As I mentioned in the Le Vieux Pin report, our concierge, Alex, takes fantastic care of us. This was no exception, as he set up a private tasting with Wade at their sister winery, La Stella.
Their winemaker, Severine, is really quite remarkable. She makes a bunch of terrific wines in a very French-style….then goes down the road and makes a bunch of terrific wines in an Italian-style. That’s not easy, folks. She has a great team around her, for sure.
Wade had arranged for us to have a tasting up in a private room in a tower; a room where no other humans would have been all day, ensuring our total safety. Just one issue: it’s not air conditioned, and it was freaking hot that day….so we decided it was better to sit on their large patio to have our tasting. There were no other groups scheduled for a while, so we’d have the entire patio to ourselves for most of our time there anyway.
To the wine!
Those are some excellent wines, and man, if you have the cellar and the patience, a couple of them are going to be SPEC. TAC. U. LAR.
And if wine tasting isn’t enough for you, they have more. If you ask really nicely, I bet they would let you taste their other products.
We have bought the “intensive” Olive Oil many times, and this trip was no exception. We also liked the other one, and bought that too. And that was the best White Balsamic vinegar I have ever had, so I guess we might as well purchase it all!
Safety rating: 10
Nothing to worry about here. We had the patio mostly to ourselves. When other guests arrived, they were seated about 20 feet away. Wade poured our wines at the other end of their large picnic tables and never got close to us. Couldn’t have felt safer.
This was the end of our first full day of tasting, so back to the room to make dinner and relax. We thought about going to the pool but since it was full of children, we decided to hang out on the patio and enjoy our evening.
Next up: An early morning date with another one we try to never miss: Rust Wine Co.!
Confessions of a Huge Wine-R 