Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Peirson Meyer 2010 Sauvignon Blanc

I don’t usually write a review for just one wine, but this one is really exceptional and we have not been to the winery to write our usual winery review.  Recently I visited a wine store in Yountville, Groezingers Wine Merchants, looking for my favorite California Sauvignon Blanc, namely the Kelly Fleming. They were temporarily out but Rick Beard recommended the Peirson Meyer.  I’m glad he did.

Peirson Meyer 2010 Ryan’s Vineyard, Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.  ($28.) Intoxicating aroma of mostly lemon and lime with lively fruit on the palate of peach, apple and melon, rather than the usual grapefruit that is found frequently in California Sauvignon Blancs. It had good but smooth acid, and a very nice balance.  Fresh and bursting with fruit, with great texture, this is one of the finest California Sauvignon Blancs I’ve tasted.  It was barrel aged for 8 months in neutral oak without any MLF.  I’d put this one up there with the Kelly Fleming and Marston Family as one of the finest Napa Valley Sauvignon Blancs I’ve encountered. Although it won’t quite replace the Kelly Fleming as my favorite, this Sauvignon Blanc is very seductive and is most highly recommended.  At this price, it is a real bargain. Robert Meyer is the winemaker.  I’d love to visit this winery.

Here is the web page for Peirson Meyer Winery:

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Etude Winery

Etude was established back in the 1980s and is located on Cuttings Wharf Road in the Carneros District.  An appointment is not necessary.  Regular tastings are $15 for six wines and reserve tastings are $25, but they are also in the Napa Neighbor Program. If you love Pinot Noirs, you will definitely want to visit them.

Winery building

Although Etude is best known for their Carneros estate Pinot Noir and their Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from sourced grapes, they do have three white wines that should not be overlooked.  The 2010 Etude Chardonnay at $32 sees no malolactic conversion.  It has a very nice nose and is rather fruit driven with soft melon.  It is more round than brisk.  The 2011 Pinot Gris ($26) is even softer with an aroma of honeysuckle and a palate of peach.  Their 2010 Pinot Blanc ($28) with a light nose, is also softer than the more acidic and sometimes austere Alsatian version.  It was nice, though, with some peach on the palate and good balance.  I really like Pinot Blancs and applaud Etude for offering this interesting varietal which is not often encountered in Napa Valley.



Half of Etude’s production is their Pinot Noir and it is obvious why this is so.  We had the Etude Carneros Estate 2009 Pinot Noir that sells for $42 and it was a very nice Pinot. After a light cherry nose, it is followed by a well-balanced palate that has good tannins and acid and a lovely mouth feel with a long finish.  Also quite good was their Etude Estate Grown 2008 GBR blend of 83% Merlot and 17% Malbec that sells for $60.  After a very nice aroma this well-balanced wine offered a palate of mostly black cherry.  The Carneros District does not afford enough summer heat for Cabernet Sauvignon, so Etude sources fruit from up-valley for their Cab.  The Etude 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon at $85 is very nice, a classic premium Napa Valley Cab.  It is fruit rather than terroir driven, although it is obviously from Napa Valley.  With a rich, lush mouthfeel it is more ripe blackberry than cherry on the palate with lovely tannins.  It is very drinkable now but should age well.  Along with the Pinot Noir, this was our favorite of the tasting.  (They also have a reserve or Heirloom Pinot Noir for $90 but this was not offered to us, so I can't comment on it.)




We visited Etude on a rather hot day, but it was much cooler in Carneros than up-valley.  There is ample parking but be sure to follow the signs and do not exit the same way you drove in.  It is one way through the parking lot.  Service was very friendly.  We recommend that you visit Etude winery, but if you are unable to do so, you might want to consider trying their Pinot Noir.  Their Cab is also very good, but at $85 it has a lot of competition in Napa Valley. 

Addendum August 28, 2012: I had a bottle of the Etude 2008 Carneros Pinot Noir which is a lovely ruby color with an aroma of black cherries. On entry, it burst forth with plenty of strawberry like fruit, followed by red, slightly tart, cherry with some cedar and spices, good body, and integrated tannins.  The finish was medium length but interesting with some herbs and smoke.  Initially it was a bit hot, but this improved with some air and a slight chill.  Be sure to have this at cellar temperature, not room temperature and to give it some time to breathe and integrate.  Robert Parker gave this one 91 points.  It is one of the better Carneros Pinots I’ve tasted, although the 2009 Etude Pinot Noir that we sampled at the winery was as good or better. I'm definitely going to be trying more Etude Pinots in the future and really need to taste their reserve Pinot next time I visit.
 
