2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Tasting

I decided to purchase some moderately priced 2001 Cabernet’s from four of my favorite producers and have a mini tasting. I also threw in another 2001 from Ravenswood that I recently received in a wine club shipment. All these wines were tasted and rated blind.

2001 Chateau Monelena, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
Wine was medium dark ruby with aromas of cherry and currants. The flavors are cherry, raspberry, and cedar, with high acid and a long fruity finish. This wine is well balanced with soft tannins that are not obvious with the fruit. This wine is appealing for current drinking and should hold for several years. List price is $38. I paid $34. My rating is 84.

2001 Ravenswood, Red Table Wine, Gregory Vineyard, Sonoma
Mint and eucalyptus are the dominant characteristics of this wine. The wine is very dark. The aromas are mint and eucalyptus. The fruit flavors are mint and eucalyptus with hints of cherry. It has high acid and a long fruity finish with moderate tannins. In my experience some people hate mint and eucalyptus on cabernets and some people like it. I generally like it, but this wine lacked complexity and its fruit was completely dominated by the eucalyptus. This wine is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 35% Merlot. List price is $32. My rating is 82.

The notes from Ravenswood indicate Dick Gregory, who played half back for the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, owns this vineyard.

2001 Chateau Souverain, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley
Wine is medium dark ruby, with aromas of cherry and spices. The fruit flavors are cherry and dill like spices. It has high acid and a long smooth finish with moderate tannins. I found this a very smooth, appealing wine for current drinking, with interesting flavors. Considering the price, it is an outstanding value. The list price is probably around $20. I paid $14. My rating is 87.

2001 Silverado Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
Wine is very dark with a tight nose of black cherry and oak. It has big black cherry and blackberry fruit flavors with very high acid and a long astringent finish. This is a big wine that needs a little time to develop. It is a little less balanced for current drinking than the other wines in this tasting, but with a few years of aging I think this will be a very nice cabernet. List price is $40. I paid $32. My rating is 88.

2001 Beringer, Cabernet Sauvignon, Knights Valley
Wine is medium ruby, with a tight nose of cherry and oak. The fruit flavors are cherry with earthy and mushroom overtones. It has high acid and tannins with a long, fruity finish. This is a well-balanced Cabernet for near term drinking, but I found the earthy fruit flavors a little less attractive than some other wines in this tasting. I think the list price on this is around $28. I paid $20. My rating is 85.

I am definitely going to pick up some of the Silverado.

2003 Ravenswood, Chardonnay, Sangiacomo Vineyard, Sonoma

This wine has concentrated aromas of citrus and pineapple with hints of oak and butter. The favors are an intense mix of citrus, pineapple, and tropical fruits with high acid and a long buttery pineapple finish. This is an extremely fruity style of Chardonnay, which is completely different than any other Chardonnay I have ever tasted. There was so much ripe tropical fruit on the nose and palette that this wine tasted almost like fruit juice rather than wine. This is not a style I am use to, and I expect many other wine drinkers would find this Chardonnay not to their liking right now. I left the re-capped bottle in the refrigerator for several days, and went back and re-tasted it. The forward fruit gradually declined and the wine changed to very nice Chardonnay with tropical fruit, good acid and a buttery feel to it. Perhaps with a little aging this will be an outstanding Chardonnay. I would like to re-taste this wine in a year or so. Price is $25. There were 300 cases produced. Not rated.

1988 Chateau Lamothe-Guignard, Sauternes, 375ml.

Nose has sweet citrus and orange aromas. Flavors are citrus, orange, and pineapple with hint of oak, very sweet, with good acid and long lemony, orange sweet finish. This is a very big style of Sauternes, with big fruit flavors. While this wine oozes sweet, tropical fruit flavors, I thought it lacked a little of the complexity of really great Sauternes. My rating 87.

I am pretty sure I bought this wine on Parkers recommendation. In Parkers 1991 book he says “The 1989 is a blockbuster in the heavy, brawny, outrageously alcoholic, unctuous style that is impressive at first, but that may become tiring. It is an extremely powerful, intense wine, but it comes across as a bully when compared to the charm of the 1988.” Parker then goes on to describe the 1988 as “all finesse”. His description of the bouquet and fruit flavors seems to agree with my impression today, but he describes the 1988 as being charming, but lacking the weight of the 1989.

