I went pretty long on those. They’re very good — need a couple hours decant, and they have a lot of sediment, but really beautiful California cabernet.
Well, it’s been the longest orderly liquidation in history. Lol. The good news is that sales continue in a steady, if not overwhelming, manner. Enough so that I continue to have a positive cash flow. So …
Things continue for a bit. Plenty of 2011s left and I think the 2011 Coombsville Reserve is really good. A good amount of 2008 and 2009 are still in inventory and a limited amount of the 2014s are still available. The 2011 Zinfandel is drinking nicely now and I have about 8 cases of that left. Everything else is gone.
And I am getting involved with a startup Pennsylvania winery that will have, at least initially, a custom crush Napa cab component in its business. So much for retirement. Stay tuned.
And thanks for all the support and kind words. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Just popped the 2009 Congruence Cabernet Sauvignon tonight and what a wine. Completely opaque with absolutely no signs of age. The top note on the nose–which usually is what I try to discern as a kind of red or blue fruit I get, in this is all flowers; the most floral nose of any cab I’ve ever had. I especially get an aromatic orchid (Lady of the Night) and jasmine. Fruit comes in on the middle note and lingers. I get almost dehydrated/concentrated blueberries-but not stewed. The middle note lingers with a base note of fennel bulb and a touch of pencil shavings. Still lots of acid on the palate and fine tannins on the tongue. While this is singing–my personal taste I should have left the meat hanging a bit longer. More acid and less glycerol than I would expect from an '09 in the valley–but that’s a good thing in my book. Think this and the 14.5 ava makes it evident that these grapes were not treated to Parkerization (which I hope isn’t why this thread exists).
I still have a few 11’s and 14’s. Trying to keep my hands off them, but I love them.
Anything left Steve? I enjoyed the zins I got from you.
My last one is a '10 Coombsville Reserve Cab. I’ve been cutting my innovatorys of California Cabs in favor of Washington and Bordeaux but this has me second guessing. Steve, any idea what’s next? I’ve been told that Adams County, Ohio has the closest soil composition to Bordeaux as anywhere else on Earth 
Sorry. I haven’t been visiting here very often.
Haha on Ohio! I might wind up close to there. I’m in discussions with someone starting a winery outside Pittsburgh and have been doing some work on his wines (California grapes). But the aim is to do estate grapes (varietals tbd - vidal, seyval blanc, riesling, chardonnay and moscato are in consideration for whites; reds candidates are cab franc, blaufrankisch, zweigelt, chambourcin, maybe cab sauv) and wine production in 6 or so years. I’ll be old then but not ready to retire hopefully.
I’m in the real final stages of liquidation and doing unannounced-publicly pricing, so if anyone has interest in picking the bones, email me at steve@congruencewines.com.
Thanks for the note, Josh. Most of the fruit (80%) came from Coombsville, which is close to the bay and has early budbreak and late harvest in comparison to the rest of the valley (there were a couple of years picking was going on in November). So a crazy long and gradual growing season. Hence the nice acidity and fine tannins. 40% of the grapes came from what is now Paul Hobbs’ Nathan Coombs Vineyard and 20% each from a vineyard across the road from Caldwell and another vineyard from a very cool weather site. The pedigree of the wine is pretty strong in retrospect - even though nobody really knew of Coombsville or the vineyard from which I was sourcing when I started.