2002 California Cabernet Sauvignon Tasting

This was a standup tasting at local retailer. All wines are 2002 California Cabernet Sauvignon.

Hess, Estate
Dark garnet. Nose of cherry and plums. Forward fruit of cherry, chassis, and plums, high acid, moderate tannins, and long fruit finish. Good value. $17. My rating 84-88.

Frogs Leap
Dark garnet. Nose of cherry and spicy oak. Rich forward fruit of cherry and currants, high acid, high tannins, and a long fruity finish. Needs some time. Price $31. My rating 87-92.

Sbragia Family, Dry Creek, Andolsen Vineyard
Medium dark garnet. Spicy, earthy nose. Spicy forward fruit with flavors of dill, high acid, moderate tannins, long fruity finish. Price $28. My rating 85-90.

Turnbull
Dark garnet. Oak and cherry on the nose. Forward fruit flavors of cherry with hints of mint, high acid, high tannins and a long fruity finish. Price $30. My rating 87-92.

Cliff Lede, Stags Leap
Dark garnet. Black cherry on the nose. Forward fruit had flavors of black cherry with hints of pencil lead, high acid, high tannins, and long fruity finish. This is a Bordeaux like Cabernet and needs time. Price $41. My rating 88-93.

Joseph Phelps, Napa
Dark garnet. Nose of cherry and plums. Forward fruit of cherry and plums, high acid, moderate tannins, long fruity finish. Price $44. My rating 85-90.

Chappellet, Signature
Dark garnet. Black cherry on the nose. Big black cherry fruit flavors, with high acid, high tannins, and a long fruity astringent finish. This is a big wine that needs time. Price $37. My rating 87-92.

Provenance, Rutherford
Dark garnet. Cherry and chassis on the nose. Forward fruit of cherry and currents, high acid, moderate tannins, moderate fruity finish. This wine is pleasant, but a lighter style. Price $25. My rating 80-85.

Regusci
Dark garnet. Nose had cherry and minerals. Flavors of cherry, raspberry, and chocalate, with high acid, high tannins, and a log fruity finish. This is a big Cab that needs some time. Price $43. My rating 88-93.

Ladera, Howell Mtn
Dark garnet. Nose had black cherry. Black cherry and chassis fruit flavors, with high acid, high tannins, and a long fruity finish. Another big Cab that needs time. Price $50. My rating 87-92.

Titus, Reserve
Dark garnet. Tight nose with hints of cherry. Forward fruit is cherry and raspberry with a slightly burnt, overripe character, high acid, high tannins, and a long fruity finish. Definitely overripe. Alcohol was 15.4%. Price $48. Not rated.

Darioush
Dark garnet. Nose was tight with hints of cherry. Black cherry forward fruit, with high acid, high tannins and a long fruity finish. Needs time. Price $60. My rating 86-91.

Far Niente
Dark garnet. Nose had some cherry. Cherry and chassis fruit flavors, with high acid, moderate tannins and a long fruity finish. Price $80. My rating 85-90.

It looks to me like 2002 was a pretty good year here in California. The Cliff Lede and Regusci were my favorites from these.

1987 Philip Togni, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Very dark garnet, with no sign of a brownish edge. Nose has green beans and spice oak. The forward fruit is cherry and green beans, with high acid, moderately soft tannins, and a long fruit finish. It is a very well structured, nicely balanced Cabernet, but I do not like the vegie, green bean fruit flavors at all. Very disappointing. Not rated.

2003 Chappellet, Chardonnay, Napa Valley

Straw yellow color. Open nose with citrus and topical fruit aromas. Forward fruit of lemons, peaches and green apples, high acid and a long fruity finish with a buttery aftertaste. This is a big, full throttle chardonnay, and much better than their Signature Series Chardonnay. List price $28. My rating 90.

Court Says Napa Wine Must Actually Come from Napa

The California state appeals court has ruled that a 2000 California state law is valid and that California is allowed to have stricter labeling standards than the federal government.

