Archive for the ‘Review California wines’ Category

During our wonderful afternoon, our friends took us to a small, family-owned winery that owns premium real estate in the heart of Napa Valley. Salvestrin Winery sits on the valley floor in St. Helena, and is the home of third-generation grape growers Rich and Shannon Salvestrin. Rich was the first to decide to bottle wine under the family’s own label, and not long after the inaugural 1994 vintage, their Cabs started getting some very impressive ratings from the most influential critics in the business. And I mean really great ratings!

So fast-forward to yesterday, when I found a wine called Cult Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. “Cult” Cabernet is a wine that doesn’t fit the mold these days: it’s non-vintage! I wondered if that meant it was somehow sub-standard.

Wrong!

Cult Cabernet pours out like a big, rich Cab. The nose offers lots to work with: blackberries, blueberries, chocolate and a hint of spice.

The palate is rich and soft, with boatloads of ripe berries, chocolate and vanilla. And there’s structure — there’s depth on the palate  and  acid and tannins that attest to the quality of the grapes and the winemaker.

To cut to the chase, Cult Cabernet drinks like a $50 Napa Cab. It’s got “the stuff” up front, on the mid-palate and the finish. And it’s only $25! The happy surprise is that this quality effort is a huge bargain.

And to hark back to the beginning of my post — this great wine is made by Salvestrin, home of award-winning Napa Cabs. I salute Rich Salvestrin for offering up such a great wine at such a reasonable price. I look forward to more offerings. Cheers!

In the U.S., white blends have been the Rodney Dangerfield of wine. They aren’t considered elegant, like a White Burgundy, or bold and brassy, like a California Chardonnay. They don’t have the pedigree of a classic Alsatian or German Riesling, or the sassiness of a New Zealand Sauv Blanc. White blends aren’t any one thing at all.

And that’s a problem in the U.S.: Americans want their wine, like their politics, to be cut and dried. They don’t want ambiguity or confusion — they want the label on their wine to say clearly and unequivocally, “Chardonnay,” or “Sauvignon Blanc,” or whatever.

So I was intrigued when I found a white blend called “The Whip”. It’s not one thing, mind you, but the winery, Murrieta’s Well, had the good sense to list all six grapes right there on the front label. We like that in a wine!

First, let’s look at some background. The winery dates back to the 1880′s and is named for the watering hole frequented by Mexican gold-miner-turned-desperado Joaquin Murrieta. The spirit of the Old West and California’s Gold Rush Days lives on at the winery. Situated in a sunny valley that benefits from the cool fog and breezes off San Francisco Bay, Murrieta’s Well is known for “The Whip” and its sister red blend, “The Spur.”

The six grapes blended to make The Whip 2010 include Sauvignon Blanc (31%), Viognier (27%), Semillon (15%), Pinot Blanc (11%), Orange Muscat (*%), and Muscat Canelli (8%). Right off the bat (or off the nose), I sensed richness and lushness. Rich aromatics suggested honeysuckle and orange blossom, which always says “Viognier” to me. I expected a similarly rich palate, and I got it. There was honey and exotic fruit that was just about to become cloying, when the acid kicked in and gave me a clean, dry finish.

This blend was well designed. The aromatic grapes set the tone, but the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Blanc create balance and structure. Balance is definitely the key here: perceived sweetness up front, crisp dryness on the finish, and no harsh edges anywhere.

For about $20 retail The Whip makes a nice wine for those who want a great “tween-er” white. I’d like to taste this with Seared Scallops or any kind of Pacific Rim dishes. Let me know what you think, and Cheers!

Jack London's house

If you go to Glen Ellen, California, you’ll find a charming little town (really little) tucked into a hollow amid a canopy of big old trees.  There are two big names around Glen Ellen: one is Jack London. He lived and worked in the forest above the town, and the remains of his cabin form the heart of Jack London State Park. The other big name is Benziger. The Benziger family has been growing grapes and making wine in the area for — years, and they’ve set themselves apart by being leaders in sustainable, organic and bio-dynamic grape and wine making.

