Boys night features flight of ultra-premium Napa Cabernets

Boys night features flight of ultra-premium Napa Cabernets

Son Ryan invited brothers, dad and in-laws, in town for the holidays, over for a boys night of darts, ping-pong and pop-a-shot. He opened the evening serving a flight of ultra-premium Napa Cabernets.

Ryan served a selection of artisan cheeses and charcuterie. 

 

Hall Xzellenze Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

We discovered, tasted and acquired this label at the magnificent Rutherford Estate Winery during our Napa Wine Experience in 2017. This is sourced from the Sacrashe Vineyard that lies just above the winery adjacent to the estate residence. We hold and have had some of the earlier single vineyard designated wines from this vineyard dating back to 1998. Who knew this would evolve and progress to such heights? Not often does one get to taste a 'perfect' wine. of course perfection is in the eyes ('eyze') of the beholder. The 2013 vintage of this label that we tasted that day in their magnificent tasting room in the cave at the Rutherford Sacrashe estate (shown below) got 100 points from  Robert Parker.

We tasted this wine recently in our Pour Boys holiday wine dinner so it was great to compare an earlier vintage of this classic Napa label - the flagship of Hall Wines. That release and another were featured in these pages' blogposts:

Exzellenz and aged Robert Craig Mt Veeder for holiday celebration gathering

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2017/08/hall-rutherford-winery-estate.html 

Ryan has also visited the Hall Rutherford estate and has acquired a significant collection of Hall wines and several vintages of this super label. 

This earlier release was awarded 96 points by Wine Enthusiast and 93 points by Wine Spectator.

This is 100% Cabernet sourced from the Hall Estate Sacrashe Vineyard that surrounds the producer's home and sits above the Hall Rutherford Winery and Hospitality Center. This was a limited production barrel selection of only 420 cases.

 

We wrote in earlier visit blogposts about the spectacular Hall Rutherford estate and cave tours at the Rutherford estate sitting in the Sacrashe Vineyard, with hospitality rooms above the wine production area, barrel caves and tasting room below.

A powerful expression, ripe and rich, with tiers of loamy earth, spice, currant, blackberry and herbal notes. Full-bodied, very tight and compact, ending with firm, fine-grained tannins and a touch of new saddle leather. blackberry jam, chocolate, olive and cedar flavors, it’s hard to not drain the bottle now. But it also shows fabulously rich tannins that suggest aging. 

 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1023839

Continuing our flight of outstanding Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons ...

Cardinale Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

Just last week at our Family Christmas dinner offering a medley of festive wines, we served another ultra-premium label from the extensive Jackson Family Wines portfolio of iconic brands.

I written often in these pages about Jess Jackson (1930–2011) who founded what became one of the most successful family-owned wine companies in the world. Jackson’s lengthy career spanned more than 30 years in pursuit of his vision and passion to produce extraordinary wine from California’s best vineyards. 

Here is another one of those labels, Cardinale Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, a small-production, limited-availability wine, highly sought after label.  

In 1983, Jess Jackson, proprietor of Kendall-Jackson Winery, decided to produce a world-class red Meritage wine. The name comes from the original Cardinale vineyard site at Kendall-Jackson's Lakeport winery. The wine is made predominantly of Cabernet Sauvignon blended with small amounts of Merlot and, in certain years, Cabernet Franc. 

The 2010 Cardinale is 86% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14% Merlot, sourced from 100% Napa Valley hillside and mountain vineyard sites.  It was aged 20 months in 98% new French oak.

 

It was produced by winemaker Chris Carpenter who wrote: “An intriguing combination of dark fruits and spices. The blending of five mountain sub-appellations provided aromas of ripe boysenberry, dark cherry and dragon fruit. These fruits meld on the palate with holiday spice and Sumatra coffee bean characters. The wine is lush in mid-body texture and has a lingering finish.”

Winemaker Notes continue .... "The 2010 Cardinale reflects a vintage that challenged us and highlighted our dedication to producing a wine that defines the very best of Napa Valley in a way that impacts your palate like Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." The score is at once a classic of musical creation and a masterpiece with all of the subtly, grace and precision of a Mozart symphony, but with the charisma of complex Jazz. Following suit, the 2010 Cardinale is an intriguing combination of dark fruits and spices, opening with scents of ripe boysenberry and dark cherry that meld on the palate with holiday spices and Sumatra coffee bean flavors. The 2010 Cardinale has a lush, mid-body texture and a lingering finish."

