December 10, 2012 – Wines for those who “get it”

I met a good friend for dinner.  He is one of only a handful of people in my life that truly understands the significance of fine wine.   He also accompanies me to some of the wineries in Napa Valley and shares this passion of mine.  So, naturally I pulled out my best stuff to enjoy at dinner, since I seldom get the opportunity to open these fine wines I have collected.  (Both of these wines are from half-bottles.)


2001 Joseph Phelps Insignia and 2005 Carter Cellars To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon
(pardon the blurr)

2001 Joseph Phelps Insignia

Can a wine peak twice?  The first time I opened this wine, it possessed a magical elixir quality.  Its fruits were ultra pure and it featured terrific balance, all backed by a cocoa-influenced richness.  The second bottle I opened a few months later lacked that magical quality – it was still very nice, but no magic.  This bottle seems to have hit a different peak, with a clean richness that the first bottle lacked.  The nose is amazing.  The fruits remain vintage-typical, but have taken on more purity.  There is so much subtle complexity to this wine that I cannot do it justice, but the main flavors seem to be dark cherry, blackberry, leather, cocoa, and cranberry.  In this bottle, the magic has returned.

2005 Carter Cellars Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon

If the Insignia were James Bond, this would be his bulked-up body guard sporting an Armani suit.  Having visited Carter Cellars recently and thoroughly enjoying their 2010 To Kalon Cabernet, my friend opted to open this bottle from a small selection of choices.  I remember being very impressed by this wine when it was young.  Recently, I was able to acquire a few more bottles at a very fair price, so I was willing to open one now to see how it is doing.  The nose on this wine is potent, and the wine is both weighty and rich on the palette, all the while maintaining good balance.  It features a vintage-typical palette with surprising influences of darker fruits.  I noted Dark cherries, sweet black berries, subtle cranberries, minerals, and leather.  While the Insignia was at its peak in the half-bottle, this wine still has another three to five years of rich life left in it.

December 8, 2012 – Wine: 2007 Paradigm Cabernet Sauvignon

I coined a new term to describe this wine: de-lush-ious!  While getting ready for a tree-trimming party where I knew I would be pouring several of my party wines (nice juice, but I don’t cry if I never get a glass), I took a short break to enjoy something really nice before the guests arrived.  So I opened a half-bottle of the Paradigm Cabernet.  The first thing that impressed me was the apparent richness in this wine.  The next was the vintage-typical expression of fruits: blueberries, blackberries, minerals, leather.  The state of the acids gives this wine a lushness that makes your palette water as you drink it.  … hence the term delushious.

Here’s what I opened at the party:

2009 Savannah-Chanel Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir
2006 St. Clement Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
2008 St. Clement Napa Valley Merlot (most improved and my favorite)
2006 Bell Cellars Massa Ranch Syrah
2008 Dashe Cellars Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel

Viansa Winery, November 12, 2012

Winery - 8 / Wines - 4
Range:  1 to 9 (9 is best, 5 is average)
At the entrance to Carneros from SF, nice deli, great views, broad selection of wines.
www.viansa.com

The middle of November is probably the best time to catch the autumn colors in Napa Valley.  Since my mom relocated to California when I was born, she has always longed for the New England color palette that she left behind.  So, I try to make an annual pilgrimage to Carneros and Napa Valley before all of the vines drop their leaves.  I had to start late, so by the time we arrived in Carneros we were hungry for a tasty lunch.  Viansa Winery is the ideal place to stop along the way as they are basically the second winery on the route from San Francisco and they offer a deluxe deli counter inside the winery.  The fact that you can pair a glass of wine with your lunch isn’t such a bad thing either.

The entrance to Viansa Winery from the parking lot.

The folks at Viansa put a lot of thought into the winery facility, giving it a definite European flair with some old-world influences.  The courtyard that greets you as you approach from the parking lot is richly landscaped and features piped-in music.  You have to climb a flight of stairs to get to the dining patio and tasting room entrance, but it is worth it.  The view from the patio overlooks the southern Carneros area with visibility for miles.  Just off to the left is Cline Cellars, and off to the right in the distance are the rolling hills where the best of the Carneros colors can be found along Route 121.   


