Cliff Lede Napa Valley Claret 2017

Cliff Lede Napa Valley Claret 2017

For daughter Marleigh's family birthday gathering, son Ryan pulled from his cellar several Red wines for dinner including this Cliff Lede Napa Claret. He is a member of the Lede wine club and gets regular allocations of Lede labels and has a broad selection including this label which is normally only available exclusively to club members. The term 'Claret' is the British moniker for a Red Bordeaux Blend.

We hold more than a dozen Lede labels ourselves and we've visited the Lede Estate in the Stags Leap district along Silverado Trail in lower Napa Valley during several of our Napa Valley tours.

Cliff Lede estate viewed from the Lede Poetry Inn across
Silverado Trail

Cliff Lede is a Canadian businessman who collected Bordeaux before he decided to start his own 60-acre estate in Stag’s Leap District in 2002. He charged notable Napa winemaker and viticulturist David Abreu to replant the vineyards. Rising star Christopher Tynan has been winemaker since 2012.

Lede produces a broad portfolio of Cabernet Sauvignons including several single vineyard block designated 'Rock Block' labels named for Rock & Roll albums. The flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, called Poetry earned 100 pts from Wine Advocate for the 2013 vintage release.

The Bordeaux varietal grapes in this Claret blend are sourced from the Lede Estate Twin Peaks Vineyard in the Stags Leap District and a few grower partners within Napa Valley. The blend is not specified. 

Cliff Lede Napa Valley Claret 2017

Winemaker Notes for this label: "The 2017 Claret is a fresh an elegantly delineated wine boasting a mix of inviting fruit and spice notes. This dark ruby colored wine is laden with chocolate covered cherries, powered cocoa, and cassis aromas. Summer raspberry and blackberry flavors coat the palate and luxurious blueberry jam flesh out on the long, expansive finish. This lovely Claret is lithe and playful, but manages to maintain a weighty seriousness. The black licorice, allspice, and plum notes persist on the finish tempting the taster for another glass."

We tasted this opposite the Darioush Shiraz and it was akin to bringing a knife to a gunfight - the Claret being muted and opaque in comparison to the massive, bold Shiraz. In a neutral setting, this would've been ideal with a grilled steak or moderate cheese course.

Dark purple garnet colored, slightly opaque, medium bodied, nicely balanced and integrated moderate blackberry and currant fruits with notes of tobacco and spice turning to moderate tannins.  Ryan knows this label well and said this vintage release was subpar, slightly austere to the normal vintage releases.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3467545

https://www.ledefamilywines.com/

Emmolo Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2017

Emmolo Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2017

As the legendary Caymus family passes to the next generation, they also expand the Caymus portfolio with new labels that include the Emmolo and Mer Soleil brands. These are attributable to the next generation of the Wagner family extending into their wine family businesses, or developing new brands by the next gen.

We first discovered the Emmolo label during our visit to Caymus Estate during our Napa Wine Experience in 2018.

The Wagner wine business dates back more than 45 years with Chuck Wagner, along with his parents, Charlie and Lorna Wagner, founding Caymus Vineyards in Rutherford, Napa Valley. Caymus of course is known for two world-renowned Cabernet Sauvignons under the Caymus label from Napa Valley.

Chuck’s older son, Charlie, created the Mer Soleil branding consisting of coastal Chardonnay and a recently released Pinot noir. In addition, he is Director of Winemaking for Conundrum which includes Conundrum White, Red, and a Sparkling and Rosé label.

Wagner's older daughter Jenny is winemaker for Emmolo, a brand that includes Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot from Napa Valley. Emmolo is named after Jenny’s maternal family, and was launched twenty years ago by her mother, Cheryl Emmolo. Jenny’s great-grandfather, Salvatore Emmolo, starting the family’s grapevine rootstock nursery in St. Helena in 1923. Her grandfather, Frank Emmolo managed the nursery, but also grew Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot on the family property. Jenny’s mother created the wine label named Emmolo to carry the family name to the next generation.

