September's Great Selections!
UP-AND-COMING CUISINE
The Ultimate Meatball
Sonoma, Calif.: Cornerstone Gardens
Blackbird Vineyards
http://www.blackbirdvineyards.com
1330 Oak Knoll Avenue
Napa, CA 94558
(707) 252-4444
Since 1999, the Blackbird Vineyard (a former a walnut orchard first planted with 5,717 Merlot vines in 1997), quietly provided fruit to many of Napa’s finest winemakers, for whom it yielded astonishing comments from Napa Valley veterans and noteworthy editorialists. Purchased by Michael Polenske in 2003, Blackbird Vineyards is now an ultra premium label in its own right. Fittingly, the word ‘Merlot’ is French patois for ‘little blackbird‘.
Scarecrow Wine
http://www.scarecrowwine.com
P. O. Box 144
Rutherford, CA 94573
(707) 944-9445
The Scarecrow story begins in a patch of earth with a fabled past. The J.J. Cohn Estate, where Scarecrow grapes are born, borders what was once the legendary vineyard of Inglenook winemaker Gustave Niebaum, whose plantings blanketed more than 1,000 acres of the Napa Valley at the close of the 19th century.
One of the true blue chip vineyards and wines of Napa Valley, winemaker Celia Masyczek fashions approximately 400 cases of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from a legendary Rutherford vineyard with 60- year-old vines. Aged in 100% new oak, this cuvee reveals a very singular character. If California vineyards were ever classified a la French sites, this Rutherford terroir would be judged a grand cru.
