Spectacular Wine Cheese Pairing featuring Cliff Lede Poetry 2004

Spectacular Wine Cheese Pairing featuring Cliff Lede Poetry 2004

With fellow Pour Boy and wine buddy Bill C in South Florida for the weekend, we visited the Wine Room Kitchen Wine and Cheese Bar in Delray Beach for a special wine tasting experience. We discovered the Wine Room Kitchen and Cheese Bar earlier this year and were eager to return and share the experience with a wine buddy when we returned to the area. 

As featured in these pages last winter, the Wine Room Kitchen have an extensive wine selection BTG - by the glass, and wine list and cellar collection available for near retail costs, below
what a traditional restaurant might charge. They also offer an extensive cheese and charcuterie selection.

The wine list and cellar features a broad selection of first growth Bordeaux including Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, and Super Second labels such as Ducru Beaucaillou, Leoville Las Cases and Pichon Lalande. They also feature premium and super premium Napa Cabernets including Diamond Creek, and this label, Cliff Lede Poetry. 

We opted to taste the Poetry as Bill and son Ryan are both club members and have extensive Lede collections. We've visited the Lede Estate on several occasions including a private tasting during our Napa Valley Wine Experience in 2009. 

Poetry is the flagship label of the Cliff Lede portfolio, selected from the best parcels of the vintage, the best fruit from select vineyards. The label is produced in limited quantities, and only in years when the quality of the fruit and resulting wine are exceptional. It is sourced primarily from the steep hillside terraces of the Lede Estate Poetry Vineyard on the edge of the valley overlooking the Lede Estate across the Silverado Trail on the valley floor.

The Poetry Vineyard is the easternmost of our two estate Stags Leap District vineyards, located near the winery and the Twin Peaks estate vineyard. The vineyard sits on a steep west-facing high-exposure hillside below the luxurious Poetry Inn. The vineyard reaches from the highest elevation of the Stags Leap District Appellation down to the foothills near and almost to the valley floor. The terroir of the vineyard is a combination of shallow soils atop fractured shales and low-yielding old vines of Cabernet Sauvignon. The sloping hill provides for superb drainage and optimal sun exposure.

In 2004, 680 cases were produced in a blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot.

Our tasting experience was highlighted by a wonderful, perfect wine and cheese pairing with Délice de Bourgogne, a French classic triple crème cheese made by producer Fromagerie Lincet in the Burgundy region of France where the company factory is located. 

We also paired it with Bayley Hazen Blue, a buttery, natural-rinded blue cheese made from high-quality whole raw cow's milk produced by Jasper Hill Farm, named after an old military road commissioned by George Washington across the Northeast Kingdom. 

Brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler who own the farm, developed the recipe for Bayley Hazen Blue by altering the shape and ageing process of a Devon Blue recipe from England so that the cheese rind will hold up in usual retail conditions. 

Cliff Lede "Poetry" Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate gave this 96 points, Wine Spectator 94 points.

This wine was superb, dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, elegant, polished and balanced, nearly flawless concentrated blackberry and black currant fruits with a symphony of seamlessly integrated flavor notes of mocha chocolate, vanilla, hints of licorice, violet, spice, tobacco leaf and black olive, turning to smooth velvety mouthfeel and silky tannins on a long sensual finish. 

RM 95 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=229262

https://cliffledevineyards.com/

https://twitter.com/CliffLedeWine

@CliffLedeWine  

 The girls joined us and we selected a Pride Sonoma County Syrah to taste alongside the cheese, charcuterie and delicious tomato basil soup. 

Pride Mountain Sonoma County Syrah 2013

The Pride Mountain Vineyards Estate, winery and vineyards sits high above St Helena atop Spring Mountain at the summit of the Mayacamas Range between Napa Valley to the east and Sonoma Valley to the west. 

We visited the estate during our Napa Wine Experience back in 1998.

The Sonoma County Syrah is selected from north-facing cooler slopes on the western side of the range, hence it is Sonoma, not Napa from the eastern side of the mountain. 

Dark inky garnet colored, full bodied, intense, concentrated, nicely balanced blackberry with notes of blueberry, black olive, black pepper, chocolate, spice and hints of mushroom and lavender, dry with high acidity, moderate fine grained tannins on a long flavorful finish.

RM 90 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2070912

https://www.pridewines.com/

https://twitter.com/pridewines 

@pridewines

Clos Saint-Julien St. Emilion Bordeaux 2005

Clos Saint-Julien St. Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux 2005 with Charcuterie and Artisan Cheese

Our series of tasting Bordeaux wines on the anniversary of our trip there continues as we vicariously relive our week in Bordeaux a year ago this week. 

