Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Oh so much wine and so little time.
It's a tough job, keeping up on all the wine tastings around the area, hanging with friends and doing the major wine event scene, like last night, at the sensational Frog's Leap Wine Dinner at Flemings. But someone has to do it, so, why not...But this isn't a closed society, anyone can join in on the fun.
Earlier on Saturday Baron's had their afternoon wine tasting, so I dropped in for some Chateau Montelena. I know, twist my arm to drink $120-130 Napa Cabernet from the 1999 vintage as well as their other wines for the price of the tasting but given the proximity to home and the fact that I was in the neighborhood, I just had to suffer through so you would know about them.
Here are my thoughts a few days later:
2000 Chateau Montelena Napa Chardonnay
What first catches your attention is the bright straw yellow color of the wine. Then comes the nose. This is not a big, buttery, oaky, Chardonnay. It's refined, elegant and very tasty. On the palate you get glorious gobs of fruit flavors that are very appealing in a wine that is totally balanced. Nice pear and apple tastes with some hints of fresh mango and orange in the blend. Delightful.
1999 Chateau Montelena Calistoga Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon
Downright good wine. Yup. I like this and for those of you who know me well, I rarely say that about a California Cabernet. A real good wine that can easily age 8-10 years. Rich, well balanced with lots of tarry fruit, some tobacco, coffee aromas just tease the palate. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot makes this Bordeaux style red a real winner. On the palate the tobacco, cherry fruit, black all spice, with some rich and ripe blackberry too. Yummy.
1998 Chateau Montelena Calistoga Cuvee Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
The problem with the 1998 vintage was 1997 and 1999. They were deemed better by the critics. So what. 1998 is an awesome year for early drinking and restaurant wines. The Calistoga Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon from that vintage is no exception as it was immediately evident to me when this wine was served blind. I guessed the year and the wine (only the second time I can recall doing that in a long time). Yummy. Yummy.
1999 Chateau Montelena Estate Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
If I ever had any doubts that this winery had lost stride in the mid 90's before the 97 vintage, it has permanently been erased. What a downright sensational wine, but given it's lofty price, not a wine that will grace my cellar too easily. Sheer delight and a treat to have by the glass at a tasting. This is prototypical Cabernet from Napa Valley that put Napa on the wine map so many years back. Oh my God...what a wine. Cassis and cherry flavors, laced through this very terroir driven wine. You get the soil and the gravel in the wine at first blush before the gobs and gobs of fruit flavors just saturate your palate. This very berry wine is a delight already, but capable of 20 years or more of aging. Wow...I could have been drinking first growth Bordeaux if I didn't know better. Outstanding.
2000 Chateau Montelena Estate Napa Zinfandel
While I've been shying away from Zins the past few years, if for no other reason I have many older Zins, this is one that I like for near term drinking. Since it is a blend of Primitivo and Zinfandel they get to call it Zin. Napa Zin's tend to be lean, austere when compared to Zin's from Amador County, and not as fat and sweet as the Sonoma county relatives.
There is no question this is Zin though. Nice raspebrry flavors give you the first hint. It's a smooth wine, sexy, easy. Very delicate in some ways, not brawny like Ridge or Renwood or even Rosenblum. Like the Cabernet, you get loads of berry flavor, but a hint more of that brambly flavor of earth, soil and stone. Very Good.
Gaffneys Wine Bar
Saturday evening a friend and I went over to Amici for some Nuevo Latino cooking after a glass or two at Gaffney's Wine Bar in Encinitas. At Gaffneys. There I had the 2001 Palliser Estate Pinot Noir as the wine is one of the more highly regarded reds in New Zealand and around the globe. It's well made and flavorful, with lots of Burgundian tones and notes in the blend. The wine has a copious layers of red and black berry flavor and while good, and deserving of another glass, though, and while it did not carry through on the richness of the Lawson's Dry Hill Pinot Noir I had a few weeks earlier.still it's a very good Pinot Noir.
My friend had two half glasses of Zinfandel. A rather heady 2000 Rosenblum Sonoma County Zin which was very appealing and a 2000 Howell Mountain Winery Zinfandel that was even more appealing, with deeper fruit, a sweeter middle and a darker color.
Dinner At Amici
Over dinner at Amici, I popped for a bottle of Champagne earlier in the day that Eli at Baron's Del Mar was suggesting for $21.95 a bottle. Pascal something or other with a last name that begins with a D. Sensational. Toasty, nutty, fruity, great bubbles. Something about bubbles and mussels in a savory sauce just went very well. This sparkler is an outright bargain, drinking as well as anything for more than twice the price. It has soft, gentle acidity, loads of green apple and pear flavors. It was a real delight.
