Included in: White Club – October 2020
Regularly $25. Club member re-order: $22
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Infatuation, or “Toquade” as the French would say it, is how we feel about this 2019 Sauvignon Blanc. Toquade was created to enhance and complement good company, good food and good music. It has its own distinct personality, like a simple melody which can’t be forgotten. Toquade is a labor of love and a hands-on creative endeavor from harvest to table.
Winemaker and owner Christine Barbe chose Toquade for the name of her wine because it perfectly explains her story into winemaking. In 1991 Christine’s winemaking life began in her hometown of Bordeaux. She was a doctoral student at Bordeaux Institute of Enology and was making wine at Chateau Carbonnieux and La Louviere in Pessac Léognan. For the next five years she worked with people in Bordeaux who were passionate about Sauvignon Blanc which is where she learned how to taste the grapes as they ripen to determine when to harvest to maximize the aroma and flavor of the wine.
In 1996 she graduated with a Ph.D in Enology and Viticulture and came to California where she did winemaking and viticulture research at Robert Mondavi, Gallo, and Trinchero wineries. Toquade is the result of what Christine has learned about bringing the flavors inherent in the grape to the wine in the glass during her 15 years of experimentation and winemaking in France and California.
This beautiful 2019 is the 14th vintage from a single-vineyard, organic, dry-farmed plot in Napa’s Yountville. The vineyard is located next to the Napa River where the nutrient rich soil has good water holding capacity, making it excellent terroir for Sauvignon Blanc. After harvest and fermentation the wine was aged on the lees for seven months with weekly batonnage to increase the roundness and texture. This wine has a nice nose of guava and grapefruit. It presents with a crisp mouth feel at first, then develops a rich and flavorful mid-palate with a long finish of tropical fruit notes.
This Halloween season make sure to grab some sour gummi worms or sour patch kids to enjoy with a glass of Toquade. The mouth-puckering taste of a sour candy calls for a juicy, fruit centric wine. The fruit forward flavors of guava and grapefruit will pair nicely with the lemon sour patch kids.
Jennie Kaplan Woodson – October 2020
Bacchus & Venus Wines 