Or at least I did the other day during one of the highlights of my food and wine experiences to date. Not only did I get to taste a wine that's $500 a bottle, I got to hang out with the winemaker. I mean, come on: It doesn't get much better than that!
Here's the story. Todd Anderson has been making fabulous Bordeaux-style wines at Conn Valley Vineyards in the heart of the Napa Valley for more than 20 years. Around 2000, he started a second, ultra- ultra-premium winery: Ghost Horse Vineyards. Ghost Horse wines are made only with 100% Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon fruit from Todd's personal vineyard. As well, he painstakingly handcrafts each release, making extremely small---and extremely exceptional---batches of each vintage. The results? What he calls "head-cracking" wines. Yes, they have the big price tag, but once you figure in the private grape source and the extremely small lots, the wine prices make sense. So, what'd I think? Beyond belief. I'm never had a wine bouquet hit my nostrils with the gl
ass still seven or eight inches from my nose! Not only are the Ghost Horse wines real "fruit bombs", they taste as what I can only describe as "heady"---your head starts to spin, they're so good. Full-flavored, perfectly balanced acid, no heavy tannins--to me the Ghost Horse Cab tasted of deep fruit/cherry/black cherry, with a hint of chocolate. As well, the wines have incredible "weight"--a great mouth feel, fat and full yet with no negative after-tastes.Todd's also a fun person to hang out with. He readily shares his extensive 
knowledge about winemaking collected over 20+ years in the business. Hanging out in the cave drinking a $500/bottle of wine... while chatting up the winemaker... in the heart of Napa Valley.... Yes. Yes, yes, and yes.
knowledge about winemaking collected over 20+ years in the business. Hanging out in the cave drinking a $500/bottle of wine... while chatting up the winemaker... in the heart of Napa Valley.... Yes. Yes, yes, and yes.Tours are extremely limited, but you can get a "taste" of Todd's world at his ultra-cool Ghost Horse web site: http://www.ghosthorseworld.com/
4 comments:
Nothing stimulates the palate like the mixture of Cabernet and Chocolate. Dark truffles while drinking a good hearty Red is one of my guilty pleasures! The way you describe, Ghost Horse Cab it seems as if these two favorites are already combined. It sounds sinfully delicious and well worth the cost. After all, you can't put a price tag on the sweet taste of satisfaction. The "Sleepy Hollow" feel of Ghost Horse's website, leaves me longing to be a member of such an exclusive and elusive world.
AH, the mysterious world of Ghost Horse; How nice to be able to break away and allow all of your senses to be attacked! Chocolate and Cab entices my tastebuds and my sense of smell seems keener just thinking about the combination of two of my favorite delicacies. I see Ghost Horse in my minds eye and hear the galloping footfalls echoing in my head as I imagine what a $500 bottle of wine might taste like. How truly satisfied you must feel after such an experience.
Adrienne and ckd: You've both hit it perfectly--drinking great wine and the whole Ghost Horse "experience" IS like entering another world.... And that world is right HERE, right NOW. As someone said this morning at a biz meeting I was attending: Why not us? It's my personal goal for the remainder of 07 that by Dec 1 I will have you both to a GH tasting. Done, promise, sealed in stone.....
The most over-rated pairing has to be chocolate and cabernet, in fact just about every red wine, including port tends to suck with chocolate. Too many competing tannins. The one exception would be Banyuls or Maury, late harvested grenache from southern France. The raspberry notes work well with chocolate.
$500 a bottle for Cabernet….even if he had hired teamsters to pick each grape individually, that price is absurd, but more power to him if he can get that, what’s the line about fools & money? PT Barnum lives!
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