Impressions from a weekend in Napa Valley
Napa Valley
Tasted April 7, 2014 by clayfu with 1,672 views
Introduction
Some friends and I have been trying to take a visit up to Napa Valley for some time. everyone's scheduled cleared and we went up this past weekend. Rented a gorgeous house along the Silverado Country Club as our base.
Our first stop on the way to checking into the house was the good ol Napa Valley wine & Cigar to say hi to Randy and Carrie. As I was the one driving and acting as the defacto tour guide for the weekend, my wife was making fun of me that this was the "pearl manufacturer" stop of the tour for our friends.
We made our way to our place, grabbed the keys and immediately proceeded up to Calistoga.
Flight 1 - Rivers Marie (7 notes)
We made our way up from Napa to Calistoga, in pretty much pouring rain. This gave us the opportunity to quickly order some food from Gott's on their online ordering system for pick up. Everyone was pretty much starving, so the food was devoured in the car while driving from St Helena to Calistoga.
We met up Will Segui at the Rivers Marie Office/House for a tasting of the wines. Unfortunately, I'm missing the chardonnay as I couldn't remember if we had the 2011/2012. Will put out a great lineup of wines. I think Rivers Marie absolutely owned 2012 with their pinots. Just fabulous wines. I haven't had it in awhile so I wasn't sure what to expect, but man, there's this electricity in the wines, just brightness and focus. TRB has really dialed it in on the wines. I haven't had a RM cab since the 2006 vintage, so i was equally as wow'd by the cabernets. Two of my friends were clamoring to get on the next release. The 2012 Summa and the 2010 Corona cab were HUGE standouts to me. I believe they've all been released so I highly highly recommend hunting them down, you won't be disappointed.
Always great to catch up with Will and TRB as well, been a couple of years since I've seen them. Lamented the cost of Roulot with TRB and Will really helped my friends' fears that Napa valley is some stuffy place as we all just shot the shit and drank really great wines. On the drive up, I told them "gonna have to spit, we're going to be trying a lot of great wines soon".. in the middle of the tasting they said "we can't spit the wines they are too damn good!!"
A huge group with a Danish importer came in a bit early for their next appointment so we headed on over to see Mr. Smith.
Red
2010 Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon Corona Vineyard
USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville
The depth of flavor on this wine is intense. Thick and layered dark fruit with a gripping tannin structure. Killer value at the price in comparison to so many other cabs from Napa in the price range. In the decanter for roughly 3 hours before trying.
Red
2012 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Occidental Ridge Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
please don't string me up. The first thing I noted on the nose was that crunchy red fruit and orange peel. It just threw me right back all the young Fourrier I've tasted in the past few months. I haven't had a Rivers Marie pinot (outside of the 2010 sonoma coast which was the red at my wedding) since the 2007 or 2008 vintage and I was just completely floored at how compelling the nose was to me. The palate was just bright red fruit of cherries, pomegranate jumping everywhere, full of electricity and light on its feet. A touch of spice on the back end to give it a little complexity.
Going to be fun to try this in the future.
Red
2009 Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard
USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena
More opulent in fruit than the 2010 Corona we had next to it. Didn't have the brooding thick structure of the Corona but was more accessible on the palate. The fruit is brighter and the texture is soft and glides on the palate. Great tension on the palate extends into the finish.
Red
2012 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Not surprised that this is the best value in Pinot out there. Took back to the house a half finished bottle of this that was opened around 3pm and we drank it around 9pm. Lots of textured sweet fruit on the palate with enough acid and complexity to keep it interesting. Rounded out with a nice softness to it.
Red
2012 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Summa Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
We moved on from the occidental to the Summa and to me there is a big step up. The Summa has so much more depth on the palate, as the darker fruit keeps expanding as the wine lingers on the palate. There's much more of that spice and earth that really helps add to the wine. Fantastic wine.
Red
2012 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Kanzler Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
This wine surprised me as I never thought that TRB would make a wine from Kanzler. The vineyard played a big part in the wine, it's riper and more forward than the other pinots we had from the lineup. Sharper in sweet fruit than the rest of the line up.
Red
2012 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Gioia Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Had this about 6 hours after it was opened (half of the bottle exposed to air). Fleshy round pinot with loads of cherry licorice on the palate. I think it was the softest RM pinot we had from the 2012 lineup, might also be the one to drink the quickest.
Flight 2 - Myriad (7 notes)
We took the quick 5 minute drive from RM headquarters to Envy Winery.
Mike Smith makes his wines at Envy Winery and he welcomed our group. While waiting in the tasting room for Envy, we started off with an Envy 2012 Sauv blanc. Crisp, clean with nice lemon grass, a good palate starter for the upcoming wines.
