Faust Napa Cab with St Pat’s Dinner

Faust Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with St Pat’s Dinner

Son Alec, D-in-Law Viv and their kids came over after church for traditional St Patrick’s Day dinner of corned beef, cooked cabbage, potatoes and carrots. Alec brought along this bold Napa Cabernet to share for a wine accompaniment. 

Faust Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2021  

This label is from Faust Winery, a part of the Huneeus Vintners portfolio lead by wine luminaries Agustin and Valeria Huneeus, both natives of Chile. The portfolio also includes other notable producers Quintessa, Flowers Vineyards & Winery, Illumination, and Leviathan. We visited the picturesque Quintessa estate winery and vineyards during our Napa Wine Experience back in 2003. 

Agustin Huneeus has dedicated his entire professional life to the wine industry from his beginning in 1960 as CEO of Chilean producer Concha y Toro which under his leadership grew from a small winery into Chile’s largest. Augustin and Valeria left Chile for the US in 1971 in light of Chile’s difficult political climate. Moving to NY, Augustin went on to lead global spirits leader Seagram’s worldwide operations, responsible for wineries in seven countries.

In 1977, the Huneeus’ moved to California to pursue careers in the wine business, building a growing portfolio including Concannon in the Livermore valley and taking an interest in Franciscan estates in 1985. In 1999, they founded Huneeus Vintners dedicated to fine wine properties. In 1996, Agustin was awarded the distinguished service award by Wine Spectator Magazine.

Valeria Huneeus, also born in Chile, was a PH.D, Microbiologist and initially intended to study medicine, but also pursued interests in viticulture and enology. When Valeria and Agustin moved to New York and began a family, Valeria gained a PH.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University and spent ten years doing medical research.

Seeking to work more closely with her husband in the wine business, Valeria transitioned into vineyard development at Quintessa Vineyards Rutherford property which the Huneeus’ purchased in 1990 as their portfolio continue to grow.

In 1998. the Huneeus’ founded Faust Winery specializing in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, sourced from their estate vineyard in the Coombsville area, Napa’s newest AVA. Located in the southern most part of Napa Valley, east of the town of Napa, close to San Pablo bay, their venture was considered a gamble by many who thought the very cool climate in this sub-region of Napa Valley  was too cold to consistently ripen Cabernet Sauvignon. In time, their risk paid off as this region is now home to some of the most prized vineyards in the valley, producing many serious, structured, and varietally specific wines with volcanic gravel soils and coarse loams, perfect for Cabernet. 

Ryan Woodhouse, wine buyer for Bay Area merchant K&L in Redwood City writes of the Combsville district, “On a personal note, my son plays Little League Baseball right next to this vineyard, so I've spent a lot of time down there, and the site is legitimately cold and windy! It's often 10 degrees cooler than my side of town juts a few miles north west. Fresh breezes come right off San Pablo Bay and morning fog is often particularly thick in this corridor up the eastern bench of the Vaca ranges.”

Faust writes that “Coombsville is not just Napa Valley’s newest AVA, but its southernmost growing region for Cabernet Sauvignon. Nestled into the rocky ruins of an ancient caldera, its bowl-shaped depression perfectly positions it to collect and hold cool air and fog that’s funneled up from the San Pablo Bay. Volcanic soils, along with the marine breezes, combine to offer polish and structure alongside consistent Napa ripeness. Besides being the latest-to-ripen vines in Napa, the soil profiles are very different given it’s closer to the Vaca Mountain range, so there is a lot of eroded volcanic soil, which means, lots of minerals in the soil.

‘In Napa Valley you get more red fruit, more spice. The tannins can be a bit more rustic. Down in Coombsville you get more intense color, a blue-black fruit profile. A brighter acidity and minerality in the wines. Coombsville is just very unique.”

Winemaker notes on the 2021 Faust Napa Valley - “The wine combines the signature dark graphite and mulberry core of Coombsville Cab with more exotic, plush cassis fruit from Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford that make up the remainder of the blend. A modest use of French oak (only 20% new) but longer elevage in barrel (20 months) has allowed the tannins to become refined and tactile, but without blasting the fruit with over the top oak influence.’ 

“Cabernet's classic aromas and flavors, delicate violet notes lift the dark fruit on the nose—black currant and briary blackberry—layered with pungent forest botanicals, leafy tobacco, graphite, and toasted spice. The velvet of fine-textured tannins backs expressive red fruit flavors on a complex palate, both sweet and savory with mocha and minerality, juicy ripe fruit and freshness.”