2001 Lake Chalice Platinum Cabernet Sauvignon
From what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite regions in New Zealand, the Martinborough area where Craggy Range's sensation Sauvignon Blanc hails from, comes this producer. Having had their very nice Riesling a few weeks back at Flemings during the Ken Rutkowski Connected Dinner series, I decided to try their big gun red. This is my kind of Cabernet and what is becoming quickly evident is that this $20.00 wine is easily on par with some California wines in the $40 to $50 dollar price range, thus providing savvy buyers with a great alternative to overpriced Bordeaux.
The Lake Chalice Winery's Platinum Cabernet Sauvignon is a delightful wine to drink, young and will age nicely for 10 year. It went exceptionally well with the on the bone New York Strip steak that was smothered with blue cheese. Dark and foreboding, with its inky and black purple color, the wine which has a hint of mint, easily reminds me of a Heitz Martha's or the famed 1984 Peter Lehmann Cabernet Sauvignon from the Barossa Valley in Australia which I went through many cases of in the late 80s and early 90s. Blessed with cigar box, eucalyptus, black and bing cherry, just gobs of plum and cassis flavored fruit, this is a wine I may just have to buy a case of for future consumption. Ok. Stop twisting my arm......
Another Southern Hemisphere sensation is the 2000 Domingo Molina Cabernet Sauvignon. Priced last year at less than $12.00 locally, the wine, which has some Malbec in the blend is very, very good and may be one of the best Cabernet values around, if any remains available. I've had this wine twice in the last month, once with Roy's Adam Flierl and then again last Saturday. Each time the wine amazed all who tasted it for its complexity, length, softness and fruit forward style. Like the Lake Chalice, this wine has a plum and cassis base, but hints of strawberry, black raspberry and tar round it out. This is a stunning Cabernet when when paired with rack of lamb and is as good with grilled steak.
Easter Lunch at Roy's
A group of WinePals assembled for what is rapidly becoming an Easter Sunday Tradition. Wine and the delectable foods that come out of the kitchen and from the Sushi Bar.
We started the day with a delightful, bone dry Italian Prosecco. Nice, lime and lemon flavors, the wine was crisp, not flabby as some Prosecco's seem to be. It must have been good the bottle was gone before I could even write the name down.
Chateau Benoit is a Willamette Valley winery that has new ownership, a new winemaker and has moved from being an also ran, into the mainstream of winemaking. Tasting three of their wines at the same sitting shows how well they have come over the last year or so.
2001 Chateau Benoit Müller-Thurgau
I may have found the perfect wine for the cooking at Roy's. This lively, steely and minerally wine has just enough of a hint of sweetness to pair up so well with Asian inspired (read fire and spice and everything nice) cooking that Chef Evan Cruz turns out each day. Peach, oranges and nectarine flavor, with some Asian pear and lime citrus makes this wine a real charmer.
2001 Chateau Benoit Pinot Gris
As good as the the Muller-Thurgau was, this wine missed the mark for me. A tad too oaky, and a bit too sweet. It was nice, had very good residual sugar, but it just didn't wow me the way I like to be wowed. While it has some apricot and pear flavors, this first ever release from the winery left me not wanting more of it, but more of something else.
2000 Chateau Benoit Pinot Noir
Darn good Oregon Pinot Noir. Yup. Yup. Yup. This is darn good. Loaded with fruit, light spice, the wine had a nice Burgundian aroma and palate weight to it, with black raspberry, cherries, ripe strawberry and toffee flavors. Possessing good length, and deep dark flavors, this wine, that is priced under $20.00 is a darn good wine, especially with the Roy's Soft Shell Crab sandwich.
Other wines at Roy's included a nicely aged 1996 Ta Karanga Pinot Noir from New Zealand. Aged perfectly, the wine initially was closed before blossoming into a glorious example of New World making old world style wines. 1999 Howell Mountain Zinfandel was a goodie too, as it showed a tremendous depth of fruit flavor, spice and a long finish. 1995 Perrin Reserve Cotes du Rhone, made by the same folks who bring you Beaucastel, shows why this wine needs time. At age eight it was drinking like a baby Chateauneuf du Pape. If tasted blind one would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and the Coudelet de Beaucastel from the same year.
