Mumm Napa NV Brut Prestige

Winery notes: If you asked winemaker Ludovic Dervin to name the quintessential Napa Valley sparkling wine, his answer would inevitably be Brut Prestige. Sourced from more than 50 prime Napa Valley vineyards—and nearly 80 different vineyard blocks—this elegant, balanced wine is the perfect example of the artistry of méthode traditionelle and the incomparable fruit of Napa Valley. This hugely popular wine offers touches of vanilla and melon, with firm acid and crisp structure.

It is made with about equal amounts of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with a little Pinot Meunier and Pinot Gris as well.

We had a magnum given to us as a gift a while back by the Dorr's. We popped the cork just before midnight to celebrate the New Year with our assembled friends.

2003 Guigal Cote Rotie - Brune Et Blonde

It is New Year's Eve and we have several house guests, so it was time to fix a nice meal and serve some great wines. This E. Guigal Cote Rotie from the Rhone Valley has a very attractive QPR. 96% Syrah and 4% Viognier grapes.

We served it with grilled lamb, grilled roast beef, marinated grilled vegetables, hummus, pita bread, and a few other side dishes.

93 points, Robert Parker: "The 2003 Cote Rotie Brune et Blonde is probably the finest cuvee of regular Cote Rotie that Guigal has produced since 1999 or 1991. Stunningly rich, it offers a beautiful, sweet nose of cassis, mocha, espresso, bacon fat, black olives, and underbrush. Some smoked meat notes also make an appearance in this rich, lush, opulent wine. This is a beauty."

92 points, Wine Spectator: "Still tight, but this has a solid core of muscular fig paste, currant, tobacco, black olive and iron notes, followed by a long, well-structured finish. Shows the heat of the vintage, but isn't roasted."

92 points Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar: "Deep, inky ruby. Powerful, superripe aromas of kirsch, blackcurrant and chocolate, complemented by exotic spices and licorice. Rich, creamy and dense, with sweet red and dark fruit flavors framed by chewy tannins. The sweetness builds on the finish, which features a late-arriving note of floral pastille."

2005 Radio-Coteau Syrah - Timbervine Vineyard, Russian River Valley

This was one of the wines we served with New Year's Eve dinner. Radio-Coteau is one of our favorite wineries for California Syrah and Pinot Noir. Eric Sussman is the winemaker. We got on their mailing list a few years ago and have been exceptionally pleased with every bottle we've opened.

Winemaker's Notes: Joe Mesics and Eva Auchincloss own and farm this timber-lined hillside Syrah vineyard, which is perched high above the Russian River just beyond the town of Forestville on the steep southeastern slope of Black Mountain. This is a primary, ripe, and well concentrated wine, with an effusive bouquet of blueberry, blackberry, mineral, earth, and white pepper aromas that speak of cool-climate Syrah. A profound density of flavors and textures defines the mid-palate, which boasts a panoply of freshly roasted coffee beans, chewy dark chocolate, candied violet, brown spices and dried blueberries. The finish is equally dense, with succulent meat, violet, and blueberry flavors lingering with the wine’s chewy tannins. The balance of tannins, acidity and alcohol hint at a long and positive evolution in the cellar.

Critics' Tasting Notes:
"...great fruit...a big, sweet nose of plum, blackberry, camphor, licorice, and pepper. It is a pure, hedonistic, luscious style of Syrah...bursting with black fruits and roasted meat and herb notes." (93 points) Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
"Opaque purple. Explosively aromatic nose features pungent cassis and mulberry fruit notes complicated by candied violet and licorice. Deep and sweet, with energetic dark berry and cherry preserve flavors and a fresh, juicy quality carrying through the finish. As big and dense as this is, it's got finesse to burn." (92 points) Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar
"Intense and balanced, with firm tannins. Ripe, spicy wild berry, blackberry and huckleberry are focused and persistent on the long, tight finish. 370 cases made." (90 points) Wine Spectator

2007 Casa Marin Sauvignon Blanc - Cipreses Vineyard

We served this wonderful white wine from Chile with appetizers before our New Year's Eve dinner. Caren prepared a dish with Black Forest ham, gruyere cheese, and spicy hot mustard baked in phyllo dough. She also prepared some of her spicy mixed nuts along with assorted cheeses and flatbreads.

The Cipreses vineyard is located at the very top of a hillside slope overlooking the towns of Lo Abarca and Lo Zarate, with both a northern and southern exposure. It is an extremely windy area, which acts as a natural restraining agent on grape yield. The results are very weak vines and low productivity. Drip irrigation is used, and part of the vineyard faces the ocean.

This wine received 95 points from Wine and Spirits magazine.

2005 Eric Kent Chardonnay - Russian River Valley

Another great white wine served with appetizers prior to our New Year's Eve dinner. Eric Kent Wine Cellars always puts artwork from local Sonoma artists on the back label of their bottles.