The federal government began to define the meaning of wine growing regions, like Napa, Sonoma, Rutherford or Carnos in the 1980s. The federal rules say you cannot say Napa on the label, unless at least 75% of the wine is made from grapes grown in Napa. The federal government, however, made an exception for existing wineries that used a region name like Napa as part of the winery name. These wineries were grandfathered in and allowed to use Napa as part of the winery name even when the wine was not from Napa. This included wineries like Napa Ridge and Napa Creek.

The Napa Ridge and Napa Creek wine labels are now owned by the Bronco Wine Company, a big central valley wine producer. Bronco is most widely known for its deep discount labels, like “Two Buck Chuck”, and apparently sells mostly wine from central valley grapes under the Napa Ridge and Napa Creek wine labels.

This offended the Napa wine growers, so in 2000 they got the California state legislature to pass a stricter labeling law to forbid using wine region names in the winery name unless 75% of the grapes actually came from that region. Bronco has been fighting this law in court claiming that California cannot set tighter labeling requirements than the federal government and that this law violates Bronco’s free speech rights. The appeals court rejected those arguments and said the law was valid.

Bronco has 90 days to decide if they will appeal to the California Supreme Court. Meanwhile they are still selling wine under the Napa Ridge and Napa Creek labels that is not made from Napa grapes.

2002 Ravens Wood Zinfandel, Sonoma County, Old Vine

Medium dark garnet. Nose has raspberry and cherry. Forward fruit has raspberry and cherry flavors, high acid, soft tannins, long fruity finish, with just slightly overripe taste. This is a nice fruity Zinfandel that is drinkable now and over the next 5 to 10 years. It would be even better if the fruit was not slightly overripe. Alcohol is 14.5%. List price is $17.50. My rating 80.

Ridge Vineyards, Monte Bello Futures Tasting and Comments from Paul Draper

Today and tomorrow Ridge is having a tasting of barrel samples of the 2004 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine will not be released until 2007. They were also tasting some older Monte Bello’s, the 1988 and 1992.

In addition to tasting these wines, I got a chance to listen to Paul Draper, wine maker at Ridge since 1969, discuss various topics and I got to ask him a few questions too. Paul Draper says he believes in minimizing the manipulation of wine. He thinks many wine makers try to get too fancy and lose some of the fruit character and complexity through over processing. He named some famous California Cabernet producers as well as the big name Bordeaux estates that he felt were guilty of this.

Paul Draper told an interesting story from his early days at Ridge, when they bought a number of barrels of a 1967 Bordeaux from one of the lesser growths (in those days you could still buy wine by the barrel from the lesser growths and bottle it yourself). They had the barrels shipped to Ridge and bottled it at Ridge. Latter Paul Draper was at a blind wine tasting which included the Ridge bottling and the Estate bottling of this wine. Before they found out which one was which, most tasters had agreed that one was better than the other, and it turned out to be the Ridge bottling which was better. Paul Draper said he could not believe that the Bordeaux estate had actually sold him the best barrels of wine, so he started calling to investigate. He discovered that the Estate had not fined the wine that they had shipped him, since they expected the bottler to fine the wine before bottling, as the British bottlers did. At Ridge they had seen no need to fine the wine, and so they had bottled it without fining. He thinks the estate had unnecessarily fined the wine and that is why the Ridge bottling turned out better. Paul Draper feels even today too many Bordeaux wine makers do too much fining and other manipulations of the wine, which rob the complexity from the wine.

Paul Draper also talked about ripeness or over ripeness of Zinfandel in California. He said that at Ridge they try to make Zinfandel from ripe, but not over ripe grapes. He is not a fan of the over ripe, high alcohol style of Zinfandel that some people now seem to like. Ridge has large numbers of people that go out daily into the main Zinfandel vineyards that Ridge owns or controls like Lytton Springs and Geyserville, and samples fruit to make sure that they harvest when the grapes are fully ripe, but not over ripe. He said that in many years when there are hot spells in September, even 2 or 3 days can make the difference between ripe and over ripe. He said when Zinfandel is ripe, but not over ripe, the alcohol will usually be just over 14%.

