April 2016 Reserve - Tim's Wine Markettimswine.com/assets/April-2016-Reserve.pdf · impressive...

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As I stated in the last release, the selection of the first quarter wines is always the most difficult because the offering is at the end of the year, when I have been busiest and tasted least. For that reason I typically collect a group of wines and taste them in a beauty pageant format where they compete head-to-head. The biggest challenge to the format is that the richest and most powerful wines tend to show best. Making the selections for this quarter was easier, as I tasted almost 1300 wines in the first three months of the year. For that reason the selections are all wines that have been in the bottle a few years, showing more complexity and polish than new releases. That is not to say the wines are not without their power, as you will taste, but that they are a bit more complex due to age. The first pick is the 2010 Edict Cabernet Sauvignon ($80) from Napa Valley. It is the work of Charles Bartlett, who is not a household name to many wine consumers, but he is responsible for a lot of wine sold through clubs across the US. Bartlett is the founder of the Appellation Trading Company, and he sources grapes, juice and finished wine to bottle for what are called control brands, or private labels, for many large retailers and wine clubs across the globe. Never fear, I would never give you a wine like that in this club, but it is important to recognize who Bartlett is so you can understand the origin of Edict. Starting in 2009 Bartlett had the impulse to begin making a small amount of wine that would be his brand. Using his contacts he managed to secure grape contracts for two mountain vineyards that he feels make the perfect statement of what Napa Cabernet should be, or his Edict. The first is the Petrus Bekker's Eeden Vineyard, which was originally planted by the Beringer family before prohibition. When Bekker purchased the property in 2002 it was fallow, with just scattered, untended vines dotting the property. With the help of long-time Napa winemaker and vineyard manager Emil Tedeschi, seventeen acres of vines are now planted on the steep, rocky soils. Yields are very low, less than two tons of grapes per acre, but the concentration level is very high. This fruit contributes incredible color and power to the final wine. Approximately sixty percent of this wine comes from this vineyard. The remaining grapes for this wine come from Atlas Peak, and the Kitoko Vineyard. This vineyard is located close to Elan Vineyard, an old favorite of mine, with a stunning spot that looks down on San Pablo Bay. Although this is one of the coolest areas of Napa Valley, with prevailing winds right off the bay, it lies above the fog line so it receives plenty of sunshine. Like Eeden vineyard there is very little organic material in the rocky soils and the exposition is quite steep, so yields are very low. The conditions of this vineyard produce grapes that are extremely thick skinned but also ripen slower than the Spring Mountain site. As a result they are packed with tannic acid and provide a rigid sense of structure to the final wine. Since Bartlett wants Edict to make a statement, he reached out to Mark Herrold, who made Merus and now has Kobalt, to make the wine. With the help of winemaker Sylvain Fayard, who also makes many other cult Napa wines and worked under Philippe Melka for several years, the two craft the amazing fruit into something very special. After the grapes are triple sorted they are fermented in stainless steel, then left on the skins for an additional twenty days. Only the free run juice is used, which is barreled down in 80% new French oak. During the aging process each barrel is tasted monthly and those found deficient are removed from the program. After 22 months the final blend of the vineyards is made and the wine is bottled. There were 230 cases of this wine produced. When you open this wine, I would encourage you to decant it for a half hour before serving. When you pour the first glass you are treated to a savory nose of air dried beef, soy sauce, hickory smoke, Luxardo cherry syrup, dried orange peels and blackstrap molasses. The feel, as you probably can guess, is very dense and firm, with a big vein of tannins running through the wine but there is plenty of fruit to stand up to it. What impresses me is that the alcohol is so well balanced for a wine of this size. Drink over the next ten years. My second pick, the 2010 Cenyth Red Table Wine ($59) is another boutique offering from the Jackson Family. This is three quarters in a row for this portfolio, with Galerie Latro in fall 2015 and the Freemark Abbey Rutheford last quarter. So I am sure some of you are thinking I am starting to sell out. What’s next, KJ Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay as a weekly feature? Put down your pitchforks and let me explain. Although I am not the biggest fan of their marketing techniques, there is no question that the Jackson Family own some of the best vineyards in California, and increasingly Oregon too. They also have the resources to farm their land in a way that yields some of the best fruit in their respective areas. The problem is, they are almost too good at it, and as a result have a surplus of grapes each year from some of their best vineyards. Remember everything in our business is supply and demand, and while it would be easy for them to double or even triple the production level of Verité, Lokoya and Cardinale, there is only so much $150+ wine that can be sold each year. To help use up the extra production they encourage their winemakers to produce a small amount of wine from those grapes, in partnership with the Jackson family. Often the winemakers choose grapes from vineyards of which they do not regularly work, as in the case of the Galerie Latro. In this case the winemaker, Hélène Seillan, makes Buy six bottles of the Reserve Club features and receive a 20% discount off the listed prices Reserve Club Spring/April 2016

Transcript of April 2016 Reserve - Tim's Wine Markettimswine.com/assets/April-2016-Reserve.pdf · impressive...

