Price supports rarely benefit small farmers.
Dogs, Wine, & Armchair Travel
This sweet boy is Dante, the mascot of Hoopes Family Vineyards. Dante, aka ‘The Boss”, was Spencer Hoopes’ beloved terrier. Spencer loves dogs and also wine; in 1983, he purchased and planted 10 acres in Napa Valley’s Oakville AVA. The grapes found their way into some of Napa’s most esteemed wines; fifteen years later, he decided it was time to bottle some of those grapes with his own family’s name on the label. It seemed like a natural move to put Dante-their ‘energetic inspiration’-on the label.
From the beginning, the plan was to make ‘aromatic wines with balance and structure’. In other words, these are just not your garden variety, black as ink, overly extracted Cabernets. Nobody is likely to describe them as having gobs and gobs of unctuous fruit. But graceful, balanced, complex, sumptuous beauties? Yes.
Somewhere beyond this world, Dante is no doubt still jumping through barrel hoops. Back at the vineyard, he’s been succeeded by
2 rescue dogs: Sophie and Maya. Between the great dogs and the velvet-smooth wines, does it get any better? Probably not, which is why you should join us this Thursday night, when we’ll visit Napa Valley without ever leaving our armchairs.
Matt Rancourt, regional sales manager for Hoopes and Hoopla, will introduce the estate, and take us through 5 wines: a Napa Valley Chardonnay, California Cabernet, Napa Valley Red Blend, Napa Valley Cabernet, and an Oakville Cabernet. For you, no airline tickets needed. Just throw a steak on the grill, pull the cork on a couple of these lovelies, and settle in for a Zoom experience.
Someday soon, we’ll all be able to visit Napa (Sonoma, Tuscany, Bordeaux, you name it) again. Until then, we have dogs, wine, and armchair travel. Join us?