Cellar Selection

Sill Family Vineyards très Rosé de Chardonnay 2017

Sill Family Vineyards is a family-owned and operated exquisite boutique winery with estate vineyards producing ultra-premium, very limited production carefully hand-crafted wines.  As a Court of Master Sommelier, Winemaker, Igor Sill became passionate about Bordeaux wines after being introduced to Château Margaux, Château Latour, Château Haut-Brion and Château Lafite Rothschild in the late 1970s by H. Lyman Emerson, a renaissance gentleman and noted fine wine collector.

A little about the old history of the Estate: The Sill Family vineyards has a long history dating back to the early 1800s where the Wappo Indians, a Native American Indian Tribe inhabited the Napa Valley region.  In fact the word “Napa” means “Land of Plenty” which comes from the Wappo language.  In 1841 Alexander Rotchef, a Russian Baron landed in Mendocino, traveled to St Helena, CA, with his wife Helena, whose godfather was Czar Nicholas.  According to legend, Princess Helena planted flowers and grape vines on the property!  In the summer of 1880, novelist Robert Louis Stevenson and his new bride spent the summer of 1880 in St. Helena.  From the 1880s to the late 1980s these lands remained under continuous vegetation and grape cultivation, surviving many successive owners.  Check a future post for additional history.

Sill owns and operates two distinctive vineyards, Atlas Peak Mountain vineyard located on a plateau 1,650 feet above sea level, and St. Helena terraced vineyard.  Unfortunately, the Atlas Peak fires of Oct 2017 destroyed their Winery and it’s not yet back open to the public.  Good news however, you may purchase wines direct from their website, and if you are lucky enough find them in a few fine restaurants.  Better yet, join their Wine Club, become a member, and you can get a tasting by appointment, can’t get any better than that.

In a prior post, I indicated I will discuss 4 of their fabulous wines, the second in this post, so check back with SippingFineWines soon for the other 2, very special Cabernet Sauvignon’s!

Tasting the 2017 très Rosé de Chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast

First of all, I have tasted hundreds of Rosé wines.  In fact, I went to a tasting a few months back and tasted over 30, can’t say there was 1 that I liked!  Well I guess you can say I broke my tasting streak, this is a Rosé to go out of you way to acquire a bottle, very elegant!  Superb!

This is very special hand-crafted and unique Rosé, elegant, made with Sonoma Chardonnay (98%) adding a kiss of Rutherford Bench Napa Cabernet Sauvignon (2%), and in my opinion far better than the Rosé that herald from southeastern France where some of the best are produced.  I have never tasted anything like this previously.  Small production, grapes fermented and aged from French white oak wood staves from Allier, Nevers and Tronçais Haute Futaie forests, known for their sought after wood, with tighter grains.  Stunning deep orange/salmon color with exceptional depth of fruit brought out by the small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon providing a beautiful fruit/floral character.  On the palate layers of subtle extraordinary rich fruit, ripe melon pear with a hint of raspberry and citrus adding vanilla and very light subtle toasty oak, luxurious with a graceful savory freshness.  Very well balanced, layered with elegance and persistent length with an ending that comes back with fruit and vanilla spice adding some minerality.  Truly outstanding, will continue to improve if you decide to cellar a bit!  For me, hard to resist drinking now!  Grab a few bottles and give one to your Mother for a special day, before they are gone!  Tasting Sample!

Cheers!