Recently in Wine Tasting Category

Wine quizzes are fun and, besides that, are easy to blog. So here is your first one:

In the state of Washington, which grape has the highest production?

A. Chardonnay
B. Cabernet Sauvignon
C. Syrah
D. White Riesling
E. Merlot

Answer after the continuation...

I bought this seven years ago. It has been waiting patiently in the celler getting better and better and now...

1997 Ridge Lytton Springs - USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley (4/30/2008)
From a 375ml bottle. Deep brick red color with some lightening at the rim. Clean expressive nose of plums and spice. Palate shows beautiful smooth fruit, acid, and integrated tannins with everything in perfect harmonious balance. A beautiful mouthful of wine at absolute peak right now. This is the kind of wine that makes everything all right with the world. The best Ridge Zins have a restrained elegance that reminds you of a four-star hotel... just like top quality aged Bordeaux. Excellent. (93 pts.)

Recently, I had the chance to try two legendary California chardonnays side-by-side. One is legendary because it is highly rated, expensive, well-made, and hard to acquire. The other is legendary because the winery that made it has been making wine from it's now very old vines (the oldest pinot noir and chardonnay vineyard in the U.S.) the same way for more than fifty years.

• 1998 Hanzell Chardonnay - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (4/29/2008)
  Dark gold color, crystal clear and gem-like. Flinty nose of ripe fruit and minerals. Medium body with layers of flavors including baked bread, and citrus, with honey on the finish. Clearly new world, but made in a very refined style. Beautiful fresh wine with elegance and complexity. (94 pts.)
• 1998 Marcassin Chardonnay Marcassin Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (4/29/2008)
  Deep golden color, slightly cloudy indicating no filtration. Fairly reserved nose of ripe fruit and vanilla. Medium-full body, big full tropical and lime flavors with just noticeable oak. Good finish, but ultimately lacking finesse and complexity. (92 pts.)

I opened this last weekend for dinner at Syrah Bistro in Santa Rosa (an excellent place, BTW) after a number of winery visits. I really enjoyed it. Ojai does not get the respect that they deserve for making very fine wines.

2000 Ojai Syrah Melville Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Rita Hills (3/29/2008)

Color was a dark and opaque deep red-black with little or no lightening at the rim. Nose was very expressive showing herbs of provence, reserved elegant fruit, and cold-climate pepper. The palate showed completely dry with no California pruniness or overripeness at all. There were tastes of rich dark berries, spices, minerals and marked pepperiness. The wine showed great balancing acidity, and initially there were prominent tannins on the finish. After 20 minutes or so, the tannins began to integrate and the wine really opened up. It was still obviously Californian, but closer to a Northern Rhone profile than any other California syrah I've ever tasted, save for Edmunds St. John. No obvious oak, and certainly no excessive alcohol. Although delicious now, this has great structure and is still young with years ahead of it. Most excellent. (92 pts.)

Though this particular tasting group has never needed an excuse before, we chose the 74th anniversary (or the 75th celebration) of Repeal Day to open some great wines, eat some steaks and argue far into the night about wines and life (or, are those the same thing?). The proposed theme was the oldest CA wine you could find, but either some of us didn't really look too hard, or there was some taking out of insurance by bringing more recent wines that we knew would show well.

Being somewhat obsessed with wine, I attend tastings held by three groups of folks. One of these groups holds two tastings a month with one being a structured, thematic, educational tasting, and the other one consisting of a Bring Your Own Bottle blind tasting. These two wines were my contributions to our last event.

2006 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine L'Arpent Rouge - France, Loire Valley, Touraine (11/21/2007)
Here's something new, a wine made from Pineau d'Aunis, sometimes called Chenin Noir. Light red/purple ruby color, quite light and translucent with marked thinning towards clear at the edge; remarkable looking, really. Nose of ripe fruit, brambles and dust. Medium plus body. Tastes a bit sweet and spicy, like a Beaujolais mixed with Chinese five-spice powder. Medium finish with dusty, sweet tannins and a spicy aftertaste, like an Asian candy. An interesting wine, which will be too sweet and lacking in acid for Burgundy aficionados, and a little too weird for the Beaujolais crowd. But, adventurous souls wanting a different wine for sipping on the patio on warm summer nights will be pleased. (86 pts.)

2005 Joseph Swan Vineyards Cotes du Rosa - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (11/21/2007)
At the winery they play a game when they pour this wine. You are told it is made from a southern Rhone varietal, and then you have to guess. If you guess Carignan(e), you guess right. The color is a dark ruby red but it isn't quite opaque. Nose shows earth and a touch of petrol and acid floating above ripe fruit that hints at California. The wine has a medium-minus body, stern tannins with a touch of bitterness and is strongly acidic. The finish is predominately tannins and acid. Because of its earthiness and relatively high acid, this wine would be easy to mistake for a French effort. The Oxford Companion to Wine says that carignan is is high in acid, tannin, color, and bitterness, but low in finesse and charm, which makes it unsuitable for early consumption and unworthy of aging. This wine is not that bad, but my take is that it is better at providing a chance to taste a wine made only from carignane than at providing real pleasure. (85 pts.)