I’ve tasted a number of their wines lately, including this one from their upper tier, single-vineyard line. Signaterra Thee Blocks Red Wine 2007 is made from mostly bio-dynamically grown grapes from three  blocks (now I get the name) in their Sonoma Valley vineyards. The vineyards sit in a big bowl on the slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains, where the aspect ensures maximum sun exposure. And what does that do? It ensures maximum ripeness and maximally delicious fruit.

I started loving three Blocks as soon as I stuck my nose in the glass. Actually, I didn’t even have to go that far — the aromas came up and hit me in the nose. There was sweet, juicy, dark berry compote mixed up with some cocoa and gentle cedar. It kept building, too: this is not a wine that’s done maturing…

The palate showed the ripeness and lushness of the fruit: I tasted boysenberry and plum, with hints of dark chocolate and vanilla. And the best news is what it wasn’t — it wasn’t flabby or overly jammy. Nice acid balanced the fruit and soft but structured tannins brought up the rear.

I think those of us who love this wine should thank the winemaker for some expert blending: the 76% Cabernet Sauvignon is softened just right by 25% Merlot.

This was my favorite of Benziger’s red wines. For my palate it hit the right balance of lushness and structure and offered power with elegance. Cheers!

I think I’m in love. And I didn’t even expect to be “in like.”

I had a bottle of Benziger Winery’s single-vineyard line, Signaterra. This was a 2009 Chardonnay from the Sangiacomo vineyard, a very prized plot owned by the Sangiacomo family in the Carneros region in southern Napa/Sonoma. I’ve tasted other Chardonnays from this vineyard and loved them, particularly Barnett Winery’s.

But what I’d read in Signaterra’s tasting notes had me scratching my head. First, I read that this Chard is totally un-oaked — aged in stainless steel instead of oak barrels. Now I know there’s a distinct trend away from heavy-handed, over-oaked Chards, but I still hanker for a little bit of roundness and toast.

And the notes said the Signaterra undergoes 100% malolactic fermentation, which is a secondary fermentation that takes the tart malic acid (like in green apples) and converts it to lactic acid (like in milk). This creates that buttery mouth-feel that many California Chardonnay drinkers have grown to love.

Both these processes are standard, but as far as I know, not generally used in combination. The way I think of it, stainless steel treatment heightens acid and freshness, while complete ML minimizes it. So what’s this combination gonna taste like?

Pretty damn good, is the answer.

Better than that, really. I enjoyed this Chardonnay more than anything I’ve tasted in recent memory. And I drink a good bit of Chardonnay…

Let’s start at the beginning. The Benziger family and Sangiacomo family go way back, like 30 years back. That’s earned the Benzigers the right to source fruit from ”the sweet spot” of Carneros called the West Rows. The naturally cool climate combined with well-drained soil and protection from the often harsh winds, produces some very spectacular fruit.

The weather during the 2009 growing season was also a humdinger: there were warm days when they were needed to push ripening, and enough cool days to slow down the ripening process and allow complex flavors to develop. The grapes were picked relatively early to preserve good acidity and keep sugar levels on the low side.

So here’s my take on Signaterra West Rows Sangiacomo Vineyard Chardonnay 2009.

Right off the cork, the nose was not your typical Cali Chard. It took a few minutes and a few degrees of warming for rich tropical aromas (read pineapple) to start flowing. That was layered with hazelnut and vanilla (where does that come from in an un-oaked wine?) and lovely sweet fig.

The palate was rich and juicy and tangy all at the same time. I got more tropical flavors that morphed into creamy tapioca and then into palate-cleansing acid. I thought the balance was tremendous, and I would like to humbly apologize for questioning the “ML and stainless” thing.

This wine is like potato chips — you can’t stop drinking it. Actually, I’ll admit that I was eating chips (the No-Trans-Fat, kettle-cooked, sea salted variety, of course). The rich/juicy/tangy thing worked incredibly well with the salty/crunchy/greasy thing. I think I may have found another classic food pairing!

