Unfortunately, I got so lost in the convo with Shae on our first visit and the tasting that I didn’t take formal notes. I brought my iPad with every intention of doing so … oops. Honestly, though, it made me realize I didn’t want to break out my iPad and take formal notes during visits … this was our first vacation away from the kids (so since late 2018), and I just wanted to slow down, relax and enjoy some great wine and making new friends.
So all that to say … this is all from memory. In some cases 4 days and ~40 glasses of wine later. Other than tasting notes that stick out kind of singularly to me, it’s easier to remember wines and visits as a comparison of what I actually tasted than as some kind of blind tasting tasting note.
Day 1: St. Helena
Kinsman Eades: Shae is everything everyone says she is: a warm host and a passionate wine ambassador. The set up at Wheeler Farms is the perfect balance of laid back and luxurious and we enjoyed about 2 hours of tasting together outside in the wonderful, sunny Napa morning weather. She was kind enough to bring not only the Kinsman wines but also Nigel’s new Bella Oaks wine. Spoiler alert: all are fantastic. (Preview from later in the day: “Nigel is a killer; I don’t even need to taste his wines to know to send people his way” -Brad Grimes @ Abreu). All 4 wines were very different but a common thread throughout.
2018 Bella Oaks: Don’t hesitate - just do it. If you’re not on the mailing list join now. This wine is every bit the quality of Kinsmans’ own wines. Rutherford red fruits, focused intensity and nice floral element. Maybe the “prettiest” of all 4 wines.
2018 La Voluse: For me, this may end up my favorite of all 4 wines when they’re all ready to drink in 10 years … not a huge surprise as Eisele is my favorite Napa vineyard. The most savory of all the wines for sure and IMO probably the best food wine.
2018 Rhad: The most immediately sexy and showy of all 4 wines … not what you’d expect for the only real “mountain” wine, but as Shae explained to me, the Reverie vineyard actually sits within a valley on Diamond mountain and has a western exposure, so it gets full afternoon sun. Silky tannins, bright fruit, great acidity … already a complete wine, but clearly much more to go in the tank.
2018 Anjea: Tightly wound and a much darker, more brooding wine than anything else. Hardest to analyze behind that wall, but darker fruited, more gravely tasting.
Di Costanzo: Met up with my wife and we met Erin for lunch at Charter Oak. She brought some 2018 Farella and 2019 Di Co to enjoy with lunch. DiCo wine and a Charter Oak cheeseburger is a match made in heaven. Erin is also a fantastic host and a great lunch date.
2019 Di Co: Back up the truck if you’re looking for a Tuesday OR Friday night cab for the next 10-15 years. Just a beautifully polished, refined and complete wine that’s really ready to drink right now and really punches above the price point.
2018 Farella: Cooler site and year show through. A more serious wine than the Di Co - as intended - and more of a savory character. Darker fruited, more pyrazine, and more complex than little bro.
Abreu: I stole some of my own thunder on the thread about Abreu tastings, but this was definitely the most unique visit of the weekend. Abreu’s facility is Brad’s own little cave kingdom built into a hillside on the back of the Cliff Lede property. He has about 8 crates of LPs (all OWCs, naturally) and a turntable and a little tasting set up around a utilitarian bar sink and that’s it. There’s no set program for tastings matching the overall vibe of Brad just flat out marching to the beat of his own drum.
He grabbed me a glass and said let’s try some of this SB.
2021 Sauvignon Blanc: Las Posadas Sauvignon Blanc … Brad said they have no idea what they’re doing with it yet. It’s really, really good, though. Andrew - somm at French Laundry - agreed and said he was ready to put it on their list if Abreu labels and sells it. Not trying to be Sancerre, and it’s not, but wonderfully balanced and very fresh. I remember thinking that it was very interesting and many layers of flavors (I previously just wrote “depth,” but I think this is more accurate and descriptive).
After tasting the SB, Brad just kinda said “Well … what else can I pour you — something old or something new?” I said dealer’s choice but older if possible, and he settled on a 2008 Thorevilos.
2008 Abreu Thorevilos: Of course the site is known for making powerful, dark, wines, and this was no exception. 2008 is supposed to be an off year, but this was among the best wines I tasted this weekend — absolutely does not hold here. Pure black fruits, gravely, and still built for several more decades.
