Tag: napa

Howell Mountain Elegance

Today’s Story: Viader

Viader was founded in 1986 by Delia Viader (first commercial release in 1989) and is located on the slopes of Howell Mountain 1,300 feet above the Napa Valley floor. Delia was born in Argentina and came to the United States as a post-graduate student, and she holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from Sorbonne University in Paris and studied Business in the US at MIT. While Delia served as the founding winemaker of Viader, her son Alan later picked up the torch and acts as winemaker today. Alan started working in the vineyards at the age of 9 and pursued his passion for grape growing after high school by attending a program in Sonoma and attaining a Viticulture Management degree. In 2002 Alan became the vineyard manager at Viader and in 2006 the lead winemaker.

As winemaker, Alan is said to be more hands-on and an experimentalist. For instance, he tries a range of organic, biodynamic, and sustainable practices in farming the vineyards and producing wine, seeking to strike a balance to produce the highest quality wines possible. Additionally, Alan experiments in the cellars with different blends, yeasts, fermentations, and barrel options.

Viader produces relatively small quantities of wine across four bottlings. Their signature, the Viader Red Blend, is always a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and was 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Cabernet Franc in the 1989 inaugural release. They also have the Viader Black Label (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot), Viader V (Cabernets Sauvignon and Petit Verdot), and DARE (Cabernet Franc).

Fun fact: For over a decade, Viader produced wines at Rombauer Vineyards prior to construction of their own winery. Back then, Rombauer functioned as a custom crush winery for many now-prominent Napa Valley vintners.

Today’s Wine: 2007 Viader Red Blend

71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Cabernet Franc; 14.8% ABV

This wine is medium to deep ruby in color and almost completely opaque. I filtered and decanted this due to some fine sediment in the bottle, and the decanting helped a bit of the alcohol blow off the nose while bringing out some of the wine’s complexities. On the nose I get aromas of jammy blackberry, anise, cigar box, dark chocolate, vanilla, and oak. I can also notice the alcohol on the nose. Once in the mouth, the wine showcases flavors of chewy blackberry and blueberry, cola, cardamom, iron, dried earth, finely crushed rock, and green herbs. Overall a very silky wine, this is medium-bodied with medium (+) acidity and medium (+) tannins into a long finish with notes of sappy blackberry and plum. Still some time left for bottle aging, though I don’t see this getting any better from here.

Price: $100. I think there are better values out there at this price-point, whereas I could see this being more reasonably priced around the $70-75 mark. Pair this with beef in steak or burger form.

Fit for a King

Today’s Story: Blankiet Estate

Blankiet’s roots start with Claude and Katherine Blankiet, a couple who spent years searching for land conducive to grape growing on the western foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains. Finally, in early 1996, an agent working with the Blankiet family showed them an undeveloped property above the famous Napanook vineyard (and Dominus Estate) and the Blankiets purchased the land on sight. From the onset of their search, Claude and Katherine desired to create world-class, high-quality, small production Bordeaux style wines and now, with ownership of the land, set right to work.

During development of the vineyards, the Blankiets brought in famed viticulturist David Abreu and winemaker Helen Turley for their expertise. The terroir of Blankiet consists of three volcanic knolls with alluvial deposits between them thanks to water flowing down from the mountains. The vineyards are broken into four sections, each with a unique subsoil and microclimate, and they used root stocks from First Growth Bordeaux estates to get the ball rolling. I encourage you to explore their website https://www.blankiet.com/ for more, as I’d like to talk about my visit to the winery for the remainder of this post.

I was fortunate to visit the winery this past September, and we arrived slowly by way of a long, winding gravel road up into the hills to the Blankiet gate. Once inside, our host Patrick greeted us and walked us through the vineyards where we had an opportunity to taste grapes off the vine. Fortunately, workers were sorting grapes while we were there so we got to see them using dual optical sorters in addition to the classic hand sorting many of us picture. Before walking into the caves, Patrick shared some juice that was beginning its fermentation process from one of the tanks.

