Materra WIne Review - Perfect Thanksgiving WIne and fun place to visit

Photo Credit: Materra/Cunat Family wines

This time of year, a lot of people ask me where to take their out of town relatives in Napa. With so many delicious, luxe fun places, I wanted to highlight a "smart" choice, where you can "drink for the kids"** during this holiday season.  I was hosted here during the summer.

Materra| Cunat Family Vineyards in the Oak Knoll District is a relatively new tasting room open by appointment where you can taste wines of quality.  Here, artistry in oenology is served in art filled setting.  

Brian Cunat and his wife Miki and their extended family invested in fifty acres in the Oak Knoll AVA in 2007. Today, they leverage relationships with mountain fruit growers as well as their own estate fruit to create lovely Napa wines.  

We get excited about Fancy sorter destemmers

Calling their wine club the "Dean's" list is a nod to Dean Cunat,  a Midwestern farmer who inspired a love of the land and farming in his son, Brian.  When Miki and Brian saw the lovely parcel in Oak Knoll with its distinctive soil, then experienced the flavor profile of local finished wines, they knew they had found their spot.  Partnering with Brian's brother, John to purchase the estate, today many members of the family participate.  We met Neena, the oldest daughter who leads the winery's efforts.  Neena walked us through the impressive production facility and did not laugh when we gushed over their pristine operation, which includes a very cool mechanical sorter destemmer.  We also quizzed her about a cool experimental cone shaped stainless vat.  Walking around it was easy to see the family's investment in action.  But what was more fun was to taste through those successful efforts:

2011 Cabernet Sauvignon,  Rutherford($65) Wine from this tough year is frequently sparse but delicious,  Materra is no exception.  Difficult harvest produced a wonderful wine with a long elegant vinous driven finish.  Flavors are a balance of vinous and fruit with a top note of black raspberry and gorgeous dusty notes, the hallmark of Rutherford dust.  They marked the bottles with silver foil to mark the achievement.

2011 Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain (wine Club only) Blending in a little Petit Verdot, Merlot  and Malbec creates a Bordeaux inspired wine. They only produce fifty cases of this Wine-Club-Only  wine.  A luscious perfectly integrated blend with lively aromas of anise and blueberry and a beautifully vinous finish will tempt  you to join.  

They also make white wines,  Both a lovely Viognier, which is a balanced wine with nice structure and hints of stone fruit as well as a rich, but elegant Chardonnay with "Golidlocks" oak #Just_Right. 

Tactile art in one shelf-drinkable art in the other

Their Merlot varietal is lush and balanced lots of dark fruits and touch of bittersweet chocolate in the aromas and flavors with dark, forest-y berry in the finish.  Until December 31 2016, Materra has a cool holiday special of  a three bottle Merlot vertical that includes one bottle each of 2009, 2010 and 2011 Right Bank Reserve which is a bargain at $100.  Merry Christmas to whomever receives that!

It's a great place to visit.  Care is taken to telegraph the family's artistic focus by their beautiful facility.  Artful touches like the beautiful, tactile art enhance your visit.

**For Christmas they are doing something awesome.  If  you bring a new and unwrapped toy with a value of at least $25, Materra will waive your tasting fee as well as organize toy delivery to Toys 4 Tots.  So you are as smart as a Dean's list member, drinking great wine to benefit the kids.
Even if you miss the holiday festivities, it's a great place to visit to experience artful wines in a friendly place.


For more information about tastings and tours, click here:
Visit Materra

• Materra | Cunat Family Vineyards
• 4326 Big Ranch Road Napa, CA
• 707.224.4900
• Many thanks to Neena for hosting me at this wonderful location!