Sunday, January 27, 2008

Wine Musings Vol#46


Wine of Merit: ****Aubert, Lauren Vineyard, Sonoma coast, chardonnay, 2004: Very Special. Even more Burgundian than the Ritchie vineyard. Rich, perfumed, unctuous nose of clover honey, white flowers, marzipan and linseed. Over time, more tropical fruit is added. Fat, but not flabby, the palate shows more candied orange zest, lovely minerals and a hint of café latte. Finish is long, with Asian spice and more citrus. Like the Ritchie, I am impressed that a wine of this complexity can still be so seamlessly presented and so fresh. So worth it - though on the open market it is getting pricey.

***++Favia, Cerro Sur, Napa valley, cabernet franc, 2004: Wonderful, open knit signature of ripe plum, red fruit, espresso and black truffle. Very inviting – like a crackling fire on a winter day. The palate is seamlessly integrated and coating, and not shy on oak, adding licorice, sandalwood and baker’s chocolate. Firm, fine finish that still integrates beautifully with the rest of the palate tells me that this wine is age worthy – meaning it is great now and I am sure will develop added complexity and nuance if you can just keep you hands off of it in the short term. Good luck! I bought a few bottles at Amanti Vino but will buy more, even at $80+.

***++Andrew Will, Ciel du Cheval Red, Washington State, 2005: Fabulous. I have paid tribute to Chris Camarada in other postings…I dig his wines very much. They age effortlessly and always put balance and flavor integration at the head of the class – where they belong. This wine is simply delicious. Ripe and velvety, it offers warm, merlot-driven aromas and flavors of blackberry, violets, black cherry and mocha. Plenty of well integrated oak. The cab franc adds yummy black truffle, bay leaf and earth. Satiny, lush, but not flabby at all it still has great concentration, nice minerals and even though very approachable – a promise of a long life. The finish is long, succulent and sweet. Dynamite. At $50 a pop I would buy this before I would buy say Blackbird vineyard merlot from Napa – not that the latter is not delicious…it is just $30 more a bottle and I’m not sure why.

***++Beringer, Private Reserve, Napa valley, cabernet sauvignon, 1990: I have heard about inconsistent aging for this wine, so I wasn’t sure. Instead it was lovely. Juicy, almost chewy…delicious, right out of the bottle. Elements of ripe plums and chocolate covered blueberry, licorice root and fresh topsoil…wonderfully complex and intense but very much integrated. This wine has great stuffing…it approaches my “meal in a glass” definition. The palate is expansive and shows off that juicy-fruit goodness. The finish is long and silky. Nice balance throughout. A wine you can very much enjoy now, though it is not going anywhere soon. Hooray!

***+Paolo Scavino, Carobric, Barolo, 2000: Poetic. Lyrical. Surprisingly light in hue and intensity of color, the wine still delivers lovely, almost pinot like aromas of red currant, ripe plum and black cherry fruit, slate, green tea and spice box. With time more blue fruit and a beautiful candied violet. The palate is still very firm, adding more minerals and briar. Great, seamless structure. Long, fine finish – lots to spare here. Amazing how the fragile flavors complement the huge frame in almost a harmonic way. Wine as song! Surprisingly affordable at under $70.

***+JL Chave, Silene, Crozes Hermitage, 2005: What a buy this wine is. Available at under $20 a pop, this unassuming Crozes is well crafted, almost delicate and absolutely delicious. Bright red cherry and currant fruit, a nuance of garrigue, briar and cracked pepper, each element amazingly detailed, jump from the glass. The palate is also bright and lively, with a nice backbone from beginning to end, red fruit and iron, the finish medium-long, peppery and fine – a great food wine. Easy to drink, correct, could be a killer every day wine…as in I could drink it everyday! Super!

**++Eric Texier, Brezeme Pergault VV, Cotes du Rhone, 2005: Texier and I definitely see eye to eye. He has a clear and strong appreciation for balance, integration and natural flavors. This CdR was offered by Crush Wines in NYC as their best buy in 2007 (@$26). It is an old vines, 100% syrah based wine. In fact, it is much more Hermitage than it is Cotes du Rhone. Initially very racy red/blue berry, pine needle and chalk and camphor, time in the glass reveals bacon fat, grilled meat and groovy Mediterranean / North African spices. Wonderful integration of flavors and aromas. The palate perhaps is more CdR, bright acids, black pepper, more red fruit and olives – but still showing a strong backbone. Long, firm finish. This wine shows the balance and structure that will reward aging. Very nice.

