Savannah-Chanelle Vineyards, November 3, 2013

Winery - 4 / Wines - 7
Range:  1 to 9 (9 is best, 5 is average)
Authentically rustic old-world tasting room.  Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Chardonnay.
www.savannahchanelle.com

I have been enjoying visiting the tasting room at Savannah-Chanelle since before I started tasting wine.  I would accompany my sister there for wine tasting, but I would merely sample the amazing mustards that they had on display.  Soon after that I started enjoying wine and I returned to sample their offerings.  Since then, I have returned every year to try the latest vintage.  As their winery is on the road returning from the Christmas tree farms in the Santa Cruz Mountains, it makes for a fun place to stop after cutting down a fresh Christmas tree.  Often times I am fortunate enough to stumble upon a terrific clearance deal they have going on in the tasting room, but not this time.  (My supply of party wines is beginning to dwindle, so I had hopes.)  In any event, I was looking forward to the opportunity to taste their latest releases.

The authentic old tasting room at Savannah-Chanelle

The drive to the Savannah-Chanelle mountain winery is an easy drive up Highway 9 from the town of Saratoga.  The turn into the winery’s driveway is tight, so go slowly and be prepared.  The driveway climbs the hillside through majestic redwoods leading up to the old winery operations building.  The barn-like structure seems to be maintained in a state of arrested decay – the building is clearly well-kept, but there is no trace of “new” here.  Just outside the main door to the tasting room a few tables are arranged for enjoying your wine flight in the open air of the mountain-side tasting room.  Inside, the large barn has been set up with two tasting counters along opposing walls, with tables set up in the middle of the room displaying merchandise for sale.  (Check out the funny cocktail napkins.)  Two skylights let in sunlight during the summer months, but no direct light enters the rest of the year because of the hillside and trees.  Just as you enter the tasting room is a grand piano, where the same woman has been playing every weekend afternoon for the past decade.  The tasting room can get very busy on weekend afternoons, so plan around this.

The busy tasting room at Savannah-Chanelle

The tasting menu has six wines on it, but I only wanted to sample four of them.  I started with the 2012 Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay, followed by the 2009 Russian River Pinot Noir.  I next tried the 2009 Insiders’ Club Pinot Noir (which is a selection of special lots), and ended with the 2009 Tondres Grapefield Pinot Noir.  Of these, my favorite was the Insiders’ Club Pinot Noir for its ripe fruits and excellent balance.

Based on this experience, I would rate the winery as a 4 and the wines offered as a 7.  This is consistent with my previous visits.

October 23, 2013 – Wine: 2006 Carter Cellars Hossfeld Coliseum Red Blend

This wine took a very different evolution from what I had expected.  I bought two half-bottles of this wine during my first visit to the Carter Cellars tasting room in 2009.  At that time, the wine was performing much better than most red wines from the 2006 vintage so I bought these half bottles.  The wine back then was nicely balanced and featured prominent red fruits in a complex recipe of flavors.  In 2011 I opened the first half bottle and found it had retained much of its youthful composition, yet was in need of time to sooth its tannins.  Tonight I opened the last bottle and found it has taken a turn towards fascinating.  The nose is potent, suggesting red roses and baking spices.  The palette is very complex with flavors of pomegranate, leather, baking spices, and minerals, with cherry and currants on the finish.  I was surprised by the level of complexity that this wine delivered tonight.

2006 Carter Cellars Hossfeld Red Blend

2013 Fall Color Almost Gone

Live from Howell Mountain ...

Driving through the valley just an hour ago, I was a little disappointed.  The fall color appears to be on the same schedule as the fall harvest.  It appears that the best of the autumn color was washed off the vines in the last rain and wind events.  While a few colorful leaves still cling to the vines, the vineyards are mostly reduced to stringy stumps.  Don't visit Napa Valley this Thanksgiving holiday to catch the autumn color.  Come instead to enjoy some excellent wines.

Wine Tasting Fees

Originally, wine-tasting was a marketing function of wineries.  If the wine they made was good enough, it would sell on its own when presented to the consumer.  Then a number of party-happy folks from the San Francisco Bay Area learned you could visit Napa Valley and get partied up on wine for next to nothing … and on quality wine to boot!  So, nominal tasting fees were put in place to curb the party goers and save room at the tasting counter for actual customers.  Often, these tasting fees were returned to the customer upon purchase of wine.  Lately, it seems that profit-motivated wineries are now turning to the tasting fees themselves to make a substantial impact on the bottom line and driving up wine-tasting prices dramatically over the past decade.  Rather than a cost of marketing, wine-tasting has become a profit-center in the business of operating a tasting room.  Of course, this leads to more lavish tasting rooms sprouting up around the valley, but that is a point for another discussion.

