Tag Archive for ‘WINOS Pick of the Week’ at Laptop Television Mom

Tag Archive for 'WINOS Pick of the Week'

WINOS Pick of the Week: Silver Oak 2005

2005 Silver Oak Napa Valley

It’s time for another Winos Pick of the Week, and this time I am glorifying a 2005 Silver Oak Cab. Simply put, I don’t think my words can do this wine justice.

If you are not familiar with Silver Oak Cellars, let me share a bit about their history. The winery was founded in 1972 with the mission to perfect the Cabernet Sauvignon. Well, I think they are darn close to perfection. The bottle claims “finesse and elegance,” and they are on their way.

Out of respect for the winemaker, I will refer to his/her tasting notes and agree that the wine had a wonderful garnet color with hints of dark cherry, cinnamon, cloves, lavender and licorice. While my palate might not be refined enough to note each flavor this wine has to offer, my palate tells me this wine is fantastic. In layperson’s terms: I loved the deep color and the rich, deep flavor.

My husband and I enjoyed this wine with our traditional Sunday night fare: grilled filet mignon and roasted veggies. We previewed the wine with some Gruyere and Dubliner cheeses. I believe this wine can stand alone without food, but it certainly made my cheese and steak sing.

As much as I love this wine, the marketer in me adores the Silver Oak tagline: Life is a Cabernet.

To find out more about winery tours, tastings, wine parings and more, visit SilverOak.com

– LTV Mom

Photo Credit: Silver Oak Web site

Published

Stacy Libby

on July 14, 2010

in Laptop Television and WINOS Pick of the Week

. 0 Comments

WINOS Pick of the Week: Ruston Cuvee Simone

Ruston Cuvee Simone

Do you know my favorite way to spend a Saturday night? Home-cooking, wonderful friends and really good wine. This is how my family spent last Saturday night, and it was awesome. Three families joined us for dinner, each bringing a dish to share and a bottle of wine to enjoy. (It’s worth noting that each family also brought a daughter who quickly donned dress-up clothes and looked super-cute!) Anyway, the stand-out wine of the night was new for most of us: 2006 Ruston Cuvee Simone. And it was delicious.

About the Wine: Our friends recently visited the Ruston Family Vineyards in Napa Valley and generously shared this bottle with us. This truly is a special wine that was top-pick by everyone at the dinner party. The blend is 26 percent petit verdot, 26 percent syrah, 24 percent cabernet sauvignon and 24 percent merlot. The bottle’s label touts the wine as dry, and I will add that it’s elegant and memorable. The deep-red wine was flavorful and very smooth. It was the first bottle we opened, even before dinner, and it held it’s own without food. After tasting the wine, I wish we had saved it to pair with grilled filet mignon; so I guess we’ll just have to buy another bottle!

About the Winery: The Ruston Family Vineyards are located just west of St. Helena in the Napa Valley. It’s a family-owned operation; in fact, the family has been farming the land since 1941. They currently grow cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, and petit verdot grape vines. The wines are sold in limited distribution, and can be found in A-list restaurants including French Laundry, Craft, Spago, Gramercy Tavern, and Jean-Georges. Visit and Web site or contact the owner (john@rustonvines.com) for more information.

Previous WINOS Pick of the Week selections can be found HERE.

– LTV Mom

Photo Credit: Bottlenotes.com

Published

Stacy Libby

on May 9, 2010

in WINOS Pick of the Week

. 3 Comments

WINOS Pick of the Week: Elodian Cabernet Sauvignon

Elodian Cabernet Sauvignon

We love the “BevMo! Five Cent Sale” at our house. If you live hear a BevMo! (which is magical liquor store that is really called Beverages and More), you probably know about the regular sales where you buy one bottle of wine and you get an identical bottle for (you guessed it) a mere five cents. It’s a great opportunity to try new wines, even get out of your viticultural comfort zone. My hubby hit the sale this weekend and discovered a gold-mine: Elodian 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon by the Eddy Family Wines.

About the Wine: This is a special wine, and I think we paid $30 for the bottle (and five-cents for the second bottle… score!) It is a complex cab that tasted like wonderful berries with a hint of an oak flavor. After one sip, I told my husband “go back to the store and buy a case!” The wine is smooth and flavorful and easy to drink. We enjoyed the wine with our favorite accompaniment: filet mignon and roasted asparagus. I am going to try a cheese pairing with my next bottle, er I mean glass. Read the winemaker’s tasting notes HERE.

In case you are wondering, an elodian is a sea turtle found in the Galapagos Islands, where owner Kerry Eddy’s family lived years ago. The family brought elodians with them when they moved to San Francisco, and sold them with the ship’s cargo (and they “went like hotcakes!”)

About the Eddy Family: The winery is a family-owned and operated winery located in Calistoga, California. They produce less than 1,500 cases annually. And I can’t wait to discover more of their wonderful wines.

Photo credit:Eddy Family Wines

Published

Stacy Libby

on March 2, 2010

in Laptop Television and WINOS Pick of the Week

. 0 Comments

WINOS pick of the week: 2007 Nemesis

2007 Nemesis

My husband and I recently invited our friends over for a wonderful evening of home-cooked food, a beautifully set table, dozens of lit candles, great conversation and amazing wine. One friend took this opportunity to introduce us to a wine we’d never heard of, but certainly a wine we will enjoy again.

When our friend handed us the bottle of 2007 Nemesis, we couldn’t take our eyes off the bottle. The beautiful blue label is striking against the dark glass, and we immediately realized it’s a wine we had never seen before. It turns out the wine is from Paso Robles, Calif. and is bottled by Linne Calodo Cellars. It’s 82 percent Syrah, 12 percent mourvedre and 6 percent grenache. And (you know this is coming) it’s 100 percent delicious.

Quite honestly, this wine was a pleasant surprise, especially since I rarely choose a bottle of Syrah. It’s hard for me to describe the flavors in this complex wine, but I can tell you it tasted awesome with brie and red meat. I found flavors of deep, rich berries and a smooth, almost sweet flavor. I read one review that said the wine almost tastes like blueberry cheesecake, and in a weird way, I can see that. Regardless, this wine has a unique flavor that is immediately drinkable and just delicious.

Suddenly obsessed with the wine, I checked-out the winemakers, Linne Calodo Cellars. I was so happy to discover the winery is family-owned and a sustainable business, which is “environmentally sound, economically feasible and socially equitable.”

The 2007 Nemesis can be purchased online at Paso Wines or by contacting the winery HERE to check availability.

Photo Credit: PasoWines.com