The punch line is — this is a wine that develops beautifully in the glass, and will continue to develop in the bottle. I’d love to put some down for a year or two and see what happens, and I’d encourage you to do the same. It may be difficult to find because production is small, but see what happens if you contact the winery. Cheers!

Wine drinkers aren’t usually on the fence about Sauvignon Blanc; some drink it regularly, probably as their first choice for an aperitif wine, while others wouldn’t order it if it was the only white on the glass pour list.

The style that die-hard Sauv Blanc drinkers enjoy is crisp, clean, and snappy. They usually love Sauv Blanc from New Zealand, which has gone from zero to hero in the wine world by exporting a style that screams pink grapefruit and lime. Many American winos have fallen in love with that style, which until recently was conspicuously absent in domestic Sauv Blancs.

Enter Benziger Signaterra Shone Farm Sauvignon Blanc 2010. The appellation on the bottle is Russian River, which you all probably know is one of Calfornia’s cooler growing regions. But it’s known for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir; Sauv Blanc is more common in the Napa Valley.

Shone Farm Vineyard is in a corner of the Russian River where soils are relatively low pH and get good sun exposure. The winemaker credits these factors with preserving good natural acidity while ripening the grapes fully. The result is….a lot more like Europe than California.

From the first sniff, the Benziger’s Shone Farm Sauvignon Blanc screamed, “flinty and minerl-ly,” just like a host of European whites. I got pear and green apple aromas along with the citrus. The first sip made my mouth pucker with acid and lime-y flavors, but it needed time to open up. This was one of those whites that need to be closer to room temperature to show all their stuff. I started to taste pineapple and feel a creamy texture — but still underscored by the crisp acid and minerals.

This wine was carefully made to create complex flavors while preserving freshness and minerality. It wouldn’t have worked, though, without the fruit from this vineyard. These grapes make possible the kind of fresh, mouth-watering, cool-climate white wine that  Americans are turning to after drinking too much heavy California Chardonnay. If that’s what you’re after, Signaterra Sauvignon Blanc is a great choice. Cheers!

This guy is very elusive.

About a year ago I caught a glimpse of his wine in Scottsdale, AZ. There was an Adam Lazarre Central Coast Pinot Noir on the Greene House wine list, and we grabbed it as fast as we politely could and enjoyed the heck out of it.

My attempts to find Lazarre  wine in Ohio were thwarted by a distributor who had it, but didn’t really have it. And then lo and behold, I accidentally hit the jackpot: I found a bottle of the single-vineyard Lazarre Bien Nacido Pinot Noir. And the fabulous 2007 vintage, no less!

To back up a bit, I should explain that Adam Lazarre is a California winemaker who directed some big-production wineries while making some very small production Pinot Noir on the side. He favors the area from Paso Robles south to Santa Barbara, and makes very classic, very pure Pinot from some of the best vineyards in the state.

One of those vineyards is Bien Nacido. Adam says it’s on the “south facing northern hills midway down the Santa Maria Valley.” South-facing is good: that means good sun exposure and complete ripening. He used just four rows of carefully selected vines, and made a total of — three barrels! Yes, just three barrels, which certainly fits my definition of “Small production.”

What Adm does with those three barrels is… not much. He claims he favors “minimalist winemaker intervention,” which means “Just crush, ferment, and jam (it) into the barrel. The strength of the wine lies in the vineyard – as it should be.”

The wine I tasted had all sorts of strength. Remember that this bottle was the 2007 vintage, which every expert and wine-critic-wannabe has dubbed the best vintage EVER for California Pinot Noir. First we smiled at the presentation of this bottle, which is wrapped in leopard print tissue paper. Yes, leopard print… Word has it that Angie Lazarre, Adam’s wife, hand wraps each bottle. That’s gotta be a labor of love. But it also adds a classy, whimsical touch that’s so sexy we all didn’t want to open the bottle. Well… we almost didn’t want to open it…

So it poured out deep ruby red, and the aromas started gushing out of the glass. I got bright cranberry and cherry, with a bit of smoke and spice. I dragged my Pinot-loving friends over for the first taste, and the flavors gushed out too.

