by whitney on March 28, 2010
Blind Wine Tastings. That’s my jam. Throw in good friends, good eats….perfect Sunday evening material right there. When I was up in Napa for the Wine Writer’s Symposium, I received a lovely little gift bag from the Napa Valley Vintners. Inside were 3 bottles of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. After a week of cabs and chards at the symposium, I needed a little hiatus from all things Northern Cali for a while. Last Sunday, I decided it was finally time to pop some bottles. Call the friends, enlist cheese purchasing, ready the aluminum foil. Blind tasting time.
We drank them in no particular order. After covering them in foil, I had already forgotten what was what. There was no real scholarly approach to the tasting, we just discussed what we liked and why. After the third wine, we had a clear winner. Number 2. It was more elegant and restrained on the oak, lower in alcohol (coming it at 13.6%) and well balanced and had a nice acidity despite its rich cab fruit. Our second favorite unanimously was Number 3…coming in last was the first one out of the gate, Numero Uno. So, what did we drink? The reveal….
The “winner”- 2007 Frog’s Leap Cabernet. 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot. From the winemakers:
“…what kind of cabernet to make? There were the closed, tight fisted, cough-and-hack Cabs of the late 70’s or the now popular pick-late, sweet fruit, high alcohol wines of the early 21st century. Instead of chasing fads we simply learned from the past, favoring the lessons passed on by generations of Bordeaux winemakers. Our attempt is not to emulate anyone, but rather to avoid sacrificing the balance between Cabernet’s ripe fruit character and its lean herbaceous side at the altar of over-extraction and manipulation.”
Runner-up was 2002 Cafaro “Alta Tierra” Cabernet (92% cabernet, 8% petit verdot) and lastly the 2005 Porter Family Vineyards Cabernet (85% cabernet, 12% syrah, 3% merlot- and the most expensive bottle of the 3). As you all know, I am not keen on reviewing wines and giving extensive tasting notes. Therefore, I will spare you my thoughts only to say that we favored a more balanced wine and Old World style. Bonus wine- Jane, our host for the evening, had a bottle of 2005 Stag’s Leap “Artemis” Cabernet she had been holding onto for a special occasion. She had mentioned that she thought it might have gone bad as she came home and saw a few drips of wine under the bottle on the wine rack. We decided now was a better time than any other to see if it had indeed been damaged (I never mind being a test subject) and to compare to the other cabs. It was great! Super decadent and velvety but not at all cloying. Possibly a tie for first place.
Conclusions: I can’t say that after all of this Napa Cab-ing, that I am more likely to purchase a bottle of Cali Cab the next time I’m dropping dollars on a bottle. As a varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon just isn’t my favorite. I can say that my aversion to and prejudice of has subsided on the whole…
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Thank you to Jason and Jane for the hospitality and the opening of some Stag’s Leap in the name of research.
by whitney on March 1, 2010
I am feeling the need for brevity. Or perhaps, I am lazy. Instead of waxing on and on about the rest of my time at The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers – which I was just about to do – I will wrap it up in a pretty little bow. A bow made of pictures. And not so many words. Which is seriously ridiculous considering I am covering a wine WRITERS symposium. But let us move right along, lest we muck up the brevity.
Lunch in the Vintners Hall of Fame at CIA Greystone. So many barrels, so little time. I must say the meals (and wine, of course) at this conference probably beat most any other gathering of professionals in the country. Except for possibly a James Beard function. Or a dinner party at Thomas Keller’s house. Or the holiday party for any Batali-Bastianich outpost.
Wine Faults 101 with UC Davis’ Mark Krasnow. Luckily the plastic lids were firmly in place for most of this master class. Once removed, the aromas of a winemaker’s worst nightmares ran free. Brett and cork taint, oh my. Fault City, USA. If your next wine smells distinctly like either Band-Aid or horse stall, it has been “contaminated” with a yeast called brettanomyces. I say “contaminated” because some people like having that aroma present in the wine. And those some people are not just of the Burgundian persuasion, but me. Yes. I surprisingly found myself nose deep into the glass of “barnyard” brett not wanting to pull away. And yet- sort of disgusted. But intrigued. Like a car wreck. A car wreck of yeasts.
