Angelica

-  production of this wine is based on a wine made at the early California missions in the 1800's from the Mission grape variety. We don't grow Mission here, but I liked the concept and decided to experiment with Gewurztraminer to see what would happen - the results are exceptionally flavorful. This is an easy wine to make: Pick Gewurz at 23.5 + sugar, crush the grapes and leave them overnight on the skins, press them, add yeast, when 1-2% of sugar has fermented out, add brandy and stop the fermentation. Put the wine in stainless barrels outside, allow it to chill during the winter- so it settles clear.- and after 8-10 months, bottle it.  It will bottle age and continue to gain richness and complexity for many years.

The wine has 18% sugar and 18% alcohol- so as you can imagine, its quite flavorful with strong apricot/lychee/butterscotch nose and a heavy body. It's probably not something you want to pour a big glass of, but a wine to use much like a liqueur. We like to dribble a tablespoon or so onto a slice of pound cake (use the low fat kind and you can have two) put on some raspberries and a little whip cream and voila!- instant dessert- sip a small glass of  the wine with it.

Collage
    Is our Muscat dessert wine- made much like ports, i.e. by harvesting extra ripe grapes and stopping the fermentation with brandy addition. Collage is a barrel aged blend of three muscat varieties, early muscat, muscat canelli, and orange muscat. It's much like the aged Moscato of the Iberian Penninsula and has that wonderful complex peachy muscat aroma with overtones of nuts and a residual sugar of  about 10%.  This wine is wonderful just sipping- a small glass well chilled, maybe with some fruit. Or try pouring some over pound cake and topping with raspberries and whip cream. Also great as a marinade for melons- you can throw away the melons and drink the juice.  I like to use it to sauté and caramelize vegetables- even the most committed carnivore will rave.
 
 
 
 

   This is a classic fino style sherry. The wine is mostly Riesling that was inoculated with Flor Sherry Yeast several years back. Flor Yeast forms a film over the wine during or after fermentation. The Yeast protects the wine from being acetified-turning to vinegar- and at the same time, slowly oxidizes the wine giving it that characteristic nutty flavor while preserving a fair amount of the grape aroma. The upshot of all this is a chillable, delicate aperitif style wine that is perfect pre-dinner or late afternoon with cashews, smoky cheeses or pate'.
 
 
 
 
 

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