Talking with Brad is a treat. He was not at all unwilling to share his opinion about winemakers he thinks are excelling and winemakers and estates he thinks aren’t. I won’t tell any tales out of school, but I highly recommend a visit if you buy the wines and are eligible to schedule.
Day 2: Calistoga
Perliss: Erin Di Costanzo offered to put me in touch with other smaller producers making great wines and I’m so glad she connected me with Anthony Perliss in Calistoga. Not only are his wines fantastic, but he’s such a nice guy and I love just walking the vineyard with the proprietor, tasting some wine, and really getting connected with a place and story. We enjoyed a glass of 2019 “Serpents” Sémillon in his kitchen and as we started to walk the property and he showed me around — including the still lingering damage from the 2017 fires.
2019 Perliss Serpents: The only wine they produce not made from estate fruit. Sourced from mature Sémillon vines just across the county line in Sonoma. It opens more fleshy and round with melon, honey and white flowers and finishes more mineral-ly and fresh grapefruit type citrus flavors.
We moved on to the reds and started with a 2014 Raven, then tried the current releases of 2018 The Ravens and The Pearl of the Ravens. The Ravens is aged in 80% oak and 20% terra cotta whereas the Pearl is the inverse — 80% terra cotta and 20% oak. Alcohol is high 13’s to low 14’s across the board and Aaron Pott has done a great job with this site where he’s been the winemaker since their first vintage in 2011. One cool aspect of small producers is the ability to buy library wines … so I was able to get 2 bottles of the Ravens wine from each year back to ‘11 to kickstart my vertical … which I plan to supplement from now on. I asked Anthony specifically about launching a brand in the “troubled” 2011 vintage (a knock I don’t believe in btw) and he was quick to point out that 1) one of the critics (I don’t remember who) actually called his debut release one of the “wines of the vintage,” so that helped and 2) Aaron Pott’s experience in Bordeaux where rain before harvest is much more common and whereas others may have panicked and picked too soon, Aaron had the confidence to hang tight and it worked out for them in his view.
2014 Perliss The Ravens: Anthony showed me this wine because it was the first year with this specific elevage (80/20) and their first time using the terra cotta. Right away, I can see why Erin recommended it, and one of the things that really struck me right away was not only the balance of the wine, but how savory and restrained it is. This is REAL food wine, and the herbal character on this wine actually had me excited to get some wine in hand and fire up my smoker — at a 1030am tasting.
2018 Perliss The Ravens: Similar notes to above, slightly dialed back a bit with the cooler year (13.9%!) and with some of those savory elements also skewing a bit cooler — maybe more menthol instead of sage/rosemary. Again, just a great food wine, and I’m excited to sock it away for another half decade.
2018 Perliss The Pearl of The Ravens: Really like how they’re experimenting with terra cotta (side note: Anthony told me they experimented with a teeny tiny amount of wine this year and and old Roman technique he learned about where they blend the wine with 1% sea water — they actually used 0.67% instead of 1% … interested to try it). This might actually be an interesting example for the thread asking about unoaked - in this case lightly oaked - Napa Cabernet. The fruit is not at all austere without oak, and the clay vessels are evidently more porous than the oak, so it’s softer, brighter, and probably just a touch easier to drink right now. Really overall, just a very interesting tasting, and actually a great wine, too — not just a science project.
Overall, I really enjoyed the visit with Anthony and loved his passion for his site and his wines … and also his willingness to experiment and be open to not following the “formula” for luxury wine.
Rivers Marie: Admittedly, this is going to be one of the hardest visits to recall from memory simply because it’s the visit where I tasted the most wine—not because the wines are in any way not memorable. I met Frank in the beautiful new tasting room at Rivers Marie and he had a full spread ready to go.
I won’t do individual tasting notes on wines I can’t reasonably speak to individully. But I tasted:
-‘16 Thieriot Chardonnay
-‘18 Summa Pinot
-‘18 Aston Pinot
-‘19 Calistoga Cab
-‘18 Herb Lamb Cab
-‘19 Herb Lamb Cab
Honestly the Chardonnay and Aston Pinots are not for me. I don’t drink much California Chardonnay, but despite being presented as a cleaner style, I just can’t get there. The Aston Pinot is unapologetically “a cab lovers Pinot” per Frank, so can’t fault them there at all — just not what I’m looking for in a Pinot.
