1WineDude :: Serious wine talk for the not-so-serious drinker!: wine review

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'Burgh Wine, By Way of Napa (An Encounter with Matthiasson's Current Releases)

Whew!

We are now officially in the morning after what might have been not only the most stunning, but also possibye the greatest late-game comeback win in Superbowl history, by none other than Dude's favorite team in all of professional sports: the 6-time world champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

So naturally after such a dramatic and entertaining Superbowl XLIII, I wanted to showcase some wine from the 'Burgh.

Ok, it's not really from Pittsburgh. But it's close enough for government work!

Matthiasson wines are not from the 'Burgh (they are from Napa), but winemaker Steve Matthiasson's wife Jill Klein is originally from Pittsburgh, and their wines are made using the same general temperament that has made the city of three rivers famous - grit, determination, care, and hard work.

Lots of care in the vineyard, lots of attention to detail on site selection, probably lots of dirty clothes and shoes harmed in the process of making these unfiltered beauties.

Anyway, somehow I think Jill got wind that I was a STEELERS fan, and sent me a few samples of Matthiasson's current releases. I was pleasantly surprised by these wines (and duly impressed).

One whiff of Matthiasson's wines and I could tell that they were probably crafted with extreme care. More on that in a second. First, I wanted to find out more about the Pittsburgh connection and how Matthiasson got started. So I asked Steve.

"My wife is from the Burgh. I was born in Winnipeg, and my family moved to Tucson when I was 8," Steve responded. "I went to UC Davis to study international ag development, and did an internship in Modesto studying ways to reduce pesticides in orchards. I interned with a consulting company, and ended up staying on with them after school (after changing departments to viticulture). 15 years after that internship I'm still consulting - it's what I learned how to do - but it has evolved into a focus on high-end estate vineyards in Napa. The winemaking started as a way to stay sane, to be able to do my own thing, while spending the rest of my time on other people's projects, and, though the day job still pays the bills, and I enjoy it, the wine has become the central focus."

I think that focus is paying off. Matthiasson is making some very aromatic and intensely concentrated wines.

Their `07 Napa Valley White made my palate do a double-take head-fake. It's a blend of Sauvignon blanc, Ribolla gialla, and Semillon. Yes, Ribolla gialla (even though I'm a Wine Century Club member, I still needed to look that one up). It's a funky wine, in that it's tropical, racy, and spicy all at once - I told Steve that it reminded me of the interesting white blends that were coming out of Australia a few years back, before they started sending us in the States boatloads of their plonk. It's a bit early to call for entrants onto my list of the year's most interesting wines, but I'm reserving a place for this just in case.

Matthiasson's `05 Napa Valley Red Hen Vineyard Merlot is also well worth a look. It's a huge wine. It tasted "old" to me - not old as in musty, but old the way that Zinfandel tastes when made from old, old vines in CA: boozy and massively concentrated. Not sure how much time or decanting (or even if time or decanting) will tame the alcohol, but the wine offers plenty of interesting complexity with intense blueberry and dark cherry fruit, along with cocoa and tea leaf aromas.

It's the kind of Merlot that would give people absolute fits in a blind tasting, because you could easily pass it off as a Cab or a Bordeaux style red blend.

Not that you'd do that to your friends, right?

Anyway, a word of caution: Matthiasson is making wine in very limited quantities, so you'll need to go the mailing list route on these.

Cheers!
(images: 1winedude.com, post-gazette.com)

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Top 5 1WineDude Chateau Petrogasm Reviews of 2008

While I'm in the Cheesy End-of-Year recap mood (this is the last one on 2008, I swear), and enjoying the remainder of my holiday break with my family, I thought I'd offer up my Top 5 Chateau Petrogasm reviews of 2008.

If you're not familiar with the Chateau, you can read my take on their back story. If you love wine, you need to be checking out Chateau Petrogasm from time to time.

Anyway, here are my top picks from my 2008 CP submissions:

5) `97 Chateau Leoville Barton

This wine was so refined and pleasant, it reminded me of a stately butler with impeccable manners. Ok, so I'm weird.

4) `04 Titus Chardonnay

Oak, oak and more oak. And maybe some more oak thrown in for good measure.

