Wine Wednesday: Ledson Legend Blend

Last week I blogged about several wines I tried while visiting Sonoma, and one of the reds I mentioned was the Ledson Legend blend, which I decided deserved its own entry.

Econo Boy and I almost didn't go to Ledson on our trip to Sonoma. It was within spitting distance of our B&B, but I have to admit that we were suffering from a bit of reverse snobbery as we looked at its gorgeous building. Surely, we reasoned, there would be no need to construct such an elaborate "castle" structure to lure in tourists if the wine was any good.

My photo of Ledson

But on the way back to our home base after a long day of tasting, Econo Boy and I decided to give it a try. We snuck in just 30 minutes before the tasting room closed, and were very pleasantly surprised! Castle or no castle, this is a serious winery, and we tried one wine that flat-out blew us away: the Legend red, an unusual blend of Zinfandel and Merlot.

Image from www.ledsonwinery.com

According to the pourer, Legend originated in a fortuitous mistake -- they'd intended to make the more common Meritage blend of Cabernet and Merlot, but accidentally used Zin instead of Cab. Their mistake won a gold medal at an international wine competition, and they've been making it ever since. This wine was rich and complex, dark, but food-friendly, with slight hints of cocoa and pepper and zingy, acidic cranberries. We served it at Thanksgiving with our turkey and cranberry sauce, which turned out to be a great pairing.

Ledson doesn't distribute nationally, unfortunately, but should you ever be in Sonoma, I highly encourage you to stop by! Take some photos of the gorgeous building, but most of all, enjoy the wine.