Birthyear vintage Silver Oak Bonny's, Figeac for father-son dinner

Birthyear vintage wines for father-son (s) dinner - Silver Oak Bonny's, Château-Figeac

With family and wives out for the day or traveling, son's Ryan and Alec came over for Friday night beef roast stew dinner. With several reasons to celebrate, Ryan pulled from our cellar two birthyear vintage bottles we've been holding for such an occasion. 

At thirty-nine years, both bottles needed to be consumed and both showed amazing resilience in holding on, still being approachable, even in their advanced age approaching their fourth decade. 

Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1982

This is the sole remaining bottle, held out from a case of this label that we served at Ryan and Michelle's wedding celebration dinner back in 2006. We also served large format five and six liter bottles of Silver Oak at their wedding rehearsal dinner. Just recently we also served a six-liter bottle of this label at son Alec's and wife Vivianna's wedding celebration festivities. 

We recently participated in a software vendor partnership executive briefing hosted by Ryan's company in collaboration with Silver Oak. I had the opportunity to share these Silver Oak special occasion experiences with the gathered group. 

Lastly, our visit to the Silver Oak Cooperage where they produce their specially crafted Missouri Oak barrels was a highlight of our Missouri Wine Experience month before last. 

I chronicled Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard in detail in the Big Bottle Birthyear wines for Wedding Celebration blogpost mentioned above. The single vineyard designated wine was from the vineyard named for Silver Oak co-founder, Bonny Meyer, planted by Silver Oak founders Bonny and Justin Meyer in 1974 on a gravelly, four-acre plot in the Oakville district of Napa Valley. It was a much-heralded bottling for Silver Oak over the course of two decades, and the vineyard is now bottled under its own label by the Meyers. 

The fill level, lower neck, foil, label and cork were all in excellent condition, amazingly in top condition, appropriate for the age, testament to the provenance of our cellar conditions. The cork was tight and firm; Ryan used an ahso two pronged cork puller but exclaimed it would've come out intact with a traditional cork screw.

We decanted this as there was a fair amount of sediment in the bottle and an initial bit of musky dusty earthiness that burned off over the course of an hour. Dark ruby, ever so slightly brickish colored, medium bodied,  silky smooth and polished, holding together amazingly well for its age, vibrant black berry and black cherry fruits with notes of creosote, cigar box and hints of cassis, and what the winemaker refers to as notes of rhubarb. 

RM 90 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=135872

https://silveroak.com/

https://twitter.com/SilverOak

Château-Figeac Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classe 1982

For father-son dinner with son Ryan we opened from the cellar two of his birthyear vintage bottles, the Silver Oak and this Château-Figeac. I remember acquiring this wine at auction of TCWC - The Chicago Wine Company, back in the 90's. I still have the records from that purchase and note it was one of the highest prices I had ever paid for a wine, including the First Growth Bordeaux I acquired during the period and previously. 

This was one of the top ranked Bordeaux labels I acquired in large format bottles for my kids' birthyear vintages back upon or soon after release. 

I recall taking this label when we visited Ryan at college to take BYOB for a special dinner.

Château-Figeac has long been recognized and acknowledged as one of the top Bordeaux wines with the great ageing potential, gaining a highly flavourful and succulent complexity over the years, but one that could also be enjoyed just as much in its youth as after several decades. 

Château-Figeac is the flagship estate of a family that has a long history committed to promoting and advancing the region’s prestige and reputation, The estate, located in the heart of the Saint-Émilion appellation covers 133 acres, nearly a quarter of which is left unplanted to preserve a high-quality living environment and an overall natural balance. 

The principles of Château-Figeac have played an active part in the life of the City of Saint-Émilion and of the Bordeaux region, from the time of Élie de Carle, “knight of the vines”, in the 18th century to most recently, the current proprietor, Thierry Manoncourt and his descendants.

While the oldest vines date back to 1921, the average age of the vines in the nearly 100 acre vineyard is 35 years. In recent years, 35% of the vineyard has been replanted while conserving its specific character, following a detailed study of the soil, climate and vegetation. 

Château-Figeac’s vinegrowing terroir is a geological exception in the appellation, with three quartz and flint gravel outcrops, several metres deep, and blue clay subsoil, forming a patchwork of plots that are planted with the three grape varieties which give the wine its core identity - Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.

Critics notes summarized - The wine is highlighted by its aromas that reflect the lightness of the soil, its floral bouquet, infused fruit and graphite presenting a bright vitality. The two-thirds of Cabernet in the blend provides a structured backbone and firm body, rolling out a long, vibrant backbone with pure mineral notes on the finish. 