3) `00 Chateau de Sales

Well, this one generated quite a stir. I swear that I did not intend to portray a mouse humping berries. And yet, as we used to say in undergrad English Lit, "the subtext is there, man!" What I was trying to portray was that there was some brett lurking in all that berry fruit and... ah, just forget it...

2) `00 lo Zoccolaio Single Estate Barolo

Nothing says sexy girl in a dark smokey bar quite like Barolo. At least, that's how I saw it, especially after drinking three glasses of said Barolo.

And my Number 1 pick from 2008:

1) `06 Yellowtail Shiraz/Grenache

This one also generated a lot of discussion. I won't tell you here what I thought about this wine, as a picture is, after all, worth a thousand words. But I will say that, when poured during a practice blind tasting I took for one of my WSET exams, I barely picked out that it was a Shiraz. Just sayin'...

Cheers!
(images: ChateauPetrogasm.com)

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Sean Minor Wines: A Wine "Speed Dating" Redux

Hey, remember the recent Wine Bloggers Conference? Not that I haven't mentioned it a gazillion times or anything.

Anyway... one of the more interesting experiments conducted on both bloggers and winery representatives was on day one of said conference, when we played a very large game of wine review "speed dating."

In summary: bloggers were seated in a large conference room, about eight or so to a table; winery reps. rotated at set intervals between each table; each set of reps. had 5 minutes to present their wine to the blogger group, who then tasted and had 1 minute to record their thoughts on said wine, all live. More on the conference and the "speed dating" can be heard on WineBizRadio.com.

As you might imagine, it was a bit of organized chaos. In my live recap of the event, I basically had enough time to record gut reactions on each wine, and little else. Not that it wasn't fun, it just wasn't an ideal environment to really get to know any of the wines that were presented.

Which is why when I was offered a second chance to re-sample one of the producers represented at that speed dating event, I jumped at it.

Sean Minor Wines is a (very) small family outfit in Napa, making Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, as well as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc (the latter two under the 4 Bears label), all of them under $20. The backdrop story on 4 Bears (which I managed to capture in my brief speed-dating encounter during the WBC), is that Sean Minor and wife Nicole decided to create their winery after analyzing their finances and discovering that their second largest monthly expense was (you guessed it) wine (presumably, with four children - after whom the 4 Bears label takes it name - their largest expense was the kids?).

According to their press release:

Rather than taking his start-up capital and investing it in the bricks and mortar of a
winery, Minor decided to build his business as a negociant by sourcing out grapes and
some already fermented wines from Napa Valley, Sonoma County and California Central Coast appellations to create his wines. The wines themselves are made in a leased facility in Napa County where Minor ages, blends and bottles the wine under the Sean Minor label. “As a negociant I’ve been able to really center our efforts on making a top-quality wine,” said Minor. “My efforts are spent creating impeccable tasting wine and personally introducing it to people throughout the country.”

During the WBC speed-dating, I managed to capture this about their `06 Cabernet:

Four Bears - one guy and his wife are the total staff, who started making wine (via co-op) to offset their growing wine drinking budget! My kind of folks... 06 Cab Sauv. $17 (Napa Valley). Very accessible, but not without depth (the cedar element is a nice touch).

I guess the self-made family thing really struck a chord for me. Anyway, from what I recalled of the day, the wine was good, priced to move, and was more than just a one-trick-pony.

So... how do their wines stand up outside of the heated excitement of wine speed-dating?

Pretty well, it turns out.

At their best (as in the case of the Cab.), the wines offer a depth that I would consider slightly beyond their price point, making them a very good value. At worst, the wines are still very tasty and certainly priced fairly, really only lacking in the length of finish and the simplicity of their secondary aromas; otherwise, the fruit is all California and they deliver appropriately.

My mini-reviews on each of the 4 Bears wines:

06 Sean Minor 4 Bears Merlot (Napa Valley): No mistaking it's from CA. A very good buy, especially if you like plums, plums & more plums.

