Ken Forrester Vineyards pulls high marks in both red and white categories at recent Newport Mansions Wine and Food Festival

Monday, 21 October, 2013

Ken Forrester Wines

A Summary of the 2013 Newport Mansions Wine and Food Festival

To summarize the wine I would point out the producers that really shined overall for quality across their wines. These include Ken Forrester, Casey Flat Ranch, Joseph Phelps (even though they did not make our top ten reds their overall portfolio was excellent), Blackbird Vineyards Bespoke Collection, Podere Sapaio and Somerston. Some of these were pouring $100+ bottles, but try them while you can is our motto. You can see our top ten red wines here and our top whites here.

The Best White Wines of the 2013 Newport Mansions Wine and Food Festival
While we tend to focus on reds, there is this whole sub-culture that drinks white wines and seems to enjoy them. We do too of course, though we do drink a lot more red. There were some excellent white wines at the recent 2013 Newport Mansions Wine and Food Festival. Listed below are some of what we liked, in no particular order. All of these wines are worth buying in our opinion.

2012 Ken Forrester Old Vines Chenin Blanc – this wine is very dry and crisp, presenting beautiful melon aromas and flavors. It strikes you as a quality, well made wine and would be excellent with food. We really enjoyed it and would buy this.

2011 Ken Forrester “The FMC” Single Vineyard Chenin – there’s some residual sugar here, and this finishes off dry. It’s smooth, crisp and delicious with bright citrus and melon flavors. It was suggested this would be excellent with rich seafood dishes, and I have no reason to disagree. I would buy this as well.

2008 Ken Forrester Renegade – From Stellenbosch, South Africa this is a Rhone style blend that packs dense flavors in a well integrated wine. The man behind the counter, who I believe was Ken Forrester, said it was a blend of Shiraz and Grenache. When I asked him where the Mourvedre was he replied that there was a little in there. It tastes like a very good Chateauneuf du Pape. The wood is prominent but nice and the wine finishes very long. This is a definite buy as well.