5th West Institute Wine Reception and Dinner

On July 14, 2011, we held our 5th Annual West Wine Reception and Dinner at The Hilltop Winery.

What a special evening. We did a vertical tasting of Silver Oak and a horizontal featuring Pinot Noir from 2005.

Check these out, we tasted:

• 1984 Silver Oak, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
• 1989 Silver Oak, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley
• 1995 Silver Oak, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley
• 1999 Silver Oak, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley
• 2002 Silver Oak, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley

Then we started our 2005 trip around the Pinot Noir varietal:

• 2005 Demetria, Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley
• 2005 Pahlmeyer, Pinot Noir, St. Helena
• 2005 Sea Smoke, Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara
• 2005 Macphail, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
• 2005 Alcina, Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
• 2005 Tandem, Pinot Noir, Sonoma County

Thanks to our family and friends at The Hilltop Winery for being such gracious hosts.

For the slideshow of the entire evening with friends click HERE.

The Hilltop

On June 29, 2010, the Sweede family and a few special friends from work came to visit The Hilltop Winery.

Our time is always too short, but we made the most of the time we have with our friends.

Amongst the many wines we tasted the following stood out:

• 1990 Chateau Grand Mayne, Grand Cru Classe
• 2003 Surh Luchtel Mosaique, Red Wine, Napa Valley
• 2004 Staglin, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford, Napa Valley
• 2005 Alcina, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
• 2006 Kosta Browne, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

The weather was intense to say the least, sometimes you couldn’t see across the pool. That’s life when you’re up in the clouds, literally and figuratively speaking.

For more information on Alcina click HERE.
For more information on Chateau Grand Mayne click HERE.
For more information on Kosta Browne click HERE.
For more information on Staglin click HERE.
For more information on Surh Luchtel click HERE.

For a slideshow of the actual bottles tasted and the rest of the evening click HERE.