Once in the caves, Patrick showed us the barrels they use and discussed the process of fighting evaporation as the wine ages. Unlike many wineries, Blankiet does not fill evaporation in their barrels with sulfur dioxide but rather refills the barrel with more wine. This practice fits well with their goal of crafting wine that is true to form and of superior quality.

After the cave tour, we drove further uphill to the Blankiet family home to do what we came for: taste wine. Patrick guided us through a tasting of five wines accompanied by cheese, charcuterie, and crackers while also giving us a sneak peek tasting of two wines yet to be released. Keep an eye out for these two upcoming wines, as they were quite delicious and while I’m keeping them secret now I think you will know exactly what I’m talking about when they launch.

Today’s Wine: 2014 Blankiet Estate Paradise Hills Vineyard

85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc; 14% ABV

I had an opportunity to taste several Blankiet wines during my visit this past September (including two special wines not yet released), but figured it prudent to open a bottle now to review for my site. This wine is medium purple/ruby in color and surprisingly transparent. The nose showcases aromas of blackberry, blueberry, redcurrant, raspberry, gravel, mild tobacco, and oak. The nose is rather tight due to its youth and either needs a ton of air or 5-7 more years of bottle age. On the palate we get notes of black cherry, cranberry, jammy strawberry, crushed stone almost chalky in nature, blood, and ground cooking herbs. Full-bodied with mouthwatering high acidity, medium (+) tannins, and a long black fruit compote finish. This is already a wonderfully elegant wine but needs time to bring out some of the complexities. 840 cases produced.

Price: $200. This is not your everyday bottle, though it is a fantastic bottle of wine for a celebratory occasion. After visiting the winery and seeing how much care, precision, and hard work goes into each bottle I can comfortably recommend the wine. Pair this with beef or lamb.

From My Visit:

Tasting room at Blankiet Estate. Visited September 27, 2019.
Blankiet family home, with tasting room in the lower level.

The Cabernet in Cabernet Sauvignon

Today’s Story: Alpha Omega

I talked about Alpha Omega’s origins in a prior post (A Napa Take On Chablis), though will reproduce it briefly here.

Alpha Omega is the creation of Robin and Michelle Baggett following their move to Napa Valley in 2006. Though Robin began his foray into wine much earlier, in 1988 as a grape grower and in 1998 by starting Tolosa Winery, Michelle worked in the design and development of hospitality brands before the couple culminated their pursuits into Alpha Omega.

The winery, as I mentioned before, is known for their red wines and particularly high-quality single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. However, we have a couple bottles of the Cabernet Franc, a limited bottling I can no longer find online, that I thought would be fun to review prior to reviewing one of their single vineyard Cabs. Cab Franc is probably known to most as a blending grape for Bordeaux wines, however they are becoming much easier to find as a standalone wine.

For those of you relatively new to wine, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc are the two parents of Cabernet Sauvignon. The cross occurred during the mid-1600s in southwestern France.

Today’s Wine: 2016 Cabernet Franc

100% Cabernet Franc; 15.5% ABV

This is a cool offering from Alpha Omega, as I did not know they released a Cabernet Franc specific wine. That being said, this does appear to be a limited release available to mailing list members since I cannot find anymore on their website or stores online.

In color, the wine is medium purple with pale purple/ruby variation toward the edges of the glass. I double decanted this bottle so it would be ready for dinner, and with the accelerated air it opened up nicely. On the nose, we have aromas of blackberry, blueberry, plum, lilac, leather, sweet tobacco, and oak. There is a slight hint of alcohol on the nose as well, likely due to its relatively high ABV. Once in the mouth, flavors on the palate include blackcurrant, blueberry jam, loamy earth, tobacco leaf, and black pepper. This medium-bodied red has medium (+) acidity, medium (+) tannins, and a long, dark-fruit-forward finish.

Price: $100. Given similar-priced, high-quality Cab Franc I’ve tried, I think this is worth the tag if you’re used to paying around $100 for your wine. Nonetheless, I recently tried some outstanding Cab Franc from Tuscany and Michigan for about 1/3 the price and I think you’d be well served trying more Cab Franc from these regions or Chile and Argentina. Pair this with beef, duck, or pork (we had it with bbq pork sandwiches).