This release was rated 95 points by James Suckling, 94 points by Wine Spectator and 93 by Wine Enthusiast, 92 by Wilfred Wong of Wine.com, and 91 by Jeb Dunnuck and Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

This was a pleasant surprise and  exceed my expectations, this label was a bit under the radar and deserves more attention as it fights above its weight class delivering good QPR (quality-price-ratio)  and has 50,000 cases available of Faust's 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon. 

It showed  dark garnet color, was full bodied, complex, firmly structured but balanced and approachable, ripe blackcurrants and blackberries, notes of cassis, tobacco leaf, dark mocha, cedar and bark, with firm, polished tannins on a lingering finish.

RM 92 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?4673339

https://faustwines.com/visit/

https://shop.klwines.com/products/details/1688046

Pirouette Red Blend at Sullivan’s Steakhouse Naperville

Long Shadow’s Pirouette Red Blend at Sullivan’s Steakhouse Naperville 

To celebrate a major business transaction, we went out to dinner at Sullivan’s Steakhouse, Naperville. We both ordered steaks and from the wine list, a Red Bordeaux varietal blend from a notable producer and winemaker. 

I ordered the signature 8 oz filet of beef with a side of garlic mashed potatoes. 

Linda ordered the simple price fixe menu, a six ounce filet which came with Bordelaise sauce and a side of garlic mashed potatoes. Had we known it came with the potatoes, it would’ve saved us ordering a redundant duplicate order of such! Equally disturbing was the fact her filet seemed to be a larger portion and nicer cut than mine. C’est la vie. 

I was seriously considering ordering a lobster tail as a side to my steak, but opted for the lobster tempura starter instead, which provided us each a small tail. The impetus for this was to compare with lobster spring roles that we had as a starter at Bijoux Restaurant in Destin last fall. The spring rolls were much better! I would suggest a pass on the Sullivan’s tempura. 

The highlight of the dinner was our wine selection from the Sullivan wine list. This was a perfect pairing with the grilled beefsteaks. 

Long Shadows Vintners Collection Pirouette Red Blend 2014

This is one of our favorite labels for a Bordeaux varietal red blend, a sleeper, not well known or sufficiently regarded, given the pedigree of the winemaker and the quality of the product. This is the Bordeaux varietal red blend from the Long Shadows Vintners's Collection that features world class winemakers and Washington State Columbia Valley fruit. We’ve featured Long Shadows and their vintners collection, and our visit to their hospitality center and tasting room in Woodinville (WA) in these pages. 

We’re members of the Long Shadows wine club and hold nearly a decade of vintages of their various label releases. Checking out cellar inventory, we hold every vintage of this label going back to the year following this vintage, hence this was an obvious choice to find this aged vintage release of this label. 

This label is the collaboration of two legendary winemakers, Philippe Melka and Agustin Huneeus, Sr. teamed to combine the heritage of old world winemaking with the advancements of new world technology, using small lots from Washington State’s finest vineyards to craft this exotic red blend.

Agustin Huneeus entered the wine business in Chile in 1960 to lead Concha y Toro, a company he grew to become Chile’s largest winery. In 1971, he moved to New York, then later to California, continuing in the wine industry before becoming a partner and president of Franciscan Estates in 1985.

In addition to building Franciscan, he also built well-known California wineries Estancia and Mount Veeder and Veramonte Winery in Chile. In 1999, he left Franciscan to establish Huneeus Vintners, a portfolio that includes Napa Valley’s Quintessa where he worked with talented winemaker Phillip Melka.

The 2016 Pirouette is partially crafted by Philippe Melka, named one of the top nine winemakers in the world by Robert Parker, selected to produce this signature label for the Winemakers Collection.

We have long been fans of Philippe Melka and his signature labels Matisse and 'CJ', named for his children.

While we had owned the various labels over the years, we really discovered Long Shadows at the Long Shadows Wine Cellars tasting room during our Woodinville Wine Experience. We joined their club and have been taking regular shipments of the collection ever since. They provide remarkable wines at great value relative QPR. 

Philippe Melka, widely recognized as one of the leading craftsmen of his trade, graduated from the University of Bordeaux, France, where he received a degree in geology in 1989. After earning a master's degree in agronomy and enology, he worked at some of the most famous wineries in the world: Château Cheval Blanc, Pétrus and Château Haut-Brion, among others. There he developed a passion for and expertise in cabernet-based blends. 

