One of the unique things, is that our son and his family have moved back from Las Vegas and my Bride is trying to get them into the social whirl.  I enjoy it immensely, because I don’t have to factor in time differences, plus wondering what his work schedule is like, as right now, he is fixing up his new home while he gets a new profession lined up,  We will just have to get him to appreciate wine, as we always try to make arrangements for dinners here or out.  My Bride enjoys it when her social calendar is full.  And she always enjoys being a social director.

We had another dinner with the family, before they get too settled in their new environment and new routines.  We are also trying to introduce them to some different foods as they are not that adventurous, without getting carried away, I mean they do come by it naturally, just look at who they have for a grandfather,  Appetizers before dinner is a great way for them to check out cheeses, dips, and pate dishes without a lot of fanfare.  It is also a sly way to let them try some potentially unique wines that they won’t automatically encounter.  We started out with Cline Family Cellars “Seven Ranchlands” Viognier North Coast 2021, which I have found to have a long life and can be perfect with spicier dishes.    Cline Family Cellars is a producer based in Carneros and known for Zinfandel and Rhone varieties and established in 1982 in Oakley.  Fred Cline is one of the original Rhone Rangers of California.  The “Seven Ranchlands” is a way of honoring both the seven children of the Cline family, and the seven vineyard ranches.  The fruit for this wine is from the Catapult Ranch Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap, and the balance is from the Diamond Pile Vineyard at the base of the Wild Cat Mountain.  The grapes are handpicked at night, where they are destemmed and pressed, and allowed to settle for forty-eight hours before racking.  The Catapult portion was inoculated with wild yeast, while the Diamond Pile portion was allowed to ferment naturally in barrels.  After fermentation, the wine was aged in neutral French Oak for six months before blending and bottling.  This was a very soft colored white wine with notes of mango, guava, and pineapple. On the palate tones of dried apricots, pears, and banana in a full-bodied wine with nice acidity and a nice finish.

We then went and had dinner with a choice of tenderloin, salmon and chicken, because of the food preferences of our grandchildren; sometimes it is like having a restaurant, but that is fine, as I can remember times sitting at the dining room table all alone, until I finished eating a dish that I couldn’t stand and to this day, I still won’t even allow it in my house.  I also tried another wine that is off the beaten track, even for plenty of wine drinkers.  We enjoyed a bottle of Familia Fernandez Condado de Haza (Crianza) Ribera del Duero 1997 by Alejandro Fernandez. He began with Tinto Pesquera which was founded in 1972, and the first harvest was 1975.  Ribera del Duero received DO Status in 1982 from the prominence of estates like Vega Sicile and the work of individuals like Alejandro Fernandez and his Tinto Pesquera.  Condado de Haza was the second estate, and the first vineyards were planted in 1987 and there is now two-hundred hectares planted of Tempranillo on heterogenous soils with a high content of clay and the presence of sand.  He also built and dug into the hillside a bottle cellar that is almost thirty meters underground.  The aging requirements for Ribera del Duero is the same as Rioja, and that is how I was able to ascertain that this bottle was a Crianza, though it was not labeled as such, but it was aged for fifteen month in (American) oak, minimum aging is twelve months.  The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered to enhance the full flavor of the wine.  Twenty-seven years later the wine still had a deep black cherry color with no signs of foxing and offered notes of black fruits, licorice, coffee beans and vanilla.  On the palate there were tones of the black fruit, some oak and vanilla, blended with now muted silk tannins and ending with a medium to long finish of fruit and terroir.