The whole is perfectly enfolded in lush, satin tannins in the style of the highest of high fashion. With time, the wine develops flavours of tobacco-leaf with hints of black truffle, while retaining incomparable freshness of fruit. A glimpse of perfection …

Château-Figeac’s exceptional vinegrowing terroir is the basis for the wines of Château-Figeac and their character and distinctive style from the unique combination of exceptional and complex soils (three Gunzian gravel outcrops, blue clay at depth, a patchwork of plots), several microclimates and an unusual mix of grape varieties dominated by Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon to complement the primary Merlot in the blend. 

Thierry Manoncourt was the first to plant Cabernet Sauvignon in significant proportions on the Right Bank.

Although the oldest vines date back to 1921, the average age of the vines in the nearly 41 hectare (100 acre) vineyard is 35 years. In recent years, 35% of the vineyard has been replanted while conserving its specific character, following a detailed study of the soil, climate and vegetation.

Château-Figeac Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classe 1982

This vintage release of this label was awarded 95 points by Decanter and John Gilman, 94 points by James Suckling and Rober Parker's Wine Advocate, and 92 points by Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar.

At thirty nine years of age, this was showing its aging potential, still holding its own and being approachable, still within its drinking window. The fill level was a lower neck level, appropriate for this age. The label, foil and importantly, the cork were all in excellent condition - further evidence of the aging conditions of our cellar. In 2009 Robert Parker wrote, this 1982 appears to be fully mature, but it tasted the same a decade ago, and it should hold at this level for another 10-20 years.

We decanted and left to open and settle for an hour. The color was dark garnet  colored with red bricking and a bit of grey cloudiness starting to set in, medium full bodied, deep complex black cherry and plum fruits with notes of black olive, clove spice, smoke, tar, mushrooms, wet earth and truffles with hints of bitter dark chocolate with smooth tannins on a long finish.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=22601 

https://www.chateau-figeac.com/en/

https://twitter.com/Chateau_Figeac/

@Chateau_Figeac 

 

 

Big Bottle Birthyear wines for Wedding Celebration

Big Bottle Birthyear wines for Wedding Celebration

For son Alec and wife Vivianna's (re) wedding celebration festivities, we hosted a welcome reception for out of town guests and celebrants. We hosted the evening reception at the Boathouse Restaurant at the Saugatuck Rowing Club in Westport, Conneticut, with an evening of small bites and light drinks. 

As has become the custom in our family celebrations, we served a couple of large format six liter bottles of wine from the groom's birthyear vintage from our cellar. 

Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1990 

Silver Oak has become a legendary cult brand, known for its focus and bold vision: focus on one varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon, aged exclusively in American oak and worthy of cellaring for decades to come.

Silver Oak Cellars was founded by Bonny and Justin Meyer, together with their financial partner, Ray Duncan in 1972. Founder Ray Twomey Duncan, a Colorado entrepreneur, began investing in California vineyards in the late 1960s. Justin Meyer was a Christian Brothers-trained winemaker. They co-founded Silver Oak out of a Napa Valley dairy barn in 1972, producing only 1,000 cases of their inaugural vintage. 

Over the ensuing decades, Silver Oak gained immense popularity as their Napa Valley and Alexander Valley Cabernets sold quickly upon their release from the winery and became a highly sought-after staple on restaurant wine lists nationwide. 

Justin continued as winemaker until selecting Daniel Baron to succeed him in 1994, when he then retired, selling his share of Silver Oak to the Duncan family in 2001. Ray’s sons, David and Tim Duncan, own and operate the winery to this day which consists of more than 400 acres of vines in Napa Valley and Alexander Valley.

When Justin told his wife in 1974 that he was ripping out the three acres of clover in front of their Oakville home to plant a vineyard, Bonny Meyer suggested that she’d like to make it her own personal project.

Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard was planted by Silver Oak founders Bonny and Justin Meyer in 1974 on a gravelly, four-acre plot in the Oakville district of Napa Valley adjacent to the family home.

When the first fruit came off the vines four years later, it was clear that this little, unusually gravelly patch of Napa Valley was something special. Instead of putting it into Silver Oak’s Napa Cabernet, Justin Meyer decided to bottle it separately in 1979, making it one of Napa’s first vineyard-designated wines. It became one of Napa Valley's legendary places, one of a few legendary vineyard names: To Kalon. Beckstoffer. Eisele. Martha’s Vineyard, and of course, Bonny’s.

The Christmas before the first vintage wine was to be released, Meyer surprised his wife with a hand-carved wooden sign, proclaiming it from that point forward, that little patch of vineyard in their front yard would forever be known as Bonny’s Vineyard.

