{"id":425,"date":"2012-10-09T22:39:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T02:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/?p=425"},"modified":"2013-02-04T22:55:05","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T02:55:05","slug":"santa-clara-wine-passport-weekend-fall-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/2012\/10\/santa-clara-wine-passport-weekend-fall-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Clara Wine Passport Weekend, Fall 2012."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Fan 4 took part in the Santa Clara Wine Passport Weekend.\u00a0 We got a great deal for a limo from Garlic City limousine and we invited 10 friends to join us.\u00a0 The first Winery we stopped at was Aver Family Winery followed by Martin Ranch, Solis and Sara Vineyards.<\/p>\n

Our first stop was Aver Family.\u00a0It always a pleasure to talk to\u00a0John about hiswines.\u00a0Aver Family\u00a0had a band and they were pouring two of their wines; 2009 Family Album is a petite sirah blend, 2009 Hope is a Rhone style blend.\u00a0 Hope is one of my favorites.\u00a0 It has a fruity bouquet, flavors of black berry on the front, light tannins and a caramel finish.\u00a0 If you like roses, you have to try theirs.<\/p>\n

Our next stop was Martin Ranch.\u00a0 Martin Ranch is only open on the third weekend of \"\"<\/a>every month so, it was a treat to be able to taste some wines from their extensive list.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I favor red wines but I have to admit, their chardonnay got me all excited.\u00a0 It is the perfect 50% from an oak barrel and 50% from a stainless steel barrel.\u00a0 I bought a case of it.\u00a0 I also liked their 2008 Sangiovese\u00a0and J.D Hurley 2008 Zinfandel.\u00a0 If you like Cabernet, they have six.\u00a0 Ranging from their 2005 Estate Cabernet to the J.D Hurley 2008 Cabernet.\u00a0 Martin Ranch wines are reasonably priced and a great value.<\/p>\n

\"Solis<\/a>Then it was onto Solis.\u00a0 Solis also has an extensive list of wines for sale.\u00a0 Vic Vanni\u00a0is one of the owners, along with his brother Michael, and he can usually be found around the winery and he is more than happy to talk to you about his wines.\u00a0 They had a passport weekend special of a bottle of their 2007 Merlot and their 2009 Estate Sangiovese\u00a0for $20.\u00a0 That was a no brainer.\u00a0 I stocked up.\u00a0 If you like white wines, you will love their Fiano. Their Vino Roseo\u00a0di Sangiovese\u00a02011 is one of my favorites. For the passport weekend, they were serving sliders.\u00a0 I paired that with their Sangiovese 2011 and it was delicious.\u00a0 Solis wines are reasonably priced and a good addition to your wine closet.<\/p>\n

Our last stop was Sarah’s Vineyard.\u00a0 I enjoyed their 2010 Pinot Noir Estate.\u00a0 It is a light Pinot that is good for drinking on its own.\u00a0 They also poured their 2008 Cote de Madrone.\u00a0 Being a Rhone blend fan, I enjoyed the blend of Grenache, Syrah\u00a0and Mourvedre with a hint of tobacco on the finish.<\/p>\n

If you have never visited any of the wineries in Santa Clara County, may I suggest you start with these four.\u00a0 There are a dozen other wineries that we will be talking about later, to give you an idea of what to expect.\u00a0 Such as, Thomas Kruse.\u00a0 The only winery I ever visited that paid ME to wine taste.\u00a0 Thomas Kruse is a legend in the Valley and he enjoys everyone that visits his winery.\u00a0 Fortino’s.\u00a0 Just a fun fun atmosphere\u00a0 and enjoyable wines.\u00a0 Bertha is awesome.<\/p>\n

After your visit, send me an email and tell me what you thought.\u00a0 Parting shout out to Ed, our driver from Garlic City Limousine.\u00a0 Thank you Ed for hauling us around and lugging all of our wine purchases.<\/p>\n

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The Fan 4 took part in the Santa Clara Wine Passport Weekend.\u00a0 We got a great deal for a limo from Garlic City limousine and we invited 10 friends to join us.\u00a0 The first Winery we stopped at was Aver … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13,23,26],"tags":[78,77,79,81,80],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-braxs-blogs","category-santa-clara","category-santa-clarawineries-festival","tag-aver-family-winery","tag-garlic-city-limo","tag-martin-ranch-winery","tag-sarahs-vineyard","tag-solis-winery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}