The 2004 Sequia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

This bottle was sent to me by the Kobrand Corporation, the wine and spirit importer and distributor. When I received it, I became curious about the wine as I realized that I had never visited the Sequoia Grove winery, although it is right on Highway 29, just 1 mile north of Rutherford.

Family-founded in 1980 on the site of an 1850 farmhouse, Sequoia Grove is named for the grove of giant redwood trees that surround the winery. Today, this boutique winery produces small quantities of premium wines and specializes in Cabernet Sauvignon.

Michael Trujillo is the winery’s longtime winemaker. “In my winemaking I strive for balance and varietal character to come through,” says Michael of his winemaking philosophy on the winery website. “I don’t get carried away with the big, high-alcohol wine trend that influences much of the industry today. I strive for richness and balance from start to finish. This is the way I make wine.”

Under new ownership, the winery has recently upgraded its winemaking facility with state-of-the-art fermenters and processing equipment. A completely subterranean cellar —the first in the Valley— maintains a year-round temperature of 58°F. The fruit is sourced from the winery's estate vineyard in Rutherford as well as from renowned Napa growers such as Gary Morisoli, Andy Beckstoffer, and others.

The grapes for the 2004 Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley were sourced from Rutherford (50%), Oakville (30%), Atlas Peak (15%), and Napa (5%). The wine is pure Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in American oak (38% new) for 18 months. It has a deep inky color and an engaging nose of black fruit and licorice. On the palate, it is concentrated without being jammy, with substantial tannins, some good acidity, and notes of vanilla and mint on the finish. Overall, I find it rather well balanced for such a young wine, although I would cellar it for at least 5 more years, but that's my personal taste. In the meantime, decant it for at least 1 hour and enjoy it with grilled ribeye steaks with Mediterranean rub and oven wedge fries.

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Blind Tasting of Pinot Noir from Los Carneros and Anderson Valley

From time to time, we get together with three other couples for a blind wine tasting party. These parties are always a lot of fun and easy to organize. The hosting couple cooks while the rest of the group brings bottles according to a chosen theme. Before the tasting, we hide the bottles in homemade purple velvet bags and randomly pin letters to them so that nobody can guess their identity. At the end of the dinner, the wines are ranked and then unveiled, with sometimes some surprising results!

The theme of our last gathering was Pinot Noir from Los Carneros and Anderson Valley, two of California's coolest wine regions and well renowned for their Pinot Noirs. Here are the wines that we tasted:

• 2004 Ancien Pinot Noir Mink Vineyard Napa Valley: Ancien Wines is a winery dedicated to Burgundian varietals that produces small lots of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Mink Vineyard is actually not in Carneros but in Napa, an appellation better known for Cabernet than Pinot. But according to the winery's release notes, the climate in this relatively unknown area east of the city of Napa is similar to Carneros and the soil is unique — made up of a rocky/cobbly alluvial with underlying volcanic tufa. Our notes: dark color, sweet nose of cherry, strawberry, vanilla, and herbs. On the palate, liquorish, spicy, with some acidity. Medium finish. Overall, we enjoyed the wine and ranked it third with 15 points.

• 2005 Saintsbury Pinot Noir Los Carneros: Saintsbury Vineyard is a California Pinot Noir pioneer. With the release in 1981 of 2000 cases of Carneros Pinot Noir, the winery's mission has been to demonstrate that world-class Pinot Noir could made in California, especially in the Carneros District. Because it is bordered by the San Pablo Bay at the Southernmost end of the Napa and Sonoma valleys, Los Carneros is much cooler than the rest of Napa and Sonoma. In terms of wine style, Saintsbury emphasizes balance of tannin and acidity, as well as power and elegance without leaning toward the burnt jam style of Pinot that is sometimes found in California. Our notes: medium red, fresh cherry nose, notes of brown sugar, buttered toast, blueberry, and fig. One the palate, lively, earthy, smoky, Burgundian with a good mineral finish. The wine was everybody's favorite and came first with 10 points.

• 2004 Fotinos Pinot Noir Los Carneros: founded by a Greek family, Fotinos Vineyards is located in the heart of the Carneros District of Napa Valley. Since 1969, it is dedicated to growing Pinot Noir grapes exclusively. The greek coin on the label dates back to 480 B.C. with an engraving of Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo and the Greek goddess of the forests and the moon. For the Fotinos family, she represents the beauty of nature. Our notes: medium color, nose a bit closed with notes of fresh cherries. On the palate, young, some acidity, a bit green, mineral, hints of sardines, tannins on the finish. We gave 18 points to this wine, which finished in fifth position.

