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Wine Tasting Notes
Most Recent Tasting notes:
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2006 August Briggs Dijon Clones, Napa Valley, Pinot Noir $40 Score: 86.0 The August Briggs story is worth writing about, and I'll make note here in future blogs. For now, though, let's take a look at August Briggs' Russian River Pinot. This style of Pinot is not to my personal taste, as I prefer a more delicate rendition. For my palate this is too ripe, too alcoholic, and lacks some finesse. Yet I have to admit that it's well-made for the style, and for those of you who like that (Parker) style, it's a lush, fruit-forward wine with black cherry overtones, full-body, velvety texture and a lot of power. |
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2007, Kenwood Vineyards, Reserve Russian River Valley Pinot Noir $30 Score: 89.0 While most modern, New World Pinots are made in a lush, full-bodied style with loads of fresh fruit, Kenwood takes a more classical approach, with a medium-bodied offering dried cherry overtones, subdued floral undertones, and mineral notes that play through the mid-palate and into the lingering finish. It's less immediately satisfying on first impression, and yet more appealing and complex through the finish. A fine example of a wine to appreciate slowly over the cheese plate. It's perhaps too subtle to enjoy completely with the main course, but it's a wonderful wine to linger over after the meal is over. |
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2005, Dry Creek Vineyard The Mariner, Dry Creek Valley, Meritage red wine $40 Score: 89.0 This Bordeaux style blend offers a compelling blend of dark cherry and basil aromas and flavors, with supple tannins and a lingering finish. You can enjoy this baby now, but it will reward your patience if you lay it in your cellar for another five to seven years. Our rating is for current drinking, though we expect it to improve over the next decade. |
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2005, Dry Creek Vineyard The Mariner, Dry Creek Valley, Score: 89.0 |
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2007 Dancing Bull California, Sauvignon Blanc, $12 Score: 87.0 Gooseberry nose with a dusting of fresh mown grass; light body and firm acidity on the palate, with delicate lime, honeydew melon and mineral flavors, followed by a clean finish. After the tasting we paired it with crab cakes and it was just the ticket. Good value. |
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2007, Mosby Winery & Vineyards, Stelline di Moscato Santa Barbara County sparkling wine $18 Score: 88.0 I expected a sweet sparkling moscato modeled on Asti Spumante. Instead it's like a sparkling moscato from Canelli, with only a hint of residual sugar. The aroma has appealing floral notes and a bright (if evanescent) edge of passion fruit and peach. On the palate, it's soft and creamy with a miniscule bead, and light peach and tangerine flavors. Clean and balanced. Only 440 cases produced. |
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2007, Dry Creek Vineyard, Fumé Blanc Sonoma County, Sauvignon Blanc, $14.50 Score: 95.0 Dry Creek's "regular" FB/SB is a testament to the art of winegrowing -- it's all in the grape. And it's a testament to the mature winemaking -- it's so perfectly balanced and elegant in structure (refreshing, crisp without being sharp), and so emphatically varietal, yet subtle in its complex fusion of melon rind, lime, grapefruit and dry grassy flavors that you're left entirely satisfied. Wine collectors will overlook this gem, but it's the epitome of the term "poor man's Chardonnay." At just $14.50 a bottle, I'd advise you to lay in a case. Widely available, as 29,908 cases were produced. |
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2006, Dry Creek Vineyard, Taylor's Vineyard Musqué Dry Creek Valley, Sauvignon Blanc, $25 Score: 90.0 A more subtle expression of the fruit, the musqué clone displays muted melon, a hint of passion fruit, and a sprinkling of nutmeg, all wrapped in crisp acidity. This is more in the style of the Loire, though with less minerality than the DCV3. Only 539 cases produced. |
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2006, Dry Creek Vineyard, Estate Fumé Blanc DCV3 Dry Creek Valley, [Sauvignon Blanc]: $25 Score: 88.0 Of the three, this is the most austere. It's a Loire Valley style of wine, dry as a bone, lean with lime and mineral character. It's a great palate cleanser and a quintessential shellfish wine (particularly with raw oysters). |
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2006, Shenandoah Vineyards, ReZerve Paul's Vineyard, Amador County, Zinfandel $24 Score: 90.0 It's full aromas of blackberry and cocoa are a catch-all for red varieties, but the varietal definition comes into focus on the palate with bramble berry, raspberry, nutmeg and vanilla. The tannin is chewy but sweet, and the finish lingers for minutes. Though the alcohol is higher than I'd like, it's balanced and should age well over the next decade. Only 277 cases produced. |
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2007 Round Hill California, Pinot Grigio $10 Score: 90.0 This Pinot Grigio includes 5% Chenin Blanc and 5% Muscat Canelli in the blend, and yet it reminds me more of Chenin with its ripe melon and lime flavors. On the palate it's seductively silky, and shows just a touch of residual sugar balanced nicely by crisp acidity. Bright, fresh, quaffable and inexpensive. |
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2006 Sobon Estate, Amador County, Cabernet Sauvignon $15 Score: 93.0 This brilliant, classic-style California Cab has great balance and nuance, displaying light herbal tones that lend an air of complexity to dried cherry, cassis and subtle oak flavors. The tannins are soft, and it finishes with a blend of mineral and sour Bing cherry. Dirt cheap and world class. Drink now through 2015. |
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2007, Sobon Estate Old Vines Amador County, Zinfandel $13.95 Score: 91.0 This is an intensely jammy, spicy wine with concentrated raspberry-boysenberry character from the nose through the finish. The spices are a melange of cinnamon and allspice. The texture is velvety smooth, as the tannins are kept in abeyance, and the finish is on the warm side. It has enough residual sugar to make it obvious, though most people will simply identify it as super-fruity. I'm reminded of a 1974 "December Harvest" Zinfandel from Monterey Vineyard, made by Dick Peterson. If the style indicates the wine's longevity, you'd be best served by drinking it before 2012. For such a unique and distinctive wine, it's an amazing bargain. |
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2005 Stromberg Vineyards Dry Creek Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon: $55 Score: 88.0 My first impression was of a wine masked by unbearably bitter tannins. I recorked the bottle and the next day I decanted the wine to give it plenty of aeration and smooth out the tannins. Then the thoroughbred was released. The underlying wine is elegant, showing a concentrated core of blackberry fruit with nuances of basil, and lovely strawberry notes on the finish. To be sure, this is not a terribly complex wine at the moment, but it is a wine with enough structure and fruit to develop into something special over the next decade. As such, it earns 88 points for current drinking, and you can expect great improvement with additional bottle age. |
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2006 Kenwood Vineyards, Jack London Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Zinfandel $25 Score: 89.0 Jack London Vineyard Zin is always Kenwood's most muscular wine. Deep and concentrated, with a core of blackberry-raspberry fruit, lots of spice (clove, licorice and toast), and chalky, chewy, slightly bitter tannins. It's drinkable now, but if you like the flavors that accumulate with age, this is an excellent candidate for extended ageing over the next couple of decades. |