August 12th, 2010

Meet Marita

2005 Marita’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

This, my dear friends and people who read me because they hate me but want to see what I’ll do/say next, is some friggin’ Napa Valley Cab.

Marita’s Vineyard Special Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (say that fivefold fast) is a pretty fantastic bottle of wine, if I do say so myself (and I do). Limited to 225 cases, this 100% hillside cabernet sauvignon is something everyone should try.

Legit Juice

Unfortunately, by virtue of the fact that it runs a buck-and-a-half per, not everyone’s going to be able to. C’est la vie, n’est-ce pas, mes amis?

First off, the wine comes in one of the heaviest glass bottles I’ve ever encountered. Seriously, when I opened the box the bottle came in, I thought for a second it was a 1 liter bottle or something. It’s not, it’s a standard 750, but a good 10% taller and maybe 20% wider than most of the other 750s I have in my cellar. And heavy. Even empty (and hooo boy did I finish this one) the bottle felt like it might be half full.

I know the point of thick, heavy glass bottles is to lend a measure of elegance, perhaps even gravitas, to the wine. I couldn’t help thinking about the environmental impact of all that extra glass. Extra energy to make the bottles, if not recycled properly, extra glass in the trash/landfills and all.

It’s the exact opposite delivery mechanism mentality from the NPA, for instance.

But whatever, I’m not actually that concerned about it. Much more concerned about the juice, so shall we?

2005 Marita's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

2005 Marita's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

First things first: the wine is damn near black in the glass. It lightens to a rich ruby at the very edges, and mine showed just the slightest hint of tanning near the edge as well.

The nose is incredibly nicely balanced between some fruit aromas—mostly blackberry and rhubarb—and the other side of the cabernet aroma world, namely hints of leather and cigar box and cedar. On the palate, the wine is full bodied, and announces its presence with authority.

But it’s not a fruit bomb. It doesn’t “punch” you, as it were. And at 14%, it isn’t overly alcoholic for its robustness and size. It’s well balanced, all in all. The finish is long, the entire experience is lustrous and smooth, with soft, lush tannins and an overarching elegance that just rocks. It fucking tastes good, too, with fruit aromas of blackberry and black cherries that dance around.

Altogether, this is elegant, grown-up, still delicious wine, with lots of nuance and incredible balance. This is Napa Valley cab, writ large.

Verdict: A-

(full disclosure: this wine was provided to me as a press sample from VinTank)

Tags: 2005, A-, cabernet sauvignon, Legit Juice, Marita's Vineyard, Napa Valley

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July 15th, 2010

Gladly Taken Prisoner

2008 The Prisoner

Orin Swift Cellars is new.

I don’t mean “new” like they were just formed yesterday, or this is their first vintage, or even that you probably haven’t heard of them. They weren’t, the first release of The Prisoner was the 2003 vintage, and it’s entirely likely that you have.

What I mean is that they’re nouveau. They’re young, and vibrant, and current, and modern. Exciting and interesting, doing things and saying things.

Winery honcho/winemaker/jefe Dave Phinney likes him some zinfandel. The first wine he released under the Orin Swift Cellars name was the 2003 Prisoner, a zinfandel-based blend of some incredible Napa juice. The latest vintage is no different.

The 2008 Prisoner is 46% zinfandel, 26% cabernet sauvignon, 15% syrah, 10% petite sirah, 2% charbono, and 1% grenache. The main players, in my opinion, are the first three, and before you read on you should probably try to think, for a second, what a zinfandel/cab sauv/syrah blend might be like.

Ready?

If your first thought was “big,” you get a gold friggin’ star.

Luckily for me, and everyone else who’s had the fortune of drinking the 2008 Prisoner, “big” is not the only appropriate descriptor here. Fruit-forward, balanced, acidic, earthy all work as well. So, the notes, then?