**+Herman Story, White Hawk vineyard, syrah, Santa Barbara county, 2005: I was drawn to this wine because of its shared provenance with our own Trois Fils syrah, of the same vintage. Further, this wine has received accolades; including a 93 point score from Vinfolio and an assertion that winemaker Russell From was their “Winemaker of the Year”. Fair enough. To the wine: Trois Fils on steroids! It is the wine Pax would have made with my grapes. Everything about it is, in my opinion, exaggerated. 16.2% alcohol, it is a huge wine, with a fiercely tannic backbone and maximum extraction. The fruit characteristics are almost identical to Trois Fils; baked blueberry cobbler, mulling spices, vanilla bean, white flowers…all there with perhaps a more syrupy juiciness about them. The palate and finish are disjointed, at once fat and harsh. It has an added element of briar and green-ness…I am guessing because of an increased addition of stems or “whole cluster” as it is called (Trois Fils is whole berry, no stems). Honestly, very much a Pax-let’s-make-jet-fuel style of wine that I am sure Parker would love. Russell From says that as a winemaker he is more a carpenter than an architect…he sees himself as a cook, using the best ingredients – and I would agree. I think this wine lacks finesse…it is not like art that emerges from its medium but it is rather built from components - much more a recipe wine. Regardless of pride of authorship, I find it yummy but recognize that the White Hawk vineyard can make better wine. I think I should add a star to the Trois Fils rating!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Wine Musings Vol#45


Wine of Merit: ***+Kenwood Artist Series, Sonoma Valley cabernet sauvignon, 1986: I don’t know…something about Sonoma is beckoning me this week. I have always had fondness for the Kenwood Artist Series wines. I find them to be, depending on the vintage, the St. Julien trending to St. Estephe wines of California. This is somewhere between a Montrose and a Gruaud Larose – and like those wines in dynamite vintages built for the long haul. First off, it has lovely color and bright clarity, with slight bricking. The nose offers meaty aromas of red currant, plum, blood, tobacco leaf and baker’s chocolate. A heavyweight, with less than 13% alcohol! The palate is still very firm with a strong tannic ledge running from entry to finish. I imagine this wine to have been just gigantic on release. Still the mouth feel is coating and the flavors - all blackberries, minerals and pepper - deep. The finish is still a blockbuster and of endless length. Decanted and tasted over 3 hours. I think this 21+ year old wine is just hitting its stride. Huh…who would have guessed!

***+Trois Fils, White Hawk Vineyard, Santa Barbara county, syrah, 2005: Our home brew – courtesy of Crushpad. Just checking in on it. I have to say – I wouldn’t consider this a serious wine per se…but it is yummy. The co-fermented viognier really kicks the aromatics up a notch. Strawberry jam, blueberry cobber, cinnamon, vanilla pudding, pine needles…all bright and focused. No funk to this wine, it reminds me of a Two Hands Bella’s Garden if anything. The palate sings. More blueberry and baking spices. Nice, lengthy, spicy finish. No bitterness at all. Just a wonderful expression of fruit. While no one will confuse this with a Texier cote rotie, I could drink a lot of this – and have!

***B.R. Cohn, Olive Hill vineyard, Sonoma valley, merlot, 1994: I like Sonoma valley merlot. Older vintage Matanzas Creek and Newton wines are a treat. This was Bruce Cohn’s inaugural merlot release. I guess it is working out as he still currently makes one. I think his current releases go with the tried and true Sangiacomo merlot fruit, while this was an experiment with vines planted right there on his estate. This iteration is yummy. Typical varietal notes of plum fruit, dark chocolate and candied violets are accompanied by a briny, green olive note that nuances the wine. Open knit and inviting, the palate is velvety, still offering good depth and fullness. Very nice minerality. Surprisingly youthful, not tired at all. The wine holds up in the glass for an extended period of time and finishes with a firm but fine tannic edge of notable length. A very nice effort.

**++Ferrari Carano, Reserve, Sonoma county, red table wine, 1990: Well, the package is certainly beautiful. All fiery and brooding, it virtually promises that an exciting wine experience awaits if one had but the temerity to open the imposing bottle. Ok, then…deep breath and…screwpull! This Reserve – now labeled Tresor, or treasure by Ferrari Carano - is another Bordeaux-like blend, based mostly on mountain cabernet sauvignon. Though some of the most primary elements of this wine’s signature are breaking down, the fiery label does in more ways than one give something of a precursor to the wine itself. Built around a still fairly intense core of spicy red / black currant fruit, the wine displays nuances of tobacco and dusty earth. The palate adds blueberry, black licorice and herbs hinting of rosemary. The mouth feel thins a bit and perhaps is bit disjointed – showing some awkward heat and peppery pucker on the finish despite the fairly low 13.5% alcohol content (pretty standard for the time) and age. A serious effort – but I will cellar Laurel Glen and Kenwood Artist with confidence, as those wines seem to prize balance and integration to a greater degree.

