Winery_Times

Ozzie and Bryan greeted us in the room and we decided to taste the reds. My pick for the best value is the Vinum Red Dirt Red at $29. Wow! This is great and priced well.  The 2002 Falcor Cabernet made  by Ray Coursen of Elyse has nicely aged soft fruit, very smooth and balanced with a nice long finish – ready to drink!  The 2003 Fife Cabernet was full of rich, dark berry flavors, both black and boysenberry!  It was my favorite regardless  of price and a great value at $50 !  Last, I tasted the 2003 Madrigal from up at the top of the valley. It had some smoky flavors that were very good, it was a real treat.

Paul Torres came out right at the end of the tasting and told us about the Ghost Block 2005, the company’s flagship.  It is going to be released in about 6 weeks and most of it is already sold!
This vintage is a little different then the 2004 but still excellent. It is difficult to produce more than 2000 cases and although they have many more vineyards, they could not justify the additional fruit being added, as the quality was just not the same.  This will leave a few people unhappy without wine but at the same time if they made more, the quality would suffer.  So they have held the line and maintained the quality. Where in the past many have increased production to satisfy  demand and lowered quality Paul has decided not to!  In a world of profit driven mediocrity I salute Paul for his integrity!

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Honig has been growing grapes since the 1960’s when the now owner Michael’s Grandfather Louis bought a prune ranch and decided to plant grapes. They only grow Sav Blanc and Cabernet.  In the 1980’s they decided to make wine and now have two levels of Cabernet and Sav Blanc.  The Sav Blancs are the Napa Valley version and the more specific single vineyard Rutherford version.
The Cabernet is a Napa Valley version. The Spring Mountain, Bartolucci Vineyard, a single vineyard Cabernet, is their Flagship.

The winery is a example of Michael’s vision of what a winery should be.  He said he wanted a tasting room that was a reflection of his home, a family winery, with no tasting bar but a table to sit, taste and enjoy his wines.  The tasting room is informal, there are no accessories to be purchased, with the exception of several wine books in which his dogs are featured or the winery mentioned.  He said he wants his place to be about the wine and that is it, no consumer stuff.

Although the winery is not CCOP or certified organic, it is Solar.  They use biodiesel in their tractors  and they call their methods sustainable.   They keep prices down to make their wine more approachable and they want their clients to feel at ease and not feel they are in an environment which is” snotty” by their exclusivity, as they feel much of the valley has gotten.  Their Sav Blanc is $16 and the Rutherford $24.  The Cabernet $40 and the Bartolucci $75.  For the quality of their product I would agree these prices are very reasonable!

They also make a LH Sav Blanc which is very very good,  $55 for a 375 ml. It is a dessert unto itself!

This is a place not to be missed!

850 Rutherford Crossroad, Rutherford Ca 94573  10-4 by Appointment, 707.963.5818 honigwine

The Blankiets are not just resting on their laurels, however, they have some of the best staff anywhere on earth to get this process right!  They have brought back David Abreau to oversee viticulture.  Martha McClelland is Winemaker and to assist in blending, famed oenologist from Bordeaux, Michael Rolland!

To focus, they have decided this will be the last year they offer two wines; one Cabernet based and one Merlot based from their Paradise Hills Estate.  Starting with vintage 2006 they have chosen to pool their resources into one lot and hereafter produce one blend. They will be using all of the wine to make the most ultimate blend that they can possibly create!  Hence from 2006 they will offer only one wine which will include both Cabernet and Merlot as its base!

Of course the rating people have assigned their numbers once again: around 95 for the Cabernet  and 94 for the Merlot based wine, Rive Droite.  The wine is available in lots of 3, 6 or 12 bottles if you are on the mailing list.  These are big wines which require cellaring and will develop for years to come.

The 2005 Cabernet is priced at $185 a bottle and the Rive Droite (Merlot Based) $125 on a first come first served basis.

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They are about to release their 2005 Blueprint , so named because of Jon’s architectural background. This wine has been made by famous winemaker Philippe Melka who has been the winemaker since the beginning in 1995.  It is a blend of  71% Cabernet, 25% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc from  Howell Mountain, Oakville, St Helena and Yountville.  Philppe describes the wine saying it “reveals dark notes of blackberries intermixed with vanilla, cacao and coconuts. In the mouth it is round with a pure attack and good balance, finishing with raspberry and cherry flavors and well-integrated sweet tannins.” The price is $50 a bottle and is available to those in the allocation on 2/1/2008

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The masters of Cabernet over at Cult Wine Central just released 285 cases of Rock Cairn Vineyard.
Wine  Maker  Rob Lawson does it again with fantastic fruit from the vineyard just north of Yountville right at the time the winery has depleted its ‘04 supply of Ghost Block.   This vineyard is very near the
Ghost Block and should be very similar  it is priced 10 dollars cheaper at  $45 a bottle!

