Stringer Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard 2017

 Stringer Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard 2017

Son Alec dropped in and brought this Napa Cabernet to share and compare with the Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 that we had open. He obtained this wine through a wine club source from whom he has acquired several great wine finds.  

From their website, Stringer Cellars is a family owned and operated winery making wine from premier vineyard sites throughout California.

Inspired by a family trip to Napa Valley, Casey Stringer from Wisconsin developed an interest in wine and set a course to pursue a career in the industry. He picked up a job at a local wine shop to begin learning all he could while father Chip began collecting wines both from Napa and around the world.

Casey went to college in California, in Santa Barbara and got a job as a cellar hand at a local winery where he soon realized that he wanted to spend his time in the cellar and vineyards. Throughout his twenties, he traveled both near and abroad seeking different experiences in winemaking. He worked and gained experience at Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa, Archery Summit in Oregon and a few wineries in Central Otago and Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, where he attended school for a formal winemaking education. Upon returning to California, Casey worked in the cellar at the esteemed Santa Ynez cult winery Jonata.

Stringer Cellars started in Windsor, California but now makes their wine high up on Atlas Peak in the Napa Valley, and at winery in the heart of Sonoma County. It’s a family affair with Casey as lead winemaker, father Chip oversees operations with his vast experience running a family specialty manufacturing business back in Wisconsin, brothers Andrew and Tim tending to marketing and sales and wife, Brooke often found pouring tastings behind the bar. 

Stringer's winemaking philosophy is to use the finest grapes he can find from the best vineyard sites in California, to carefully produce small lot wines with minimalist winemaking techniques, allowing the fruit and individual vineyards to shine through in each label release.

Stringer Cellars sources grapes from a wide range of prestigious vineyards throughout California seeking the finest fruit possible. Below are the vineyards sources for the Stringer portfolio of wines:

• Stagecoach Vineyard, Pritchard Hill Region Napa Valley, California
• Williamson Vineyard, Oak Knoll District AVA Napa Valley, California
• Pelissa Vineyard, Oakville AVA Napa Valley, California
• Ghost Block Vineyard, Yountville AVA Napa Valley, California
• Harrison Clarke Vineyard, Ballard Canyon AVA Santa Ynez Valley, California
• John Sebastiano Vineyard, Sta. Rita Hills AVA Santa Barbara County, California
• Linda Vista Vineyard, Oak Knoll District AVA Napa Valley, California
• Shokrian Vineyard, Santa Barbara County AVA Los Alamos, California
• Kick Ranch Vineyard, Fountain Grove District AVA Santa Rosa, California
• Alder Springs Vineyard, Mendocino Laytonville, California 

From these sources Stringer producer a portfolio of branded wines, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Grenache, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah, and of course Blends that are combined from multiple sources. 

 

Stringer also produce a more modestly priced affordable second brand, 'Metal Bender', named in honor of the Stringer Family’s manufacturing business in Wisconsin. The business stamps, machines and fabricates metal into components used in industries throughout America. They are “Metal Benders”.  

Since 1972, they have been producing special washers and metal stampings for fastener distributors and original equipment manufacturers.  They serve numerous industries including agriculture, lawn and garden, heavy truck, construction hardware, automotive, engine and transmission, construction equipment and consumer products.

 

Stringer Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard 2017

 

This 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from three Cabernet Vineyards: 35% from the Pelissa Vineyard in Oakville, 42% from Stagecoach and 16% from the Williamson Vineyards in Oak Noll. The remainder of the blend is 7% Petite Sirah from Calistoga.

 

The Stagecoach vineyards sites at 1,800 feet elevation in the eastern Vaca Mountains of Napa Valley.  Stagecoach Vineyard extends from the Atlas Peak AVA all the way north to the Pritchard Hill region. 

This Stagecoach Vineyard Cabernet is clone 337 from Block C3A in the Pritchard Hill region of the vineyard.  This region of Napa is characterized by red volcanic rock and large diurnal shifts which are ideal for ripening Cabernet Sauvignon.

 

The 2017 was aged twenty months in 80% New French Oak.

This 2017 label release was awarded 97 points at the American Fine Wine Competition, 96 points by Decanter Magazine and 91 points by Connoisseur Guide to California Wine.

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard was sourced from a larger vineyard on Pritchard Hill and was awarded 93 points by Jeb Dunnuck in Jan 2021.

 

Dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, firm structured backbone, deep densely concentrated extracted black fruits, black cherry and tart black cherry, bright vibrant notes of cassis and spice with subtle vanilla and oak tones turning to a tangy lingering tannin finish. Needs some time to settle and integrate further to achieve more balance. 

 

RM 91 points. 

 

I've written in these pages the challenges or limitations in collecting wines from private label producers that lack their own estate vineyards since they are at the mercy of their sourcing agreements with suppliers. If such arrangements change, labels can be 'one and done', or with terms limited to the length of supply. 

 

If one's objective is to enjoy and study and follow the 'terroir' of a wine, all the elements that embody 'place' - terrain, soil, climate, over time as represented in different vintages, that can only be assured through estate wines, (produced from owned estate vineyards), or from stable long term supplier agreements. 

 

Of course there are some legendary labels and producers such as Freemark Abbey Bosche Vineyard Cabernet, and the collection from Lewis Cellars that have received high acclaim and long term vertical releases of their labels due to their long term supplier agreements.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3491036

https://www.stringercellars.com/product/detail/2S17CSST/

https://www.stringercellars.com/

Magic Door Napa Cab

Confusion and Mystery Surround Magic Door (Napa Valley) Cabernet Sauvingon

Magic Door Napa Valley Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

Magic Door is a collection of Napa Valley or other regional wines sourced from various producers and marketed under the private branded label under the negociant portfolio also more widely known as Ninety-Plus Cellars. Of Magic Door, they write, "Magic Door is a collection of small-production wines from esteemed wine regions and acclaimed vineyards around the globe. All wines are selected by the wine team behind 90+ Cellars."

