Boy's Night Out Cellar Tours Wine Tasting

Boy's Night Out Cellar Tours Wine Tasting 

Son Ryan and neighbor Dave M hosted a wine tasting opening their two cellars and a flight of spectacular wines accompanied by artisan cheeses, smoked salmon, charcuterie and assorted eats.

Evening hosts, Ryan M and Dave M

Dave is the principle of Elements, the banquet meeting facility, wine and food service associated with Hotel Indigo in Naperville (IL). We recently hosted our global team summit there for a week, where we met,  and learned he was my son's neighbor and a fellow oenophile and serious wine collector, and hence the planning began for wine get-togethers such as this!

Dave's Cellar

Ryan anchored the tasting flight with a couple of ten year old labels and suggested I bring some vintage in five or ten year increments in light of my cellar collection spawning several decades. I pulled from my cellar two twenty-five year old labels from the 1997 vintage to round out the tasting.

What great fun and how special to share a father-son shared interest experience such as this.

Ryan started with three classic Napa Valley labels from his cellar, accompanied by a selection of artisan cheeses and charcuterie. 

• Dominus Napa Valley Proprietary Red 2012
• Vineyard 29 Napa Valley Aida Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2012
  
• LaJota Napa Valley Howell Mountain Cabernet Franc 2018

From my cellar we opened two vintage Napa Cabernets.

• Lokoya Napa Valley Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 1997
• Plumpjack Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1997
  

My tasting notes of these labels appear in a separate blogpost here. 

We moved around the corner to Dave's house with his magnificent cellar from which he offered our choice of wines to open.  His home is full of wine themed artwork and artifacts besides the incredible rec room, wine room and cellar. The formal dining room features this spectacular wine art from famous wine paintings artist Eric Christensen. This rare Giclée oil print by America's Watercolor Master is a hyper-realistic oil featuring the Napa Valley producer Duckhorn and their Discussion bottle with many imaginative and intriguing reflections. 

Once down in the cellar - we focused on selecting the continuation of the evening's wine flight. Dave has set the tone having opened the legendary producer Scarecrow and their Napa Valley Red M Etain. 

Ryan pulling down an OWC
(original wood case) from Dave's
cellar collection

We pulled from Dave's extensive cellar collection and tasted a spectacular flight of extraordinary Napa Valley Cabernets.

• Scarecrow M Etain Napa Valley Red 2017
• Continuum Napa Valley Red 2014
  
• Realm 'The Tempest' Napa Valley Red 2014
• Hall Vineyards Kathryn Hall 2015  
  
  
  

  

And from Argentina, Nicolás Catena Zapata, Adrianna Vineyard in the Gualtallary District, Tupungato Alto Region, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina this Malbec,

• Adrianna Vineyards River Stones Malbec 2015
  

To end the evening, late into the early morning, we retired to Dave's outdoor patio for closing out the remaining wines, some aperitifs and cigars. 

 

What a spectacular evening, looking forward to our next Caroline Crew wine event.

Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 

For pairing with left-over BBQ ribs from the other night, with sweet corn and baked potatoes and some artisan cheeses, I pulled from the cellar this Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006. The bright vibrant fruit was a perfect pairing with the dinner. 

Our visits to the Hall Rutherford Estate have been highlights of several of our Napa Valley Wine Experiences dating back to 2003.

 As members of the Hall Wine Club we acquired many labels of their allocated premium labels. We've attended several Hall wine tasting events including their release tour tasting in Chicago hosted by none other than owner producer Kathryn Hall (right).

 Hall have built an incredible franchise and brand with their multiple Napa Valley winery locations and their broad portfolio of labels including numerous premium and ultra-premium highly rated labels. This is Hall's 'basic' bottling of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  Fruit for this label is sourced from select fruit from across Napa Valley from Hall's organically farmed estate vineyards featured prominently, as well as fruit from partner growers' hillside sites. Praise from Robert Parker: "Hall has quickly become one of the great superstars in the Napa Valley firmament."

According to our Journal of Tasting Notes, we posted no less than ten different tasting notes for this vintage release dating back to 2010 including this mini-vertical tasting of multiple vintages we took from our cellar to our BNB vacation home in the outer banks for a family vacation.  At that time I wrote that "My Cellartracker records indicated we've consumed eight of the baker's dozen we acquired of this vintage of this wine and shows five tasting notes to date."

Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Back in 2013 and then again in 2015 I gave this label 93 points. This time and the most recent tasting back in February I gave this 92 points, indicating the bright vibrant fruits are starting to give way subtly to the non-fruit accents cited below.

At fourteen years, this is drinking as well as ever, probably at the apex of its drinking profile, not showing any signs of diminution whatsoever, but not likely to improve further with any more aging. 

 Consistent with earlier tasting notes when I wrote, "Dark garnet colored, medium to full bodied, a symphony of flavors accented by bold expressive black berry and black raspberry fruits with highlights of anise and mocha with tones of cedar, sweet toasty oak and clove spice and hints of earthy leather turning to a smooth polished lingering finish."

After being opened a day, this is predominant anise licorice and smoke on the black berry fruit with hints of cedar and clove spice on the finish.

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=761928

http://www.hallwines.com/visit/winery-experiences/rutherford-tours 

Kathryn Hall Vertical Tasting - Hall Wine Release Tour 2015

Kathryn Hall Vertical Tasting and Hall Wine Release Tour 2015

Kathryn Hall and the Hall Wine Club and marketing team hit the road this week to celebrate and promote the release of the flagship Kathryn Hall Cabernet Sauvignon for the 2015 vintage.  They conducted two tastings, a vertical tasting of Kathryn Hall Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 through 2015, and a tasting of select labels from the 2015 vintage release. Fellow Pour Boy, Dr Dan and me and our two Lindas attended the Chicago event held at the W Hotel, conveniently located a short walk from the office.

A highlight of the main event was the chance to meet Kathryn Hall, and to have her sign a copy of her and husband Craig's New York Times bestseller book, A Perfect Score. 

The book chronicles Craig and Kathryn Hall's twenty year journey from amateur winemakers to the ultimate achievement, recipients of an almost unheard-of perfect score from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.

A PERFECT SCORE tells the tale of their meteoric ascendancy in Napa Valley restoring the historic St Helena winery into the site and tourist attraction it is today, the building of their Rutherford facility and the tug-of-war between Napa Valley localism and tourism. Its an enchanting tale of the Halls' account of the art, soul, and business of a modern winery.

We appreciate it when producers come to our fair city and try to support such activities. It shouldn't be surprising since Chicago was recently recognized as “best restaurant city in America” by Conde Nast Traveler. The declaration was from the magazine’s list of best restaurants in Chicago.

Hall Wines have gained great notoriety and recognition since they acquired the historic St. Helena Bergfeld Winery in 2003. That historic winery in St. Helena was once the home of the Napa Valley Co-Op, producing 40% of Napa Valley’s wines.  Today it is the site of the Hall St Helena winery and hospitality center.

Previously, in 1995, the Halls acquired the legendary Sacrashe Vineyard in the hills of Rutherford which today houses their private residence, state of the art winery and magnificent caves and tasting room.  The caves double as an art gallery. Our visits to the Hall Rutherford site have been highlights of several of our Napa Valley Wine Experiences including our trip in 2013 and again in 2017.

I enjoyed sharing with Kathryn, that we have held, (and since drinken) Sacrashe Vineyard single vineyard select Cabernet Sauvignon dating back to their early days with the 1998 vintage.

It was also an honor and privilege to be able to briefly compare notes of common acquaintances from my days in national security intelligence and Kathryn's time serving as the Honorable US Ambassador to Austria.

Today, Hall’s estate vineyards encompass more than 500 acres of classic Bordeaux varietals; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sauvignon Blanc.

The wine flight selections for the 2015 release tour were a family affair, for labels named for
Kathryn, the flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, and Walt 2015 Pinot Noir, named for Kathryn's  family maiden name, Walt.

Such release events are an important part of our wine collecting strategy since we collect specific horizontal collections in the birthyears of our kids and grandkids, as well as vertical collections of select signature labels for each of them. Indeed, these birthyear collections and our large format bottles for such were the subject of our feature when our cellar was featured in Wine Spectator in the Collector column in June of 2001.

Also served was the 2015 release of “Jack’s Masterpiece,”  an annual release of signature Cabernet Sauvignon named for Hall’s former winemaker and current President, Mike Reynolds, and the label artwork created by Mike’s then 18-month-old son Jack, as a Father’s Day gift, back in 2012.

We have fun with these wines, selecting the Sauvignon Blanc and one of the premier Cabernets for our holiday Christmas packs, with card coined, deck the Halls!

