Pinot Vertical Experience & Sta Rita Hills Vineyard Highlights
Different vintages of the same varietal, even if made from grapes of the same vineyard, can offer a notably different tasting experience. Variations in seasonal climate and the winery’s aging process can yield recognizable differences in the final product.
While most of us are accustomed to comparing the same varietals from different vineyards, a “vertical” tasting compares wines of the same varietal made from grapes produced from the same estate or vineyard from different years.
Handwritten’s Yountville boutique winery offers a unique Vertical Tasting opportunity that invites Members and guests to explore the particular characteristics of four separate Pinot Noir vintages and the beautiful and unique flavor nuances that develop as they aged.
Handwritten’s Vertical Tasting of Four Pinot Noir Vintages
The tasting includes Handwritten’s vertical lineup of 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2018 Pinot Noir vintages from a single vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County. This experience will also include a splash of the winery’s own Relié Cuvée Champagne.
About the Rio Vista Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills
Handwritten Winery sources its Pinot Noir grapes from the highly regarded Rio Vista Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills AVA at the edge of the Santa Ynez Valley. In recent years, winemakers from all over have recognized the similarities of that area’s climate and terroir to the famous French Burgundy Region.
Just ten miles from the Santa Barbara coastline, the topography of the hills surrounding the Rio Vista Vineyard create a corridor to the Pacific Ocean that funnels cooling fog and breezes into the Valley, creating an ideal balance of cool air mixed with warming sunshine.
This unique combination of a warmer microclimate and the cooling effects of the Pacific creates one of the world’s best environments for Pinot Noir, resulting in both delicate and intensely flavorful wines with natural acidity.
Cheese Accompaniments for Handwritten’s Vertical Experience
The vertical flight of these high end red wines will be accompanied by specially selected, high-quality Gouda cheeses made by Oakdale Cheese Company of Oakdale, CA, in the San Joaquin Valley.
Husband-and-wife Walter and Lenneke Dirk started Oakdale Cheese and Specialties after immigrating to the US from the Gouda region of Holland in the late 1970s. Building upon a century-long traditional style of cheese making, the couple bought their first cheese vat in 1983 and remodeled a small milk barn in Escalon, CA, where they began handcrafting Gouda, Quark, and yogurt. The Dirk legacy of award-winning Goudas, Cheddar, and Swiss cheeses has been carried on by their son and head cheesemaker, Jan (aka John), on the family’s cheese-making estate in Oakdale, CA.
The Oakdale cheese selections for the vertical experience will be:
- Fresh Gouda Curd – mildly flavored with a soft and “squeaky” to-the-tooth texture.
- 8 Month Aged Gouda – dynamic nutty flavor with a smooth and velvety texture.
- 12 Month Aged Gouda – complex nutty flavor with a crumbly and crystallized texture
Other Vertical Tasting accompaniments will include:
- Dalamatia Fig Spread
- Roasted & Salted Pistachios
- Bouchon Bakery Baguette
Reserve Your Place for Handwritten’s Vertical Wine Tasting
Due to the unique nature of this Handwritten boutique winery tasting, reservations will be required.
This fun and enlightening vertical wine tasting experience will be complimentary for Member Circle Members or $85 for non-Members. That non-Member fee will be waived for each $150 wine purchase per person.
Visit Handwritten, a Boutique Napa Valley Winery
Whether you prefer a high end red wine or tasty and refreshing whites, Handwritten Wines’ boutique winery welcomes members and new guests to come to Yountville for a unique and educational winetasting.
To reserve your spot for the Pinot Vertical Experience by Handwritten Wines of Yountville, a leading boutique winery, visit the winery website. While there, you may also shop online for more high end red wines in their Wine Shop.