Armida

This was the second stop on the third day and right after the epic 2-hour adventure at Siduri. The timing was good, though, because Armida always puts out a spread of finger foods and it's a fair distance to drive, allowing our palates (and palate processors) time to recover.

If you haven't read previous blogs about Armida, let me summarize quickly. This is a fun stop. Whether they're geared up for a big weekend or they're cruising quietly through the week, you'll have a nice time here. I'll cut it short for the sake of brevity of this blog and begin a contribution on the Review page.

I normally abhor tasting vintages that are younger than a year. In this case, I don't mind a bit. The 2009 Maple Vineyard Zinfandel is a delight! The maturation process on the wine will be very rapid and, quite likely, one of their best vintages of this wine. It was more than worthy of a case, which we generously shared a third of with a friend.

Once done with the barrel tasting, we rolled up to the tasting bar and like many other wineries we frequent, were immediately recognized. Janet, who recognizes us on sight, passed us off to Steve Cousins, brother of Bruce Cousins, and co-owner of Armida. For the next half hour, Steve took us through a few of the wines they had out for tasting, and a few they didn't. We got a real education on the Maple Vineyard that was a special moment for us all. In the end, another case of wine was tucked under our arm (2007 Armida Il Campo) and another great story.