Pour Boys Wine Dinner
With my Linda out of town for the weekend, Dr Dan invited me over for Friday night dinner. I pulled from the cellar a vintage Bordeaux Blend for the occasion.
Dan prepared delicious pork loins with seasoned with hot pepper peach bourbon sauce, roasted potatoes and a medley of grilled vegetables.
Prior to dinner, Dan and Linda served a broad assortment of artisan cheeses, shrimp, olives, charcuterie, nuts and chocolates.
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Pour Boys visiting Chateau St. Jean, Sonoma
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I selected a producer that the
Pour Boys visited, including Dan and Linda, on our most recent Sonoma County Wine Experience, the last of numerous visits to the estate and Chateau over the years - Chateau St Jean in Sonoma Valley.
In addition to the legendary flagship label Cinq Cépages - which means five flavors or varieties, I also brought another Chateau St Jean label, Belle Terre, their Late Harvest Riesling dessert wine.
Chateau St Jean is one of the premier producers in Sonoma County and their winery chateau estate is a showcase highlight of the Sonoma Valley -
certainly the most elegant and fashionable tasting experience setting
that we've experienced there. We enjoyed visiting there numerous times
over the years for a comprehensive tasting experience that offers some
of their Reserve and Library selections not available in the
marketplace.ch as our Napa Sonoma Wine Experience in 2009.
Our
private tastings at the 1920's chateau with views of the Grand Lawn and
Estate Vineyards and in the Reserve Room have been the highlights of
our trips to the region.
Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon Cinq Cépages 1997
We've enjoyed the Cinq Cépages label since its release in the late eighties. Chateau St. Jean "Cinq Cépages" was one of the first classic Bordeaux Blend labels from the region and has
always represented good value, high QPR relative, to the top Bordeaux
labels.
This was one of the last releases before the 1996 release was annointed Wine Spectator #1 wine in the annual Top 100
list in 1999. Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cépages was the first Sonoma winery to be
awarded the prestigious “Wine of the Year” award from Wine Spectator
Magazine. At that time the release
price was $28, a remarkable value at the time. From then on, the label
exploited its #1 legacy and notoriety and boosted the price point, but
it still represents reasonable comparable value at near $100.
We have a vertical of this up to the recent vintages - this was the
oldest release in our cellar so we pulled as part of cellar management, but also to
compare to two other 1997 vintage Napa Cabs we opened last weekend.
This release was awarded 96 points
by Wine Spectator, 94 points
by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and 90 points
by Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar.
The fill level, foil, label and most importantly, the cork were all in prime condition. At twenty five years this was at the apex, in its prime drinking window, showing no signs of diminution from aging whatsoever. This exceeded my loftiest expectations and showed even better than the two 1997's we opened last weekend. This was definitely the WOTN - Wine of The Night.
The 1997 Cinq Cepages is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and
the balance Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Petit-Verdot, aged in 50% new and 50% one-year old French barrels. Robert Parker writes, "this is
California's answer to a big, rich St-Emilion".
Stephen Tanzer writes: "At once sweet and structured. Finishes with big, dusty
tannins and very good length. The most promising vintage to date for
this bottling. (ST)"
Dark garnet colored, medium-full bodied, smooth polished, complex but balanced and nicely integrated black berry plum, currant and
black cherry fruits with notes of mocha, toffee, spice, cedar, aise and herbs with a smooth finish.
RM 94 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2205
Linda served strawberry shortcakes with fresh fruits and I opened the Late Harvest dessert wine.
Chateau St. Jean Alexander Valley Belle Terre Vineyard Special Select Late Harvest Riesling 2006
Château St. Jean has been producing several white wine
labels from the Belle Terre Vineyard since the 1975 Chardonnay Belle
Terre and 1976 dessert Riesling. The Belle Terre Vineyard is owned by the Dick Family, which over the past three decades,
has built a reputation as one of the premier
grape-growing families in the region
The vineyard is in the Alexander Valley AVA (American Viticultural) Area just north of
Healdsburg, in Sonoma County. The Russian River flows through
the valley. The region was named for Cyrus Alexander, a 19th century
landowner and grape grower. The AVA includes 15,000 vineyard acres,
much of it rich, alluvial soil layered on a bed of gravel, similar to many vineyards in Bordeaux.