Tasted at home with charcuterie, salad and artisan cheeses. This was a specially nice pairing with the toasted pecans in the salad with fresh fruits and the Kerrygold Dubliner Stout and Blueberry Lemon Goat Cheeses.

Rather strange paradox of a name that is of a different appellation from the opposite bank of Bordeaux. 

This tiny 1.2 hectare (2.5 acres) St Emilion vineyard is planted to 50/50 Merlot and Cabernet Franc. 

Dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, nicely balanced and with surprisingly bright expressive forward fruits of black cherry and black currant with notes of  cassis and spice, hints of cedar, with full plus polished approach tannins and strong acidity on the medium to long finish. 

Not nearly as polished or elegant as the 100 point St Emilion of the other evening, but at a fraction of the price, this was a reasonal, nice QPR - quality price ratio, comparison.

Lots of life left in this release, at fifteen years probably drinking at its peak, showing no diminution whatsoever, but not likely to improve any with further aging. 

Wife Linda liked the bright expressive fruits and lack of earthy leather, tobacco and oppressive tannins she dislikes in many aged Bordeaux.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=224185

 

Covid Curve Rebound Wine Dinner

Covid Curve Rebound Wine Dinner

After three months shut in due to Coronavirus, we hosted a wine dinner with neighbors Mark and Shirley and wine buddy fellow 'Pour Boy' Dr Dan and Linda.

Linda prepared grilled Ahi Tuna steaks and filets of beef for the ladies and prime rib-eye steaks for the men, along with a wedge salad with ceasar and blue cheese, a special preparation of potatoes-au-gratin with herbs, and grilled asparagus.

Prior to dinner we served a selection of artisan cheeses and olives - Old Amsterdam Gouda,  Gouda Farmhouse Truffle, Danish Harvarti and Campo de Montalban Spain Mixed Milk.

With the salad and cheese course we served Lansom Rose NV Champagne and a Villa Andretti California Chardonnay 2017. This is the every day collection of Andretti wines sourced partly from the estate, but also blended with grapes sourced from across Northern California.

The cheeses paired perfectly with the Champagne and the modest Chardonnay. The hearty bolder Old Amsterdam, one of my favorites, accompanied the reds as well as the whites.

As we moved to the Ahi Tuna course we opened a Gary Farrell Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.

Gary Farrell "Russian River Selection" Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2015

We visited the Gary Farrell estate and winery in the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County during or Napa / Sonoma Wine Experience in 2017.

This was ideal with the grilled marinated Ahi Tuna steak.

This was sourced from vineyards throughout the Russian River Valley, including Hallberg and Galante in the cooler Green Valley AVA. It got 94 points from Wine Enthusiast.

Ruby colored, medium bodied, smooth, nicely balanced, polished, dusty rose with fruits of black berry, black cherries, raspberries, smoky earthy, floral notes with crisp acidity, youthful tannins and oak. 

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2798671

The dinner entree beef course was highlighted by a selection of Bordeaux and Bordeaux varietals starting with a Howell Mountain Napa Cabernet.

Château Clinet Pomerol Bordeaux 2010

Dan brought this Right Bank Bordeaux from his cellar. 

We have had the pleasure of meeting Château Clinet owner Ronan Laborde at the UGCB annual release tour Chicago wine spectacle yearly for the last five years or so. Clinet is one of our favorite Right Bank Bordeaux selections that we hold in our cellar dating back more two decades. 

We've enjoyed this label at several of our special wine events and dinners. A visit to the Chateau was one of the highlights of Ernie's visit to Bordeaux during his trip several years ago. Dr Dan brought this 2010 vintage release as a benchmark wine against which to compare the other labels of the evening. 

The 2010 release was awarded 97 points by James Suckling, 96 points by Jeb Dunnuck and Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 95 points by Wine Spectator, 92-94 points by Wine Enthusiast and 93 points by Stephen Tanzer. 

This is what Ronan calls a classic (Right Bank) Bordeaux Blend of 85% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc. 

At ten years of age, this is likely at the apex of its drinking window but will age gracefully for a couple more decades.  A Merlot based blend, this was much more complex and multi-dimensional than the 'narrower' and 'deeper', more single dimensional Cabernets. Hence this was ideal as a transition from the Ahi to the beef steaks, and between the softer, lighter Pinot Noir, but before the bigger, bolder, more single dimensional Cabernets. 