This release was awarded 96 points from Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, 92 points Int'l Wine Cellar and Stephen Tanzer, 91 points from Wine Spectator and 17/20 points by Jancis Robinson.

Dark garnet colored, full bodied, intense, powerful and rich layers of dark red and black fruits with notes of mocha, cinnamon, cassis, earthy cedar and tobacco with hints of tar and graphite on a firm grippijng tannin laced lingering finish. 

 

RM 93 points. 

 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1600225

https://www.cardinale.com/

Fleury 29  Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

I featured Brian and Claudia Fleury and their Fleury Napa Valley estate wines in thess pages back in 2018 in the blogpost Fleury Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Duo. I wrote about when we first met Brian and Claudia Fleury at a Del Dotto Estate Winery event (see below) back in 2002. From that meeting we acquired some Fleury Estate Lauren Bryce Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from what I believe was their inaugural vintage release. How surprising then and what fun to hear son Ryan speaking of this wine and about he and some of his buddy's acquiring some of the highly allocated select wine for their cellars. Fleury Estate Napa Cab is a favorite of him and several of his colleagues who have extensive collections of numerous releases of this label. 

Fleury Estate Winery owns 50 acres of premium vineyard land in different appellations and elevations that they note allow them to "craft consistent, high quality Napa Valley wines year after year". Their primary Fleury Estate Vineyard located in the heart of Napa Valley just south of St. Helena in Rutherford, is also home to the Fleury tasting room, winemaking facilities and 11 acre estate vineyard.  

 

They also own and manage 30 acres in the St Helena Vineyard, and six acre Howell Mountain Vineyard high up in Deerpark.

 

Their vineyards are planted to all the Bordeaux Varietals:  Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot and Malbec. 

Le Fleur 29 is sourced from the Fleury estate vineyard in the foothills above St Helena sitting at an elevation of 880 feet. It is named for Brian Flurry's father Lee Fleury.

 

Garnet colored, medium full bodied bright expressive blackberry fruits accented by clove spice, oak, tobacco leaf, graphite with hints of sweet mocha and vanilla. 

 

RM 93 points. 

 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2917734

 

https://www.fleurywinery.com/

 

Costco, Kirkland Signature Chardonnay, Sonoma County

Costco, Kirkland Signature Chardonnay, Sonoma County

The one question I get asked more than any other from non-oenophiles (wine geeks), is, 'what is your favorite wine?'. This usually is an icebreaker to open the discussion to ask the real pressing question, 'what is a great value wine?' 

 

I often talk about wine in the context of QPR - Quality Price Ratio, which is a measure of the relative value of a wine in its price range. 

Understandably, everyone in addition to casual wine drinkers who lack the discriminating wine pallet from serious wine tasting want a low cost pleasurable good tasting wine. I've written in these pages about the wine price spectrum, from every day wines, once a week wines, once a month wines, once a year wines, and once in a lifetime wines. Once might be more open to spending top dollar for a special occasion wine than for one for every day casual sipping. 

Couple this phenomenon with two other interesting facts: the average price paid by the consumer for a bottle of wine is under $15. And, the number one wine merchant in the US in rank of consumer wine sales is Costco, the wholesale big box merchant from Kirkland, Washington. 

 

Most folks know Costco is a membership warehouse club, with the intent to provide best available prices on quality brand-name merchandise, leverage large purchasing power, keep costs down and pass the savings on to our member/customers. With more than 800 locations worldwide, they have massive volume purchasing power. This creates the challenge and reality to select suppliers that can deliver large quantities to meet the massive demand of the high volume high turnover Costco machine. 

 

Costco warehouses carry about 4,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) compared to the 30,000 found at most supermarkets. By carefully choosing products based on quality, price, brand, and features, the company can offer the best value to members, those folks that pay for the right to shop there! Oh yeah, that's how they can afford to pass along savings and keep margins tight, because they also collect membership fees. 
 

It would be reasonable to consider this philosophy and approach contrary to wine, where highest quality is the result of small production of carefully crafted product. But for casual everyday sipping wines, there is an intersection point of quality, quantity and price/value. 

Never-the-less, many folks are unaware that Costco® is the number one wine retailer in the U.S. 

While one might argue that high value wines that are available in large volume in the marketplace would therefore be widely available in grocers and wine merchants, the Costco difference is simply the tremendously slim margin Costco takes thanks to their membership model. By making money on membership fees, it helps subsidize the economics to keep product prices low, including those on wine.

