During our recent Sonoma visit, we toured and tasted with Robert Kamen of Kamen Estate Wines. Robert spent a couple of hours with us and it was quite a memorable time. For those not familiar with Robert, his origins were far from the wine industry – he has a Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania, and has quite a list of successful movies for which he has written the screenplays
We met him at his winery in an industrial park in Sonoma. His new tasting room in the Square was not yet open but is probably open by now. We then embarked on a tour of his stunning vineyard property where he told us his story – which was as impressive as his wines were good.
The following bio is my recollection of our discussion. I hope I got it all right! About 30 years ago, after successfully selling a story to a Hollywood studio, he came to Sonoma to celebrate. He and a friend hiked to the top of a mountain in Sonoma with a friend, and after an afternoon of “celebrating” and marveling at the beauty of their locale, he was told this magnificent property of about 300 acres, from which you can see as far as the Bay, was for sale. There was nothing on the property at that time. They went to town, found the realtor, and bought the property. He went back to Hollywood, and signed a contract to write Taps. That got him the money to hire Phil Coturri – a known organic viticulturist, to start to plant the property. I understand planting to organic standards at that time was unheard of. He then returned to Hollywood, and wrote many more screenplays including Karate Kid, Transporter, Taken, and others. He pumped a lot of that money into the property and it is truly spectacular.
Meanwhile, his grapes were amazing and he had no problem selling them to others. Around the mid-1990’s a fire started by utility lines wiped out part of the vineyard. After replanting he decided to start to make wine with grapes from his property, and his first vintage was in 1999. His current winemaker is Mark Herold, and I like his style. The vineyard looks like a lava yard, with the vines drilled through rock.
The view from the property was absolutely breathtaking. We were told that plans are underway to have the area designated as its own AVA, as the Cabernet grapes from the mountain are quite different than the grapes from other areas of Sonoma. This was proven true when we got to tasting.
We returned to the winery and we tasted through some of the wines. We had a few different vintages of the Cabernet, and the only wine we did not try was the Kashmir, a Bordeaux blend.
My recollection of the wines follows:
2011 Sauvignon Blanc: Robert was really proud of this wine. It was a beautiful, if slightly acidic, wine. Fruit flavored, but not over the top. Pear, citrus and floral notes highlighted a mineralistic wine. This one was $42 and it was worth it.
2008 Cabernet: This had a deep, full-flavored profile, more like a Napa cab than most other Sonoma cabs (I can think of a few others from the Mayacamas mountains that had similar characteristics). It had had a ripe structure, some oak, mocha, spice and some plum or blackberry notes. A really nice finish, and a touch of acidity which really made it stand out. A great wine for about $70.
2006 Cabernet: This one seemed a little less “big” than the 2008, with more mocha on the nose, and an earthy note. I initially thought it had some Merlot blended but it was just the earthiness (maybe a little similar to Rutherford dust).
2009 Syrah: This was a wow wine. It had big, fruity taste, and smoky notes with sufficient tannins to make it really nice.
2009 Writers Block: This was a Blend, and unfortunately my notes are sketchy. I recall it being
easy drinking. I know I liked it as I bought one bottle of it over some of the others.
We also tried a Grenache which he makes only for his wine club. It was stellar. Sorry I don’t have more descriptors.
My overall thought is this is a winery you want to try. Their Cabs will wow you.