Jenny started working alongside her father, Chuck Wagner, learning hand-ons grape farming and winemaking in the Napa Valley. She has taken on the Emmolo legacy as winemaker, Striving to produce quality Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot.

Emolo wines are sourced from fruit from the family Estate north of the Caymus property in the Rutherford district of Napa Valley. Jenny’s grandfather planted vineyards in the 1950’s and her mother launched Emmolo in 1994 and turned the reins over to Jenny in 2011.

As the brand expands, the wines will also be sourced from the Suisun Valley about thirty minutes east of Napa Valley. This label starting sourcing fruit from there from the 2019 vintage release.

Emmolo Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2017

For a delicate grilled white fish dinner, I pulled from the cellar this Emmolo Sauvignon Blanc for pleasant simple sipping.

The winemaker's notes about this wine: "Inspired by the idea that less is more, this wine is more minerality-driven than fruit-driven. Not grassy or overly ripe, it features delicate fruit flavors and steely, mineral notes that call to mind a first summer rain. Our grapes come from two family vineyards, and we harvest the fruit at just the right moment to achieve a balance of firm acidity and low alcohol.

Winemaker Notes  - "A luminous pale gold, this wine opens on the nose with freshness of a first summer rain, layered with scents of white peach and a hint of guava. The palate features a lively acidity balanced by delicate fruit flavors of peach and newly ripened honeydew."

RM 87 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2974386

http://www.emmolowines.com/

https://www.wagnerfamilyofwine.com/ 

Big Napa Cabs and #9 for 4th of July Celebration Dinner

Big Napa Cabs - Heitz, Moffett and Marquis Philips '9' for 4th of July Celebration and gala family dinner

The family (sans Alec & Viv, returned to NYC) gathered at our house for a gala 4th of July Celebration and Dinner - bbq, bags, badmitton, beer, tractor rides, swings, fireworks and some fine wine. Our 2 1/2 acre estate property, surrounded by similar estates, provided the perfect setting for the occasion.

Ryan prepared a delicious beef brisket that was the centerpiece of the dinner and Linda prepared grilled burgers, sweet corn, baked potatoes, chips and dips, and more. Ryan brought a salad and Erin brought blueberry cheesecake and chocolate cake. Sean and Michelle brought fireworks.

Ryan selected and I pulled from the cellar two aged Aussie Shiraz's - '97 Rosemount Balmoral and '07 Marquis Philips #9. He brought from his cellar the remains of a Heitz Trailside Napa Cab, '06. I pulled a '06 Moffitt Reserve Napa Cab to compare.

Regretably, the Rosemount Balmoral, at 23 years, was beyond its enjoyable drinking window and we set it aside. The decade younger Marquis Philips was still at the peak of its drinking curve.

Hence my attention turned to the Napa Cabs - enjoying the Heitz, and selecting and trying a comparison pairing.

Marquis Phillips '09' McLaren Vale Shiraz 2007

We're getting near the end of an era, the end of cellar holdings of this label that once spanned close to a decade, we have a few bottles left of 05, 06, and '07's.

Crafted by Sparky and Sarah Marquis before they moved to Mollydooker fame, this bold expressive forward wine begs for the tangy spicy bar-b-cue or hearty cheese, and vica versa!

 As I wrote in an eariler review of this wine, last summer, this full-throttle intensely concentrated classic South Australian Shiraz burst on the scene in 2001 with direction from Robert Parker to 'run, don't walk' to your wineshop to buy this wine.  Marquis Philps was the result of a partnership between the highly respected South Australian viticulturists /winemakers, Sarah and Sparky Marquis and their importer, Dan Philips of the Grateful Palate.

Like the other Marquis Philips/Mollydooker branding, this features a whimsical cartoon characterization, this time of a 'roogle', which is 1/2 eagle, and 1/2 kangaroo, representing the American Australian partnership of Marquis and US distributor and partner Dan Phillips. The brand of Marquis Philips produced high QPR wines immediately gained enormous success and a faithful following. This partnership disbanded and Sarah and Sparky Marquis went on to form the follow-on brand/label Mollydooker, launched in 2005. They split up with Sarah taking over, buying out Sparky a couple years ago.

