End of summer brought family gala Labor Day cookout featuring smoked beef brisket and medley of premium red wines …
Most of the family gathered at son Ryan’s and Michelle’s for a gala end of summer Labor Day cookout. Ryan smoked a beef brisket and opened from his cellar a selection of ultra-premium red wines.
Everyone brought a salad, side dish or dessert to accompany the brisket and grilled hot dogs.
Ryan pulled from his cellar a diverse horizontal (multiple bottles from the same vintage) selection of 2005 vintage ultra-premium red wines from Napa Valley, Santa Barbara County and Left Bank Bordeaux.
Phillip Melka Matisse Red Wine 2005
This is from one of our favorite producers, Phillippe Melka, a producer we know well and hold several of his labels across two decades of vintages. Phillippe was the mentor for Eric White of Galena Cellars Vineyards and Winey in Galena, IL, whom we met during our stay in the estate guest house during our getaway holiday week a couple years ago.
Philippe grew up in Bordeaux, earned his degree in Geology at the University of Bordeaux and later his Master’s degree in Agronomy and Enology. His first wine job was at Château Haut Brion in Bordeaux. His first introduction to the Napa Valley came in 1991 as an intern with Christian Moueix, proprietor of Chateau Petrus in Bordeaux and Dominus in Napa Valley. Philippe came to Dominus to study soils – then spent a few years as a traveling winemaker and ultimately settled in the Napa Valley in 1994. The list of Napa wineries that Philippe has worked with over the years reads like a whose who list of the valley – Alejandro Bulgheroni Estate, Brand, Bryant Family, Dana Estates, Lail, Hundred Acre and Tusk Estate among many other well-regarded brands.
Philippe works with co-proprietor and co-winemaker for Melka Estates, wife, Cherie Melka. Cherie earned a degree in Microbiology at Northern Arizona University and worked for a while in pharmaceuticals as a laboratory technician. In 1989, she moved to California and took her first winery job for Paul Draper at Ridge Vineyards where she ran the lab for five years. It was here that she met Philippe who was working the vineyards. Cherie was self-taught as a enologist gaining her wine knowledge from equally impressive estates such as Ridge Vineyards, Beaulieu and Silver Oak Cellars.
Their combined science backgrounds and extensive experience in the industry made them a perfect team in their winemaking endeavors.
The vineyards that contribute to the making of Melka wines are sourced from relationships with growers over the 20 years that they’ve been making this wine. Two primary sources of fruit for CJ are Soda Canyon, a unique area in Napa Valley near Oakville with hillside fruit, and Broken Rock has brought more fresh crushed rocks, good acidity and more massive tannins.
This 2005 Melka Métisse Proprietary Red is a full-bodied, elegant Napa Valley Bordeaux blend.
It is a comprised of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Petit Verdot, 100% sourced from the Jumping Goat vineyard in St. Helena.
It’s was aged 19 months in French oak barrels (75% new). Production was 475 cases.
This was rated 94 points by Int'l Wine Cellar and 93 points by Wine Spectator and 91 by Wine Advocate.
Chateau Montrose St Estephe Bordeaux 2005
This is a classic left bank Bordeaux from a classic vintage that should last several decades and at twenty years is just beginning to reveal its true profile and potential. In 2024, Jeb Dunnock wrote, “ (this) Montrose has another 50-75 years of overall longevity. It should cruise for another 30 years in cold cellars“
“It’s just now starting to show a kiss of maturity and it looks to be in the early phases of its prime drinking window. It’s also the finest bottles I’ve had, pointing to this starting to round the corner and show its full potential.”
It is being written that the 2005 will, at maturity, surpass the two classic vintages of 1989 and 1990 - high praise signaling a top vintage with extraordinary aging potential.
We’ve collected this classic old school St Estephe label going back to the early 1980’s, including our kids’ birthyears, 1981’ ‘82, ‘85 and 1990. We still hold several vintages dating back to the 1980’s.
This was the final vintage managed entirely by the Charmolüe family before the estate was sold to the Bouygues in 2006.
We drove by the historic St Estephe estate along the Gironde River just north of the town of Pauillac during our visit to the region in 2018.
Jeb Dunnuck wrote in 2024, “It’s just now starting to show a kiss of maturity and it looks to be in the early phases of its prime drinking window. It’s also the finest bottles I’ve had, pointing to this starting to round the corner and show its full potential.”
Neal Martin of Vinous wrote, “It's no shy retiring flower by a long stretch—if you seek a more bombastic Montrose then this is where to come. "
Winemaker Notes - “2005 impresses by its exceptional power, the amazing pure fruit, and the extraordinary engaging elegance without having the overwhelming charm of the 2003. Stylistically, very classical and very Bordeaux-like, without austerity. Dense purple color, almost black.The nose is still closed: black fruits, spices, chocolate. Complex palate, long, rich, powerful, cherry, cocoa, licorice, tobacco brown, prune. This is a very big wine, full and very structured, with nice length, the tannins are very robust, with great aging potential.”
As with many super highly rated wines, this shows a characteristic profile revealing a flawless lack of faults, with a terrific sense of freshness, balance, and remarkable purity and precision.
Dark garnet, ruby/plum-hued, full-bodied, intense, dense, concentrated, complex, yet balanced, still a bit tight and closed, layered dark blackcurrant and red fruits, spices, cloves, chocolate loamy soil, leather, graphite and hints of black truffles, floral and ash, turning to refined, silky polished tannins, on a long elegant finish.
Be patient, give this time, and hopefully if you’re lucky and able, taste periodically over an extended period to see how it matures, opens to reveal itself
RM 95 points.
https://go.cellartracker.com/wine/222327
Saxum Broken Stones Red Wine 2005
This limited release highly allocated label is a blend of 74% Syrah, 24% Grenache, and the rest Mourvèdre, what is commonly called a “GSM” in Australia and other parts where this southern Rhone Valley blend is common.
Saxum Vineyards is located in the Paso Robles AVA of Central California was founded in the early 2000s by Justin Smith, a young winemaker who had previously been part-owner of Linne Calodo.
The Paso Robles AVA is midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and it is considered one of the West Coast’s most exciting winemaking regions. Located in San Luis Obispo County, Paso Robles, the town and its surrounding area, was traditionally a farming and ranching region. With its hot, sometimes searingly dry and sunny weather, it is especially good country for growing warm climate grapes such as Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre.
