Commemorative Livermore Wine for the Amgen Tour
First Street Wine company has teamed up with Cuda Ridge Wines
to produce and distribute a commemorative wine for the Livermore
Stage of the Amgen Tour of the California Bicycle Race. Livermore
is hosting the Stage 4 Start of the Amgen Tour of California on May
18th. First Street Wine Company, and Cuda Ridge Wines, thought
that it would be fun to make a wine in celebration of the Amgen
Tour coming back to Livermore. Linda Allen, of First Street Wine
Company, came up with the naming of the wine, "The Tour", and the
concept of using the Livermore Amgen poster image for the front
label. Cuda Ridge went to work to produce a Bordeaux style blend
specifically for this special editionwine.
Winemaker, Larry Dino, describes this wine as a Saint-Emilion
Style wine. Saint-Emilion is one of the important wine regions of
Bordeaux and the primary grape varietals grown in this region are
Merlot and Cabernet Franc. "The Tour" blend consists of 49% Merlot,
49% Cabernet Franc, 1% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 1% Petit Verdot.
Mike Allen, from First Street Wine Company, participated with the
Cuda Ridge blending team on the final blend of The Tour. The Tour
is a 2009vintage using 100% Livermore Valley fruit and was barrel
aged for 17 months in French Oak. Larry describes this wine as
a perfect melding of the Cabernet Franc that has soft fruit
with spice and earthiness; and the Merlot that has rich fruit
characteristics. These two varietals from 2009 complement each
other very well to provide a well balanced, complex blend with
well structured tannins and a boldness on the long lasting finish.
First Street Wine Company is the sole retail store selling this
Special Edition Wine, the wine can also be purchased at Cuda
Ridge Winery. The Tour is currently on sale at both locations,
come pick up a bottle while supplies last!


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I have always wanted to make a St. Emilion style blend (Franc/Merlot based blend) and this was the perfect opportunity to get it a try, and I’m glad I did. The Tour turned out to be an elegant wine with great fruit characteristics and there is a good structure to this wine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Thanks to First Street Wine company in collaborating on this effort!