Venge Scout's Honor Napa Valley Red Blend 2013
With Alec and Vivianna back from NYC for the holiday we dined at Angeli's Italian, our favorite neighborhood trattoria. We took BYOB two bottles from our cellar.
Venge Scout's Honor Napa Valley Red Blend 2013
This is one of he 'V' wines I have fun collecting and serving when (soon to be daughter-in-law) Vivianna is here.
We've been enjoying Nils (and Kirk) Venge' wines since the early 1990's when Nils was featured by Wine Spectator Magazine in a 1994 article on up and coming wine producers. One of the labels of the Venge portfolio is Scout's Honor named for the family Labrador Retriever from that era. I remember Scout walking the rows in the vineyards with Nils (shown right from our 2002 visit).
Scouts Honor is based on a tradition of producing a full bodied, delicious and enjoyable red wine that can be opened and enjoyed immediately upon release however when cellared correctly it will age for 5 to 8 years.
Scouts Honor starts is a proprietary red blend with a base of old-vine Zinfandel and builds upon that with dry-farmed Petite Sirah, old-vine Charbono, and finish with mountain vineyard Syrah. The blend in the 2013 Scout's Honor is a red blend comprised of 71% Zinfandel, 15% Petite Sirah, 10% Charbono and 4% Syrah.
We have been collecting this label since the earliest releases in the mid-nineties and hold vintages dating back to this one, the oldest in our holdings. We typically keep a half dozen vintages of this label on hand for easy, enjoyable smooth sipping with everything fare, from BBQ to beef to cheese and fruits and chocolates.
For the 2013 release, grapes were farmed and harvested from four single vineyards in Napa
Valley. The Zinfandel was picked from two, old-vine (60 to 100+ years
old), vineyard sources: Venge’s newly acquired “Signal Fire Vineyard”
estate, and the Frediani Vineyard—both located in the heart of
Calistoga. The Charbono is from old, dry-farmed vines (60 to 100+ years
old) also planted in the Frediani Vineyard. Long family friends, Joan
and Will Nord, have a small vineyard named “Trio C” in Yountville and a
little over 10 acres are dedicated to Petite Sirah—we love this site.
And, legendary grower, Jan Krupp, farms some of Napa’s finest Syrah on
his Stagecoach Vineyard, high in the mountains of the Atlas Peak AVA to
complete the blend.
The 2013 vintage in Napa Valley was a perfect growing season.
Winemaker's notes for this release: "This vintage has a gorgeous, concentrated assemblage of aromas, with black fruits, crushed blue herbs, violets, cherry, licorice and anise. On the palate is pure richness from the old-vine Zinfandel with loads of black cherry, pepper spice, and an enveloping masculinity of char and tannins from the Syrah, Charbono and Petite Sirah. A seamless balance and mouth coating deliciousness are found throughout the palate, with an extra long finish with a touch of barrel tannin at the end."
The wine was barrel aged for 14 months in 50% new American Oak and the balance in once used tight grain French Oak. 1710 cases were produced.
This was bright garnet colored, medium-full bodied with super sweet berry fruits accented by cherry spice, pepper and notes of licorice and anise. It was a perfect complement to robust spicy pasta dishes.
RM 93 points.
My review tasting notes from this spring for this release: "This was even better than when we tasted it last year with the fruit being more balanced and settled predominating more over the other complex notes - dark inky purple colored, full bodied, bold, chewy, tongue coating, mouth puckering, concentrated, complex yet smooth, polished and balanced, delicious sweet black raspberry, blueberry and black cherry fruits with notes of violets, dark mocha, truffle, anise and spices, with an long finish that almost tastes like candy." 93 points.
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2017/02/venge-scouts-honor-napa-valley-red-wine.html
This release got 94 points from Wine Advocate.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1825719
http://www.vengevineyards.com/
http://www.angeliscatering.com/
With Alec and Vivianna back from NYC for the holiday we dined at Angeli's Italian, our favorite neighborhood trattoria. We took BYOB two bottles from our cellar.
Venge Scout's Honor Napa Valley Red Blend 2013
This is one of he 'V' wines I have fun collecting and serving when (soon to be daughter-in-law) Vivianna is here.
We've been enjoying Nils (and Kirk) Venge' wines since the early 1990's when Nils was featured by Wine Spectator Magazine in a 1994 article on up and coming wine producers. One of the labels of the Venge portfolio is Scout's Honor named for the family Labrador Retriever from that era. I remember Scout walking the rows in the vineyards with Nils (shown right from our 2002 visit).
Scouts Honor is based on a tradition of producing a full bodied, delicious and enjoyable red wine that can be opened and enjoyed immediately upon release however when cellared correctly it will age for 5 to 8 years.
Scouts Honor starts is a proprietary red blend with a base of old-vine Zinfandel and builds upon that with dry-farmed Petite Sirah, old-vine Charbono, and finish with mountain vineyard Syrah. The blend in the 2013 Scout's Honor is a red blend comprised of 71% Zinfandel, 15% Petite Sirah, 10% Charbono and 4% Syrah.
We have been collecting this label since the earliest releases in the mid-nineties and hold vintages dating back to this one, the oldest in our holdings. We typically keep a half dozen vintages of this label on hand for easy, enjoyable smooth sipping with everything fare, from BBQ to beef to cheese and fruits and chocolates.
The 2013 vintage in Napa Valley was a perfect growing season.
Winemaker's notes for this release: "This vintage has a gorgeous, concentrated assemblage of aromas, with black fruits, crushed blue herbs, violets, cherry, licorice and anise. On the palate is pure richness from the old-vine Zinfandel with loads of black cherry, pepper spice, and an enveloping masculinity of char and tannins from the Syrah, Charbono and Petite Sirah. A seamless balance and mouth coating deliciousness are found throughout the palate, with an extra long finish with a touch of barrel tannin at the end."
The wine was barrel aged for 14 months in 50% new American Oak and the balance in once used tight grain French Oak. 1710 cases were produced.
This was bright garnet colored, medium-full bodied with super sweet berry fruits accented by cherry spice, pepper and notes of licorice and anise. It was a perfect complement to robust spicy pasta dishes.
RM 93 points.
My review tasting notes from this spring for this release: "This was even better than when we tasted it last year with the fruit being more balanced and settled predominating more over the other complex notes - dark inky purple colored, full bodied, bold, chewy, tongue coating, mouth puckering, concentrated, complex yet smooth, polished and balanced, delicious sweet black raspberry, blueberry and black cherry fruits with notes of violets, dark mocha, truffle, anise and spices, with an long finish that almost tastes like candy." 93 points.
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2017/02/venge-scouts-honor-napa-valley-red-wine.html
This release got 94 points from Wine Advocate.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1825719
http://www.vengevineyards.com/
http://www.angeliscatering.com/
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