Cheers,
Andy Abramson
It's a tough job, keeping up on all the wine tastings around the area, hanging with friends and doing the major wine event scene, like last night, at the sensational Frog's Leap Wine Dinner at Flemings. But someone has to do it, so, why not...But this isn't a closed society, anyone can join in on the fun.
Earlier on Saturday Baron's had their afternoon wine tasting, so I dropped in for some Chateau Montelena. I know, twist my arm to drink $120-130 Napa Cabernet from the 1999 vintage as well as their other wines for the price of the tasting but given the proximity to home and the fact that I was in the neighborhood, I just had to suffer through so you would know about them.
Here are my thoughts a few days later:
2000 Chateau Montelena Napa Chardonnay
What first catches your attention is the bright straw yellow color of the wine. Then comes the nose. This is not a big, buttery, oaky, Chardonnay. It's refined, elegant and very tasty. On the palate you get glorious gobs of fruit flavors that are very appealing in a wine that is totally balanced. Nice pear and apple tastes with some hints of fresh mango and orange in the blend. Delightful.
1999 Chateau Montelena Calistoga Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon
Downright good wine. Yup. I like this and for those of you who know me well, I rarely say that about a California Cabernet. A real good wine that can easily age 8-10 years. Rich, well balanced with lots of tarry fruit, some tobacco, coffee aromas just tease the palate. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot makes this Bordeaux style red a real winner. On the palate the tobacco, cherry fruit, black all spice, with some rich and ripe blackberry too. Yummy.
1998 Chateau Montelena Calistoga Cuvee Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
The problem with the 1998 vintage was 1997 and 1999. They were deemed better by the critics. So what. 1998 is an awesome year for early drinking and restaurant wines. The Calistoga Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon from that vintage is no exception as it was immediately evident to me when this wine was served blind. I guessed the year and the wine (only the second time I can recall doing that in a long time). Yummy. Yummy.
1999 Chateau Montelena Estate Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
If I ever had any doubts that this winery had lost stride in the mid 90's before the 97 vintage, it has permanently been erased. What a downright sensational wine, but given it's lofty price, not a wine that will grace my cellar too easily. Sheer delight and a treat to have by the glass at a tasting. This is prototypical Cabernet from Napa Valley that put Napa on the wine map so many years back. Oh my God...what a wine. Cassis and cherry flavors, laced through this very terroir driven wine. You get the soil and the gravel in the wine at first blush before the gobs and gobs of fruit flavors just saturate your palate. This very berry wine is a delight already, but capable of 20 years or more of aging. Wow...I could have been drinking first growth Bordeaux if I didn't know better. Outstanding.
2000 Chateau Montelena Estate Napa Zinfandel
While I've been shying away from Zins the past few years, if for no other reason I have many older Zins, this is one that I like for near term drinking. Since it is a blend of Primitivo and Zinfandel they get to call it Zin. Napa Zin's tend to be lean, austere when compared to Zin's from Amador County, and not as fat and sweet as the Sonoma county relatives.
There is no question this is Zin though. Nice raspebrry flavors give you the first hint. It's a smooth wine, sexy, easy. Very delicate in some ways, not brawny like Ridge or Renwood or even Rosenblum. Like the Cabernet, you get loads of berry flavor, but a hint more of that brambly flavor of earth, soil and stone. Very Good.
Gaffneys Wine Bar
Saturday evening a friend and I went over to Amici for some Nuevo Latino cooking after a glass or two at Gaffney's Wine Bar in Encinitas. At Gaffneys. There I had the 2001 Palliser Estate Pinot Noir as the wine is one of the more highly regarded reds in New Zealand and around the globe. It's well made and flavorful, with lots of Burgundian tones and notes in the blend. The wine has a copious layers of red and black berry flavor and while good, and deserving of another glass, though, and while it did not carry through on the richness of the Lawson's Dry Hill Pinot Noir I had a few weeks earlier.still it's a very good Pinot Noir.
My friend had two half glasses of Zinfandel. A rather heady 2000 Rosenblum Sonoma County Zin which was very appealing and a 2000 Howell Mountain Winery Zinfandel that was even more appealing, with deeper fruit, a sweeter middle and a darker color.
Dinner At Amici
Over dinner at Amici, I popped for a bottle of Champagne earlier in the day that Eli at Baron's Del Mar was suggesting for $21.95 a bottle. Pascal something or other with a last name that begins with a D. Sensational. Toasty, nutty, fruity, great bubbles. Something about bubbles and mussels in a savory sauce just went very well. This sparkler is an outright bargain, drinking as well as anything for more than twice the price. It has soft, gentle acidity, loads of green apple and pear flavors. It was a real delight.