Interesting that for the 2007 vintage, they produced this label as well as the Mollydooker premium Enchanted Path label. We tasted both side by side in another family holiday dinner tasting at Christmas back in 2017. As I wrote then, its not clear if there is any overlap here since their breakup of the venture may cloud the details of the sourcing of their labels. There could be some of the same fruit in the two different labels. In any event, the 2007 vintage '9' is also dark, big, full bodied and concentrated. It is not as complex or polished as the Enchanted Path blend. In addition to the black berry fruits accented by mocha, tobacco and leather, there is a layer of graphite in this that has an edge that tends to detract from the fruit.

This big, complex, concentrated powerful wine with super rich, ripe tongue-coating fruit. This release of  '9' was sourced from McLaren Vale (60%) and Padthaway (40%) in South Central Australia. 

Consistent with earlier review notes, "this 2007 vintage '9' is dark, big, full bodied and concentrated. It is not as complex or polished as some of the other vintage releases. In addition to the black berry fruits accented by mocha, tobacco and leather, there is a layer of graphite in this that has an edge that tends to detract from the fruit."

Lacking the blend of the Bordeaux varietal (s) would explain this wine being more single-dimensional and less complex, yet no less bodied or concentrated.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=651009

Heitz Cellars Trailside Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Legendary Joe Heitz and his wife Alice were pioneers of modern California winemaking when they moved to the Napa Valley in 1951. Joe earned an advanced degree in oenology from UCal Davis and he worked with famed winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu Vineyards before he and Alice bought a small winery in 1961. Over the decades the estate grew to one of California’s most admired estates spanning 400 acres with vineyards planted in six of Napa Valley’s sub-appellations: Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, Howell Mountain, Oak Knoll District, and Calistoga.

Pioneers in many aspects of viticulture, winemaking and branding, they produced Napa Valley’s first vineyard-designated Cabernet Sauvignon, the renowned Heitz Cellar Martha’s Vineyard 1965 Cabernet Sauvignon. Heitz traditional branding retains the original historic label for all the Cabernet Sauvignon selections, differentiated by the script vineyard designation. Each bottle contains a unique identifying bottle number for the vintage release.

Joe died in 2000 but his children continued to run the estate until 2018 when the estate was sold to Gaylon Lawrence Jr., a businessman whose family owns farmland throughout the Midwest and South as well as banks and industrial enterprises. Lawrence has brought in Napa wine industry veteran Robert Boyd as Heitz CEO.

Ryan and Michelle visited the winery last year and had the honor of being served by David Heitz. They tasted and acquired a selection of library wines including this Trailside Vineyard selection. The vineyard has been part of the Heitz estate since 1984 and produces one of their three, single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons. sitting along the Silverado Trail, backing up to Conn Creek on the fertile, eastern side of the Rutherford appellation, only the best blocks are selected for this terroir driven Vineyard designated Cabernet Sauvignon.

The esteemed Trailside Vineyard is a prime slice of Rutherford dirt, hugging the Silverado Trail on its east side and descending at a moderate grade until its opposite boundary nudges the banks of the Conn Creek.

Trailside consists of sixteen blocks of cabernet sauvignon, planted with seven different clones across the layers of eight different soil types that span eighty five acres; legendary Trailside Vineyard is the quintessential expression of the Rutherford terroir.

“The alluvial soil combined with a gradual slope towards Conn Creek makes this site ‘textbook perfect’ for growing Cabernet Sauvignon. We have planted the vines on an east-west orientation to evenly ripen the fruit throughout the day with dappled, gentle sunlight, resulting in small berries and ultimately, a smooth and concentrated wine.” – Brittany Sherwood, Winemaker

The 100% Cabernet Sauvignon label takes five years to produce prior to release. Each block from Trailside is crushed and fermented separately and remains unblended during its year in neutral oak tanks before being moved to 100% new French Limousin oak barrels. Each lot is continuously tasted and evaluated for two years after which on the superior barrels are selected to become the Trailside Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines are then aged separately by lot for one more year in barrel, for a total of four full years in oak, before finally blending together for bottling. Once in bottle, the Trailside continues to mature for another year, until its release from our cellar.