05 4 Bears Chardonnay (Central Coast, CA): Tropical fruits balance with good oak, but you need to like butter (if so, you'll like the price)

06 4 Bears Sauvignon Blanc (Sonoma County): Lime & tropic fruits abound. Good acidity & mouthfeel, & surprising finesse for the price point.

06 Sean Minor 4 Bears Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Red fruit & a little cedar/spice, & good acidity with refreshingly lower abv for CA!

For more happenings at 4 Bears, check out their blog at www.4bearswinery.com/blog. I will leave you with a shot of my own assistant "bear" sommelier:

Cheers!
(images: 1WineDude.com, www.4bearswinery.com, goodwineunder20.blogspot.com)

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"Christmas With The Devil" Or "Why I Still Don't Hate California Wine"

"The elves are dressed in leather
And the angels are in chains
The sugar plums are rancid
And the stockings are in flames!"
- from "Christmas with the Devil" by Spinal Tap

Amidst the elite wine world personalities, there are a handful of famous names that hate the modern style of California wines. Actually, "hate" is a strong word. But hate them they do. They consider these wines almost evil, as if they were the tool (or at least the preferred quaffs) of Satan himself.

As for me, I am not among them (neither an elite famous wine personality, nor a hater of big, bold CA wines).

God knows that I've got no issue with a wine "fruit bomb," provided that big, bold, and powerfully alcoholic is the best expression of that winery's fruit. What I don't like is when wines are busty for the sake of the almighty dollar (as in, forgoing an expression of terroir and / or style to instead chase after the palates of a few wine critics, whose increased scores can mean a price point increase of 30% or more per bottle on the wine market). Homogenization is a perversion of this style of wine marketing. But it's not the fault of this style of winemaking in and of itself.

So, for the 2008 Christmas dinner at Chateau Dude, I decided to raid the sample shipping boxes for the biggest, boldest CA wines to pair with grilled lobster tail, bison steak, and various cuts of Angus beef (all expertly prepared by my brother-in-law).

The lineup?

Franciscan's 2006 Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay (Carneros, about $40), and a 2005 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Reserve (where else... Napa, about $140).

The story behind The Franciscan (does anyone else think that name sounds like a potential Monty Python skit?): 15 months sur lie in 100% new oak, fermented with wild yeasts using 15-20% of the barrel wines, 14.5% abv; various 90+ point ratings ensued.

The Mondavi? 18 months in 100% new French oak, hand harvested & sorted, a tiny amount (5%) of Cabernet Franc thrown in, 15% abv; 90+ point reviews ensued.

You get the picture. Christmas with The Devil, I thought.

The Franciscan (I just love how that sounds) was the more unabashedly Californian. It doesn't get much bigger than this, it's a wine that struts it's stuff. There is so much vanilla and oak, I actually picked up a hint of cream soda-pop among the citrus, apple, and even banana (banana cream pie, anyone?). What rescues this potent beast from potenital oak hell is the acidity - for CA, the acidity is downright racy. Yes, it pairs amazingly well with grilled lobster. I'm not sure what else it would pair well with, and I enjoyed it, but I'm not gonna go so far as to call it a "triumph of viticulture and winemaking."

As expected, the Mondavi was a killer match with steak. I decanted this puppy for nearly four hours before serving it. At first, coming out of the decanter, it was all black cherry compote - and I mean, spread-it-over-toast first-thing-in-the-morning compote. With time in the glass, things got decidely more complex: figs, plum, red currant, hints of cedar, a little olive. The finish carried quality fruit and spice and was more than respectibly long. I really felt as though it needed abotu six years in the bottle to really integrate, and I didn't find the high abv too overpowering.

These are both very good wines. Whether or not they're worth the price is a discussion I leave up to you (more on my take on paying for the cache factor of CA wines can be found in my recent articles about Opus One).

The problem is not that wines like these are being made. The problem is that too many wines like these that shouldn't be made are being made.

If there's something to hate here, it's not the original CA blockbusters - it's the greedy drive of copycat wineries the world over chasing after a buck, forgoing the individuality of their vineyard sites and the best quality of their fruit. We can and should challenge those wineries to do better; if we end up with the ubiquity of the 'Bic Mac' of wines, then I have truly seen The Devil, and The Devil is us!