Note:

If you would like to try some French Cab Franc, keep an eye out for some Chinon!

TOR. Need I Say More?

Today’s Story: TOR Wines

TOR is a small production winery that makes single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Bordeaux varietals from high-quality fruit sourced from multiple vineyards in Napa Valley. Its proprietors, Tor and Susan Kenward, started their endeavor following Tor’s nearly three decade career with Beringer Vineyards helping craft their reserve and single vineyard bottlings. With Beringer, Tor was able to become friends with several Napa Valley icons who helped encourage him to learn and push the envelope with quality wines, while also traveling the world and walking vineyards of some of the most important wine producers in Europe. Susan, on the other hand, began her career in the culinary industry as she wrote five cookbooks and won two James Beard Awards. She then moved into fashion and the beauty industries, becoming a well-known lifestyle influence.

On the winemaking front, Tor and his winemaker, Jeff Ames, share similar purist ideals such that wine should represent its place rather than a winemaker’s particular style. Every wine is made by hand and comes unfined and unfiltered, built in a high quality that is meant for serious aging. As Tor says, “the wines I’m making right now, I’m assuming a good number of them are going to outlive me.”

In addition to their Beckstoffer To Kalon I am reviewing today, TOR makes a Vine Hill Ranch Cab, Cimarossa Vineyard Cab (Howell Mountain), Melanson Vineyard Cab (Pritchard Hill), Herb Lamb Vineyard Cab, and Tierra Roja Vineyard Cab. TOR also makes several very small production blends, including Black Magic (only 125 cases in 2017, this is only made in specific vintages). I will review one of their Chardonnay offerings in a future post, delving into their range of white wine bottlings at that time.

Today’s Wine: 2012 Beckstoffer To Kalon

100% Cabernet Sauvignon; 15.1% ABV

This is the third time I’ve had this wine (first in April 2017, then in March 2018) and it seems to be developing nicely. That being said, this still seems somewhat one-dimensional to me versus my prior two tastings.

In appearance, this Cab is medium purple at its core with ruby near the edges of the glass. The nose emits welcoming and sweet aromas of blueberry, plum, black cherry, lavender, and cedar, though this is not as multi-dimensional as other bottles I enjoyed. I’m excited to try this again in several years to see if we get some of the tertiary notes. The palate continues the sweet theme with flavors of blackberry compote, blueberry, sweet tobacco, milk chocolate, and a hint of vanilla. Medium- to full-bodied with high acidity, medium (+) tannins, and a medium (+) length finish with jammy dark fruit. I think this falls into the people-pleasing camp of wines, though don’t get me wrong it is high quality. The unfortunate thing about this bottle is…

Price: $185. I’d be more comfortable recommending this if it were closer to $120 per bottle. It is small production (39 barrels, about 975 cases) and it carries the Beckstoffer name, which is why I think it is so high. There are better values elsewhere.

“This Blessed Plot, This Earth…”

Today’s Story: Realm Cellars

Realm Cellars was founded in 2002 with a focus on producing high-quality, limited production Bordeaux blend and single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon wines. Co-Founder Juan Mercado left his role as a hospital administrator in San Francisco to pursue working in the wine industry and, until recently, Realm sourced their fruit from historical, high-quality vineyards (like Dr. Crane, To Kalon, and Farella) rather than growing their own. Juan runs the winery with Managing Partner Scott Becker, they have an excellent winemaker in Benoit Touquette, and Michel Rolland consults.

Switching gears, one of my favorite aspects of Realm (more a “that’s really cool” kind of thing) is their inspiration from Shakespeare. For example, the title of this blog post starts the line “This blessed plot, this earth, this realm” from Shakespeare’s Richard II, a line noted on every bottle of Realm wine, on their corks, and highlighted on the label I am reviewing today. Realm’s Bordeaux blends include The Tempest, named for the violent storm and play thought to be one of Shakespeare’s last; Falstaff, named for the fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight present in four of Shakespeare’s plays for comic relief; and of course The Bard, named for Shakespeare himself. Each wine highlights a particular variety, ranging from Merlot to Cabernet Franc to Cabernet Sauvignon, respectively.