No one did very well in figuring out what these were, and I promised to behave myself next time.

For a Sunday evening dinner party with a bunch of wine-obsessed friends, I threw caution to the winds and gambled on:

1970 Charles Krug Winery (Peter Mondavi Family) Cabernet Sauvignon Vintage Selection - USA, California, Napa Valley (9/23/2007)
This bottle is a time-machine taking us back to another wine making epoch. It had a orange banner across the label proclaiming "Vintage Select" and sporting the signature of Cesare Mondavi. The back label informs us that Vintage Select wines were from exceptional lots that received special treatment, including aging in oak barrels and bottle aging before release! Fill was to the bottom of the neck. Though soft, the cork came out almost whole with only a small piece at the bottom breaking off. The cork showed stain marks almost to the top. Color was dark reddish orange and opaque with only light bricking at the edge. The wine had a pronounced nose of sweet chocolate. With 12% claimed alcohol. the wine showed a medium-light body, a fairly simple taste profile, and a short finish with tannins completely resolved. We followed development in the glass for 90 minutes. There was some fading of fruit, but the wine did not fall apart. This was probably an average wine in its youth. It's most impressive current characteristic is that it is still very much alive. Not bad for a $4-6 bottle of wine (release price). (84 pts.)

California cabernets from the 60s and 70s were remarkably consistent. I've had far more dead ~1990s CA Pinot Noirs, than I have had dead CA cabs from the 70s.

The older this wine gets, the more I like it, but the lower I rate it. I can't explain that, but if you have any of this, I suggest opening a bottle with a good dry-aged steak. You'll like it.

• 2000 Shafer Relentless - USA, California, Napa Valley (8/20/2007)
  Decanted for four hours, the wine exhibited a deep but not completely opaque dark red brick color. Nose is mild, with clean floral and vanilla aromas. Palate initially shows good acidity, a medium body and flavors of berries and bittersweet chocolate. Finish is marked by structural tannins, sweet fruit and balanced oak, and lasts for 30 seconds or more. This will last a long time and probably improve further, but is excellent now with sufficient decanting. A very, very nice wine. (91 pts.)
• 2000 Shafer Relentless - USA, California, Napa Valley (9/27/2005)
  Offline for Alex and Adam at Zuppa (San Francisco, California USA): Rich, fruity, big nose. Palate shows bittersweet chocolate and a medium-full body. Long tannic finish. Quite good wine, but far from ready. (92 pts.)
• 2000 Shafer Relentless - USA, California, Napa Valley (3/13/2005)
  Shafer Hillside Select Dinner (Manresa Restaurant, Los Gatos, California USA): BIG nose of berries with an undercurrent of spice and earth. Better than the '99 in almost every way. Elias Fernandez said this was primarily due to learning about the vineyard and another year of age on the vines. Palate shows ripe fruit, white pepper and spice, superb extract, medium-full body, good acidity and a tremendously long firmly tannic finish. AT LEAST two years till next bottle. This wine is treated exactly the same as the Hillside Select Cabernet with 32 months in 100% new oak (93 pts.)

Well, I've tried this stunt before, but some things are so much fun that we want to try them over and over. I suggested to members of a monthly tasting group I attend that we try a blind flight of California chardonnays with one French chard and see what we thought. Several members of this group pride themselves on being Burg experts and they were just as certain as the attendees of The Judgement of San Francisco were that they would never mistake a California chardonnay for a white Burg.

In terms of wine tasting, this year has been an excellent one for your host. One tasting in particular, the Old Wines with Francois Audouze, provided the opportunity to try some legendary wines. A Happy New Year to all and may you find wines like these to drink in 2007!

• 1974 Heitz Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Martha's Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville (5/1/2006)
  Old California Wines with Francois Audouze (Jack Falstaff Restaurant - San Francisco, California): I got a small taste of this and was very impressed. It had a gigantic nose of mint and eucalyptus plus cigar box. The color was a deep and dark red, still solid out to the edge. The palate showed silky tannins, plus enough ripe fruit and acidity to allow this 30+ year old to masquarade as a youngster. Had I tried this blind, I would have guessed it was from 1990 or 1991. It is a tremendous wine which I feel honored to have tasted. I did a bit of research later and found that this is a legendary wine and that my small (less than an ounce) taste was worth about $30. I don't know who brought this to the tasting, but whoever you were, may the angels smile upon you! (98 pts.)


