Luscious Lushes » Bordeaux Blends

Baby done a bad bad thing…

winebratsf — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:51:51 +0000

Where is my John Wayne

Where is my prairie son

Where is my happy ending

Where have all the cowboys gone

Apparently, they are in Napa! there is just something about a cowboy. In this case, it’s the Bad Boy on the 2007 Bad Boy Red, by Rcca Family Vineyards in Napa. This little baby is 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Cabernet Franc, 17% Merlot, and 10% Petite Verdot, but the only thing that is Bordeaux about this is the blend itself. This is a big, bold, California Cab, with blackberry and plum notes up front. There is a lot of baking spice in the nose, and the palate has juicy blue & black fruit. I also found leather, tobacco, notes of cinnamon, vanilla, and dense chewy blackberries followed by cherries.

The Bad Boy Red forms its base from the Cabernet Sauvignon grown at the Collineetta Vineyard stie in Coombsville, which departs from a classic Napa cab and makes it a great choice for a BBQ or a big steak.his wine is a from the Rocca vineyards in Yountville and Coombsville, and area that is well known for producing some of Napa’s best Cabernet. The Coombsville climate is unique in Napa, since the fog from San Pablo bay breezes in and cools down the fruit. The further east you go, the warmer you will get, which has a big impact on the terroir of the area.

This Bad Boy was sent to me by Rocca Vineyards. i’m sorry to say he is married, and a doctor, and he was not in the bottle. the juice was good though!

Are you ready for some meatballs?

winebratsf — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:51:36 +0000

Those of us who great up in the 80s will appreciate Morty’s summer camp trip on the lake at the end of the summer, Wudy da Wabbit’s run through the woods, and Tripper & Roxanne’s canoeing as they sang Let’s Walla Walla down by the mango tree.

This summer, I will be doing a lot of Walla-ing, and this is just a sneak peak at one of the wineries. L’ecole No. 41. resides in a 1915 schoolhouse, just outside of Walla Walla. The first wine I am sampling from them is the 2006 Perigree, a Bordeaux blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc. The name has an interesting history as Perigee is the point at which the moon is closet to the earth. the winery uses this name to express their wish to be close tot he earth, and to reflect the earthy character of the wine.

When I first opened the wine, I got a lot of dark blue and black fruit, including black cherry, blackberry and fig. Then the power went out. Suffice it to say, I couldn’t continue my tasting notes, and I did continue drinking. This was a very pleasant wine, with lots of fruit adn medium body. I rather enjoyed it but I’m not sure about the $49 price tag. I look forward to getting to know more of their wines, as they sent me a large selection of current releases.

While my summer camp beared no resembleance to camp North Star, we did sing. Just not in canoes. And I was a CIT for one summer, but they CERTAINLY had more fun than I; thank you to L’ecole no. 41 for the tasty treat i enjoyed while plunged in to darkness. No thanks to PG&E for the darkness.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai and other tales of blending

winebratsf — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:14:05 +0000

First – apologies for this post being late on arrival. As some of you may know, I have been dealing with some personal issues that have been hammering me in to the ground like Wile E. Coyote under an Acme Anvil. I’m trying to come up for air, so here goes. Please excuse the lack of video, since I still don’t entirely know how to work my Flip. I will learn someday, but not today. And the lack of pictures is mystifying since I swear I took some of at least the bottles, but they are lost. C’est la vie, tech fail!

One recent Sunday, before the madness of Christmas, and after the food orgy of Thanksgiving, a crew of bloggers descended upon the good graces of Paul Askiman and Conn Creek Winery’s AVA Room to create our own personalized blends of wine.

The Conn Cree AVA Room is a one of a kind wine adventure, where mad scientists wine lovers, and it this case, some bloggers, can learn how Conn Creek blends its flagship wine Anthology.

The AVA Room was developed in Conn Creek’s search to find the best Cabernet Sauvignon that Napa had to offer, and in doing so, they found fruit sources from almost all of the 14 sub appellations in Napa. In this secret room at the back of winery, next to the gardens, you will find 15 different barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon and a barrel each of the classic Bordeaux blending grapes Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petite Verdot.