“Finesse” is not the word I would use to describe this wine! I wonder what the 1989 tastes like today?

1997, Ridge Vineyards, Alicante Bouschet, Pagani

The color is very dark garnet. The nose has strawberry and raspberry. The fruit was very forward with strawberry/raspberry flavors and high acid. It has a long fruity finish with hard underlying tannins. While this wine has a tannic backbone, it is so fruity that you almost don’t notice. The wine is 75% Alicante Bouschet and 25% Zinfandel. This was a Ridge ATP wine. My rating 85.

1990 Ridge Vineyards, California, Geyserville

The color was dark purple with hints of brick around the edge. The nose was a little closed when first opened, but after a few minutes it showed rich aromas of raspberry and strawberry with a hint of oak. The palette had flavors of cherry, raspberry and strawberry with high acidity and a strong dose of tannins on the astringent finish. This wine is a blend of 64% Zinfandel, 18% Pettie Sirah, 18% Carignan. It still tastes surprisingly youthful for a 14 year old Zinfandel. I suspect the Pettie Sirah adds to the wine’s backbone. This is a very nice aged Zinfandel. I still have 2 more bottles of this, which I think can easily keep for a number years, although I’m not sure it is really improving. My rating 90.

I believe this wine is a field blend, and in earlier vintages than 1990, Ridge labeled this wine as a Zinfandel, but the label says they had recently completed a vine by vine survey in the Geyserville Vineyard, and realized that in most years the wine was not 75% Zinfandel, hence just the Geyserville label.

1997 Hetszolo, Tokaji Aszu, 3 Puttonyos

Tokaji Aszu is a Hungarian desert wine similar in style to a Bordeaux Sauterne. This wine was medium golden color and had a nose of orange and apricots, with favors of orange, honey and apricots on the palette, medium acid and a long fruity finish. This is a nice desert wine, although initially it was a little lighter in style. I left it in the refrigerator for 4 or 5 days, and it seemed to develop more body, and take on flavors of honey apricots suggesting that it would improve with aging. I bought this wine several years ago for around $10/500ml, which makes it a good value. My rating 85.

When Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain, the Vineyards were made collectives. I purchased some Tokaji Aszu, 5 Puttonyos from 1975 and 1978 that was made by the vineyard collectives. As I recall, it was very good. I still have one bottle of the 1978. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the collective vineyards have been abolished, and private producers are once again making Tokaji Aszu, unfortunately usually at much higher prices. The 3 Puttonyos is a lower quality wine, the 5 Puttonyos is better, and there are 6 Puttonyos and Aszú-Eszencia. I know almost nothing about the producers in this region, but this wine looks to have been a very good value. I believe some more recent vintages from this producer are available now, and I will definitely look for them.

Testarossa Vineyards

Testarossa is a small winery located in the Bay Area making Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah. I visited their tasting room today, and here are my notes:

2002 Castello Chardonnay, Central Coast
Fruity forward nose of lemon, pineapple and wood, bright acidity, fruit flavors of lemon and pineapple, and a long creamy finish. I believe this wine is a blend of fruit from several vineyards. 1989 cases produced. A very nice Chardonnay for the price ($26). My rating 86.

2003 Rosella’s Vineyard Chardonnay
Nose has lemon, citrus and grapefruit, high acid, lemon and grapefruit on the palette, with a long fruity finish. Rosella’s Vineyard is in the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey. There is only 1 acre of Chardonnay in this Vineyard and only 220 cases were produced. A nice, well made Chardonnay ($36). My rating 88.

2000 Michaud Vineyard Chardonnay
Lemony nose with hints of oak, high acid, lemon and grapefruit on the palette with a long creamy finish. This is an elegantly styled, tighter Chardonnay. Michaud Vineyard is in the Chalone region of Monterey. This is a library wine that is only available in the tasting room. 335 cases produced. ($40). The most current release from this vineyard, 2002, is sold out. My rating 89.

2002 Palazzio Pinot Noir
Nose has cherry with stemy overtones, high acid, pallet of cherry with an earthy components, long fruity finish with only soft tannins. I believe this wine is a blend of fruit from several vineyards. 2453 cases produced. A nice California Pinot Noir ($32). My rating 83.