Let’s look at the financials.  If the average cost per-bottle of wine on a tasting room’s menu is $50, and each bottle can pour 16 samples (at 1.5 ounces each pour), and each tasting flight consists of four wines, then the retail cost to taste those four wines is about $12.50.  Keep in mind that the winery has already made a substantial mark-up on the retail price of the wine, as evidenced by the discounts they offer:  20% off to wine-club members, 30% off to wine industry tradesmen, and 50% off to employees.  When I started visiting Napa Valley back in 2005, the tasting fee for this flight was on average $10 to $15.  Today, the tasting fee at many places for this same flight is about $20 to $25, which represents a mark-up on top of a mark-up.

At some wineries, this tasting fee is actually used to turn folks away.  They only want top-dollar clients coming into the tasting room and then prey on them with vertical tastings paired with gourmet hors’ devourers or designer desserts.  A few years back I tried to visit Quintessa Winery (without an appointment).  At the desk I was told they could accommodate me for a $65 tasting fee, which included a food pairing.  The math suggests that the retail price of the wine offered was less than $25; and for $60, I could enjoy an entire half-bottle of their wine without the tasting room’s pretense.  So, I passed on the opportunity, but I felt like they just didn’t want me (or anyone of ordinary financial means) to have access to tasting their wines.  They wanted to present an air of exclusivity, even though their wines are highly distributed across the country.  To be fair, the 2003 Quintessa Red Wine was an amazing wine in the half-bottle (not so much the 2005).


So, if money is something that you have to work for, and you choose to spend it on quality wines from Napa Valley, it pays to shop around, even for tasting.  Check the tasting fees on winery web sites before planning a visit, or a simple day trip for you and a good friend could end up costing more than $500 in tasting fees alone.  It is possible to plan a trip for two to four wineries for less than $50 if you look around.  And ask if the tasting fee is recovered with a purchase, especially if you find a wine you adore.

October 20, 2013 – Wine: 2007 Bell Cellars Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

As I wrapped up a five-year wine-club membership in 2010, one of my last shipments was this 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which I had requested in half bottles.  As I recall, the winery was quite proud of this vintage, even before it started winning gold medals at tasting competitions.  Of course, every winery was releasing amazing wines in 2007, thanks to a near-perfect growing season.  This wine is no exception, and after a few years in the cellar, the wine is living up to its praise.  The wine is well balanced and medium bodied, with delicious notes of blackberry, blueberry, black cherry, and tobacco, all finishing with surprising richness.  I think I’ll wait another year to open the next half bottle.

2007 Bell Cellars Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

October 16, 2013 – Wine: 2005 Anomaly

Talk about bottle variation …  I bought this wine without tasting it simply because the 2004 was so tasty.  When I opened a bottle back in 2011, its flavors and richness were so wonderful that I immediately sought out more.  (That’s no easy task when looking for half-bottles.)  I opened one last year in September and it was still impressive.  Tonight’s bottle seemed a little shut down and a little awkward.  The palette is medium bodied, not lush, and features flavors of pomegranate, tea, red cherry, nutmeg, and mineral.  (I was hoping for more of the 2005 lushness.)  I should open another bottle in a few more days to see if this is a consistent state or just one off-bottle.

Provenance Vineyards, September 18, 2013

www.provenancevineyards.com

I was hoping to pick up my September wine club shipment, but the e-mail announcing its availability hadn’t arrived (and never would, it later turned out).  Still, I wanted to share my favorite winery with my good friend so that he might also learn about Provenance.  My friend enjoyed all of the wines they offer, but was really impressed with the Cabernet Franc and its value.  I was glad to try a couple of newly released wines too.  As it turns out, the one wine I enjoyed the most would be a part of my September club shipment.  I was a little disappointed that the 2010 Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon was not yet on the tasting menu, but I will look for it again when I return in November to pick up the September and November shipments.

This visit I wanted to taste some of my favorites.  I started off with the 2010 Winemaker's Reserve, a Bordeaux-style blend including Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.  Next, I tried the 2009 Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by the 2009 Beckstoffer TK2 Cabernet Sauvignon (a slection of the better lots from the former), then the 2007 Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon and ended with the 2009 Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon .  My favorite of the Provenance wines was the To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon for its ripe fruits and great balance.


A full review was written already about Provenance Vineyards during my visit on February 8^th, 2012.

October 14, 2013 – Wine: 2003 Chappellet Signature Cabernet Sauvignon

When this wine was young back in 2006, it sure delivered the wow!  I remember buying two half-bottles speculatively when it was first released (thinking what pretty packaging).  After opening the first bottle, I was so impressed that I sought out a case of half bottles.  Wine Enthusiast’s 94-point endorsement of the wine confirmed my initial impressions of the wine too.  The next few bottles I opened were all wonderful.  Then, the wine went into the oddest state of being thin, off-dry and unbalanced that made it unlikeable.  This continued through four bottles, so I decided to bring one of the remaining bottles to the winery to get their impression.  (One or two bottles is variation, but four bottles makes a trend.)  By the time I got to the winery in 2010, the wine had evolved again into a full-bodied, balanced, complex Cabernet and my point was lost.  The winery was not interested in tasting again three years later so I decided to open the next bottle myself.  I found the wine to be quite complex with fascinating intensity while still maintaining decent balance.  On the palette I noted dark cherry, red currant, baking spices, leather, and minerals.  I am looking forward to opening the one remaining half-bottle of this wine.

