Kuleto Estate

After lunch at Go Fish we made the winding trek to Kuleto Estate Vineyard for a 2:30 tour and tasting. The driveway alone was a worthy adventure. Gaining about a thousand feet in elevation over two miles it cost about a million dollars per mile to install. When you get to the top of the mountain it is breathtaking. The tour was a walk around the grounds with a peek at the main residence and the guest house both with extraordinary stone work and views. The wine tasting was a sit down affair where we tasted a variety of wines which were paired with three different cheeses. I found the India Ink Cabernet to be big and bold without being over the top. Carol and I decided to join their club called King Fish (eat like a king drink like a fish) and plan to attend some of their parties and picnic on their amazing grounds.

Spring Mountain Vineyard

Carol and I went to Spring Mountain Vineyard for our anniversary. We had tried their wines at a 49er Foundation event in Tahoe and decided to make a reservation. They only give a limited number of tours each day and much of Spring Mountain's charm is that it's well off the beaten path. After the tour we tasted all their new releases. I was not too impressed with the whites or the Pinot Noir. The Cab blends though were really great. I especially like the Elivette which was much more subtle and subdued than many Napa Cabernets. We were having so much fun that our guide decided to let us try "something special". He poured us a taste while covering the year. Carol said to me "wouldn't it be cool if that was an '87". We tasted and it was truly unreal. He turned the bottle around and it was in fact the '87. That was, if you haven't figured it out, the year we were married. We bought a vertical of the Elivette and a bottle of the '87 to take to the Rutheford Grill.