One of my recent favorite wines is Novy Family. I was introduced to Novy while wine tasting at Suduri. Suduri is the Pinot Label and Novy is everything else. Here’s what Robert Parker had to say about them:

NOVY FAMILY WINERY            

2006 SYRAH                                          SANTA LUCIA HIGHLANDS      90

2006 SYRAH GARYS’ VINEYARD           SANTA LUCIA HIGHLANDS      94

2006 SYRAH ROSELLA’S VINEYARD     SANTA LUCIA HIGHLANDS      92

“These are three of the finest wines that the Siduri team (Novy is their Rhone Ranger operation) has yet produced.  Even the generic 2006 Syrah Santa Lucia Highlands is a full-bodied beauty offering up notions of tapenade, crème de cassis, black cherries, forest floor, and damp earth.  This dense, supple-textured effort is a glorious, fruit-driven Syrah with plenty of personality.  Enjoy it over the next 3-4 years.  Ratcheting up the level of complexity, density, and richness is the 2006 Syrah Rosella’s Vineyard.  A beautiful bouquet of spring flowers, blackberries, cassis, and lead pencil shavings is followed by a deep, pure, forward, opulent Syrah that should drink well for 5-6 years.  The finest of this trio is the sensational 2006 Syrah Garys’ Vineyard.  It boasts an inky/ruby/purple color in addition to a sumptuous perfume of blackberry liqueur, charcoal, incense, and spring flowers.  With fabulous fruit purity, a full-bodied, voluptuous texture, and a long, heady, 40+ second finish, this is a compelling Syrah to drink over the next 7-8 years.”

I'm not a big Parker fan/follower but it's nice to see this talented wine-making team get recognized. We recently drank the vineyard specific wines and agree; Garys' trumps the Rosella's.

Posted by Kevin McDonald at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

2004 Zio Tony Ranch Pinot Noir

My wife and I are just finishing a bottle of this wine now.  These guys say it best,

Only think missing was a rack of lamb to eat with it. 

I'm looking forward to the 2006 vintage as Parker gave it a 94. It's not that I follow Parker's suggestions but on this wine he nailed it.

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Frank Family 2002 Rutherford Cab Reserve & Anglim 2005 Santa Rita Hills, Fiddlestix Vineyard Pinot

Yesterday my friend Jeff came over for dinner and brought a Frank Family Cabernet. It was amazing.  The dark purple bubbles reminded us of a petit syrah. The dark fruit, satin like finish at 6 years old this is drinking perfectly. Any sign of tannins were perfectly balanced with the fruit. Drinking this wine was a real treat.

An other cork pulled this week was from a bottle of Anglim Pinot. I grabbed this at Roberts Market in Woodside for 41$ which I only note because that's a dollar cheaper than buying it from the winemaker. This wine was simply delicious. We eat a roast chicken with it that really complimented this earthy, cherry bottle of liquid art. 

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Great Fruit, Great Wine

On a recent trip through Sonoma we stopped at Siduri for a tasting and while we really like their pinots we discovered something even tastier - ROAR Wine. The Siduri facilities are also used to create these amazing wines. I've been hunting down wines that come from Santa Lucia Highlands Garys' and Rosella Vineyards for sometime now and was glad to see that one of the Gary's and his wife Rosella are now producing a wine under their own label. The pinots are magnificent if you are into big pinots. That is not to say that they aren't complex nor I am saying they won't work with food. They do.  The ROAR Rosella's Vineyard Syrah my wife and I had with dinner last night - excellent but if made to choose just one wine the ROAR Garys' Vineyard 05 pinot gets my vote.

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Muga Rioja 2001

Yum! 

PS - I have recently decided to put some time into getting my cellar online. www.cellartracker.com is the site I'm using. The plan is to gradually add bottles to my cellar. I'm not certain if I will review wines on that site but considering how lazy this review is what is adding my thoughts to one more site?

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2004 Ramey Cabernet from Jericho Canyon

Get cab. Check out my review.

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Great at 21 years old may be better when it's 30...

This past weekend we were treated to two spectacular wines. The first and most noteworthy was the 1985 Heitz Martha's Vineyard Cabernet. The second was the 1982 Chateau Margaux which for all the positive press it has received over the years was not the talk of the evening.

