The official cellar angels blog

By Judd Wallenbrock
President & General Manager
Jessup Cellars
 
The story of Jessup Cellars is an inspiring one. Three families, the Blues, Thompsons & Eisimingers, all health professionals, bought the winery when it was on life support and barely alive.
 
Then they did what they do in their professional lives – they revived it; healed it; brought it back to life and made it healthy.
 

Simply, these families exist to enrich people’s lives. They do it in their vocation by making people healthy. At Jessup, their avocation, they do it with great wine, beautiful art, and a great bedside manner – that is – the friendliest tasting room in the world!
 
So what is their secret?
 
Truth be told, it isn’t rocket science. It’s good old-fashioned hospitality at its finest. Make great wines from great vineyards, hire the nicest people in the world to represent the wines, show the wines in an atmosphere of beautiful art, and create a tasting experience that makes people feel invited, comfortable, and special. Folks become ‘raving fans’ almost immediately, tell their friends, who tell their friends, and so it goes.
 

The team shares the story behind Jessup Cellars.
 
So if you get a chance to visit us in Yountville, CA, in the heart of the Napa Valley, we are located ‘Jess-up’ the road from the world famous The French Laundry in ‘No-Yo’ – north Yountville. You’ll be greeted with a smile, a glass, and healthy dose of happiness.
 
And if you can’t visit us now, may I prescribe our 2009 Jessup Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon? The 2009 vintage is just what the doctor ordered –the wine is deep, rich and loaded with ripe black cherries in the nose. In the mouth you’ll pick up a bit of chocolate cherries with a hint of campfire smoke thrown in for a soothing, comforting, and delightfully satisfying wine journey. And just as the art that decorates our tasting gallery, blending colors and textures to make something beautiful and complex, this wine is an artistic blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc & Petite Verdot. Great for the palate…and the palette!
 

 
Jessup Cellars – Life Enriching Wines! Visit us at www.jessupcellars.com or visit us in Yountville. Those are the only two places you will find us as we are not available in retail stores or restaurants!
 
Visit www.cellarangels.com to enjoy exclusive member access to the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, learn about perfect food and wine pairings, watch the”behind-the-scenes” video and select your favorite charity to support with proceeds.
 

By Guest Blogger Ignacio Delgadillo of Delgadillo Cellars in Napa Valley.
 
Tasting wine is always a fun activity. Whether it’s having a bottle with friends outside on a nice summer day, or having dinner with that special someone, the wine will always share something new. It’s these nuances that give wine its personality and its ability to communicate with us. But what does a wine have to say?
 
It is our belief that great wine is grown and not made. Winemaking is simply the translation of the soil and weather as they affected the grapes. The subtle changes in either are what make a wine unique even if all other aspects of the wine are equal.
 
Vertical and horizontal tastings allow us to taste the earth or weather in a unique way. Taking wines of the same vintage, varietal, and proximate region makes up a horizontal tasting. The goal is to taste how the soil affected the wine given a specific year and its weather. Taking a single wine of the same varietal and vineyard makes a vertical tasting.
 
With Delgadillo Cellars wines, we offer a true vertical between vintages. The vineyard, winemaking method and farming are all the same year after year. The subtle differences between vintages can only be described as tasting the weather.
 
It is recommended that you start a vertical with 3 wines, but there is no hard rule on the matter. The important thing is to have fun drinking great wine in the company of others. We hope you enjoy the 2004 alongside the 2003.
 

 
From our family to yours – enjoy!
Ignacio Delgadillo
 
Visit www.cellarangels.com to enjoy exclusive member pricing on Delgadillo Cellars’ 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, learn about perfect food and wine pairings, watch the”behind-the-scenes” video and select your favorite charity to support with proceeds.
 

 
Artistic expression can come in many different forms. From composing music to the creation of a beautiful painting, the artist is always at the heart of any great piece. To put this in winemaking terms, the purest form of expression a winemaker can take on is that of a Meritage blend. Often greater than the sum of its collective parts, Meritage wines are a symphony of flavors, bringing the best of the Bordeaux varietals together. Meritage, (pronounced Meh-rih-TIJ, rhyming with Heritage) is a blend of different noble Bordeaux grapes. One of the great joys of a Meritage wine is that it can be a blend of red wines or white wines providing a winemaker with an almost blank canvas from which to work.
 
In order to truly understand the intricacies of Meritage blends, it’s helpful to have a bit of context regarding these wines. A red Meritage is a blend of two or more of the red “noble” Bordeaux varieties – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and the rarer St. Macaire, Gros Verdot and Carmenère. If the blend includes any other grape variety, it is not, by definition, a Meritage. Also, to qualify as a Meritage, no single grape variety can make up more than 90% of the blend. In the case of our 2009 Meritage, it is a blend of five Bordeaux varietals – 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot and 3% Malbec.
 
The history of the term Meritage is quite fascinating. It was first coined by the Meritage Alliance in 1988, and comes from a combination of the words “merit” and “heritage.” “Merit” suggests that the wine is especially well made, incorporating only top quality grapes. “Heritage” refers to the venerable Bordeaux tradition of blending complementary grapes to create gracefully balanced wines.
 
Dry Creek Vineyard has been at the forefront of blending from the beginning. Early on, the winery was a founding member of the Meritage association in 1988 and was recognized as the first to use the term on our 1985 Meritage label. Winery founder David Stare has long advocated the advantages of traditional Bordeaux-style blending and was among California’s first vintners to plant Merlot and Cabernet Franc for blending. More recently, we have added Petit Verdot and Malbec to our vineyards in Dry Creek Valley.
 
In the end, what makes Meritage wines especially exciting is that a winemaker has the ultimate freedom to create his or her best blend. And isn’t that what we want? It is the best of the best coming together to create a truly exquisite bottle of wine.
 
Visit www.cellarangels.com to enjoy exclusive member pricing on this Dry Creek Vineyard’s 2009 Meritage, learn about perfect food and wine pairings, watch the”behind-the-scenes” video and select your favorite charity to support with proceeds.
 

For far too long I think the Queen has been resting on her laurels and past accomplishments. Yes, she was once great, popular in every household, praised at every social gathering and like all royalty, talked about behind closed doors. But then something happened. Somewhere in the late 90’s or early 00’s she fell out of favor MORE

By Guest Blogger Gary Jaffe, Owner of Jaffe Estate, Napa Valley.
 
Who’d have guessed that a person could spend so much time studying the heavens and still keep their feet firmly planted in the soil?
 
For Pam and me, spotting new stars in the Orion Nebula, or counting Saturn’s rings brings a fresh perspective on bud break along the vines, or the bright taste of young wine in the mouth. With its silver-domed observatory perched on the edge MORE