Uncorking Life's Desserts and Wine: All Smiles at Papagni Wines

I attended the Madera Wine Trail's Wine and Chocolate weekend on February 11th and 12th. Our (boyfriend and I) first stop was Papagni Wines located right off highway 41. There was a small crowd, which made it feel comfy and somewhat intimate. The wine tasting was located in the bottling room due to the tasting room still being prepared to open February 13th. (It's now open!) The employees serving the wines were friendly and approachable. They answered any questions we had about the wine and their production. As we finished our tasting, the Seller Master announced anyone interested on a tour was welcome to join him.

Tony, A.K.A. Morgan Freeman, the Cellarmaster, was a great host! He showed us the machinery where all the grapes passed through to get bottled. We had wine straight from the tanks of Pinot Grigio, Muscat of Alexander (dry white), Muscat Canelli, and Cabernet Sauvignon. These wines did not have their labels ready, therefore, not available for purchase, yet.

Here are my tasting notes from the wines available for tasting during the Wine and Chocolate Weekend. This is only my point of view according to my tongue tasting and brain processing. :) For more information check out Papagni Wines website at http://www.papagniwines.com/.

2009 Malvasia Bianca: slightly sweet, berries, raspberry, sweet strawberries and some melon.

2001 Alicante Bouschet: their award winning wine, smells like cherry, taste like spices, cherry, and some blackberry.

Pinot Grigio (sorry, didn't write down the full name/year): a wine what I call "search for flavors" as they are not very powerful. I tasted pear and some peach.

Muscat Canelli: an easy to drink wine especially for the sweet wine drinkers. Tasted like nectarines. My favorite sweet wine from Papagni.

Some pictures from our tour...

Grapes drop off from the trucks here...