1250 Cuttings Wharf Road
Napa, CA 94599
(Carneros District, just off Highway 121)
Phone:  707-257-5300
Date of Visit: August 15, 2012

Bourassa Vineyard

Bourassa Vineyard is located in south Napa in the same center as Sequin Moreau and Napa Smith Brewery near the Jameson Canyon pass.  Vic Bourassa is the owner and winemaker who was encouraged in his winemaking after a 1999 meeting with Robert Mondavi when they shared some Bourassa Pinot Noir.  Current production is 3,500 cases from grapes that are sourced from Napa vineyards.  Although the building is set in a sort of business or industrial park, it is really quite charming inside, much more so than one would expect in such a location.  You may visit Bourassa without a prior appointment. They offer a Taste of Bourassa tasting of three different wines for $20 with an option of a reserve tasting at $30 and are in the Napa Neighbor Program.






Our tasting began with the Bourassa 2010 Napa Valley Chardonnay with grapes sourced from the Rutherford district.  It sees 50% MLF or malolactic conversion, just enough to help balance it but not to overwhelm it with butter (lactic acid).  It had a nice aroma, with good, well-balanced crispness on the palate and a decent finish.  Although it sees 14 months in French oak, it is not overly oaked.  At $40, it was quite pleasant.




Bourassa is noted mostly for their red wines, and the first of these was their Bourassa 2010 Napa Valley Rhapsody Syrah ($45) which has a small percentage of Zinfandel in it.  I got a rather light nose but good spice, blackberry like fruit and pleasant tannins on the palate with a very nice finish.  This was followed by their flagship wine, the Bourassa 2009 Napa Valley Harmony ($59), a Bordeaux blend.  It had a nice nose with a hint of cinnamon, followed by a full but well-balanced palate of mostly cherry.  Although quite drinkable by itself, it should age well and pair well with steak. Our final tasting was the Bourassa 2007 Symphony 3 from Napa Valley, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon at $69.  This is from grapes in Coombsville, Oak Knoll and Yountville.  After a nice cherry nose, it had good acid, tannin and balance and was very drinkable, being full bodied but smooth.  We liked all three of the reds equally.

We recommend a visit to Bourassa Vineyard which is a small friendly winery that has plenty of parking and is off the usual tourist path.







190 Camino Oruga, Suite 5
Napa, CA 94558
707-254-4922
Date of visit: August 16, 2012


Thursday, August 9, 2012

O'Brien Estate Winery

O’Brien Estate Winery is in the Oak Knoll district in northern Napa.  The vineyard was planted in 1978 and a winery was built two years later. In 1995, Phylloxera attacked the vineyard so all of the vines were replanted in 1996.  It was sold in 2000 to Bart and Barbara O’Brien.  There are a total of 33 cultivated acres, all in the same area.  (O’Brien does not own vineyards in other districts.)  All of the O’Brien Estate wines are made from these grapes in Oak Knoll.  The famous 1973 Chateau Montelena that placed first in Paris in 1976 came from grapes on the Hanna vineyard which is adjacent to O’Brien Estate vineyard.




Our tasting began with the O'Brien 2010 Chardonnay at $40.  (They were out of their Sauvignon Blanc.) Although it sees 100% MLF or malolactic conversion, it has only a hint of butter to it.  It had a nice nose and was crisp and well balanced on the palate with some lemon and perhaps pear, followed by a good finish.  This sees 30% new French Oak and 30% year old oak.  It is not one of those buttery overly oaked Chards.  They happened to have a bottle open of their O'Brien 2009 Reserve Chardonnay at $65 so we were able to sample this next.  It is one of only two reserve wines. Again, this receives 100% MLF, but I would never have guessed that from tasting it.  I asked about this and was told that their Chardonnay grapes have so little malic acid in them that when it converts to lactic acid the wine ends up better balanced but without all of that popcorn butter which can ruin a nice Chard.  The Reserve Chard is even drier than the regular one, very crisp, with some minerality, more in the style of a white Burgundy.  We liked both of them, but I definitely preferred the reserve, whereas my friend preferred the softer regular release Chard.





Our reds began with a very nice O'Brien 2009 Merlot at $48.  This had better structure and body than most Merlots with good tannins. It is a big Merlot with a cherry nose and blackberry and black cherry on the palate, with a touch of cedar and a mouthfeel more typical of a Cab than a Merlot.  It was our favorite of the wines we sampled.  We were not able to taste their Cab reserve which they call the Unrestrained Reserve, but we did try the three Cab blends. O’Brien makes three red blends in the Bordeaux tradition.  Their O'Brien 2009 Romance of the Heart ($50) is predominately Merlot (65% with 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cab Franc) and is softer and easy to drink.  It had a pleasant cherry nose, with blackberry and cherry on the palate along with a nice body, good tannins and a decent finish. There O'Brien 2009 Seduction ($55) is their flagship wine and is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.  It was my favorite of the three blends, with its cherry aroma, full-bodied palate and integrated tannins. The O'Brien 2009 Passion of the Soul Cabernet Sauvignon ($65) has 95% Cabernet Sauvignon with 5% Cabernet Franc and is a decent Cab for the price. Each of these three blends comes in a lovely bottle with excerpts from the owner’s love poetry to his wife written on the back.  Our host told us that the owner, Bart O’Brien, sometimes reads his poems to visitors as they sample the wine. 






