August Amista Friends of the Month Newsletter!
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Here at Amista, our Wine Club members are very special to us and are considered part of our Family.
These are Club members who continually engage with, and visit from near and far. In addition to being featured in our monthly newsletter, Amista Friends of the Month receive additional benefits, like extra savings on wine, food pairings, and other treats during the month. We do this every month, and reach out to Club members asking if they would like to participate. So keep an eye out in your inbox to see if you have been nominated!
For the month of August, we are featuring Linda and Dwight from Groton, Massachusetts who have been Sparkling Friends Club members since May of 2018. Dwight was born and raised in Cupertino, and Linda grew up in Upstate New York. They met in Silicon Valley in 1986 and were married at the Mission Santa Clara. They lived in the Rose Garden area of San Jose until they moved to Groton in 2000. They have two children, Scott and Nicole who are becoming avid wine enthusiasts as well. They still have many friends and family in the Bay area and visit as often as they can, always making a stop in Wine Country, as it is one of their favorite places to visit. Their "go to" location is the Dry Creek region - Amista!
Below is their story!
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Becoming a Member:
We became Wine Club members when we visited Amista during Passport to Dry Creek 2018. During our early days of dating, we had developed a fondness for handmade sparkling wines and shared a Napa based sparkling wine with our friends at our wedding. Unfortunately, that winery changed owners and they stopped making their varieties of sparkling wines. We were in search of a family-based artisan winery that specialized in sparkling wines and found Amista during Passport weekend. When we stopped in, the event was very busy. Upon initial tasting of the white and red wines, we were not surprised why everyone was stopping in (they were so good)!. We then made our way to the sparkling wine bar to try it out. It was fantastic! And it was great to share our discovery of a new sparkling wine with our son and daughter. We chatted about our search for a new sparkling wine story while continuing to taste the other varietals. What a treat! As we were leaving, we were introduced to the winemaker, Ashley, and even though she was swamped, she was gracious enough to take the time to chat with us about her wines. After the craziness of Passport weekend concluded, Ashley and the Amista team were so kind to follow-up with us through email about our visit. We were hooked on the winery. It is our kind of place to visit!
Favorite Amista Wine:
Of course, our favorite wines are the sparkling wines. The Sparkling Grenache is Linda's favorite and Dwights is the Blanc de Blanc. Superbly crisp, low on residual sugars, and teeny tiny "toads eyes" bubbles are the characteristics of a finely crafted sparkling wine. We are also big fans of the Zinfandel, Tres and Rosé de Tres! A chilled Rosé de Tres on a warm summer evening is fantastic. Ashley's Zin and Tres are two delicious reds that go with so many meals. We look forward to growing our library of Amista wines.
Favorite Food Pairing:
While Amista Sparkling wines are our center piece for special occasions that call for popping a cork of bubbly, we also love to chill a bottle and enjoy a charcuterie plate of meats, olives, and cheeses (Brie, Vermont Cheddar, and mild Asiago) on our back deck in Groton. On the warmer nights, we will do a fruit plate (melon, strawberries...) with cheeses. It is a lovely way to wind down the week and enjoy a quiet evening outside.
For our Amista red wines, we pair them with homemade Italian meals - usually a lasagna or handmade manicotti with Linda's Italian meat gravy (good old fashioned red sauce). Or Dwight will whip up his version of a Gamberi Fra Diavlo (spicy shrimp) dish over a locally made fresh pasta (we pick up at our local farmers market from a placed called Valicenti Pasta Farms of Hollis, New Hampshire).
Favorite Amista Memory:
Our current favorite memory of Amista comes from our 2019 trip to the Bay Area for a "sports and wine country" getaway. We had plans to attend a Golden State Warriors versus Boston Celtics game with our close friends from college. Of course, we set aside a day to visit our favorite wine stops in Dry Creek and had contacted Amista to let them know we were coming. Tammy greeted us and brought us into a surprise welcome from the Amista team, Robert, Patrice and Ashley! They even made up a wonderful "Welcome to Amista" sign for us! We spent over 2 hours with everyone. Talking about wine, sharing wine country stories, getting insight into the Amista wines, talking sports, and more! With all that, our best memory will always be the people we meet. To us, the personal connection is what it is all about. We look forward to continuing this wonderful connection. On our next visit we will definitely take up Ashley on her offer to do a guided tour of the vineyard and winery. We can't wait to come back and create new favorite memories!
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Dwight loves to pair the Tres with his version of a Gamberi Fra Diavlo (spicy shrimp) dish over a locally made fresh pasta. Here is his recipe for this delicious dish to be enjoyed with Tres! Buen Provecho!
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