Last year, I helped source for son Alec and his leadership, the spectacular Hall Exzellence ultra-premium Cabernet Sauvignon for their holiday client recognition appreciation gift. 

Tonight's release tasting flight:

Hall Vineyards Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016 (not shown)

Hall Vineyards Napa Valley Jack's Masterpiece Cabernet Sauvignon 2015

Hall Vineyards Walt 'Bob's Ranch' Sonoma Valley, Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2016

Hall Kathryn Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2015

Additionally, the Hall team hosted a separate, SOLD OUT vertical tasting of the classic flagship namesake Kathryn Hall Cabernet Sauvignon showcasing the vintages from 2011 through the current release 2015.

Kathryn Hall Sacrashe Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1999

Kathryn Hall Sacrashe Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 for Ivy Wheaton Christmas/Birthday Dinner

For our annual dinner outing taking friend Marlene U out to celebrate her birthday and the Christmas season, we dined at Ivy Restaurant in Wheaton, IL. We took BYOB this Kathryn Hall Sacrashe Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a perfect complement to my Rib-eye steak, Linda's petit filet, and Marlene's BBQ ribs. Kathy served us and provided attentive friendly service.

We dined in the side-room overlooking the courtyard (shown below) which was a picture postcard with the heavy falling snow. While its not as picturesque as the main dining room, which is actually the sanctuary of a historic church (shown left), complete with stain glass windows, it's more intimate and quieter, as the sanctuary main dining room tends to be rather noisy, even bordering on boisterous.

For the second time in a row, my Ivy steak entree was laced with Rosemary which I do not favor. Otherwise, our dinners were delightful.

A really cool and interesting part of the Ivy dining experience was their illuminated menus - a great feature in a darkened restaurant. See their illumination in the lower center of the picture above.

Kathryn Hall Napa Valley Sacrashe Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1999

This single vineyard designated wine predates the Kathryn label becoming the signature flagship of the Hall brand. This label's demise can perhaps be explained by their expansion to a broad portfolio of labels, many small production boutique or individual labels,  extending the Sacrashe Vineyard fruit more broadly across the brand line-up. The Sacrashe Vineyard (shown right) sits just above the Winery on the estate which lies near the Napa Auberge du Soleil Relaix a Chateau Resort.

We visited the Hall Rutherford estate winery with its magnificent caves art gallery, cellar and tasting room (shown left) during our Napa Wine Experience in 2013.

Its time to drink up this vintage label as its showing it age, revealing its true profile and character, but still drinking nicely. Dark garnet colored, medium bodied, the black cherry and black berry fruits are starting to give way to black olive, leather, tobacco leaf and hints of tar and anise, with smooth soft tannins. This is a blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Merlot.

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=610687

http://www.hallwines.com/

http://www.ivyofwheaton.com/

Hall Napa Valley Rutherford Estate

Hall Napa Valley Rutherford Estate

Another highlight of our recent Napa Valley Wine Experience 2013 was our tasting tour at Hall Vineyards Rutherford Estate. We first discovered Hall and their Napa Valley wines during our Napa Valley Wine Experience back in 2003. We've collected their signature label Napa Cabernet Sauvignon since. Along the way we picked up numerous vintage selections of their vineyard designated Sacrashe Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from the namesake vineyard. 

The Hall Sacrashe Vineyard, pictured left, sits on the lower tier of the Vaca Mountain Range on the eastern Napa slope above the tony Auberge du Soleil Resort, Spa and Restaurant.

Our gallery of pictures of our Hall Rutherford visit are on our Napa Wine Experience 2013 - Hall page on www.unwindWine.com.

The Sacrashe vineyard designated label evolved to the Kathryn Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon label with the 2006 vintage featured in our tasting journal back in March 18, 2010. This flagship label received numerous blockbuster ratings culminating in the 2009 release which was acclaimed the #2 wine in the world in Wine Spectator's annual Top 100. This was one of the highlights of the Wine Spectator's Grand Tour, Chicago, 2011.

We've had fun over the years giving the festive red labeled Hall wines to friends and family at Christmas, artfully decorated with a whimsical play on words, 'deck the Halls with boughs of holly..."

Hall has continued their development in Napa Valley with the opening of their Rutherford winery and tasting room located at the Sacrashe Vineyard. This has gone hand in hand with the proliferation of the number of labels on offer as well. They explain that the Rutherford crush facility is built to accommodate small lot production of crafted wines to complement the larger volume production capabilities of the Valley facility in St Helena.




