Destiny Neighborhood Beef Tenderloin Wine Dinner
Visiting our favorite getaway Destiny Cove vacation rental in Destin, Florida,
we hosted a dinner with friends and neighbors. Linda prepared a full
beef tenderloin, sliced into filets of beef, served with baked potatoes,
haricot verts and mixed green salad.
Before dinner we served a variety of artisan cheeses, fruits and mixed nuts.
To accompany the dinner we opened a wine flight with varietal wines for each course.
With the salad course we served a Washington State Chardonnay.
With
the main course we opened a medley of red wines - an aged vintage Napa
Cabernet, an aged simple easy drinking Sonoma Cabernet, and a complex
Washington State GSM Blend.
Our guests brought for the dessert course a selection of artisan cupcakes from the bakeshop just outside our community gate and carrot cake cupcakes, which we paired with a flight of dessert wines from Italy and Austria.
Moffett Livingston Stanley's Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1997
We were planning a mini-family reunion last month in Destin so I brought for that occasion several 'family' wines, whimsically sharing names with certain family members, such as this Stanley's Vineyard label and so named brother-in-law.
This is named for 'Stanley', a family name in the owner/producer John Livingston's family. John resettled his family in St. Helena, Napa Valley in 1976 as an idyllic place to raise his six children, not necessarily with any forethought of joining the wine business. However, in 1984, they began pursuing their learned passion in wine and began producing Cabernet wines.
John Livingston was a geologist, and became intrigued with finding vineyards suitable to produce Stanley’s Selection Cabernet wine, seeking an optimum combination of stony hillside soils, eastern exposures and suitable micro-climates. In the ensuing years he found such vineyards, also chosen for sound farm management and proven consistency. All the vineyards were only a few acres in size, too small for big wineries but perfect for Livingston Stanley Cabernet. The 'Stanley’s' Vineyard label was blended from six small parcels in Napa by legendary winemaker John Kongsgaard.
Moffett Vineyards and the Livingston Moffett Winery, continued to be operated by Diane and John Livingston and were assisted for 22 years by their son Trent who helped grow the family winery from the cellars to the marketplace. Diane and John retired and sold the winery in 2005, resulting in a generational transition with Trent as successor of Moffett Vineyards.
Trent and his wife Colleen Moffett relocated in 2014 to the northern Willamette Valley to pursue making 4 different Pinot Noirs from 3 different Willamette Valley sub-appellations, all the while remaining connected with Napa Valley through Moffett Vineyards.
In addition to the Moffett Vineyards heritage, Trent and Colleen are co-producers of Screenplay Wines and C&T Cellars. .
This is the last of three bottles we acquired back upon release. We
drank the first two bottles back in 2010 and 2014 and still held this bottle a decade later in our cellar.
At two and a half decades, this
was still holding its own, only perhaps slightly diminished from age at a
quarter century, testament to the longevity of the ‘97 vintage Napa
Cabs.
This release was awarded 93 points by Wine Enthusiast and
90 points, Wine Advocate, Robert M. Parker, Jr. Upon release, Parker
said it should drink well for fifteen years.
Winemaker's notes -
"For the 1997 vintage, John chose four mostly one- to two-acre
vineyards: Price, next door to Spottswoode; Walther, near Caymus;
Corbett, adjacent to Moffett Vineyard; and Gemstone, with five clones of
Cabernet along with Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petite Verdot. Yields
ranged between of 2.5 to 4.5 tons per acre. It was aged in a combination
of French and American oak."
Tonight, this was largely
consistent with my earlier tastings, dark ruby colored, medium bodied
with blackberry, black cherry and currant fruits, starting to give way
slightly with notes of black tea with hints of anise and bitter dark
chocolate with a bit of spice,
plum with tone of cedar on the medium to firm tannins and acid balanced
finish.
RM 89 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=162762
http://moffettvineyards.com/
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2014/12/livingston-moffet-napa-cab-with-beef.html
Another
label we were holding for our bro-in-law, a fan of the namesake
producer, we opened this for casual drinking with cheeses, fruit and
nuts before dinner.
Dan Aykroyd Discovery Series Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
This was a futile inglorious attempt at producing a novelty namesake branded wine by comedian and Saturday Night Live fame Dan Aykroyd, who folks say, should've stayed with acting.