Today Alexander Valley is home
to some of California’s most admired wineries, including Simi,
Stonestreet, the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Silver Oak Cellars,
and of course Chateau St Jean based in Sonoma.
This
Special Select Late Harvest Riesling is produced only in top rated
vintages from botrytis-affected fruit that is carefully hand-selected
from
the Belle Terre Vineyard.
Upon release, this wine is straw
colored, and with its high residual sweetness, can be a long lived wine,
capable of aging for decades. As it ages, it becomes darker, turning
from straw colored to golden, taking on more brown hues resembling weak
tea, then stronger darker tea, and eventually dark blackish cola or
coffee colored. At fifteen years, this was already blackish colored,
like cola, akin more to one that is several decades old.
Normally
this would be predominant ripe ripe apricot, peach and lemon fruits
with sweet notes of fruits and honey. This release the sweet fruits were
more subdued interlaced with notes of tea, expresso and bitter dark
chocolate with bright acidity on the lingering finish.
RM 89 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=796124
http://www.chateaustjean.com/
https://twitter.com/chateaustjean1
@chateaustjean1
Over the course of the evening, Dan opened a selection of red wines from his cellar.
- Long Shadows Saggi Red Blend - Sanviovese, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
- Kathryn Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
- Il Valentiano Brunello Di Montalcino Reserva 2015
- Entrepreneur Diamond Mountain Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2012
Long Shadows Saggi Columbia Valley Red Blend - Sanviovese, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
This label is inspired by the great wines of Tuscany and father-son winemaking team Ambrogio and Giovanni Folonari, winemaker Gilles Nicault crafts Saggi in the style of its original winemakers.
The 2018 Saggi is a Columbia Valley Blend: 58% Sangiovese, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 12% Syrah. The Sangiovese is sourced from two distinct Washington State Sangiovese vineyards, both planted in 1998. Both sites with have terrior of well-draining soils, important to managing Sangiovese’s vine vigor and controlling berry size. Candy Mountain Vineyard Sangiovese is a warm vineyard that delivers grapes with ripe, black currant aromas and flavors. Boushey Vineyard Sangiovese, grown in the Yakima Valley, is a cooler site that brings brightness and balanced acidity to the blend.
The Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Stone Tree Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope, included to add a silky texture to the wine. The Syrah adds a darker hue and another layer of complexity.
Winemakers' tasting notes: "Easily one of our favorite Saggi bottlings to date, this wine showcases the quality of our vineyard sites and the warmth of the growing season. A brilliant garnet-red, the 2018 Saggi is elaborately fragrant, brimming with red cherries, ripe strawberries and notes of nutmeg. Vibrant and
well-integrated with balanced natural acidity, this is a textured wine with great richness and flavors that linger across a generous finish. Drinking beautifully now, the wine’s concentration and structure also make it an excellent candidate for the cellar."
This is becoming a go-to wine for us for Sangiovese complemented Italian cuisine, but bigger and bolder than your typical Sangiovese Brunello di Montalcino. Son Alec, who also shares in our club allocation cites this as one of his favorite wines.
Tonight, this stood out from the others with its big bold style, bright garnet-red colored, full bodied, nicely balanced and well integrated vibrant forward fruits of raspberry, red cherries and ripe strawberries with fragrant floral and notes of nutmeg and clove spices.
RM 93 points.
The Reserve Malbec was blended
with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon (6%) to round out the final
vintage. Individual lots of each variety were aged separately for 28
months exclusively in small French oak barrels with only 5% being new
barrels. Barrel by barrel, each lot was tasted and the most outstanding
Malbec barrels were selected and then blended with specific lots of
Cabernet Sauvignon to complete the final wine.