Paul Draper indicated that in 2004 they started harvesting Lytton Springs in mid August, because the sugar levels were correct, and the fruit had reach full ripeness. No one else in the area started harvesting until September, and there was a hot spell in early September after Ridge was finished harvesting Lytton Springs that left most other producers in the area with very over ripe fruit.

Paul Draper did say that Ridge just doesn’t have enough people to monitor all the smaller vineyards used to make the ATP wines as closely, and those vineyards have sometimes accidentally gotten over ripe.

Here are my tasting notes:

2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Bello
I have limited experience tasting barrel samples. This young wines are usually very fruity and the tannins are less obvious. Moderately dark. Nose had cherry. Forward fruit was cherry and currents with mineral and earthy overtones. Moderately high acid. Tannins seemed soft and covered by the fruit, but I am suspect they will be more obvious in a few years when this wine is released. Long fruity finish. Based on my limited experience with barrel tasting, I think this wine looks promising. Futures are available from Ridge until May 31st. Future price is $65 a bottle with a minimum 6 bottle purchase.

1988 Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Bello
Medium color, brownish around the edges. Very open nose with earthy and mushroom aromas. Forward fruit flavors of cherry, chassis, violets and earthy mushrooms, high acid, soft tannins, long fruity finish. A very nice Monte Bello that seems fully mature and ready for drinking. My rating 88-92. This is available from the winery for $200.

1992 Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Bello
Medium color. Tight nose. Fruit is dominated by mineral and earthy flavors, high acid, surprising hard tannins, long fruity finish with some astringency. The fruit on this seems promising, but it is still surprisingly tight. My rating 86-90. This is available from the winery for $200.

2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, Home Ranch
The Home Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon is Ridges second wine, and is made from lots that are not chosen for the Monte Bello. It is intended to be age worthy, but not as long lived as the Monte Bello. Medium color. Tight nose. Flavors of minerals, high acid, moderate tannins, long finish. A nice wine that could use a few more years of aging. List price $60. My rating 86-89.

2000 Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz Mountains
This is Ridges third wine. It is made from lots that were not used for the Monte Bello or Home Ranch and is intended to be more drinkable at release. Medium color. Light nose of cherry. Cherry and minerals on the palette, high acid, soft tannins, long fruity finish. Very drinkable right now. List price $33. My rating 84-88.

2002 Ravenswood, Merlot, Sonoma Valley, Estate

This is a Merlot that would cause Miles to leave quickly, probably run away. The shorter version of my tasting notes is “boring”.

Medium color. Cherry and chassis on the nose. Cherry fruit, high acid, soft tannins, long finish. Light, uninteresting fruit. Your generic inoffensive Merlot. Only 237 cases produced. List price $25. My rating 70.

This arrived in the same wine club shipment as the Sangiacomo Vineyard Merlot, which is certainly a lot more interesting wine. This wine is produce from a vineyard across the lane from the tasting room.

2002 Ridge Vineyards, Zinfandel, Stone Ranch

Very dark garnet. Nose has red cherry and some oak. Forward fruit is red cherry high acid, moderate tannins, and a long finish with overripe flavors. This is another example of the high alcohol (14.8%), overripe style of Zinfandel that seems to be popular in California. I am not a big fan of this style, but I have had many worse examples. Not rated.

This is an ATP wine from Ridge and it is the first vintage from the Stone Ranch Vineyard. Usually I would have waited at least a few more years before trying this, but while sorting through all the bottles in my cellar to pick out wines to drink during the next 6 months or so, I noticed that there were a few drops of wine leaking through the capsule. This wine is young enough (it was bottled in February 2004) that I doubt the small leak in the cork damaged it

Another bottle of 1982 Lynch-Bages

Over last weekend I had another bottle of the 1982 Lynch-Bages. The tasting notes were very similar to the previous bottle I tried in March, but the wine seemed a little bigger. Last time I thought the wine was probably past its prime, but this bottle did not give that impression at all. I rated it a few points higher at 92. These kinds of small bottle to bottle variations is common in older wines.

US Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on Some Interstate Wine Shipments

Today the US Supreme Court struck down the ban on interstate wine shipment for states that allow shipments from wineries in the state. This means state cannot bar out of state wineries from shipping to residence, if they allow wineries in the same state to ship to residence. States will still be free to ban all shipments of wine to residences.

Professor Stephen Bainbridge, a UCLA professor of corporate law and the author of Professor Bainbridge on Wine has some comments on the ruling.

As I understand this, the 21st amendment that ended prohibition granted the states broad authority to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages. The states of Michigan and New York, which were parties to this case, claimed that gave them the authority to allow wineries in the state to ship wine to state residents, but to forbid out of state wineries to ship to their state residents. The wineries pointed to the Commerce Clause in the US Constitution that forbids states from discriminating against out of state producers, and grants Congress the authority to regulate interstate commerce.

The question came down to whether the 21st amendment language was meant to supercede the Commerce Clause or whether the Commerce Clause still applied. In this case the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Commerce Clause applied, and that states are not free to discriminate against out of state wineries.

What does this all mean? It is not clear yet. Here in California, this probably has no impact. Professor Bainbridge thinks that many of the 24 states that have laws like this will decide to outlaw all wine shipments rather than allow interstate shipments. The reason for this is that those states have a small number of wineries and they are not a big part of the economy, so they do not have much political influence. The wine wholesalers and retailers will pressure the legislature to ban interstate wine shipments, because they do not want the competition. They will also use neo-prohibitionist arguments, like this would encourage sales to minors, even though there is no evidence that it does.

If people in states that are affected by this ruling want to be able to receive wine shipments, they will need to start writing their state legislature to make sure they know this is an issue.

Savannah Chanelle Vineyards

In my earlier post about the old Congress Springs Winery, I mentioned that Savannah Chanelle Vineyards has been operating there since 1996, but I had never visited there. Yesterday I corrected that, and I wish I had done so earlier. Savannah Chanelle is making some really nice Pinots, Syrahs and Zinfandels at reasonable prices.

2001 Pinot Noir, Central Coast
Medium color. Nose had red cherry and spicy oak. Red cherry flavors with hints of tobacco on the fruit, high acid, very soft tannins, and long fruity finish. A good lighter style Pinot, and an outstanding value. Retail price $12. My rating 83.

2001 Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands
Medium color. Nose had red cherry, oak and tobacco. Red cherry, spices and tobacco on the fruit, high acid, some softer tannins, and long fruity finish. Another good Pinot, with a little more structure than the Central Coast, and an outstanding value. Retail price $14. My rating 85.

2001 Pinot Noir, Sleepy Hollow Vineyards, Santa Lucia Highlands
Medium dark color. Nose had cherry and spices. Red cherry and spices, tobacco, high acid, soft tannins, and a long fruity finish. This is a very good Pinot, with more elegance then the first two. They had a special case discount on this that made it $12 a bottle, which makes this a really outstanding value. Regular retail is $25. My rating 88.

2001 Pinot Noir, Armagh Vineyard, Sonoma Coast
Medium color. Nose had cherry and spicy oak. Red cherry and spices in the fruit, high acid, soft tannins, and a long fruity finish. A good Pinot. Retail is $28. My rating 86.

2001 Pinot Noir, Corda Vineyard, Marin County
This vineyard is just south of the Sonoma County line. Medium color. Cherry and spicy oak on the nose. Black cherry and spices on the fruit, high acid, hard tannins and a long fruity finish. This is a bigger style Pinot, that needs some time to soften up. Retail is $23. My rating 87.

2002 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
Medium color. Cherry and cardboard on the nose. Red cherry fruit, with moderate acid and soft tannins. This was the weakest wine I tasted. Retail $22. My rating 78.

