The world of wines to me is still fascinating after all of these years and I am still a student of the grape.  I basically have wine where ever I go any more.  When I am at a restaurant, a hall or in a tasting room you can find me smiling to try something new.  I sometimes drive my Bride crazy, because I always want to try a new wine, instead of going with something we already know and enjoy, and sometimes that can backfire, but most of the time it is a positive experience.  In tasting rooms, it can be more solemn or it can be quite fun, and I tend to go for the latter.  I tried a couple more wines at Fine Wine Source in Livonia and they make it very easy and fun to try some wines.

I tried a glass of Hyatt Vineyards Floating Rock Rattlesnake Hills Syrah 2014.  Floating Rock is another label from Hyatt Vineyards in Washington State and they were established in 1983.  Rattlesnake Hills AVA is a sub-region of the Yakima Valley which is part of the much larger Columbia Valley in Washington State.  This wine spent eighteen months in American Oak with American Oak inserts, so I will presume that that the barrels may be neutral and with the additional inserts, it is a way to get some oak infused into the wine, as this is the first time I had seen this mentioned in notes.  The Floating Rock group produces about ten-thousand cases of wine for Hyatt Vineyards.  The wine had a distinctive nose of a Syrah to me, with the deep color that I expect from this grape and the wine had a nice finish that I found attractive and a great incentive for a popular priced wine.

The next wine was slightly more expensive, but still reasonable considering that it was a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.  The Frank Family Vineyards has three collections that they maintain; Reserve, Napa Valley and Bubbles.  I think the three designations are rather self-explanatory.  Frank Family Vineyards is owned by a former executive of the Walt Disney Corporation and this is not a “Mickey Mouse” company, and they started producing wines in 1983 and they are housed in the historic Larkmead Winery, one of the early pioneers of Napa Valley.  The Frank Family Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 was the wine that I tried.  It is predominately Cabernet Sauvignon with eight percent Merlot, four percent Petit Verdot, and three percent Cabernet Franc.  This wine was produced from fruit harvested in three Rutherford vineyards and a couple of Napa Valley vineyards as well.  The wine was aged for twenty months in French Oak with a third being new.  It had that tempting nose of a Cab, with a deep color and a nice long finish, which was very impressive for an affordable Napa Cab. I considered that I was good have two for two enjoyable wines that would not break the budget, even in a restaurant setting.