The Rutherford winery features a stylish reception center with an outdoor patio and several interior tasting rooms with views overlooking the valley below. The center sits atop the winery production facility which connects to a network of caves dug into the mountain side below the famed Sacrashe Vineyard. The 14,000 square feet of caves were designed and built by hand by Friedrich Gruber of Gutenstein Austria. They are finished with handmade Austrian brick recovered from sites in and around Vienna.

Deep in the caves is the highlight of the facility, a magnificent cavernous tasting room with a massive table that can accommodate thirty. Over the table is a huge elegant crystal chandelier. The table offers picturesque views of the caves. Overlooking the room from the end wall is another large metal sculpture depicting the vines over a large table showcasing the selection of labels. To the rear of the room opposite the cave walk is a wine cellar housing some of the estates library wines.

Another remarkable feature of the cave facility is the displays of artwork from the Halls’ art collection. The numerous works of metal and glass sculptures are displayed in elegant nooks built into the walls of the caves to showcase the collection that also includes a historic vintage large format bottle decanting contraption with a hand crank (shown below).



The wines:

HALL Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2011

While not necessarily a collectable, we consider Sauvignon Blanc a mainstay of a comprehensive wine tasting with its clean crisp clear true representation of the white wine fruits. Hall is one of our favorites that we keep in our cellar for such occasions along with Duckhorn (featured in magnum at this years Open That Bottle Night 2013), David Arthur, and perhaps our favorite, Cliff Lede Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.

RM 89 points.



HALL "Kathryn Hall" Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

HALL “Kathryn Hall” Cabernet Sauvignon has become the flagship label replacing the historic vineyard designated Sacrashe label. It represents the most select fruit from the estate's vineyard blocks combined with select mountain fruit from vineyard partners. A blend of varietals results in a Bordeaux cuvée showcasing the dominant Sacrashe vineyard fruits.

Nearly opaque purple-black color, medium to full body, smooth and nicely polished, moderately complex with aromas of violets and cocoa and flavors of black berry and black raspberry and dark cherries,turning to hints of licorice, mocha and a subtle earthiness with moderate tannins on the finish.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1481291

HALL "Ellie's" Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

One of the range of new labels extending the selection of the Hall  brand, "Ellie's" is a tribute to Craig Hall's mother; an artist and teacher; who enlisted in World War II as soon as the U.S. Navy announced it would accept women. Ellie inspired Craig's interest in art collecting. In remembrance and further tribute to her, the label displays a pencil drawing by Ellie of an owl watching over a family vineyard.

Dark and full bodied, big fruit forward wine with layers complex layers of black fruits accented by tones of spicy clove and cassis with nicely integrated supple firm but nicely polished lingering tannins.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1545927

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1559443



Hall Darwin Proprietary Red Wine 2009  

Interesting blend named after the town of Darwin, Australia, where Kathryn and Craig’s small plane was required to make an emergency landing. Once safely on the ground, the Halls toasted their well-being with an Aussie Shiraz/Cabernet blend and pledged to craft a similar wine in the Napa Valley to commemorate the occasion. .

The 2009 HALL “Darwin” is an interesting blend of Syrah accented by Cabernet Sauvignon from the Hall Napa River Ranch estate. Dark, full bodied, forward black fruits accented by a layer of anise with tones of creosote and hints of tea and cedar.

RM 90 points.

85% Syrah, 15% Ccabernet Sauvignon

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1368904


http://www.hallwines.com/

More of Hall Rutherford; some highlights of the Hall art collection featured in the cellar cave:

 

More of our gallery of pictures of our Hall Rutherford visit are on our Napa Wine Experience 2013 - Hall page on www.unwindWine.com.

Schild Reserve Shiraz 2008 and Hall Napa Cab 2006

Schild Reserve Shiraz 2008 and Hall Napa Cab 2006

Two tasty contrasting wines taken BYOB to holiday dinner with friends Mark and Gayle at favorite local Italian Trattoria Angelis Italian in Naperville. The big flavorful chewy tongue coating Schild Reserve Shiraz was great with starters and salads, then the firmer tighter Hall Napa Cabernet Sauvignon  accompanied the entrees.