Dark inky purple  colored, full-bodied, concentrated and firmly structured, yet smooth, polished and elegant with layers of dark plum blackberry and black currant fruits accented by coffee bean, mocha, and hints of oak with silky polished tannins on a tongue puckering chewy finish.

RM 94 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1129755

Camiana Blue Hall Vineyards Napa Valley Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

http://www.mcnees.org/winesite/labels/labels_California/lbl-CA-Camiana-Napa-Howell-Mtn-Cab-2004-remc.jpg

From Blue Hall Vineyard,  a 5 acre site on Howell Mountain owned by two medical doctors, Andrew Zolopa & Annie Talbot. Andrew was instrumental in starting the HIV program at Stanford University in 1994 and was a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine for twenty years.

Andrew traveled regularly to Napa to enjoy fine wine and in 1998 purchased property on Howell Mountain to build a home away from home. Sitting near the top of Howell Mountain at an elevation of 1,700 feet above Napa Valley, the property was in the geographic heart of the Howell Mountain sub-appellation, surrounded by world famous vineyards (owned by Beringer) and forested hillsides. 

In 2000-01, Zolopa oversaw the planting of a vineyard divided into two farming blocks by a creek that ran across the property. It was planted by the Pina's a long time Napa family who continued to manage the five acre vineyard of which 3 acres was planted entirely to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Zolopa named the vineyard Blue Hall Vineyard, deriving its name from the famous Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. In the summer of 1880, while honeymooning in a cabin on the side of Mount St. Helena, Stevenson was inspired by the purity of the blue sky and exclaimed that it was as if he had entered "the blue hall of heaven." The name “Blue Hall” was written about in the book “Silverado Squatters”, written by Robert Louis Stevenson – it featured much about historical Napa Valley.

In 2004, they produced their first wine, a 100% estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon. Andrew named the wine “Camiana" after his daughters Camille and Juliana. They appointed Ted Osborne as winemaker, who was self taught building on experience working at Passing Clouds in Australia, Rupert & Rothschild in South Africa, and Chateau du Seuil in Bordeaux. Coming to America, he put in time working for two well-known Napa wineries, Cakebread and Storybook Mountain, the northern most winery in the Napa Valley. 

Blue Hall’s first vintage was 2004 with only 80 cases made, which they held until after their first commercial release in 2005. While the 2004 was technically their first vintage, it was released after the 2005 as a library wine. 

Their 2004 despite the additional year in the bottle was their “biggest” wine out of their first few vintages. They produced the label annually until 2013, their last vintage produced.

This is one vintage of a vertical collection we acquired with/from fellow wine buddy and 'Pour Boy' Bill C who acquired a case of vintages with son and fellow collector Matt back in 2012. We're still holding four vintages of that collection and this is the oldest release from the selection.

Bill's tasting notes for this vintage release from his Cellartracker post back in 2015 says, "What a treat! Tasted side by side with the 2005 Camiana and we could not tell the difference between the two aside from additional sediment in the '04. Deep garnet in the glass, big black fruit with a touch of sweetness. Silky smooth tannins and a long, lingering finish. Beautiful Howell Mountain product. We were impressed by this small vineyard when we bought some '07 on sale 3 or 4 years ago. The big, bold, fruit forward style convinced us to try some earlier vintages. This was not terribly expensive at $45 a bottle. Great value and the '04 and '05 were absolutely at peak."

wconnolly - 92 Points

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1208115

Andretti Montona Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2016

In recognition for Mark's career in the auto industry and Dan's long time interest in the Indy 500, I served this Ultra-Premium label from the Mario Andretti winery, named for his birthplace village, Montona. Mario Andretti partners with his auto team sponsor Joe Antonini, former chairman and CEO of KMart, producing wines sourced from the Laird Estate in Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley.

Founded in 1996, their winemaker is Bob Pepi, son of Robert Pepi, founder of Pepi Winery. Ironically, working for these two notable Italians, Pepi is credited with bringing the Italian varietal Sangiovese grape to NapaValley.

We discovered this wine during our visit to the Andretti Winery in Oak Knoll District of southeast Napa Valley during our Napa Valley Wine Experience in 2018.  As a result of our visit, we joined their wine club and received allocations of this premium Reserve collection. 

This label was better than earlier tastings suggesting it needed a bit more time to settle and mature in the bottle.  It is sourced from select grapes from the Andretti Winery estate as well as from contract grower sources.

Dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, concentrated forward black berry fruits were accented by a layer of dark mocha chocolate with notes of tobacco are spice with mouth filling tannins on a long finish. 

