SKIPSTONE Winery

SKIPSTONE is a winery which is located in Geyserville, California, and makes Viognier and two Bordeaux style Reds.

Their General Manager Emily Wines, also a Master Sommelier, is a mentor to JC, and she kindly offered a winery tour for us.

It is a beautiful winery with a view of Alexander Valley.
The vineyards are surrounded by untouched land because they believe in sustainable farming and rely on that the nature will play a big role to keep their farm healthy.

Emily explained the vine management as she showed us the vineyards.
They grow Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Viognier.
After climbing up the vineyards on the very hot day, she treated us with chilled Champagne under the canopy of big trees.
She's not only a great Master Sommelier, but also a great entertainer!

When we went back to the terrace by the vineyards, we were greeted by the three beautiful wines.
Chef Tiffany Smejkal created exquisite menu to pair with those wines.

The first wine was Viognier 2014.
It had acacia-like flower aroma, and relatively high acid for Viognier.
The wine was paired with Tobiko and Carrot with Seaweed.
By the way, all vegetables are from their vegetable garden.
The freshness of the home-grown carrot and the acidity went good together.

The first of the two blends was Faultine Blend 2013.
It was a complex wine: ripe blueberry, red berry, violet, chocolate, etc...
Cabernet Franc is the main grape for this wine.
There weren't so many occasions that I was impressed by Cabernet Franc, but this one was great!
This wine was my favorite of the day.
It was served with a strikingly beautiful Beet and Goat Cheese dish.
The yellow color of the cucumber flower makes this dish a piece of art.
Isn't the color combination perfect?

The last wine we tried was Oliver's Blend.
There is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Aromas and flavors of black cherry, ripe or cooked cherry and chocolate.
Big wine which makes you crave a meat dish.
The pairing was with Ashed Beef and Maitake Mushrooms with Micro Greens.






The dessert was stunning, too: Lavender Honey Gelato and Blackberry Swirl Gelato.

The blackberry was frozen and it was like sorbet.
I have a lot of blackberries growing in the backyard this year. Now I know what to do with them.

It gets very hot around there in summer and I worried that their wine could have strong alcohol up-front like some California wines (the powerful alcohol makes my taste buds numb), but all of their wines were well balanced so the alcohol level was high but I could enjoy the flavors of wine without being intervened by it.

It was a great experience. Thank you Emily and everybody in SKIPSTONE.