Wine: Quady Winery & Quady North

Quady Winery is a Madera, CA winery that specializes in desert wines and has been producing since 1975. I recently went with a friend to their tasting room to sample their wines. Quady was also represented at the 2012 Fig Festival at CSU Fresno in early August.

We were pleasantly surprised to experience what I liken to be the "Nose to tail" drinking experience of vino.

We sampled all three of Quady's Vya aperitifs: extra dry, whisper dry, and sweet vermouth. The whisper dry was excellent, medium dryness and invoked the reminiscent flavored of a martini with herbaceous notes. I think it would pair nicely with salty crackers and olives. The sweet vermouth was delicious and rich, sweet, and had notes of orange, orange zest, cinnamon and clove. It's definitely a nice desert wine to finish a meal but is very robust.

We then tried a blend of the extra dry and sweet Vya. It was an amazing combination of spice, sweet, and dry. It literally tasted like autumn, like being wrapped in a blanket, sitting in candlelight during a thunderstorm. Okay, so maybe that's the ideal way I would drink this wine, because it invokes that sort of mood. But it had nice notes of spice and caramel and was deliciously dry and smooth.

From there we tasted the wines of which included the 2010 Viognier, 2011 Rosè Grenache, and a 2009 Syrah.

The Viognier was very smooth and fruity, with subtle melon and apricot notes. It was more sweet than dry.

The Rosè was dryer than the Viognier and had pronounced rose flavored and aromas. Definitely a nice dry summer wine.

The Syrah was nice red with spicey pepper notes, blackberries and cherry with a smooth finish.


At this point we moved on to sweet wines that we hadn't tried at Quady.

Purple, a concord grape wine, lives up to its description: a sweet burst of grape jolly rancher flavor. I likened it to grape juice for adults.

Deviation, a sweet wine made from orange muscat with geranium and damiana. This wine was truly special. It had amazing notes of orange blossom honey and small notes of pineapple. Its smooth, and in a desert wine league of its own.

We finished off the tasting with Electra Slushies. Omg. Wine slushies, so delish! Why wasn't this invented sooner?!

When we left I felt I had been given a "three course meal" of wine, with an appetizer (the aperitifs), a main course (Quady North), and then of course, desert (Quady's desert wines of course!).

I don't normally give ratings but maybe I should start. 5/5 hands down. I think the thing that makes me truly give that rating is the friend I taste with never purchases wine when we taste, when I on the other hand throw my wallet at people. They actually purchased 6 bottles this time around. Actions do speak louder than words!

Wine: 2012 Fig Festival

Fresno State hosts the annual Fig Festival. This was my second year in attendance, and the 9th year running. For 10$ you can sample fig inspired eats from local restaurants and eateries, and for 15$ you can sample those eats and delicious local wines with a bonus fig fest wine glass!

This year we sampled delicious bites from Fleming's (a fig, artichoke, onion, and mushroom flatbread), P*DE*Q (amazing mini pão de queijo BLT's with crumbled bacon and butter leaf lettuce and a cream cheese fig jam that was out of this world with the bacon), Whole Foods (vegan fig and date brownie with a cashew cream and raspberry garnish), Dusty Buns + Enzo Olive Oil ( crostini with figs, olive oil, and duck), Love and Garlic ( ah-MAZ-ing fig spread) and lastly, some sweets with Rosetti Fine Foods + Biscotti House ( mission fig with white chocolate and biscotti crumbs).

Oh yeah, Trelio made some BOMB fig glazed pork tacos with pickled jalapeños.

It's local festivals like this that showcase local eats and major creativity from these restaurants and eateries.

Paired with wine, and it's an experience out if this world.

We stopped at the Birdstone Winery booth where they were tasting the Syrah, Tempranillo, and Pinot Noir. While the folks at Birdstone know what they are doing with their wines, and you really can't do wrong with any, the Syrah was my favorite. Slightly sweet, with berries and a little bit of spice and leather, the Syrah paired extremely well with Fleming's flatbread.

Cru is another Madera winery that does it right. I sampled a nice dry Rosé of Pinot Noir, a Albrino that was crisp and smooth, and a delicious Chardonnay.

Quady is hands down my favorite moscato-maker. It may be the sparkle, but red or the signature orange blows me away every time; sweet, bubbly, with that Thompson grape sweetness and light citrus notes. I was floored to try Quady's Essensia, a syrupy, orange & apricot bomb. But the Elysium, a black muscat wine, sweet and berryish, may have blown the others out of the wine barrels so to speak: it was delicious and decadent.

Lastly we sampled San Joaquin Wine Co. They make a mean Green Eyes Moscato, and a pink version as well. Moody Press Cellars is their other label , so we sampled their Cabernet Sauvignon. OMG. I wish they were selling, I would have bought a bottle. I think it was the pomegranate Sangria that won my heart though. It was the best pomegranate wine I have ever sampled.

It is unfortunate they don't sell wine at this event. But I guess it is safer for my wallet...

Living in the Central Valley, we are fortunate to have Vinters of two wine trails (Fresno & Madera) so close together, growing & producing so many different and delicious wines.