• 2005 Adrian Fog Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard Anderson Valley: Adrian Fog is an exclusive producer of single vineyard Pinot Noir. It selects vineyards based on their cool climate, orientation to the sun, clonal differences, and age of the vines. Clones and blocks are picked, fermented, and aged separately. Picking, racking, and bottling are scheduled as close to the night of the full moon as possible and the winery recommends to drink Adrian Fog wine on the night of a full moon to enjoy it's full seductive essence. Unfortunately, maybe the night of our tasting was only a new moon, maybe the bottle was flawed for some reason, but we didn't like it at all. Our notes: dark color a bit cloudy, subdued, herbal nose. On the palate, acidic, green notes of cucumber pickles and sand gravel. The wine got 30 points, which placed it far behind the others.

• 2004 Londer Estate Grown Pinot Noir Anderson Valley: Londer Vineyards is located in the southwestern corner of Mendocino County, one of California's coolest areas. Adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, the vineyards are covered with a blanket of fog most summer nights. Then later during the day, the fog burns off and it becomes sunny and dry. With these conditions, the grapes slowly develop and ripen, which is ideal for growing varietals such as Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer, and Chardonnay. The winery has 15 acres of Pinot Noir and an acre of Gewurztraminer mostly on south facing hills. Our notes: dark color, sweet fruity nose with notes of vanilla and burnt sugar. On the palate, some tasters found it nicely balanced, while for others it was tannic, alcoholic, aggressive. The wine finished in fourth place with 16 points.

• 2004 ZD Reserve Pinot Noir Los Carneros: founded in 1969, ZD Wines is owned by the deLeuze family. The ZD style is to craft rich, flavorful wines that reflect the varietal character of the grape. This wine comes from ZD's own deLeuze Family Vineyard in Los Carneros. The vineyard is dry farmed and has been farmed organically since 1996. It was officially certified in 1999. Prior to its release, the wine was aged for 15 months in small French oak barrels with minimal racking. Our notes: dark color, fragrant nose of sweet currant, notes of caramel, chocolate and clove. On the palate, rich, full-bodied, although not too pinot-ish, medium finish. Overall, the wine was very well received and was placed in second position with 12 points.

Previous blind tastings:
•  Blind Tasting of Grenache-based wines
•  Chardonnay Blind Tasting
•  Pinot Noir Blind Tasting

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Forget the Winter Reds, try this delicious California White

The wine departments of our local grocery stores are getting more and more interesting. You can now find wines from many regions around the world and at the same time, there is often a shelf dedicated to wines made by local wineries. So the other day, I found a 2005 Cinnabar Mercury Rising Blanc at my local Mollie Stone's Market. I already had the Mercury Rising Red — a Bordeaux-style wine — several times, and I was curious to try the white version.

Located high on a ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Cinnabar Vineyards & Winery was founded by Tom Mudd, a Stanford grad and research engineer at SRI International (Stanford Research Institute). But after planting a one-acre mountain vineyard in 1974, he decided to change careers, took viticulture and enology courses at the University of California Davis, and finally founded his own winery in 1983.

He chose the name Cinnabar, a brick-red mineral (mercury sulfide) that fascinated the alchemists of the Middle Ages. They would crush and heat up a piece of cinnabar and observe the mercury separate from sulfur and evaporate. Using a similar process, they were hoping to find a way to extract gold and silver from any ordinary metal.

Mercury Rising Blanc is Cinnabar's proprietary white. It is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Sémillon, sourced in 2005 in Monterey County, Sonoma County and Clarksburg. We opened the wine at a recent holiday potluck lunch where people had brought different ethnic dishes. The wine ended up being very popular. In the glass, it displayed a pale yellow color and a fresh nose of citrus. There was some tangy acidity on the palate followed by lime flavors and minerality on the finish. The wine worked beautifully with the ethnic food, especially the Sashimi salad made with raw flounder and brought by our Japanese friend Misako.


Misako's sashimi salad

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With the turkey leftovers, a magnum of 2003 Ridge Lytton Springs

My friend Catherine has delicious ways to accomodate turkey leftovers. So the day after Thanksgiving, she made a soup with what was left of the turkey carcass. She had to cook the carcass for at least four hours to produce the broth, and then she made the soup with the broth, chopped vegetables, and diced turkey.

