The Silk Road of Wine: Georis Winery (Carmel Valley) Review

Back to blogging now after being away for a while on business. We had the pleasure of going down to Carmel Valley this past weekend for some good food and wine -- on the food front, we are big fans of both Casanova restaurant (in Carmel-by-the-sea) and their more casual sister bistro in Carmel Valley, the Corkscrew Cafe.

As far as wine goes, we decided to stay within the "culinary family" and visit Georis Winery, which is owned by the same folks who own the two restaurants above and is well-known for its excellent merlot (as an added benefit, the tasting room is right next door -- literally -- to the Corkscrew Cafe). Georis puts on an excellent tasting experience in their beautiful outdoor patio, and each tasting is accompanied by a plate of 3 cheeses and a helpful history of the wine from the friendly staff -- highly recommended if you are in the area.

We tried several wines, all of which were quite tasty but the stars were the 2000 and 2002 "Estate" Merlot bottlings. Unlike some of the others, these were neither too thin (the 2002 Le Sanglier suffered a bit from this) nor too tannic at this age (the 2001 "Estate" Merlot was a bit tough relative to the other two) -- instead, the 2000 and 2002 were complex, well-balanced and showed a pleasant, lingering finish that paired quite well with both the hard and soft cheeses. These would be great food wines, and the 2000 comes from a renowned vintage that local aficionados believe can be cellared until the 2020's -- since it is so delicious right now, I'm not sure any bottle I bought would last that long.

Bottom line: both the wine and the experience at Georis are highly recommended, along with the Corkscrew Cafe next door.

Recommended books on wine

Andrea Immer Robinson's excellent teach-yourself course on wine
The other great wine & food pairing book on the market
One of the two best wine & food pairing books on the market
Encylopedic reference tome on all regions and wines. Very educational.
Well-written and very informative.
A great compact reference book -- extremely helpful when trying to decipher wine labels in other languages.
Easily digestible sections for each micro-region in the world. Fantastic maps
The gold standard -- read this cover to cover and you'll know more than most wine shop employees

Great wine shops

Vintage Wine Merchants
More than a destination shop -- you can easily spend the whole day talking with Alex, Joe, Mike, Harry and the gang and learning a ton about fine wine. Santana Row wouldn't be nearly as much fun without their shop!
K&L Wine Merchants
Great selection and newsletter. One of the best-designed wine websites around.
The Wine Club
Some real hard to find gems, good futures prices and a great newsletter.
Joseph George Wines
Think about it -- how many wine shops do you know that are 3rd generation family-owned, provide you the owner's name and phone number on their website (and invite you to call for assistance in selecting wines), and are only open noon-5pm Monday through Friday ...! A sign of how well the shop is doing.
Vin, Vino, Wine Bottle Shop & Tasting Bar
Tucked away on California Ave. in Palo Alto, this is truly a shop for the connoisseur -- not as comprehensive as some of the bigger shops, but they more than make up for it with deep collections of exceptional red and white Burgundies. Their newsletter is required reading each month.

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Comments

This was a superb tasting in the gardens at Georis. The wines were elegant and the tasting was a cultural experience. Tastings are accompanied by tasting notes and a cheese plate. The Sauvignon Blanc and Estate Merlot were outstanding. We will go back. The Corkscrew next door was closed on Thursdays but we had dinner at their new restaurant La bicyclette a European style bistro. The food was superb served family style and the price was very reasonable $20 for a 3 course dinner and VOILA another great experience for us.

Posted by: sylvia lopez | April 02, 2006 at 05:54 PM