, 1:00pm and 3:00pm. Tours last approximately 50 minutes. Reservations may be made in advance (space is limited). There is a $25 per person charge.

Tours include a brief DVD presentation and a walking tour of our sparkling wine production process and a guided tasting along the way of our three sparkling wines and one of our pinot noirs. In addition to English, the DVD is available in Spanish, French, German and Japanese.

For parties of 10 or more, we offer private group tours, by appointment only.

Tours are scheduled between 10:00am and 3:30pm.

Domaine Carneros By Taittinger
1240 Duhig Rd.
Napa, CA 94559
(800) 716-2788
http://www.domaine.com

From Domaine Carneros By Taittinger

Eileen Crane heads Domaine Carneros winemaking team, along with co-winemaker Elaine St. Clair. They and their team are committed to creating handcrafted ultra-premium sparkling wine and pinot noir.

Winemaking emphasizes gentle handling and attention to detail. Creation of the sparkling wine cuvées from the array of available clones is a time consuming and exacting art, learned from decades of experience. Pinot noir, known to Winemakers as the "heartbreak grape", is equally demanding of time and attention.

“Making great wine is a passion,” says head winemaker Eileen Crane. “There is no formula. You have to be attuned to the rhythm of the grapes, the pulse of the wine.”

Under Eileen’s leadership, we make our wines with care, paying careful attention to the delicate nature of the chardonnay and pinot noir grapes we grow on our estate. Grapes are always hand picked and gently pressed. Production in our state-of-the-art facilities is limited, ensuring the highest level of craftsmanship possible.

Domaine Carneros farms organic vineyards in four separate Carneros sites. Clones were selected for subtle differences of flavor and intensity. Like an artist working from a multi-colored palette, the winemaker blends the wines from the different clones, each contributing to the complexity depth of the final cuvée.

Domaine Carneros By Taittinger
1240 Duhig Rd.
Napa, CA 94559
(800) 716-2788
http://www.domaine.com

From Amador Foothill Winery

Located in the picturesque foothills east of Sacramento with a spectacular view of the Sierras, Amador Foothill Winery produces classic vineyard-designated Zinfandel and is among the pioneers making Sangiovese in California. Owner-winemakers Katie Quinn and Ben Zeitman also produce Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Aglianico, Syrah, and an exciting new Rhone-style blend called Katie's Cote at this 5,000 case facility.

Since 1980, Amador Foothill Winery has produced wines with great balance, finesse, and value. How? By learning to read what is going on in each specific vineyard as the fruit matures.

There is no substitution for walking the vineyards, observing the conditions and, most importantly, tasting the ripening grapes to determine when they are literally bursting with flavor�Esays Ben Zeitman.

Katie Quinn's job as winemaker is to transform what nature provides: "I want to make wines with an Amador sense of place, unique wines that reflect their origin the red granitic soils of our Shenandoah Valley Appellation."

Katie's winemaking vision is that wines should be varietally true, tasting of their grape origins with a discrete use of oak for texture and complexity. The vivid fruit flavors of her white wines are balanced by crisp acidity, while the reds have concentrated fruit flavors backed with refined tannins.

Amador Foothill Winery
12500 Steiner Road
Plymouth, CA 95669
(800) 778-9463
http://www.amadorfoothill.com

From Blackjack Ranch Vineyards and Winery

It is my goal to produce wines at Blackjack Ranch that will be both pleasurable and memorable. The Ranch is planted with Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay. Rootstocks were selected primarily for low yields. The topography ranges from level to treacherously steep rolling hillsides with blocks such as Billy Goat Hill, Suicide Hill, and Hamburger's Hill (named after a Black Angus with which that hill is shared). Blackjack Ranch began production in 1997 with the 1997 Harmonie and the 1997 Chardonnay Reserve. Both of our first two releases were awarded 90 point scores from Robert Parker in The Wine Advocate. We are not aware of any other winery that has ever debuted with a red and a white both scoring 90 or better.

Recently the World’s most respected wine critic, Robert Parker, Jr. awarded Blackjack Ranch a Five-Star rating for the production of Bordeaux varietals, specifically Billy Goat Hill Merlot and for Harmonie. We are one of only two wineries outside Napa/Sonoma to achieve his highest ranking. In issue #148 of The Wine Advocate, Robert Parker included the following pronouncement: “Blackjack Ranch is one of the best-run wineries in Santa Barbara. Proprietor Roger Wisted clearly looks to France for his inspiration. His wines possess all the flavor of California yet more elegance and complexity than is typical for many of this state’s wines. Wisted fashions the finest Bordeaux- Blends of the region.” He awarded us the area’s highest scores for Syrah and for Chardonnay. In issue #149, Parker quipped, “Proprietor Roger Wisted is a connoisseur of French wine, and there is no doubting those wines influence what he is trying to achieve from his hillside vineyard just outside of Los Olivos. His chardonnays are some of the finest from the region!”

Blackjack Ranch Winery
2205 Alamo Pintado Road
Solvang, CA 93463
(805) 686-9922
http://www.blackjackranch.com

Submitted by:
Stuart Hill
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