She also showed us how to make turkey croquettes with leftover mashed potatoes. Simply served with a green salad, they were the ultimate comfort dish: crispy on the outside, moist and tasty on the inside.

And we were far from running out of wine as it was time to open the magnum of 2003 Ridge Lytton Springs that our friend Pierre had brought.

It's in 1972 that Ridge Vineyards started making its first Lytton Springs Zinfandel from 80 year old vines, and in the early 1990s, the winery was able to purchase the land. The place is named after "Captain" William Litton, the actual owner in the 1870s. It was later in the early 1900s that the spelling changed to Lytton.

The vineyard is located north of Sonoma County, in the hills that separate the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys. It is mostly planted to Zinfandel — including some 111-year-old vines — as well as Petite Sirah, Carignane, a small amount of Mataro (Mourvèdre), and Grenache.

The wine had deep red color and a rich combination of red and black fruits on the nose. The palate had some good acidity and sweet berry aromas without being jammy at all. Overall, the wine was very well balanced, offering much more finesse than most. I was happy: I too rarely find a Zinfandel that I like.

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For Halloween, try a really good Pinot

Forget the candies tonight, they're too sweet and not wine friendly at all. Have a glass of wine instead, for example, the 2003 Muccigrosso Pinot Noir from the Santa Cruz Mountains. This is one of my favorite Pinots. It is medium red in color with an attractive nose of sweet berry fruit. The palate is juicy, fruity and very well-balanced in terms of acidity and tannins. The finish is long and spicy. This is the kind of Pinot Noir that has more fruit and body than a Burgundy but is not as big, jammy, Syrah-like as so many California Pinots.

As a bonus point, it works very well with pumpkin. Enjoy it with a Pumpkin Risotto that you can make with the remaining flesh left over from your pumpkin carving.




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Beaulieu Vineyards Georges de la Tour Private Reserve Cabernet Vertical Tasting by James Strohecker

My friend James Strohecker was very lucky to attend a vertical tasting of Beaulieu Vineyards Georges de la Tour Private Reserve Cabernets. The event was organized by wine collector George Kautzman on September 6, 2007. Kindly enough, James is now sharing his tasting notes with us:

Overview

The Beaulieu Vineyards Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernet tasting was a special, once-in-a-lifetime chance to sample some of the great Napa Cabernets from some great years: 1968-1976. Over the years, noted collector, George Kautzman, painstakingly acquired the Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernets for the sole purpose of one day hosting vertical tastings of the wines.

The Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernets were all 750 ml with generally high shoulder fills, and were pre-decanted between 5:15 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. prior to the 7:45 p.m. tasting. The wines were then blind tasted by the 11-person group, after they'd been bagged and offered to the tasters in flights of three, beginning with the youngest three wines, to the oldest three wines.

All of the Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernets were purchased around the release date (generally five years after the vintage year) and original purchase price is provided as available (some bottles actually had the price tags still on them).

With regard to the (famous) 1968 vintage, the wine we tasted came from the last bottle of the second case of wine that George Kautzman had ever bought (his first case being a case of the Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernet 1967 vintage). I think most of us expected this wine to knock us out of our seats and/or blow all the other vintages out of the water. The truth is, as you can read below, it didn't stand out as the highest-rated Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernet of the evening.

In all, however, the majority of the wines from this era were still packed with Napa Cabernet clout; they opened up, and in some cases were remarkably edgy — but never flabby. This was simply a tremendous tasting, offered by a stellar host and collector, Mr. Kautzman.


General Notes

First flight: Great start; the 1976 vintage clearly stood out. These wines were an example of the fine Napa Cabernets that were produced by famed winemaker, Tom Selfridge.

Second flight: Only after we'd sampled the second flight, did George Kautzman read from the "White Book of California Wines", the bible on wine during that era. The 1972 Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernet received a score of 11 out of 20. "The harvest was in rain and mud, with people gathering grape clusters in ankle-deep water ..." The 1972 Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernet received a score of 16 out of 20.

Third flight: the best of the evening The surprise was that the 1968 Cab didn't stand out as the knock-down favorite. Feedback was varied. However, the 1969 vintage was vivid and solid; an unrecognized year with a tremendous output (from Beaulieu). Apparently, according to George Kautzman, his is not the first time that this Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernet vintage has shown so well. It's been consistently great in tastings over the years.

