Owner Joe Nagan of TOAD HOLLOW VINEYARDS Here Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

     Our local rep John Peters brought us owner Joe Nagan ( one of the three ) of TOAD HOLLOW VINEYARDS, Healdsburg, CA. yesterday. We have worked consistently with Joe's Limoux sparkling wines from southwest France : the dry, flavorful Amplexus cremant and the Risque a sweeter, lusher, riper more decadent bottling. They both cost the customer around $20 and they sell consistently. I love to tell the story about the inventory that was taken ( and which is public record ) when Thomas Jefferson died. He had six or seven cases of Limoux in his possession. It was made before real champagne existed. It's flavorful, complex and highly extracted and fun all to boot! 

     With Joe we also sampled his new 2007 dry rose Pinot Noir  called the " Eye Of The Toad ". We will probably include it in a future wine-tasting here when John comes to taste from his excellent portfolio. We ended tasting with Joe ( www.toadhollow.com , joe@toadhollow.com ) both the 2006 Zinfandel " Cacophany " from Paso Robles and the 2005 Merlot Russian River that came from Richard McDowell's vineyard. Both were really flavorful wines made to complement a meal, not so much as sipping wines. They had quite developed personalities with lots of nuances and I think that the flavors of the foods would fill the spaces in between the wine's various flavors. 

     I'm thinking about bringing in an assortment of Joe's wines for the first of June. The labels are really colorful and fun, of course there's a toad featured prominently in them. Too bad they were not pouring the wines at Zoofari last week. They would have been perfect and gone over really well. We've always enjoyed a lot of success when selling them. It was also great to finally meet one of the owners.

     A note of interest : Toad Hollow Vineyards was the brain-child from what I am told was Rodney Strong ( of the Rodney Strong winery ), Joe referred to him as the Robert Mondavi of Sonoma when we talked briefly about Robert Mondavi's passing away this last Friday, May 16th, 2008.

     Cheers Joe ! And cheers to both Robert Mondavi and Rodney Strong : both who are now only with us in spirit. Another note : we have received at Cleveland Park Wines our shipment of Robert Mondavi wines. Come check them out here at 3423 Conn. Ave. N.W. Washington D.C. ( 202 ) 363-4265. Ask for Mike or Tony.      TONY