The Cabernet barrels are grouped by major profile, like Soft, Supple, Complex, Rich and Bold. One of the fascinating things about this experience is that as a wine ages in barrel, it may not stay in its category, as it becomes more complex or develops some backbone and loses some of the plush fruit upfront. This is what makes wine such a tremendous beast. Each Cab barrel starts out as 100% new French Oak, and eventually matures in 50% new / 50% neutral Oak, which also contributes tot he changes in the wine profile.

I apologize in advance for not remembering all of the different component wines – I just lost my mojo and can’t find my booklet. If i do, I’ll be sure to share!

The base wine contenders that I particularly enjoyed were:

Atlas Peak – Stagecoach Vineyard
Rutherford – Conn Creek Vneyard
Stags Leap – Clos du Val Vineyard

After sampling the different options for the base wine (the Cabernet) I got to work creating my master blend.

First, I tried 50% Atlas Peak – Stagecoach, 15% Rutherford Conn Creek, 25% Stags Leap Clos Du Val, and a splash of Petite Verdot and Cab Franc. While I liked this wine, it was the first one i tried and I found it a big of a fruit bomb with blackberry pie, subtle spice, and firm tannins. I thought I wanted a bit more structure, so I moved on to Blend 2 while keeping careful track of this beginning.

The 2nd try was

45% Atlas Peak
15% Conn Creek
20% Stags Leap
20% Cab Franc.

This was totally different than Blend 1, and it was too earthy and I wasn’t sure if I liked it. Back to the drawing board.

Blend 3 was another experiment.

50% Rutherford Hozhone
15% Conn creek
20% stags leap
15% cab franc. Given that this was a totlaly differnet base wine, it wasn’t waht i was looking for.

My final blend wa a variation on Blend 2, which after much tasting and talking, was widely agreed upon (mostly by Marcy Gordon) to be the best. Yep THE best. Therefore, I ended my Dr. Bunson Burner experiments with:

45% Atlas Peak
15% Conn Creek
20% Stags Leap
5% Petitie Verdot
15% Cabernet Franc

As I put the finishing touches on my blend, we snacked on Sift Cupcakery baked goods, and the little ginger man called out my name. Thus, was born, the 2009 GingerMan Bordeaux Blend that I hope to enjoy at the Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla in June. I really enjoyed making this wine, but I know with a little time to settle together and meld the flavors, it will become even better. I look forward to writing about that tasting in the coming months.

The moral of this story is – for $95 you get 2 hours of hysterical fun and a LOT of wine, education on the different sub-AVAs of Napa Valley, a priceless learning experience of how the Pros do it, and…your very own bottle of wine to take home. This is a MUST do if you are a wine geek, and you find yourself in Napa. Considering that many Napa Cabs cost $95 just for the wine, this is a tremendous value and I reccomend it to any one who wnats a unique experience in Wine Country. In Fact, I gave my mother a “custom blending session” gift at christmas, and my dear old brother was asking where his was. I told him I’d consider it for his birthday if he was a good boy.

There are several places that do custom blending sessions for consumers, including Judd’s Hill (3 bottles), Bennet Lane, Fontanella (case only), and Ravenswood (half bottle). There are probably more, but I haven’t heard of them – yet. You can also avail yourself of Crushpad’s FuseBox, where you can blend your own samples at home and then send away for a case of custom labeled wine. I really think that for the value and the experience, Conn Creek gets a gold medal!

Conn Creek can be found on the Silverado Trail at Conn Dam Road in Napa. They graciously hosted us in the AVA room and were lovely! Thanks again for your hospitality Paul!

Today’s wine is brought to you by…

winebratsf — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:47:33 +0000

The Letter A!

You remember those closing credits on Seasame Street right? “Seasame Street is brought to you by the letter…”? Well my friend Amy @educatedpalates, told me about the Alphabet Challenge that she was participating in with some other bloggers. The Alphabet challenge pushes us to try wines frmo every letter of the alphabet. you could go crazy and do it all by varietal, A to Z, but I’m not sure I know of any Z grapes I’d want to try, and i’m certerain that I do NOT want to try white Zinfandel.

Most of the others who are participating are doing it out of order, but I thought it would be more of a challenge, as well as a push to get some more Century Club grapes under my belt, if I did it starting with A. I could start with Albarino, because I have some in the cellar, but given the chill in the air and the misty fog, I’m not much in the mood for a chilled white. So i will start with A is for Audelssa.

