Wine Berserkers Featured Winery - Dacalier Wines

Wine Berserkers Featured Winery - Dacalier Wine Co & Five/Five Wines

Dacalier Red Rhone - 3 pak

2008 De La Terre
2009 De La Terre
2009 Deux Barriques

Berserker Price $66.00 plus tax and shipping

Five/Five Wines Twin pak

2009 Five/Five Cabernet Sauvignon - Sydnee
2009 Five/Five Cabernet Sauvignon – Simone

Berserker Price $121.50 plus tax and shipping
100% of the profit from the sale of Five/Five Wines goes directly to Dave’s daughters’ college savings plan.

To order please follow this link: or go to http://www.dacalier.com and click on Berserker Deal at the top menu

Got a three-pack.

Looking forward to it.

Monte

Sorry fellow wbers. I have been out and about in napa valley doing typical winemaker stuff. I will provide some additional info action on our wines this evening.

Monte,

Thanks for your support, I am processing the order this morning. and will be back to the boards to give the rest of the WB folks some additional info on our winery and wines.

-dave

First a bit about the wines.
Dacalier - 3 pak
2008 De La Terre
Rustic, old world Rhone blend of 81% Grenache, 14% Carignan & 5% Syrah. I will let the tasting note below speak for itself. 300 cases produced - Winery Retail $24
“Popped and left in glass 30min. Beautiful scarlet color, about 60% saturated with quick and clear legs. Aroma is not as rustic as a year ago and is driven more with dried cherries and some currant, with a lighter dose of the formerly prominent smoke. Palate also feels drier than before, with a likable bit of tang in the acidity and some leathery tannin. Medium bodied and a long, nuanced finish. This is far and away the most Old World (spec. Rhone) style wine I’ve ever had from USA” Fingers, CellarTracker tasting note

2009 De La Terre
• Lake County, 60% Grenache, 38% Mourvedre, 2% Syrah
• 292 cases produced
Our latest release, If you loved the 2008, wait until you try the 09 in all its old world glory. The color is garnet and pinot like, due to our minimal handling of the fruit during fermentation. Raspberries, leather and a nice backbone of acidity accompany our latest release. This wine is more fruit-forward than the 2008. 292 cases produced. Winery Retail: $24

2009 Deux Barriques
50% Mourvedre, 47% Grenache and 3% Viognier this is a beautiful, feminine wine that pays homage to the Cote Rotie’s of the Rhone. We co-fermented viognier in a single barrel of Grenache, then we chose our most expressive barrel of Mourvedre and we paired the two together to produce Deux Barrique. This wine has a beautiful mouth feel and wonderful floral aroma from the Viognier. Ranked #1 of 15 wines in a blind tasting of new world and old world Rhones in 2011. 50 cases produced and only 7 cases left. Winery Retail: $35

“If Dave Smig hadn’t been next to me, I might have thought this was a rose. It is very light in color. That did not translate to the body though as this has some weight to it. Slightly earthy aromas with some stewed meaty qualities. Also some black raspberries. On the palate, this is clean with raspberries and some black raspberries. Nice finish. Very nice wine.” Loren Sonkin, CellarTracker tasting note.

Our Fruit: We like our fruit from lake county because the heat definitely has an effect on the ripeness of the Rhone varietals. We source our Grenache from the Tejada Vineyard located in western Lake County, near Blue Lakes, just east of the Mendocino County line. 1.3 Acres of Grenache was planted in 2001 and we have been working with it since the 2008 vintage.

Our Mourvedre we source from 20+ year old head trained vines located on a Shannon Ridge Vineyard property called Caldwell Ranch. On this dramatic piece of property, the ridges wrap around the inside of the canyon, providing southern, western and northern exposures for the Mourvèdre grown here at 2200’

Our Viognier is sourced out of Clarksburg, in the Sacramention Delta. We like our viognier to get lots of heat which allows it to ripen a little easier.


Five/Five Wines (Commemorating the birth of our twin girls on 5/5/09)
2009 Five/Five Sydnee
• only 25 cases produced
• 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
• 85% Ink Grade Vineyard, Howell Mountain; 15% Gerlach Ranch Vineyard, Coombsville

2009 Five/Five Simone
• only 25 cases produced
• 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
• 100% Howell Mountain
• 75% Black Sears Vineyard, 25% Ink Grade Vineyard

My goal with Five/Five was to produce the highest quality wine we could, but to stay out of the wines way and let the fruit speak for us. After 28 months in barrel, we went through the blending process with the goal of presenting two different 100% cabernet Sauvignon wines that reflected the individual personalities of each of our daughters. I am certain that if you taste each of these wines, side by side and associate the name with each wine, that I have you meet our 3 year olds for 5 minutes, you will be able to name them without me telling you their names.

I will hit the pause button here and let the rest of the community ask any questions you might have.

Cheers and I hope you enjoy our wines.

Just a shameless plug for Dave and his wines…

I’ve known Dave for about three years and have followed his wines ever since his first release (BTW, who releases a Rose for a first release? What kind of Go-to-market strategy is that? )

Seriously, Dave’s Rhone varietal wines tend more toward a traditional Rhone feel than a Cali Rhone Ranger spin. His Rose is very nice, but I felt the De La Terre really entered my wheel house in a way I like…nice QPR for a very enjoyable quaff.

I tasted through barrel samples and blending trials of the wines that eventually make up his Five/Five two-pack last September and felt these and his pending Ink Black Label (Ink Grade/Black Sears vineyards) blend are serious structured wines and a tremendous value for '09 Napa Cab. Plus his twin Daughters are really sweet and I’d like to see them go to College rather than become cellar rats…

This is what Berserkers and CT Forum is all about, supporting and promoting our own. I think you will enjoy these wines if you make a purchase, I definitely have…

I will echo Scott’s comments. The rose is a favorite of my wife and the de la Terre is just lovely. After Berserker Day and buying moratorium, I will have to wait until next year. Sorry Dave, I can only drink so much! So the rest of you pony up to the bar! You will not be disappointed.

