Baldacci Family Vineyards – 26
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2005
Baldacci Vineyards is another winery along the Silverado Trail that is small and easy to miss – but definetely worth looking for. Their sign is small and attached to their gate. Their tasting room unassuming, a mere shack compared to the palatial palaces and villas that speckle the landscape. They are a relatively new winery as Tom Baldacci (a home builder by trade) started off purchasing old, heritage vineyards to sell grapes to other wine producers. Later, he decided he wanted to make the wine himself.
Not being satisfied with the old vines, he set about replanting to increase productivity in the soil. He got local wunderkind Rolando Herrera as his winemaker (Rolando has his own Mi Sueno label which is pretty fabulous!). The wine? A single offering of a limited production estate-grown Cabernet. But what a wine…
2000 was their first vintage and I was fortunate to taste both the first and second vintage of their estate wine (they also produce a limited production Cabernet, named after Tom’s wine, Brenda, which was not available to taste).
2000 Baldacci Estate Cabernet Sauvignon – With one acre of Cabernet Franc vineyards, there is a 9% CabFranc blended into this wine. Tremendous brambleberry aromas come from a wine that is downright inky in color. Elegant cocoa and eucalyptus flavors come through and a long, velvety finish continues.
2001 Baldacci Estate Cabernet Sauvignon – This wine has 6 1/2% Cabernet Franc and for a change, instead of the classic Stag’s Leap manure smell that I tend to tire of from this appellation, this wine effuses dark, rustic fruit and oak with a hint of tobacco. Flavors of dark cherry and blackberry produce mid-palate and the finish is vanilla and wonderfully extensive.
Baldacci Family Vineyards ~ 6236 Silverado Trail ~ Napa ~ CA ~ 94558 ~ 707-944-9261
