TN: Lugeresque V: California Table #6

WINE TALK
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LUGERESQUE V: CALIFORNIA TABLE #6 - Pratt’s Inn, Yorktown, NY (1/31/2010)
The same wonderful event as in past years, but with maybe the best steaks ever!!

I hope others from our table will chime in with their thoughts. Thank you all!


Flight 1: Starters

  • 2004 Alban Vineyards Viognier Alban Estate Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Edna Valley
    Powerful nose of spice and flowers. Loads of minerals. Thick, but still light and fresh on the palate. A delicious wine. Particularly good with the assorted aps. (93 pts.)
  • 2006 Sine Qua Non Autrement Dit - USA, California
    [Brought over by Mark Franks at Pratt’s Lugeresque.] Gorgeous, bright red raspberry nose. Lightly sweet with a nice bite on the finish. Just delicious. Thanks Mark! (92 pts.)

Flight 2: Cabs

  • 1991 Beringer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve - USA, California, Napa Valley
    [Double decanted at 8am. First tasted at about 12:30.] Dry red fruits. Still tannic. Less fruit than I would like to see at this stage. Seems a little dried out. But slowly it gains weight and fruit. Quite amazing. By 3pm everyone agrees it is quite a nice wine. I still won’t wait much longer on the last of this, but maybe a day of slow-o next time. (92 pts.)
  • 1997 Beringer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve - USA, California, Napa Valley
    Black fruit and cinnamon nose. Rich and balanced. Esp. tasty with little lamb chop aps. (93 pts.)
  • 1978 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve - USA, California, Napa Valley
    [From a 6L bottle at Pratt’s Lugeresque for a $20 donation to Anna’s Wish Foundation.] Nose quickly changes from shitty to earthy to appealing forest floor, tar and licorice. May be past its prime, but very nice wine for a very nice cause. A treat. (91 pts.)
  • 2002 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Estate - USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena
    Backward black fruit nose. Classic Napa Cab. Riveting long finish. Needs 10 years, but terrific stuff. 93-95 points. (93 pts.)
  • 2003 Colgin IX Estate - USA, California, Napa Valley
    Super intense black fruit nose. Intense, inky wine. Super extracted. Quite pleasurable, but is it wine? Truly a Parkerized wine. (92 pts.)
  • 2005 Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Bottled Black Label Block 1 - USA, California, Napa Valley
    Intense mineral and black fruit nose. Very young. Inky and tannic with extracted black fruit and licorice. May improve significantly with 10-20 years of age. 92-95 points. (92 pts.)

Flight 3: Petite Sirah

  • 2000 Switchback Ridge Petite Sirah Peterson Family Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley
    Sublime nose of complex black fruit and spice. Smooth, silky, tannic, but starting to soften. A super long finish of spice, cocoa and ripe black fruit. Won’t peak for 10-15 years, but is starting to show some small hints of maturity. (94 pts.)
  • 2005 Switchback Ridge Petite Sirah Peterson Family Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley
    Heavenly nose of chocolate, black fruits, and spice. Incredibly full and expansive in the mouth. The finish seems to go on for minutes. Just a wow wow wine! Hands down WOTN for me.
    Day 2: Heaven scent! Has this ethereal nose of black fruit, coffee, cocoa, and a hint of ginger. An incredible wine of depth and length. It’s starting to shut down just a bit on day 2. Once that happens, it might take 20 years to open back up, but this will be glorious then. (98 pts.)
  • 2005 Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards Petite Sirah Black Label - USA, California, Sonoma County, Green Valley
    Nasty nose. Silky in the mouth, but sour and dirty on the finish. NR
    Day 2: Nice, but somewhat shrill. Reminds me of the Bogle PS. Quite drinkable but not all that appealing. 88 points. (88 pts.)
  • 2005 Robert Foley Petite Sirah - USA, California, Napa Valley, Spring Mountain District
    Thick and silky. Medium body. A delicious wine but not in the same league as the 2005 Swtichback Ridge. 92 points.
    Day 2: Much more expressive in the nose today with loads ripe black fruits and dark chocolate and cocoa. Thick and rich. Very appealing. Needs 5 years to show its stuff. 92-94 points. (92 pts.)
  • 2002 Alban Vineyards Pandora - USA, California, Central Coast, Edna Valley
    [Just a sip from Mark’s table.] Not as wonderful as the 05 last year, but that same exotic orange fruit. Very unusual and enjoyable. (93 pts.)

