Wine Cellars Club

Archive for the ‘Review cabernet sauvignon wine’ Category

Sorry it’s been awhile. If you’re in the wine retail business, like I am, your life gets put on hold for a few weeks when ‘Tis The Season for the holiday shopping and drinking frenzy. Thank God that’s over…

So meanwhile back at the ranch — I finally have time to write about two killer reds I tasted during an online TasteLive session in December. Pine Ridge Vineyards, one of the Stags Leap District’s most classic wineries, sent me two of their Cabs — the Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2008 and Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District 2008. We (a motley crew of wine bloggers) and winemakers Michael Beaulac and Jason Ledbetter connected online, and we got some great input on where these wines come from and how they’re made.

Pine Ridge owns vineyards in four Napa appellations. Michael and Jason talked about their unique characteristics, and explained what grapes from Stags Leap, Rutherford, Oakville and Howell Mountain bring to their party. It was a blast to pick out those characteristics in the wines we tasted.

We started with the Napa Valley 2008 Cabernet, which is a blend of fruit from Rutherford, Oakville and Stags Leap. Before I fill your head with lots of technical mumbo-jumbo, let me say simply that this is a kick-ass bottle of wine. Rich fruit and sweet oak make it positively hedonistic — and there’s nothing wrong with that!

But to get technical again… Beaulac explained that the 2008 growing season gave winemakers the conditions to create softer, lusher, enjoy-it-right-now kind of wines. He used 60% Rutherford fruit that gives intense, rich, palate-coating flavors; 30% Oakville grapes for bright red fruit flavors, good acidity and structured tannins; and 10% Stags Leap for chocolate and mocha notes with fine tannins.

The result — there’s blackberry jam on the nose, with vanilla and mocha sneaking in behind. The palate shows plenty of blackberry fruit, balanced by good acidity and well-integrated tannins. There’s good depth and concentration, and this oh-so-yummy “sweet” finish.

Michael and Jason shared some interesting information on this wine’s creation. Each appellation lot was fermented and aged separately, and then “assembled” to spend another year getting to know each other. They used only American oak barrels: they say Napa Cabernet needs American oak to impart volume and texture. I guess that explains all that sweet vanilla I enjoyed.

So let’s move on to number two — Pine Ridge Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. Again, to cut to the chase — lush, powerful and balanced. Michael used only Stags Leap fruit from a vineyard that stresses the vines to produce thick-skinned grapes with intense color, cocoa powder and mocha flavors, and fine-grained tannins.

Wow, does it ever. The nose knocked me out first: there was sweet blackberry and mocha that morphed into pomegranate and blueberry, and I could have sat with my nose in the glass all night. Michael called this “volatilizing aromatics,” and I’m all for that…

The palate was a bit of a surprise. I didn’t get a big fruit bomb, but instead a (relatively) light touch with power behind it. I tasted dark berries and dark chocolate, with more juicy red fruit on the end. I got well-integrated, fine tannins for a long finish that didn’t “bite.” Again, there was intensity without jamminess or “heat” — my kind of Cab. And the oak used in the Cab is all French — for this wine, Michael wanted to emphasize elegance.

The Stags Leap is 0nly 91% Cab: the balance is Merlot and Petit Verdot, also grown on the Stags Leap property. At 14.7% ABV, you might expect some heat, but Michael explained that 14 – 15% adds to the mouthfeel as long as it’s balanced by good acidity. When asked how this wine will age, Michael offered that seven years is the optimal drinking point for a Napa Cab. At that stage it should show some maturity but still retain some of that bright California fruit that we love to enjoy.

At around $75, Pine Ridge Stags Leap is a bargain compared to a lot of premium Napa Cabs. I’d go grab a bottle, if I were you… Cheers!

When I see an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon coming my way, especially one with “Barossa” on the label, I’m tempted to jump fast and high to get out of the way.

It’s not that I don’t like Australian wines — I love many of them. But unless I’ve got a 16 ounce Rib Eye nearby, an Australian Cabernet can be just too big for my britches: the big, jammy fruit and high alcohol needs a lot of beef to tame it.

So I was pleasantly surprised recently when I uncorked a bottle of Elderton “Friends” Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2009. I already knew the Elderton winery by reputation — they’ve won a boat-load of awards over the years for their Barossa wines, and have made a name for themselves with reds and whites from a sub-appellation of Barossa where some good friends (like in the name, right?) own vineyards.

Eden Valley is a different beast than the hot, dry, Barossa Valley floor. The Eden vineyards are scattered up the hillsides, at elevations of 1200 to 1500 feet. So what does this do? The elevation creates cooler temperatures, and combined with more minerally soils, it produces grapes with more acid and structure. And of course, acid and structure act to balance big fruit.