The wine is dark as night in the core of the glass, and lightens to a bright ruby red at the edges. The nose is lush with sweet cherries and darker, richer blackberries, plus a hint of tobacco or cigar box aromas. It smells rich. It smells like it’s not about to fuck around.

The Prisoner is a full-bodied wine that really coats your mouth. Here is an actual note I wrote in my notebook:

Tannin structure out the ass

This, I assure you, should be translated as “lots of structure.” The tannins aren’t rough or overpowering, though. Raspberry and cherry do a little dance, make a little love, and get down with a nicely-balanced earthiness and acidity that just makes itself known on the mid-palate. The lingering finish of cherries keeps you coming back for more.

I say god damn, this is some tasty wine.

The Prisoner has gained a cult following, and it is deserved. This latest vintage is a great example of California red blends done well, and for around $30 a bottle it won’t take your pocketbook captive.

Verdict: A

2008 The Prisoner

2008 The Prisoner

Tags: 2008, A, cabernet sauvignon, charbono, grenache, Napa Valley, Orin Swift Cellars, petite sirah, syrah, zinfandel

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May 21st, 2010

Color Me Converted

2007 Leviathan

Statue of Bacchus

Ah, the “Napa Cult Wine.” The perennially-overpriced subject of scorn and ridicule the internet over. Everyone’s tired of Napa fruit and paying the Napa markup. There’s nothing new under the sun, everyone out there is overrated anyway, so forth and so on and et cetera ad nauseum.

Anyone from Napa still reading? I think all that’s horsehockey, by the way. Just wanted to get everyone on the same page.

Still, of the Napa Cult Wines I’ve had, the 2007 Leviathan is the first one to truly live up to all the hype. And what hype there is for this wine!

Some background: Leviathan is a garage wine project from husband-and-wife duo, winemaker Andy Erickson (Screaming Eagle, Staglin, Hartwell, Favia, Ovid, Dancing Hares, Jonata, Dalla Valle, Arietta) and viticulturalist Anie Favia (Screaming Eagle, Favia, and Abreu). Erickson has an MS in Enology from UC Davis, and cut his teeth in the 1990s at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars.

The Napa pedigree on these two is second-to-none. So what about the wine?

40% cabernet franc, 30% cabernet sauvignon, 16% syrah, and 14% merlot, all Napa juice. It’s maybe the best red blend I’ve had. Ever.

In the glass, the wine is gorgeous, with a brilliant garnet core and only slightly lighter ruby edges. On the nose is some really awesome fruit, like blackcurrant, raspberry, and ripe red cherry, but it’s all muted and held in check by a bit of nutmeg and allspice.

This is as full-bodied as wine gets, without getting sickly sweet and syrupy like dessert wine. The tannins are soft and lush, and everything here is in such balance, that I didn’t notice any of the heat. And at 14.5%, I was expecting it. Blackberry and raspberry are the main notes on the palate, and the wine does remain fantasically fruity.

If you’re an anti-flavor fascist, you won’t care for this wine. But if you still love juice for being juice (even if only sometimes) then you need to try this. It isn’t even that expensive, available for $40–$50 from numerous online retailers. Sure, that’s no drop in the bucket, but this isn’t an “everyday” drinker. The tannins and balance lead me to believe you could easily get 5+ years of aging out of it if you wanted, but it tastes so fucking good right now, I wouldn’t bother.

I’m a convert to the cult of Leviathan. This is crazy, silly good juice.

Verdict: A

(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamjodh/ / CC BY 2.0)

Tags: 2007, A, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, Leviathan, merlot, Napa Valley, syrah

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May 11th, 2010

This Wine + More Time = Amazing Meritage

2006 Ferrari-Carano Tresor

The barrel room at Ferrari-Carano

Back to beautiful Ferrari-Carano.

As I mentioned in my review of their Eldorado Gold dessert wine, Ferrari-Carano is a pretty spectacular place. Visually stunning, physically impressive, it even smells good there.