Winemaker's Tasting Notes: A golden straw in color, the ‘05 vintage layers exotic spice and floral notes on top of a crisp green apple and minerality on the nose. Then the palate takes over with full flavors of honeydew melon and tangerine leading to a hint of hazelnut to round out the long finish. Bright acidity buoys the entire ensemble and keeps it lively throughout. Only in the background (where it belongs) does tight-grained French oak provide structural support that knits the entire package together. Delicious now, this Chardonnay should just get better and better over the next couple of years. 225 cases made.

92 pts. – Wine Spectator. Floral, peach, honeysuckle and melon aromas are distinctive, and the fruit is pure on the palate, with a hint of spice. Ends with an elegant, graceful aftertaste.

Two Cities NV Cabernet Sauvignon

Our friends the Dorrs arrived from NoCal today, so we decided to open this bottle of wine made right down the street in San Pedro by a group of Croatian businessmen. Making a boutique wine is one of their hobbies, not unlike what Barry and I are doing at Crushpad in San Francisco.

We served the wine with snacks and a light meal.

The wine is actually quite good - not a lot of complexity to it, but easy to drink right now. Attractive nose, good fruit, and long finish.

Our first Crushpad wine should be available for shipment in a week or two.

2004 Bodega Emilio Moro Tempranillo, Ribera del Duero

Tempranillo is the premium red wine grape variety from the Rioja and Ribera del Duero region in Spain. This wine displays an intense colour with a bluish rim and a cherry-red core. Attractive, perfectly integrated fruit aromas come to the fore with power and concentration. This is a bargain at around $25 a bottle. We served it with grilled flank steak.

Critics' Tasting Notes:
"The reasonably priced 2004 Emilio Moro is a terrific Ribera del Duero aged in equal parts French and American oak prior to bottling. Its dense ruby/purple color is followed by a projected nose of blackberries, currants, cherries, smoky oak, and crushed rocks. Terrific texture, super purity, an opulent, full-bodied palate, and a long, heady finish suggest it will keep for 7-8 years." The Wine Advocate

"Medium red. Floral and spicy on the nose, with fresh red fruit aromas and notes of minerals and coffee. Sweet, nicely focused red fruit flavors (especially pomegranate) are lifted by bright acidity. Finishes brisk and sweet, with very good length and a lingering impression of tangy red berries." IWC

COLOR-very dark; NOSE-coming across very milky; pretty raspberry components; gorgeous sense of macadamia nuts; so a Vanilla/Raspberry/Macadamia Nut dessert; pretty nice; TASTE-if you like Cali Cabs, you should seek this out; this wine kicks serious BUTT; huge explosion of red fruit (cherries, strawberries, cranberries & raspberries); Crème Fraîche bouncing all over my mouth; sour cream components; nice Oak Monster; perfect balance for a New World; this wine is Rocking; great balance & structure; very polished; good for 4-10 years based on tannin structure; love both the back-end and front-end of this wine, but the mid-palate is a tad hollow; complete bargain; Gary Vaynerchuk - 91+

2003 Tantara Chardonnay - Dierberg Vineyard

This medium-bodied Chardonnay is from Tantara Winery, located just outside of Santa Maria, CA. Actually, the winery is located in Santa Barbara County, a stone's throw from the San Luis Obispo County line.

Took the bottle from the cellar, chilled it down more for a few hours, then opened it and let it sit for about 20 minutes before we had dinner.

It had a nose of citrus and tropical fruit. Similar flavors on the palate.

Robert Parker gave this wine a 90 point rating back in August, 2005.

We served this wine with a homemade seafood chowder (tomato-based) that Caren put together, along with a salad of mixed greens and toasted garlic bread.

2003 Deerfield Ranch Merlot Cuvee'

We took a bottle of this wine over to the Franklin's for their holiday buffet luncheon. It was a very nice, easy drinking Merlot made from a blend of Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, and Napa County grapes. (The picture of the label is from the 2004 vintage.)

Winemaker's notes: 75% Merlot, 11% Cab, with Malbec and Sangiovese. We could just call it Merlot but our focus has always been on blending so with “Cuvee” we make more a point of it. The best wines are blends, it’s like making the best soup or sauce, it’s about interplay of flavors and effects. 850 cases were produced.

Connoisseur's Guide to California Wines: From its layered aromas of oak-sweetened cherries to its very smooth, neatly proportioned flavors, this engaging Merlot hits all of the right varietal marks and shows a fair measure of fruity depth in the bargain. It is nicely rounded in feel with muted tannins and a lengthy, easy-to-taste finish, and, while it can hold well in the cellar for three or four years, it delivers lots of straightforward appeal right now.

2004 Quilceda Creek Columbia Valley Red Wine

Quilceda Creek is Washington State's premier Cabernet Sauvignon producer. Their Cabernet is in high demand and typically sells for well over $100 a bottle. I know the label says 2005 (it was the only label photo I could find), but we opened the 2004 tonight.