With faults still hanging in the air, Napa winemaker Michael Howell (Cain Vineyard), rushed into the room to our rescue (I had been hypnotized by the brett) and promptly blasted on the AC to a cellar temperature of 55 degrees. He said he needed to get the room back to neutral and since he was more comfortable in those arctic temperatures (I am officially a Californian now) and because we had non-faulted wines to focus on, by all means. This master class was a crash course in Bordeaux varietals. Michael brought along samples of each varietal Cain grows from its 2005 vintage. Those would be cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec and petit verdot. We then tasted the wine those varietals were blended to create, the Cain 5. Really good wine. And I have to confess I had a special goosebump moment while tasting and smelling the malbec. Man. I’ve never ever considered myself a malbec fan, but jeeze. I could have remained there in that frigid room all day with that glass in my hand.
Just so you know, the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies is a thing of beauty. It is every wine geek’s fantasy building full of laboratory styled tasting rooms and classrooms. Every station had a spitting/rinsing sink, completely white counter surfaces (to better see the color of the wine) and my personal favorite gadget- the light box. The photo above is of the merlot on the left and the malbec on the right. The color and clarity difference is very easy to see.
The symposium ended with an invitation to a fun event: the kick-off tasting for Premier Napa by Napa Valley Vintners. There were two rooms. One full of Napa chardonnay and the other cabernet sauvignon. Not my two most favorite varietals in the world, but an interesting opportunity. The mission: vertical blind taste dozens of producers. Meaning, us tasters knew only the vintage (‘06-’08 for chardonnay and ‘05-’07 for cabernet) and the varietal, not the winemakers. With pen and paper in hand I went down the line, one by one. Needless to say I got bored after the 10th chard. And even more restless after the 5th cabernet. Until, stomach rumbling for a Taylor’s Refresher burger, I just gave up and asked for the cheat sheet of producers. I have to admit that one of the chardonnays I actually liked was…the 2007 Cakebread chardonnay. Cakebread! Chardonnay! Malbec! What has become of me…
Well, if I have become anything after those 4 days in Napa, I hope it is more knowledgeable. I know I definitely left with more friends as well as admiration and respect for my fellow wine writers. It’s not the best paying gig around or the most stable, but it sure is fun.
by whitney on February 20, 2010
I awoke much too early for sunlight this past Tuesday and sleepily slumped into my car for the drive to Napa. I prepared myself for the long stretch of I-5 that awaited me. Some tunes, water, snacks and my excitement for a week with some of America’s finest wine writers and professionals. Passing through the flat lands north of Los Angeles and a sea of clustered cattle and their oppressive stench, I pressed my foot to the pedal with heaviness. Living on the edge of limits of speed, the wind collided with the seams of my little Cabrio creating a kind of loud, whistling air cocoon. I increased the volume of my radio to deafening proportions and carried on along the monotony of asphalt with dozens of new trucker travel companions. 6 hours later, through lingering fog and foggy eyes, I began to see the light. The light of the Napa Valley.
Charming towns. Idyllic, even. Signs for Zinfandel Lane and Vintage Road. Perfectly manicured lawns, landscapes and cookie cutter shops on main streets. Palatial tasting rooms and large iron-gated wineries complete with fountains. Mondavi, Cakebread, Stag’s Leap, Opus 1, Krug, Terlato. Success, money and luxury seem to be the words screaming from the sides of Highway 29. Not like the type of wine country I am used to. But as I continue on past Napa and Yountville towards St Helena and Calistoga, the beauty of the land is shouting as well. The vineyards are almost too perfect. Even in winter.
Endless patches of wild mustard blossoms fill in the gaps between the bare vines- a bumble bee flitting by alongside my car. The land seemed to echo my notions of Napa and its wine. A little too manicured and softened; a missing puzzle piece of substance and soul. But, what did I really know? I haven’t had the opportunity to drink much of Napa’s finest. This week, however, would change all of that…
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I began to write this in response to Day 1 of the Wine Writer Symposium. Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, was our keynote speaker. She is a charming and eloquent Georgia lady with an intense love of Italy. A fellow Southerner with inexplicable ties to Italia. She spoke to us on that day about writing with a sense of place, something she does so terribly well in her novels. I thought I would begin my series of posts from this fabulous week with that in mind.
Coming up: Tasting Notes 101 with Eric Asimov of the NY Times, Crash Course in Wine Faults (and I thought the cows on I-5 were bad), a trip to the Culinary Institute of America and the chardonnay/cabernet sauvignon vertical blind tasting of Premier Napa.
