We all know the story. Former SF Giants baseball teammates Rich Aurilia and Dave Roberts have teamed up once again — this time in the vineyard field. Alongside winemaker, Rolando Herrera from Mi Sueño Winery and Herrera Wines, Red Stitch serves up some classically-styled Napa Cabs. Their latest game-changer is their somewhat recent addition of Santa Lucia Highland vineyards, Soberanes and Sierra Mar, to craft what, to my palate, are two completely polar opposite Pinots.
After my visit to Bonny Doon’s Davenport tasting room where I got to chat one-on-one with owner and winemaker Randall Grahm — which was both fun and educational — I couldn’t help but go home with, what I thought, was the most outstanding wine of the 12 I tasted that day: 2011 Le Cigare Blanc.
I first met Tim and Melissa of Betwixt Wine during the 2016 Pinot Days in San Francisco. During that conference I had the opportunity to try their 2014 Pinot Noir from Lester Family Vineyards. When I visited their downtown SF winery a few weeks later to taste a line-up of their current and up-coming releases, somehow this Pinot Noir still stood out as a notch above the rest. Take a bottle home? Yes, please!
And so I did, bring it home, share it, and enjoyed it. Now I must write all about it so you, too, can procure and enjoy Betwixt’s 2014 Pinot Noir.
After my private tasting at Betwixt Wines, winemaker Tim and his wife Melissa were kind enough to send me home with a few complimentary bottles. It must have been my reaction when I sipped on their 2014 Grenache from Monterey County’s Boer Vineyard that made Melissa insist I take home this bottle…