The Rivers Marie Summa Pinot - OTOH - is exactly what I’m looking for in a New World Pinot. It’s not Burgundy, and it’s not trying to be, but the wine is balanced, elegant and yes, fruity. But there’s a nice acidic backbone that doesn’t make it feel like a Russian River Jolly Rancher.
The Herb Lamb cabs were interesting to taste side by side as the vintages really spoke in this kind of A/B tasting. I absolutely adore the savory character of the Herb Lamb vineyard. Again, the 18 showed more of a “cooler” side to that greenness - menthol whereas the 19 was a bit sleeker and probably a bit lighter on its feet.
Eisele: We met Sonia at Eisele for a wonderful private tasting and tour. We started out inside the house enjoying a 2018 Sauvignon Blanc (not part of the “official” tasting) which is my wife’s favorite Napa SB. I wish I could remember why, but while the 18 is very tropical, Sonia told us there was a change starting with 19 and it’s more mineral and a little bit less fleshy.
We toured the vineyards, learned about the different blocks (they source the grand vin from 100% Cabernet vineyards on either side of the creek running through the property) from the 4 best blocks. The Altagracia is still 100% estate fruit coming from the other side of the property, and it’s a Bordeaux blend.
We saw the barrel room, the library cellar, and Sonia even let slip a little tidbit that for collectors with a strong buying history, they can often fulfill special requests for library vintages for special occasions, birth years, to complete a vertical, etc. She’s going to regret telling me that.
For the actual tasting, we sat inside the hospitality residence and drank 4 wines. Sonia is an incredibly warm host and has spend now 2 decades in hospitality with the Latour group — first at Latour and now Eisele.
2016 Eisele Syrah: A generous and balanced wine that shows plenty of fruitiness and savoriness with nice acid.
2018 Eisele Altagracia: I … don’t remember. Sorry … sue me (actually pls don’t).
2017 Eisele Cabernet: More open and round than the 18, less complex and both a little bit shorter and less depth, but still gorgeous and delicious wine. If you had to pick between the 17 and 18 to pop and pour right now, the 17 shows better out of the gate.
2018 Eisele Cabernet: Perhaps the wine of the trip. I … am just honestly blown away by this effort. Not overdone at all - beautiful blackberry, plum, chocolate, tobacco, gravel and savory herbs - but what really impressed me was the mouthfeel and how it just persists on your palate without ever feeling weighty. It just spreads out, asserts itself and lingers forever. Went deep on this order. I found myself just trying to prolong the conversation with Sonia to make sure I got to stay and enjoy this wine evolving 
.
Day 3 Oakville/Rutherford:
Woke up after 3.5 hours at The French Laundry and a couple bottles of French Wine (19 Herni Boillot Mersault and 01 LMHB) reinvigorated to taste some Napa wines and cap off an amazing trip.
Vine Hill Ranch: I met Bruce from VHR Saturday morning for a fantastic visit. Bruce is such a nice guy with a long Napa family story that I would put it on my must-visit list. Learning about the history of not just his property (informing the stories of Bond/Harlan, among of course more than a dozen other brands that source from VHR), but Oakville as a whole. More than that, though, every other visit for me this trip was either a Monopole type operation (I.e. Eisele) or a producer that buys fruit from multiple vineyards, so learning more from Bruce about what they do, how they came to produce their own wine, and how they chose the individual blocks they wanted to source from made for an amazingly enjoyable morning walk through their vineyard in Oakville.
We grabbed a glass of Delamotte bubbles and walked through the vineyard as he showed me around. Bruce is just so passionately proud of his family’s legacy and property and is just such a fun hang to talk wine, family, business and more.
We then sat down at his kitchen table and shared a bottle of 2018 VHR. I know I’m repeating myself, but I absolutely love this vintage. Having tasted now through the 19’s from other producers, I can pretty confidently say 18 is the vintage of the decade for me — yes more than 13 and 16. Those may last longer when all is said and done? But I just love the character of the wines in the 18 vintage.
2018 VHR Cabernet: black fruits, purple flowers, some kind of bitter chocolate or espresso note, and plenty of structure. I’m glad Bruce sent me on my way with the corked unfinished bottle so I can try it again 2-3 days later. I was laboring over the decision of whether or not to buy in the large format release, and honestly after tasting with Bruce, there’s no way the wallet is surviving this one.