2002 Pinot Noir, Garys’ Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands
Medium color. Red Cherry and spicy oak on the nose. Red cherry, spices and hints of tobacco on the fruit, good acid, soft tannins and a long fruity finish. This is a very good Pinot, that is drinking very well, but will probably age for a few more years. Retail is $30. My rating 88.

2001 Zinfandel, Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
The estate Zinfandel vineyard was planted in 1910. It was abandoned and over grown when Daniel Gehrs rescued it in the mid seventies. Medium color. Nose had jammy raspberry. Fruit had raspberry flavors, with high acid, moderate tannins, and a long fruity finish. This is an elegant, fruity Zinfandel. Retail is $28. My rating 86.

2002 Syrah, Coast View Vineyard, Monterey Country
Dark garnet color. The nose was tight with berry aromas. The forward fruit had cherry and raspberry flavors, with high acid, high tannins, and a long fruity finish with hints of chocolate. This is a big Syrah that needs a little time to soften out the tannins. The fruit seems really promising. Retail is $20. My rating 88.

2002 Syrah Port, Monterey Country
This port is apparently made from the same Syrah as above. Dark garnet color. Nose has cherry and brandy aromas. The fruit has cherry and chocolate flavors, with sweet brandy, moderate acid, moderate tannins, and long sweet fruity finish. This seems like a very nice port. Retail is $28. My rating 88.

Savannah Chanelle also has a Estate Cabernet Franc from a vineyard planted in 1920 and an Estate Chardonnay, which I did not try.

Savannah Chanelle specializes in Pinot Noir, and they produce a nice assortment of Pinots at very reasonable prices. One of people in the tasting room told me that 2002 would be the last vintage Savannah Chanelle made Pinot’s from Garys’ Vineyard and the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, but they will be introducing Pinots from a number of new vineyard sources.

2002 Ravenswood, Merlot, Sonoma Valley, Sangiacomo

Dark garnet. Nose has red cherry and currents. The forward fruit is back cherry, with high acid on the middle palette, and a long fruit finish with additional flavors of pencil lead and licorice and soft tannins. This is a very unusual Merlot. It has big fruit flavors, but they are not the flavors you usually associate with Merlot. 258 cases produced. List price is $28.50. My rating is 86.

1984 Ridge, Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Bello Vineyards

Very dark garnet, slight brownish around the rim. Expansive nose with red cherry, currants, chassis and oak. Intense forward fruit with red cherry and currant flavors, a bright middle palette with high acid, and a long fruity finish with hints of licorice and very soft tannins. This is a huge wine, and still going strong after more than 20 years. It is clearly the best California Cabernet I have tasted from 1980s. My rating 98.

Congress Springs Pinot Noir

One of best California Pinot Noirs I ever had, which really woke me up to what the potential of California Pinot could be, was the 1978 Congress Springs Pinot Noir. Congress Springs was a very small operation in the early 1980’s. Daniel Gehrs was the wine maker, and he lived on upper floor above the winery. His wife poured the wine in the tasting room, while their kids were running around playing. The first times I visited they only had two bottle of the 1978 Pinot Noir left, and it was not available for tasting, but I decided to buy one to try it out. It was incredible. Nothing like any other California Pinot Noir I had ever tried. I believe this Pinot Noir was made from the old Novitiate vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I bought many latter vintages of Pinot Noir from Congress Springs, but they were never the same. Congress Springs became famous for their Chardonnay, and they greatly expanded their production facilities to make more Chardonnay. Daniel Gehrs left around 1990, the winery changed hands several times and then changed names a few times. Around 1996 it became Savannah-Chanel. Savannah-Chanel specializes in Pinot Noirs, and has made wines from Garys’ Vineyard too. Somehow I have never found the time to get up there and try their wine. I clearly need to correct that.

2001 Testarossa Vineyards, Pinot Noir, Garys’ Vineyard

I rented Sideways last weekend, and I wanted to find a Pinot to drink with it. Unfortunately, I am not a big California Pinot fan, and my cellar is kind of thin on Santa Barbara Pinots. Testarossa’s Garys’ Vineyard Pinot look like a good choice and I figure the 2001 should be drinking well right now.