The 2006 vintage was a tumultuous year, with swings between flooding and a wet spring, to a record-setting heat wave in July, making a year requiring meticulous vineyard management. A cool down in August allowed grapes to ripen at a steadier pace, leading to a long harvest as different varieties were harvested at optimum ripeness.

This was bright ruby purple colored, medium-full bodied, balanced integrated bright vibrant plum, currant and blackberry fruits are highlighted by notes of anise, spice and sultry oak with chewy and gripping tannins on a lingering finish.

RM 93 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=661099

https://www.heitzcellar.com/

Moffet Cellars Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

This wine is from Moffett Vineyard, a 20 acre site sitting 1500 feet up on Howell Mountain on the eastern slopes at the northern end of the range overlooking Napa Valley. 

The producer, Trent Moffett carries on the tradition started by his parents John and Diane Livingston, growing grapes and producing Napa Valley wines for over thirty five years.

Sourced from two Napa Valley vineyards: one high up on Howell Mountain and the other in St. Helena, it strikes a beautiful balance in the blend composed of 94% cabernet sauvignon and 6% cabernet franc. 

This is inky purple / garnet colored - medium-full bodied - polished and smooth with full flavors of blackberries, ripe plum and currants - the fruit slightly subdued from earlier tastings, highlighted by a layer of smoky creosote and black tea with tones of mocha chocolate and anisewith a touch of oak and spice - the wine shows great balance of toasted oak and acidity.

RM 92 Points

http://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2015/12/moffett-vineyards-cabernet-sauvignon.html

http://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2016/01/fantesca-chardonnay-dunham-cellars.html

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=661237

http://moffettvineyards.com/ 

What is better than to sit at the end of a day and drink wine with friends, or substitute for friends.

 -James Joyce

But there is no substitute for family!

Key to Wine and Champagne Bottle Sizes

In Bottle Sizes... Bigger is Better Key to Wine and Champagne Bottle Sizes

I often mention 'large format' bottles in these pages. There are actually seventeen different standardized bottle sizes for wines and champagne. Large format refers to larger than the standard 750ml bottle size. The larger sized bottles are produced in less quantity than the standard size bottle, and are typically worth more than just double or whatever multiple of the contents of the price of the regular size bottle accounting for the increased cost of the oversize packaging.  Champagne is most popular and common in using larger bottles. The magnum is a double sized bottle (1.5 liters) and is one of the best selling sized bottles for Champagne. Many California Cabernet Sauvignons, Red Bordeaux, and Red Burgundies are produced and collected in these larger formats. It is generally accepted that wine will age better - longer, more gracefully and uniformly, in a large format bottle - hence their popularity with collectors. This is due to the smaller proportion of air in the vessel in relation to the proportion of wine.  Many of the larger format bottle sizes are named after Biblical kings, perhaps in reverence or remembrance to their size and stature.  There is also great novelty and fun in opening and serving a large bottle. Often for special occasions, one will have all the quests sign the label of a large bottle as the labels are proportionately larger with the large bottles.  See Rick's large format bottles, labels and large bottle feature in Wine Spectator Magazine.

