Showing posts with label Sonoma Cutrer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonoma Cutrer. Show all posts

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Gourmet dinner and elegant wine flight

Gourmet dinner and elegant wine flight

Fellow Pour Boy, wine buddy, Dr Dan and Linda hosted us for a artfully prepared gourmet dinner with an elegant flight of wine pairings. They prepared pork chops in a brown mushroom sauce, haricot verts, an imaginative BLT - bacon and lettuce stuffed tomatos and extraordinary stuffed giant portabella mushrooms (shown below) and rosemary potatoes.


Before dinner we had a selection of artisan cheeses, stuffed peppers, and a baked shrimp casserole.

Pork-chops in mushroom sauce
After dinner, for desert featured baked apple strudel with vanilla bean ice cream. For the desert course Dan served Rosalack Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Auslese and I brought a Sonoma-Cutrer Winemaker's Release Late Harvest Chardonnay.

The wine flight:

Château François Gaunoux Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Épenots 2011
 Château Clinet Pomerol 2005
Château Larcis Ducasse St Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux 2004

Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste Pauillac Bordeaux 2011
Rosalack Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Auslese 2009

Sonoma-Cutrer Winemaker's Release Late Harvest Chardonnay 2012

Tasting notes:

Château François Gaunoux Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Épenots 2011

With the cheese course of artisan cheeses, olives and cheese stuffed green peppers, Dan opened this Burgundy Pinot Noir.

Garnet colored, light medium bodied, this was elegant and refined with fresh with dusty rose violets, earthiness, red currant and plum and fruits. It showed smooth silky fine-grained tannins with excellent length on the balanced, delicious and complex finish.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=177948


Château Clinet Pomerol 2005

We just tasted the spectacular 2016 vintage release of this wine earlier this week at the UGCB release tour tasting with owner Ronan Laborde at the Drake in Chicago.

This 2005 was amazing, arguably the best Clinet I've experienced and is certainly at it's apex; hard to imagine this improving further with more aging.

Dark garnet colored, medium bodied, silky smooth polished, nicely balanced, dark fruits accented by tantalizing elegant floral notes of lavender and violets with subtle notes of mocha, spice and tobacco on a lingering soft tannin finish.

RM 95 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/notes.asp?iWine=224074

Ronan LABORDE,Owner
( Pomerol )

Sea Smoke Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir Southing 2009

Cellartracker Somm David T's tasting notes sums up this wine eloquently and thoroughly.

"The nose reveals, sweet, slightly sour and ripe; blackberries, some black raspberries, dark cherries, plum, blueberries cranberries, pomegranate, candied cherries and baked strawberries. Big vanillin, soft cinnamon stick, touch of clove, dark spice, herbaceous notes, mixed berry cola, dark, rich, moist soil, dry clay, dry stone, limestone minerals with dark red, blue fresh & withering flowers.

The body medium full. Tannins nicely resolved but, still have tarry teeth. The structure and tension nicely softened. The 09 is beautifully integrated. The length and balance have hit their high point. Ripe; blackberries, some black raspberries, dark cherries, plum, mix of some purple fruits, blueberries, cranberries, pomegranate, candied cherries and juicy strawberries. Red licorice/cola, good presence of vanillin, soft cinnamon stick, touch of clove, dark spice, black licorice, herbaceous notes; bay leaf, mint, eucalyptus, dark, rich, moist, soil, clay, river stones, limestone minerals and dark red, blue fresh & withering flowers with violets. The acidity is round and like a rain shower. The finish is extremely well balanced, seamless, elegant, rich, persistent for minutes with ripe fruit, medium dark spice that brings some mild heat and haunting fragrant violets for minutes".

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1025980


Château Larcis Ducasse St Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux 2004

Like the Clinet above, we tasted the 2016 vintage release of this wine earlier this week at the UGCB release tour tasting with commercial director David Suire, so I pulled from the cellar this twelve year old vintage release to compare.

 This was dark garnet colored, with a slight brown/orange rim starting to set in, medium-full bodied, smooth polished with delightful complex aromas and flavors of plum, black currant and blackberry fruits with tones of earthy leather, black tea, cigar box and spice with hints of truffle, cedar and cassis on the smooth polished tannin finish.

RM 89 points

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=95970

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/02/larcis-ducasse-highlights-sunday-brunch.html

http://www.larcis-ducasse.com/ 

David Suire of Chateau Larcis Ducasse

Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste Pauillac Bordeaux 2011

Like the Clinet and the Larcis-Ducasse above, we also tasted the 2016 vintage release of this wine earlier this week at the UGCB release tour tasting. Again we had the privilege of tasting this with sales director David Launay, (shown right with Céline Villars-FOUBET, Owner, of Château Chasse-Spleen) so I asked Dan to pull this one too from the cellar this twelve year old vintage release to compare.

If you tend to procure wines based on vintage due to a particular anniversary or birthyear, or to fill out a vertical collection, 2011 was a challenging year in Napa and Bordeaux, this seems to be average from an average vintage, but decent value since the higher end labels were not markedly demonstrably better, this won't likely improve further with aging. 

This is a blend of 75 % cabernet sauvignon, 20 % merlot and 5 % cabernet franc.

This is one of our stalwart favorite go-to wines for Bordeaux, being more reasonably priced than the 'super second' more premium labels such as Pichon Lalande and Pichon Longueville, and Lynch Bages. This is one of my favorites of this tier of labels. It was fun to see David Launay move from St Julien favorite Gruaud Larose to this label a couple years ago, and seeing him in Chicago at the UGCB each year.

