napa

Sunday Sip: A Cabernet Cornucopia

by whit 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.

foil

ready

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….

revealed

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.


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Getting Schooled

by whit on February 24, 2010



Day 2 of the Wine Writer’s Symposium began in the kitchens of the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Young students and future chefs sported their whites and tall toques and prepped for the day’s dishes, which I would later learn would become our lunch. Us wine folk ate our breakfast (and tried not to get in the way) and geared up for a full day of panels, master classes and writing exercises.

chopping block

mire poix

busy bees

First up, “What Wine Writers Need To Know about Winemaking” with Napa vintner and author Jeff Morgan. This proved to be a very interesting discussion in winemaking practices with a few lively debates. Including the somewhat hush hush practice of watering back wine. Jeff attests that many (read all) winemakers in Napa, are lowering the alcohol levels of their wine by adding water to the pre-fermentation juice. The warm temperatures on the West coast create really ripe fruit which means more sugars at harvest in turn creating a higher alcohol percentage.  Jeff believes this is happening more often than you think or than is ever spoken of and stands by watering back as a necessary tool (and by no means a marker of a bad winemaker or lesser wine.)

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The Fog Clears

by whit 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.

morning fog

little friends

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.

manicured

mustard blooms

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.

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The Napa Shuffle

by whit on February 15, 2010



Hey there folks. This Brunello is heading to Napa! Starting tomorrow I will be attending the 2010 Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa. Professional. I am super excited for 4 days chock full of tastings, vineyard visits, trips to the Culinary Institute, writing workshops and panel discussions. I will have plenty of fun stuff to post about. Until then, I give you some Italian flora to brighten your Monday.

pretty in pink

Private residence, Civita di Bagnoregio

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