Ninety-Plus Cellars assign a 'Lot Number' to each label to identify that distinctive offering and to follow that label from vintage to vintage. They break from that convention here and as a result that method of tracking or following a particular source of product is lost.

Here, Magic Door Napa Valley Cabernet 2017 is different from the 2105 release in that this is attributed to be sourced from Rutherford while the latter was said to be sourced from Oakville.

If they set upon this approach to add clarity, they've achieved the opposite in their less precise branding. I can only imagine they did this to add a sense of cache or elan to the brand, a premium level vs. the standard Ninety Plus Cellars.

However, if that were their objective, why would they associate the new Magic Door branding with the old Ninety Plus Cellars? I'm paying attention, I am in the dark as to their strategy. Hopefully this will be clarified through further research, correspondence or disclosures.


Of the 2015 Magic Door Cabernet they write, "This full-bodied Cabernet comes from a top producer in one of Napa's most elite AVAs. We were able to put together a small allocation of this wine under the Magic Door label, and at a price point that's just a fraction of what the source winery sells it for. Napa Cab lovers: prepare to indulge." The same could be said for the 2017 release, yet one is from Rutherford and the other from Oakville. Go figure.

As I research this further in Cellartracker, which often is a source of vast data with their millions of bottles in the collective cellar inventory of more than a hundred thousand collectors, the confusion or lack of clarity regarding this label is even more than I alluded to or imagined. Cellartracker shows Magic Door Cabernet Sauvignon represented in thirteen different labels from eight different vintages from 2010 to 2017 from four different regions or appellations - Columbia Valley, Red Mountain, Oakville and Rutherford.

I hope and expect Ninety Plus Cellars and Magic Door endeavor to clear this up.

Once again, the charter and mission of this unwindwine.blogspot.com blog is intended and directed at situations just such as this, studying, researching, unpicking and sorting, and hopefully clarifying - unwindwine - branding, labeling, marketing and distribution.

 This was dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, nicely structured blackberry and black currant fruits were accented by tones of mocha, cassis, hints of eucalyptus or cedar leading to soft smooth tannins on a lingering finish.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=341218

Ninety-Plus writes: "Oakville is one of the preeminent wine regions in America. It sits just north of the Yountville Mounts, a large hill which acts as a barrier to the cooling coastal influence of the San Pablo Bay. In Oakville, the wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon are less austere than examples made from grapes grown in Yountville to the south, but with more structure than wines made from fruit grown in Rutherford to the north."

C'est la vie; hopefully more to follow! 

http://www.magicdoorvineyards.com/

Coopers Hawk Australian Shiraz NV

Coopers Hawk Australian Shiraz NV

With sister Jan and her daughter Jenna back from OC Cal to visit mom and me, we met for a mini-family reunion for lunch at Cooper's Hawk Restaurant and Wine Bar in Burr Ridge.

Cooper's Hawk has grown exorbitantly from their modest location in Countryside to now eight locations in Illinois, seven in Florida, a pair in Indiana, and more in Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. Their approach is an up-beat quality dining experience serving a broad selection of foods paired with a broad selection of wines. Their wines are all private labeled, sourced from grape growers around the globe, then vinted and bottled under their own branding, usually NV or non-vintage designated wines.

Cooper's Hawk wines generally are moderately priced and reasonable QPR - quality price ratio, appealing to the general marketplace, casual or non-sophisticated wine consumer. The selection is broad and offers all the styles of wine from sweet to dry, red, white, rose, sparkling and dessert wines. They market and promote a wine club and offer special bottlings for club members who also are rewarded for frequent dining. They appeal to a wide audience and are enjoying immense popularity to budget conscious frequent diners.

Our kid's Erin and Johnnie are members and frequent diners as their location in the trendy Burr Ridge Town Centre is near their home. We enjoy family dinners there due to their decent value and broad selection that offers something for everyone.

Today we tasted and then ordered a bottle of their feature selection of the month, this Australian Shiraz, branded as part of their 'International Collection'. This wine of the month selection purports on the label that the fruit was "sourced from the top vineyards in Australia and crafted exclusively for our (sic) Wine Club members."

Readers of these pages know we drink a lot of wines including a lot of Australian Shiraz. I sampled this the glass and supported ordering a bottle to accompany our meal. The painted label and citation on the rear of the bottle states, "Our Australian Shiraz is deep black purple in color and offers a mind boggling bouquet of violets, licorice, blackberries and blueberries. The wine is rich, opulent and full bodied with spice, dark fruit flavors and notes of chocolate and pipe tobacco." While I agree with their assessment of the taste profile for this wine, I might dial down the hyperbole of their qualitative assessment of the tasting experience.  They cite, "The beautifully balanced palate shows layers of sweet concentrated fruit and texture with fine-grained tannins for a long and elegant finish."

I'll let their review stand and give the wine 90 points, high praise indeed, a high QPR at their published price point of $20 per bottle.

http://www.chwinery.com/

While this is one of the better selections we have had from Cooper's Hawk, since this is a NV, non-vintage, private label bottling, there is no assurance this wine will be reproduced again to this same style or standard. Hence, each encounter there is somewhat hit or miss. Their typical consumer and diner may not be sufficiently discriminating to detect the variation over time, or care. But that's part of the adventure of the Cooper's Hawk dining and wine experience!