Anyway, let's fire up that grill, shall we?

Cheers!
(images: spinaltapfan.com, 1WineDude.com)

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The Dude's Top 10 Most Interesting Wines of 2008

Sure, it's another cheesy end of year wrap-up post.

But you know what?

I dig these recaps - call it a guilty pleasure. It sure beats writing an entire new post and trying to come up with compelling content (hey, it's the end of the year... I'm tired, man!).

Actually, there was nothing easy about compiling the list that I'm about to give to you, and I'm sure the inclusions and omissions will piss some people off somewhere. That isn't my intention, and this is not a best-of list by any stretch of the imagination.

The following presents my Top 10 Most Interesting Wines of 2008.

It is NOT a list of the best wines released in 2008. It is a list of wines that I tasted in 2008, and found the most interesting this year. They are presented with a synopsis of my tasting notes, and my reflections on why they were included in the list. Some of them I bought, some of them were media samples, others were tasted at events. No one gets special treatment once the pen hits the notebook that logs my tastings.

The list is not based on scores or any other numerical rating. The wines were chosen based on my tasting notes from all of the wines that I tasted and recorded in 2008. Bear in mind that I am not employed as a wine critic, and I do not taste thousands of wines per year. I did, however, taste well over 400 wines in 2008, which I think is probably more than the average bear. I will leave it to you whether or not the Lush designation is applicable in this context (I did spit... sometimes... at least twice...).

What I'm hoping to do here is clue you into something unique, different, or of exceptional quality for the price - as I see it in the wine world. Hopefully you will find it useful. Anyway, without further ado, here they are...

The Dude's Top 10 Most Interesting Wines of 2008

10) 2006 Benton-Lane "First Class" Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley): Layers of strawberry jam, cherry cola & vanilla. Pure heaven with salmon cakes.

I agonized over the #10 spot in this list - as you can imagine, there were about 50 wines that could have gone into this first slot. I went with the Benton-Lane because,well, it surprised me. It surprised me in that it was one of the biggest, heftiest Willamette's I've had in terms of structure, but still managed to exude a definite sense of place. Balance, baby, balance.

9) 2005 Opus One (Oakville): Supple, hedonistic & built for long haul. Mint leaf & spices floating over black fruit suggest great things to come.

Was the inclusion of this wine a reflection on my tour of Opus this year, and my frank and detailed discussions with their staff? Well.... duh. Of course it is (despite the fact that one visiting intern thought that I was Gary Vaynerchuk... I had the same reaction as you: "Uhm... What?!!??").

And that's okay, because wine is an experience and is influenced by the circumstances under which we drink it. But this wine is no slouch, and it had one of the best senses of balance I've tasted in a long time - between Old World & New World styles, between primary fruit and secondary aromas, and between early accessibility & ageing potential.

8) 2002 Penns Woods Ameritage Reserve (PA): Bord'x style blend from PA. YES, IT'S FROM PA. Fig, prune, cedar, probably their best vintage ever.

Anyone following 1WD will NOT be surprised by the inclusion of this one. This wine, for me, helped to redefine not only what PA wine is capable of, but what East Coast wine is capable of, and how well some areas of the U.S. can implement an Old World style of wine.

7) 2004 Sonoma-Cutrer "Les Pierres" (Sonoma Valley): When isn't it a pleasure? Flint, lemon curd, citrus peel, roses, apples, cream. I could go on.

I'm including this wine in my list because I'm astounded at Sonoma-Cutrer's consistency. This is probably my favorite U.S. Chardonnay, and to date is still my favorite Chard. globally, and I'm actually more partial to the Chablis style so if you can figure that one out please explain it to me so I don't feel as though I'm going insane. Anyway, this wine has never disappointed me, and the `04 peels away layer after layer of complexity as you drink it.

6) 2001 Hugel Gewurztraminer Vendage Tardive (Alsace): Viscous, loads of citrus, lychee, & autumn leaves. Holy Hannah it's good! But not cheap.

