Hello Everyone! We are fresh back from Bermuda after a nice long weekend and are excited to share this wine with you. When we travel to Bermuda, we like to hit one of our favorite restaurants out in Southampton – The Ocean Club. However, it’s only open seasonally so our alternate “go to” restaurant has been Blu at Belmont. It has a great view of the island and harbor and a fabulous location to watch the sun set. Okay, so this is a wine blog and not a travel blog, so we’ll get on with the wine.
When we first started to really enjoy wine, Merlot was our grape of choice followed closely by Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot has many of the characteristics of Cabernet but it has a little less tannin that makes it more approachable at the outset. However, we do enjoy a Merlot than has the weight of a Cabernet and there are a few out there. As Merlot grew in popularity through the 90’s, the prices also climbed and the quality slowly declined. Then in 2004, the pivotal event happened: the character Miles from Sideways seemingly ended the era of Merlot with his famous phrase, “I am not drinking any f@*$ing Merlot!” From that statement, the Pinot Noir craze was born. While not so good for the reputation of Merlot, this was great for us because Merlot prices came back down, the quality rose, and only the serious producers hung in there.
Clos du Val is located in the Stags Leap district of Napa Valley, and was co-founded in 1972 by Bordeaux native Bernard Portet. Bernard was Clos du Val’s winemaker for a number of years and still remains deeply involved with the winery today. The 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon, their very first vintage, was one of only 6 Napa Cabernets selected to compete in the famed “Judgment of Paris” tasting arranged by Steven Spurrier in 1976. We have found that Clos du Val maintains consistent quality year after year. So when Rachel spotted the Clos Du Val Merlot at a reasonable price after perusing the wine list at Blu, we decided to go for it. (We have often found that the Merlot section is a good place to look on a restaurant wine list for some good bargains.)
We have been to the winery in Napa a few times, and were able to enjoy their Zinfandel while living in Bermuda. It turns out that the winery makes the Zinfandel for export only, but will be releasing a Primitivo, Zinfandel’s Italian cousin, soon. When the waiter brought the wine out and poured a sample, we could tell it was going to be good from the smell alone. Then when we first tasted it, we knew Rachel had picked a winner for the evening. It had all of the black fruit flavors of Merlot, but it also had a good bit of earth and tannins. It was full-bodied and intense but not overly astringent. After reading the back label, we found out that the wine was 83% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a classic blend of Bordeaux found on the right bank in areas such as St. Emilion or Pomerol. In the United States, a wine only needs to be 75% of one grape to be called a varietal. In fact the 2006 vintage is 77% Merlot; just 2% over the minimum. The Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon were providing the extra spice, earthy aromas, tannins and structure to the wine in great balance with the softness and dark fruits of the Merlot.
This is definitely a buy a few more bottles at a time, although we don’t see it that often. Like many wines, there is quite a range for the retail price, from $13.50 - $23. It’s often difficult to find a complex wine like this at the lower end of the price range. Typically, you’ll find non-estate Cabernet Sauvignon in the $18 - $25 range, which tend to have a bit less structure than this wine. Look for Beaulieu, Sebastiani, or Benziger if you want to stick with Cabernet. For another power Merlot, we find we never go wrong with Sebastiani’s Merlot.
Like what you drink, Drink what you Like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
The Office
Showing posts with label Stags Leap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stags Leap. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Bottled Poetry Meets Ascentia
Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, once remarked "Wine is bottled poetry." (As we write this blog, the song "No Poetry" by Gary Jules is playing in the background.) Okay - now back to wine. Today we're discussing wines from two of California's great wineries. Robert Louis Stevenson's quote may be the inspiration for Cliff Lede Vineyard's wine called Poetry, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stags Leap District in California's Napa Valley. Ascentia is a reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Geyser Peak's Block Collection in the Sonoma Valley. The name comes from the Ascentia Estate Vineyard, which is a rising set of meandering hills and terraces in the Alexander Valley which creates a variety of different microclimates and soils.