Winemaker Notes - "The
grapes are sourced primarily from the Alexander Valley, which with its
cool mornings and evenings and warmer
inland climate allow the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to fully ripen. The
wine is aged in 60-gallon French, American & Hungarian oak barrels
for added complexity and increased
concentration. This process also brings out softer tannins and a more
fruit-forward palate."
Cellartrackers panned this wine, albeit they tend to be sophisticated wine drinkers. This exceeded my expectations, which admittedly were very low. I was open minded and opened it prepared to dump it, but while simple and uninspiring, it was okay for casual sipping with some cheeses before dinner. Several guests found it enjoyable and suitable for casual easy sipping.
Wine Enthusiast gave this 82 points. I didn't find it resembled their profile - "Overripe and bitter .... dry, with raisin and grapeskin flavors that have a Porty, tannic edge."
Ruby colored, medium bodied, dark berry fruit, notes of tobacco, smoke and black tea with an abrupt finish. RM 82
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=649869
With the dinner we opened this Rhone varietal red blend.
Force Majeure "Parvata" Red Mountain GSM - Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre 2017We've opened this wine and featured it several times in these pages. We first featured this label in our Force Majeure Vineyards Site Visit and Tasting report as shown here:
Force Majeure Parvata Red Blend 2017
We originally discovered and acquired this label during our visit to Force Majeure in Walla Walla back in 2018. We hold three vintages of a mixed case from our wine club allocation orders.
This is from their Force Majeaure Red Mountain Vineyard site in the central Columbia Valley.
The Red Mountain site was the very first vineyard on the steep, rocky
upper slopes of Red Mountain. Developing the Red Mountain estate
vineyards involved carefully matching varietal and clonal selections and
vineyard trellising and irrigation to the eight distinct soil types in
the vineyard.
Parvata means “mountain” in sanskrit, and hence is the name for Force Majeure's southern Rhône style blend, grown in the sandy, loamy soils of the lower section of the Red Mountain vineyard.
Parvata is a a classic Rhone River Blend that the French, and in the new World, the Australians, call GSM, for the blend of the three Rhone varietals, (25%) Grenache, (23%) Syrah, and (42%) Mourvedre.
But
this 2017 Parvata is a blend of Rhone varietals, somewhere between a
GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre) and a CDP (Chateauneuf-du-Pape of which
70% is typicall GSM, the total can be from a possible thirteen
sanctioned varietals). This release is 42% Mourvedre, 25% Grenache, 23%
Syrah, and 'lesser' varietals, 4% Cinsault and 5% Counoie - 100% sourced
from the Force Majeure Red Mountain Estate vineyard.We've
posted blogspots of the 2015 and 2016 releases but this is our first
tasting of the 2017 release. It seems to be less fruit forward than the
earlier releases.
This was consistent with those earlier tastings. Dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, this
is black fruits accented by white pepper, dried herbs, leather and
tobacco notes with bright lively acidity.
RM 92 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3519567
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/10/force-majeure-vineyards-site-visit-and.html
https://forcemajeurevineyards.com/
@ForceMVineyards
We then served artisan
cupcakes brought by neighbor Jan, and cupcakes brought by Debra. With
the sweets, we opened several dessert wines from different regions with
different profiles.
Alois Kracher Nouvelle Vague TBA - Trockenbeerenauslese Chardonnay No. 7 2001
We brought this from our home cellar and were holding it for a special occasion such as this. We hold a vast collection of labels and vintages from Kracher who offer a broad portfolio of dessert wines from Austria. This is from Seewinkel, an area in the Burgenland region of Austria, along the eastern shore of Lake Neusiedl,
Kracher is internationally regarded as one of the finest dessert wine makers. After Alois Kracher passed away in December 2007, his 27 year-old son Gerhard took over responsibility of winemaking and managing the winery. He carried on the tradition with the same veracity and dedication that his famous father once did with the same outcomes of extraordinary notable award winning wines.
Weinlaubenhof Alois Kracher estate vineyards possess a microclimate uniquely suited to the production of Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese wines. They have nearly 70 acres of vineyards planted with Welschriesling, Chardonnay, Traminer, Muskat Ottonel and Scheurebe.
This release was awarded 95 points by Wine Spectator, 94 points by Wine Enthusiast. and 18/20 points by Jancis Robinson.
Winemaker Notes - "Attractive aromas of ripe stone fruit, apricot jam, nuts and fresh herbs characterize this Welschriesling TBA, along with a silky texture and highly balanced acidity with pleasant floral notes on the elegant, salty finish."