It's been at least 4 years since I last saw Mike after a rowdy weekend in Vegas so it was great to see him. One thing I love about Mike's wine is just how fragrant every wine is. From the semillion to the pinot to the syrah and the cabernet, you just get really intoxicating bouquets that keep you smelling deep into the glass. He does absolute magic when it comes to the nose on a wine. We tasted through a strong line up of wines and had a great time.
We also tasted some Carter and 2013 Myriad Cabs from barrel, but the wines were so primary that I didn't bother adding in a CT note. They were good, but at this point too difficult to judge where they'd go. After moving mike from area to area trying barrels, we released him to head home to his wife and kids ;D.
Red
2012 Ancillary Cellars Pinot Noir Sun Chase Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
The nose on this wine is pretty intoxicating, load of baking spice, fresh tossed earth and bright red fruit. The wine is well balanced on the palate right now with a softness on the palate but also enough bright acidity to allow the fruit to linger on the palate. Loads of crunchy red fruit. I've never had anything from the vineyard nor did I even know Mike was making a pinot, but I really enjoyed this wine
Red
2011 Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard
USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena
Probably the best 2011 Cab I had on this trip. Just tons of lush dark fruit mixed with grainy tannins with a lingering coffee and cocoa on the back end. Just really long on the finish with tons of sweet fruit. The nose is deep and expansive and full of coffee grinds, mocha and dark cherries. A bigger wine delivering tons of flavor.
Red
2012 Myriad Cellars Syrah Esther Block Las Madres Vineyard
USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros
Completely surprised by the fact that this wine had zero stem inclusion. Meaty, bright fruit and a boat load of spice on the nose. One of the most intoxicating noses on the whole trip. The palate was equally as expressive with lots of cooling acidity to balance out the dark sweet fruit. Killer value at the price.
Red
2012 Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Elysian Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard
USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena
tasted out of barrel. This wine is a beast of a wine right now. Just chock ful of big dark fruit on the initial attack and the fruit goes on forever as it just sits on the palate. The wine is burly and structured and really rounded out with the nice acidity and grainy tannins. Be an exciting wine to try after being bottled.
Flight 3 - Back to RM (1 note)
We had about a hour and a half between dinner at leaving Myriad so we headed back to the RM house. The newest employee at RM had arrived back (Dan) and Will cracked into the growler of Stone Ruination I trucked up to him from LA. Will then broke into some real goodies beer wise.
The Goose Island Bourbon County Intelligentsia Coffee Stout (2012) was outstanding. one of the best Stouts I've had in awhile. I think their regular bourbon barrel stuff is a bit too syrupy and portlike to me, but this had a strong coffee flavor but really wonderful soft texture.
Bells Black Note Stout 2012: Not as intense in flavor as the GI, but had a much lighter appealing palate.
Goose Island Bourbon County Barley Wine: Not sure of the vintage, I think it was 2013. Syrupy, sweet on the palate. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but everyone else seemed to like it the most.
The Pappy 15/20/23 was also popped, I didn't partake as I was driving.
I opened a 2002 Clos des Lambrays for some wine ;p.
Red
2002 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru
Wine really blossomed with about 15 minutes in the glass from a pop and pour. Bright textured fruit with equally bright acidity with a long sweet finish. A bit of meatiness on the back end to add a little bit of complexity to the palate. Needs time as while everything tasted nice, it still wasn't as powerful as it could be.
Flight 4 - Ad Hoc (2 notes)
We had dinner at Ad hoc and I brought in a couple of wines.
Food was excellent as always, except for the Breast meat on the roast chicken. I can make an awesome version of Keller's roast chicken from the ad hoc cookbook, but Ad Hoc themselves have trouble keeping the breast meat tender? Just weird. Every single piece of breast meat was dry. The leg/thigh/wings were delicious as was the couscous that went with it.
The whole roasted black bass we had, might have been my favorite dish all trip.
Red
2005 Maybach Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Materium
USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville
I was kinda hoping this wine would be more ready but it's not quite there yet. The palate is very concentrated with sweet purple fruit, but it's pretty one dimensional right now as it's just too primary. The acidity is peaking out on the wine but it's not enough to really give the wine a lift from that almost granulated oak/alcohol on the back end.
I've had some stupendous Maybachs, but this one wasn't one of my favs.
Red
2011 Saxum Broken Stones
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
baby killin. Pop and poured into a decanter at dinner. A bit syrupy and candied on the palate, I think Loren's note is pretty precise that it was syrupy. I decided to just leave it in the decanter and rebottled' it and took it home to try it the next day.
The next day it wasn't nearly as syrupy, but there was that texture of oak on it that hadn't shed. Round soft fruit started to emerge but it needs to shed significant baby fat before it's ready to drink.
Closing
We ended off the night heading back to the house. Will had given us two 2L growlers from RRBC. One Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig. We tunneled into the Blind Pig on night one. Delicious beer, fresh and a touch spicy. Really freaking good.
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