Attended this event last night. The Treasure group sent out invites via the various estates to its club members. I am a Beringer guy, have loved their Reserve cab for a long time. The 2014 Beringer PR was the WOTN in my opinion. Very approachable now, in contrast to the gigantic 2013 at a similar point in time, with fine tannins and and a black fruit profile. Also poured where the 2014s St. Helena Home Vineyard and Steinhauer (((Howell Mtn): terrific wines on there own but a bit below the PR. Interestingly, less structure in both vs the PR and both were incredibly smooth, balanced, black fruit driven wines. The Knights Valley Reserve was a good wine, not in the same league.
Onto Etude. The 2014 cabernet Rutherford, I think from Morisoli, was right up there with the Beringers. Totally different presentation with an earthiness (the dust maybe?), beautiful length. The St. Helena cab was a weaker version of what came from Beringer. The Coombsville cab, new in 2014, had a cooler taste profile, which I liked better than the St Helena, but behind the Morisoli. The Oakville was not served. A Benoist Ranch, I think it was, Pinot Noir was pretty great, easily the most interesting pinot at the event, with depth, length, spices- it was pretty big, holding up well amoungst all the cabernet.
I was not too thrilled with the rest. BV Tapestry was just a flat, boring wine. GDL was better, but imo not in the same ballpark as Beringer and Etude. Provenance / Hewitt showed some pretty expensive cabernet (Fortitude lists for over $200) that were…ok. Maybe the bar was set too high by the above wines? Stags Leap (the “other” Stags Leap, not who produces Cask 23), Sterling and Ch. St. Jean did not thrill me, although the Cinc Cepages was a nice enough wine. All in all, it was a fun event. I think they raffled off a Coravin and there were butler-service snacks.
Jim, I have always been a fan of the Beringer PR and have also enjoyed their less expensive wines as everyday drinkers. I have also had pretty good luck with the Tapestry and GDL. I had an '05 Tapestry back in November that was superb.
Don, yes, me too with the Knights Valleys and Napa bottlings, although I think the 2012-2014 KV were not close to my expectations considering the vintages. Also the BV Rutherford. At this event, I started at BV for the reds, so, it was not like they paled due to the last stop on the tasting. Was I overly critical? Maybe, as I had more negative than positive responses other than Beringer and Etude.