The view from Viansa Winery looking toward downtown Sonoma

Inside, the old-world theme is carried out with great detail, especially around the windows.  On each end of the tasting room are wine racks full of the winery’s production, while in the middle is a deli counter where you can select from a number of well-crafted snacks and lunches.  When ordering your lunch, you will have the option to pair it with a glass of their wine.  In good weather, take your wine outside to the patio and enjoy the fresh air and panoramic view.


The deli counter inside Viansa Winery

Because we bought our lunch with a special Black VISA Signature card, we were entitled to two free tasting flights.  We were a little pressed for time, so we opted for just a quick flight to check out their wines.  My mom enjoys good Chianti, so I picked a Sangiovese for her to try while I tried their Zinfandel.  Neither wine was particularly interesting, made in a style that pairs better with food than drinks well alone.  We decided not to pursue any other wines this time and continued on our way to Napa Valley … time was running short for our trip.
Based on this experience, I would rate the winery as an 8 and the wines offered as a 4.  This is consistent with my previous visit.

December 6, 2012 – Wine: 2004 Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon

My friend who works in a San Francisco wine shop lured me to his store for a special event where Cathy Corison was pouring a vertical of Corison Cabernets (2004, 2005, 2006, and 2009).  My favorite of the lineup was the 2005, but the 2006 was probably the most surprising in how it has improved over the last three years.  Afterwards, I joined my friend for dinner where we opened this half-bottle of Darioush.  While very different in style than the Corison lineup (bigger fruits, more emphasis on power than elegance), this wine was definitely noteworthy, tasty, and very well balanced.  While the finish might be described as short, this is mostly because the dominant experience is at the front of the palette – juicy flavors of cranberry, leather, mineral, blackberry.  This wine was well worth the wait.

November 22, 2012 - Thanksgiving wines

Since I was home all day cooking turkey, I had plenty of time to decant my last half-bottle of 1997 Duckhorn Cabernet (for three hours).  What a difference it made to let this wine breathe longer.  While the wine was still tight after two hours of being open the last time, this time it opened up nicely after three hours, with a clean richness and beautiful fruits on the palette, along with the expected Napa Valley complexity.  This was winemaker Tom Rinaldi’s last great vintage at Duckhorn before moving to Provenance Vineryards, and I must say “well done”.  (By the way, 15 years is about all you can really expect from a half bottle, but this one would have gone two more.)  I also have to agree with Wine Spectator ranking the 2004 Pio Cesar Barolo at the number six spot in their 2008 top 100 list – this wine is drinking quite nicely right now.

1997 Duckhorn Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (half bottle)
2004 Pio Cesar Barolo (half bottle - WS #6 in 2008)
2002 J. Lohr Carol’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
NV Piper Heidsieck Champagne (aged 6 years)

November 17, 2012 – Wines for my birthday

I was celebrating my birthday and decided to open a number of 10-year old wines (from the fortunate 2002 vintage).  Since these wines were released just as I was starting to collect, I had only a handful and decided to supplement the list with a few newer wines as well.  My favorite was the 2002 St. Clement Howell Mountain in a magnum (1.5L) bottle, but the surprise was the 2002 Groth Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  The Groth was delightfully smooth and probably at its peak.  What a nice surprise for my birthday.

Here is what I opened:

2002 St. Clement Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (1.5L)
2002 Bell Cellars Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 6
2002 Groth Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
2002 Hess Collection Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon
2006 Provenance Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon To Kalon
2007 Merry Edwards Russian River Pinot Noir (375ml)

Cinnabar Winery, November 11, 2012

Winery - 6 / Wines - 5
Range:  1 to 9 (9 is best, 5 is average)
Convenient Saratoga location, broad selection of red and white wines, plus a few dessert wines.
www.cinnabarwine.com

My sister is a wine club member at Cinnabar Winery.  Their tasting room is conveniently located in downtown Saratoga, not far from Cupertino and San Jose.  Today she was headed to the tasting room for a wine club pick-up and invited me to tag along.  Choosing between working around the house and wine tasting for the afternoon seemed an easy enough decision: wine tasting it is.  Cinnabar is one of the convenient, quality wine makers located in the south San Francisco Bay Area that I enjoy visiting.  The staff there is both welcoming and accommodating.

