Home School Tuesdays

In our quest to learn more about the wines & wineries in our area I set aside Tuesday afternoons to go tasting and explore the region. I call it "Home School Tuesday" and think of it as a kind of improvised field trip to illuminate and educate ourselves on what's out there and what we like. It's completely unscientific, I just pick wineries at random or else select ones I've read about. 

Last week we went to Dutton Estate and Iron Horse. Today we visited Merry Edwards and Hanna. I always wanted to stop in at Merry Edwards because of their David Lance Goines wine labels. The tasting areas were like individual conference rooms and it sort of felt like going on a job interview, but without the exchange of business cards and discussion of career goals.

We tasted their Pinots and the highly rated Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc. I would have bought the wine for the label alone, but the wine was equally well designed so got a bottle for some "extra credit" work at home.

Next we went to Hanna and tried some Chardonnay  Pinot Noir,  Cabernet  a nice Rose and the Bismark Mountain Vineyard Zinfandel.  I normally don't buy wine above the $35 price point. My goal is always to find the best wine for my palate (and purse) for under $20. But we ended up buying the $52.00 Zinfandel. It was just irresistible. Luckily it turned out that if you have a Visa Signature credit card you get a 15% discount! I didn't even know I had a Signature Visa card till I looked at it so that was a nice bonus. 

Apparently Visa has set up this promotion with about 60 wineries where you can get the tasting fee waived and discounts on wines purchased in the tasting rooms. So take out your card and see if it says Visa Signature on it. It's a pretty nice deal.