Trinchero St. Helena Napa Valley Estate Petit Verdot 2005

The 2005 Trinchero St. Helena Napa Valley Petit Verdot hails from a tiny plot of just three acres in Trinchero's Main Street Vineyard, which is located just behind the winery. Only 400 cases of this stunning red make it into the bottle each year as St. Helena Petit Verdot; the rest goes into Trinchero's Reserve Meritage offering for extra color, elegance, and grip. As this Trinchero Reserve Petit Verdot is inky purple in color and nearly opaque, one could easily get the impression that this wine is just another California anomaly, but wait until you smell this wine and then taste it. Wow! Trinchero's rendition of one of Bordeaux's most important, but under appreciated grape varieties is pure pleasure, elegance, and style. On the nose it comes across like classified Bordeaux, much like fine Pauillac. Scents of blueberry, crushed blackberry, lead pencil, violet, vanilla, and spice fill the nose and slide gently across the palate. In the mouth, the Trinchero St. Helena Napa Valley Petit Verdot is smooth, ripe, and complex. Moreover, this wine finishes with just enough grip to frame its complex, sophisticated flavors and supple texture. Indeed, this bright, aristocratic red is far more than a superb blending agent for Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot; it is testimony to what the Bordelais have known for centuries: In a fine vintage such as 2005, well-tended Petit Verdot is the key to the success of many classified Bordeaux. Moreover, the 2005 Trinchero St. Helena Napa Petit Verdot is now another California triumph in its own right. For optimum enjoyment, we suggest at least thirty minutes of aeration before consuming.

The rich, complex flavors and supreme elegance of the 2005 Trinchero St. Helena Napa Valley Petit Verdot truly come to the fore when paired with foods of equal stature and sophistication. Traditionally, fine cuts of beef and lamb are winemakers' preferred choices to accompany Petit Verdot, especially when the meats are prepared with complex sauces. Curiously, Petit Verdot has the uncanny ability to cut through the fat of red meat at the same time that it brings out both the flavor and delicacy of aged meat. Consequently, one of our favorite recipes with this wine comes from Trinchero's own chef. It is a pan seared filet mignon, wrapped in applewood bacon and topped with a Stilton Cheese crust, accompanied by roasted fingerling potatoes (roasted in duck fat, of course) and lightly sautéed morel mushrooms. Poultry, game, and almost any soft, cow's milk cheese will provide plenty of pleasure with the superb 2005 Trinchero Reserve Petit Verdot, too. However, no matter your choice of accompaniment, this rare Petit Verdot is sure to shine. Enjoy!

Trinchero is an historic name in Napa Valley. The Trinchero family immigrated to the United States from Italy in the 1920's during Prohibition. After World War II they purchased the abandoned 19th century Sutter Home Winery that lay fallow for decades. They revived the winery and the brand, and by 1960 the Trinchero family had garnered an enviable reputation for quality wines, most notably single vineyard Zinfandels from Amador County. In the early 1960's Sutter Home was at the forefront of fine wine production in California. By the late 1960's, the demand for Zinfandel and other traditional California varieties was on the wane in favor of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and other French grape varieties. White wine became the craze throughout the 1970's, which sent red Zinfandel to the proverbial backburner among consumers. The Trincheros responded by creating the world's first white Zinfandel in 1972 as an outlet for their award winning Zinfandel grapes. White Zinfandel was an immediate sensation, and most other Napa Valley producers followed suit. The rest is history. However, the Trincheros' quest has always been to produce only the finest premium California wines – a dream the family revived with the Trinchero Family Estate and a host of family vineyards. The Trinchero family owns 200 acres of the some of the finest vineyard land in Napa Valley. Trinchero's Reserve wines (of which the St. Helena Petit Verdot is a part) all come from the family's own home Napa Valley estate, which includes vineyards in Calistoga, St. Helena, Rutherford, and southern Napa Valley along San Pablo Bay. In addition to the family's elite Napa Valley vineyards, the Trincheros own 200 acres of vines in nearby Lake County and an additional 525 acres in Santa Barbara County. The Napa Valley Folie à Deux winery and vineyards are also part of the Trinchero family portfolio. All of Trinchero's estate bottled wines are produced using sustainable methods of agriculture and with the utmost care for the environment. As of 2007 Trinchero opened a brand new 22,000 square foot winery in St Helena, which replaces the old Folie à Deux Winery that served the Trincheros for many years. In addition to housing a state of the art winemaking facility, Trinchero's new winery is also home to a stunning Tuscan style Culinary Center that will serve as the headquarters for Trinchero's internationally recognized Vine to Dine (a registered trademark) wine and culinary education program. However, what is most impressive about Trinchero Family Estates is the high quality wine they fashion, with the least amount of environmental impact. Trinchero Family Estates and Environmental Leadership Trinchero Family Estates (TFE) is a leader in the employment of sustainable methods of agriculture, recycling, and green land management. Trinchero Family Estates employs only sustainable, organic, and biodynamic practices in their estate vineyards. They eschew the use of potentially harmful chemicals and work with the state of California and other vineyards to develop healthy, natural alternatives to harsh chemicals. No chemical pesticides or herbicides are used at TFE and natural ground covers such as barley and clover prevail throughout all the estate vineyards. Furthermore, botanical oils and natural predators take the place of potentially hazardous chemicals. TFE also recycles 50 million gallons of water annually and recycles 20 tons of office paper, 850 tons of cardboard, and 100 tons of plastic each year. All proceeds from recycling revert to TFE's employees in the form of an employee-in-need fund. In addition, Trinchero has planted over 3,000 oak trees near their vineyards and created extensive greenbelts and lakes to improve the natural environment. Not surprisingly, Trinchero Family Estates has received California's Waste Reduction Awards Programs (W.R.A.P.) Award for seven consecutive years.