2015 Napa Trip - Day 3
Tasted Saturday, April 11, 2015 by ageverett with 597 views
Introduction
Another gorgeous day in the Napa Valley. Started early and wound our way up Howell Mountain. Worked our way back down into Calistoga and St. Helena, before finishing right across the street from the hotel in Rutherford.
Flight 1 - Saunter with Heather Clark (2 Notes)
Heather was incredibly gracious enough to meet us up on Howell Mountain at Outpost on Saturday morning. What a morning, and what a view! Just beautiful, and the outpost staff even offered us a splash of the 2012 Outpost grenache, which was lovely.
Heather splash decanted both of these wines, and we drank them outdoors overlooking the vines over about an hour. Just serene. Hard to start a Saturday better than this!
There is a lot of passion in these wines. This is the only wine that Heather and her husband (vineyard manager Josh Clark) own. While Josh's family has been in the Napa wine business for a long time, they are really blazing their own path this the Saunter label. And it is incredible.
Flight 2 - Frank Family tasting room - Calistoga (6 Notes)
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Frank Family. One of my "first loves" in wine was the Reserve cab, which continues to be a fantastic wine.
This was the only "cattle call" of our trip. Big tasting room operation with lots of tourists. But also one of the few wineries that are permitted to have a picnic area, so we brought lunch and sat outside with a bottle fo the 2012 Reserve cab after the tasting.
Flight 3 - Dancing Hares - St. Helena (4 Notes)
The vines here are gorgeous on the drive in - just West of Silverado trail, almost back down to Rutherford. Staci was an INCREDIBLE hostess. She had the wines open in the cellar, with some manchego-esqe cheese and bread sticks. Also really enjoyed the barrel tastings of the 2013s that were just almost ready to blend for bottling.
Winery is very clean and state of the art. A couple of the biggest concrete tanks I have seen. Barrels are all gorgeous custom French barrels. Andy also keeps many of his other wines in barrel in this cellar.
Flight 4 - Quintessa - Rutherford (5 Notes)
What a gorgeous property. Just East off the Silverado Trail, across the trail from driveway to Auberge. BIG vineyard and winery. Much bigger than I expected. Just a stunning property, with a pond/lake in the middle of it. They generally grow Bordeaux grapes, but also grow Carmenerre as an homage to Chile, where the owners are from.
Very modern winery. The visitor structure is modern with lots of clean lines and raw concrete. The real workshop and tanks, etc. are 'below deck" from the "parking lot" in front of the winery, such that the grapes can be sorted on deck and just gravity-fed into the tanks. Pretty cool. Very slick caves. And a nice tasting room. We were generally left to our own devices to taste through the wines at our leisure with some cheeses and bread sticks. Real quality experience.
Flight 5 - Dinner at Auberge du Soleil (1 Note)
Ended the trip with a fine dinner on the patio at our hotel. We actually ordered something different (I can't quite recall which wine), but it was not available. So this was our alternate.
Dinner was very nice and had a good balance and pace. But the wine and the view were the highlights.
Closing
Overall impressions from the trip are that 2012 is an incredible vintage. It will generally drink early, and I will not be scared to pop 2012s in the very near future. This is also because 2013 is going to be a monster. It was really fun to hear the excitement in the voices of the winemakers and staff with respect to the 2013s. Everybody is clearly excited about them.
Other observation was that 2006 Napa reds are shining right now. From the Bond we had in San Francisco on the first night to the Quintessa we had today, these wines are SHINING. Need to pull many of the 2006s from my cellar and give them a rip. They are open and ready for business.
2010 Saunter Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 685 Red Head Vineyard 93 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley
Very expressive nose. Dark purple/red. more red fruit than blue. Vineyard is down in Napa off old Soda Canyon. Very ripe; smooth, but plenty of grip. This is more "feminine" in style vs. the Eagle Summit. Little more perfume. probably better for drinking now, but this can certainly lay down for a while.
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2010 Saunter Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Eagle Summit Vineyard 94 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain
Darker in color as compared to the Red Head. Nose is more graphite. More purple. Brighter. While a bigger wine, this is smooth. Big mountain fruit.
I only have one bottle in cellar, and will let it rest for a while. This has the stuffing.
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