10 Great Wines for 10 Great Days

Yahoo! Let Ranahans, the private club located in the Grandstand, enhance your Calgary Stampede experience with their Winemaker Series, featuring 10 great wines for 10 great days! Each day, they’ll be pouring from a specially selected bottle, allowing your palate to taste something other than the fairway food!

From Friday, July 9 to Sunday, July 18 you can experience the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth through your tastebuds. Get to know legendary wineries and winemakers across the United States, South America, and Europe with these ten remarkable wines, found exclusively at Ranahans Saloon.

Click here to meet the winemakers!

Friday, July 9: Chappellet Mountain Cuvée Proprietor’s Blend - Chappellet Winery, Napa Valley, California

Hailing from Napa Valley, California, Chappellet Winery has consistently impressed connoisseurs with their mountain-grown wines. Produced in extremely limited quantities, we suggest you savour every sip. The impeccably balanced Chappellet Mountain Cuvée Proprietors Blend displays aromas of currant, cassis, sage, and thyme, as well as hints of cinnamon and clove. With layers of lush berry cola, and grenadine, this glass goes down smoother than a suede cowboy hat!

Saturday, July 10: The Stalker Pinot Noir - Roco Winery, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Moving north, you’ll find Roco Winery, in Oregon, an eminent estate known for producing world-class wines in a once underrated region. Giving Old World wineries a run for their money, Roco Winery has earned its position as a premier Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producer. Their Stalker Pinot Noir grips your palate with tannins, with juxtaposing flavours of black fruit and spices. We consider this wine a bucking bronco of flavour!

Sunday, July 11: Antinori Tignanello Chianti Classico Riserva - Marchese Antinori Estates, Tuscany, Italy

A legend in Italian wines, Marchesi Antinori has twenty-six generations of winemaking experience. Over the last 600 years, this Tuscan winery has won numerous awards, and is a leader in implementing new and experimental winemaking techniques. The Antinori Tignanello Chianti Classico Riserva perfectly exemplifies the expertise of this estate. Notes of red fruit, vanilla and baking spices make this wine inviting, enveloping and balanced. It’s exactly what you need to unwind after a long day of barrel racing.

Monday, July 12: Tolaini Valdisanti - Tolaini Winery, Tuscany, Italy

Tolaini Winery celebrates its Etruscan roots by blending ancient winemaking philosophy with modern techniques. A pioneer in sustainable viticulture, each bottle proudly expresses the incredible climate and soil of the region. The Tolaini Valdisanti is full-bodied, with fine tannins that balance the deep fruit flavours. Every great saloon should have a bottle!

Tuesday, July 13: Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon - Freemark Abbey Winery, St. Helena, California

Despite being established in the late 1800’s, Freemark Abbey was really put on the map in 1976 after the Judgement of Paris, where this estate held its own against landmark Burgundy and Bordeaux producers. This notorious taste test forced the wine world to recognize California wine producers as genuine competitors. Ever since, this California winery has habitually topped Best Wine lists from critics and connoisseurs around the world. Their full-bodied Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon is bursting with bold flavours, like boysenberry, blackberry, cedar, milk chocolate, and dark cherry. Opulent, rich, and decadent, we wouldn’t be surprised if a gang of bandits tried to steal your glass!

Wednesday, July 14: Black Hills Nota Bene - Black Hills Estate, Okanagan Valley, BC

Located in the centre of Canada’s only desert, Black Hills Estate uses the unique microclimate to their advantage! Balancing blistering hot days and deceptively cool evenings, the grapes grown on this estate are intensely flavourful. The ideal growing conditions here are only heightened by the environmentally friendly farming techniques. The Black Hills Nota Bene is their flagship wine, demonstrating notes of dark chocolate and dark berry, and rounded off with fresh berry fruit, mint, and safe. We’d say this wine is silkier than a newborn foal!

Thursday, July 15: Duckhorn Napa Valley Merlot - Duckhorn Vineyards, Napa Valley, California

Over the last forty years, Duckhorn Vineyards has secured their position as a premium wine producer, gaining recognition not only in California but worldwide. The Napa Valley estate has won awards such as Wine of the Year, Wine Executive of the Year, and is consistently listed as one of the top 100 Wineries in the world. The Duckhorn Napa Valley Merlot offers alluring aromas of red fruits, cocoa and freshly baked pie crust. On the palate, fine tannins and flavours of ripe plum, licorice, and baking spice draw the wine to a long, elegant finish. This merlot has a legacy that rivals Billy the Kid’s!

Friday, July 16: Avignonesi Desiderio Cortona Merlot IGT - Avignonesi Winery, Montepulciano, Italy

Prioritizing transparency, ethical farming practices, and the implementation of eco-tech, Montepulciano’s Avignonesi is an indisputable leader in biodynamic viticulture. Refusing unnatural intervention, the estate produces high quality wines that respect the innate character of the terroir. The Avignonesi Desiderio Cortona Merlot IGT is elegant and intense, starting with notes of mint and coffee and giving way to an elegant, velvety finish.                                                                                                      

Saturday, July 17: Catena Alta Malbec - Bodega Catena Zapata, Mendoza, Argentina                                   

Bodega Catena Zapata’s reputation as one of the world’s finest Malbec producers is well deserved. The winery is recognized for utilizing their extreme high altitude terroir to resurrect Malbec’s reputation as a modern wine. The 2017 Catena Alta Malbec shows a deep violet, naturally matching notes of violet, lavender, leather, spice, and red fruits. With rich layers of black berries, black current, licorice, and pepper, this bottle is ace high.

Sunday, July 18: Pernard-Vergelesses Clos De Bully Pinot Noir - Maison Champy, Burgundy, France

Three centuries of history precede this acclaimed Burgundian estate! Maison Champy is the oldest winery in Burgundy, and among the most celebrated. In order to ensure consistency and quality, precise practices of sustainable and organic farming is implemented across the production process. The Pernard-Vergelesses Clos de Bully Pinot Noir has an intense nose, with notes of ripe red fruit and a fresh and fruit palate. The perfect bottle to wind down with after winning the west. 

Ready to take your tastebuds for a ride? Click here to book your table at the saloon!