As a wine geek, I like to think that I can appreciate a wine made for wine geeks. And this, my friends, is a wine geek's viscous dream. I have a sweet tooth, and while this wine certainly delivers in its touch of sweetness, the slam dunk is how the sweetness and acidity are balanced by the intense fruit and the funk-a-junk-funkiness. It's the kind of wine that makes some people say "Hmm... I'm not too sure about this one...," but has the wine geeks licking their lips in delight. Score!

5) 2003 Vinoptima Gewurztraminer (Ormond, NZ): Yowza! Oil, lemons, honey, orange blossoms, spice. I could sniff this stuff for *days*...!

You know that you're liking a wine when you realize, after 7 or 8 minutes of smelling it, that you love it but you've yet to even take your first sip. There is nothing shy about this Gewurz, and the only downside is that the booze might knock you out before you've gotten enough of this wine. Best dry Gewurz. I've tasted all year. And yes, that's two Gewurz's in a row. On purpose.

4) NV Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle (Champagne): Like fresh-baked almond bread with honey. A minor triumph of grace & strength. Excellent stuff.

I tasted this wine at an industry event, and it stood out for me above dozens & dozens of other wines that I tasted that night. Powerful, but graceful as well, it's like... it's like seeing a tamed pet panther wearing a diamond-studded collar. You're not sure how they did it, but you're damn interested!

3) 2005 Le Premier Pas Domaine Le Pas de l'Escalette (Cot. du Languedoc): Harmonious blend of S. Rhone grapes. French red without the shackles.

What do you get when you lift the AOC burden of varietals, blend percentages, and vinification and viticulture techniques from French winemakers? In the case of this wine, you get as much creativity as any New World wine, with a deliciously well-integrated result. Hey! France!! Give Us Free!!!

2) 2005 Volta Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): 1st vintage, limited run from Howell Mtn. fruit. Lush as all get-out, with lazer-focused tannins.

I have a soft-spot for Volta this year. They're fans of the blog. They're nice peeps. And I was the first to ever review their wine in the media. They've since gone on to accumulate an impressive array of accolades from palates much better and more influential than mine. And they deserve it, because this wine is a tour de force of just how good Howell Mountain fruit can be when you treat it right. To get it that right on the first try is quite an achievement.

And now... the #1 most interesting wine that I've tasted in 2008... (drumroll ensues)...

1) 1999 Gutzler Vintage Riesling Sekt Extra Brut (Rheinhessen): Stellar trad. method bubbly with peach, apricot, & non-stop creamy yeastiness.

No, it's not a typographical error. Yes, I did actually mean to list a sparkling German Riesling as my #1 most interesting wine tasted in 2008. Yes, I am sober as I type this.

No other wine in 2008 threw me for quite as high arcing of a loop as this one. What this wine did was prove to me beyond a doubt that Riesling is the noblest of all white wine grape varietals, with a purity of expression that, in the right hands, has the capacity to shine through in any format, whether it be dry, sweet, still, or bubbly. In the words of my main man Michael Broadbent:

"German wine-lovers may place Riesling first, but I place it second (to Cabernet Sauvignon) in the hierarchy of noble grape varieties. Like Cabernet Sauvignon, it has consistent strength of character which shows through even after transplanting."

Number two, with a bullet!

There you have it. Now, back to my frantic holiday madness...

Cheers!
(images: 1WineDude.com, wineaccess.com, binendswine.com)

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Twitter Taste Live: The 89 Project - TONIGHT 8PM ET!

Another Twitter Taste Live event is upon us. Tune in right here at 8PM ET TONIGHT to catch the action LIVE.

This time, the topic is near and dear to my heart, as it involves The 89 Project, of which I am a contributing member. We will be tasting, live, selections of wines that have been rated "89 points" - blind. Things should get very interesting during this TTL!

Anyway, the action will be available live right here at this post (a recap. will also be available here after the event)...

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Hope to see you on twitter!

Cheers! (image: twittertastelive.com)

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5 Reasons Why Chilean Wine Kicks Ass (Wine Blogging Wednesday #52: Chillin' with the Chilean)

Hard to believe that an entire month has passed since we hosted Wine Blogging #51 ("Baked Goods") here on 1WineDude.com.

But passed it has, and another WBW is now upon us - this time hosted at CheapWineRatings.com, with the theme "Value Reds from Chile!"

