I want to dedicate a thread for ALL things HEITZ CELLAR…please join me in posting your Heitz tasting notes collectively here in this thread. I have a bunch of “eclectic” Heitz wines which I might “drink” and add to the thread…I just think it will be fun to see and experience a collaboration of some recent notes…from one producer at a time. This week…post your HEITZ!
Posted from CellarTracker
Posted from CellarTracker
Posted from CellarTracker
Would love to hear if anyone had tried their grignolino… I’m quite fond of the grape out if Piemonte.
I love Heitz so I will transcribe some note and contribute.
Heitz Lot 61/62 Cabernet- A friend was given this bottle form an elderly man who had purchased the wine upon release. I had never heard of it and seen no others on cellartracker so I call Heitz. I talked to Kathleen Heitz and she said that in the early days if there were certain lots Joe was not fond of he would not bottle them but keep them in barrel and this particular wine was a product of the 1961 and 1962 vintages Bended. Color: Brown, bricked, orange, very translucent, medium light red/brown core, thin edges. Nose: Mature cigars/tobacco box, mistiness, beefiness, some fruit still left for goodness sake cherry, barique smokiness. Over all very the wine was very enjoyable for being so mature. The texture was the best aspect for me it was silky smooth with fine grained tannins.
2000 Bella Oaks- Purchased a case at the tasting room for $26 a bottle two years ago!! What a steal. This was my seventh bottle and by far the best. Color: medium red core lighter red edges with no signs of bricking. Nose: Sweet cherry, cool menthol, nice herbal tones which were not green, coffee, allspice, good and plenty (?). finish is nit too long but fades away nicely this wine is fully balanced and is reaching its peak. I will drink the other five over the next four or five years. For $26 a bottle I wish I would have bought more but It was no as good as it is now.
2005 Martha’s: WHoa!!! WTF!!! Colgate mint chocolate. This wine is so dense and viscous it drinks like a port without the heat. It was one of the sweetest dry wines I have ever had. I question this wine not having RS. Its just so massive. Took some time to open up. Mocha, chocolate covered cherry, mocha, and coffee. It was hard to get more than that because the mint and chocolate was so overpowering. My buddy and I drank this at market and gave some to the waitress and she commented that it tasted like a desert wine. This thing should age so well because of the density. Maybe Heitz’s practice of extended elevage in wine in oak casks for a year before two years in limousine helps concentrate this wine through evaporation of water? People talk about Hietz being old school this wine reminds me a Robert Foley, contemporary Mondavi reserve, Lewis condensed style of wine. We drank this next to a 1999 Galleron Morisioli Cabernet and we had to plug the Galleron up and save it for after dinner because the Heitz dominated it.
George the Grignolino tends to have nice acidity and low alch. around 12%. The fruit reminds me of red jellies and is an easy quaff. I perfer it slighly chilled. Its a great sipper or for eating with light foods.
2001 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Bella Oaks (USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville) 6/8/2011
My last bottle out of a six pack that I got from the winery on special. Overall it was a decent buy - my friends likely enjoyed it a tad more than I did. Dark fruits and a touch of the classic Heitz mint, touch of rubber, and mushroom. It’s a pretty earthy wine, with good fruit, a touch of chalk, and a good amount of tannin left. 90 pts
Posted from CellarTracker
[*]1986 Heitz Cellar Grignolino - USA, California, Napa Valley (7/5/2011)
Very lite brown rose, yellowish orange rim color. Funky nose of walnut oil, house fire, cold soaked tea bags, earth spice. Very interesting nose…it does grow on you! Hey…in the mouth, not bad? Has a nice Pinot-ish plushness to it, with a little dried citrus acid lift. Lite bodied, yet has some oomph to it(but 12 1/2 alc), like a very old Zin. Again, some strange flavors on the palate…that walnut oil, dried roses, tea, fermenting dried berries, strawberry patch. Very much alive with some orange citrus acidity…but that smoky walnut thing is weird! An “interesting” wine! I kind of like it…in a weird kind of way. (87 pts.)
[/list]
Posted from CellarTracker[/quote]
wow! An aged grignolino - I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted anything with more than 2 years on it, and up until now, I didn’t think would want to… I would think that it certainly has “the stuffing” to stand up to time, but not sure how the primary flavors would progress. The “walnut oil” suggest some oxidation, no?
thanks for the note!