So let’s taste Elderton Friends Cab. The color was as purple and opaque as I’d expect, but the nose was relatively delicate. I got mint and eucalyptus right off the bat, with dark fruit notes chiming in. Blackberry and dark chocolate were up front also.

The palate was multi-layered and delightful. The fruit came first, with blackberry and sweet black currant opening the door for gentle mint. There was a peppery note too, and all of this was wrapped up in soft tannins. But it didn’t finish there — that Eden Valley acid lifted up the finish with a bright end-note, and made a package that was bold and elegant at the same time. No jamminess here — just rich, bright fruit.

The Elderton “Friends” series (there’s a good Shiraz, too) represents a good value. A just under $20, you’re getting big wine without a big price tag. Cheers!

If you, my loyal reader, have been paying attention, you’ll have noticed that my blog posts are always about wines I’ve enjoyed. Why waste time writing about lousy wines when there are so many good ones, right?

And the first thing I do, when I want to write about a wine I’ve enjoyed, is research. I want to learn about the wine’s region, the people who contributed to its creation, and the winery that produced it.

So after drinking this really good Bordeaux the other night — Chateau de Rochemorin 2009 – I set out to do my usual. But what I discovered in my research wasn’t “the usual”. Take the winery’s history, for example: this Chateau traces its roots back to 1520. Really! That’s a long time ago.

And over the next 400 years the Chateau at Rochemorin was home to Lords and Ladies, Poets, one of the great philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, and even an honest-to-God Musketeer! (the dashing, sword-wielding type, not the candy bar type).

Vines were planted on Lord Rochemorin’s estate in the region we know as Graves in the 16th century, and good-to-very-good wine was made there continuously for four hundred years. Holy cow! That kinda puts the “Old” into “Old World” wines.

Then in 1919, the estate was sold to a lumber baron, and it wasn’t until 1973 that it  was rescued  by Andre Lurton, a man whose family wine history isn’t too shabby, either. The Lurton’s have been wine producers in Bordeaux since 1650, and at this point there are “no fewer than 17 family members of the currrent generation working in the wine trade today.” In fact, the appellation within Graves where the winery sits, Pessac-Leognan, was created in 1987 after 20 years of lobbying by none other than Andre Lurton.

So enough preamble: let’s get to the wine. Bordeaux is arguably the King of Old World wine. Reds from Pessac-Leognan, which is part of Bordeaux’s Left Bank, can be blended from the six traditional Bordeaux grapes (the Lurton website includes Carmenere as the sixth grape). The Chateau de Rochemorin is blended from just two grapes — 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. Read the rest of this entry »

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!

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!

Stephen is the one sleeping...

I was navigating a busy wine trade show when I saw Stephen Black. He was the dashing, somewhat diminutive man in a black shirt who solidly occupied a space in the middle of a crowded aisle-way.  People-traffic, all laden with semi-filled wine glasses, bumped against him and then parted to flow around him, as though he were a rock in a stream.

I approached to taste his wines, and he waved me away: “I want you to taste the New Zealand wines first!”

OK, whatever you say…

So once I’d done with the grapefruit-y Sauv Blancs and delicate Pinot Noirs, I tried Stephen again.

“OK, now we can talk.” And Stephen can talk. He told me about his first career in the pharmaceutical business, which grew from his background in chemical engineering. While he’d found a fine career, he didn’t find his passion until he found his way into the wine business.

He started at Barossa Valley Estates  in 1992 and then did graduate work in winemaking. It all came together when he hooked up with two grape growers in 1999. One of them, Darren Zimmermann, came from a family that had been growing grapes in Barossa since early last century, and together with Robert Bader they formed Small Gully Winery. It’s in the heart of Barossa, built in (you guessed it) a small gully on Zimmermann’s property.

They named their wines with a nod and a wink to Stephen’s past — “The Formula” was supposed to be The Prescription until some government wine bureaucrat gave it a thumbs-down.

But what’s in a name, anyway?

Their intent at Small Gully was to make “wines of a distinctive bold and intense style with great expression of fruit character.” In Australian wine-speak, that means “ballsy.”

And ballsy they are. I reviewed one of their wines, The Formula Shiraz 2006, a few months ago, but this was the first time I’d seen The Formula Cabernet Shiraz 2007.

I expected a big giant fruit bomb, but that would have been too simple. The Shiraz alone, harvested from older, low-yielding vines in warm-climate Barossa, brings bold, extracted, rich berry flavors.