Cinnabar Winery in Saratoga

The tasting room sits on the westerly end of the road that runs diagonally through downtown Saratoga.  The exterior is fashioned similar to the surrounding shops, so you need to watch carefully for the winery as you drive through town (on the left from the main road).  The exterior is faced with brickwork, with a few bay windows to add some dimension to the building.  Once inside, you’ll find the tasting bar to the left and a small shop with interesting gift items to the right.  The tasting area is surrounded by large windows flanked by wooden storage bins for the wine.  The tasting bar has guests looking towards the windows as they taste, which lends an airy feel to the place.  Although the tasting experience ends at 5:00pm each afternoon, the tasting room is open until 8:00pm most Fridays and Saturdays offering guests an opportunity to enjoy wine by the glass (and some live music).

The tasting menu varies as new wines are released and features too many wines to taste during one visit.  Typically you will select four or five wines to sample during your visit.  During my visit, I tasted the 2010 Mercury Rising Blanc, the 2010 Merlot, the 2010 Zinfandel, and the 2009 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  By far, the Cabernet was my favorite, though I was curious to try the 2009 Mercury Rising (red).  The fun part about visiting this winery with someone else is the possibility to explore more wines by ordering distinct flights and sharing the interesting ones.

Based on this experience, I would rate the winery as a 6 and the wines offered as a 5.  This is consistent with my previous visits.

November 14, 2012 – Wine: 1995 Chateau Latour Pauillac

There are five great wine producers in Bordeaux (the “first growths”) which set the benchmark for the rest of the industry.  They are wines that are sought after and collected world-wide, commanding staggering prices.  These five include Ch. Haut Brion, Ch. Lafite  Rothschild, Ch. Margaux, Ch. Mouton Rothschild, and this wine, Chateau Latour.  It was entirely by chance that I happened upon a half-bottle of the 1995 Chateau Latour on clearance (during the economic downturn) and snatched up a bottle.  (Actually, I ordered two, but the retailer could not locate the second bottle and enclosed a check to refund the missing wine.)  Tonight, I finally had a special occasion worthy of opening such a special wine.  Of course, I had no idea what to expect.  I had enjoyed and abhorred a number of well-meaning Bordeaux wines in the past decade, but only one bottle had even stood out in my memory – a 1982 Chateau Duhart Milon that I opened in 2009.

To describe the flavors of this wine would be doing you a disservice, because it is not the flavors of this wine that distinguishes it from the rest.  Indeed, the flavors are quite complex, with a lithe balance of dark fruits, smoky influences, and mushroom qualities, most of which came into balance after about 75 minutes of decanting.  What was truly remarkable is the way that the wine graces every square-inch of your palette before gliding down the back of your tongue.  Long after you have swallowed the wine you are enjoying the persistent finish.  Every half-hour or so the wine’s flavor profile would evolve, eventually presenting more intensity in the minerals.  Never have I experienced such a wine, and I doubt that I ever will again.

1995 Chateau Latour Paullac

November 7, 2012 – Wine: 2004 Provenance Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

This wine was so good in its youth (and hard to come by) that I have been reluctant to open any bottles.  But, no wine lasts forever, so I opened one more.  (Doh!  I just discovered that was my last half bottle.)   Most of the young 2004 Napa Valley Cabernets featured lush black fruits wrapped in an elixir style that hid most of the fine tannins.  About two years later the tannins exploded.  This wine, however, remains in balance and has grown in complexity.  While it has lost some of the sweet dark fruits, what remains is delicious.  On the palette are raspberry jam, blackberry, mineral, tobacco, plums, leather, and a persistent finish.  Let this breathe at least 90 minutes.

2004 Provenance Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

November 5, 2012 – Wine: 1994 Ridge Monte Bello

Recalling how the 1992 Ridge Monte Bello had fallen from its peak about two years back (in the half-bottle), I was concerned that I had been sitting on this half-bottle of the 1994 for a bit too long.  There is always a bit of an emotional tug-of-war involved with opening the last bottle of anything, but even more so when the wine is such a special wine like the Monte Bello.  Well, after opening the bottle my fears were laid to rest as I discovered that this wine was still in its prime.  Of course the difference between the two vintages explains why – the 1992 was more balanced, elegant, and lush with fruit, while the 1994 featured a rich, palette-saturating intensity that worked a Schwarzenegger number on your taste buds (in a good way).  Tonight, the 1994 was more controlled and balanced, but still rich and intense, with a terrific nose I could have smelled all night and a complex palette featuring sour cherry, tobacco, leather, blackberry and plum, and minerals.  Let this wine breathe for two hours.  (It was spectacular with chocolate too.)

1994 Ridge Monte Bello