Silver Oak’s inaugural vintage was crushed that fall after Justin and Bonny returned from their honeymoon. In the early years Bonny managed Silver Oak business and sales while Justin oversaw winemaking and managed burgeoning Franciscan Vineyards, purchased by the partners in 1975. A couple of years after the partners sold Franciscan, Justin left and took over primary management duties at Silver Oak. Always part of the management team, Bonny focused on PR, marketing, and package and facility design. The original Silver Oak and Meyer Family Port labels both won design awards, as did the Oakville Silver Oak winery when it was completed in 1982. 

 

Today Bonny is a partner in Meyer Cellars, a family business, and continues to focus on marketing and investing as a Principal of Meyer Family Enterprises, and her interest as a philanthropist and a community activist.

 

Silver Oak produced a Bonny’s Vineyard Cabernet from 1979 until 1991, when they discontinued the label. From its very first vintage, it washighly regarded and recognized by both consumers and critics. Son Matt Meyer, recalls, “I can remember my dad saying after one of their annual August release parties where the Bonny’s sold out in a matter of hours, ‘We’ve got more than a thousand cases of Alexander Valley and Napa Valley Cabernet left, and not a single one of Bonny’s.'" Realizing they were disappointing more people than they were making happy, Silver Oak decided to stop making a separate Bonny’s Vineyard release and started blending the fruit into their Napa Valley bottling.

When Justin Meyer retired in 2000, he sold his share of Silver Oak to his longtime partner, Ray Duncan. While there were discussions of Meyer hanging on to a few of the vineyards, ultimately, all the vineyards were included in the deal, except for one, Bonny's, because it was simply the front yard of the family home.

Bonny’s Vineyard was replanted in 1999 and began producing viable fruit in 2002, when sadly, only a month before harvest Justin Meyer died of a heart attack. That year’s harvest proved a somber one for the family, and the single barrel of Bonny’s Vineyard Cabernet they produced under the new Meyer Family Cellars label was not and never will be sold.

It was a much-heralded bottling for Silver Oak over the course of the next two decades, then discontinued as a single vineyard designated label for a dozen years. The vineyard is now bottled under its own label by the Meyers.  

 

 In 2003, twelve years after the name Bonny’s Vineyard last appeared on a wine label, the Meyer family released its first commercially available Bonny’s Vineyard Cabernet, which they have produced every year since. The family believes the fruit from the roughly 1.5 acres of the vineyard surrounding the homestead, represents the best of what the site has to offer. 

This bottle was a one of only sixty such bottles produced in the second to last 1990 vintage of Silver Oak “Bonny’s Vineyard” Cabernet. We served it out of the original wood case engraved with the wine vintage and marked with the serial number of the particular bottle.

Winemaker Notes: "The 1990 Napa Valley Bonny's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon has a dark ruby-red color. It has a nose of black cherries, red peppers and bay leaves. This wine has full body and a tart, long finish with a slight tannic grip."

This release was awarded 94 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.

Still showing well at 31 years, the fill level, label, foil and cork were near perfect. Of course storage in a six liter large format bottle ages better than a standard bottle. 

Never-the-less, dark garnet colored, medium-full bodied, dense concentrated black berry and black currant fruits accented by graphite, cigar box, leather and notes of cassis and spicy oak on a long lingering finish. 

RM 93 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=37498

https://silveroak.com/ 

Newton Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1990

The Newton Estate consists of a square mile of hillside that was acquired by Dr Su Hua and Peter Newton in 1977. The Newton Vineyards Spring Mountain property sits above the town of St Helena on the steep slopes of the Mayacamas Mountain range, which separates Napa Valley from Sonoma County. The site boasts expansive vistas of Napa Valley with steep sun drenched slopes by day and the cooling valley at night. The terraced mountain estate has less than one-fifth of its total 490 acres planted to vines at elevations ranging from 500 to 1,600 feet above sea level. The non-farmed acreage remains in its native forested state providing natural habitat for indigenous wildlife.

Newton Vineyard was one of the first wineries in the Spring Mountain AVA (American Viticultural Area) in Napa Valley. The Newton estate consists of 112 parcels or lots, all planted to specific varieties, including Bordeaux varietals Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, and Chardonnay, with an emphasis on Cabernet Sauvignon. All 112 parcels are vinified separately, so to provide the winemaking team plenty of options for crafting the final blend before bottling. In 1990, Newton was the first winery to produce and sell an unfiltered Chardonnayin the US, making it a pioneer in the Napa wine industry. While Chardonnay tends to be Newton's most well-known and popular wine, it also produces powerful red wines that have become renowned cross the world.