• 2001 Château Suduiraut - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes (1/28/2006)
  The wine shows a color of sparkling medium-gold. The nose is intense and leaps out of the glass. Several folks at the table declared that they didn't need to taste it, just smelling the lush apricots, tropical fruits and minerals was a luxurious pleasure. The palate is other worldly, a nectar if there ever was one. It is thick, rich and mouth coating like apricots, hazelnuts honey and citrus fruit carefully reduced into a magic potion. I thought it could be improved by a bit more acidity, but I don’t have that many points left! Really, really, good stuff. (97 pts.)


• 1970 Joseph Swan Gamay Sonoma County - USA, California, Sonoma County (5/1/2006)
  Old California Wines with Francois Audouze (Jack Falstaff Restaurant - San Francisco, California): Deep, purple/black color and so dense it looks like printer's ink. It has a vibrant nose of black fruit and meats. Sitting in the glass, it looks like primal wine. The palate is amazing, mouth-coating isn't exactly right.. more like exposed tissue coating! It tastes like raspberry jam, except that it is not sweet. It has depth and intensity like a Shiraz, but it doesn't taste stewed or overripe. The finish goes on forever. The label reports 13.6% alcohol, and sure enough it proclaims "GAMAY" in big black letters. This is a legendary wine and now I know why. A 1975 review suggested decanting for three hours before drinking. The secret to this wine appears to be that "Napa Gamay" of circa 1970 is actually, Valdiguié and it was picked fairly ripe. Swan only made one other "Gamay"—in 1971 and it was a pale imitation of the 1970, reportedly because the grapes were picked too soon. Most "Napa Gamay" has been pulled up, and the odds of anyone ever seeing a wine like this again is quite slim. I saved the empty bottle as a trophy. Wow. (97 pts.)


• 2001 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Laurence - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (12/15/2006) 95 pts.
  


• 2004 Aubert Chardonnay Lauren Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (4/14/2006)
  This is a stunning bottle of wine. It is amazingly ripe, opulent, rich and concentrated but is somehow miraculously balanced at the same time. Cloudy in appearance and ripe and clean on the nose, the mid palate is voluptuous, viscous and mouth filling --no doubt somewhat due to the high alcohol-- but it is well integrated and not a bit hot. There is moderate, acidity to balance the fruit, and very long sweet finish. There is oak, but it is very subtle, this is not an over-oaked California chardonnay bomb. Those used to Chablis and White Burgundies might think this is sweet, but I'm sure there is no residual sugar here, just incredible fruit. (95 pts.)


• 1834 Barbeito Madeira Malvazia - Portugal, Madeira (2/9/2006)
  Available by the glass at Bacar in San Francisco. Good nose of caramel, molasses, and toffee but not as full and enveloping as the 1863 Boal. The nose carries right on to the palate where there are intense flavors of brown sugar, molasses, and toffee balanced with a bracing sour acidity that makes the wine seem much less sweet than it really is. The most remarkable characteristic about this wine is how it coats the inside of your mouth. You find yourself wiping off your gums with your tounge and and still tasting the wine a minute or two after your sip! Now, THAT is a finish. (94 pts.)


• 1974 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon Bosché Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley (5/1/2006)
  Old California Wines with Francois Audouze (Jack Falstaff Restaurant - San Francisco, California): More proof that 1974 was a magical year for California Cabernet. When the cork on this 32-year old wine was pulled, ripe and vibrant aromas spilled forth. This nose didn't require swirling and coaxing, you only had to be within 3 feet of the open bottle to know something special was happening. The color was deep red, looking remarkably youthful. The palate was chewy with the still vibrant fruit perfectly balanced by juicy acidity. The tannins may have faded some over all of this time, but you wouldn't know it by the long and lingering finish. This lacked, perhaps, some complexity of bouquet and palate, but WOW, what a wine. Of all the wines from the 1970s opened during this dinner, this was the youngest. I've added an extra point to my score to celebrate the Don Juan Ponce de Leon effect. (94 pts.)


• 1988 Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes (12/15/2006) 93 pts.
  


• 2001 Argiano Solengo Toscana IGT - Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT (2/10/2006)
  I took this to my local Italian place, but this is very un-Italian wine. It is a deep dark red with a shy nose of dark fruits. Very much an international/modern style, It is full-bodied with a smooth texture and is stuffed full of flavor, showing coffee and dark chocolate. It is low-acid, and the tannins, while there, are mild for these varietals. This could easily be mistaken for a California bordeaux-blend. It is delicious. After sipping it, I ordered a gigantic steak. I don't need more wine, but I think I'll stop by Wine Club today and see if they have any left. (93 pts.)

