Tag Archives: Napa Valley

Price: Over 20 bucks

Caymus Cab at 40

Leave a comment

I was invited to a twitter tasting to celebrate the 40th Anniversary release of Caymus cab this afternoon. I was happy to participate, as Caymus is such a classic name in Napa cab.

I remember visiting Caymus on my very first visit to Napa when I was first getting into wine. It felt very special — I remember that you had to schedule a “private” tasting in advanceand while we were there, sitting around a big wooden table, a group of poor schlubs walked up to taste and were turned away. Fancy. I was impressed by the cabernet, but couldn’t really afford it, so I remember leaving with a bottle of their rosé called “Oeil de Perdrix”. That wine, or at least the name, was moved to the Belle Glos label, which sits under the Wagner Family of Wine group along with Caymus, Conundrum, Mer Soleil and Emmolo.

So back to the 40th anniversary wine.

Caymus produces 2 cabs each vintage, the “Special Selection” and the normal Napa Valley bottling. (They also produce a Napa Zin.) The 40th anniversary bottling is from the 2012 vintage and it replaces the normal Napa Valley bottling, not the Special Selection.

So how is it? I’ll let my live tweets do the talking.

[media sample provided by the winery]

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Napa Cab & Grilled Lamb

Leave a comment

I don’t drink a lot of Napa Cab. Always on the hunt for something more interesting, it doesn’t even cross my mind to look in that aisle when I’m at a wine shop. “Point me to the Ribeira Sacra, good sir.” But a bottle of Clos Pegase Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 Napa Valley was given to me recently and tonight seemed like a good night to open it.

Dinner was grilled leg of lamb, marinated in olive oil, garlic and rosemary – just the sort of meal that can rein in a big wine like this. And it turned out to be a great match. The Clos Pegase is big and tannic, rich with black fruit, dark chocolate, cedar and spice notes.  There’s even a minty note on the nose that I imagine pinch-hitting for the classic mint jelly that used to be served with lamb.

Overall, I enjoyed this wine. It’s very easy to like and a good reminder not to completely ignore categories of wine you’ve “moved past”. If nothing else, it’s a good reference point for your palate – and you just might remember why you used to drink it in the first place.

 

Price: 16-20 bucks, Uncategorized

Hess Allomi Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

1 Comment

Hess has produced a number of bottles that have been noted as great values by the big wine publications in the past few years. When I saw this single-vineyard Napa Cab on sale at my local supermarket, I thought I’d give it a try.

Note to wineries: putting the vineyard name(s) on the bottle always makes me more interested in your wine, whether I’ve ever heard of the vineyard(s) or not.

Producer: Hess

Grapes: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation: Napa Valley AVA

Vineyard: Allomi Vineyard, a 210-acre estate vineyard at the eastern base of Howell Mountain (though outside of the Howell Mountain AVA)

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: 18 months in American oak (30% new barrels)

Alcohol: 14.2%

Price: I bought it at about $20 at the supermarket, discounted from around $25-30.

Tasting notes: Currants and spice dominate on the nose, with hints of woodshop and creme brulee. On the palate, it s smooth-textured and weighty with rich, plummy fruit. A slightly minty-cool tingle at the back. A nice bit of tannic structure shows at the end, though this is certainly not a tannic monster Cab.

Overall impression: While it may not blow your mind, I doubt this one will disappoint you if you’re looking for a quality bottle of tasty California Cabernet. B

Free association:

More info:

If you like 90-pt validation, Connoisseurs’ Guide gave it 90 points.

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Does This Wine Still Make Me “Smiley”?

3 Comments

florasprings_cab_2000_snapshotI bought this wine on a trip to Napa/Sonoma about 5 years ago. It was my favorite wine of the trip and I splurged the $85 in the tasting room to bring home a bottle. Now if you’ve ever been on a wine country trip, I’m sure you’re familiar with the phenomenon whereby your capacity for objective evaluation and cost/benefit analysis diminishes as the day wears on. Well, Flora Springs was the 5th stop that day and I had not done enough spitting. So in my notes on this wine I wrote: “Smiley!” As in, this wine makes me feel smiley. See, I told you I should have done more spitting.

Anyhow, I’ve been holding on to this wine for a special occasion, but I never seem to find one, so I decided just to uncork it tonight with my grilled leg of lamb. Let’s check it out. Does it still make me smiley?

Flora Springs Wild Boar Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 Napa Valley

Producer: Flora Springs

Grapes: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation: Napa Valley (from the Pope Valley sub-region)

Matt Kramer, in his book New California Wine (published in 2004), picks on Pope Valley  saying “However much various Napa Valley powers … insist that Pope Valley really is a legitimate part of the Napa Valley appellation – which it legally is – the wines tell us differently.”

Vineyard: The grapes for this wine come from a hillside block of the winery’s Cypress Ranch Vineyard, which reaches 1200 feet.

Winemaking: The wine spent 30 months in barrel, mostly French.

Alcohol: 14.4%

Price: I paid about $85 at the winery about 5-6 years ago.

My tasting notes: The color of this wine is still inky dark, showing no real signs of age yet. The nose is rich and bold, with dark, blackberry fruit and notes of chocolate/cocoa and cedar. The flavors are similarly rich, with cherries and more blackberries, along with spice and sweet tobacco notes. It feels polished in the mouth; not a lot of tannin here. I’m wanting a little more structure. It has a lengthy finish.

