July 16, 2020, You Have A Chance To Taste Luxury Cabernet Sauvignon Grown In Obsidian?

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On July 16, 2020 via the Neat Kitchen and Bar in Westmont, Illinois you will have an opportunity to enjoy some of the extraordinary wines from Obisidian Wine Co. The founders claim to ownership of a Napa Valley vineyard you can literally sail to and a Cabernet site located "at the farthest reaches of the Mayacamas range. There you will find Obsidian Ridge, at 2,950 feet above sea level, with slopes of between 5 and 20 degrees." (ObsidianRidge.com)

Join host Peter Molnar, founding partner of Obsidian Wine Co. for a virtual wine tasting and conversation. Peter will share with you how his family started their first vineyard in the Napa Valley in 1973, resuscitated a cooperage in Tokaj, Hungary in the early 1990s, and how he and his two partners founded Obsidian Wine Co. a decade later. This is an exclusive and intimate conversation that you won’t want to miss! Register Here for access to attend this exclusive event and purchase these extraordinary served with the outstanding charcuterie from the Neat Kitchen and Bar in Westmont, Illinois.
 

“People talk about Cabernet in California being monolithic; I don’t think these wines are,” says Peter Molnar, co-founder of the lauded Obsidian Ridge Vineyard. Whereas Napa generically divides itself between the brighter, more polished wines from the valley floor versus the rugged, muscular Cabernets cultivated on the hillsides, Lake County grows almost exclusively mountain fruit. “The lake itself is already at 1,300 feet above sea level,” says Debra Sommerfield, president of the Lake County Winegrape Commission. “The whole region is a high-elevation region.” With its mountainous southern border, Lake County barricades the fog that blankets so much California’s North Coast. The result is a higher intensity of UV light that can soften Cabernet’s green flavors.

As a whole, Lake County Cabernet can appear lighter on its feet, exuberantly displaying a juicy red fruit purity structured by a cooling backbone of acidity. Lake County is home to myriad geologically distinct soils, but the Red Hills appellation has garnered the most attention for its potential to yield world-class Cabernet Sauvignon. The region ascends from Clear Lake’s southwestern banks, with Mount Konocti standing as its northern boundary. The Red Hills derives its name from the striking reddish-amber hued volcanic soils, speckled in some parts by sharp wedges of black obsidian glass, all vestiges of Konocti’s last eruption 13,000 years ago. “They’re unique for Cabernet soils that we’ve seen anywhere. We start at 2,000 feet, and that changes everything from barometric pressures to quality of light,” explains all-star vineyard owner Andy Beckstoffer. Beckstoffer is arguably California’s most successful grape grower, his branded vineyards often commanding as much clout on a label as his high-end clients’. An owner of some of Napa’s most coveted heritage vineyard properties, including a portion of Oakville’s historic To Kalon Vineyard, Beckstoffer is placing his bets that the Red Hills will be California’s next great Cabernet territory. In 1996, Andy purchased his Amber Knolls Vineyard in the Red Hills. He explains, “In those days, we could have purchased land in Pope Valley or Napa County for basically the same price we were paying in the Red Hills. We decided to go for the quality we saw in the Red Hills and give up the name of Napa Valley, which is very valuable.” (Wiatrak 2016 SFchronicle.com)

Source: Go-Wine.com July 8, 2020