He then went on to working at prestigious wineries in Australia, Italy, California.

In 1994, Philippe settled in Napa Valley where he developed his reputation making wines for such celebrated wineries as Hundred Acre, Quintessa, Bryant Family, Seavey, Constant, Lail, Dana Estates and Vineyard 29 before joining the dream project partnering with Agustin Hunneus from Quintessa and Allen Shoup at Long Shadows. 

Today, Philippe Melka and his wife, Cherie, reside at Melka Cellars in Napa Valley. Cherie is an accomplished wine professional and laboratory manager at Silver Oak.

The Pirouette Vintners' Collection label collaboration was launched with the inaugural 2003 vintage.

Philippe Melka, named one of the top nine winemakers in the world by Robert Parker, used small lots from Washington State's finest vineyards to craft this enticing red blend. Seeking to create a wine with complexity and layers, the winemakers chose a diverse selection of Columbia Valley vineyard sites, each contributing unique characteristics to the blend. 

The 2014 Pirouette checks in as a blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Petit Verdot, 17% Merlot, 7% Cab Franc and a splash of Malbec.  

This Cabernet Sauvignon dominant wine, sourced primarily from Red Mountain, displays structure, richness and a focused mouthfeel that has come to characterize Red Mountain Cabernet. Dionysus Vineyard’s Petit Verdot adds layers of complex aromas and flavors. Weinbau Vineyard (Wahluke Slope) Merlot adds bright, red and black fruit intensity.

Aged 22 months in French oak barrels (75% new) before bottling, unfiltered and unfined.

Winemaker Notes - “Deep in color and complexity, this wine combines expressive red fruit aromas with dark chocolate and blueberry flavors accented by hints of oak spice that evolve across the palate. A juicy yet beautifully balanced wine with a rich mouthfeel and persistent finish.’

“The growing season started early in 2014 and the dry, warm conditions that characterized spring set the stage for another hot summer season. Temperatures were consistently warm throughout June and July, hastening an early start to harvest, but the Columbia Valley’s balmy fall days and cool autumn nights allowed the grapes to reach full physiological maturity while preserving the fruits’ natural acidity and yielding high quality grapes across the board. In short, 2014 was a picture-perfect vintage that produced remarkably rich, flavorful wines.”

This 2014 release was awarded 94 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and called it “a killer wine from this estate, and possibly the best to date”. Wine Enthusiast gave it 91 points.

Inky dark garnet colored, full-bodied, complex, round, rich, forward, super ripe sweet blackberry and black currant fruits with notes of graphite, spice, dark mocha chocolate, smoke and herbs with ripe tannin on a lingering. The sweetness is almost off-putting. 

RM 93

https://go.cellartracker.com/wine/2503071

https://longshadows.com/library/2014-pirouette/471

https://longshadows.com/

@LongShadowsWine

https://www.sullivanssteakhouse.com/

@unwindwine

Red and White for Surf and Turf

Red and white wines for surf and turf dinner - Matanzas Creek Sauvignon Blanc and Pirouette Red Blend

Mid-week dinner, we grilled on the deck, T-bone steaks with medallions of lobster. I pulled from the wine cooler a half bottle Sonoma Sauvignon Blanc to pair with the lobster, and from our cellar, this premium Bordeaux Blend to complement the steaks.

Both the lobster tails and the beef steaks were sourced from local grocer Mariano’s and were unfortunately disappointing. (We are spoiled from having had a family owned farm raising beef cattle from which, for decades, we would regularly get a quarter from a carefully selected cow to be butchered to our specifications.) 

Before dinner we had caprese salad with home grown basil and garden tomatoes. 

Matanzas Creek Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc 2018

I opened this Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc from a small format 375ml half bottle.  This is from Matanzas Creek Winery who for four decades have “focused on creating site-expressive wines”, the technical notes show this is sourced from no less than four vineyard sites spread across the wide Sonoma County appellation. 

This is from the vast portfolio of Jackson Wines, dating back to when Jess Jackson & Barbara Banke acquired the historic property and brand back in 2000. 

Matanzas Creek Winery has a storied history dating back to its founding in 1977 by socialite Sandra MacIver, the daughter of a scion of the historic Sears Roebuck and Company, and husband Bill, with Merry Edwards as the founding winemaker.

