SPRING VALLEY >> Cache Creek Winery threw a St. Patrick’s Day party Saturday and the featured color was pink.
Wait. What?
That’s right. Green may have been the color of the day for most party-goers but a shimmering pale pink was the star of the day at Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the Spring Valley winery and event center.
The pink was the winery’s 2014 Rosé, which has been bottled but not yet released to the public. Members of the Cache Creek Wine Club got to preview the upcoming release at the event, the first Rosé ever produced by the winery.
Rosé is made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that are “pulled early,” said Cache Creek owner Don Van Pelt who hosted Saturday’s event. However, Van Pelt is the wrong person to ask to describe the newest member of his wine family.
“I haven’t really tasted it much,” he said, instead suggesting one of his winery staff could better offer a description.
Wine pourer Kathee Toy of Lakeport was happy to oblige.
“What I find interesting about the Rosé is that it’s made from Cab grapes,” she said. “Most Rosés are made from Merlot or Pinot grapes.”
She called the wine’s pink hue “spectacular” and added of its taste, “It has wonderful watermelon tones with a hint of nectarines or peaches.”
Toy said the Rosé would go well with a plate of cheese and fruit.
But enough from an expert. How did the Rosé go down with lay wine drinkers?
“I found it very sweet and light with the taste of plums and apricots,” said Crystal Kues of Lucerne. “I think it would make a great lunch wine. It went well with the fruit served here today,” including pineapple, strawberries and grapes.
Kues, wearing a green sweater and shamrock earrings, said her dad is full-on Irish. She displayed a bit o’ the Irish herself when she explained what brought her to the event.
“I came out because there was a party here,” she said, adding, “I wish there was more beer.”
Just to be clear, there was no beer at the party, just red, white and pink wines.
The winery’s quarterly wine club pickup event coincided with the Irish holiday so the two were combined into a single party, according to Ari Lopez, Cache Creek event coordinator and marketer.
“We’re getting a lot of local wine club members today but we’re also getting a lot of traffic from people traveling along Highway 20,” she said.
Asked about her own heritage, Lopez laughed and said, “I’m Irish when I’m drinking beer.”
Cache Creek staffer Linda Shields said that the wine club pickup party always has a theme and St. Paddy’s Day seemed a good fit.
“We wanted to make this a festive experience,” Shields said.”The turnout has been really good.”
About 200 people attended the celebration.
In addition to wine, the event featured contests, raffles, food, bocce ball and music by keyboardist David Neft.
The local musician mixed traditional Irish songs — including “Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” “Danny Boy,” and a song made famous by Bing Crosby, “Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral (That’s An Irish Lullaby)” — with audience requests, including Barbra Streisand’s, “The Way We Were.”
Don Van Pelt said he was “thrilled” at the turnout for the event and that he received a lot of positive comments about the Rosé.
“We’re definitely going to make it again,” he said.
The 2014 bottling is limited to 330 cases. Cache Creek’s last introduced a new wine, its Sauvignon Blanc, last summer.
The public will be able to taste and purchase the Rosé during the Lake County Wine Adventure, May 15-17. Wineries throughout the county are participating in the event.
The first Cache Creek grape vines were planted in 1999 and there are currently 70 acres of wine grapes on the eastern side of the property in Spring Valley. There are four grape varietals planted: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petite Syrah, and Chardonnay.
Of the 70 acres of vineyard, 47 acres are dedicated to Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, 11 acres each to Chardonnay and Petite Syrah grapes, and one acre to Syrah grapes. The vines are planted in three distinct blocks with an east-west orientation for maximum sunlight.
Cache Creek is one of two wineries in Spring Valley. The other is the boutique Noggle Vineyards and Winery on Old Long Valley Road.
Cache Creek Winery is at 250 New Long Valley Road, just off Highway 20.
