We have visited many wineries during this project and every once in a while we stumble across a very unique winery. This is one of those wineries. It is run by Christine Madrigal and Elizabeth Trujillo. Each of the “two wives” is married to a Napa winemaker who in turn has their own individual wine labels/winery. Michael Trujillo runs Karl Lawrence and Chris Madrigal runs Madrigal Winery. Since being married, Christine & Elizabeth have become very familiar with the wine industry and have made many wine contacts within the Napa area. Despite both being mothers and juggling all the responsibilities that comes with this, they decided to start their own winery. They do not have any employees and run the entire operation themselves. Their first commercial vintage was a 2004 Sauvignon Blanc and this was their only wine until a Rose was released in 2006.
They source fruit from very high quality vineyards which have remained the same since day 1 so they are consistently getting excellent grapes. We tried their 2006 Sauvignon Blanc. It is a light crisp easy to drink wine that would pair very well with seafood. It is soft wine yet has crisp characteristics. The nose is very floral with hints of orange blossoms followed by flavors of ripe grapefruit on the palate. Recently it placed very high at a blind tasting competition exclusively for Napa produced Sauvignon Blancs. There were some very well-known Napa wineries present at this competition whose bottle prices were all more than Two Wives.
We also tried the 2006 Rose, named “Pink”. This wine is of course pink (pink is one of the owner’s favorite colors) and is predominately made from Merlot grapes with a touch of Syrah blended in. It is a semi-sweet Rose which is unique in the Rose market where most of the Rose’s are dry. That being said, it is not a dessert wine as the residual sugar is not as high as you would find in the dessert wines. It can be consumed by itself or with food and it pairs especially well with spicy food. This wine is all about the fruit with raspberry and pineapple guava characteristics on the palate.
Also of note are their prices. Compared to the typical wine prices for Napa produced wine, their wines are very affordable (under $20). Today, Christine and Elizabeth are extremely focused and passionate about their business. They often participate in charity events for The Breast Cancer Fund, www.breastcancerfund.org and are using their wines to raise awareness about this disease. You can find their wines locally at Dean & Deluca & Sunshine market in St. Helena. Besides USA distribution, they are selectively distributed in Canada & Japan.
NOTE: This review has been archived.
REASON: Stopped producing wine commercially
Leave a Reply