Thanks to all the great people at my table. It was great to see all the new and old friends. Plaudits to Mark and to Pratt’s for another wonderful event.

Posted from CellarTracker

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Ken, great notes. I agree 100% on the Petite Sirah notes. The 05 Switchback was flat out awesome. I don’t see what the hubub was about the Conn Valley Black. Todd must have had the fellas drink the Kool-Aid before drinking the P.S. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice, but certainly not anywhere near $100 nice.

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I’m sorry to hear that about the Blk labels not showing well considering the bottles we’ve had have been great and when Berserkers were here they said the PS was one of the best they have tasted. I wonder if the saturated palates from the other PS had anything to do with it. All I know is, if they weren’t that enjoyable Manzi is going to kill me for the recommendation. [oops.gif] sorry guys

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Well, I didn’t think they sucked as much as Steve did. [stirthepothal.gif]

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I didn’t think either sucked, they just didn’t blow me away. Both were good, not great. I’m a big fan of Todd’s wines too, so no bias on my part.

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[pillow-fight.gif] meanie !

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Ok, let’s just get this right out in the open before it gets out of hand.

  1. Yes, Carrie Sucks…but in a good way. [wink.gif]

  2. I put the ACV Petite Sirah in a flight with the 2 Switchbacks and the Foley. I thought the Foley suffered by me “matching” it in that lineup, and so did the ACV. To me, the ACV when put against the SRs, was just swamped. But how many can stay with the SR? If I had it to do over, I would have had the Foley and the ACV together, and THEN went to the SRs. But in the context of the four together, it was impossible to rave about the ACV or the Foley. I would agree pretty much with Ken’s notes, but would put the Foley and the ACV pretty close to each other.

  3. The ACV Cab was more on the “pretty” side for me. I did not get the amount of tannins that Ken got. I liked it, but would have thought more of it if it had been in a small group and drank with food and a course or two. To me, it is one of those wines that loses something in these types of tastings. I was expecting more from it, but easily could have been fooled because of the style of the event.

  4. OF the rest of the cabs:
    Beringer '91: It started out like a wine that was past its peak, but just barely. I was a little shocked when it put on weight and character, especially when Ken told us he had decanted it 4-5 hours ago.

'97 Beringer: I liked this better than the '91. But my preference is for younger wines. As in, I would rather drink them too young than even a little too old.

Spottswood '02: I really enjoyed this one. Right up my alley. I would say it was my favorite of the cabs

Colgin IX '03: Ken said it best. Parkerized wine. As much as it WAS tastey, it was just a little too much of everything. A bit of an assault. I liked it, but I have less interest in those types of wines than I used to have.

'Mondavi '78: The first whiff turned me right off. I never recovered. It may have changed in the glass and been more interesting, but it just what I hate about older cabs and older bordeaux. If I have to work my way past the “earthy”, forest floor “flavors” to get to the tar and licorice, chances are I won’t get there. Happy to donate. Satisfied to dump it though.

Switchback Ridge PS '00: I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Tannins are settling down and the complexity is growing. A beautiful wine that shows you can have tons of stuff in it and still have to develop into something extra.

Switchback Ridge PS ‘05: SO young, and even though a PS that should pucker your lips and not allow you to enjoy much, this just treats you to a feast of flavors, tannin and a finish that just never ends. All wines next to it just wilt. Favorite by far of the PS’.

