Metate Vineyard's' wows' at Snaps Flight Night

When Michael Stange began the first pour on 'Friday Night Flights' at Snaps Wine Bar on May 20, 2011, he patiently engaged each person in conversation steering them to ask the right questions, cleverly imparting his winemaking wisdom and passion along the way.
Spending a large part of his youth as an exchange student in Spain gave Michael a strong love of Spanish influenced wines. "Wine was served with most meals" he explained. Embracing this tradition he absorbed not only the knowledge but the love of the wines and their regions. In the afternoons a young wine was served,  not unlike Metate Vineyard's Garnacha: a young red wine made from the same ancient Carinena grapes as the Rosado and blended with Garnacha for balance; a common style from the province of Catalunya. While the evenings the wines served were full, rich, such as the Metate Hills Temparanillo: a dark wine with fruit flavors of dried cherry with hints of leather and rose petal all wrapped in toasty oak. Aged for 20 months in American and French oak barrels.
With each new flight poured and sampled there came more knowledge of the process of Spanish wine making and the close connection to family and tradition.

Metate Hills Vineyards was awarded a Gold for their  '09 Albarino and a Silver for their '08 Graciano at the 2011 Calaveras County Fair and Frog Jumping Jubilee.

For more information on Metate Hills Vineyards please visit their website at http://www.vinometate.com/

For more pictures of the evening visit SNAPS new site