I am stoked for this WBW. Because Chilean wines, for the most part, kick all kinds of ass.

I recently featured a Chilean stalwart, Concha y Toro's 2007 "Casillero del Diablo" Chardonnay Reserve, as part of an article I posted at the 89 Project. Because it kicked ass (I mean that the wine kicked ass, not the article... actually you could also take that sentence to mean that the 89 Project kicks ass, which it does... ah, forget it....).

Which begs the question, of course, Why does Chilean wine kick so much gluteus maximus?

Here are 5 reasons:...

Ass-Kickin' Geography
You'd be hard-pressed to find a better place to grow fine wine grapes than Chile. Sure, they grow plenty of the lowly Mission grape destined for cheap Pisco. But Chile is also starting to realize its huge potential to grow classic Bordeaux varietals. Chile's wine regions are varied in climate and soil types, giving it a diversity in quality wine that few other countries posses. That nasty pest Phylloxera is nowhere to be found, because it faces natural borders to the north (desert), south (ice), west (the Pacific), and east (the Andes).

Cool air from the mountains, as well as the influence of the Pacific's Humboldt current moderate the growing temperatures, while plentiful water from the Andes provides irrigation. Grapes love this place.
More investment smarties than Warren Buffett
Since opening its agricultural doors to the outside world in the 1980s, Chile has seen an influx of winemaking smarties and significant fiscal investment from wine companies far and wide. This means that Chile is getting a state-of-the art crash-course in modern winemaking and viticultural techniques, which benefits the wine.
Set the Wayback Machine for the late 19th Century...
When the nasty pest Phylloxera was devastating the fine wine vineyards of, well, the entire world, many a European brought winemaking know-how - and, importantly, vine clippings - to Chile.

Since Chile never had Phylloxera mucking about, it never had to resort to using grafting (onto American rootstocks) for its imported vinifera vines to survive and thrive. This means that Chilean wine is a bit like a trip back in time to the mid 19th century, because (theoretically) they taste like, well, wine from ungrafted vines. Presumably, not unlike what wine would have tasted like in the pre-Phylloxera days.
Ass-kickin' quality
Chile has lots of interesting wines across the entire price spectrum (a high-end Chilean wine recently garnered Wine Spectator's 2008 wine of the year accolade), but it's nearly perfected the cheap, mass-market wine offering (more on that in a bit).
Ass-kickin' prices
You can get a decent everyday quaffer from Chile for under $10 USD. I will assume further comment on this point is entirely unnecessary. But I will add that the concept seems to be popular in the U.S. - according to WinesOfChile.org, Americans consumed nearly 1.9 million cases of Chilean wine in 2007, and that was just in NY, FL, and NJ alone!

My example of Chilean value red is Concha y Toro's Xplorador Merlot. You can regularly find this wine for well under $10. It's from the Central Valley (good area in Chile, not so great in CA), and I really dig the fact that it's got 10% Carménère (which seems to reach unique excellence in Chile), and is under 14% abv.

The wine is all plum and thyme spice. Is it complex? No. Is it good? Hell yes, for $8 it's damn good. Amazingly, Concha y Toro seems to be able to make consistently good and cheap wine year on year, which is something that SouthEastern Australia's equivalent mass-market wine, Yellowtail, has yet to master.

Tasty, fairly well-balanced, and ultra-inexpensive. Hard to argue with that.

BUT... Chile has a LOT more to offer than just value reds - more to come on that in an upcoming post.

Cheers!
(flickr.com/bridgepix, winesofchile.org, snooth.com)

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Prime Time: Another New Kid on the 'Napa Cab' Block

Remember our not-so-old friends, Volta? Seems there are a few other winemakers out there who do, too.

Take Ted Henry of the newly-minted wine producers Prime Cellars in Napa.

"I was in Volta's Winemaker Massimo's class at UC Davis," Ted told me. "We used to drink beers together in his Silver Oak days..."