The winery was designed and built to blend into the mountain and includes elements of the founders’ native lands interwoven with the California environment — roses, a pagoda, a Japanese red gate, lanterns, a London phone booth and French gardens.

In addition to the estate property, Newton also has holdings in Yountville, Mount Veeder, and Carneros, which the company uses for blends.

In 2001, part of Newton was sold to luxury group LVMH, and it continues to be one of the internationally known producers in Napa Valley. The founders previously founded Sterling Vineyards, also in Napa Valley, but sold it to Coca Cola in the 1970s.

I served from our cellar a six liter bottle of Newton Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Alec's birthyear vintage, 1990, that we have been holding for more than a decade for such an occastion.

Newton Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1990  

At thirty-one years of age, the bottle had a wax capsule that was cracked and showed some signs of seepage and a resulting slightly reduced fill level at the bottom of the neck. The cork was completely saturated but the label was still unmarred. 

The wine lived up to loftiest expectations showing little or no sign of diminution from aging or from the dispacement of a small portion of the wine. 

This vintage release was awarded 95 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.

The 1990 Cabernet Sauvignon was the first Newton Cabernet to have an extended maceration of 25-35 days and to include an important percentage of Cabernet Franc in the final blend. 

Ruby colored, medium-full bodied, a firm dense core of firm blackcurrant and black cherry fruits was accented by notes of cigar box, black tea and cedar with hints of cassis and dark mocha chocolate with supple tannins on the lingering finish.

RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=44999

The Newton Website is currently offering the 1994 release of this label - 84 bottles are available to club members only on their website.

https://www.newtonvineyard.com/en-US/our-wines/members-only-wines/1030734.html

https://www.newtonvineyard.com/

 

Gala Celebration Dinner features classic Birthyear Vintage Napa Cabs

Gala Celebration Dinner features classic Birthyear Vintage Napa Cabs


I've written often in these pages about special wines for special occasions. One of the ultimate wine vintage events is pouring birth year wines for a life event such as a wedding. So it was that wine buddy and fellow 'Pour Boy' Bill C. featured 1989 vintage wines for son Matt's wedding rehearsal dinner. Bill selected two classic premium vineyard designated Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons - Diamond Creek Lake Vineyard and Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard, that each reflected diverse terrior, styles and characteristics. Each with its own style complemented perfectly the salmon and filet of beef dinner and chocolate dessert. Both were served from large format magnums.

Our visit to Diamond Creek winery up on Diamond Mountain above Calistoga was one of the highlights of our Napa Valley Wine Experience in 2008.

The stylish tasting room (left) overlooking the three vineyards is one of the most magnificent settings in Napa Valley and is one of the Valley's premiere tasting experiences.

The winery was founded in 1968 by Boots (shown left) and the late Al Brounstein who defied conventional practice of the times and planted California's first exclusively Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Vineyards on secluded Diamond Mountain.

The three vineyard designated select labels each represented their distinctive micro-climates and terroirs and became legendary in their long lived quality complex, deep and rich Cabernets.

Then there is also the Lake Vineyard (shown left), a tiny ¾ acre vineyard nestled adjacent to a lake that sits on the property, It is the coolest of the property's micro-climates because of the cool Pacific breezes that travel down the Russian River corridor each afternoon. 

The Lake Vineyard grapes require a long hang time to ripen, and when they do ripen, they make an exceptional wine.

Lake Vineyard wines are only produced in exceptional vintage years. In fact, they have been produced only 16 times since 1972.

Diamond Creek Lake Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1989

Showing its age at 27 years, the color was starting to show a bit of brownish rust hue on the garnet medium bodied base. The black cherry fruit flavors have given way to tones of leather, tobacco leaf and anise on the slightly astringent core that gives way to moderate clinging lingering tannins.

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=136257

More to come ..





Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1989

Bonny's Vineyard was the site adjacent to the proprietor's residence and named for his wife. It was the only vineyard designated label from this classic popular producer. The label was discontinued two vintages later, the 1991 vintage being the last.

The trademark character and taste profile of this wine is the oak tones infused into the wine from aging in oak barrels. Even after several hours of having tasted this wine, that predominant oak flavor still lingers in my mouth and even on my breath, like the taste of a fine cigar. This was dark garnet colored, medium to full bodied with complex berry fruit flavors that had been overtaken by the layer of oak, with hints of dill notes attributable to the oak and not the fruit. Firm but smooth tannins lingered on the long finish.

RM 90 points.