Easter Family Dinner Features WLW Reserve
The family gathered for Easter dinner featuring Linda's beef tenderloin, haricot verts, and mashed golden potatoes. Ryan and Michelle brought salad and Erin and Johnny brought chocolate bunny cake. Prior to dinner we had shrimp cocktail, assorted cheeses and vegetables and dip.
For salads and pre-dinner Ryan brought a vintage Pierre Paillard Les Maillerettes Champagne and I opened a Stonestreet Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc. For dinner I pulled from the cellar a twenty year old Whitehall Lane Winery Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
Pierre Paillard Les Maillerettes Champagne Blanc de Noir 2010
This is one of Ryan's favorite Champagnes that he brought from his cellar for the holiday dinner. Blanc de Noir means it is Pinot Noir based vs. Chardonnay based which would be called Blanc de Blanc, the result being bigger and more powerful than Champagnes being Chardonnay based or a blend in between.
This release got 92 points from Vinous and 91 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.
Parker writes "... sweet cherries, great purity and elegant intensity. Full-bodied, round and fruity on the palate, but pure, fresh and precise, this is a superb Pinot with great elegance and length. Lovely salinity."
This powerful Pinot Noir Champagne comes from a less than 1/2 acre parcel in the grand cru of Bouzy planted in 1970 called Les Maillerettes. These old Pinot vines are the source special selections from the Paillard family and provides bottlings, which will cellar for a long time.
RM 89 points.
Stonestreet Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc 2015
I opened this simple, pleasurable light drinking wine for before dinner or sipping out on the deck over the course of the delightful spring afternoon. Sauvignon Blanc is one of the purest most natural easy sipping wines which we try to keep on hand for such occasions.
The Winemaker writes about this label, "This Estate Sauvignon Blanc is a blend of several blocks planted at 900 ft. elevation. It displays everything one would expect from Sauvignon Blanc grown at altitude in rock-driven soils: exotic fruit character grounded by serious textural and structural components.
Straw colored, light medium bodied, this was bright notes of grapefruit and green apple with tones of passion fruit and hints of pear and peach on the tangy finish.
RM 88 points.
Whitehall Lane Winery Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1999
We visited Whitehall Lane Winery on just south of St Helena on St Helena Highway during our Napa Valley Wine Experience 2018. We tasted selections from their broad portfolio including their current release premium Cabernet label.
This was a perfect complement paired with the beef tenderloin, and or it would've gone well with hearty cheeses or the darkest chocolate.
This was dark garnet colored, full bodied, complex and tightly structured with black berry and black currant fruits accented by tones of creosote, earth, leather, dusty charcoal, hints of cedar and oak with firm tannins on the long lingering finish.
RM 92 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=5743
Reignac Bordeaux Supérieur 2005
Michelle's mother and sister Agnes toured our wine cellar and were eager to taste a Bordeaux Blend. I pulled this Reignac 2005 as a good representative bottle, at thirteen years of age from a good vintage and well rated.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate liked this release and gave it 93 point. Wine Spectator gave it 90 points.
This is a blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is from fruit sourced from a large 200-acre vineyard on a high plateau in the Bordeaux Supérieur appellation near the village of Saint-Loubès.
This is dark inky blackish purple, medium full bodied, firm structured black berry and black cherry fruits with notes of tobacco, leather, graphite, spice box, anise, cedar and leather with big, ripe, dusty tannins on a long lingering finish.
RM 90 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=212134
The family gathered for Easter dinner featuring Linda's beef tenderloin, haricot verts, and mashed golden potatoes. Ryan and Michelle brought salad and Erin and Johnny brought chocolate bunny cake. Prior to dinner we had shrimp cocktail, assorted cheeses and vegetables and dip.
For salads and pre-dinner Ryan brought a vintage Pierre Paillard Les Maillerettes Champagne and I opened a Stonestreet Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc. For dinner I pulled from the cellar a twenty year old Whitehall Lane Winery Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
Pierre Paillard Les Maillerettes Champagne Blanc de Noir 2010
This release got 92 points from Vinous and 91 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.
Parker writes "... sweet cherries, great purity and elegant intensity. Full-bodied, round and fruity on the palate, but pure, fresh and precise, this is a superb Pinot with great elegance and length. Lovely salinity."
This powerful Pinot Noir Champagne comes from a less than 1/2 acre parcel in the grand cru of Bouzy planted in 1970 called Les Maillerettes. These old Pinot vines are the source special selections from the Paillard family and provides bottlings, which will cellar for a long time.
RM 89 points.
Stonestreet Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc 2015
The Winemaker writes about this label, "This Estate Sauvignon Blanc is a blend of several blocks planted at 900 ft. elevation. It displays everything one would expect from Sauvignon Blanc grown at altitude in rock-driven soils: exotic fruit character grounded by serious textural and structural components.
Wine Enthusiast wrote, "Stonestreet
consistently delivers complex, refreshing renditions of Sauvignon
Blanc. Grassy on the nose, with an exotic tease of pea shoot, it
seemingly vibrates on the palate with lemon, grapefruit and apricot
flavors."
Straw colored, light medium bodied, this was bright notes of grapefruit and green apple with tones of passion fruit and hints of pear and peach on the tangy finish.
RM 88 points.
Whitehall Lane Winery Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1999
This was a perfect complement paired with the beef tenderloin, and or it would've gone well with hearty cheeses or the darkest chocolate.
This was dark garnet colored, full bodied, complex and tightly structured with black berry and black currant fruits accented by tones of creosote, earth, leather, dusty charcoal, hints of cedar and oak with firm tannins on the long lingering finish.
RM 92 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=5743
Reignac Bordeaux Supérieur 2005
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate liked this release and gave it 93 point. Wine Spectator gave it 90 points.
This is a blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is from fruit sourced from a large 200-acre vineyard on a high plateau in the Bordeaux Supérieur appellation near the village of Saint-Loubès.
This is dark inky blackish purple, medium full bodied, firm structured black berry and black cherry fruits with notes of tobacco, leather, graphite, spice box, anise, cedar and leather with big, ripe, dusty tannins on a long lingering finish.
RM 90 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=212134
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