O’Brien Estate is a small winery well worth visiting. They require an appointment but this can be easily be made by phone or email. They recently submitted some of their wines to Robert Parker for review and you may read excerpts from his reviews here.   Robert Parker review excerpts





1200 Orchard Avenue
Napa, CA 94558
Phone: (707) 252-8463
Date of visit: August 9, 2012

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Zinfandel Advocates & Producers Event

We really enjoy attending ZAP events. Here is a new one coming up.  TJ

ZAP HOSTS 2ND ANNUAL GRILLE-O-RAMA
August 11 at Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda
Taste Zinfandels by region and compare

Rough & Ready, CA, summer 2012----Zinfandel Advocates & Producers invites the public to the second annual Grille-O-Rama at Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda on Saturday, August 11 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Rock Wall Wine Company is located at 2301 Monarch Street , Suite 300, Building 24 (94501, http://www.rockwallwines.com/, 510/522-5700).

Attendees will discover the distinct flavors of Zinfandel from up and down California including the Bay Area, Lodi, Napa, Paso Robles, Sierra Foothills, and Sonoma: this is an opportunity to taste and compare 30 different Zinfandels from 9 growing regions. 4 savvy chefs---Chef Tyler Stone, Chef John Ledbetter of Bocanova, Chef Dawn Wofford of Sonoma Smokehouse and Chef Sophina Uong of Pican---will fire up the grills to create tantalizing tastes served alongside the wines. A “People’s Choice” award will be chosen by the attendees. Respected wine professionals serving as judges---Sara Schneider (Sunset Magazine’s wine editor), Luke Sykora (Associate Editor, Wine & Spirits Magazine), Lynne Char Bennett (San Francisco Chronicle), Charles Olken (Connoisseur’s Guide to California Wine), Randy Caparoso (Sommelier Journal) and Frank Thorsberg (KTVU television producer and wine blogger)---will also select a winning “Grill Master.” Enjoy the views of San Francisco Bay and the spaciousness of the airplane hangar setting while you stroll, sip, taste, chat and chew.

ZAP member tickets are $40 per person if purchased before July 27. After July 27, all tickets are $50 per person; it’s suggested to buy tickets in advance (530/274-4900 or https://members.zinfandel.org/cgi-shl/TWServer.exe?EREG:OrderEvent:2012ORAMAMEM); some may be available at the door at the event.

Contact: Julie Ann Kodmur, 707/963-9632, corking@julieannkodmur.com
To buy tickets:

Participating wineries are:
Bay Area: Dashe Cellars, R&B Cellars, Rock Wall Wine Company, Three Wine Company
Lodi: Brazin Cellars, Cycles Gladiator Winery, Haraszthy, Ironstone Vineyard, Jessie’s Grove Winery, Klinker Brick Winery, Macchia, Masked Rider
Napa Valley: Green & Red Vineyards, Hendry Wines, Mike & Molly Wine Company, Zinfandel Heritage Vineyard
Paso Robles: Castoro Cellars, Four Vines
Nevada County: Chacewater Wine
Calaveras County: Chatom Vineyards, Milliaire Winery
El Dorado County: Lava Cap Winery, Mellowood Vineyards
Amador County: Renwood Winery, Scott Harvey Wines
Sonoma: Carol Shelton Wines, DeLoach Vineyards, Dutcher Crossing Winery, JC Cellars, Mauritson Family Winery, Red Truck, Starry Night Winery.

2013 ZAP FESTIVAL
The 22nd Annual Zinfandel Festival takes place in San Francisco January 31 – February 2, 2013. Watch zinfandel.org for updates on all the activities. The events consist of Epicuria at The Concourse on Thursday, January 31; Flights at The Fairmont on Friday, February 1; Zinfandel Winemakers’ Dinner on February 1 at The Fairmont Hotel and The Grand Tasting at The Concourse on Saturday, February 2. Early bird ticket packages are available from August 1 until September 30; tickets for all events go on sale online on October 1.

ZINFANDEL ADVOCATES & PRODUCERS
The Association of Zinfandel Advocates & Producers is a not-for-profit, member-based, educational 501(c)(3) organization. ZAP’s mission is to advance public knowledge of and appreciation for American Zinfandel and its unique place in our culture and history.

Winegrowers, winemakers and wine enthusiasts combine to form the membership. The common focus is the preservation and recognition of Zinfandel as America’s heritage wine. ZAP’s membership includes approximately 250 winery-members, 4,000 advocate members and 100 associate members.