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Wine Recommendation
Ceja Vineyards
2005 Vino de Casa White(Napa Valley)
If this is the wine of the house, I want to be in that casa, the house of the wonderful Ceja family. That’s because (aside from their graciousness and hospitality) this wine is gorgeous.
Floral, honeysuckle smells waft from the glass (from the aromatics of the Marsanne and Viognier, no doubt), while on the tongue the wine is rich and opulent with a good bottom note of acidity (which made it especially delicious with just-off-the-boat Dungeness crabs from outside San Francisco’s Golden Gate). The fruit is sweet and bright (a perfect foil for a sauce of crab tomale, butter, garlic and parsley). The wine is still young and will age a few years. Better still is the price. I like, as Borat would say.
The blend saw no new oak. It fermented in stainless steel and second-fill French barrels and then sur lie aged for four months, also in 2-year-old wood. No malolactic fermentation was introduced, the listed alcohol is a very low (especially for the Napa Valley) 12.8 percent; and there were 1,400 cases produced.
Reviewed February 15, 2007 by Alan Goldfarb.
Other reviewed wines from Ceja Vineyards
The Wine
Winery: Ceja Vineyards |
The Reviewer
Alan Goldfarb
Alan Goldfarb has been writing about and reviewing wine for 17 years. His reviews have been published in the St. Helena Star, San Jose Mercury, San Francisco Examiner, Decanter, and Wine Enthusiast, among others. Not once has he used a point system, star system, or an iconic symbol to quantify a wine. What counts in Mr. Goldfarb’s criteria when judging a wine is: how it tastes in the glass; is it well-constructed; its food compatibility; and presence of redeeming regional attributes. |