Ben Schild Barossa Valley Reserve Shiraz 2008

This wine is dedicated to the producer patriarch Ben Schild who has been farming the Schild Estate Three Springs property in Rowland Flat Barossa since 1952. Today the property is farmed by second and third generation Schilds. Fruit for this wine is sourced from a single vineyard in the Hills overlooking Lyndoch where the elevated location and cooling winds helped temper the effects of a warm year resulting in earlier ripening thereby avoiding a late season heat wave that afflicted other growers in the Southern Barossa.

By the way, a remarkable interesting side note; this is not the same wine but it is the same producer and vintage as the Schild Barossa Shiraz that after receiving high reviews, 94 points, and placing in Wine Spectator’s Top 10 Wines of the Year in 2010, naturally subsequently sold out. Schild then proceeded to purchase, blend and bottle additional wine from other producers, but still market such under the 'same' label. Extraordinary, unethical, deceptive, conniving, but legal, none-the-less.

(Imagine buying a new Ford but finding out Ford ran low on engines and purchased and provided alternative replacement engines from some other supplier. (See Bait and Switch?; Schild Estate: Questionable Bottling Practices in 2008 Shiraz; What Makes a Wine a Wine?).

Only after being challenged by reporters did the winery affix an extra label to the secondary bottlings identifying them as a second blend.

The colour of the Reserve was deep dark Ruby Red and inky purple. Huge aromas of blue fruits and violets give way to bright vibrant concentrated tongue coating flavors bursting with blueberry, black raspberry, ripe plum and chocolate, with hints of black pepper, spice and nicely integrated oak on a long lingering soft tannin finish.

RM 93 points - (perhaps  merits a 94).

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1386115

http://schildestate.com.au/ben-schild-reserve-shiraz

Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Deck the Halls with boughs of holly ... We discovered Hall wines during our Napa Wine Experience 2003 with their moderrn op-art scuplture garden. The 2006 vintage was a high achievement for this Estate standard label Napa Cabernet with a Wine Spectator 93 point rating. Their flagship wine, Katheryn Hall 2006, was #20 that same Wine Spectator's Top 100 of 2010 mentioned above, with a score of 96 points!. This year it was selected the #2 Wine of the Year in Wine Spectator's annual roundup.

This wine started with a tightly wound concentrated forward layer of cedar and graphite eventually revealing ripe black berry fruits. Dark inky color, rich, dense, concentrated, style, full-bodied, fruit forward ripe black currant, black berry and black cherry fruits with hints of milk chocolate and cassis on a long firm but smooth tannin finish. More closed and tight, not as lush and jammy as earlier tasting notes. This would be ideally suited with a charbroiled steak.


RM 92 points (vs 93 in earlier reviews).

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=761928

http://www.hallwines.com/

Grand Tour Chicago - Wine Tasting Extravaganza

Grand Tour Chicago - Wine Tasting Extravaganza

One of the ultimate wine tasting experiences besides actually visiting wine country is Wine Spectator's annual/bi-annual* Grand Tour - a wine tasting extravaganza of over two hundred producers. While its not a substitute for visiting wine country, it is an opportunity to meet the winemakers or producer representative directly, rather than their local distributors, which is the case is most tasting events.

There is something for everyone from standard bearer First Growths to breakout producers and new vintage releases, some revealing the artwork of new winemakers. A highlight is discovering new emerging labels or established labels entering new markets. Such was the case with the 2011 Grand Tour bi-annual visit to Chicago. Again this year it was held at Navy Pier's Grand Ballroom.

* Most cities including Chicago host Grand Tour every other year. 

Grand Tour in the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom

Such a broad and diverse offering can be daunting. One can approach the challenge of so many choices several ways - look for new discoveries, focus on known producers' new releases, wander serendipitously or randomly, or some combination thereof. We develop a detailed plan of what producers we want to visit and then determine tasting based on what they are serving - avoiding lackluster features and offerings we've already experienced. Our tasting route follows countries and regions that we know and collect - no room for experimentation in our plan.

Tasting so many wines in one evening quickly overwhelms the palate so we taste wines with which we have previous experience or familiarity. Lack of or diminished palate discrimination hinders wandering into new realms.We also focus on the more complex sophisticated wines early and move to the bigger, 'narrower' wines from there. You probably figured out by now - we taste reds and don't spend time on whites at such an event - the sole exception being Inniskillin Niagara Peninsula Riesling Icewine 2007 which was according to plan.