Garnet colored, medium bodied, good length, some leanness, classic Bordeaux style with flavours of dark berry fruits accented by notes of . cedar, leather and a touch anise and hint of mocha, nice balance of acidity with smooth polished tannins.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1356149
 
https://www.chateau-grand-puy-lacoste.com/en/#/en/


Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Rosalack Auslese 2015

Dan served this German Auslese with the desert course.

Schloss Johannisberg, from the German Rheingau wine region, is one of the most historic wine producers in Germany. They were the first German wine estate entirely planted with riesling, in 1720. Schloss Johannisberg tends to produce powerful and spicy wines relative to other Rheingau wines. Their wines exhibit minerality and elegance which are qualities of good quality Riesling. Schloss Johannisberg use large oak barrels for their wines, which contribute to the spiciness.

Schloss Johannisberg have 35 hectares (70 acres) of vineyards, just on the fiftieth parallel. Rosalack comes from the portion directly below the castle Schloss Johannisberg. They are one of a few historical German estates that have their own official vineyard designation, without village name. The vineyard designation is therefore simply Schloss Johannisberger.

This is a quality Auslese with nice acidity and good minerality with hints of botrytis, it is fresh and crisp rather than heavy as found in many sweet wines.

Straw colored, medium bodied, medium sweetness with high acidity, this is complex with fresh scents of peach, subtle notes of dried apricot, orange, botrytis and honey, finishing with citrus, green apple, honey and mineral.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2377449


Sonoma-Cutrer Winemaker's Release Late Harvest Chardonnay 2012

We toured the Russian River Valley in remote Sonoma County with Dan and Linda during our Sonoma Napa Wine Experience 2017 last year. 

Wine and Spirits writes of this release, "This takes the ripening potential of the Russian River Valley and runs with it, melding the coolness of the region’s fog with the sunny, floral notes of honeycomb. Its plump nectarine flavors gain complexity from touches of botrytis, which took off in the vineyard after several storms in late October and early November. Winemaker Mick Schroeter can’t recall another vintage with such a complete infection of botrytis. The result is a richly textured dessert wine, balanced to drink on its own." They rated this 91 points in 12/2013.

Light honey colored, full bodied, extracted apricot fruit flavor with  hints of lemon citrus accented by notes of honey, crème brûlée and vanilla bean on a smooth lingering finish.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1737186

 

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Trio of value priced summer chardonnays


Trio of value priced chardonnays for summer - Rutherford Hill, Toad Hollow, Sonoma-Cutrer - One each from Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.



Rutherford Hill Napa Valley Chardonnay 2009 

Tasted at Norman's Bistro in Kenwood District, Chicago.

Light straw color. Aromas of lemon, honey, vanilla with hint of orange blossom. Full-bodied with crisp acidity of citrus, vanilla bean and flinty mineral accents.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1194752

http://www.rutherfordhill.com/

Horinzontal selection of large format 1981 vintage wines for our
daughter Erin's birthyear - served at her wedding
I have fond memories of Rutherford Hill wines and I try to support their efforts. Nestled in the foothills on the eastern slope overlooking central Napa Valley, Rutherford Hill is part of the Terlato Wine Group of Illinois portfolio of wineries, who purchased this winery in 1996. I met one of the principles of the previous ownership group, Jeff Jaegar at a winetasting in Naperville in the early nineties. He was representing Freemark Abbey at the time and helped me procure a case of Freemark Abbey Bosche' Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Upon learning of my collection of large format bottles commemorating my kid's birthyears (the basis of my feature in Collecting section of Wine Spectator) he sent me a Imperial of Jaegar Vineyards Merlot 1981, and I was able to obtain another of Rutherford Hill Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1981, both of which we served at our daughter Erin's wedding.

Toad Hollow Mendocino County Chardonnay 2009

This is the seventeenth vintage for Toad Hollow, named by actor owner Robbin Williams for his brother Todd as a remembrance of when he was a toddler and couldn't pronounce his name hence calling him Toad!

Our friend and favored producer Robert Craig of Robert Craig Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons fame was consulting winemaker for them for many years when he was crafting his expertise up on Mt Veeder.

Fruity, crisp, clean, steely, peaches, grapefruit, and citrus, melon and green apple. A bit too flinty to my preference, but the lowest price of the three too.

RM 85 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1039509

https://toadhollow.worldsecuresystems.com/

Sonoma-Cutrer Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2009

This is a popular producer with a selection of chardonnays that are common wine list selections in many restaurants that are a safe bet as they tend to be consistent with high QPR - Quality Price Ratio. The 2009 vintage was the first release of this wine under new winemaker Terry Adams. The fruit was sourced from select lots of some of the finest vineyards in Sonoma, including the Cutrer Vineyard and Vine Hill, as well as Kent, Shiloh, and Owsley. The wine was barrel-fermented (90% of the wine went through maloactic fermentation) and aged for six to eight months sur lie in 20% new French oak. The resulting wine is full-bodied with a bright gold color, a rich, creamy mid-palate, and aromas and flavors of tropical fruit, puff pastry, toffee, and baking spice. The acidity that comes from the cool-climate Cutrer fruit results in a wine that shows nice balance with hints of minerals and toasty oak.
Winemaker's notes:
Rich and intense aromas of honey, apple pie, butterscotch and roasted hazelnuts are complimented with citrus notes of lemon blossom and lemon curd. This wine fills the mouth with rich texture, a round and creamy mid-palate is supported by that signature Sonoma-Cutrer clean, citrus-laced acidity that creates an excellent balance. Fruit flavors of baked apple, lemon curd, pear and melon are accented with a complimentary bit of toasty oak.

RM 90 points.