Medium color. Very attractive nose with red cherry, earthiness, and spicy oak. Earthy red cherry and raspberry flavors, high acid, moderate tannins, and long fruity finish. This is one of better California Pinot Noirs I can remember with intense, complex fruit flavors and a finish that seems go on forever. My rating 92.

Testarossa Vineyards May New Releases

I picked up my wine club shipment at Testarossa, and I got to sample some of there new releases.

2003 Testarossa Vineyards, Chardonnay, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard
The Sleepy Hollow vineyard is in the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County. Nose had lemon, pineapple, and oak. Intense lemon and pineapple fruit flavors, with a rich, oily feel on the palette, high acid and a long fruity finish. This is a very good, well balanced Chardonnay. Just released. 465 cases produced. List price $36. My rating 93.

2003 Testarossa Vineyards, Pinot Noir, Garys’ Vineyard
Garys’ Vineyard is also in the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County. Medium color. Nose had red cherry and oak. Red cherry forward fruit with hints of spices and earthiness, high acid and very soft tannins. This wine is drinking very nicely right now. The people in the wine tasting room seem to think this will open up a little more with a year or so in the bottle. I have 4 bottle or so of this so we will see. Just released. 608 cases produced. List price $54. My rating 90.

2002 Testarossa Vineyards, Syrah, Garys’ Vineyard
This was a “library” wine. Apparently a small quantity was returned from their distributor. This wine is dark garnet color. Nose seemed very tight, with hints of berries. The wine is very big and tight, with raspberry and spices in the fruit flavors and some hints of chocolate on the long astringent finish. It had high acid and high tannins. I believe I tried this wine last year when it was released. I think it has tightened up since then or it was just because of the time the bottle had been open. This wine definitely needs some time to soften out the tannins. 274 cases produced, but only a very limited quantity is still available at the winery. List price is $47. My rating 89.

They also tasted the 2003 Castello Chardonnay ($26) and the 2002 Palazzio Pinot Noir ($32). These are blends of grapes from a number of vineyards, and my tasting notes were similar to previous times I had tasted them.

1996 Silverado Vineyards, Merlot, Napa Valley

Medium garnet in color. Nose has cherry and mint. Rich red cherry and current flavors on the forward fruit, with high acid and mint flavors on the middle palette. A long fruity finish with only soft tannins. This is drinking beautifully. The fruit was intense and had layers of complexity. It must be at it prime and I cannot see it improving any more. Even my wife told me she liked this wine. My rating is 90.

2002 Silverado Vineyards, Fantasia, Napa Valley

This is a Super Tuscan style blend, made from 55% Sangiovese, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 3% Zinfandel.

Color is medium garnet. I got raspberry on the nose. The forward fruit has raspberry and strawberry flavors. The middle palette has high acid and red cherry flavors. The long finish is fruity, with only light, soft tannins. This wine is brimming with fresh fruit flavors. It seems to be intended for near term drinking. List price is $50, which seems rather steep. My rating 86.

Olympic Cellars Working Girl Wines

Olympic Cellars is bringing its Working Girl wines to California according to this news item. You can check the wines out here. They have Working Girl White, Rosé the Riveter, Go Girl Red. All are list priced at $13 to $14. Haven’t tried any of these wines, but they are suppose to be available in California starting May 9th.

Does this kind of wine labeling and packaging really appeal to women?

2002 Chappellet, Mountain Cuvee, Napa Valley

This is a Bordeaux blend, with 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot and 5% Maibec.

Dark garnet. Black cherry and oak on the nose. Black cherry forward fruit that takes on chocolate flavors on the finish, moderate acid, moderate soft tannins, long fruity finish. This is a very nice wine with lots of fruit and interesting complexity. It is accessible now and will soften out more with a few years of aging. This wine is now sold out at the winery, but I think it was priced in the mid 20s. My rating 89.