2003 Chappellet Signature Cabernet Sauvignon

October 10, 2013 – Wine: 2006 Ridge Lytton Springs

This was probably my least inspiring bottle of this wine (I had bought six half-bottles when released).  In the past, this wine showed lively fruit, great structure and balance, and nice texture.  Of course, the 2006 vintage was unkind to most wines made from Northern California grapes, but this wine had bucked the trend.  Tonight I had opened the bottle too late to give it a decent decant before drinking, and I was penalized for not doing so.  The wine tasted a little thin and suggested it was past its peak – for the first 90 minutes, that is.  Then, the minerals presented themselves and pulled the wine into balance.  I have added a note to my catalog to let this wine open next time.

2006 Ridge Lytton Springs

October 5, 2013 – Wines for a block party

I know … I’m a fast becoming wine snob.  At the block party, my neighbors gracefully offered me a glass of the wine they had brought out to share.  It was a 2011 Forest Glen Merlot, which they bought for under $4.  I tasted it and was surprised that the wine performed better than most of the 2011 red wines I had tried the day before at my favorite wine store, each selling for $15 to $25.  I provided the next bottle (and the two after that) to share the kind of wines that I enjoy.  Of course, I drew from my party wine stack, but even those wines are hand-picked for their quality-to-value delivery.  Each bottle was well received by my neighbors.  Here is what I opened:

2010 Artezin Mendocino Zinfandel: 
This wine has good body and excellent balance, nice structure, and properly restrained Zinfandel appeal.  And at $12 a bottle, I’m wondering why I bought only three.

2009 Provenance Napa Valley Merlot: 
Needless to say, there was no comparison between this wine and the Forest Glen.  This Merlot is structured, complex, ripe, and well composed with a good finish.  The Forest Glen was tasty, balanced, and simple (but nearly elegant).

2009 Savannah-Chanel Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir: 

The poor folks at the winery probably felt this fruit-bomb Pinot Noir would never come around, so they cleared it out at 2/3 the original price.  For $14, this was a fun Pinot Noir in its youth.  Now it is developing some sophistication and the fruit is taking its proper place, which is really making me appreciate having bought a whole case of it.  I’m not yet at the point where I don’t want to share it, but getting close.

November 6, 2013 – A toast to my brother’s life

Yesterday afternoon, I received the news that my younger brother had died.  His death ended a multi-year effort to recover from a serious bicycling accident.  His prognosis was never too upbeat, but recently seemed less so.  The good news that I can take away from this is that he no longer suffers from his injuries or recovery.  My brother had always celebrated life his way.  He stayed connected with his family and attracted many friends.  His death will leave a void in all of our lives that can only be capped with pleasant memories from our lives together.  Tonight, in his honor, my mother and I will raise a glass and toast to his life.  The wine I have selected for this occasion is the 2001 Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon.  I just left the bottle at my mother’s house for an extended breathe (about two hours or so).

Corison Winery, September 18, 2013

www.corison.com

I had a wine club pickup at Corison as well, so I decided to stop by and try some wines while I was there.  Unlike the comfy confines of the Freemark Abbey member’s tasting room, the Corison tasting experience puts you right in the middle of their operations.  While the grapes outside were eagerly awaiting harvest, new oak barrels had been delivered to the Corison operations building and were standing there, still wrapped in plastic.  It must be the engineer in me that really appreciates the proximity to the operations and seeing the details of how wine is made.  Corison is a great place to visit just after harvest to witness first-hand the winemaking process.

Brand new wine barrels await final preparations before being filled with the 2013 harvest at Corison.

This wine club shipment featured the newly released 2010 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  As I usually do, I like to taste the wine before I decide how many bottles to tuck away in my cellar.  Structurally, the 2010 is very similar to the 2009.  Flavor-wise, the 2010 is earthier and suggests dark chocolate, while the 2009 leans more toward ripe berry flavors.  We were also offered a number of other wines to taste, so I selected the 2004 and 2005 Napa Valley Cabernets to taste.  These are two of my favorite vintages from Corison and tasting them is a pleasure.  The 2005 is my favorite of all that I tasted at Corison today.


A full review was written already about Corison Winery during my visit on April 6^th, 2012.

September 24, 2013 – Wine: 2003 Robert Biale Black Chicken

If only I had started drinking wine a few years earlier, I would have realized just how good the 2003 vintage was for Zinfandel and how rare it is to get a great Zinfandel vintage.  Then I could have stocked up on the stuff.  So, when I recently found this 2003 Zinfandel by a great Napa Valley vintner on sale, I quickly snatched it up.  Alas, there was just the one bottle available, but what a delicious bottle it turned out to be.  This elegant Zinfandel has good body, a sense of richness, good balance, great fruit, minerals, and spices.