RM 90 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/barcode.asp?iWine=3159347

After dinner there was a selection of chocolate centric desserts, Linda's flowerless chocolate cake with fresh berries, Shirley's chocolate cheese cake, and Dan and Linda brought a chocolate cake.

The dessert course was highlighted by a mini-horizontal duo of 1996 vintage Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons from Nils Venge Saddleback Vineyards and Winery and Paradigm Oakville.


Nils Venge Saddleback Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1996

We first met Nils at Del Dotto when he was their winemaker while also managing his Penny Lane Vineyard over at his Saddleback Cellars during our Napa visits in the mid and late nineties.  We discovered and acquired this wine during one of those visits to the Winery.   

Tasting Venge Penny Lane Family Reserve Cabernet w/ AJ
and Nils Venge at Tra Vigne in St Helena

Nils Venge is a bit of a legend in Napa Valley. In addition to having been consulting winemaker to many top producers including Groth, Del Dotto and Plumpjack, he has his Venge and Saddleback family labels, and with son Kirk is coming out with wines from their property Rossini Ranch. He and Kirk worked with Dwayne and Susan Hoff at Fantesca in their early releases. We hear Nils has retired and ownership and the operations is now run by son Kirk.

We met with Nils at the Estate and during our Napa Wine Experience in 2002  (below) which featured Venge Vineyards and Nils and Kirk Venge's Rossini Ranch.

During that visit we had a wine luncheon with Nils Venge back at our then favorite Napa Valley dining establishment, Travigne. Sadly, it has been taken over and re-purposed. The staff moved on to the old Factory Outlet site up near Calistoga where they have opened a winery and eatery, one of the highlights of our Napa Wine Experience 2018. 

We did this same mini-horizontal wine tasting during a holiday dinner back in 2018 when we compared 1996 vintages Cabernet Sauvginon releases of Saddleback opposite a Paradigm Oakville.

At that time we also compared the two Saddleback vintages, the Nils 2006 special release above oppsite the 1996 Saddleback Oakville Napa Cabernet.

At the time, I wrote of the '96, "Initially a bit tight and closed, we decanted and aerated this bottle and it opened a bit more and reveal its native character and fruits over the course of the next hour.'

The two Saddleback wines had remarkable similarity, being potentially the same wine but ten years removed. They showed the same basic profile and character but the '96 showed darker blackish garnet with slight hints of gray color, the same fruit profile albeit slightly subdued, accented by the same notes above of smoke, dusty leather, earth and tea.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=73478

Like that night, tonight we did the same comparison of the '96 Oakville Napa Cab above, we also opened this Paradigm Cabernet from the same appellation and same vintage.

Paradigm Napa Valley Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 1996

Tonight was a replay of that tasting back in 2018', "This provided an interesting comparison with the other '96 Oakville Cabernet sitting side by side. This wine had the same color and body as above. We also decanted and aerated this bottle which accentuated its bouquet and flavors which emerged further after about thirty minutes. The Paradigm showed fewer aromatics and more subdued fruit than the Saddleback above, but opened a bit more over the next hour.'

We tasted and acquired this wine during a winery visit back in 1999. 

 Tonight was a different experience than as reflected in my tasting notes for this label from back in 2009 when I wrote. "This wine is showing its age, probably beyond its apex, or any chance for improvement, but still within the drinking window. Showing some diminution of fruit, giving way to non-fruit charcoal and earth tones, yet, revealed some of its native fruit character at some point during the evening.'

"I opened, decanted and then rebottled and recorked this wine an hour before setting out for the restaurant. Upon decanting it released huge aroma's of berry fruits and some floral. After opening for serving the fruit was a bit muted for almost an hour before revealing black berry and hints of sweet black raspberry, giving way to a layer of charcoal, anise and spice. Tannins were moderate on the lingering finish. This wine is still showing okay but should be consumed over the next few years."

Tonight, this was bright vibrant and fruit filled from the beginning, showing well with great aging potential as it nears its 25th year since release.  A fun and rewarding tasting experience indeed.

http://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2014/08/vintage-napa-reds-vs-bold-barolo.html

More Cheese Cheese Cheese ....

More Cheese Cheese Cheese ....

Adding to the cache of cheese Linda picked up at the grocery recently, she brought home additional selections to enjoy with wine, or not, this summer. Here are additional cheeses to watch for in our upcoming wine tasting features.

