Last night I hosted my tasting group for a snapshot of the diversity of grapes in current California winemaking. There was no way to cover the field, and many wines I wanted to open had to be left out to keep the tasting to a reasonable number of wines. I did leave a number of the “classic” grapes in the tasting, as they provided a framework for the less familiar selections.
The tasting was blind for the six members of the group, while I knew the wines and the serving order. All bottles were opened about 2 hours prior to the tasting, checked to ensure they were sound (I poured out about 1 oz. of each) and left uncorked to get air. The tasting was accompanied by a cheese board with several selections from the excellent Jasper Hill Farms (the Harbison & Bayley Hazen Blue were the best cheeses of the night) and Cypress Grove’s outstanding Humboldt Fog.
Note: all wines were rated on a 20 point structured scale, as has been done since the group’s founding in 1974 (I joined in 1998).
We started with a white wine, the 2014 Idlewild Arneis Fox Hill Vineyard (Mendocino). Overall it was a pretty and refreshing drink, with lots of character on the nose. The mix of honey, beeswax, floral notes and (when it warmed up a bit) pear and apple fruit carried the wine, and there was a sort of rainwater character underneath all of that to set a lively foundation. My rating was 16.5/20 with the group coming in at 16/20 overall.
Moving on to the reds, the 2011 RPM Wines Gamay (El Dorado) was the only wine that did not show well. It started out spritzy (after 2 hours of air), and the fruit was quite tart. It got a little better on re-tasting at the end, but was one-note throughout. I have had three bottles of this wine, and each one showed pretty much the same way. I have also had other vintages, and they were more interesting. I will presume the issue is confined to the 2011, but Steve Edmunds makes Gamay from the same site, and his is a) better and b) $10 cheaper! My rating was 14.5/20 with the group coming in at 14/20 overall.
The 2013 Wind Gap Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast) was served in the same flight as the RPM, and it blew the Gamay out of the water in terms of balance, complexity and pure, beautiful Pinot Noir expression. While only light to medium bodied, the wine carried a great depth of flavor, with dusty cherry, warm herbs, flowers and an element of wood smoke from a faraway fire. It felt as if I was drinking the fall evening that we were experiencing outside. I kept going back to the glass just to smell the wine. There is something about Pinot Noir, that with the right touch it can express so much while remaining light and elegant. I found the wine to be very drinkable now, and relatively light on tannin, so I will likely explore it over the next several years, rather than putting down for any extended cellaring. My rating was 17.5/20 with the group coming in at 16/20 overall (one member of the group did not like the wine at all-too light for him- which skewed the average lower).
The second flight started with the 2013 Dirty & Rowdy Mourvèdre Antle Vineyard (Chalone), which clearly benefitted from the 2+ hours of air. When I had first opened it the wine was quite mute. When it was poured for the tasting the aromatics were much more pronounced, focusing on creamy red fruit, raspberry liqueur, spices and herbs. This was not much weightier than the Wind Gap Pinot, but possessed similar intensity/depth of flavor. On the palate it was wilder, with a gamey touch that did not appear on the nose. There were a bunch of wines in the tasting that I thought were basically equivalent in quality (all were 16.5-17.5 in the ratings), and it really jut depended on which expression/set of aromas/flavors worked for particular tasters. My rating was 16.5/20 with the group coming in at the same 16.5/20 overall.
Paired with the D&R was the 2012 Enfield Wine Co. Tempranillo Shake Ridge Ranch (Amador County). It showed more weight than the Mourvèdre, and a different aromatic range. Tobacco and lavender were part of the mix, along with red fruit and loamy earth. I picked up more tannin on the palate as well (finally…a wine with some tannin), which worked with the additional palate weight. I liked the overall balance on this wine, and there were numerous comments around the table about the aromatics. Someone even mentioned that they thought it was a Tempranillo! It was nice to get that endorsement of varietal typicity in the blind tasting. My rating was 17/20 with the group coming in at the same 17/20 overall.
Flight 3 tuned in a slightly different direction, as the wines started to show notably more weight. The fifth red served was the 2013 Idlewild Barbera Fox Hill Vineyard (Mendocino), and it showed a more black cherry fruit, with lots of herbal elements plus a hint of anise. Now I do not like black licorice, but the spice element was a real plus in the wine. Consistently medium bodied through the palate, this had a lingering aftertaste of cherry and rosemary. Delicious stuff that I did not want to spit (I could have said that about a lot of the wines – sign of a fun night). My rating was 17/20 with the group coming in at the same 17/20 overall. Turns out that I gave 4 wines in a row the exact same 17 score, but for different reasons!
In the flight with the Idlewild was the 2013 Sandlands Carignan (Mendocino), and it also showed more weight than the wines of the prior flights. The fruit here was even darker in profile than the Barbera, heading into the blacker of the red fruits (e.g. black raspberries). This was also the first wine to show pronounced tannin. Overall I thought this was a bit closed aromatically, but the depth of the palate presence made up for it in spades. This was the only bottle in my cellar, so I won’t have a chance to follow up in a few years, but I would expect a really bright future for this wine. My rating was 17/20 (again!) with the group coming in a little higher at 17.5/20 overall.
Continuing on the trend of increasing body, the final full flight started with the 2013 Bedrock Wine Co. Old Vine Zinfandel (California) This was a classic, balanced Zinfandel with all the brambleberry and dusty ground one could ask for, while remaining balanced and not at all over the top. There was even a hint of mint on the finish. Not much to say, but that I liked this as much as I like some of the Ridge wines, but it is a different expression, with less obvious wood. My rating was 17/20 (yet again!) with the group coming in a little lower at 16.5/20 overall.
The final dry wine of the night was the 2012 Matthiasson Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley), and it took the WOTN honors by a pretty wide margin. Not only was it a classic variety, but it was a classic wine. Old school Napa Cabernet still lives, and with black currant, spice and deep earth tones, this was everything I look for in young Cabernet. The wood was mild to non-existent, as the depth of the wine took center stage. Not much else to say except that this was just fantastic, which is pretty much what I have come to expect from Steve’s wines. My rating was 18.5/20 with the group coming in at the same 18.5/20 overall.
We finished up with something a little different, the 2010 Lagier Meredith Precious Bane (Mount Veeder), a Port-style wine made from Syrah. I had enjoyed it in the past, and did so again last night. The dark berry fruit and spice notes were fantastic, and there was no element of heat. By the time we got to it, the wine had been open for about 4 hours, so I bet the air was kind to it. There were lots of fans around the table, but one taster did not like it at all, so that dragged down the average a bit. Of course it would have been WOTN if one taster’s score of 24 out of 20 (!!) had been allowed, but we restricted him to the max of 20. This was a really delicious wine, that reminded me of some of the best Ridge Essence wines that I have had in the past, with a nod to Port.
It was a fun evening. Hope you enjoy the notes as much as we enjoyed the wines.
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