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[Welcome to Accolades Week at The Wine Spies! All this week, we’ll be featuring wines that have won awards or high praise from judges and wine writers.]

Mission Codename: The Manzoni Code

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Unlock the secrets of the Manzoni Family

Mission Status: In Process (see below)

Wine Subject: 2005 Santa Lucia Highlands Paraiso Vineyards Syrah

Awards:
90 pt Gold Medal – BTI World Wine Championships
Gold Medal – 2007 Monterey County Fair
Silver Medal – 2007 Central Coast Wine Competition
Bronze Medal – 2007 San Francisco International Wine Competition
Bronze Medal – 2007 Orange County Fair

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Deep ruby

Smell – Blackberry, blueberry, licorice and rock candy, with hints of smoky white pepper

Taste – Liquid-velvet in the mouth, with chewy caramel, ripened berries, and subtle cherry. Its flavors and long finish with moderate tannins make this a fun-for-the-mouth wine

Conclusion – When we get around to creating an award of our own, this will will be its first recipient! If you love syrahs, this is a winner. If you have never had a Santa Lucia Highlands wine, or a wine made from Paraiso Vineyards grapes, or a wine made by master winemaker Steve Pessagno, where have you been all of your wine-drinking life?!

Wine Spies Mission Summary:

For generations, the Manzoni Family have farmed the fertile land of Monterey County. The presence of the family in Monterey County began in 1921, when Joseph Manzoni and his wife Carolina left their home in Switzerland to seek a new life in America. Joseph brought with him old-world secrets of wine and grappa making. It is surmised that these secrets were passed to his son, Louie Manzoni, who founded Manzoni Estate Vineyard, and later to Joseph’s grandsons, Mark and Michael Manzoni.

I recently learned that a plot was under way to steal the family’s winemaking secrets and I rushed to investigate. So enamored with Manzoni wines am I that had to take action to protect the family.

A rival winemaker identity censored boasted to a Wine Spies asset that the family’s secrets were encoded within the family crest which is emblazoned on every bottle of Manzoni wine.

I decided that in order to protect the secrets, I must first decode the crest. While I pride myself on my ability to crack codes, this one proved extremely difficult. In fact, as you read this report work is still underway to uncover additional information. Stay tuned to future reports when I will provide additional intelligence. For now, I have only been able to decode the following, which I can only conclude is either a delicious recipe or devious misinformation, meant to throw potential interlopers off the trail. You decide for yourself:

Manzoni Family Fondue Recipe

Our Fondue Ingredients:

Approximate weight Cheese content
One-pound Baby Brie
Two pounds Gruyere
Two pounds Fontina
Two Pounds Gouda

Two table spoons of flour
And
Two table spoons of cornstarch

Three cups Manzoni Estate Syrah Wine

Bring wine to a boil with one garlic clove, remove clove and add cheese and stir, simmer.

Mission Conclusion:
As with this incredible Syrah detailed above, the Fondue proved to be delicious. I suspect that this is a deliberate distraction, designed to throw me off the trail.

I will continue to attempt to decode the crest. Look for subsequent reporting in briefings on additional Manzoni wines.

The region where this wine came from can be seen in this satellite photo.

Wine Spies Technical Wine Analysis:

Harvest Date: November 4, 2005

Brix: 26.1

pH: 3.64

Alcohol: 14.7%

TA: 6.8 gram/liter

156 cases bottled January 12th, 2007.

Stephen Pessagno, Winemaker