Artikaa Reserve 18mo Gouda

Black River Gorgonzola

Carr Valley Apple Smoke Cheddar

Farmhouse Truffle Gouda

Long Clawson Blue Shropshire

Blueberry Lemon Goat Cheese

KerryGold Dubliner Stout

Cheese Cheese Cheese for wine pairing

Cheese Cheese Cheese for Wine Pairing

Shut in due to the Coronavirus stay-at-home edict we've been taking advantage of our wine cellar enjoying favorite wines, food, and wine pairings with food and cheeses. We also love cheese and often do simple wine and cheese pairings. We features the wines in these pages but don't often mention or dive into the cheeses. That may change as Linda went out and got a selection of artisan cheeses which we're looking forward to exploring. We'll pay more attention to note the cheeses paired with our wine selections as we go forward.

Stay tuned and check back ....

We're currently holding these cheeses to explore with wine combinations over the coming weeks:

Bellavitano

Campo de Montalban Mixed Milk Spain

Carr Valley Billy Blue

Castello Danish Blue

Fair Oaks Farm 11 year old aged Cheddar

Livradios French Morbier

Long Clawson English Blue Shropshire

Black River Gorgonzola

Ciresa Mountain Gorgonzola

Old Amsterdam Gouda

Pico de Queso Cheddar

Yellow Door Creamery Cocoa Fontina 

Wine cheese pairing coming next ... Domain Serene Evensted Reserve Pinot Noir 2007

Craig Mt Veeder and Lede Sauv Blanc for Surf and Turf Dinner

Robert Craig Mt Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon and Cliff Lede Sauvignon Blanc for Surf and Turf Dinner

For a special celebration dinner at home, Linda prepared beef tenderloin and lobster tails with baked potatoes, salad, hothouse tomatoes and artisan cheeses. I pulled from the cellar two perennial favorite labels to accompany the dinner - Robert Craig Mt Veeder Cabernet and Cliff Lede Sauvignon Blanc.

I've written often in these pages about our collection of Robert Craig wines dating back three decades across the portfolio of labels, and this being Robert's favorite selection. Tonight, for our celebration dinner, I pulled a twenty year old 2000 vintage release.

To accompany the cheeses and salad, as well as the lobster tail, I opened Cliff Lede Sauvignon Blanc 2016. We served two of my favorite cheeses, Old Amsterdam Gouda and Gorgonzola.

Cliff Lede Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016

This is a mainstay label we keep on hand for such occasions. This is the last of our 2016 vintage collection so we'll move to the 2017 release next time we select this label.

Our visits to the Lede Winery estate in Stags Leap District Napa Valley been a highlight of many of those trips.

Straw colored, light bodied, aromas of floral and apricot and flavors of peach predominate with tones of lychee, pear, apple, citrus and hints of lime with a crisp clean sharp tangy finish.

RM 90

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2616721 

Earlier tasting ... https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/03/cal-wine-flight-highlights-st-pats.html

https://cliffledevineyards.com/

https://twitter.com/CliffLedeWine

Robert Craig Napa Valley Mt Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/search?q=Craig+Veeder

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2019/05/robert-craig-mt-veeder-cabernet.html

My Cellartracker records indicate that we have close to four cases of just label spread across a dozen and half vintages dating back to the inaugural release in the mid-nineties. 

Our last tasting of this label was four 1/2 years ago when I wrote, "Showing amazing resilience and vibrancy in its seventeenth year, this is what this wine is supposed to taste like, with all the essential characteristics of a Mt.Veeder appellation Cabernet – dense, generous black fruit integrated with fine, sinewy tangy tannins."

Tonight, while the label was a bit soiled from the cellar, the foil and cork were perfect and the cork came out effortlessly, intact and in perfect form using an ahso two pronged cork puller.

When we lasted tasted this vintage release and posted a tasting note on 12/11/2016, I wrote: "Expansive aromas of bright dark berry fruit emanated from the glass. Dark garnet colored, medium-full bodied, bright forward ripe black currant fruit tones accented by black raspberry and black berry, spicy oak and anise. The finish features a solid core of black fruit that lengthens and combines with smooth mocha, cedar and cassis for a plush, long-lived finish." 

Tonight's tasting was consistent with that last experience and I note that I did not notice any diminution from aging at twenty years of age, a testament to Napa Valley Mt Veeder Cabernet and quality craftmanship.  I repeat my rating of 91 points that I gave it last time. 

Blend: 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2016/12/robert-craig-mt-veeder-napa-valley.html

https://robertcraigwine.com/

https://twitter.com/RobertCraigWine