As far as their single vineyard wines go, Realm produces Farella (100% Cab), Houyi (100% Cab), Beckstoffer Dr. Crane (95% Cab, 5% Petit Verdot), Beckstoffer To Kalon (100% Cab), Moonracer (Cab dominant blend), and a white wine called Fidelio (Sauvignon Blanc). As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, recently Realm started producing wine from their own fruit which is where Moonracer comes in. This wine comes from their vineyard on Wappo Hill in the Stags Leap District and is named for the Wappo Native Americans who were known for bravery, strength, and athleticism. The Wappos often took part in (and are said to have won most) inter-tribal races during a full moon, hence the name Moonracer.

Note: Realm also makes a highly limited blend only in certain vintages called The Absurd, but be ready to pay $600-$750 per bottle for a chance to taste it.

Today’s Wine: 2016 The Bard

85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot; 14.6% ABV

As expected due to its young age, this wine is deep, opaque purple in color and almost black at its core. I double decanted this bottle due to its youth and let it breath for about an hour. On the nose are aromas of blackberry, blueberry, anise, cigar box, pepper, chocolate, and crushed stone. In the mouth, the palate consists of flavors of black fruit, licorice, smokey earth, violet, dark chocolate, and a touch of ground coffee. Full-bodied with medium (+) acidity, medium (+) but refined tannins, and a very long, concentrated finish. I definitely committed infanticide with this one, but wanted to try it and will definitely buy more. Give it at least 5-7 more years but drink over the coming decades.

Price: $150. While not an everyday drinking price, this bottle is well worth its tag. Already at such a young age this is drinking with finesse, elegance, and balance that is hard to find. Pair this with filet mignon or ribeye.

A Napa Take On Chablis

Today’s Story: Alpha Omega

Alpha Omega is the creation of Robin and Michelle Baggett following their move to Napa Valley in 2006. Though Robin began his foray into wine much earlier, in 1988 as a grape grower and in 1998 by starting Tolosa Winery, Michelle worked in the design and development of hospitality brands before the couple culminated their pursuits into Alpha Omega.

While Alpha Omega is known for their red wines (they make multiple excellent single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon options) that range from Cabernet Sauvignon to Cabernet Franc to Merlot and blends, the winery produces some great Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and late harvest whites. I recently had an opportunity to taste at the winery through a library of single vineyard Cabs, however it was the Chardonnay I tasted there that led me to want to try the Unoaked variation I am reviewing today.

Today’s Wine: 2015 AO Chardonnay Unoaked

100% Chardonnay; 13.4% ABV

2015 marked the last growing season of the recent drought, and while quality of the wines remains elevated the fruit yields dropped and one needs to be more discerning in stocking up. I’ve had the opportunity to taste many 2014s and 2015s side-by-side, and I love the way 2015s seem structured and more charismatic while being drinkable now after a decant or years into the future.

In appearance today’s wine is a very pale straw yellow, almost water-white on the edges of the glass. The “lower” alcohol content is apparent on the sides of the glass with a lack of legs but more spotting. Aromas of green apple, pear, peach skin, and white pepper leap from the glass, while I also get a hint of petrol. Once on the palate, this full-bodied Chard showcases notes of lemon, peach, white florals, and mineral. Closing out each sip comes vibrant and high acidity into a well-rounded finish that will only get better with more time in the bottle. Great effort by Alpha Omega in producing a Burgundy-styled white wine.

Price: $35, a little higher than I’d like. Nonetheless, if you find yourself with a bottle, pair this with light fish (like Dover Sole) or shellfish.

Bonus: Single Vineyard Cabs

Since I mentioned the single vineyard Cabernet bottlings, I figured I might as well list them here:

Thomas, Stagecoach, Sunshine Valley, and Beckstoffer Dr. Crane, To Kalon, Georges III, Las Piedras, and Missouri Hopper.

These are some truly special offerings from Alpha Omega, so be sure to keep an eye out for them for a special occasion. I will hopefully be reviewing one, or multiple, sometime soon!