The Heitz was surprisingly powerful for a 21 year old Napa Cabernet. California Cab at its finest. There was enough tannin and certainly enough fruit to age a decade longer. There was an interesting fresh smell which at first reminded me of 'green'. It wasn't grass it was more like green mint or something similar...  

Spectacular

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Turley Fatigue

Turley Zins have been a longtime favorite of mine. When we moved to the bay area about 10 years ago we fell in love with the Turley Hayne Vineyard wine and would drive miles to drink it at restaurants we heard were carrying it.  Since then we have become consistent buyers off the mailing list and have seen our allocation grow from 3 bottles to 3 cases. Everytime the order form arrives in the mail I pledge to buy it all and sell some to my friends and everytime the wine arrives I keep it and drink it with my friends.  It is always a crowd pleaser.  This year I collected cash upfront from two fellow wine-os and sadly delivered the wine to one of them yesterday. My sadness was short lived.

Last night my wife and I pulled the 2004 Dogtown. Dogtown is a vineyard in Lodi. The appellation has some unique characteristics. (Generally speaking) Zins from there are not too hard to blindly identify (jammy ripe fruit, vanilla, earth, and of course black pepper flavors). While I am sure there are exceptions it seams to me that Lodi fruit is turned more often than not turned into ultra high alcohol wines.  The 04 Dogtown is an exception chiming in at 15.8%!  It was delicious but probably not the best wine to accompany dinner (I stuck to cheese and crackers while drinking it).  My days of drinking wine without food are few and far between and the appeal of Turley is waning.

It has become increasingly difficult for me to remember and distinguish one Turley vs. another Turley. Unless I am drinking them side-by-side they all taste pretty much the same- as described above.  Hayne Vineyard excluded- I'll remember that bottle of 91 the rest of my life.  With Turley's expansion I had expected a greater range in the wines. Maybe my palette is fatiguing..... but with some many great wines out there I’ll continue to offer a portion of my allocation to fellow advocates.

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Garys' Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands 2004 Pinots Rock!

I had been under the impression that Salinas Valley was where most of the cheap table wine grapes were sourced. The famed vineyard owned by Gary Franscioni and Gary Pisoni in the Santa Lucia Highlands has been at the center of my pinot tasting these past few days. The SLH sub-appellation is challenging Santa Rita Hills for top pick for can't miss (i.e. pick any producer) 04 Pinot Noir.

Last night we pulled out the Morgan 04 Pinot from Garys' vineyard. It was delicious. The color was a bit lighter than I had expected but the taste (spicy cherry and maybe a hint of thyme- fruit is easier for me to identify than herb) was amazing. I should note that the two people I was drinking with had mad a comment about an off order immediately after pulling the cork and pouring.  With a bit of air in the glass they couldn't locate any issues. I didn't experience anything negative in this bottle.

Ok, I am awaiting a comment about me being the source of the off order.  This time, it wasn't me. 

This past weekend we pulled a Miner Garys' Vineyard 2004 Pinot too. It was deep ruby in color and very similar in taste to the Morgan the main difference being this wine was more full-bodied.

Both delicious and both about 50$

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Melville: 2003 Estate Syrah, Donna's small lots

Pulled this 2003 estate syrah and was disappointed. At 15.9% alcohol it is over the top and tasted like blackberry cough syrup with a hit of cracked black pepper. I kept waiting for this to get better as the air hit it but it didn't.

Note to self: Save the 36$ or invest it on a SRH 04 Pinot Noir.

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Three Solid Pintos from SRH

This week we pulled three different wines all from Santa Rita Hills all 2004 and all memorable.

Ken Brown

Sanford

Siduri

All three wines where not vineyard specific designations but SRH AVA.  The quick and dirty ranking was Ken Brown #1, Siduri #2, and Sanford #3. The Sanford and Siduri both started off strong in the mouth then faded a bit more than we had expected leaving me thinking them less balanced than the Ken Brown.

All the wines were in the range of 30-40$ and as I recall the Ken Brown was the most expensive of the lot but well worth the few dollars difference. 

SRH is said to be unique as its Mt. range runs west-east starting at the Pacific Ocean (near Santa Barbara) allowing the fog to roll-in, making it an ideal climate for Pinot.  I'll be seeking more SRH 04 Pinots and tracking down some Syrah too.  All solid.  I looking foward to drinking them again in about  5 years.

