Beacon Grille's
Certified Sommelier
Tim Riley
 
 

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Tim brings an intense passion for beverage service and his wide knowledge of wine, beer, and spirits to Beacon Grille. An honors graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Tim has worked all over the East Coast, including stints with Chef Cindy Wolf at Charleston in Baltimore; at the Statler Hotel in Ithaca, New York; and most recently as the Beverage Manager and Wine Director at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.

In 2009, Tim became a Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers. He has also earned a Level IV certificate from the Wine Studies program at Boston University.
 

Mount Eden Vineyards

Mount Eden Vineyards  

Located on a two thousand foot peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about fifteen miles from the Pacific Ocean, Mount Eden Vineyards has been quietly producing some of the best wines in America for nearly sixty-five years. Despite the whims of fashion having pushed many California wineries towards making soft, heavily extracted efforts meant for consumption in their youth, Mount Eden has remained steadfast in its commitment to structured, complex, and decidedly elegant wines capable of aging for many years.

Founded in 1945 by the iconoclast Martin Ray, Mount Eden sits high up in the sky, a great distance - both literally and figuratively - from the Silicon Valley below. Driving up the winding two mile dirt road that leads to the winery, one has to wonder just what Ray was thinking when, in 1942, having sold his original property located father down the mountain, he decided to plant Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This is after all, desolate land; the soils are thin, rocky and so infertile that even in a good year, vines grown here yield only half as much fruit as they do farther north in Napa and Sonoma.

 

Yet, Ray was never one for naysayers or doubters. In an era when most California winemakers were content to make cheap, sweet, heavily fortified wines valued more for their intoxicating properties than their flavors or aromas, Ray planted premium varietals and set out to craft wines comparable to the Europe's best. While not every wine Ray crafted hit this mark - he was arguably as dogmatic and maniacal as he was brilliant - Ray created a legacy of fine wine on Mount Eden, one that continues to this day with the fantastic efforts of Mount Eden Vineyards.

Since 1983 Mount Eden has been run by Jeffery Patterson and his wife Ellie. While Patterson's wines lack the immense, nearly impenetrable tannin and acidity that characterized many of Martin Ray's efforts, they are still deep, intricate wines, distinctive from nearly anything else produced in California today.

Our current Mount Eden offerings are:

Mount Eden Vineyards, Wolff Vineyard,
Chardonnay, Edna Valley, 2008:

While Mount Eden is best known for the wines crafted from its estate vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, since the early 1980s they have also made wines from vineyards sites to the south in California's Central Coast. Sourced from the Wolff Vineyard in the bucolic Edna Valley, this wine is crafted from some of the oldest Chardonnay vines in the valley. While not as concentrated or defined as the Estate offering, this medium bodied effort still offers a bevy of pear, lime, and toasty oak flavors. (13 glass 48 bottle)

Mount Eden Vineyards, Estate,
Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Mountains, 2006:

While not shy about its red wines, Mount Eden is certainly best known for this wine, their Estate Chardonnay. Unquestionably one of the finest Chardonnays produced in California, it offers stunning depth and clarity with concentrated flavors of baked apple, orange, wax and honey. Full bodied, but light on its feet, this stupendous white cries out for Chef Tracy's decadent lobster preparations. (79 bottle)
 
 
 
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