Everyone has heard of Californian wines, but how many wine aficionados know of the connection between Californian wines and Mickey Mouse? To be honest, the connection is between Silverado Vineyards and Diane Disney, Walt’s only daughter who established Silverado.
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The deVine Wine club members know of Silverado, having been made aware of the connection by Zoltan Zakor, the guest speaker from Vanichwathana for the latest wine dinner at the Royal Cliff.
During the course of the evening, Zoltan (yes, he’s Hungarian) gave us a history lesson as well informing the members and friends that the first vines in California were planted by the missionaries in the 1700’s for religious purposes (if I had known that, I would have joined the happy followers).
We began the evening with a very well palatable Sauvignon Blanc 2018 from the Glenbrook wineries, now in their fifth family generation. This wine was too good to serve as wine from the altar.
Moving to the Royal Grill Room and Wine Cellar we began with a Grayson Cellars Chardonnay Napa Valley 2017, served with an amazing tropical curried chicken cocktail with grapes, raisins, pineapple and toasted pecan nuts. A sensational start to the dinner. Congratulations Executive Chef Peter Held!
The next Californian we sampled (read ‘drank’) was a rose from the Cline Family Cellars Mourvedre Rose 2018 served with a salmon raviolo which was hiding underneath a Mediterranean vegetable broth. Slightly spicy and ‘more-ish’.
Another Napa Valley was next, from Grayson Cellars again, this time a Pinot Noir 2018 and very enjoyable served with an aromatic veal stew on baked polenta with parmesan.
The next course was a roasted lamb rack with prunes and Hasselback potatoes eaten with Ms Disney’s Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2013. This was the best red I have tried all year (read ‘drunk’). So good that we opened the display bottle when the dinner allocation was finished.
The after dinner wine was a Zinfandel from Heitz Cellars, one of the first Californian wineries to use French oak and to export its wines.
From there it was to the chocolate course with a Cointreau chocolate cake and chocolate pralines, making it a thousand calorie dessert.
Any idea that the Americans have got it wrong was dispelled by the supremely knowledgeable Zoltan Zakor, with his cherry-picked selection judged by everyone as excellent. And the Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon plucked from the vineyard in 2013 my ultimate favorite.
You can access the deVine Wine Club through [email protected]
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