DReaming Tree Wines – Charlottesville UnCorked

Courtesy of a friend at Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management Company in Charlottesville, a much anticipated package arrived at my doorstep. Carefully tearing open the shipping box and immersed in peanuts (not sure if they’re recycleable?) I found an artistically packaged box containing the first three bottles of Dreaming Tree wines. The labels are made with 100% recycled paper, the bottles weigh 1/4 pound less than normal bottles so they cost less to ship showing their commitment to saving energy and sustainability.

The crossover between wine lover and music lover placed me in an immediate quandary. First instinct: Invite my closest family members for a blind tasting to determine how really good these wines are OR close second: save the wines as a collectable bit of Dave Matthews memorabilia. The jury is still out and I’m looking for feedback from wine afficionadoes and/or Dave Matthews Band fans. Everything about me is in battle over this decision. I looked on the website and the wines are sold out but I think I can find the wines individually at retail stores.

The Dreaming Tree Wines

The Chardonnay- “When I first met Dave, we talked about making a Chardonnay that captured the distinct citrus notes of the Central Coast. With its big fruit and loads of spice, we think this wine lives up to that promise. We hope you agree.” – Steve Reeder

The Cabernet Sauvignon- has classic aromas of blackberry, cherry and herbal notes wrapped by toasted vanilla. They had this one at our local Target store.

Crush is the wine I’m most curious about especially since it’s had such rave reviews!

“…maybe most important is where you drink it, and who you’re with when you do. When it came time to pick the flavors for their Dreaming Tree Crush wine, Steve, Dave and Tom already considered each other pretty good company (and Dodger and Moose just sweetened the deal). But something about an afternoon under a warm California sun, on an old pier down by a quiet pond and suddenly that wine’s giving up flavors you never knew were there. ” Dodger and Moose are beloved vineyard dogs of Tom Gore! Tom Gore is the director of vineyards at Simi Winery in california.

Returning to my dilemna, the bottle is so cool, the seal on the cork is reflective

and the cork itself is collectable. For the moment I have determined to keep the set in the box-this is probably bad for the wine so maybe I should lay it down? Also, the whole reason that Dave and Steve made this wine is to drink it! Contra-purpose if I store it. Hmmmmm….as for now, no tasting notes from Charlottesville, I’m keeping the bottles corked!

Your thoughts?

In case you’ve missed it, the latest “buzz” in wine is crossing the continent as we speak!

11 years ago, our family had decided to move to a beautiful, relatively small town in Virginia with world-wide recognition! Historians will insist that Charlottesville is most notable because of the influence of one man, Thomas Jefferson. However, talk to anyone under a certain age (ahem!) and they’ll have you know it is more well-known as the residence (albeit, part-time) of Dave Matthews and the DMB! Two decades ago at the Earth Day Festival in the City of Charlottesville, the Dave Matthews Band was publicly launched. in 2001 I had no idea who the heck DMB was, but friends of ours in Dallas were envious that we could move to the “birthplace of The Dave Matthews Band“! How exciting! A couple of years after we moved, a family member (name to be withheld) was eating a slice of pizza with us at Christian’s Pizza on the Downtown Mall and literally bit through her plastic fork when she realized Dave Matthews was sitting behind us. We kept the fork for quite some time as a memento and at that point I realized how exciting (wink) it was to live in Charlottesville! Unbeknownst to us, in 2000, Dave Matthews had established Blenheim Vineyards, a family operated winery a scenic 20 minute drive southeast of Charlottesville. Now in 2011, Dave is launching another collaboration in wine making with Steve Reeder of California called The Dreaming Tree Wines, named after the song.

Creative Factor– Dave: “A mutual respect that doesn’t rely on his (Steve’s) knowledge of music or my knowledge of wine” and Steve: “I make wines for people to drink, I don’t make wines for people to put in their cellar”.

Steve Reeder graduated from University of California, Davis and according to Steve, was inspired to make wine at the 1st Middleburg Virginia Festival in the 1970’s! As a youngster, he worked for a while on his uncle’s farm in Indiana pitching in with beer making in the barn. Later he lived in Germany and was introduced to exceptional lager beers and his parents wine cellar 🙂 His resume includes Kendall-Jackson, Fosters Wine Estates and most recently, Simi Winery.

Check out their website, super cool and follow the path on the map! Does this mean the path ends in Virginia with Blenheim Winery making wine for The Dreaming Tree label as well? Could we cross the Great Divide between California wines and Virginia wines? And by the way, I love the Cork! We’ll soon know, perhaps someone can shed more light on this? All I know is that it sounds great, looks like fun and takes the pretentiousness out of wine drinking!