As I stated in the last release, the selection of the first quarter wines is always the most difficult because the offering is at the end of the year, when I have been busiest and tasted least. For that reason I typically collect a group of wines and taste them in a beauty pageant format where they compete head-to-head. The biggest challenge to the format is that the richest and most powerful wines tend to show best. Making the selections for this quarter was easier, as I tasted almost 1300 wines in the first three months of the year. For that reason the selections are all wines that have been in the bottle a few years, showing more complexity and polish than new releases. That is not to say the wines are not without their power, as you will taste, but that they are a bit more complex due to age. The first pick is the 2010 Edict Cabernet Sauvignon ($80) from Napa Valley. It is the work of Charles Bartlett, who is not a household name to many wine consumers, but he is responsible for a lot of wine sold through clubs across the US. Bartlett is the founder of the Appellation Trading Company, and he sources grapes, juice and finished wine to bottle for what are called control brands, or private labels, for many large retailers and wine clubs across the globe. Never fear, I would never give you a wine like that in this club, but it is important to recognize who Bartlett is so you can understand the origin of Edict. Starting in 2009 Bartlett had the impulse to begin making a small amount of wine that would be his brand. Using his contacts he managed to secure grape contracts for two mountain vineyards that he feels make the perfect statement of what Napa Cabernet should be, or his Edict. The first is the Petrus Bekker's Eeden Vineyard, which was originally planted by the Beringer family before prohibition. When Bekker purchased the property in 2002 it was fallow, with just scattered, untended vines dotting the property. With the help of long-time Napa winemaker and vineyard manager Emil Tedeschi, seventeen acres of vines are now planted on the steep, rocky soils. Yields are very low, less than two tons of grapes per acre, but the concentration level is very high. This fruit contributes incredible color and power to the final wine. Approximately sixty percent of this wine comes from this vineyard. The remaining grapes for this wine come from Atlas Peak, and the Kitoko Vineyard. This vineyard is located close to Elan Vineyard, an old favorite of mine, with a stunning spot that looks down on San Pablo Bay. Although this is one of the coolest areas of Napa Valley, with prevailing winds right off the bay, it lies above the fog line so it receives plenty of sunshine. Like Eeden vineyard there is very little organic material in the rocky soils and the exposition is quite steep, so yields are very low. The conditions of this vineyard produce grapes that are extremely thick skinned but also ripen slower than the Spring Mountain site. As a result they are packed with tannic acid and provide a rigid sense of structure to the final wine. Since Bartlett wants Edict to make a statement, he reached out to Mark Herrold, who made Merus and now has Kobalt, to make the wine. With the help of winemaker Sylvain Fayard, who also makes many other cult Napa wines and worked under Philippe Melka for several years, the two craft the amazing fruit into something very special. After the grapes are triple sorted they are fermented in stainless steel, then left on the skins for an additional twenty days. Only the free run juice is used, which is barreled down in 80% new French oak. During the aging process each barrel is tasted monthly and those found deficient are removed from the program. After 22 months the final blend of the vineyards is made and the wine is bottled. There were 230 cases of this wine produced. When you open this wine, I would encourage you to decant it for a half hour before serving. When you pour the first glass you are treated to a savory nose of air dried beef, soy sauce, hickory smoke, Luxardo cherry syrup, dried orange peels and blackstrap molasses. The feel, as you probably can guess, is very dense and firm, with a big vein of tannins running through the wine but there is plenty of fruit to stand up to it.  What impresses me is that the alcohol is so well balanced for a wine of this size. Drink over the next ten years. My second pick, the 2010 Cenyth Red Table Wine ($59) is another boutique offering from the Jackson Family. This is three quarters in a row for this portfolio, with Galerie Latro in fall 2015 and the Freemark Abbey Rutheford last quarter. So I am sure some of you are thinking I am starting to sell out. What’s next, KJ Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay as a weekly feature? Put down your pitchforks and let me explain. Although I am not the biggest fan of their marketing techniques, there is no question that the Jackson Family own some of the best vineyards in California, and increasingly Oregon too. They also have the resources to farm their land in a way that yields some of the best fruit in their respective areas. The problem is, they are almost too good at it, and as a result have a surplus of grapes each year from some of their best vineyards. Remember everything in our business is supply and demand, and while it would be easy for them to double or even triple the production level of Verité, Lokoya and Cardinale, there is only so much $150+ wine that can be sold each year. To help use up the extra production they encourage their winemakers to produce a small amount of wine from those grapes, in partnership with the Jackson family. Often the winemakers choose grapes from vineyards of which they do not regularly work, as in the case of the Galerie Latro. In this case the winemaker, Hélène Seillan, makes

Buy six bottles of the Reserve Club features and receive a 20% discount off the listed prices