2003 Bien Nacido Vineyard Pinot Noir
Nose has cherry and plums, high acid, intense cherry, plum fruit flavors on the pallet, and a long fruity finish. The Bien Nacido Vineyard is in the Santa Maria Valley near Santa Barbara. 428 cases produced. A very nice, if somewhat pricey Pinot Noir ($54). My rating 88.

I learned that Testarossa is discontinuing their second label, Moorewood, and they have gotten permission from the Jesuits who own the Novitiate facility where they rent space, to bring back the Novitiate label as their new second label. The Jesuits operated a winery at the Los Gatos location from about 1888 until the early 1980s and they sold some of the wine not used by the church under the Novitiate label until the early 1980s. I was told they would have Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and a new Rosé under the Novitiate Label in a few months.

Tasted 1/15/2005

2002 Ravenswood, Zinfandel, Barricia, Sonoma

According to the notes from the winery, this Zinfandel is made from 110 year old vines in the Barricia Vineyard. The nose on this wine opened slowly to black cherry and raspberry flavors. The forward palette had black cherry and strawberry with hints of chocolate. The wine is well structured, with lots of acidity and a long fruity finish with a good dose of tannins. This is a very good, elegant Zin. It was initially tight, but opened up nicely. The alcohol is 14.7%, which showed a little on the finish. 1860 cases produced. Currently available ($32.). My rating 86.

Tasted 1/14/2005

2002 Ravenswood, Petite Sirah, Sonoma

This is one of the most appealing young Petite Sirahs I have tasted. It has gobs of forward concentrated fruit with flavors of black cherry, black berry, and oak. The nose has black cherry with hints of smoke and pepper. The wine is very well structured with a long astringent finish. I think this is a very good young Petite Sirah, and considering the price, $18, an outstanding value. I am not sure that Petite Sirahs really improve with age, developing more complex fruit falvors the way Cabernets do, but my experience with aged Petite Sirahs is that they do become less astringent and smoother with aging. This Petite Sirah certainly appears to have the fruit to merit aging. Currently available ($18). My rating 90.

Tasted 1/13/2005

1990 Caymus Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

This is a good, aged California Cabernet. It is brick colored with slight signs of its age around the edge of the glass. It has a nose of red and black cherry, which follows through with a very fruity front and middle pallet. It is an elegantly styled wine, which still has good structure and hints of tannin on the finish. While this wine has aged very nicely, it lacks the complexity of a great Cabernet Sauvignon. My rating 85.

This wine was made after Caymus stopped making the Estate Cabernet, so that they could use more of the Estate grapes for the Special Selection. Presumably this wine was made from Estate lots that were not included in the Special Selections and purchases grapes, but there is nothing on the bottle to indicate the source of the grapes.

Tasted 1/10/2005

1989 Ridge Vineyards, Petite Sirah, York Creek

I had tasted a bottle of this wine last year, and felt it was past its prime, but this bottle was a pleasant surprise. It was big and fruity, with black cherry and hints of pepper still on the fruit. While it still had some tannins on the finish, I don’t think this wine will improve any more with age. This bottle was a good, aged Petite Sirah. My rating 83.

This is the regular York Creek Petite Sirah (not the Devil’s Hill, which is an ATP wine).

Tasted 1/8/2005

1984 Chateau St. Jean, Semillon d’Or, Select Late Harvest

This is a sweet white desert style wine with a Bordeaux Sauterne like blend of 62% Semillon and 38% Sauvignon Blanc. Surprising for a California desert wine, it truly tastes like a very good Sauterne and I have tasted great Sauternes like the Ch. Yquem from 1975, 1967, 1959, 1945, 1937 and 1928. This wine it not in that class, but it is still a very good Sauterne style wine, and far and away the best California dessert wine I have every tasted. It was very dark golden color, like some older Sauternes (not as dark as the 1945 Yquem), it was still sweet with layers of honey and apricots. It had plenty of acidity and was very well structured, with a long, lingering finish. My rating 88.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Chateau St. Jean makes this wine or anything like it anymore, but it certainly shows that it is possible to make very good Sauterne like wines in California that hold up to aging like true Bordeaux Sauterne.

Tasted 1/5/2005.