Overall impression: It’s good. I’m enjoying it. If you get a chance to drink it, go for it. But after 85 bucks and 5 years taking up a slot in my cellar, I’m not feeling quite as smiley as I did that buzzy afternoon 5 years ago. B

Free association:

smileyface_smirking

Image credit: SuanSKatra

More info:

Even though this bottle didn’t live up to my memory of it, if you’re in Napa and hitting the wineries on the main drag, Flora Springs is a good stop. I liked just about every wine they were pouring, including a Sangiovese.

330 cases of the wine were produced.

I can’t find any other reviews of this wine online.

Tasting Notes

Cork’d Tasting with Gary V in Austin

Leave a comment
GV_at_CorkdATX
Thanks to @SummerH for the photo above

Gary Vaynerchuk made a stop in Austin recently on his book tour for Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion. In addition to the three book signings he did around town that day, he and Lindsay Ronga organized a Cork’d tasting that night. (Cork’d is the wine social networking site GV bought in 2007; Lindsay is the CEO). I was fortunate enough to get an invite (thanks, Addie!) and had a great time. I thought I’d share a bit about it.

Gary is unpretentious about wine. And this was not a pretentious wine tasting. Firstly, it was held in the conference room of a local tech firm. Secondly, the wine geeks seemed to be in the minority. Thirdly, we were drinking from plastic cups.

As this was a Cork’d event, the idea was for everyone to post their notes to the site “live” as we were tasting them. It was a diverse crowd and a diverse range of opinions and scores were collected (every wine received scores as low as mid-70s and as high as low-90s). Below are the wines we tasted and my comments.

Terlato Family Pinot Noir 2007 Russian River Valley

For me this was easily the best wine of the night. My notes were:  Nice cherry, meaty and herbal nose. The fruit gets darker on the palate, but very clean and pure. Very smooth and silky on the front then tightens up on the back. This is a lip-smacking, delicious pinot. Would be a great food wine. I scored it a 90 (Cork’d requires a score on the 100-pt scale).

Rutherford Hill Merlot 2005 Napa Valley

My notes: The color is a bit light. The nose is juicy, “purple-y” and stemmy/green. On the palate, the red fruit comes across a bit fake to me, and thin. Rustic tannins. Feels like I drank some sediment. Buttery oak. A little stemmy. A nice mineral note in there. Dry finish. Kinda of an awkward wine for me. It’s not bad, but I wouldn’t seek it out again. Score: 85

Mont Tauch Reserve Fitou 2006

My notes: I like this nose – jammy for a French wine. On the palate, it feels light and tannic at the same time. I’m having trouble pegging this one. Fruit seems a bit tight one moment, then bright the next. I’d like to try this again when I can have a more leisurely glass or two. Score: 86

Lamborn Family Cabernet Sauvignon 2004/2005/2006 Howell Mountain

This wasn’t a vertical. Rather, there was not enough of any one of these to go around, so everyone got poured 1 of the 3. I got the 2006. My notes: Good dark color. A dark, brooding, smoky nose. On the palate its got jammy fruit flavors. Feels sticky in the mouth, like a chewy candy. Very dry. Finishes hot. The nose appealed to me, but the palate… not so much. I’d like to try it again with a few more years of bottle age. (Score reflects how it’s drinking for my palate tonight.) Score: 86

Flat Creek Super Texan 2006 Texas Hill Country

This one was meant to be a surprise blind tasting for Gary, while the rest of the crowd was told what it was. There were some loose lips from one or two people who didn’t quite realize what was going on so Gary probably heard something. It’s a wine I’ve liked in the past and I was kind of excited to see how he would like it. He panned it. I found it to be light but tasty. My notes: Color has an orange cast. Nose has appealing dried fruit character. Nice mouthfeel. Silky red fruit. Long finish. Score: 89  (probably generous in retrospect)

You can see the list at Cork’d and click each wine to see everyone’s notes.

All in all, it was a great night. No blockbuster wines for me, but some nice (& pricey) bottles I wouldn’t normally try (and did I mention it was free!). It was fun to see so many tasting notes on the same wine from the same tasting.

Plus I got to meet some good people: @ronga, @baconator, @personalwine, @amberdemure, @SummerH, @smartdonkey, @wesley83. And Gary…

Yes my teeth are purple. Yes that's Randall Grahm on my shirt.
Yes, my teeth are purple. Yes, that's Randall Grahm on my shirt.
Thanks to @baconator for the photo above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/my-misc-pics/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
More event photos from @SummerH and @baconator.

Update: I realized I published this without really saying much about Gary. In person, he’s pretty much exactly like he is on camera only dialed down a notch. Or maybe that was the fact that it was his 4th stop of the day in the middle of his book tour. Either way he’s unfailingly friendly, taking the time to go around the room and shake every one’s hand individually and chatting them up. As for the wine, he liked the Terlato, Lamborn (he had the 2004) and Rutherford Hill wines, was ho-hum on the Mont Tauch and panned the Flat Creek (as I mentioned above). Thanks, Gary, for putting on this event! Hope to see you again the next time you come through Austin.