Reserve ClubSpring/April 2016

Cenyth from vines of which she is very familiar, as they are farmed by her father Pierre Seillan, for the Verité wines. The story of this wine actually begins in the early 1990’s, when Hélène was only in pigtails, and Barbara Banke, wife of the late Jess Jackson, was touring Bordeaux looking to purchase an estate. At the time Pierre was the technical director of several estates in St. Emilion and helped Banke to find, and acquire Chateau Lassegue, a St. Emilion Grand Cru. Not only did Seillan accept the offer to run Lassegue, but also an offer to run a new project for Jackson in Sonoma County that would become Verité. Fast forward to 2006 and Hélène, now with a viticulture and oenology degree from the prestigious Institut Rural de Vayres in Bordeaux, joins Pierre in the time honored French tradition, as the assistant at both Chateau Lassegue and Verité. In order to make the Verité wines, Pierre and Hélène use vineyards in four distinct areas of Sonoma; Alexander Valley, Chalk Hill, Bennet Valley and Knights Valley. From these vineyards they produce three wines, La Muse based on Merlot, La Joie on Cabernet Sauvignon and Le Desir using Cabernet Franc. Together they are some of the most sought after wines produced in Sonoma County and have received a collective twelve, perfect 100 point scores from Robert Parker through the years. I am lucky to have participated in several tastings of the wines and they are impressive, showing the incredible power of California balanced with the polish of a French hand. From those same vineyards Hélène chooses grapes to produce Cenyth. Although the winery does not release exactly how much of each area is represented in the wine, we do know that the blend is 54% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc and 12% Cabernet Sauvignon. From the notes on Verité I also know that the bulk of the Merlot comes from Bennett Valley and Chalk Hill. The two areas are very different, as Bennett Valley is one of the coldest appellations in Sonoma, and produces red wines with vivid acidity. On the other hand you Chalk Hill, which is much warmer, and here the vines are planted on cooler north-facing slopes in order to maintain their balance. The Cabernet Franc for this wine most likely comes from the same sites. Cabernet thrives in most of these areas but their holdings in Knights Valley and Alexander Valley are exceptional as well, and are also the source of the Galerie Latro from the fall, 2015 offering. With the guidance of Pierre, Hélène uses this impressive pallet of wines and climates to craft an incredible blend. You will want to decant this wine for an hour before serving to optimize enjoyment. When you do it gives you an exotic and impressive nose of caramel, caraway seed, black peppercorns, dried tobacco, dried black cherries and even a wisp of, candied cherry too. On the palate it is quite dense, almost meaty and quite savory, with a nice frame of long, smooth tannins. Drink over the next six to ten years. For my final selection, the 2009 Rocca Family Vespra ($50), I originally selected the 2010, making it a vintage trifecta, but alas, supply were too low. The winery offered us the 2009 for the same price and after sampling, I jumped at the opportunity. If the other two wines need a little time to reveal their true character, this one is already there. The origin of Rocca Family Vineyards begins in the late 1990’s with Eric Rocca and Mary Grigsby discovering a small, twenty-one acre vineyard in Yountville, which they purchased and named after her family. Their first wine, a 2000 Syrah, caught the attention of many critics and put them on the short list of “wineries to watch” in the early 2000’s. It also helped that their early wines were made by Celia Welch, who at the time was building an impressive resume that included J. Davies, Hollywood & Vine and Scarecrow. Shortly after their initial release the Rocca’s purchased a second vineyard in nearby Coombsville, called the Colinetta Vineyard. All of their wines are made from estate grown grapes and only this one is a blend of the two sites. It was interesting to sit through a tasting of all of the wines from Rocca and see the way the two single vineyards express their character and how well they blend together. The estate vineyard in Yountville has the “typical” soil of the area, which means a total hodge-podge of volcanic and alluvial series. Throughout the roughly 150 million year history of the Napa Valley, the area that is now Yountville has been effected by the weathering of the Vaca Mountains, the shifting of the Napa River and the encroachment of San Pablo Bay. As a result the soils are deep and fertile, producing wines that are typically more structured than the warmer areas just to the north in Rutherford and Oakville. The soils in Coombsvile, which is southeast of the city on Napa are volcanic, with their Colinetta Vineyard lying at 1000 feet above sea level, receiving wind right off San Pablo Bay. This part of the AVA is cooler than average, also producing wines with great structure. In a long, cool vintage like 2009 the wines were definitely sturdy in their youth but are beginning to soften and reveal their inner character. To make their wines the grapes are hand picked in the early morning to retain acidity, then destemmed and fermented using indigenous yeast. Once dry the wine is pressed off the skins to French oak barrels, where it undergoes malolactic fermentation and then aging for sixteen months. Vespera is a barrel selection made after the single vineyard wines are picked, so in this vintage roughly 65% of the barrels were new. In 2009 roughly 86% of the grapes came from Collinetta Vineyard and 14% Grigsby Vineyard. The final blend is 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Petite Verdot, 12% Petite Sirah and 1% Syrah. There were 641 cases produced. When you are ready to drink this wine, give it a good half-hour in the decanter before serving. It initially offers a deep nose of dried black plums, blackberry jam, caramel, pain grille, sassafras and brown cardamom. On the palate it is quite dense, with firm tannins framing a good mass of fruit and moderately low acid. This is the most approachable of the three wines this offering but will also age for up to five years.

Buy six bottles of the Reserve Club features and receive a 20% discount off the listed prices