The 17 Standard Bordeaux/California Bottle Sizes

SPLIT Made for Sparkling Wine.	187 ml.	1/4 of a standard bottle
HALF-BOTTLE	375 ml.	1/2 of a standard bottle
Standard BOTTLE	750 ml.	1 standard bottle
MAGNUM	1.5 liters	Equal to 2 standard bottles.
DOUBLE MAGNUM	3 liters	Equal to 4 standard bottles.
JEROBOAM - This is what Champagne and Burgundy call their 3 liter bottles. Equal to 4 standard bottles.
REHOBOAM	About 4.5 liters.	Equal to 6 standard bottles.
JEROBOAM (Bordeaux / California wines)	5 liters	Equal to about 6 3/4 standard bottles.
IMPERIAL	6 liters	Equal to 8 standard bottles.
METHUSALEM - This is what they call an "Imperial" in Champagne and Burgundy.
SALMANAZAR This one is a case of wine in one bottle.	9 liters	12 standard bottles.
BALTHAZAR	12 liters.	Equal to 16 standard bottles.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR	12 to 16 liters	Depending on the country of origin this will be from 16 to 20 standard bottles.
SALOMON PRIMAT / GOLIATH MELCHIZEDEC  SOVERIGN	18 liters 27 Liters 30 liters 50 liters	24 bottles   36 bottles  40 bottles  67 standard bottles

Big Bottle Display at Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou -
St Julien Beychevelle, Bordeaux

Birthyear vintage large format bottles
Served at daughter Erin's wedding

Six Liter Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard 1990
in OWC - Serial #'s 41 & 44 -
Holding for son Alec's wedding

Standard Champagne Bottle Sizes

Bottle Name	Bottle Equivalency	Capacity
Split	1/4 bottle	18.7 cl
Half	1/2 bottle	37.5 cl
Bottle	1 bottle	750 ml
Magnum	2 bottles	1.5 l
Jeroboam	4 bottles	3 l
Rehoboam	6 bottles	4.5 l
Methuselah	8 bottles	6 l
Salmanazar	12 bottles	9 l
Balthazar	16 bottles	12 l
Nabuchadnezzar	20 bottles	15 l

Display of range of bottles offered at Moet Chandon Champagne House
in Epernay, Champagne, France

9 Liter Salmanazar
Served at daughter
Erin's wedding

Our Wine Cellar

Our Wine Cellar - deep and diverse - horizontal, verticals, large formats and favorite styles and labels ...

I regularly refer to our wine cellar in these pages. I expose and feature it here. Each month the leading wine publication, Wine Spectator, features a collector in their Collecting column. We and our cellar collection were the feature in the June 15th, 2001 issue.

A highlight of the feature was our collection of birth year vintage wines for the birth years of our children, coupled with our collection of large format bottles of those wines - magnums, 3 liter double magnums, 5 liter Jeroboams, 6 liter Imperials, and a 9 liter Salmanazar.

Indeed, we served fine wines from those large format bottles at our all our childrens' weddings, and we're holding more for the others' upcoming weddings, anniversaries, and for other gala celebrations and events to come.

 

See links to Big Bottles, Birthyear Bottles, and Family celebrations: 

• Big Bottle Birthyear wines for Wedding Celebration, 
• Wedding Wines - Birthyear and Big Bottle Extravaganza Continues 
• Big Bottle Birthyear mania for Wedding Celebration
  
• Big Birthyear bottles at wedding rehearsal celebration dinner 
• Birthyear Bordeaux bottle celebrates new grand-daughter

See my feature page Wine Bottle Sizes Explained on the different size bottles for different wine types. 

 

Large format, birth year vintage wines served at
our daughter's wedding.

Our cellar - Its not fancy, its functional, for a purpose. People often ask me about cellar design. Its a cellar - for wine storage. If you're creating a showroom or tasting or dining room, then so be it.. But who wants to dine in 58 degrees?

Racks? There are all kinds of racks and kits and professional designs and installations. Again, our cellar is utilitarian and the racks were somewhat of a 'family affair'. In fact, most of them were father-son projects over a period of time where we designed and built a wine storage rack as part of a fun, teaching, bonding, collaboration project. 

 

Each section and project provided an opportunity to spend time together and teach basic woodworking as well as project planning and management with my three sons. 

Hence, we have several wine racks of various  bespoke designs, not perfect, but uniquely 'ours', and each a special memory, and functional for the long run, especially those over-engineered or excessively designed, all purpose built for our cellar. 

Our cellar contains racks that were designed and purpose built for standard size 750 ml bottles - some for bulk storage and some for 'display'. 

We also built racks for our large format bottle collection - some for 1500ml or 1.5 liter 'magnum' bottles, 3 liter 'double magnum' bottles, and larger format bottles as well. 

