It was only recently that I discovered not all wine made by wineries is from grapes grown on their property. Jen told me about the Cellared in Canada scandal years ago, but it was only since I’ve met Jen that I understood the difference between estate wines and wines. Estate wines are from grapes grown on the property, other wines with a winery label on it just mean the wine was produced by that winery but could include grapes from a variety of fields.

The Etude property in the southern point of Napa is one of the largest in the Fosters Wine Estates properties in California. It provides fruit to many of the Fosters family (Chateau St Jean gets most of their chardonnay grapes from Etude fields).

Two highlights came from our Etude tasting. The first was the discovery of a new glass closure used in their Chardonnay bottling. The tab is from microfractured glass that allows air transfer with the wine similar to a cork. The glass won’t spoil, the way a cork does, and has a better asthetic that people resistant to the screw top closures might be more willing to accept. The glass closure is unique to the bottle shape.

The other thrill was having the tasting inside the actual winemaking facility. While we were doing our tasting, Winemaker John Priest was barrel testing the grapes right below us and a round of pinot grapes were being crushed.

We ended up bringing home a 2006 Heirloom Pinot Noir and fortunately bumped in to Mr Priest outside the facility where he graciously signed our bottle. I’m a freak for getting musicians to sign cd’s, Jen loves getting her wine labels signed by the winemakers.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

[Disclosure: Etude is a member of Fosters Wine Estates. Jen is a sales rep for the company and we were a guest of the winery.]

Tags: napa valley, tasting, wine, winery tour