I didn’t take a note on it, but had the '78 Heitz Fay at a dinner a few months ago and it still wasn’t showing its age, no one would guess it for 33 years old; it was drinking very well, great stuff.
Cheers,
-Robert
From Envoyer?
I have access to a few more bottles of the 2007 Grignolino which I remember being pretty interesting; lighter and earthy/spicy. Pretty authentic because I had one from Piedmont that was strikingly similar. I enjoyed the 2006 Zinfandel recently as well—hate to use the old cliche but it’s a great food wine. Nice balance of acids/tannins. An old-school style that’s not a fruit or alcohol bomb.
Yes, bottle was pristine, fill into the neck. I don’t know where Greg found them, but perfect bottles. Hope you were lucky enough to get a few, I stupidly only took the one.
Cheers,
-Robert
Can someone please elaborate on Heitz not letting their cabernets going through Malo? I have seen two post which talked about this but have never heard it form anyone else or even from the staff at the tasting room.
Awesome, thx for confirming. I only got 1 bottle, and it’s a birth year for me so I was really happy to read your note. I tried for more but could only get one. And I’m perfectly content with one if it drinks as nicely as your bottle 
The winery has never allowed its cabernets to go through malolactic fermentation, though I am not sure where Joe Heitz came up with this philosophy. As he spent eight years early on in his career working with Andre Tchelistcheff at BV, perhaps this was the style of the BV cabernets back in the 1950s. I was quite surprised to hear this from Kathleen and David Heitz in the process of researching and article on the winery, but from the earliest days, there has been no ML for their cabernets. In fact, the only wine that they allow ML in these days is the zinfandel, which David Heitz explained they probably could not stop if they wanted to in the first place, but all the other wines do not go through malo. Some of their chardonnays in the decade of the 1980s were partial ML, with some lots allowed to go through and some blocked, and then the two blended together. But David Heitz said that both he and his father were not particularly happy with how those vintages of chardonnay aged, so the chardonnay went back to a completely non-ML style by the early '90s.
Of course, for much of the first decade of the winery’s history, much of the cabernet needs were handled with purchased grapes and/or wine, so it is quite possible that some of the earliest vintages (like the Lot 61/62 listed above) could have contained cabernet in the blend that went though malolactic fermentation. But none of the in-house fermented cabernet lots ever go through malo. I suspect that this is one of the keys to the stunning longevity of the various Heitz cabernet bottlings, as they start out with a good base of acidity (and Joe and David have always been willing to gently acidulate if need be to get a sound level of acidity into the young wine, so that they can keep cruising along in the cellar) and seem to often keep this lovely red fruity, or blood orange aspect to them even as they cruise along past thirty or forty years of bottle age. I have had the pleasure to drink quite a lot of Heitz wines in the last year while researching the article on the estate, and Robert’s experience with the '78 Fay is hardly remarkable in the canon of Heitz cabernets- the '78 Martha’s is even younger than the Fay, and the '75 Martha’s ie even less evolved than either of those two beautiful wines. While the winery has always been recognized for its monumental efforts such as the '68, '70 and '74 Martha’s Vineyard bottlings, what I have found most impressive is how consistently excellent they have been year in and year out, with wines such as the '76, '77, '79 and '80 Martha’s Vineyard nearly as stunning as the bottlings from the most exalted years, and perhaps even more impressive in the context of the more difficult years that they hail from in comparison to near perfect years like '74, '75 and '78. Sometimes the less well-endowed years end up producing the more elegant renditions of their respective terroirs. And the Heitz Napa cabernet bottling should also be mentioned for its superb ability to age long and gracefully as well- recently a bottle of the '73 Napa was simply delicious and still drinking beautifully (without the benefit of a good cork I should add). Heitz is an iconic Napa winery that is still at the top of its game as it celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year, and to my palate the family continues to produce wines every bit as magical as they have every step along the way of their long journey making California wine history.
I recently had a 1986 Bella Oaks, and while the nose was pleasant, the wine had definitely crossed over into steep decline, with a short, tart palate. This came from a sound-looking bottle and the cork/color was good, so I was kind of bummed.
John, thanks for chiming in about Heitz again, very interesting read.
Brian, great thread,
I have almost a complete vertical of the MV’s -we are in the works of putting together a tasting in Chicago this fall
Had a bottle of the 66’ Marthas Last year and was easily one of the best wines I have ever had. !
John,
Thanks for the interesting summary about that, not to mention championing great old school California wineries like Heitz and Mayacamas, both of which I love.
Cheers,
-Robert