Memento Mori: I know Lauren - the new hospitality director at MM - from her days at ACME in St Helena and was super pumped to schedule a tasting with her in their downtown Napa tasting room. I got to hear the story of the 3 friends behind MM wines, taste some of their wines (and one of Sam’s other wines) and even got to preview an un-released (and unannounced) project they’re working on starting in the 2021 vintage. I even got to hear how in their first vintage, they didn’t actually read the fine print of the Beckstoffer contract and got in trouble for not making an SVD wine … oops. Lauren is a friend at this point, so any more gushing about her would just come off as insincere, but truly she’s a fantastic person and amazingly gracious host.
We started out tasting the 2019 Maxem Chardonnay since Sam makes it, and Lauren loves it. OK, so this is more my speed for California Chardonnay. Oak and MLF not blowing my face off, nice mineral driven Cali Chardonnay I could actually have more than a half glass of without feeling full.
Sorry - no tasting notes on the SB. I’d just be guessing at this point.
We then tasted through a couple reds.
2017 Memento Mori “Flagship:”
2018 Memento Mori “Flagship:”
2019 Memento Mori “Flagship:”
I don’t remember enough about each specific wine at this point, other than to say that like many before, the character of the vintage shows through. 17 round, fleshy, more open. 18 cool, structured, savory. 19 a little showier, sexier, but not flabby. I’ll also say this … as somebody who is often not a fan of overly fleshy, cocktail-style Napa Cabernet, MM wines comes about as close as possible to my particular threshold without going over. Usually the line is that simple half or single glass test: could I actually envision a circumstance where I could have more of this wine and enjoy it? the MM wines are clearly meant to be delicious, but they are also serious wines and not at all just hedonistic pleasure bombs.
2018 Memento Mori VHR: Similar notes to the 18 “Flagship,” but a bit more of a gravely, pencil lead type character showing through. It’s a slightly deeper, more serious and savory wine than the Flagship, and 5-7 years of bottle age should do well.
Memento Mori has a fan in me, and it’s definitely the type of wine I’d reach for probably more after dinner to watch a ballgame, but without wanting to feel like I’m being whacked over the head with a pleasure bomb/oak cocktail.
Round Pond: OK so we frankly tasted way too many wines here for me to do anything than recommend a few in particular that I think are worth seeking out. RP is an extended family favorite, and Juan always takes care of us there. We tasted:
-12 The Vow
-13 The Vow
-14 The Vow
-15 The Vow
-16 Secret Garden
-17 The Vow
-17 Secret Garden
-17 Scholar’s Gate
-18 Bovet
-18 Eric Bovet Reserve (M Bar Ranch SVD)
-20 Proprietary White
-20 Sauvignon Blanc
-18 Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc
One interesting tidbit, is that while I’m not actually a huge fan of the 15 vintage, I actually noticed a jump in quality on the 12-15 vertical of the Vow, and I asked Juan about it. So TRB makes the entire “Gravel Series” line. But for the 2015 vintage, he actually brought the production of those wines to his Mending Wall facility instead of having to come out to RP. Apparently, he wanted to give more time to the wines than he was able to do with that arrangement, and I do believe the quality improvement is real.
Another note is that while M Bar Ranch fruit has always gone into the “Secret Garden” bottling for Round Pond, they actually sold 50% of the fruit to Nickel & Nickel previously. When that contract ended, they decided to make their own SVD from the other 50% of the fruit that doesn’t go to TRB for the Gravel Series.
Not only do I believe that the Gravel Series typically represents a good value (in most years - 17s were kinda meh) for block designate wines made by TRB, but I really thought the quality of the Eric Bovet was nice too. It’s a good value at around 100 bucks, and I’m a buyer of the 18.
Overall, it was an amazing trip. All of the tastings were private which is always nice just to be able to interact with the host, but even more so in Covid times, it made vacationing just a little bit more comfortable and took that worry out of the back of my mind. I can’t wait to get back and taste some of the places we simply didn’t have time for (or couldn’t mutually schedule) this trip, and it just reminded me so much of what I love about wine is connecting the place to the glass. Being able to bring myself back to these visits, these places, these people, will spark joy for years to come, and I’m grateful for everybody’s time and passion.