This wine is Quilceda Creek's second label for declassified lots of grapes. It consists of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Merlot. Purple colored, it posseses a nose of vanilla, violets, cassis, black currents, and blackberry. This leads to a rich, layered, black fruit-flavored, and smoothly textured wine that offers considerable elegance. The wine has serious weight and excellent length. It is just at the beginning of its drinkability years. It is a superb value if you can get your hands on it.

We served it for dinner with barbeque brisket, a casserole of mashed potatoes, celery root, apple, and fennel, and a salad.

2005 A. Rafanelli Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel

We visited the A. Rafanelli winery twice in the past year. The first time was one day before they released the 2005 Cabernet. The boxes were sitting right there in the tasting room, but they wouldn't sell us any. The second visit was during the Dry Creek Valley Passport weekend when we stocked up with a mixed case.

The Rafanelli family is now in its fourth generation of growing grapes and making wine in the Dry Creek Valley. Their focus has always been on quality over quantity. The quaint and rustic winery sits on a knoll overlooking the scenic Dry Creek Valley and is surrounded by terraced hillside vineyards. The wines are only sold at the winery. You might occasionally see one for sale in a wine store, but it will be heavily marked up.

We served this Zinfandel with pasta and a spicy tomato sauce with langostines. The wine was big, bold, lots of fruit, and not overpowering with alcohol.

2006 Nobilo, Icon - Sauvignon Blanc

Our guests from Australia are still visiting and cooked a tasty pasta and shrimp dinner for us. We served this Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough area in New Zealand (they like the white wines from there). This wine is readily available in supermarkets and box stores here in the U.S..

Winery tasting notes: Light straw in color with brilliant clarity. A rich bouquet of pineapple and passion fruit, layered with fresh herbal aromas of nettles and ripe capsicum. Showing excellent structure and palate weight, this wine has a smooth, viscous mouth feel. Distinct Marlborough characters of passion fruit, gooseberry and nettles linger on the palate in a crisp, refreshing finish.

So much for their description. To my palate it tasted clean and crisp, but more like a Chardonnay than a NZ Sauvignon Blanc.

2004 Esterlina Merlot Cole Ranch

Yesterday evening, we cooked a total Indian food dinner to woo several friends into looking at the photos from our recent trip.

We threw caution to the winds in terms of food pairing and served whatever wines we thought we wanted to drink.

Esterlina Vineyards is a family-owned, California boutique winery located near the Mendocino coast, nestled in the highlands above the town of Philo. They own the only vineyard in the tiny Cole Ranch appellation.

The color of this Merlot was a rich garnet. There were lots of black fruit aromas, with plum, clove and a bit of smoky oak, too. The flavors were ripe, rich and complex, with black cherry, blackberry, and cocoa. This is a red wine hard not to like. Esterlina produced 923 cases.

2006 Alta Vista Premium Torrontes

This wine made with the Torrontes grape comes from Alta Vista's winery in the northern Argentinean region of Salta. The region of Cafayate in Salta is particularly famous for its unique microclimate, high altitude and excellent soil drainage and is confirmed as the best place in the world to grow Torrontes.

With a bright yellow color and delicate floral aromas, the wine is fresh and lively with excellent balance and vibrant acidity. It has way fewer citrus flavors than a Sauvignon Blanc and is a delightful, easy drinking white wine for first courses.

This was one of the white wines we served with appetizers for our Indian food dinner.

2005 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc

This is the second white wine we served with appetizers at our Indian dinner.

Tablas Creek is located in Paso Robles on the Central Coast of California. The Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc 2005 is a blend of three estate-grown varietals (Rousanne, Grenache Blanc, and Picpoul Blanc), propagated from budwood cuttings from the Château de Beaucastel estate in France. It shows aromas of honeysuckle, mint, lemon peel and spice, with rich Roussanne flavors of honey, rose petals, pear, petrol and white flowers, excellent breadth, cleansing acidity and great length.

2005 Fielding Hills Merlot

This Merlot is from a wonderful small winery run by Mike and Karen Wade and located in East Wenatchee, Washington (Columbia River Valley). (Check out this link to find the location of East Wenatchee.)

We got on their mailing list a while back and have been enormously pleased with their wines. Excellent quality, reasonable price. I think most Washington State wines are still "under the radar" of restaurant wine buyers and wine fans of good wine.

200 cases were produced of this wine made from grapes on the Wahluke Slope in Mattawa, WA. Wine Enthusiast rated the wine an Editor's Choice and 93 points.

“A gorgeous dried potpourri nose leads the way to flavors of cranberry, flowers, and milk chocolate on the palate. The bright acidity keeps these flavors dancing, along to the finish. An agile merlot that will compliment a wide variety of food

pairings.”

Our friends Margot and J.P. are visiting from Australia. We served this wine with a dinner of grilled pork chops, vegetable tian, and cooked apples.