Friday, June 10, 2011

Goldeneye Winery in the Alexander Valley

"WINE:  Helping ugly people have sex since 3000 B.C."  -Unknown-

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a BIG fan of Duckhorn and Paraduxx Wineries.  Me and my usual drinking buddies (all family members on this trip) have wanted to visit the third winery in this group of Duckhorn wineries for some time.  As you may recall, Duckhorn focuses on premium Bordeaux varietals while Paraduxx specializes in blended wines with special attention to Zinfandel.  Goldeneye produces premium Pinot Noirs.

Our friend Angela at Paraduxx introduced us to Jennifer who the next day would be in attendance at Goldeneye.  So, early the next morning, off we headed for Goldeneye in the Alexander Valley of Mendocino County.  The drive was about 1-1/2 hours from our Sonoma hotel and it was a beautiful drive through tree lined curving roads and fields of wild flowers in abundance.  The roads snaked back and forth through the hills.  It would have been a great ride in a sports car like my cool and pretentious Honda Z2000 but this day we were in bother-in-law Glenn's more prosaic Camry Toyota.  The good news, of course, is that his Camry holds not only more people, but more cases of wine (and even his trunk size was tested).

Upon arrival at Goldeneye, we're greeted by Jennifer who turns us over to Hospitality hostess, Emily Hillman.  Emily was terrific, warm, friendly, engaging, and knew her wines.

I will start by saying that all the wines we tasted were of the highest quality.  The following wines were tasted and made our knees buckle.  I almost had to call 911.

1)  Anderson Valley 2010 Vin Gris of Pinot Noir.  A delightful Rose'.
2)  Anderson Valley 2007 Pinot Noir.  100% Pinot Noir blended from 10 different vineyards.
3)  Anderson Valley 2007 Pinot Noir, single vineyard, 100% Pinot from Confluence Vineyard.
4)  Anderson Valley 2007 Pinot Noir, single vineyard, 100% Pinot from The Narrows Vineyard.
5)  Anderson Valley 2007 Pinot Noir, single vineyard, 100% Pinot Noir Gowan Creek Vineyard.
6)  Anderson Valley 2005 Pinot Noir, 100% Pinot Noir blended from 12 Vineyards.
7)  Anderson Valley 2010 Gewurztraminer.  This was a surprise!  Just off-dry.  Really good.

We also tasted two wines from their Migrations series, a 2008 Pinot Noir and a 2009 Chardonnay, both Anderson Valley wines.

All of their Pinot Noirs are aged in 100% French Oak for 16 months.

I've purposely kept this short and pithy otherwise I could have rambled for many paragraphs.  Let me summarize by saying that the Goldeneye wines are as spectacular for their specialty (Pinot Noir) as the Duckhorn and Paraduxx Wineries.

All three wineries produce Premium wines that while not inexpensive, are nevertheless, worth every penny.  So get thee to Napa and the Anderson Valley for some really fine wine tasting at the three Duckhorn Wineries.


Tom da Wine Guy

1 Comments:

At June 24, 2011 at 8:42 AM , Blogger Bo said...

Thanks for the positive comments, though Goldeneye is located in the Anderson Valley, not the Alexander...

 

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