As it turns out, Volta isn't the only tiny Napa winery that kicked off an innagural, premium Cabernet release in the 2005 vintage. The promising 2005 red wine harvest in Napa also saw the birth of Prime Cellars (who recently contacted me to send me a sample after reading Volta's first-ever review here at 1WineDude.com), founded by UC Davis alumni and marching band-mates Ted & Lisa Henry, and Curtis Mann (handling winemaking, marketing, and sales chores, respectively).

Unlike Volta, Prime is going for a less high-octane Cab. (their 2005 release clocks in at 13.6% abv, which is about a full percent lower than Volta's Cab)...

The back-label on their first release, dubbed "District 4" Cabernet, does the best job of summing up the story of their endeavor so far: "Hand picked... Small Lot... French Oak... Empty bank account."

Let's check out the wine...

2005 Prime Cellars "District 4" Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley)

Sourced from Grasso Vineyard in Napa's east hills (Coombsville), which is a relatively cool growing area that can still achieve ripeness for traditional Bordeaux varietals like Cab Sauv.

The vitals: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon (Clone 7 on 1103P rootstock), 3 day cold soak, 23 days on the skins, 22 months spent in New French, used French, and new Hungarian oak (1/3 in each).

My thoughts: Even though this wine is lower in alcohol (13.6%) than the typical bordering-on-port style of CA Cab popular today, the first thing that hits you about this wine is that it smells (and looks) powerful.

The nose is dominated by black plum, with a hint of dried black fruits and elegant spice (rather than hefty oak). After several minutes in the glass, pepper and dried herbs start to creep out, and once in a while you sniff some wet dirt (but in a good way).

Take a sip, and and the fruits get a little more red (cherries and currants), but still "feel" dried. The tannins are smooth but almost coffee-thick, and the coffee notees stick around on a finish that is almost half a minute long.

Like it's prime number namesake, Prime's District 4 achieves an excellent balance, with almost nothing in divisive proportion; its fruit, tannic & acidic structure, alcohol, and spice seem measured out in harmonious doses with almost recipe-like precision. While in balance, these elements haven't blended harmoniously together yet - it needs time, either by an hour or two in a decanter, or prefreably 4 years (in a bottle, of course).

This first Prime Cellars release is only 147 cases - so you'll probably want to visit their website if you want to get your hands on it; chances are it won't show up at your local wine shop yet.

Although I undermine my perception of ay sort of wine expertise when I say things like this, I need to tell you that I'm stumped as to wether or not the `05 District 4 will ever capitalize on its integration potential.

But I suppose I'd put more money on that than one me being able to hold out 4 years before drinking another bottle.

Cheers!
(images: 1WineDude.com, PrimeCellars.com)

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A Local Wine Menage-a-Trois Soiree via Twitter

This exciting edition (is there any other kind?) of Tales of the Purple Monkey has Plumboo (that's the monkey) and me taking on one wine, but in three slightly (but importantly) different ways.

Last week, I participated in several Twitter Taste Live events, one of them being co-hosted by BinEndsWine.com and DrVino.com titled "Drink Local!" in which we reviewed local (to the reviewers., that is) wines. My previous post on the event has more background detail (and a recap of the twitter conversations).

Because I'm a homer, and I'm lazy, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I reviewed Penns Woods' 2004 Ameritage Reserve (a Bordeaux style red blend), but with a twist - I presented the wine in three different "formats":

Poured directly from the bottle
Decanted 3+ hours before serving
"Decanted" directly from the bottle using a wine gadget called the Wine Soiree.

The Soiree looks like a glass Christmas tree ornament, or a sex toy for the very, very adventurous. Or an elegant alien spacecraft for extraterrestrial fleas...

Anyway, according to the Wine Soiree website and promotional materials, it is supposed to function somewhat like a decanter, using the principle of aeration. Wine contains many volatile chemicals that impart aroma, flavor, and also help to integrate a wine's components so that it tastes better. Exposing those volatile components to air starts the process. This is one reason why decanting hefty red wines for a time before drinking them helps to make the wine more accessible and softer.

I poured all of my "versions" of the Penns Woods Ameritage into identical ISO tasting glasses (because I'm a nerd and I do own those, thank you very much) and had a go at each in comparison.

The result? Check out the following excerpt from my twitter feed during the Twitter Taste Live event: