Hudson Napa Valley - Winery History and Tasting

Speaker 0 00:00:01 Hello, enthusiasts and welcome to another episode of wine and the bottle where we pick a wine from the cellar and discuss the people. Places, factors in history that led to the creation of that particular wine in that particular bottle. I'm your host, Sarah, uh, w set level three certified wine education, enthusiastic. And today we're talking about Hudson ranch from Napa Valley's Carneros region in 1979, a man named Lee Hudson purchased 2000 acres in the Napa valley for only a few hundred dollars per acre. Speaker 0 00:00:39 The land span south to highway 12 and north past the mountains to Henry road. And at that point it was nothing but the vast wilderness, Mr. Hudson was a rancher by trade specializing in pigs, sheep, and greens, but he knew that vines would overtake the valley eventually. So he planted 200 acres, one 10th of his property to vines and true to his wild heart. He kept it there until 2004. He exclusively sold his grapes to other vintners, but after 20 plus years of developing a reputation for quality, he decided to try out vinification for himself. Well, not completely by himself. He did hire a wine making team. Now you won't find peanut Novar at Hudson ranch, even though it's in the heart of Carneros, which is most well-known for it's Pinot noir and neither of the wines that we are tasting today Arpino instead of the typical grape varieties, a mishmash of French varietals grow side-by-side unusual neighbors that only thrive together in the Napa valley. Flagship Chardonnay shares soil with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet, Franc Syrah, Grenache, and <inaudible> proving that Carneros and Hudson aren't one trick ponies. Speaker 0 00:02:04 Okay, let's move on to the Ciroc. Now, 2016 was the last ideal year in Napa, before hot temperatures and wildfires began dominating the summertime. So the fruit in this wine is right with perfectly balanced acidity and fruit character. This wine is expressive and fruit forward with a savory characteristic that is more kitchen cabinet than sanguine. I tend to not to like Sarah, because it has a bloody under cooked peppery character like Turkey, blood mixed with bitter cranberry, like Thanksgiving gone very wrong, but I like this, Sarah, this one is different. The first thing I smell is strawberries, red currant and pomegranate followed by a hint of metallic, meaty twinge and cigar box. The tannins are just present enough to provide texture and structure, and it tastes like well cooked meat with strawberry compote and a hint of cocoa black pepper and oregano. I love this, Sarah and it's so wildly complex that you get something new out of every sip, not like the lean black pepper forward Turkey bloods. Speaker 0 00:03:21 Sourav days past today, we will be tasting a 2019 Chardonnay and a 2016 Seraph both estate grown. So let's talk about the Chardonnay. First 2019 was a great year for Chardonnay in Napa. The first part of the growing season was warm and the summer was hot, but temperatures tapered off towards the fall allowing for the grapes to maintain high acidity. During the long growing season, this wine is a blend of Chardonnay grapes from five vineyards across the Hudson estate blending in this way allows the wine maker to make a house style that showcases desirable elements from different vineyards, grown in different micro-climates and soils. Maybe one vineyard has more of an expression of minerality while the other exhibits rich stone fruit flavor, blending them together creates a house style. This particular wine has a subtle toasty apple pie baked pear with lemon zest topping aroma. Speaker 0 00:04:27 It is full bodied and it coats your mouth with creamy richness, balanced out by prickly bright acidity. It has a long finish of nuttiness and clove. And when I first tried this wine, I said, this would be great with blue cheese. And in fact it is hashtag perfect pairing, hashtag wine and cheese now. So how do these two lines indicate a house style? Well, they are both complex and subtle. The grapes here are their true stars of the show. If you couldn't tell by the tasting notes, Oak is used in production of both of these wines, but the Oak usage is not overpowering and enhances the desirable characteristics of the grape varietals. There is a reason why Hudson wines command a premium price, but I think it's worth it. Thank you so much for joining me for this glass and see you next week for the next deep dive into the seller. I've been Sarah and this was wine and the bottle cheers.