scott harvey wines

scott harvey was a judge at our michigan wine competition held yesterday in e. lansing. he brought a couple of his own wines to share with other judges the night before. they are under the jana label he uses for his napa valley wines - scott harvey wines is his amador label. jana is his wife btw. these are unique california wines. the napa riesling was harvested at 18 brix and made like a german kabinet. it was light and delicious. it is worth noting that scott was trained in germany and still has an affection for riesling. in addition to his napa version, he makes one from finger lakes grapes as well and sells them in a two pack. i was also able to taste a delicious pinot noir rose. at 10.5% alcohol and .8 RS this again is not a typical california wine. it was made with the 'tails' of his sparkling wine program. i know that one winemaker bucking the trend to bigger and more powerful wines isn't a trend; but i can hope.

It was a Scott Harvey zinfandel which evoked my zin-epiphany and even motivated me to join ZAP. This happened when he was still making wine at Folie à Deux and well before Trinchero bought the place. My then wife and I decided to take the barrel tour. Earlier, we had stopped at the Napa Valley Olive Oil Co. where picked up some Asiago cheese and dried Italian sausage. We had gotten some bread from the Model Bakery, too, so we had a real goodie bag. The tour guide was somewhat of a loose cannon and made liberal use of the wine thief. We hung out down there in the coolness of the cave for about an hour and a half, munching cheese and sausage and bread and tasting some lovely Amador wines from those very, very old vineyards Scott Harvey had back in the day. Well, there is none of that any more ... just lots of good memories. Even though I've tried Scott Harvey's zins in various venues since then, I have not had the chance to taste his other creations. Thanks for the heads-up.

There was a nice article on Scott's Finger Lakes wines in the Sacto Bee yesterday. If I can, I'll post a link to it in a separate thread.

Maybe Tom Hill will step in here. He's followed Scott's career from the very start....



Mike

scott harvey was a judge at our michigan wine competition held yesterday in e. lansing.

And what were the results, David? What should the mocoolers be looking for when they come to Michigan?