 We tend to focus on our selections and not be tempted to venture off plan otherwise one will never get through their preference list. We've been very diligent in keeping to our plan over the years although we deviated moreso this year than previously due to the size of our group.

Rick with Dan Kosta of Kosta Brown

Our preference list was only fifteen  percent of those available which is still thirty wines. I hit all but the most of the last half dozen which were ports as I ventured off and did explore some discoveries in chosen categories, such as the Aussie Shiraz's mentioned below, for example.

In the Pinot Noirs, we tasted perennial favorites Kosta Browne Russian River Valley 2009, Domaine Serene Evensted Reserve 2007, and Freestone Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2007, as all were pouring as yet untasted new releases.

The first growth Bordeaux features were Chateau Mouton Rothschild serving the spectacular 2005 vintage and Chateau Margaux pouring their 2004. We started with these as the chance to taste First Growth Bordeaux wines is a special occasion and valued experience. A Pauillac comparison was available with the Lynch Bages 2005, and the Pontet Canet 2008. Margaux was best represented of the Bordeaux appellations with Chateau Margaux, Chateau Palmer 2004, Brane-Cantenac 2003, Du Tertre 2005, and Giscours 2005. St Estpehe was represented by long favorite Cos d'Estournel. Standouts from the Bordeaux' besides the Mouton were Lynch Bages, Brane-Cantenac and  the Cos d'Estournel. Conspicuously modest and subdued was the Chateau Margaux '04 - perhaps too young to reveal itself.

Consensus highlight of the 'Big Cab' offerings was the Joseph Phelps Insignia 2006 with its rich chewy forward fruit and complexity. Notable entries were Niebaum-Coppola Rubicon '06, Beaulieu Vineyards Georges De Latour '07, Cliff Lede Poetry '07, and Beringer Private Reserve 2007 Cabernet Sauvignons. We passed on the Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet, Chateau St Jean Cinq Cepages and Etude. A new release offering that showed well was Gemstone Vineyards Yountville Ten (10th Anniversary Release) 2006 which is now made by Phillip Melka. The consensus underachievement was the Caymus Special Select 2008 as I was alone in our group to give it high marks.

We overlooked and missed the 2007 HALL "Exzellenz" Sacrashe Vineyard Red Wine ($165) not recognizing yet another new label, which was unfortunate given her recent spectacular releases of her Kathyrn Hall label. We skipped the Provenance having just recently enjoyed their 2007 Cabernet (perhaps their best to date). 

The Australian Shiraz category featured several new discoveries including Two Hands 'Zippy's Block' Single Vineyard Ronnefeldt Road Marananga Barossa Valley Shiraz 2007, D'Arenberg poured their highly rated 2006 vintage Dead Arm, Penfolds their RWT (we skipped both having already tasted), and Mollydooker poured their top shelf Velvet Glove Shiraz 2009. Two other Australian Shiraz discoveries of the evening were the Chateau Tanunda very limited release 2008 'The Château' - '100 YEAR OLD VINE' Shiraz and Hentley Farm 'Clos Otto' Barossa Valley Greenock Creek Shiraz 2008. Pictured at left is Chateau Tanunda's Dagmar O'Neill pouring 100 Year Vines Shiraz for Bill C.




The Grand Tour remains a highlight of our tasting experiences each year. At $200 it is not for the every day casual wine drinker or those content/satisfied to drink modest wines. For those looking to test their palate discrimination, to explore a wide variety or broad selection of wines, then the tour offers just that. of course there are many wine tasting opportunities out there that are less extravagant. With so many selections, care must be taken to pace, spit, and cleanse - not drink/taste too much too fast, spit rather than drink (swallow) if you're looking to taste more than you would normally drink, and rinse and cleanse your palate with the furnished water, bread, or crackers regularly to maintain any sense of discrimination. 

This year,  based on lessons learned in years past, we ate just before arriving which reduced the distraction of the institutional buffet food., and time taken from the wines. As we're not getting younger and some have bad knees, next year we'll absolutely have to pre-arrange for transportation back to the hotel - and as such we got hotel rooms in the city to simplify getting home at the end of the long evening. All that said, we're 'All-In', looking forward to the next Grand Tour, which regretably but also thankfully is at least a year away!

The folks from Hentley Farm (above)  and their
'Clos Otto' Barossa Valley Greenock Creek Shiraz 2008

The jury - Rick, Ernie, Bill, Dan, Eric and Lyle.