Robert Sinskey Vineyards

RSV’s SLD Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is our “Left Bank” of Napa wine. Tucked up behind the winery in the northern corner of the Stags Leap District lies our organic and Biodynamic SLD Estate vineyard, where purity is the name of the game.

You’ve got to love any meal that can be made ahead and popped in the oven. This is particularly true during the holidays when you can't squeeze one more minute out of the day. Oftentimes, in preparation for the mad season, I will make a series of braised meat dishes and freeze them to have on hand. This dish is warm, rich, satisfying and elegant - a perfect companion to the rich, yet elegant, SLD Cabernet Sauvignon.

Marcien is mysterious and complex. Beautiful, soulful, dark cherry and violet aromas backed with dried sage and a little nutmeg are just the tip of the iceberg on what is happening in this wine. Wine is about balance and this vintage of Marcien walks the tightrope in perfect form.

Like POV, potatoes are born from the depths of the dirt. Sunlight and water turn the subterranean potato into delicious nourishment. Spun into gnocchi, the sweet, nutty flesh of the potato is an admirable and rewarding companion to POV.

The trick is to create methods that allow a wine to achieve balance in a "natural" way... where less is more. No use of synthetics in the vineyard is a start, but an understanding of nature's dance is even more important to create a strategy where the vine can access nutrients in a natural way, with an environment that takes advantage of nature's checks and balances.