But Stephen adds about 50% Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Clare Valley vineyards are at higher altitudes, bringing much cooler nights that allow the grapes to ripen more slowly and develop good acid and structure.

Add Lot A to Lot B and you get — intensity without jamminess.

So let’s get to the wine. The color in the glass was dark purple and opaque, and the nose jumped up to meet me. I got round, rich aromas of dark fruit, vanilla and a hint of savory herbs.

The palate made me go “Wow!” (really). “This tastes like chocolate-covered boysenberries!” which to me is a good thing — a very good thing.

It wasn’t just sweetness, though. There was firm, underlying structure that kept the fruit in check. This is a wine that’s not just “a meal in a glass” — it would be great with a steak (on the barbie?).

It’s no secret that I find Australian wines easy to like. I enjoy the bold style of the wines and the winemakers. Some reviewers love them and give them great ratings.

But the best rating system is my customers: When I recommend The Formula wines, customers buy it and come back for more. What better rating system can there be? Cheers!

Greg Powers, winemaker at Washington State's Powers Winery

It’s gonna look like I’m stuck in a rut, or worse yet, acting as a paid lackey for the Washington State Wine Marketing Board (if there is such a thing).

But the truth is, I just keep stumbling over Washington State reds that knock my socks off. The latest is about as unlikely as they come, at least judging by its packaging. Powers Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 sports a label that I can only call…dumb. With all due apologies to the label designer, it’s just wildly inappropriate for a bottle of big, bold, brawny Cab to sport a label that’s…lavender. Yes, lavender, like you’d expect to see on fabric softener or women’s bath products. Sorry guys, it just bugs me.

But let’s forget that, because what’s inside the bottle really rocks.

Powers Winery is relatively young, but is part of a long legacy begun by Bill Powers of Badger Mountain Winery. Bill has been a huge force in Washington State winemaking, as witnessed by the lifetime achievement award he won from from the Washington Association of grape growers.

His son, Greg, is the driving force behind Powers Winery, and he hasn’t done a shabby job, either: under his leadership Powers Winery has been recognized as a “rising star” by Wine Spectator, and as one of the “50 Great U.S. Cabernet Producers” by Wine Enthusiast. Those are impressive accolades for a young winemaker.

Here’s what Greg does at Powers Winery. He sources all the grapes for his wines from vineyard partners, working closely with them to achieve maximal flavors and complexity. And the vineyards he uses produce some of the best fruit in the state, from appellations such as Horse Heaven Hills, Wahluke Slope and the Yakima Valley.

Now let me pause here to talk about Washington state fruit. If you’ve read any of my other posts about WA wines, you’ll have learned that eastern Washington State is damn near heaven for wine grapes. The Cascade Mountains that keep the Pacific coast region cool and wet act as a rain shadow for the eastern half of the state. Over there, in the Columbia River Valley, the climate is warm and arid.

But wait…there’s more! The more northerly latitude gives the grapes more hours of daylight to ripen the grapes, and cool night-time temperatures produce good acid and structure. The result is intense, bright, juicy fruit balanced by bracing acidity. I just love this style…

I strive to create  that realize the fruits’ full potential.

So here’s what Greg Powers does. He focuses on “art of blending,” using the fruit of three different vineyards to create his 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. He says he wants “structured and compelling varietals” with “lush, full flavors that continue to develop and evolve after bottling.” I think he hit it right on the hose.

Right off the cork (or screw cap in this case) the aromas gushed out of my glass. I got sweet berries, vanilla, and that “something”, that quasi-aroma that signals depth and intensity.

The palate served it up big time. Ripe berry/cherry leads the way, with chocolate and a hint of spice following close behind. But the kicker was the deep, dark, concentrated undercurrent created by all that acid and well-integrated tannin. For me, the result was a great marriage of sweet fruit and brawny structure.

And did I mention that this wine goes for less than $15?? That’s truly amazing value, and I can’t see anything from California coming close. Once again, I sound like a WA wine groupie, but is that such a bad thing? Cheers!

I like horses. I like wine. And I like the romance that I hear in this name: “Horse Heaven Hills.”

Horse Heaven Hills is the name of a wine-growing region in eastern Washington State, and is also the home of a winery called Columbia Crest. There really were wild horses way back when, but for the two decades or so that Columbia Crest has been there, “H3″ has been producing some killer grapes — among the best in Washington State.