One of the wines that Philippe sent my way, and for which I was grateful (not all of them were all that good, to be quite Francis about it) was this one: Their Tresor, a Meritage blend.

I never know whether to call these Meritages, Clarets, or “Bordeaux-style” blends. I know better than to actually call them Bordeaux, the sin of geographical fraudulence weighs heavy. The English call them Clarets, Californians tend to say Meritages. So I guess I should go with the latter.

If you didn’t pull it all out of there, what this all boils down to (my friend) is that the 2006 Ferrari-Carano Tresor is made up of cabernet sauvignon (79%), malbec (9%), merlot (5%), petit verdot (5%), and cabernet franc (2%).

The wine’s color is very dark, almost, though not quite, nebbiolo dark, with an almost-black core that lightens to ruby red edges. The Tresor’s nose is quite interesting: wet stone and earth mingle with anise and blackcurrant and just a hint of stinky barnyard, kind of a horse blanket aroma. Subtle, though.

The wine is full-bodied and tannic, with a big big structure. The alcohol needs time to soften the tannins, I think, and right now isn’t really the time to be drinking this wine. The notes here are fairly lacking in fruit, with most of the bouquet featuring pepper and more earthy aromas.

It’s gonna be a good one in a few years, I think… but 2010 might be just a bit early to be drinking the 2006 Tresor. It was released just last September, and needs some bottle time. The Tresor can be found in the $40-$50 range and will be well worth it in two or three years, but right now, it’s just a bit immature.

Verdict: B+ (with the hope I taste it again in 2013 or so)

(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elcapitan/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Tags: 2006, B+, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, Ferrari-Carano, malbec, merlot, petit verdot, Sonoma County

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May 10th, 2010

Mt. Rainier-Sized Washington State Value

2007 Columbia Crest “Two Vines” Cabernet Sauvignon

I’ll be perfectly honest with all of you, because I think it’s important and I feel, at times, like you’re all just so open with me, that a little quid pro quo is due. I don’t shop for wine at supermarkets. Ever.

Does this make me a snob? I hope not. The majority of my wine purchasing is done at wineries and at wine shops. Part of this is the luxury of my geographic location: surrounded by many of Northern California’s best viticultural regions.

The other part is, admittedly, a kind of conceit. There are a bunch of wine shops near me, and I just don’t like buying wine at supermarkets. I’ll do the BevMo thing, but they don’t sell fresh produce where I buy my wine.

So at my mother-in-law’s for Mother’s Day, I saw this bottle, opened, on the counter. Decided to give it a shot. She’d bought it for cooking only, but the fact of the matter is, I know damn well that some “priced-for-cooking” wine can actually be quite drinkable. While no one is about to be blown away by Columbia Crest’s Two Vines line, it is significantly better than some cheap wine I’ve had recently.

The wine is fairly light-colored in the glass, with a garnet core that lightens just slightly to purple at the edges. On the nose is a little more noticeable heat than I’d like to see from a 13.5% ABV wine, but it’s also fairly common in my experience for “value” wine to show off more of its alcohol than better-balanced, better-structured (i.e. “more expensive”) wines. Hints of black cherry and lightly-toasted vanilla show up on the nose as well.

So, the taste: the wine is light-bodied, surprisingly light for a cabernet, and very fruit-forward. You gotta be down with some fruit to enjoy this wine. Cherries and jam, and the lightest still-noticeable oak I’ve seen in a cabernet in a while.

If this is indicative of how Washington State does value cabs, compared to how California does it, then head to your supermarket’s wine aisle and look for the Washington designation. Wine Searcher lists the wine between $5.50-$9 but I saw the receipt: my in-laws spent $4.99 at their local Safeway. Well worth that price, in my opinion.

Verdict: B-

2007 Columbia Crest Two Vines Cabernet Sauvignon

2007 Columbia Crest Two Vines Cabernet Sauvignon

Tags: 2007, B-, cabernet sauvignon, Columbia Crest, Washington State

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