Joy Merrilees - Joy studied oenology, worked overseas, and now works at Steele Wines. On the horizon: "As more people try Lake County wines, they'll be impressed with the diversity of grape varieties and the quality for the price," remarks Joy.
2009 Shooting Star Chardonnay Redwood Valley north of Ukiah in a family-owned organic vineyard. The vineyard typically produces lush, fruit forward wine. Citrus and mineral characteristics with a hint of stone fruit flavors and bright acidity. The perfect pairing for this wine would be a poached rock fish drizzled with mornay sauce and lightly buttered seasonal vegetables.
Our Price: 14.57
2007 Steele Santa Barbara Pinot Noir Santa Barbara Pinots are dark, rich and complex, with dried cherry, herb, cola, sassafras and minerally flavors. Two vineyards; Bien Nacido and Goodchild. Bien Nacido is the largest single vineyard holding in Santa Barbara. The other vineyard source is from Louis Lucas. We get fruit from his Goodchild Vineyard. Goodchild has mostly the Pommard clones (4 & 5) while Los Alamos is mostly Dijon clones (115, 667, and 777). After harvest, grapes are gently crushed, whereupon they undergo a slow, cool fermentation in barrel, allowing the classic Pinot Noir flavors and floral aromas characteristic of the vineyards to emerge. We then lay the wine down into 30% new French oak barrels to age for 8 months. Dark, rich and complex, aromas of dried cherry with flavors of bright cherry, strawberry, herb, cola, sassafras, and mineral components. Roast pheasant with a cherry and almond chutney, or with creamy polenta with mushrooms and eggplant.
Our Price: 20.57
2008 Shooting Star Zinfandel Mendocino The Pacini vineyard is over 60 years old and many are even older. We mainly buy from older, head-pruned vineyards, which are self-limiting and give the best quality fruit. To ensure that we maintain our "Old Vine" style of Zinfandel we purchased the Pacini vineyard in 1996. All lots were then fermented and barrel aged separately in American Oak barrels. Lighter styled lots went into this bottling.
Our Price: 14.97
2008 Steele Cabernet Sauvignon Red Hills Lake County Here in Lake County the red volcanic soils, ample sunshine, almost no fog, the 1500 foot plus elevation, and the cool night temperatures, all add up to a wonderful place to grow red grapes. Reed and Sarah Dorn and Al Morehead. A long season is needed to get the proper sugar development and to help reduce some of the natural herbaceous character. We always blend in a small percentage of Merlot and Cabernet Franc from the Dorn Vineyard. We age this wine in American Oak barrels for 12 months.
Our Price: 21.97