Wine	Tasting Notes
Roederer Estate Sparkling Wine NV	Clean, dry, refreshing — with a perky finish on the palate. Azalea blossoms and rice nose. Opened up a bit — with more flowers and a finer finish.
Grgich Hills 1978 Napa Valley Chardonnay	Nice, with residual fruit and pear blossom nose. Good color, with a polished finish.
Kenwood 1979 Deltane Ranch Sonoma Valley Chardonnay	Very apple cider nose with a light, caramel finish. Color had changed to a cream soda look; nutty and Sauternes-like flavors on the palate.
Georges De La Tour Private Reserve Cabernets	(in order of flight tasting)
1974 Vintage	Full nose; completed; Man, this is polished; pushing to perfection; "medicinal nose." 4 votes for best. ($16.99 original price)
1975 Vintage	Latent palate finish; "edgy and unbalanced," a little barnyard with some chocolate, less finished or polished. A second (delayed) tasting of this brought this reaction from me: "A lot of character." ($12.95 original price)
1976 Vintage	This really sings; younger, with more bounce; Ummmm!; nice, nice finish. "Fresh fruit, nice and balanced." ($16.99 original price)
1971 Vintage	Wow, Surprising finish; "Only 1/3 the menthol as the 1973."
1972 Vintage	Polished; full; driven. Berry, with a bouncy finish and a smooth nose. Some choco-berry hanging in the palate.
1973 Vintage	Rich; classic; slight menthol nose.
1968 Vintage	Chocolate and Napa soil; tobacco and spice. "Trunk of the car wine!" Very firm and diverse; food friendly. Leftover "muscle memory" from a great year. But it's the right time to consume this wine — it's not going to get any better.
1969 Vintage	Plush. Awesome. Complete. Holding steady & expanding into berry land. Surprisingly excellent.
1970 Vintage	Very, very good; this is an epitome of the Cabernet; cigar box nose; fruit intact; a lot of open-field room to move. The favorite of the tasters for the evening

James Strohecker



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Winemaking step #7: barrel tasting

It's been more than six months since our 2006 Crushpad Cabernet Sauvignon Ink Grade Vineyard had been aging in a new Sylvain barrel and it was time to check how the wine had evolved. So last Monday, I had an appointment with our winemaker Kian Tavakoli to taste the wine.

Wow! Six months in new oak and the wine had turned into a truly magnificent teen with a deep, inky purple color and an intense nose of blackberry liqueur. The palate was concentrated, woody, and tight with tannins. After five minutes in the glass, the rich dark fruit aromas became more peppery, spicy. Kian was also very pleased with how the wine had aged so far. And then we tried another Ink Grade Cabernet from an adjacent barrel, a wine with a different set of winemaking parameters and that had been punched down. Surprisingly, the wine was very different. The nose was minty, more herbal than fruity. On the palate, the oak seemed less integrated, with a noticeable acidic finish. I am glad to say that so far, ours was the best!


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Santa Barbara tasting at Crushpad

Crushpad, which has just moved to a new, bigger place on 3rd Street in San Francisco, is now hosting a series of wine tasting events every other Thursday. The tasting kick-off event happened last Thursday with 6 wines from Santa Barbara County.

Who has not heard of Santa Barbara wine country? Remember, it's that Pinot Noir place where it is forbidden to talk about Merlot! Actually, Santa Barbara is much more than just Pinot Noir country. With three main appellations, Santa Maria Valley, Santa Ynez Valley, and Santa Rita Hills, and many microclimates, Santa Barbara produces a wide range of wines from cool climate varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as well as from Rhone varieties including Syrah, Grenache, and Viognier.

Here are the wines that we tasted that evening:



• 2006 Ojai Sauvignon Blanc Westerly Vineyard Santa Barbara County: from The Ojai Vineyard, a winery renowned for its Syrah, Rhone Varietals, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from premium vineyards on California's Central Coast. Ojai buys its grapes by the acre rather than by the ton and therefore, pushes for low yield crops in order to produce wines of high intensity. My notes: pale yellow color, vivid aromas of grapefruit and pineapple on the nose. On the palate, full-bodied, fat, and crisp with some bitterness on the finish. The wine was far too intense for me, my preference being a lighter, fresher style of Sauvignon Blanc.