Scott and Dennis,

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, You’re right, who starts a winery and their first two releases are Rose. I started with Rose because I love it. When I was taking some time off in Southern France in 2006, I realized that in order to get into the wine business without having to impact my family, I had to partner with someone and just do what I felt was right. Making Rhone varietals, but understated and elegant. Something different. our first vintage was 2008 and it consisted of 64 cases of Rose. unfortunately 2008 had some forest fire issues in mendocino cty, which blew into lake county and hit our grenache. It wasn’t too bad, but we were known as the smoky rose.

In 2009, we doubled production and sold out in 6 months and were voted the #1 Rose at the San Francisco Pink out event, which was a competition between 40 different rose producers. In 2010 we had a winery incident where we didnt produce any and 2011 is resting quietly in stainless steel until we get it bottled. We are moving quite a bit in kegs throughout SF. Probably 60% of the Rose will go out in Kegs in the SFBay area.

I met Dave out on Treasure Island today and had a chance to try his 5/5 cabs. Liked Sydnee (more plush and forward), but spent more time with the Simone and loved it. I kept coming back to the Simone and found something new and intriguing each time. Lots of verve on the nose – dried herb, tobacco, cassis, cedar, a little menthol. The palate has a black, firm, tarry core with a pretty diverse array of other flavors appended. The cassis carries through, but some very lively red fruit also shows up on the palate. There is also a cooler wet stone streak and a long rich creme brulee aftertaste. Just a lot of very diverse things going on in the Simone. I don’t often find cab much of an adventure, but this one was.

Stew,

It was great meeting you and getting a view into the opportunity you are creating on TI. I am excited to see your tasting room and production facility evolve. I will post my thoughts on your 08 pinot and 07 Syrah on your thread.

Cheers,
dave

Anyone receive theirs yet?

Dave posted on CT he’s receiving the boxes this week.
https://www.cellartracker.com/forum/tm.asp?m=205388

boxes look good…

ORIGINAL: smigdiggler

I finally received photos of the boxes that I will pick up this week.

WIne arrived yesterday. WIll wait a day or two to try. Maybe on Friday - my birthday.

Monte

Happy Birthday to Monte. Do you have an idea of what you will be preparing for dinner. I can offer you some advice at what to open.

As a general rule, I recommend opening the 08 an hour or so before you dig into it.

I can echo the old world feel of Smig’s wines. The first time I tried the Rose, I immediately looked at the salmon color and thought of a nice Rose from Tavel. The de la Terre has an old school Rhone funk and heft that belies the light looking body of it. What I like most about Dave and Eric is that they give so freely of themselves, not only with their wine, but with the CT project where the participants get high end Napa juice for a steal, because they are providing their time. In the world of wine, Dave Smig is one of the good guys and very deserving of all the great things that folks are saying about him.

Wow, such kind words and you have yet to take possession of your CT 09 Cabernets. Thanks again. The CT board has been like a family to me since 2006.

+1 on all of this. I’ll add some love for the Deux Barriques, which no one else has commented on. It’s deceptive in appearance, as the color lands it somewhere between a Rose and a lighter-bodied Pinot Noir, but it has a nice full body without being heavy; a great “summer red” if ever there was one. I’ve never encountered anything else quite like it, but it sure is good…

Opened the 2008 De La Terre tonight. Served with Berkshire pork chops (w/ Penzey’s Greek seasoning) and and a sauté of zucchini, mushrooms and onions.

I had it too close to cellar temp at opening so it was a little closed but it opened after about 15 minutes. Not a powerful wine stylistically, it does show a little bite in a pleasant way. It reminded me of having a slightly tart raspberry. Because of that it made the pork fat really jump. My impression was more favorable with food than without.

I went to a meeting and came back to the bottle after about 2 1/2 hours. The nose really developed although I thought I smelled alcohol. Another swirl and I realized that what I was noticing was the bite of the berry I tasted earlier. I developed into a wine with more secondary flavors than I picked up earlier. A little tobacco and smokiness were present and the finish seemed longer. A very enjoyable wine.

Since I am just beginning to explore Rhone blends because I find them enjoyable and good QPR wines, this was a good find at this price. Looking forward to the other two bottles. And next year I’ll go for some Rose.

Monte

Monte,

Thanks for posting your note and coming back to the 08 after a little time. The 08 was our first red and we had to deal with some residual smoke from the Mendo forest fires that year. If you enjoyed the elegance of 08, you won’t be disappointed with the 09 DLT. The 09 Deux Barriques is on another level with the floral notes from the co-fermented Viognier.

Cheers,
dave

I saved about two ounces to try tonight.

This wine is a little different to me. Some wines taste exactly how they smell. Others give you one profile on the nose and something different in the glass. To me this wine falls in the latter category. I have no idea why. Based on the nose, I am expecting a bigger, more masculine wine. Instead I find the wine much more reserved and almost looking for food. I started drinking it while I was cooking and finished it while eating. (Wife at meeting, kids in bed.) It was 2-3 points better with the mild bison sausage I ate.

Now I’m really intrigued by the 2009.

This is a really neat project and this was a great way to be introduced to new wines. SInce Texas doesn’t allow out of state retail purchases, I buy mostly direct from wineries. Cellartracker confirms 81% of all purchases and 90% of my current holdings are winery direct. The 3-pack is a relatively painless way to make a purchase.

Monte