In the fall of 2020 I wrote: "As I have written in the past, at their most desirable (to my taste preference) these wines are rich, thick, unctuous, and voluptuous with apricot marmalade, mango, toffee/brown sugar, and caramel notes. This may have been there at some point and perhaps passed that stage of its aging profile. If so, then it is time to drink although it will no doubt continue to age gracefully for several more years. But the rich, sweet apricot fruits nectar was diminished somewhat and has turned more to a smokey charcoal layer over the fruits which were more subdued. Delightful never-the-less
Copper and tea colored, full bodied, thick structured, rich concentrated notes of sweet orange marmelade, apple and apricot fruit nectar with of pain grille, honey and nutmeg spice on a long unctuous textured finish.
https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/11/thanksgiving-feast-features-rhone-wine.html
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=19086
Ca' della Vignalta Colli Euganei Fior d'Arancio Fiore del Deserto Moscato (Muscat) Passito 2015
From Veneto, and area formerly part of the Colli Euganei DOC, it was established as a separate DOCG in 2010. The Veneto DOCG appellation specifies some significant production rules:
- Grapes for Passito must be dried on or off the vine to achieve a minimum potential alcohol level of 15.5%
- Minimum
alcohol level: 4.5% for Bianco dolce (10.5% potential); 6.0% for
Spumante (10.5% potential); 9.0% for Passito (15.5% potential); 10.5%
for Bianco secco
- Residual sugar: Minimum 100 g/l (10.0%) for Bianco dolce, Spumante, and Passito
- Aging: For Passito, minimum 1 year (ERD = November 1, V+1)
Az. Agricola Vignalta Fior d ' Arancio Colli Euganei have 346 acres of vineyards on the side of the highest of the Euganean hills outside the village of Arquà Petrarca southwest of Paduea, Italy, seventy kilometers southwest of Venice. They are planted primarily to
Moscato as the principal White Grape Variety, with an average age of vine
s of 16 years. The
grape is particularly suitable for the production of complex and
intensely aromatic Passito wines that perfectly pair with desserts and
biscuits. They produce 76,700 cases per year of which 5.000 – 7.000 bottles are this Orange Muscat based Passito, produced in 375 ml bottles.
Az. Agricola Vignalta produce a wide portfolio of red, white, dessert and sparkling
wines. This sweet muscat wine is predominantly based on Moscato
Giallo grapes, which produce sweet and fresh wines, with distinguishing
citrus notes. The label includes three different styles: dry white wine,
sweet Passito, and bubbly spumante.
Fior d ' Arancio Colli Euganei Passito DOCG
: it is a complex wine, with a bright golden yellow color that reaches
light amber with time. It reveals aromas of yellow fruit in syrup,
apricot and acacia honey. It manages to maintain a good balance between
flavor and sweetness.
Winemaker notes - "With its amber yellow colour and golden reflections, our Fior d’Arancio
Passito captures at first sight thanks to the bright shades that it
shows in the glass. The perfume is complex and elegant: balsamic notes
of canned fruit, dry dates, candied figs, jams, honey, eucalyptus and
vanilla stand out from the bouquet. Each sip is warm, embracing but not
cloying and has a delicate almond husk final taste. Rich and balanced. Vinification: drying grapes in “fruttaio” for 4 months,
crushing and squeezing rasin to obtain a very sweet must, fermenting in
French oak barrel for 18 months."
Descriptions of the color of these wines vary based on the age and stage of their aging profile. These dessert wines start out golden or pale straw colored, and darken over time, turning deep golden, then light brownish, darker to orange rust, then a copper color, and finally even to a blackish weak coffee color. High quality versions from top vintages can age for fifty years or more.
Tea copper colored, full bodied, complex sweet notes of figs, hints of honey, raisins almonds and sweet tea on a smooth pleasant finish.
RM 91.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2734338
https://www.vignalta.it/en/
Winemaker’s Note: The 2011 vintage Marilyn Merlot is
the 27th release of this fine wine. It is a straight Merlot this year .
The wine was aged in 100% oak barrels, 35% of which were new for this
vintage. Aromas of Ripe Strawberry and cherries, primarily thyme and
lavender complement the oak components of vanilla and smoke from the
wood. Moderate alcohol and good acidity make this wine a good pairing
with fine foods. Vineyard loc ations for this wine are from our longtime
growers in Yountville and Oakville regions of the Napa V alley. -- John
McKay."
