Hartford Family Winery Wine Tasting Event Hosted by Bluebeard - Summary Review
Hartford Family Wine Tasting Event, Bluebeard Indy
What a great way to spend a Monday night! Bluebeard is a popular restaurant located downtown Indianapolis in the Holy Rosary Neighborhood. We enjoy the hip vibes of the area, where there is an excellent scene for restaurants, distilleries, and microbreweries in this historic neighborhood, and frequently indulge in its offerings.
We were recently invited to a special wine tasting event host by Bluebeard featuring Sonoma County-based Hartford Family Winery. The cost for the event was $30 per person and it included 5 wines, as well as a wonderful selection of breads, meats and cheeses to snack on. The tasting included two Chardonnays, two Pinot Noirs, and one Zinfandel. They also offered exclusive event discount pricing on bottles and cases.
Hartford Family Winery specializes in single-vineyard wines and produces a limited number of cases each year. We enjoyed the company of Trad Ireland, District Sales Manager, at Jackson Family Wines, who poured our wine and shared a lot about the wine and the history of the winery with us.
Sign for Bluebeard Indy
Charcuterie at Bluebeard Indy
We thoroughly appreciated the experience and discovered new wines that we had not tasted before. Thank you also to Jane Bugher, Wine Director, at Bluebeard. We will definitely attend future events. We will also be making a stop at Hartford Family Winery during our upcoming trip to Sonoma in April 2017, to taste more of their fantastic wines.
Tasting notes of the five Hartford Family wines sampled.
Two stood out as exceptional to me.
2014 Hartford Court Russian River Valley Chardonnay
The nose offered pronounced oak followed with a creamy and lemon citrus flavor. I found that the citrus was a great balance to the oak and I enjoyed it more than a typical California buttery Chardonnay. I’m crediting this to the combination of both stainless and barrel fermentation.
Event bottle price - $22
2012 Hartford Court Stone Cote Vineyard, Sonoma Coast Chardonnay
I liked this one a little more than the first. My first impression was the bright sunshine hue and nose. The aroma was exactly what I imaged from the vibrant yellow color. The wine was well balanced with peach and pineapple flavors, followed by a light mineral finish. We were told that the mineral comes from the location of the vineyard, which sits along a riverbed and the river stone in the soil.
Event bottle price - $73
2013 Hartford Court Russian River Valley Pinot Noir - Top Pick of the Night
I loved this wine! The nose was amazing and it’s everything I want from a Pinot Noir. It was fruit-forward with ripe cherries, raspberries, and spice on the finish. Overall it was an excellent, well balanced wine that I would highly recommend.
Event bottle price - $36
2013 Hartford Court Land’s Edge Vineyards, Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
This is a completely different style of Pinot Noir compared to the first. It was very dry, full of tannins, and not as fruit forward. I also got a little coffee on the finish. Overall it is a very solid Pinot Noir and I could see myself enjoying this with a great cut of steak.
Event bottle price - $44
2013 Hartford Highwire Vineyard Zinfandel – Top Pick of the Night
I fell in love with this one as well, which comes from 100+ year-old Zinfandel vines in the Russian River Valley. There was predominately blackberry jam on nose, with well balanced flavors of dark fruit, spice, and tobacco. I’m going to have a hard time not opening this one up on a cool fall day.
Event bottle price - $36