Should we do that or do “spit or swallow” – as it relates to tasting wine…

Give us your opinion. We thrive on it!

The tasting: We started with the 2009 Arriviste Rose’, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. On the nose red currant and bright red cherries. A vibrant palate of fresh strawberries, peaches, and minerals, with a nice weight on the mid palate.

PC 90, JH 91

2008 Arise – Napa Valley Propriety Red Blend. The blend for the Arise changes from year to year with the 2008 being a blend of 42% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Franc, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Deep dark, and rich color, with a concentrated bouquet of black cherry, plum, forest floor, tobacco,  Spanish cedar, star anise, menthol, and baking spices. The medium to full bodied palate shows layers of dark fruit,with elegant balance, velvety texture, and a nice generous finish. 1570 cases made.

PC 94, JH 95

2007 Arise – Napa Valley Propriety Red Wine Blend. The 2007 is a blend of 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine spent 20 months on French oak of which 70% is new, and 30% seasoned.

Beautiful aromatic bouquet of black currant, black cherry, blackberry, Spanish cedar, Asian spice, rubbed sage, black pepper, and coffee, with a concentrated palate of dark and red fruit with a nice smokey component. The tannins are finely grained and well integrated and the palate is well structured and balanced.

 PC 92 JH 93

2006 Contrarian – Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine. The 2006 Contrarian is a blend of 38% Cabernet Franc, 34% Merlot, and 28% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine spent 20 months on French oak of which 48% is new, and 52% seasoned. 

On the nose beautiful dark plum, black cherry, black currant, raspberry, licorice, coffee, mocha, and white pepper. The palate holds layers of black currant and blackberries, with tobacco, and earth. The wine shows great structure with an impeccable balance and long finish. 414 cases made. 

PC 93, JH 93

2007 Contrarian – Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine. The 2007 Contrarian is a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Merlot, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine spent 20 months in French oak barrels of which 70% is new, and 30% seasoned.

This beautiful full bodied wine shows complex layers of blackberry, black cherry, black currant, forest floor, truffle, leather, graphite, sasparilla, Asian spice, and Spanish cedar. The palate is full, and round with a silky smooth mouth-feel, great balance, and generous finish. 538 cases made.

 PC 94+, JH 95

2006 Illustration – Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine. The 2006 Illustration is a blend of 86% merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine spent 20 months in French oak barrels of which 82% is new, and 18% is seasoned.

Elegant and full bodied with black cherry, dark plum, black currant, roasted meat, leather, smoke, tobacco, and spice box. Velvety smooth palate and elegant structure. (Paul said ” Velvet painting of Jesus”) 1,195 cases made.

PC 93, JH 94+

2007 Illustartion – Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine. The 2007 Illustration is a blend of 70% merlot, 20% cabernet franc, and 5% cabernet sauvignon, and 5% malbec. The wine spent 20 months in French oak barrels of which 70% is new, and 30% is seasoned.

Beautiful, elegant fruit of black cherry, currant, tobacco, coffee, forest floor, fresh mint, and licorice. Well concentrated and balanced palate, with approachable structure and tannin leading to an incredible finish. 1,324 cases made.

PC 94+ JH 95+

I am drinking the Game Farm Ranch Napa Valley Sangiovese from Abiouness. Nice licorice and dark fruity character yields a fantastic jammy nature to this little gem. With only a 150 cases produced, finding this wine may be the hardest part of drinking it. I happened to meet Nicole Abiouness at a local wine shop (Cellar 17 in Houston) during a tasting and thought this was one of the top wines that night. Of course, I picked up a little…

This wine is subtle and velvety and has a nice almost complex finish. Lots of fun to drink and try to get all those little nuances out of. This wine goes well with my chicken cordon blu and the Chick Corea playing in the background. A nice ending to the start of another day – a day where I will win!

92 – PC
93 – CC

I’m handing the iPhone over to James to write the review.

This wine has concentrated fruit of baked blackberry, black cherry, current, and dark plum. Black pepper, Spanish cedar, mushroom, tobacco, and forest floor round out the nose.

On the pallet there is a beautiful mineral content, with a great fruit and tannin balanced full mouthful. The finish is long and thick.

Go out and find all you can afford; this wine is an excellent representation of Shiraz and hard to beat.

96 JH – after drinking it longer
95 PC – after drinking it longer 96+
97 DH

This wine is exceptional!

This wine is a rockstar, with only 374 cases produced, it brings the whole band with it.

David Abreu and Jason Exposto make this wine and really amaze me as much as the grapes do. They have done a spectacular job letting the land and fruit do their thing. Sometimes, it is a hard thing to do – to let simplicity do its thing. These guys have done the hard part… and we get the best!