Actually, there was a big rush of intense bright fruit that quickly turned deep, warm and velvety. It was weirdly great — a big bang and then a soft middle and lingering, elegant finish. The only thing better was what happened as it sat in my glass. I was eating a feast of grilled tenderloin, dry-rubbed chicken and cedar-planked salmon, so I made my way through a few glasses of the Lazarre Bien Nacido. By my second glass I started to taste dusky caramel and clove with a back-note of minerality. Wow — was that good.

I know that 2007 was a hard vintage to screw up. But Lazarre gave us a wine that’s even better than you’d expect. It’s pure and well-balanced  — bold where it needs to be and elegant when it counts.

So obviously, I’m recommending this wine highly. Your problem will be finding it. If I were you, I’d be on the look-out for any Lazarre Pinot, and grab it when you find it. Cheers!

I’ve written recently about the wines coming from the Hope Family Winery in Paso Robles, California: Or more specifically, from second-generation winemaker Austin Hope. I tasted and enjoyed his Troublemaker Lot 2 and Candor Merlot Lot 2, so my last tasting project was his Candor Zinfandel Lot 2.

I’ve probably written in previous posts about my taste in Zinfandel: I gotta admit I’m fussy. I don’t enjoy the over-ripe, overly-raisiny, and overly-alcoholic Zins. That style typically comes out of warm-climate appellations such as Lodi, which is why I’ve always gravitated to Paso Robles Zinfandels. This wonderful wine region has warm to hot daytime temperatures, but the mercury plummets in the late afternoon as cool ocean breezes come rushing through the Templeton Gap. That creates ideal conditions for Rhone varietals like Syrah, and for my kind of Zin.

I’m guessing that Austin Hope has the same kind of palate. Their website says that, “This wine benefits from a combination of hardy, gnarly old vines, some of them over 50 years old, and exuberant new at Austin Hope Wines, all meticulously farmed. Blended together across vineyards and vintages, Candor Zinfandel has real panache—bright berry fruit, spice, and that undefinable zing that says it’s really Zinfandel.”

Here’s my experience with Candor Zin: I had a bottle handy when we had some big steaks ready for the grill. I wouldn’t usually pick a Zin to accompany a steak, but hey, what the hell! We served up the rare steaks (marinated in Jack Daniels, no less) and poured Austin Hope’s Zin.

And it was fabulous. This Zin has nice blueberry and blackberry fruit, with enough structure to handle red meat. The wine was bold enough to match the beef, and never got too “jammy.”

I admit that I was pleasantly surprised. “If this is Paso Zin, bring it on!”

Both the Candor Zin and Candor Merlot show great quality and value. I’d suggest you try them, and keep and eye on winemaker Austin Hope. Cheers!

Hope Family Winery on Live Oak Road, westside Paso Robles CA

I wrote recently about Austin Hope, a second-generation winemaker from Paso Robles, California. He’s doing some pretty edgy things down there in the Central Coast, like making wines with no vintage date. Yes, his Candor and Troublemaker lines say “Lot 1″ or “Lot 2″ instead of, say, 2010.

I explained their reasoning in my last post, but here it is again: “Wine is best made when a winemaker has choices.” The way they see it, each vintage brings something useful to the blend, just like different varietals do in a traditionally blended wine. When they can choose to add a bit of this vintage and a bit of that in order to make a better-tasting wine, then why shouldn’t they blend vintages?

A purist may say that each vintage represents a unique set of circumstances dictated by the vagaries of weather. When you see a vintage-dated wine, say “2007 Napa Cabernet”, you have an idea right off the bat of how that wine may taste, based on your knowledge of the reputation of that vintage in that region.

