Special tribute wines for Special Mom’s Mother’s Day Dinner
For Mother’s Day dinner, we were joined by sons Sean and Alec, their wives, Michelle and Vivianna, and their daughters.
Linda prepared grilled Tomahawk Rib-eye beefsteaks, served with mashed potatoes, broccoli cheese casserole and grilled mushrooms, with veggie and fruit plates and ceasar salad.
For a wine accompaniment with dinner, I pulled from the cellar a wine flight that included a special label that is itself a tribute to mothers, and one that is a birthyear vintage tribute to daughter-in-law Vivianna.
With the appetizer, veggie and fruit plates and the salad course we opened this high QPR easy drinking Santa Barbara Chardonnay.
Diatom Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2023
Long Shadows Vintners Collection Chester Kidder Red Blend 2017
Wine legend Allen Shoup created the Long Shadows Collection of wines and named one wine in honor of his mother, Elizabeth Chester, and his grandmother, Maggie Kidder. He selected Long Shadows' Director of Winemaking and Viticulture, Gilles Nicault, to craft this New World blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and other classic Bordeaux varieties.
The Chester-Kidder Red Blend is from Long Shadows collection which I I have featured often in earlier blogpost pages,
We visited Long Shadows and featured their unique wine offerings in this earlier blogpost.
Long Shadows was the creation of Allan Shoup, leader of Chateau St Michelle from 1983 to 2000. There he introduced Washington State grapes to winemakers from around the world in collaboration to produce quality wines.
After retirement from Chateau St Michelle he founded Long Shadows to produce world class ultra-premium wines in Washington with fruit sourced from there. He built a state of the art winery in Walla Walla and recruited a team of legendary producers to craft signature wines from the best vineyards' fruit from the Washington Columbia Valley. Three years into the new venture Long Shadows was awarded the Winery of the Year by Food and Wine Magazine.
Shoup recruited a top winemaker with expertise and a track record producing best in class wine in each category or type of wine based on a style and varietal grape. Marketed under the Vintners Collection, each of the Long Shadows labels is a testament to the legend of the winemaker for each label based on each
varietal.
Since the beginning, Long Shadows' Director of Winemaking and Viticulture Gilles Nicault, has overseen the operations of the winery and worked closely with the vintners to bring each winemaker’s vision to completion. Internationally renowned winemakers Randy Dunn (Feather Cabernet Sauvignon); John Duval (Sequel Syrah); Philippe Melka (Pirouette Red Wine); and the late legendary Michel Rolland (Pedestal Merlot) are active partners in their respective wines.
Gilles also crafts Poet’s Leap Riesling and Saggi, a Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blend, in styles that remain true to their original winemakers, Armin Diel and Giovanni Folonari respectively. And finally, Gilles crafts this Chester-Kidder, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah blend, independently.
Gilles Nicault has served as director of winemaking and viticulture since Long Shadows inception in 2003. As resident winemaker overseeing daily operations at Long Shadows' state-of-the-art winery in Walla Walla, Gilles works with a group of celebrated vintners from around the globe. It is his job to ensure that each winemaker's vision is realized in the vineyard and the cellar.
Gilles grew up in southern France and graduated from the University of Avignon with a four-year degree in viticulture and enology. He honed his craft in the fabled hillside wineries of Côte du Rhône, Provence and Champagne. In 1994, already a vintner of rising fame in his homeland, Gilles traveled to Washington State to expand his winemaking skills. Here he worked for several top Washington wineries, including Woodward Canyon, before joining Long Shadows. Seattle magazine named him Washington State’s Winemaker of the Year in 2016.
Gilles works closely with the state’s top growers to execute a diverse winemaking protocol at Long Shadows’ state-of-the-art facility in Walla Walla to produce wines of exceptional quality, true to the Columbia Valley’s terroir.
We wrote about this label in several blogposts, most recently ‘Long Shadows Chester Kidder with Filet of Beef.’
It is a unique blend of Bordeaux varietals plus Shiraz/Syrah for a big bold expressive red wine, ideally suited for pairing with the grilled beefsteaks.
We hold a half dozen vintages of this label acquired as part of our Long Shadows Vault Club allocations. For this dinner, we pulled the 2017 vintage, the same vintage we served for Linda’s birthday dinner, of another favorite Columbia Valley Red Bordeaux Blend, Force Majeure Epinette, featured in this blogpost of that special dinner.
The 2017 Chester-Kidder is a blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Syrah, and 6% Petit Verdot. it was aged 30 months in French oak barrels with 85% being new.
The grapes were sourced from vineyards in Columbia Valley, Washington. The Cabernet Sauvignon was from Candy Mountain AVA and gives this wine structure and textured mouthfeel; Stone Tree Vineyard (Wahluke Slope) adds juicy, ripe cherry flavors; Dionysus Vineyard Petit Verdot, a standout site for this variety, is blended to contribute balanced acidity and dark fruit character that lifts the finished wine.
This release was rated 95 points by pundit Owen Bargreen, 94 points and Highly Recommended by International Wine Review, 93 points and Editors' Choice by Wine Enthusiast, and 93 points by Jeb Dunnuck and James Suckling, and 92 points by Stephen Tanzer.
Winemaker’s Note - Dark in color with generous aromas of wild blackberries wrapped around a pleasantly earthy core that’s accented by hints of oak spice. On the mid-palate, graphite and black licorice are complemented by a burst of vibrant fruit that lingers across a lengthy finish. A beautifully integrated wine with a broad, polished mouthfeel.
Deep dark ruby colored, full-bodied, rich, vibrant, bold concentrated savory black plum, black currant, wild blackberry and blue berry fruits accented by cassis, herbs, graphite, black tea, bacon fat, tobacco and hints of cinnamon spice and eucalyptus and oak with velvety tannins on a lengthy tongue-coating finish.
RM 93 points. https://www.cellartracker.com/w?3566693
https://longshadows.com/library/2017-chester-kidder/471
https://longshadows.com/
Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1991
In a tribute to daughter-in-law Vivianna, the latest/newest mother in our growing family. we also opened a birth-year vintage Napa Cabernet Sauvignon we were holding in our cellar, from an iconic producer that we served at her and Alec’s wedding reception, and several other special events, as featured in these blogposts….
And, this special unique visit to the Silver Oak cooperate, that is a foundation of the Silver Oak profile and brand …
We opened this producer’s Napa Valley label Cabernet from Viv’s birthyear vintage. We also hold the Alexander Valley and Bonny’s Vineyard labels of that vintage.
At 34 years, while the label was a bit soiled, the foil, and most importantly the fill level and cork were still ideal.
While past its prime, optimal drinking window, showing a slight bit of haze or cloudiness, and taking on a bit of tartness in the aged fruit, this was still drinking nicely.
Winemaker Notes - The 1991 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon has a vibrant ruby-red color. It has a nose of bing cherry and red pepper. This wine is light to medium bodied with a medium length finish. Enjoy now. May need decanting due to light sediment.
This was rated a whopping 95 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate back in 1995, 93 rating from Wine Spectator, and 90 points by Wine Spectator.
Blogger, wine writer Tom Lee publishes the Zinfandel Chronicles and featured this wine in 2018 giving it 91 points, and advising to ‘drink soon’.
Garnet colored with a slight bit of rust color and cloudiness setting in, medium bodied, dark ripe black cherry and black berry fruits starting to give way to a slight tartness, with notes of tobacco leaf, herbs, dusty rose and spice notes finishing with hints of that signature sweet oak and soft tannins and glycerin.
RM 88 points at this stage. Time to drink up.
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