The first Matanzas Creek Sauvignon Blanc was produced in 1980. 

In 1984, in a prescient move, they planted what became known as the the Jackson Park Vineyard, with 90 acres of the iconic Pétrus Merlot clone. 

In 1989, the notable David Ramey was appointed winemaker who went on to establish ‘pedigree of outstanding 90+ point wines’. 

In 1996, Wine Spectator named founder Sandra MacIver one of the 20 most influential people in the modern wine industry. 

Current winemaker Marcia Torres-Forno was appointed in 2011. 

Today, Matanzas Creek Winery produces a dozen labels from modest entry level to premium offerings of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinot Noir as well as a Rose and sparkling wine, part of the broad Jackson portfolio of estates and brands. Their wines are “derived from nine different vineyards whose fruit has been individually harvested, fermented, and evaluated to create a shining example of what Sonoma County has to offer.”

Matanzas Creek Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc 2018

Crafted by winemaker Marcia Torres Forno, this Sauvignon Blanc is an interesting blend of 86.2% Sauvignon Blanc 9.5 % Sauvignon Musque and 4.3% Semillon. It is sourced from several vineyard sites across the Sonoma County appellation region: 56% Knights Valley, 25% Alexander Valley, 12% Dry Creek and 7% from Bennett Valley. 

Winemaker notes: Pale Straw colored, aromas of: fresh pineapple, white peach skin, white lily, jasmine, Oroblanco grapefruit, passion fruit. Flavors: guava, honeydew melon, shinko pear, jasmine, citrus blossom. Palate of light but flavor dense, this wine dances across the palate prompting salivation and a desire to take another sip.

This has a nice QPR - Quality Price Ratio in this casual pleasant sipper which should be readily available with 22,100 cases produced.

This release was rated 91 points by Wine Advocate.

I found this was surprisingly bright and vibrant with texture and buttery notes more like a Chardonnay.

Pale straw colored,  light to medium-bodied, Wine Advocate calls it “gregarious and energetic” - lacking polish and balance, round and bright, flavorful notes of buttery stone fruits, white and yellow peaches, quince, wet stone and hints of pineapple and citrus and subtle layer of spice with tangy acidity on a lingering mineral finish. 

RM 88 points. 

This was nicely paired with the caprese salad and stood up well to the rich flavorful buttery lobster. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?3370763

https://www.matanzascreek.com/wines

With the steak course, I opened this premium Bordeaux Blend. I love a more complex blend such as this to complement a hearty steak which we served with baked potato and sweet potato. .  

Long Shadows, Vintners' Series, “Pirouette” Columbia Valley Red Wine 2015 

Label from 2016

We discovered and acquired this wine during our visit to the Long Shadows tasting room in Woodinville during our Washington State Woodinville Wine Experience in 2018. 

In accordance with the Long Shadows Vintner Collection program, this was produced by legendary winemakers Philippe Melka and Agustin Huneeus, Sr., “who teamed to combine the traditions of old world winemaking, the advancements of new world technology, and small lots from Washington State’s finest vineyards to craft this enticing red blend”, as noted on the rear label.

Comparable to much more expensive, sophisticated Bordeaux Blends, this is a fraction of the cost, Pirouette, is a tribute to the Long Shadows project, and provides a high QPR - Quality Price Ratio value afforded to Columbia Valley wines.

This vintage release is a Bordeaux Blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, 11% Petit Verdot and 3% Malbec. It was fermented in barrel and aged 22 months in 75% new oak.

This received 95 points from reviewer Jeb Dunnuck, 93 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and Vinous, and 92 points from Wine Enthusiast.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate said of this wine - “Of all the Long Shadow’s wines -- Michel Rolland's included -- this would be the most at home in contemporary Napa Valley.”

“Deep in color and complexity, this wine combines expressive red fruit aromas with dark chocolate and blueberry flavors accented by hints of oak spice that evolve across the palate. A juicy yet beautifully balanced wine with a rich mouthfeel and persistent finish.”

Dark purple garnet color, medium-full body, round and flavorful black currant and black raspberry fruits accented with blue fruit notes, bitter dark mocha chocolate and cassis with hints of clove spices, tobacco and graphite with firm but approachable tannins on a long lingering finish. 

RM 93 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?2777748

This showed consistently as a tasting earlier this year of this label.

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2020/02/long-shadows-duo-showcase-katy-business.html  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3107408

https://longshadows.com/