2001 Lake Chalice Platinum Cabernet Sauvignon
From what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite regions in New Zealand, the Martinborough area where Craggy Range's sensation Sauvignon Blanc hails from, comes this producer. Having had their very nice Riesling a few weeks back at Flemings during the Ken Rutkowski Connected Dinner series, I decided to try their big gun red. This is my kind of Cabernet and what is becoming quickly evident is that this $20.00 wine is easily on par with some California wines in the $40 to $50 dollar price range, thus providing savvy buyers with a great alternative to overpriced Bordeaux.
The Lake Chalice Winery's Platinum Cabernet Sauvignon is a delightful wine to drink, young and will age nicely for 10 year. It went exceptionally well with the on the bone New York Strip steak that was smothered with blue cheese. Dark and foreboding, with its inky and black purple color, the wine which has a hint of mint, easily reminds me of a Heitz Martha's or the famed 1984 Peter Lehmann Cabernet Sauvignon from the Barossa Valley in Australia which I went through many cases of in the late 80s and early 90s. Blessed with cigar box, eucalyptus, black and bing cherry, just gobs of plum and cassis flavored fruit, this is a wine I may just have to buy a case of for future consumption. Ok. Stop twisting my arm......
Another Southern Hemisphere sensation is the 2000 Domingo Molina Cabernet Sauvignon. Priced last year at less than $12.00 locally, the wine, which has some Malbec in the blend is very, very good and may be one of the best Cabernet values around, if any remains available. I've had this wine twice in the last month, once with Roy's Adam Flierl and then again last Saturday. Each time the wine amazed all who tasted it for its complexity, length, softness and fruit forward style. Like the Lake Chalice, this wine has a plum and cassis base, but hints of strawberry, black raspberry and tar round it out. This is a stunning Cabernet when when paired with rack of lamb and is as good with grilled steak.
Easter Lunch at Roy's
A group of WinePals assembled for what is rapidly becoming an Easter Sunday Tradition. Wine and the delectable foods that come out of the kitchen and from the Sushi Bar.
We started the day with a delightful, bone dry Italian Prosecco. Nice, lime and lemon flavors, the wine was crisp, not flabby as some Prosecco's seem to be. It must have been good the bottle was gone before I could even write the name down.
Chateau Benoit is a Willamette Valley winery that has new ownership, a new winemaker and has moved from being an also ran, into the mainstream of winemaking. Tasting three of their wines at the same sitting shows how well they have come over the last year or so.
2001 Chateau Benoit Müller-Thurgau
I may have found the perfect wine for the cooking at Roy's. This lively, steely and minerally wine has just enough of a hint of sweetness to pair up so well with Asian inspired (read fire and spice and everything nice) cooking that Chef Evan Cruz turns out each day. Peach, oranges and nectarine flavor, with some Asian pear and lime citrus makes this wine a real charmer.
2001 Chateau Benoit Pinot Gris
As good as the the Muller-Thurgau was, this wine missed the mark for me. A tad too oaky, and a bit too sweet. It was nice, had very good residual sugar, but it just didn't wow me the way I like to be wowed. While it has some apricot and pear flavors, this first ever release from the winery left me not wanting more of it, but more of something else.
2000 Chateau Benoit Pinot Noir
Darn good Oregon Pinot Noir. Yup. Yup. Yup. This is darn good. Loaded with fruit, light spice, the wine had a nice Burgundian aroma and palate weight to it, with black raspberry, cherries, ripe strawberry and toffee flavors. Possessing good length, and deep dark flavors, this wine, that is priced under $20.00 is a darn good wine, especially with the Roy's Soft Shell Crab sandwich.
Other wines at Roy's included a nicely aged 1996 Ta Karanga Pinot Noir from New Zealand. Aged perfectly, the wine initially was closed before blossoming into a glorious example of New World making old world style wines. 1999 Howell Mountain Zinfandel was a goodie too, as it showed a tremendous depth of fruit flavor, spice and a long finish. 1995 Perrin Reserve Cotes du Rhone, made by the same folks who bring you Beaucastel, shows why this wine needs time. At age eight it was drinking like a baby Chateauneuf du Pape. If tasted blind one would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and the Coudelet de Beaucastel from the same year.
Cheers,
Andy Abramson
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