I don’t know about Ken, but I will never open my Charles Shaw SB…as it has such sentimental value for me. I will alway remember that moment that I opened it, and felt the love. I only hope that one day, I can repay Carrie and do something that will appropriately convey what she means to me. flirtysmile

A great group of people. Karen and I had a wonderful time. What else could one want??? Wine, Food, people and oxycontin. [thumbs-up.gif]

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This was actually the first time I had ever met Steve. He really is a very nice fellow.

OTOH he did bring crappy wine and now I found out he didn’t even share his oxycontin! So . . . [middle-finger.gif]

Hope to do it again soon. [dance-clap.gif]

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Seriously Carrie, these were very interesting wines, and I’m glad I had the chance to try them.

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Ken, I was just poking around in Cellartracker in my home screen and saw “kenv” and then the Lugeresque event note. Bam–Ken Vastola–a moment of clarity for me.

So, you like the 2005 Switchback Ridge? Really? [worship.gif] One of my all time favorite wines from anywhere and each time I open one of these, it’s bliss for me. It was my WOTY for 2008. The wine ain’t for everyone but it seems to have made an imprint on you…welcome to the fraternity. A true gem.

Thanks for the TNs, too.

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I don’t give out 98s lightly, Frank. I recently picked up 2 more 750s and a mag from a private cellar. This was one of those bottles, so I’m a happy camper! [dance-clap.gif]


BTW I currently have 510 bottles of PS in my cellar, so I’m an old member of this fraternity. I’ve liked ever since I first tried a young one, but I became a fanatic in your neck of the woods. A restaurant called Thee Bungalow used to have very old bottles of Ridge and Stags’ Leap PS at very reasonable prices. Once I understood how brilliantly these wines aged, I was totally hooked. My mom lived in Poway, so I would try to get thee to a Bungalow as often as I could. Sadly, my mom died in the mid-90s and I haven’t been to Thee Bungalow since.

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510 is nuts. holy crap. And I thought I owned a lot of petite-- [swoon.gif] . I have a full vertical of SR back to 2001 and it seems that enough people who thrill over it seem to grab it quickly…the 2004 on Wine Bid is seeing that same effect this week, for instance. Great to see someone else digging the Peterson wines. Never heard of the Bungalow but I am up here in the OC, near “The Todd” so I am much north of there.

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It’s in Ocean Beach, adjacent to Point Loma, which I guess is fairly far south from you. I was remembering it being further north.

Here’s there website (thee website?):

Our Restaurants - Find A Cohn Restaurant Near You" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Like I said, it’s been 15 or more years since I’ve been there, but it might be worth checking it out. It certainly is a lovely little place.

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At the risk of sounding like “mine is bigger than yours”, my SR vertical goes back to 2000! I have lots of old Ridge and Stags’ Leap, La Jota from the 90s, Turley. OK, here’s whole set:

Turley (104 bottles)
Stags’ Leap Winery (89 bottles)
Outpost (47 bottles)
Ridge (42 bottles)
Robert Foley (37 bottles)
Carver-Sutro (33 bottles)
Switchback Ridge (29 bottles)
Pride Mountain Vineyards (27 bottles)
Carlisle (23 bottles)
Rockland (18 bottles)
Corté Riva (17 bottles)
La Jota (14 bottles)
Sean Thackrey (6 bottles)
Ravenswood (5 bottles)
Jaffurs (5 bottles)
Massena (3 bottles)
Hidden Cellars (3 bottles)
Chateau Montelena (3 bottles)
Retro Cellars (2 bottles)
Quixote (2 bottles)
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (1 bottle)

And yes, that last one is a rare bottle from the winery famous for cab.

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Drinking the last of the 05 Switchback tonight. Man, this stuff is good!

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Ken,
I love the '05 . We had a Foley Muscleman last night.
Which Sean Thackrey do you have? We just got the '07 PS which we will try soon. I really like the '06.

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It’s the 2002. I’m not sure why I don’t have more. [shrug.gif]

How was the Muscleman?

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ABSOLUTELY FOLEY-ESQUE, it lives up to it’s name. Another Brutus in a bottle. Why haven’t you tried it with all those PS in your cellar? I think it would be in your wheelhouse