I'm On a Boat!

This past Friday, Mallory and I took advantage of an invitation to attend a Benovia Winery tasting aboard the M/Y Bella Una, a 127-foot super yacht that was docked at the Harborview Marina and Yacht Club in south Baltimore.  It was truly the experience of a lifetime and one that may not be duplicated any time soon.

The yacht was moored at K-dock, the farthest from the Yacht Club entrance.  After walking down past numerous other docks (and wondering if we were headed in the right direction), we came to a gated entrance that an attendant had to open for us.  With the exception of the Tiki Barge, this is clearly the dock reserved for the super yachts.  A number of 100+ footers were moored here, with the Bella Una being the second one past Tiki Barge.  Even though we never left the dock, it turned out to be the perfect viewing location of everything happening on the water.  The marina was right in the middle of the Star-Spangeled Spectacular, and there were tall ships, military vessels, and private watercraft all around us.

Upon checking in - and being asked to remove our shoes - we boarded the vessel and were immediately greeted with a glass of Benovia's 2013 Rose of Pinot Noir.  It was the perfect way to begin our evening, and is a gorgeous pairing for an evening on the water.  At $24 retail, get a case!

From there, it was into the salon where there were two tasting stations (Chardonnay at one, Pinot Noir at the other), an hors d'oeuvre station, and a flat paneled television that rose up out of its housing in a wooden cabinet to display incredible views of the Benovia property.

We began tasting through the Chardonnay being offered:

2012 Russian River Valley Chardonnay - A tasty Chard primarily from Benovia's Martaella estate vineyard, blended with the wares of a few other Sonoma County growers.

2012 Ft. Ross-Seaview Chardonnay - What was described to us the most "Burgundian" of Benovia's offerings coming from selected blocks in the Charles Vineyard near the town of Seaview, CA.

2011 La Pommeraie Chardonnay - My favorite of the bunch, aged for 16 months in a combination of new and old oak from a vineyard that was once an apple orchard (hence the name - Pommeraie is "apple orchard" in French) on the edge of Green Valley.  Though more new oak is used in this than the Ft. Ross-Seaview, its presence is much more nuanced here and - to me - integrated more seamlessly.

As the salon was getting a bit crowded during our tasting (and along with not wanting to be "those people" who crowd tasting tables never to allow other guests to taste), we began exploring the boat.  Moving upstairs, we found a sitting room that had been turned into yet another tasting salon.  This appeared to be the sitting room for the main cabin (though don't quote me on that), which was not open to the group tasting.  Deciding to see what more there was, Mallory and I went outside and climbed the stairs to the sun deck, complete with hot tub, bar, and wonderful views of downtown Baltimore.

It was up here next to the fly bridge (where my wine glass is resting in the above photo) that we camped for awhile, enjoying the wonderful harbor breezes and drinking in the view during the Baltimore sunset.  It also didn't hurt that the Bella Una crew was continually bringing canapes and hors d'oeuvres up to us, either!

Pretty soon, we had exhausted the Chardonnay offerings and moved onto the Pinot Noir that was in the downstairs salon:

2012 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir - As with the Russian River Chardonnay, this is a blend of Pinot from Benovia's estate vineyards along with select fruit from other Sonoma County growers.  Very approachable, this is a wine you could easily sip all night long.

2012 Martaella Pinot Noir - The first of the single vineyard estate Pinot Noir bottlings, this is a brand new offering for 2012.  There seemed to be a bit more depth and concentration than the Russian River.  I liked this more and more as the evening went on and I had the opportunity to revisit it.

2012 Tilton Hill Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir - Another single vineyard bottling, this Pinot Noir is sourced from the coldest of Benovia's estate vineyards, this one located on the coast only a couple of miles from the ocean.  The vineyards have been planted at high density, forcing the vines to fight harder for water and nutrients resulting in smaller vines with fruit of a higher intensity than expected.  The vineyard was planted in 2009.  Hands down, this was my favorite offering of the evening.  Although I think this might get a bit better as time goes on, it's already smooth and refined on the palate, with a nose that jumps out at you screaming, "It's Pinot, you jacka$$!!"  This is the very first offering of Tilton Hill Pinot Noir that Benovia has produced.

2012 La Pommeraie Pinot Noir - This Russian River single vineyard Pinot is sourced from the same Frei Road vineyard as the Chardonnay (obviously!) and is coopered the same way too.  For me, it was quite interesting to see how nearly identical oak aging can affect white wine and red wine so differently.  I'm sure service temperature played a role as well, but to me there was more of an oak influence here. 

Shuttling between the "tasting room" on the main deck and our spot on the sun deck got a bit tiring, so we again explored the boat a bit as it continued to get darker, taking in different views of the city from different parts of the boat.

It was during this time of exploration that we caught a fantastic view of the Pride of Baltimore II making its way under full sail into the Inner Harbor.  This on-the-water view was simply unbeatable.

We then moved our way upstairs to round out the tasting.  At the final table were:

2012 Cohn Vineyard Pinot Noir - Truly a spectacular representation of California Pinot Noir.  Made from 44 year old vines from the Cohn estate vineyard outside of Healdsburg, this wine is extremely difficult to find outside of the winery (or events like this!) - only 149 cases were produced.  Dry- and organically-farmed, these old vines (by California standards, at least) only produce a yield of one ton per acre.  This wine has staying power too, with quite a finish.  All in all a beautiful wine, and Mallory's favorite of the evening.

2012 Sonoma County Zinfandel - Another very nice wine, this - to me - is a perfect representation of Sonoma County Zinfandel that can stand up with the Ridge's of the world.  Also coming from the Cohn Vineyard, it's a fruity Zin that has an intensity on the palate that proves to be stellar with dark chocolate (as we found out first hand).

It was up here that we learned the Bella Una has more than a cursory connection to Benovia Winery.  It's owned by Joe Anderson and Mary Dewane, the husband and wife proprietors of Benovia.  When we first got the invite, the name of the boat rang a bell, but I couldn't figure out why. After learning this interesting piece of information, I checked the listing of what we have in the cellar, and there it was! 2011 Bella Una Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.  Old media information from the Benovia website states it's a blend from the Dutton Manzana Vineyard and Martinelli Vineyards.  As Benovia still utilizes Martinelli vineyards (they own the Frei Road vineyards from which La Pommeraie Chardonnay and Pinot Noir comes from), I can only speculate that the Dutton Manzana Vineyard was not used for any of their offerings this time around.

Armed with a little more of the history of Benovia Vineyards from talking with Joe for a bit, we spent the rest of our evening walking around the vessel, exploring the bridge and the bow area, revisiting some of our favorites from the evening, and simply soaking in all that our great city of Baltimore has to offer on what proved to be one of the best nights of the year to be out on the water.

Apologies for the quality of the photos - it was quite dark when we disembarked!