Naples Winter Wine Festival patrons share a refined appreciation for fine wine. This is cultivated at the festival, where attendees meet vintners from around the world. We asked Naples Children & Education Foundation trustees to share their favorite wines they’ve been enjoying while staying in.
Terry and Bob Edwards
“We’re pouring the full-bodied, yet elegant Il Borro Toscana 2015 (a perfect pairing for traditional beef tenderloin). We met the owner, Salvatore Ferragamo, at the Naples Winter Wine Festival; have traveled with him and his wife Christine and enjoyed their hospitality at the Il Borro estate, a medieval village they beautifully restored. We appreciate their family orientation and commitment to the environment: They use organic farming, and the property qualifies as a negative carbon footprint program because they produce their own solar energy.”
Jody Goodenough-Fleming and Paul Fleming
“Being hunkered down over the past eight months, we have become besties with our wine cellar. Paul and I are drinking the 2017 Pilcrow Ghost Block Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from Yountville and the 2013 Crissante Alessandria Barolo “Galina” from Piedmont. Pilcrow is a boutique Napa producer of single-vineyard cabernets made by our friends Sara and Jonah Beer, who specialize in an old-Napa style of wine that is lighter, elegant, lower in alcohol, and has lovely floral and herbal notes and a silky texture. Crissante Alessandria is a tiny, family-owned, Barolo winery that goes back seven generations. Their old-vine Galina vineyard produces Barolo wines of great depth and intensity that aren’t heavy, and are highlighted by red fruit and rose petal aromas. Both wines share a finesse and a drinkability that we are just loving.”
Katrina Lundmark-Kash and Rick Kash
“We are thoroughly enjoying the 2015 Walter Hansel North Slope Russian River Valley Chardonnay. It is comparable or even better than many white Burgundies at many times the price. Robert Parker calls the wine ‘sultry,’ and that seems to be a creative and accurate description of the pleasure that the wine delivers.”
Sharon and Chuck Hallberg
“Sharon and I are eclectic wine drinkers, and each day may bring a new wine delight to accompany our dinner. One winery whose wines are always within reach, though, is Staglin Family Vineyard—particularly the 2005 vintages. Shari and Garen Staglin have been producing iconic cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay (among other wines) since 1985. The whole family participates in the operation in some manner, and they are incredibly philanthropic. Carefully crafted and meticulously tended, the cabs can be enjoyed young or can be cellared for 25 years or more. The chardonnay is so velvety crisp and luscious that it rarely lasts a year in our house. Not the easiest to find, but with a production over 5,000 cases, these wines can be procured by any persistent wine lover.”
Nancy and Joe Masterson
“We have been very fortunate to be involved with the Naples Winter Wine Festival and to have become acquainted with wineries and vineyards that produce truly great wines. We found the Domaine Serene winery in Oregon’s Dundee Hills through an auction lot we won at one of the festivals. We became very close with the owners Grace and Ken Evenstad (who sadly passed recently). After admitting that Champagne is our favorite wine, the Evenstads showed us their upcoming fields planned to produce seven different varieties of sparkling wine. They recently unveiled the ‘Evenstad Reserve’ Dundee Hills Brut Multi-Vintage (M.V.) 1 Sparkling Wine, which we had the pleasure of sampling at an event not long ago.”
Photos Courtesy NCEF