Cliff Lede Vineyards is located on the Silverado Trail in the Stags Leap district, and is owned by Canadian Cliff Lede. We feel a special affinity for this winery because our friend Jack Bittner (a Massachusetts native), is VP & General Manager at Cliff Lede. We've known Jack since our early days at the Nantucket Wine Festival when he worked for Silverado Vineyards and insisted to us that Silverado really did make good white wine in addition to red (and gave us a bottle of Silverado's Sauvignon Blanc to prove it. Of course this is when you could actually walk out of the Nantucket tasting with a bottle tucked in your bag).
Geyser Peak has been a favorite for many years, and their Sauvignon Blanc is our original "back up the truck" wine. We were excited to have met the winemaker, Aussie Mick Schroeter and his friend Daryl Groom, at the Nantucket Wine Festival many years ago, and were impressed by their approach to winemaking in the Sonoma Valley. We visited the winery in Geyserville back in 2005 and had the opportunity to try some of the library wines. It was in this tasting that we first tried the Ascentia, and later joined Geyser Peak's wine club.
Okay - now how does a wine from Alexander Valley meet one from Stags Leap? Several years ago, Dorothy and John from the Wall Street Journal started an event called "Open That Bottle Night" (OTBN). On that night, which is now each year in February, people all over the world gather their friends and family together to share a special bottle and enjoy a great meal. Many of the stories that surround the wine and people are heartwarming. It's just people like you and us getting together to open that special bottle that may otherwise sit on the rack because it was too expensive or special. We have come to accept the phrase that "It's never too early to open a bottle, only too late". You can decant, aerate, or open a bottle an hour in advance to help advance the clock and open up a tight wine - if it's too late and past its prime, then there is nothing you can do to turn back the clock and revive the wine.
This year, we decided to do a comparison of 2004 vintages of the Ascentia Cabernet and the Poetry with a dinner of burgundy pepper lamb, garlic mashed white beans and a mixture of asparagus and kale. When we first opened the wines, the Poetry was a bit more aromatic than the Ascentia but both were very powerful Cabs. We could immediately tell that the Ascentia was built to last and could have been held another 5 - 10 years. The Poetry, being from Stags Leap, had softer tannins, incredible bouquet and aromas and was very approachable. We needed to aerate the Ascentia a bit to get it to open up. Both wines exhibited deep dark fruit characteristics and and Ascentia had a bit of cedar hints to it. The Poetry had a little more of a lush chocolate flavor to it. We had both wines through the course of dinner and later on; it took about 3 hours to finish both bottles. In the beginning, we both felt that Poetry was showing better, but as the time went by the Ascentia showed its staying power and held up well as it opened and showed us new dimensions with the passing of time.
Both of these wines rate as buy again and very, very good. However, they come with some pretty hefty price tags, Poetry is in the $125 - $150 range. Ascentia, on the other hand comes in at around $45. These are both truly special occasion wines and it's rare that we get them. In fact, we got Poetry as part of the Stags Leap Appellation Collection (obligatory disclosure-not sure we would have spent the money for this wine had it not come as part of the Collection). The Appellation Collection is 19 of the best wines from Stags Leap. We also belong to the Geyser Peak club which ships us great wines like this a few times a year.
A little note about Stags Leap and why it is famous. In 1976, Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, arranged for the famous Tasting of Paris often termed "The Judgment of Paris". This event was a blind tasting in which the highest quality red (and white) wines from France and California were tasted by French judges. Two California wines took the top prizes: the winner among the red wines was Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, and among the whites was Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay. (Check out the movie "Bottleshock"-even better wine film than "Sideways.") Several other American wineries made strong showings in the competition, including Ridge, Clos du Val, Heitz, Mayacamas, Chalone, and Spring Mountain. Several interim contests have been held and a 30 Year Anniversary of the same wines was held in 2006. California still wins against French powerhouses such as Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau Montrose.
The Alexander Valley region became famous in 1975 when Chateau St. Jean created the first "vineyard designated wine" in California wine history. Today it is the largest and most fully planted region in Sonoma, and we think some of the best of Sonoma wines come from the Alexander Valley.
