Napa Valley Cabs Prequel to Upcoming Napa Trip
For a elegant beef tenderloin dinner, and as a prequel to our upcoming Napa trip, we served two dueling mountain fruit
Cabernet Sauvignons. Bill served
Paratus 2007 and I brought a
David Arthur 2003.
Looking ahead to our upcoming Napa trip and tour we're scheduled for a
tasting at David Arthur and will be reaching back to Paratus again.
For the starter course, Beth served crab stuffed mushrooms and Bill opened at
Sea Smoke Chardonnay.
What an interesting combination/pairing. As expected, the David Arthur
was a perfect complement to the grilled beef tenderloin, and the Paratus
went very nicely with the wild rice and grilled asparagus.
We finished with Linda's homemade chocolate mousse and homemade crafted pirouettes (shown below).
Sea Smoke California Grand Cru Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay 2010
Grapes for this
Sea Smoke Chardonnay are sourced from their estate vineyard. It was aged in 55% new
French oak for 16 months. This wine was complemented perfectly by the crab stuffed mushrooms which
totally neutralized a tanginess to the wine rendering it smoother and
more approachable.
This was a very interesting contrast in style to the
Sea Smoke Gratis Chardonnay we tasted at our
Open That Bottle Night - OTBN 2013 night
a couple weeks ago. While that was more Burgundian in style, this was
very bold, forward, full bodied, dry, crisp, buttery and oaky on the
front.
Wine Enthusiast calls it a "exotic, candied style ...almost in a
class by itself," and refers to "flavors including pineapple, brown sugar,
lemon drop, ginger and vanilla cookie, honey, green apple butter and
baked pear."
The producers says this is "an elegant Chardonnay with
aromas of dusty peach, star fruit, rock dust and
honeysuckle--complemented by a focused mid-palate and the refreshing
cool climate acidity of our estate vineyard."
RM 91 points.
https://www.seasmoke.com/
David Arthur Napa Vally Cabernet
Sauvignon 2003
We've been collecting
and enjoying David Arthur wine
s
since the late nineties but have been pacing our consumption as we
watch this wine age and achieve its true potential. This property owned
and operated by Donald and son David Long. sits up on
Pritchard Hill near Chappellet. We visited Pritchard Hill during our Pritchard Hill, Napa Valley Experience - Autumn '09 but couldn't schedule them at that time. We're headed back and will be touring and tasting David Arthur next month so we selected this wine to start to build our vocabulary
and understanding of their wines.
 |
Pritchard Hill vineyards overlooking
Napa Valley |
David Arthur wines represent the unique terroir of the mountain with its rough rocky
terrain. They have 21 acres on their Pritch
ard
Hill estate planted in the Bordeaux varietals, Cabernet
Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petite Verdot, as well as Sangiovese
and
Nebbiolo which go into their unique Meritaggio. We first discovered this
wine when we purchased a case back of the 1997 vintage release and
still hold about half of those bottles, but we quickly turned and became
fans of their Cabernet Sauvignon and their flagship wine
Elevation 1147,
creatively names for the vineyard site situated 1200 feet above the
valley floor. All are crafted 100% from estate grown grapes.
According to their website, David Arthur is a family affair consisting of three generations of the
Long family, brothers David and
Bob along with Joye Long are co-owners, with David acting as General
Manager and his daughter Laura runs the office
and daily operations.
Being married to the daughter of
Indiana farmer
Ned Long, and the fact that we'll be joined on this Napa trip by
sister/sister-in-law Pat (Long), it's only fitting we saved our David
Arthur visit and this Long
reunion for this coming trip. I am looking forward to our return visit to Pritch
ard Hill and meeting the Long family and learning more about and exploring further David Arthur wines.
This 2003 David Arthur Cabernet Sauvignon presented itself true to its Bordeaux composition exhibiting full bodied complex character, nicely balanced
but somewhat subdued dark black berry, currant and cherry fruits, a layer cassis with hints
of dark chocolate, earthy tobacco and tea with tones of spicy oak on a
silky smooth lingering tannin finish. As noted above, this was a
perfect wine to complement the grilled beef tenderloin.
The left bank Bordeaux blend is reported to change slightly with each vintage but is roughly 80% Cabernet Sauvignon,
10% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petite Verdot, and 3% Merlot.
RM 91 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=85664
http://www.davidarthur.com/
Paratus Mt Veeder Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Paratus is another Napa Valley producer of mountain grown fruit cabernet. We discovered Paratus and acquired their
Mt Veeder wines during our Napa Valley
Mt Veeder Appellation Experience. Our penchant for mountain fruit wines is apparent in our cellar holdings from all the Napa mountain appellations and districts so it was fun to compare wines from the opposing peaks of Pritchard Hill on the eastern slope versus Mt Veeder from the opposing western slope, both at the south ends of the ranges near the bottom of Napa Valley.
While we acquired four vintages from 2004-2007 of Paratus Mt Veeder Cabernets, this was our first venture in tasting their wines from our collection as Bill served up this 2007. His tasting review is below:
"Deep purple color, huge fruit forward profile on the palate. Nicely
balanced with ample tannin and notes of chocolate and graphite. A really
pleasant surprise. Bought this during our 2009 Napa Wine Experience
trip to Mt. Veeder. This is more robust than many other Veeders I have
tasted which tend to be a bit more delicate and fruity. This is drinking
well now but certainly has the structure and backbone to go another 10
years."
Bill's rating - 90 points. I give it a 91.
http://www.paratuswine.com/
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1002911
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| Grilled tenderloin, asparagus, wild rice. |
 |
| Crab stuff mushrooms. |
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| Napa Cab Colors |
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| Chocolate mousse - homemade pirouette. |
David Arthur Vineyards have twenty-one acres atop Pritchard Hill overlooking the famous
Rutherford Bench viticultural area known for producing some of the
finest Cabernet. They are surrounded by vineyards of notable and iconic producers such as Chappellet, Dalla Valle, Harrison, Colgin and
Bryant.
David Arthur Vineyards have twenty-one acres atop Pritchard Hill overlooking the famous
Rutherford Bench viticultural area known for producing some of the
finest Cabernet. They are surrounded by vineyards of notable and iconic producers such as Chappellet, Dalla Valle, Harrison, Colgin and
Bryant.