Hence, most Costco wines are available elsewhere, but likely at slightly higher prices. The emergence of the large discount wine superstores, Total Wine, Bev-Mo and, here in Illinois, Binny's, the Costco effect is diminished. The everyday Binny's price tends to be comparable to, or better than Costco, and their discounted prices tend to be better than the everyday Costco price. And of course, Binny's will offer a massive wine selection compared to the very limited Costco offering. 

Occasionally, one can find some low production wines available in an individual Costco store, but my experience is that this occurs in the markets where those wines are produced, mainly California and to a lesser degree Oregon and Washington. 

This brings me to the elephant in the room, the Costco house brand, “Kirkland Signature” wines. These are generally high-quality wines made by excellent wineries exclusively for Costco, cutting out the middleman where arcane local liquor distribution laws allow such practices. 

In some cases, these labels are starting to catch on and are developing a bit of a cult following so the low productions ones sell out fast, sometimes even within days. Some might argue this same phenomenon exists with other large volume discount grocers such as Trader Joe's and Aldi. 

I've written often in these pages about 'everyday wines', once a week wines, once a month, once a year, and special occasion wines - each with their corresponding price-point.  

It was Jess Jackson who imagined such a high volume quality wine and built a billion dollar wine empire on the basis of an affordable easy drinking California Chardonnay. His story was chronicled in the best selling book - A Man and His Mountain, the story of self-made billionaire Jess Jackson and his pursuit of his dream to build a brand of premium varietal based wine for the mass market. His accomplishments over the ensuring two and a half decades exceeded all expectations achieving the art of the possible building a multi-billion dollar wine empire - featured in my blogpost about Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay.

The brand that he envisioned grew to an iconic empire, Kendall-Jackson and the Chardonnay label created the whole category of varietal based mass market premium wine shipping millions of cases of wine annually.

With this in mind, I picked up a bottle of the Costco private label Kirkland Signature Sonoma County Chardonnay, as an everyday sipper. It was surprisingly good, a pleasant easy drinking wine, suitable and ideal for everyday consumption.

According to the label, "Kirkland Signature Sonoma County Chardonnay is elegant with rich, ripe, fruit flavors. The mid-palate has a wonderful zest coming from the grape's natural acidity which provides a long multi-dimensional finish. Apple, pear and orange citrus notes are surrounded by hints of vanilla and spice from the subtle oak maturation."

This label is Vinted & Bottled by Grape and Grain Imports who write, "The 2019 Kirkland Signature Sonoma County Chardonnay is made in the buttery, slightly sweet style that, to be honest, is not our favorite but it's done so well it's hard not to like. It opens with a pleasing aroma of microwave popcorn, apples and citrus."

"The buttery theme continues when tasting this wine which is also filled with sweet apple and citrus along with a touch of tart tropical fruit. Featuring a smooth, slightly creamy texture this is quite easy to drink and a great representation of this style. It ends with good length and some lingering buttery citrus notes. Butterlicious."

At at price around $10, this is great value, high QPR - Quality Price Ratio wine - ideal for keeping in the cooler for casual pleasurable, non-discriminating sipping. Pick some up.

Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2018

Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Santa Barbara County Chardonnay 2018

Last weekend I read the book A Man and His Mountain, the story of self-made billionaire Jess Jackson and his pursuit of his dream to build a brand of premium varietal based wine for the mass market. His accomplishments over the ensuring two and a half decades exceeded all expectations achieving the art of the possible building a multi-billion dollar wine empire. 

Starting with a single 80 acre farm to retire as a gentleman farmer, he became a grape grower after a successful law career. He saw an opportunity to create a new category of wines and graduated to acquiring the properties to source his growing demand for grapes, growing to owning two dozen top tier wineries and brands with thousands of acres of vineyards across the state. 

The brand that he envisioned grew to an iconic empire, Kendall-Jackson and the Chardonnay label created the whole category of varietal based mass market premium wine shipping millions of cases of wine annually.  

The book was so captivating I read it in one sitting plus a short follow up session at breakfast. It chronicled not only the business and the brand, but also the growth and maturation of the wine industry. It also followed his life, from childhood, through school, to his career from part time cop, to successful lawyer, to wine producer to wine industry mogul. It also featured his exploits into and his success in some of his hobby side ventures, that also achieved the highest level of success, and changed other industries. 

Lastly, its a human interest story about a man and his families, his initial nuclear family, it's demise, and his second family through to his death. Notably, the name Kendall-Jackson is the combination of his first wife's family name and married name. Alas, their lack of agreement on the degree of risk in starting a new business, and lack of shared vision and commitment lead to the disintegration of their marriage.

Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Santa Barbara County Chardonnay 2018

With the book and its vivid history and evolution of this wine as a backdrop, I went out and bought a bottle of this 'premium' mass market varietal based wine - Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Santa Barbara County Chardonnay.

Linda prepared salmon with brown rice pilaf for the occasion.  

Winemaker notes: Lush tropical fruit, lemon, lime and floral notes intertwines with nice minerality from the calciferous soils in the Santa Maria and Los Alamos Valleys. There is a touch of floral notes from the small amounts of Dijon and Rued clones, and a hint of vanilla and spice to round out the rich, long finish.

This is 100% Chardonnay sourced from estate (producer owned) vineyards from Santa Barbara County. The Santa Barbara wine region is renowned as being one of California’s coolest grape growing regions due to its unique east-west running valleys running along the coast. Santa Barbara’s cool, maritime climate results in a long growing season, with extended hang-time on the vines giving the grapes more balanced ripeness and intense flavors.

This was rated 92 points by Antonio Galloni, Vinous, Mar 2020, 91 points by Wine Advocate, 90 points by Jeb Dunnuck, and 88 points by Wine Enthusiast.

I found it acceptable for a $20 bottle, widely available for fifteen dollars, straw colored, sprites of lime citrus with notes of tropical fruit, minerality and hint of vanilla, detracted by a rather unpleasant funky barnyard aroma. I hope this was anomalous to the bottle we obtained.

RM 86 points.  

The following evening, with half the Grand Reserve left, I opened this Cambria Chardonnay half bottle for a mini comparison tasting. If I read it right in the book, this was a coveted vineyard of Jackson, sourcing grapes for his California Chardonnay. Jackson maneuvered a purchase of the property when the owners were seeking to sell, by splitting up the red wine Pinot Noir parcels from the white wine Chardonnay parcels. He was highly leveraged at the time and could not afford the entire property, and was only interested in that portion that grew Chardonnay grapes. The book details the maneuvering and negotiating that eventually lead to Jackson acquiring the Cambria Vineyard in Santa Barbara County. 

I believe the grapes in this wine would be the same grapes sourced for both these labels, the single vineyard designated select, and the blended broader appellation bottling, the Santa Maria Valley being a sub-appellation of Santa Barbara County.

There was a similarity in the profiles of the two wines with similar taste sprites in the citrus notes. Interesting and fun comparing and speculating the common genealogy of the grapes. Are the same source grapes in both bottles?

Cambria Benchbreak Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay 2014

This Benchbreak Chardonnay was golden butter colored, medium bodied with lively bright fruit flavors of citrus, peach, green apple and hints of sweet pineapple with a layer resembling butterscotch on a fresh, clean finish.

RM 88 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2263240 

 

The Kendall-Jackon Jess Jackson Story 

In 1974, Jess Jackson purchased an 80-acre pear and walnut orchard up in Lake County, California, just north of Napa Valley, and replanted it with Chardonnay grapevines. In 1982, Jess and his family set out to make a premium, yet affordable, California wine. 

In 1982, he set out for New York City to establish distribution for his new concept wine and unknown brand. He sold his first case of his Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay to the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station. That same year, that inaugural vintage of Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay won the first-ever Platinum Award for an American Chardonnay at The American Wine Competition. 

Soon thereafter, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy, native Californians, wanted to serve a California wine in the White House. Nancy discovered and fell in love with the taste of Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay and selected Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay as their 'house wine'. San Francisco Chronicle's Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and city icon, Herb Caen, caught wind of the story and wrote a column about the wine referring to the Chardonnay as "Nancy’s wine." The brand was established, demand exploded, and the company grew exponentially. 

By 1991, Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay had become the #1 selling Chardonnay in America, and remains so to this day. 

In 2007, Jess Jackson was honored with the Wine Enthusiast Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award, awarded each year to the individuals and companies that have made outstanding achievements in the wine and beverage world. Jess Jackson was one of the first and largest winemakers to introduce America to varietal-specific wine, not only increasing the public’s understanding and appreciation of wine, but also making it affordable. 

Jess Jackson passed away in April of 2011.  

In 2013, Wine Enthusiast named Barbara Banke, Jackson's second wife and long-time partner who helped him build the business, and succeeded him as its leader, as its 2013 Wine Person of the Year. The first woman to win the award, Barbara shares it with Jess, the magazine’s inaugural recipient in 2000.

In 2017 Kendall-Jackson was awarded Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

https://www.kj.com//wine/grand-reserve/chardonnay