Like what you drink, drink what you Like!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
Cliff Lede Vineyards is located on the Silverado Trail in the Stags Leap district, and is owned by Canadian Cliff Lede. We feel a special affinity for this winery because our friend Jack Bittner (a Massachusetts native), is VP & General Manager at Cliff Lede. We've known Jack since our early days at the Nantucket Wine Festival when he worked for Silverado Vineyards and insisted to us that Silverado really did make good white wine in addition to red (and gave us a bottle of Silverado's Sauvignon Blanc to prove it. Of course this is when you could actually walk out of the Nantucket tasting with a bottle tucked in your bag).
Geyser Peak has been a favorite for many years, and their Sauvignon Blanc is our original "back up the truck" wine. We were excited to have met the winemaker, Aussie Mick Schroeter and his friend Daryl Groom, at the Nantucket Wine Festival many years ago, and were impressed by their approach to winemaking in the Sonoma Valley. We visited the winery in Geyserville back in 2005 and had the opportunity to try some of the library wines. It was in this tasting that we first tried the Ascentia, and later joined Geyser Peak's wine club.
Okay - now how does a wine from Alexander Valley meet one from Stags Leap? Several years ago, Dorothy and John from the Wall Street Journal started an event called "Open That Bottle Night" (OTBN). On that night, which is now each year in February, people all over the world gather their friends and family together to share a special bottle and enjoy a great meal. Many of the stories that surround the wine and people are heartwarming. It's just people like you and us getting together to open that special bottle that may otherwise sit on the rack because it was too expensive or special. We have come to accept the phrase that "It's never too early to open a bottle, only too late". You can decant, aerate, or open a bottle an hour in advance to help advance the clock and open up a tight wine - if it's too late and past its prime, then there is nothing you can do to turn back the clock and revive the wine.
This year, we decided to do a comparison of 2004 vintages of the Ascentia Cabernet and the Poetry with a dinner of burgundy pepper lamb, garlic mashed white beans and a mixture of asparagus and kale. When we first opened the wines, the Poetry was a bit more aromatic than the Ascentia but both were very powerful Cabs. We could immediately tell that the Ascentia was built to last and could have been held another 5 - 10 years. The Poetry, being from Stags Leap, had softer tannins, incredible bouquet and aromas and was very approachable. We needed to aerate the Ascentia a bit to get it to open up. Both wines exhibited deep dark fruit characteristics and and Ascentia had a bit of cedar hints to it. The Poetry had a little more of a lush chocolate flavor to it. We had both wines through the course of dinner and later on; it took about 3 hours to finish both bottles. In the beginning, we both felt that Poetry was showing better, but as the time went by the Ascentia showed its staying power and held up well as it opened and showed us new dimensions with the passing of time.
Both of these wines rate as buy again and very, very good. However, they come with some pretty hefty price tags, Poetry is in the $125 - $150 range. Ascentia, on the other hand comes in at around $45. These are both truly special occasion wines and it's rare that we get them. In fact, we got Poetry as part of the Stags Leap Appellation Collection (obligatory disclosure-not sure we would have spent the money for this wine had it not come as part of the Collection). The Appellation Collection is 19 of the best wines from Stags Leap. We also belong to the Geyser Peak club which ships us great wines like this a few times a year.
A little note about Stags Leap and why it is famous. In 1976, Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, arranged for the famous Tasting of Paris often termed "The Judgment of Paris". This event was a blind tasting in which the highest quality red (and white) wines from France and California were tasted by French judges. Two California wines took the top prizes: the winner among the red wines was Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, and among the whites was Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay. (Check out the movie "Bottleshock"-even better wine film than "Sideways.") Several other American wineries made strong showings in the competition, including Ridge, Clos du Val, Heitz, Mayacamas, Chalone, and Spring Mountain. Several interim contests have been held and a 30 Year Anniversary of the same wines was held in 2006. California still wins against French powerhouses such as Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau Montrose.
The Alexander Valley region became famous in 1975 when Chateau St. Jean created the first "vineyard designated wine" in California wine history. Today it is the largest and most fully planted region in Sonoma, and we think some of the best of Sonoma wines come from the Alexander Valley.
Like what you drink, drink what you Like!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
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