rloomis
Posts: 93
Joined: 1/29/2007
From: San Diego, CA
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Time again for our annual pilgrimage to Napa (and this time Sonoma too :) )
This year's collection (top->bottom, left->right):
Opus One 2003, 2004: We just dropped in on the winery without an appointment. I explained that I didn't have an appointment, but I didn't want to go on the tour. I just wanted to stop in and buy some wine. The girl at the front desk looked us over with a raised eyebrow of contempt but then, perhaps sensing my earnest to spend a lot of money, handed us a card and said in a scolding, nondescript European accent, “Go on through to the wine sales room and show them this. But, next time, make an appointment.”
So in we went, presenting our allowance to buy wine this time but not again without an appointment admission card to the alpha-hottie-quebeciose sales associate at the wine tasting and sales desk.
There we were offered a chance to taste the 2004 Opus One for $30/glass – or was it $60?
I requested a glass each for myself and my wife which we drank with great pleasure as we walked around the olive trees in the front courtyard. Whatever it cost, totally worth it – and the jolie francophone femme turned out to be really cool and totally hooked us up; charging us for only 1 glass instead of 2. We bought a bottle each of the 03, and 04 along with 4 bottles of the Overture – their 2nd label of wine that didn't make the grade to become part of the Opus One blend. At $50/bottle it's a great value and still a lot better than a lot of the $75-$100 flagship wines you'll find at many of the wineries along Hwy 29.
2005 Robert Mondavi To Kalon Reserve Fume Blanc x 6:
One of my wife's favorite wines. Picked up during a tasting stop at the Reserve Room at Mondavi.
2004 Mondavi Cab Sauvignon Reserve x2
2000 Mondavi Sauv Blanc Botrytis x1
the aforementioned Opus One Overture x 4
T-Vine syrah and petite sirah purchased at the Sunshine Foods market. We stopped there minutes before their closing time. The people working there probably thought we were pretty insane as we ran up and down each isle dumping olives, breads, jars of truffles, caviar, pate and various goat cheeses into our basket at random to be sure we got to the checkout before they closed. Dinner that night was the picnic feast to end them all. But, we saved enough to have something for snacks all the next day as well as an appetite the next morning for a breakfast of green eggs and ham at the Boon Fly Cafe.
Next bottle is a 2004 Five Vintner's Cab Sauvignon which is made by Krisi Raymond from Raymond Vineyards as her own wine label. We bought more than 1 of those but only this one lasted for the trip home.
My wife and I spent our first day of this trip at Raymond Winery where we played "Winemaker for a Day" creating our own custom Bordeaux blends with Krisi in the Raymond Vineyards Lab.
My wife was a little concerned that I was developing a little bit of a crush on Krisi; the name of my custom blend, my attempt at a new world interpretation of a Left Bank Bordeaux, was a tossup between: "Heidi, Heidi, Who?" or "Heidi, Heidi, Ho!"
My wife's blend was something she dubbed "Barely Legal". Front loaded with lots of rich merlot and juicy cab franc designed to be the ultimate parkerized "hedonistic helicopter fruit bomb".
.....you have to drink a lot of wine to get the blend just right. :)
The second row ends with 4x Robert Mondavi To Kalon I-Block Fume Blanc
The next group is from a stop at the Sonoma Enoteca where we sampled several offerings and came away with these:
2x 2005 Robert Stemmler Pinot Noir, Carneros Estate
2x 2005 Robert Stemmler Pinot Noir, Russian River – Nugent Vineyard
1x 2005 Robert Stemmler Chardonnay, Carneros Estate
1x Trios, some kind of meritage and it looks like it missed getting entered into the cellar inventory. I have no idea where that bottle is now...
and 1x Compass Port
Next group is from a stop at the Beaulieu Vineyards Library Wine Room. Man, I'd sure love to have a spare key and a few days to spend alone in that place. They had bottles of every vintage of Georges de Latour Private Reserve going back to the 1940's. The 4 bottles shown are from box set they offered at a special price that was a pretty good deal and included an 04 Georges de Latour, 04 Tapestry, 05 Pinot Reserve, and 05 Chardonnay Reserve. After visiting BV, we went next door and had dinner at the Rutherford Grill. Highly recommend it. Great food, very comfortable atmosphere, favourite hangout of many of the locals, and no corkage fee -- but their winelist is priced very reasonably so you can't go wrong either way. We ordered a Spottswood Cab Sauv from their list.
Beginning the last row are from a visit to Gundlach Bundschu winery. Hmm, 3 bottles in the picture, but only 2 cataloged in the cellar – another missing bottle to chase down. There's a Gewurztraminer and Cab Franc listed in CT. Jjudging from the shape of the bottle, the missing 3rd one's a Pinot Noir. Come to think of it – we might have drank that one. Nevermind.
Next is 2 bottles of Chardonnay: one Reserve, one regular, and a Pinot from Schug. We also bought some kind of purplish Brut Rose stuff from them which we drank. Very small and modest winery; they didn't charge for the tasting if you bought wine.
The Rose bottle is a Rose of Pinot Noir from Nicholson Ranch. We also bought a bottle of their Estate Pinot but that didn't survive long enough to be photographed. Really beautiful winery – terrific view from their balcony and some rather decent pinot too.
Last 5 are Robledo Pinot Noir. A small winery whose patriarch was a Mexican immigrant who started working in the vineyards and eventually came to own his own winery. The atmosphere feels like a throwback to an old California ranch house and the wine is a bit coarse and rustic. Oddly, the Pinot Noir that seems like it would be the toughest to get right was far and away their best wine. This was actually the Pinot we were on a pilgrimage to find during this trip after having a bottle in a restaurant a year ago that just blew us away. We had to make 2 trips to this winery to find them open, but it was worth it.
Visited a few other wineries including Joseph Phelps where we sampled tbeir fogdog wines and of course, Insignia, but didn't buy anything.
Not yet arrived for photograph is a case of various vintages of Generations Cab from Raymond -- looking forward very much to that box arriving soon!
< Message edited by rloomis -- 3/25/2008 12:19:51 AM >
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