• 1970 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley - USA, California, Napa Valley (5/1/2006)
  Old California Wines with Francois Audouze (Jack Falstaff Restaurant - San Francisco, California): Deep red color starting to show some age. Showing a super nose of tobacco and cedar, it smells exactly like aged Bordeaux. Tannins have melted into velvet and have merged with the fruit and acid in perfect balance. This doesn't quite have the complexity of the greatest Bordeauxs, but it is still going strong and it a really nice wine. After tasting it, I immediately poured a sample for a visting French wine collector, and the look on his face from the shock of recognition, and the shock of how good it was, was really fun. Mondavi's 1969 was regarded as a benchmark, and the '70 was the first "Unfiltered" which became the "Reserve" in 1971. (93 pts.)

Robert Parker opined on this wine on the eBob BBS, reporting: "Fabulous...this is the finest red wine I have ever had from South Africa...This debut release, the 2005, a blend of 37% syrah and the balance cabernet sauvignon, is world class stuff, exceptional wine...." Of course this caused a minor buying frenzy. I ordered from Garagiste and am still waiting for my bottles, but K&L Wine Merchants got a few cases, and I bought a bottle to take to a Christmas party attended primarily by wine collectors.

The wine has a great heritage, being a joint venture between Bruno Prats, former owner of Château Cos-d'Estournel, Hubert de Boüard de Laforest, co-proprietor of Château Angélus in Bordeaux, and Lowell Jooste of Klein Constantia Estate. And here is my tasting note:

Paul Galli’s tasting note of the 2002 Varner Amphitheater Chardonnay posted on eBob, said “I defy any Burgophile to pick this as a ringer in a white burgundy tasting. Again, I find that this CA Chard is very MEEEERsault-like.” So, given this enthusiastic challenge, seven seekers after the truth met at Pesce in San Francisco to explore the proposition that New World wines can taste like White Burgundy. Attendees included Jim Varner, Ken Freeman, Dee Hornichek, Slaton Lipscomb, Leonard Maran, Steve Timko, and Paul Homchick.

We selected twelve wines to taste blind. Each attendee knew the wine they had brought and the identity of some of those attending gave strong hints of what they supplied. The wine-master-of-ceremonies announced that there were two French wines in the lineup and ten chardonnays from the New World. Participants were asked to identify the two French wines, and to be prepared to rank their top three wines. There were two flights of six wines.

I'm a bit late to this controversy, but since the argument seems to be unending, it doesn't matter when I notice it out of the corner of my eye and pick it up. It will still be there guttering along on some wine-focused BBS next week, next month, and next year. This particular controversy is just like Washington, D.C., about which George Schultz said "Nothing ever gets settled in this town."

The sparkle this time was provided by an interview Jancis Robinson did with the St. Helena Star while she was visiting the Northern California wine country for a series of MW seminars. (Jancis Robinson on words, works, and wine gluts). Her insight (or heresy, depending on how you feel about it) was commenting on how critics influence wine. She observed that: "Probably America's two big wine commentators, Parker (Robert M. Parker, Jr.) and the Wine Spectator are doing the dictating." Robinson added, "I happen to think it's a shame that these two have such similar tastes as I honestly don't believe they are shared with the overwhelming majority of wine drinkers, and especially not by most good winemakers. One of the saddest things I hear, and not just in California, is a wine producer admitting that they make wines they don't actually like themselves, but they make them - much bigger than their own taste - because they think they'll get high points."

Wine is infused with tradition. Some wine drinkers would feel set adrift without a cork screw, and some winemakers would feel as naked as a cockroach in the light without French oak barrels. But what tradition can we use to pigeonhole a fellow who talks about his wine using terms like simplicity, samurai, small, solitude, serenity, tranquility, and refinement, and then makes a 16.2% alcohol chardonnay and boasts of it's laser intensity? This is someone forging his own tradition.

Greg Brewer, a partner in Brewer-Clifton, and the wine-maker at Melville has launced a new project he is calling Diatom. Simplifying things perhaps a bit too much, this is a project to make Chardonnays that will go well with seafood... laser-focused seafood like raw oysters or sashimi. But Greg is a great writer and we don't have to simplify, we can let him speak for himself:

Vineyards selected for the diatom project are sought out for their ability to serve as voices for place. Through the small and specific sites chosen, there will be a journey through solitude, tranquility and the transitory nature of life. The challenge is to subtract all extraneous elements to arrive at the utmost level of simplicity, serenity and refinement. In order to maintain this desired purity, fermentation is carried out at a very cold temperature in neutral vessels to retain the most primary attributes of the fruit.

Furthermore, malo-lactic is inhibited to avoid the distraction of that secondary level of evolution. The resultant wine is then aged on its non-disturbed lees for health and protection, and removed just before there is any risk of autolysis which could impart nondesirable yeast-like characteristics into the wine.