The nose of this wine as divulged by J. Heck was full of dark fruits, blackberry, dark cherry, and black currant which stood out along with Spanish cedar, toasty oak, white pepper, mushroom and rocky minerals from the river bed. The pallet was full-bodied, but round, with well integrated tannins and a great well balanced generous finish. The finish was quite long and beautiful. This is an extremely complex wine with so much room to grow. It is easy to see why it is considered a ‘cult’ wine.

Paul C – 95
Jimmy H – 96+
Everyone Else That Tasted It ??

Okay so we have been slacker’s and posted nothing for months. It certainly isn’t because we are not drinking some really special wines. Recently we enjoyed a bottle of the 1995 Chateau D Y’quem for a dear friends special birthday, and man was it ever special.

Y’quem is the dessert wine that all others are judged by, and some experts say the best white wine in the entire world.

At Y’quem they proudly boast that only one glass of wine per vine is produced. The grapes are picked one by one at perfect maturity. In 2006 a 135-year “vertical” (containing every vintage from 1860 to 2003) was sold by The Antique Wine Company in London for $1.5 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a single lot of wine. Yquem’s success stems largely from the site’s susceptibility to attack by Botrytis Cinera, the “noble rot”. Y’quem is a  wine with an extremely long life, bottles of 100 years and older may be found in excellent condition if properly kept.

Tasting: The nose is like a complex beautiful perfume of honey suckle, dried figs, dried apricot, peaches, pear, pineapple, lemon zest, litchi nuts, vanilla, soft leather, and earthy mineral notes. A very seductive sumptuous, mouth coating pallet with impeccable balance.  The finish goes on for several wonderful minutes. The 1995 is intense, unctuous, and  still showed youth, and could be aged and enjoyed for many years to come.

Rating: 95 PC, 96 JH

Proprietor: Leviathan Wines

Vintage: 2007

Appellation: 100% California

Varietals: 47% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Syrah, 14% Merlot

Tasting: Beautiful dark black/red in the glass. concentrated flavors of baked Cherry, blackberry, raspberry, scorched forrest floor, toasted oak, black pepper, roasted beef, coffee, and chocolate. On the palate the wine is intensely flavored, full bodied, round, with soft tannins, bright lively acidity and great balance, with a beautiful long velvety finish.

It is really hard to find a more pleasant red wine from California in the mid $40.00 range than this one. Get it and enjoy!

Rating: 93+

If you are a collector of fine wine, you should seek Tierra Roja out, as it is quite memorable.

Proprietor: Tierra Roja Vineyards

Vintage: 2005

Appellation: Oakville, CA

Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Production: 250 cases (6 bottle cases, wood or carton)

Tasting: The wine is dark purple in the stem. Beautiful blackberry, dark cherry, blackcurrant, cassis, red plum fruit, with cinnamon graham crackers, toasted oak, white pepper, caramel, lavender, scorched earth and minerals, followed by a nice floral component.  Tierra Roja is rich and elegant with beautiful balance, and texture on the palate yet full-bodied and intense. This wine is a classic for the collector or for those that just like to drink incredibly good wine. This wine is evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

I think it was Benjamin Franklin that said something like that. As Heidi Barrett would say this is a 1,2,3,4,5,6 wine. If you don’t know what I am referring to, you can check out this interview of her with Gary Vaynerchuck at TheWineCult’s Facebook below.

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=199205951194&id=188458559342

Rating: 96 JH, 95 PC

PS – Linda will be at The Austin Wine Merchant on December 26th from 2:00 to 3:00 tasting some of her wine. You can go to their web site at http://www.theaustinwinemerchant.com/

Christophe Baron started Cayuse Vineyards in 1996, and is also the viticulturist and wine consultant at Reynvann Family Vineyards and it is being well received in the cult wine community.

Note: Aged 30 months in 20% newRostaing barrels. Made with indigenous yeasts and bottled unfinned and unfiltered.

Review: An intense full-bodied wine with a brawny bouquet of blueberry, cherry, smoked wild game, pencil lead, lavender, pepper, liquorice, with a beautiful earthy mineral component.The wine shows great balance and an extremely long finish. The Armada is a totally gratifying wine to be cellared for years, and will improve to near perfection IMO, if you can stay away from it, and deny your inner hedonist.

The Armada was opened for about 1.5 hours for this review, and could have benefited from more time. PS This is a tough mailing list to crack!

Rating: 99 JH, 98 PC

Sometimes the stars align and the week’s events fade like an old photograph and the red juice speaks your name… Such is the case with today and Ovid.

Dark currant and cassis, licorice and blackberry along with a supple smoky blue texture. Well balanced with round silky tannins this wine breathes a fragrant bouque of evolving textures. Lovely and alluring. The finish goes on for days with fruit coming out more and more with dark cherry notes.

My friends shall damn me for not saving this one… But it called my name! Get here quickly if anyone wants a sip.

93 Paul, 93 Carol