TOM EDDY WINES METEOR VINEYARD 2005 CABERNET SAUVIGNON

Tom Eddy Wines was founded in 1991 by Tom Eddy, owner and winemaker. He is a graduate of UC Davis in 1974 with degree in Oenology (conveniently his family was already living in the town of Davis after moving up from the Long Beach area to escape the smog and traffic). Over the years he worked at several well known Napa wineries including Christian Brothers (now the Culinary Institute of Greystone in St. Helena) and Inglenook Estate. Along with wine making he would often travel throughout California looking for high quality vineyards that could be sourced by Napa wineries. He has also consulted for wineries in other states and even as far away as Venezuela. His philosophy of looking for the best vineyard sources regardless of location has carried through to his own business. As a result, over the years Tom Eddy wines have come from a number of sources, from California to Oregon and New Zealand. As of the time of this review he sources all the fruit for their wines with the exception of the Cabernet Sauvignon from their tiny 1-acre vineyard on site (named Kerry’s Vineyard after his wife Kerry, a former Sommelier). This vineyard is one of the most northernmost vineyards in Napa County even slightly further north than Storybook Mountain Winery; with the cave now completed this is Napa County’s northernmost winery. Tom and Kerry were looking for hillside property and after 15 years of combing several of Napa’s well-known hillside appellations they found this spectacular piece of property (22 acres). The surroundings will always remain natural and undeveloped as the site is surrounded by property within the Sonoma Land Trust (and a few cattle and wild turkeys to). In fact their property straddles the county line (Sonoma/Napa). Incidentally this property used to be owned by Jacob Schram, the founder of Schramsberg. Tom and Kerry are the 4th owners. Tom Eddy produces a number of wines including the TENZ (New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc), The Elodian – a tribute to Kerry’s heritage and incidentally a very approachable red wine, the Tom Eddy Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a Mendocino County Pinot Noir, several other red varieties and two dessert wines. Total production is currently around 5,000 cases. The Elodian is not a typical Napa label if there is such a thing; the multiple sea tortoises give this away. Kerry has a long history of working in the wine industry but this label is more a tribute to her ancestors who sailed from Nova Scotia to the gold fields of California during the gold rush. Along the way they were stuck in the doldrums and ended up anchoring at the Galapagos Islands where they caught a number of large sea turtles. Eventually they arrived in San Francisco very late in the season, poor and almost penniless. After trying to sell anything they thought was valuable, they noticed some of the Asian restaurant owners got word of the turtles and at that point the turtles proved to be their most valuable possession!