We love visiting Eagle Ridge. Without a doubt, Jim and Cheryl know how to put together a fun afternoon in their tasting room. Great wine, nice food pairings and interesting arts and crafts to peruse while sipping on some amazing wine. So they thought outside the box. Now we can enjoy the Eagle Ridge wines we love, PLUS we can sample wine from one of the valley’s newest labels: Dante Robere Vineyards. Great idea!
Dante Robere will be pouring from their very own tasting room in the future, right across from Sycamore Grove. Until then, they are sharing the bar at Eagle Ridge. Their three premier wines fit in nicely with the Eagle Ridge tasting menu, so there’s just more of a good thing.
Owners and winemakers Dan Rosenberg and Bob Bossi were pouring, a real treat. It gave us a chance to learn a bit about their wine and their approach to winemaking. We started with the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc. This is a very light and subtle wine, with a buttery start and a very brief and crisp finish. A nice start to their flight of wines.
 |
| Amazing food pairings! |
Next, we sampled their 2012 Syrah Rosé. Yes, a rosé. The juice was left on the skins for less than a half hour, but it put a nice blush on the resulting wine. The Dante Robere tasting notes mention notes of rhubarb, and to our surprise, we tasted it too! A nice back patio wine to sip on as the heat of the day transitions to our wonderful cool evenings. A crisp, surprising sweet/tart dance on the palate.
Our third and final Dante Robere wine was our favorite: a 2010 San Francisco Bay Zinfandel. This is a real winner! Nicely balanced and not too peppery.
The first three wines out of the Dante Robere barrels makes us very excited to see (and taste) more. While we look forward to visiting their own tasting room someday, until then it is a nice bonus to be able to taste their wines while we also enjoy the Eagle Ridge wines. Is “two-fer” really a word?
About the Author: John grills a mean steak and is always in the market for another wine fridge. Believes that if a winery has more than 10 employees, it's probably too big. Buys wine faster than he drinks it, but who cares?
