It's a week of special occasions for Gavin Newsom and the PlumpJack empire. Not only did the dear mayor ring in his fortieth birthday on Wednesday, the PlumpJack Winery is celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall.
To commemorate the decade of success, the PlumpJackers and founding partner Gordon Getty invited a small group to blind taste a pair of samplings from their best wine, the '97 reserve cabernet sauvignon. The twist: one sample would be from a traditional corked bottle, whereas the other stemmed from PlumpJack's pioneering screw cap bottle:
Truth be told, there were very subtle differences in the two wines. This sipper felt Glass A benefited from more aromatic notes, while Glass B seemed to have better integrated flavors. I preferred Glass A; Getty said he liked B, but only by a hair.Now, what about that Marin location of Balboa Cafe?And it seemed that tasters were pretty evenly divided over which wine was preferred. Turned out Glass A contained the cab poured from a bottle with screw cap, Glass B the cork closure.
Upshot, I guess, was that both wines were excellent, and Getty and winemaker Tony Biagi could take heart in knowing that the screw cap was not all folly.
· PlumpJack's noble experiment [Napa Valley Register]
· BREAKING First Word: PlumpJack Empire Taking Marin [~ESF~]