Well, guess what? There are plenty of wine drinkers out there who don’t have the foggiest idea what characterized the 2007 (or any other) vintage. They don’t need the short-hand message on the label, and don’t need to be reassured that this bottle isn’t too old for them to drink.

They just want a good-tasting bottle of wine.

And that’s what Austin Hope’s Candor Merlot Lot 2 and Candor Zinfandel Lot 2 give them. Let’s look at the Merlot first. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s easy for me to work myself into a rage when I read stories about forests being chopped down to make way for yet another strip mall or cookie-cutter subdivision. But I just came across a tough one. Louis Sahagun and P.J. Huffstutter at the Los Angeles Times report that:

Two wineries want to remove  redwood and Douglas fir trees in order to plant Pinot Noir vineyards.

Hmmm… I love trees, but I also love wine. And it’s not like vineyards are a scourge on the landscape: they can be every bit as pleasing to the senses as towering evergreens.

But why do these wineries (Codorniu, whose Napa property Artesa happens to be one of our favorite winery destinations, and Premier Pacific Vineyards) want to plant on this particular patch of ground? Can’t they go dig up a cow pasture somewhere?

No, they can’t. As Nature would have it, land that’s capable of growing those beautiful trees also grows beautiful Pinot Noir grapes. Situated just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean, the land is cooled by ocean breezes, and Pinot Noir is a cool-loving grape. The land also sits above the fog line, so there’s plenty of direct sunlight to ripen the grapes. And for the punch line, this area near Annapolis on the northern edge of Sonoma County is part of the desirable Sonoma Coast appellation. Pinots made from Sonoma Coast fruit have an intense, structured style that’s been adding dollar value in the marketplace.

So is that worth chopping down centuries-old trees? Well, the truth is that this a second-growth forest, replanted after the virgin forest was logged many years ago. Its value isn’t its venerable old age, but all the good things that forest lands do for the environment.

Environmentalists say, “”We are not going to let them rip these trees out by their roots, change the soil chemistry with amendments and develop neighborhoods so that these forests will never grow back.”

The developers, on the other hand, have promised to “restore streams, add more than 200 acres to a county park, plant 1 million redwoods and Douglas firs and make other environmental improvements.”

So who should get the nod? Should we go with pine cones or Pinot Noir?

Let me know which way you vote, and Cheers!

He doesn’t look like a troublemaker, but you never know… Some guys take you by surprise. They just can’t make nice.; they’re always poking and prodding, pushing the envelope and threatening to jump right out of the box.

Like this guy, Austin Hope, who has his name on a bottle called “Troublemaker.” That sounds kinda dicey, right? And it got even dicey-er when I looked for a vintage date on the bottle and saw only… “Lot 2!” What kind of troublemaker is this guy?

Austin Hope is a second generation Paso Robles winemaker. His father, Chuck, bought land there in 1978 and started growing Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which he sold to well-known Napa Valley winemaker Chuck Wagner for his Liberty School label. Austin eventually worked under Wagner, and the Hope family ended up taking over the Liberty School label. They’ve since launched other brands, including the premium wine Treana and the line named “Austin Hope.”

So let’s get back to the winemaker, and his treasonous ideas. Why make a non-vintage blend? Wine drinkers have come to expect a date somewhere on every label, except for sparkling wines. Well, here’s how their website explains it:

“Wine is best made when a winemaker has choices.” In this case, Austin has chosen to blend 65% of his wine from the 2009 vintage, and added 15% from 2008 “for complexity and structure” and 20% “bright, young wine” from the 2010 vintage.

Is this heresy, or good winemaking practice?

I guess the wine drinker should be the judge. So let’s check out this wine drinker’s tasting notes.

The wine poured out opaque and intensely colored, and I said, “This is no wimpy wine.” The nose was bold too, but with very sweet fruit compote aromas suggesting plums and boysenberries. It had me expecting a very jammy palate, and there was certainly a big burst of up-front dark fruit. But it dried out very quickly and started showing some good structure. Read the rest of this entry »