Posted by Kevin McDonald at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A new addition to the wine bar scene in the bay area is Vino Locale in downtown Palo Alto. The concept is sound, serve local wine and local food to locals. The execution of concept left us unsatisfied.

Thursday evenings we have a baby sitter and head out for a quiet evening doing two of our favorite things: eating food and drinking wine. The week prior we went to Vino Locale only to read a sign on the door as we entered stating that there was a private party later that evening and they were closed. So, we went to Coppola's around the corner. The next week we phoned first. "Are you open to the public this evening? The last week you were closed due to a private party." "Yes, we are open this evening. Come on in." Awesome. There is nothing like not being allowed into a place that makes you want to get into that place even more. This time we were going to get in. It was a warm evening but in the shade there was a light breeze and the patio out back should be rather enjoyable. So we thought.

We were greeted at the bar and welcomed but as I started to make my way to the back patio we were told it was closed due to a private party. I was turning red as I asked why we weren't told this 20 mins ago when we telephoned.....The fact was we were not going to be sitting outside and there was little arguing would do to change that. We sat down at a small table near the wine bar inside.

My wife ordered a tasting of local pinot noirs while I went through our dinner options. Five generous tastings arrived at our table. The table was made of iron with the top having a decorative weave. A very nice table to look at but not level enough to put 5 wine glasses on without constant fear of one or more falling over. I tasted the first wine and was stunned. It was HOT. I tasted the second wine it too was HOT and so on through all FIVE wines were HOT. So I ask the waitress if we were to order a bottle with our meal would it be the same temperature as the tasting or was it just the open bottles on the bar that were so hot. She indicated that all the bottle are stored in the same place and that due to today's heat the bottle would be the same temperature as the room we were sitting in. This is unforgivable for a wine bar. I truly hope that they cycle through their wines at a pretty good clip and don't ruin them with improper storage.

We order a bottle of 03 Cinnabar Santa Cruz Mt. Pinot Noir and a bucket of ice to chill the bottle. (Nice but not great - black cherry w/ chocolate traces soft tannins). The waitress uncorks the bottle pours me a sip to confirm the bottle is not corked and then puts the cork back into the bottle. Let's just say, that is not what I would have done to a customer with an emply glass and a young bottle of wine.

A while later a waiter approaches our table (not our original waitress) and asks if we would like anything else; he takes our food order. Thirty minutes later our original waitress approaches us with the check in hand asking if she may get us anything else..... "Ahhh yes, our food." 

Now for the good news-- The prices are reasonable and the food is really good. Skip the chocolate truffles but don't miss the sausages! I'd love to say avoid this place but they have a lot good things going:  location, food, outdoor seating (when available), reasonable prices. They need to get their service act together and nail the fundamentals  of serving wine.

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Chateau Haut-Bailly 94 Pessac-Leognan: Drink Now

There isn't much time left before this wine starts to decay. Haut-Bailly is one of my favorite under-rated Chateaus in Pessac-Léognan (Bordeaux).  It is said that this producer was once a great name in the region some hindered years ago; who really cares about that as you can't drink any of that wine today.  It is only since 97 that they have really started to recapture their place in the Grand Cru Classe De Graves.  I started my vertical collection with 94 and will drink out that vintage this summer as I can't imagine this gets any better.  I can't wait to pull a 97.....in good time.

Posted by Kevin McDonald at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Storybook Mt. Vineyards - Save your money

This evening we uncorked a 2003 SMV Napa Valley (Mayacmas Range) Zin. In a word, it was effervescent. Not what I want in a 14.9% alcohol Zin.  This was not the first time SMV has dissapointed me but it will be the last.

Posted by Kevin McDonald at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martinelli

Pulled out an '02 Martinelli Russian River Pinot last night to have before dinner. Martinelli never ever disappoints. Hellen Turley groupies will reconginze Martinelli for being true to her style (concentrated, complex, and BIG). This wine was (or should I say is- I still have a few bottles *smiles) Awesome! While the Martinelli name will always bring me first to remember the mind blowing Jackass ZIns (think Turley Hayne Vineyard) their Pinots have for years now anchored my california pinot collection.

Posted by Kevin McDonald at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)