Eli Parker & Lori

Good News!

I passed the Level One Test!  But I really feel like I still know nothing….

My Dear Hubby actually took me to 3 places one day so I could do research….Yes I really did research!

We went to Cork , Calais Winery & Fuqua Winery.

At Cork I sampled Greek wines. Moschofilero is the main grape I tried. It reminded me of Sauvignon Blanc but without the tart bite that some Sauvignon Blancs have. You can  taste wines from all over the world there. It’s also where I met winemaker Eli Parker, the son of Fess Parker who has a great winery in California.

At Fuqua, I met Lee Fuqua who makes his own wine and just got a double gold from a San Francisco competition for his Tempranillo; a very full body slightly dry red. He also let me sample a Chardonnay that he was working on..it is very promising.

At Calais, I met Benjamin Calais who is originally from France and makes his own wine too. I asked him for a tasting and that I was studying wine and he said, “Then you will do a blind tasting.” I had no choice!

He set up 6 bottles. Luckily, I have had some of his wines before, so I got those correct….but the last one really stumped me…he kept saying “look at the color! It’s more purple than the others!” finally I just gave up after naming every red grape I could think of except….Shiraz! I felt like an idiot….oh well, however, he did say that it was a blend of Shiraz & Cabernet Sauvignon and it came straight out of the vat. It needed more time to ferment, but it was very good!  I got 5 out of 6.

I now only have 6 more weeks & I hope I get through Level 2!