• 2005 Babcock Chardonnay Rita's Earth Cuvee Santa Rita Hills: from Babcock Winery, a small winery in the Santa Rita Hills featuring estate-grown fruit as well as grapes from local vineyards. The Rita's Earth cuvee is a blend of Estate Chardonnay with fruit from the Sanford & Benedict vineyard and Gainey's Evans Ranch vineyard. My notes: medium golden color, attractive nose of ripe stone fruit. On the palate, seemed high in alcohol (14.5%), long finish.



• 2005 Barrel 27 Viognier Santa Barbara County: from Barrel 27 Wine Company, the creation of two winemakers committed to producing premium Rhone varietal wines at fair prices, and according to their website, for hardworking people. Their Viognier is made with fruit from the Bien Nacido and Camp 4 Vineyards. My notes: pale yellow color, aromatic floral nose of orange blossom, full-bodied palate with tropical fruit flavors, high alcohol content (15%). Overall, the wine had too much extraction for me, I prefer more freshness and finesse.



• 2005 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Clark & Telephone Vineyard Santa Maria Valley: from Belle Glos Wines, a Pinot Noir producer founded by Napa winemaker Chuck Wagner of Caymus Vineyards, favoring low yields and intense flavors. My notes: deep garnet color, candied fruit nose, full-bodied palate, herbaceous flavors on the finish. Quite a rich style of Pinot.



• 2005 San Sakana Syrah White Hawk Vineyard Santa Barbara County: from San Sakana Cellars, a boutique winery founded by Bettina Briz, her husband Peter, and her best friend Leslie. San Sakana means three fish in Japanese and is a reference to the three founders. San Sakana is currently hosted by Crushpad where the wine is made. The White Hawk Vineyard Syrah was vinified using 25% whole cluster to include some stems in the extraction, and was aged in 100% neutral French oak. My notes: dark purple color, nose of sweet berries with peppery notes. On the palate, full-bodied, rich and seductive, definitively my favorite wine of the evening.



• 2005 Ojai Syrah Santa Barbara County: another wine from the Ojai Vineyard. The Santa Barbara County Syrah is a blend of various fruit from the county with some Grenache (3%) and Mourvèdre (0.5%) to give an aromatic lift. My notes: deep purple color, quite shy on the nose but big on the palate, tannic, peppery with an herbal finish.

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WBW #32: Reserve or not Reserve?

Reserve or not Reserve? That is the question asked by The Wine Cask Blog for the 32nd edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday. This month, we need to determine whether Reserve wines are really better than their regular counterparts. What a great question! And are they worth the price, can they age better?

For this experiment, I chose to compare (blind) two wines from Merryvale Vineyards: the 1999 Merryvale Cabernet Sauvignon bought $20.80 at the time, and the 1999 Merryvale Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon that costed me $30.20. Both are from the Napa Valley, from the same vintage, and both have some amount of Merlot in the blend.



In the glass, the two wines had a similar deep garnet color, the Reserve being slightly darker. The regular Cabernet had a bright, spicy, and smoky nose whereas the Reserve had a denser nose with black fruit and cherry liqueur aromas, and some smoky notes. On the palate, the regular Cabernet was medium-bodied, slightly lean on the mid palate with some acidity on the finish. In comparison, the Reserve had a fuller and more complex body, with a more tannic finish.

At the end, it was easy to identify the two wines. The regular Cabernet was a fine wine that had aged pretty well but it didn't have the complexity of the Reserve. Does that mean that the Reserve was worth the price? I think so.

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Pinot Locale

I really like the Pinot Noir wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains. I find them racy, aromatic, and well-balanced. Unfortunately, they are usually produced in small quantities by family-owned boutique wineries and therefore, are not easy to find in mainstream wine stores. Now, if you live in the Bay Area, there is a great place to taste and buy these wines: Vino Locale, a small wine bar in Palo Alto that specializes in local products. Many of their wines come from little known Santa Clara and Santa Cruz County producers. And if you're not familiar with their names, just ask Randy Robinson the owner, for a recommendation. He knows all of them very well.

I was there recently with a good friend of mine as we were both low on Santa Cruz Pinots. We bought a couple of bottles of our favorite, the Muccigrosso Pinot Noir and while we were there, we also tasted the 2004 Silver Mountain Vineyards Pinot Noir Tondre's Grapefield that was available at the tasting bar. The wine was not from the Santa Cruz Mountains but from the nearby Santa Lucia Highlands. It was nevertheless delicious: fragrant, well structured, with a long finish. We walked out of the store with arms full, but we were happy.

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