So I am going to try to Producers and Varietals, starting to with the letter A.

A is for Audelssa, that makes my mouth sing.

A is for awesome, cuz that’s just the thing.

A is for audacious for that is what i found

A is for Audelssa, who makes Glen Ellen Proud.

On my recent visit to Audelssa, I tasted through thier current releases with Amy aka @educatedpalates. I had never been there and I was excited to try out the juice. Audelssa focuses on artisinal wines in the Bordeaux tradition, and is also releasing Rhone blends this spring. I must say, I particularly enjoyed their Bordeaux blends Summit and Summit Reserve, and am looking forward to the Rhone.

The 2007 Summit is a Right Bank style belnd of 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 12.5% Cabernet Franc, 10% Malbec, and 4.5% Petite Verdot. I found it earthy, rich and chewy with a flavor of underripe blackberries and a floral aroma. At $52, while it was interesting, I’d like to wait to see how ti develops in the next couple of years. HOLD

My favorite of the tasting of 5 wines was the 2007 Summit Reserve, which is 75% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc. Only 100 cases were produced, and it was a deliciously rich blend with plum & blackberry flavors followed by cloves and spice. The lush wine was complex, with really nice blue & black fruit but a nice backbone and finish. It’s a bit pricey at $125, but I’d say it’s worth the splurge for a special occasion. If you have deep pockets, BUY this wine.

Stay tuned for B-Z and thanks to all our group participants!

http://www.audelssa.com/index.cfm?method=storeproducts.showDrilldown&productid=c26088dc-9b2a-40f9-f9df-2c69544f86d5&ProductCategoryID=a2b9e5f5-1cc4-fbb6-2394-45532d37d707&WineryID=A2B9E578-1CC4-FBB6-231B-B057770814E4&WineTypeID=&ProductType=&wineVarietalID=&wineRegionID=&vintage=&lowprice=&highPrice=&WineBrandID=&WineAppellationID=&lowletter=&highletter=&OrderBy=PXPC.DisplayOrder%20Asc,%20P.ProductName%20ASC&ShippingState=CA

It's Super! It's Saintly! It's LIVE!

winebratsf — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:09:30 +0000

I am really excited to be co-hosting St Supéry for Taste Live on July 11th. Since St Supéry has been producing outstanding wines from their 1500+ acres in Napa Valley since the early 1980′s, and since I have written about them several times before here and here, I am really looking forward to this opportunity to taste them along with you on Twitter with several groups around the country, and hundreds on line.

At St Supéry, their wine making history stems from the Skalli family’s French roots, and Bordeaux varietals are the particular focus. Additionally, St Supéry is well known for their Moscato and Chardonnay.

We will have the opportunity to taste through the following delights and talk live the returning star winemaker, Michael Scholz. Scholz is a 6th generation family winemaker from Australia’s Barossa Valley, and has created the distinctive sty le that has made St. Supéry a landmark destination in Napa Valley. He is new to Twitter, and will be answering questions about the wines for us as we taste.

St. Supéry farms according to sustainable viticultural practices, including use of c over crops, estate composting, and natural predators. On my recent adventure at the winery, Vineyard Manager Josh Anstey showed us how they do this, and walked us through their demonstration vineyard as well as thier practices.

In 2008, Wine & Spirits Magazine named St. Supéry “Outstanding Winery of the Year”, and it really shows! Their signature property, The Dollarhide vineyard, is an historic cattle and horse ranch nestled among the hills of Napa Valley. It was here that Robert Skalli, the wineries founder, planted the Bordeaux grapes in the early 1980s, and developed the Rutherford estate property as the home of the winery and their first class Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards.

These are just a few of many reasons why you should join us for our tasting on July 11th! We will be experiencing four superstar star wines:

If you are here in the San Francisco Bay Area, head on down to the Jug Shop on Polk & Pacific, where you can taste live some of the winery crew. For full details, you can visit their events page here.

If you want to host your own Taste Live with St Supéry, you can find out how by going over to the website now!

See you in the Twittersphere at 6pm PT on July 11th!

____________________________

To learn more about Twitter Taste Live, click the logo!