So while you are waiting for the next update on the Ghost Block why not pick up a few bottles of the Rock Cairn to tide you over!   Cult Wine Central

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The Holloways had a Christmas party this last Saturday night which I was lucky enough to attend.  Their daughter, Claire, who works for Copia in Napa happened to bring a new Ackerman Cabernet from the Napa Valley.  Add one more to my wine list!  This wine was made very much in the French style and reminded me of a Clos Du Val.  It should age well but seemd to have a little  too much tannin to fruit in its balance.
The highlight of the evening, in which there was just one long parade of food, was the vertical provided by Mitch Holloway of his ‘02 ,’03  and ‘04 Cabernet.

I wrote an article on this wine back a couple of months.  As you know I have long been a big supporter  of hillside fruit.  This fruit  is grown at  a Beckstoffer  Vineyard in the  Red Hills  District  of Lake  County!  The elevation is 2200′ and it is all clone 337, one of my favorites!

The wine is harvested in the cool of the night, picked at 25.5 Brix, placed in open top fermentation for about three weeks, then blended with a 2% combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petite Vedot.
The wine was aged 18 to 22 months in both French and American oak barrels and was not filtered or fined prior to bottling!

Tasting the wine  is a real pleasure. It is very much like some other hillside Cabernet that go for much more money.  It has a lot of complex fruit up front and the oak is in balance which to me indicates it will age well.  The event of the evening was to illustrate that fact.  We tasted the ‘02, ‘03 and ‘04. The ‘02 is holding well, balanced with no indication of age. It’s fruit is a little more subdued compared to the ‘03 which seems to just be a bigger vintage.  The ‘04 has even more fruit than the ‘03 but has not opened up completely. It may end up being the best of the three vintages but it seems to still need a little more bottle age to completely open.  The consistency of these three vintages and similarity in fruit and balance is a tribute to the wine maker and his ability to produce the wine year after year.

This wine is really comparable to wines that are 150% to double the price.  Holloway Cellars is marketing this wine of  which there was only 148 cases in ‘04 at $540 a case.  There are (were) about half that number left and the party the other night probably depleted that number some.

They are just completing their web site but in the interim you can contact me if you would like to try some of this wine.

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What a day! Picked up some folks for tour out of Meadowood Resort. They were here from Iowa. Our first stop was Beringer at the outskirts of St Helena. The tree lined drive in front has not changed since I was a boy.  The wine maker here for years has been Ed Sbragia. He makes some very good wines and recently opened Sbragia Winery in Dry Creek Valley just at the dam of Lake Sonoma.

Then it was over to Revana, where I had the opportunity to meet Heidi Barret, the renown wine maker best known for Screaming Eagle.  She is now the wine maker here and also has Amuse Bouche and La Sierna labels available when released (but they sell quickly according to Tom the assistant wine maker).  I got some pictures so check them out!

The last stop of the day was Castello di Amorosa, the 36 million dollar castle Daryl Sattui just completed.  It has 109 rooms and 8 levels, with a swimming pool on the bottom level. The tour is $25 during the week, $35 weekends and $10 more for the reserve tasting. The tour takes 1 3/4 hours to complete and the rooms incredible.  The wines are all Italian style.  After the tour it was back to Meadowood for a clothing change and then off to Yountville and Redd for dinner. They are eating as I sit in the Limo and write this article in front of the Villago Hotel.

Another day in life of the Limo D!

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I was out at Seavey on Conn Valley Rd Saturday, right at the site of the historic Volber Winery complete with the original stone winery building. Before the advent of refrigeration this was the best way to store and age wine short of a cave.

Mr Seavey greeted us and explained that his wine is rated with Cult status by Robert Parker as of a recent tasting at the Culinary Institute (where he had to donate a case of his wine for the purposes of tasting).  He believes he is priced lower than any others with this status at $85 a bottle and is considering raising the price to $95. His distributors were not happy with that idea as it will make it harder for them to sell they say!  It seems to be a husband and wife operation as Mr Seavey showed our guests around and the Mrs. handled another two guests who happened to just show up in the tasting room.

They make  a Caravina blend ($105)  and a Cabernet ‘04 ($85). Also available is a Merlot ‘04 ($38) and a Chardonnay ‘05 ($30).

They have built the winery in a style that is very similar to old 19th century buildings of stone construction.  A very pretty spot and not too hard to get to either.

The day was a rough one for me as I had been double booked and the clients were not aware of this change . Then the second car came to extent their tasting time with a nail in the tire and I ran to fix it. This took four stops on a Saturday to find an open shop, so I did not get any pictures. I will have to return for a more complete assessment!

Oh well that is the life of the Limo D, wandering the wine country in search of great wine!

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