And that’s saying something. If you haven’t read many of my posts, you’ve probably missed the occasional rants about my love affair with Washington State wines. So here goes again…

Washington State has two totally different weather zones: the wet, cool west side that borders the Pacific Ocean and the dry, warm side east of the Cascade Mountains. This region, the Columbia River Valley area, is heaven for wine grapes. Its northerly latitude means that there’s more daylight hours during the growing season, with cool nights that allow the grapes to develop good acid and structure. The typical result is wine with intense fruit flavors balanced by good acid and soft tannins (my favorite kind of wine).

So getting back to Horse Heaven Hills, this area is blessed with a unique feature: unusually active winds that produce grapes with extra flavor and structure. While several wineries use grapes from these vineyards, Columbia Crest’s H3 wines represent unusual value. In fact, the one is drank last night got a Top 100 Value Wines rating.

I smelled and tasted the ripeness of the fruit in Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. The richness started with the deep berry and sweet vanilla aromas. The palate was bursting with fruit — sweet blackberries and cassis — that quickly turned to mocha. For a minute there I thought I was drinking a chocolate/coffee/berry milkshake: Not that that’s a bad thing… The finish was so soft and supple that it got me searching for the tasting notes. Sure enough, this wine is not all Cab: there’s also 8% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc.

The blend may account for the extra softness and richness. It might also be Washington’s exceptional 2008 growing season, which produced fully ripe grapes and good yields.

Either way, it made for a really seductive, luscious wine. That’s not surprising, since I’ve really liked the other wines in the H3 line, a Merlot and a Chardonnay. Grab any of them if you catch them at your local wine shop, and enjoy. Cheers!

Benziger's bowl-shaped vineyard on the mountain

If you drive northwest from the town of  Sonoma, California, up the amazingly beautiful Valley of the Moon, you’ll see Sonoma Mountain looming on your left. And if you get off the highway and head up into the hills behind the town of Glen Ellen, you’ll run into Benziger family territory. On the slopes of the Sonoma Mountain, someone found a pretty unique topographical feature: a giant bowl that sits in its own valley 800 feet above sea level, formed by volcanic explosions from the mountain some two million years ago .

What makes this bowl unique, and uniquely suited to grape growing, is that the surface around all 360 degrees of the bowl is exposed to a variety of sun exposures, elevations, soil profiles and drainage. In this one extended 85-acre vineyard, they have ideal conditions for planting…just about everything. While most of the acreage is devoted to Cabernet Sauvignon, they also grow other Bordeaux varietals, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc.

Yesterday I reviewed a Zin and two vintages of  Bordeaux blend from this estate vineyard, and today I’ll talk about two more.

I’ll start with Benziger Obsidian Point Sonoma Mountain 2007, which is a blend of 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc, 19% Merlot and 10% Petit Verdot. This wine was slow to open, and in fact it didn’t show well until a few days later. The nose was more herbal than fruit, with a sharpness and off note. I thought it might be a spoiled bottle, because the palate, too was light on fruit and didn’t show a lot of depth or complexity. Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Benziger has been called a pioneer. He’s probably also been called crazy by the folks who didn’t believe in his experiments in organic farming. But whatever you call him, he’s been instrumental in introducing and developing methods for growing grapes while nurturing and improving the land through his Sustainable, Organic and Biodynamic farming practices.

He and many other Benzigers (a couple dozen, I think) also make wine at their winery in Sonoma County. Snugged up in the hills above the tiny town of Glen Ellen, and just a short hike from Jack London’s historic home and State Park, they’ve planted 85 acres of red and white grapes on the slopes of Sonoma Mountain.

This is a relatively warm-climate growing area, which was immediately obvious in the wines we tasted recently during a Twitter Tasting. In case you don’t know what that is…

A Twitter tasting is a very cool way to marry something very traditional with the latest in social media marketing. Here’s how it’s done: a group of wine bloggers (otherwise known as the “online wine community”) were invited to sit around with winemaker Mike Benziger as we tasted and talked about six of his wines. Only he sat in front of a camera in California and we sat in front of our computers in…wherever. He was on-screen and as we tasted, we tweeted questions and comments and he answered back. Very cool and very effective.

So let’s get to Benziger and their wines. I posted a story giving you background on the whole Sustainable/Organic/Biodynamic approach that Benziger Winery uses in all their estate vineyards and with all their contract growers. I think it’s a tremendous goal to grow better fruit and nurture the land for future generations. The question is — does it make better wine?

Mike Benziger thinks so. The wines he chose for us to taste included a Zinfandel, two vintages of their Bordeaux blend “Oonapais,” two vintages of the Bordeaux blend “Obsidian Point,” and their premium blend, “Tribute.” I’ll review three today and pick up the rest tomorrow. Read the rest of this entry »