**+Stolpman Vineyards, L’Avion, Lompoc, roussanne, 2005: Given the pedigree, I was hoping for something like a Sine Qua Non roussanne-based white (think The Hussy or The Boot). Further, this has been raved about by Vinfolio and Robert Parker. Instead…not so lucky. Nice enough – the wine shows a floral, banana cream pie thing and bright candied orange zest – but light on the palate (I do get some nice minerals and more citrus) and a bit racy. The finish is spicy but shows a slight greenness and bitterness. A $26 roussanne that is worth…about $26.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Wine Musings Vol#44


Wine of Merit: ****Mayacamas, Mayacamas Vineyards, cabernet sauvignon, Napa Valley, 1974: (From Magnum - label to the right borrowed from the 82 cab). This is very much a storied wine – some put it with the 74 Heitz MV as the best wine ever made in Napa Valley. It is the old style, vin de garde type wine that I love. 13% alcohol, massive tannic structure on release (I am guessing – I was 10), fined and filtered (I am guessing by the lack of sediment) – I am sure Parker would have hated it. Anyway, now, some 33 years later, after 4 hours in the decanter, it opens up and reveals something very special. Really the tasting notes on this evolve as the wine continues to open up over many, many hours – I am thankful we had a magnum so that we could taste through the evolution. Initially closed and somewhat reluctant with overwhelming cassis and nicoise olive notes, the deep color (with minimal bricking) and youthful finish offer hope of more. In fact, over the next few hours layers of deep black berry fruit, smoke, graphite, melted black licorice and mint build in waves. The palate, still bright and lively, shows red and black fruit, minerals and bittersweet chocolate. I definitely get a sense that this is mountain cab. The finish is long, peppery and firm. A gift. Very special.

***++Conn Creek Vineyards, Anthology, Napa Valley, 1991: Thirsting for more after the Mayacamas time machine experience, we opened this bottle. Conn Creek is another long established winery out in Napa that has been making delicious wines for a long time. Where Mayacamas is over on the western side of the valley, Conn Creek is on the Silverado Trail, along the eastern confine. Where the Mayacamas was clearly a cabernet driven wine, the Anthology – 1991 was the inaugural vintage – is a softer Bordelaise blend, including merlot, cab franc, malbec and petite verdot. Absolutely delicious, this is a much warmer, open knit, sexy wine. Luscious red fruit, mocha, vanilla, church incense and truffle waft from the glass immediately. Amazingly youthful – the palate is creamy, coating and supple with more yummy red fruit, café au lait / milk chocolate. The finish is sweet and fine – hard to believe this is 16 years old. If this wine were a holiday it would be Valentines Day. Wonderful.

***Failla, Alban Vineyard, Edna Valley viognier, 2005: Really lovely. A big crowd pleaser, this wine offers rich hibiscus, marzipan and apricot notes, accompanied by pleasing vanilla and peach. I often find new world viognier shrill, but this wine has depth and layers, showing off its excellent Alban vineyards breeding and Ehren Jordan’s deft touch. Lovely integration across the palate with a touch of Asian spice and nutmeg on the finish. Yum.

***Failla, Phoenix vineyard, Napa Valley, syrah, 2003: Another Failla winner. This wine has a meaty, baker’s chocolate, black cherry and kirsch characteristic at its core, with smoke and pine needle on the periphery. Medium in weight with a solid tannic backbone, the palate offers more plum, oolong tea and minerals through to the fine, furry finish. I am typically not a huge Napa syrah fan…this is delicious.

***Failla, Keefer Ranch, RRV, pinot noir, 2003: I guess we are on a roll here. The Keefer ranch pinot was my introduction to Failla a few years back and I have always enjoyed it thoroughly (see previous notes for the 2005 pinots – which I think are outstanding and even better than the 2003s). This has always been quite a showy wine – bright, sassy and yet at the same time showing dynamite depth and richness. The red, bing cherry fruit jumps from the glass, perfectly focused, with accompanying cinnamon stick and ginger candy notes. The palate is firm but finely integrated from front to back – not really creamy as much as deep and rich. The finish has peppery spice and great length. Very nice indeed.

***Vilmart, Coeur de Cuvee, champagne 1993: Extremely nuanced and sophisticated. Very malic, it offers a lot of green apple, nutmeg, anise, perhaps a touch of celery seed…I do get that brown butter and touch of saltiness as well. Yummy and serious. Superior structure for the age – it is lively and bracing, not thinning at all. Long, drying finish. A heady, wine geeks champagne – might disappoint folks just looking for yummy, yeasty bubbles.