We also have bulk storage racks designed to hold full original wood cases (OWC's) of wine - a format used for many premium and ultra-premium wines as well as many Grand Cru Classe and other quality Bordeaux wines. 

Also, many large format bottles have their own individual OWC's. Shown right are six liter bottles of 90BV6L - Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard 1990 - one bottle per OWC, note serial numbers 41 and 47.

Temperature and humidity control - If building a cellar to store wine for more than the shortest term, temperature and humidity control are essential. Once again, there are residential and commercial grade units for temperature and humidity control. It's best to have these professionally installed as they can be complicated with needs for special wiring, water supply and water disposition. 

Our cellar employs two methods of temperature and humidity control. First, it is a true cellar, placed in a basement under the house at nine feet deep below grade. It is sided by concrete walls on three sides that are exterior below grade. So the basic temperature is naturally moderate and rather stable. 

Additionally, we have a passive temperature control system. Living in an unincorporated location without municipal services, we have our own well for water service to our home. As part of that system, we have a large well water tank to pressurize and supply our property with water. That well tank is in our wine cellar and provides a constant 55% degree heat sink to moderate the cellar environment. 

We also have supplemental air conditioning to provide auxiliary cooling for the cellar when needed. 

At the end of the day, (or decade), the true test is how well bottles age in the cellar. We regularly open aged vintage bottles of wine that have been stored in our cellar since being acquired upon release, ten, twenty and as long as thirty-five years earlier. Invariably, the bottles, corks, labels, and most importantly, the wine have aged gracefully and appropriately. We often say, whatever we are doing, keep doing it, when we open such bottles of well maintained, properly aged, fine wines, in superb condition.  

We hold about 2500+ bottles in our cellar, plus more in a couple wine coolers adjacent to the kitchen for staging. While we're at a stage of life where we should be consuming our wine, we still tend to acquire our share as well so the holdings remain the same. We have almost as much  fun acquiring the wine, as we do drinking it, as this blog will atest. 

As to be expected, 95 percent of our wine cellar is Red wines. Only a couple cases of whites and Champagnes are held for short duration cellaring, nearer term drinking. We do have a collection of white dessert wines which do age well and can be held for decades or more but its single digit cases. 

 

People regularly ask me where I buy my wines. The answer is, wherever wines are sold. Actually, we regularly 'audit' the local wine shops, both the wine superstores, and the local independent merchants. We're always on the prowl for values, but also trying and buying wines in the styles that we prefer. We're also always buying and trying new labels, and occasionally, new regions or styles.  

 

We also acquire wine from favorite produces through their 'clubs' or memberships - ensuring continuity and access to favorite labels - especially for our collectibles. Much of the fun of collecting is comparing a label from vintage to vintage, over time as it ages, at different stages of its tasting/aging profile. One of the benefits of having a wine group of wine buddies is that we mix it up, spreading and sharing the club memberships. This way we can participate in three or four times as many clubs between us, and then we share the case purchases between three or four of us.

 

Lastly, we're always filling out our collections with new vintages of our verticals or new labels of our horizontals. (A vertical collection is many vintages of the same label; a horizontal is multiple labels of the same vintage). 

 

Readers of this column know we have vertical collections of favorite labels that span as much as 25 years (obviously age-worthy wines) and horizontal collections for each of our childrens' (and now grandchildren's) birth-years. 

 

Selection from Vertical Collection of Dunn Vineyards
Cabernet Sauvignons

These pages are filled with different examples of tasting events of various verticals or horizontals. We hold vertical collections spanning as long as three decades of numerous producers including Del Dotto, Robert Craig, Clark Claudon, Dunn Family Vineyards, Fantesca, Ducru Beaucaillou, Leoville Las Cases, Gruaud Larose and others.

See the following features from our earlier blogposts highlighting vertical or horiztonal tastings: 

Ducru Beaucaillou Vertical Showcases Pour Boys Wine Dinner

Sassicaia Owner Dinner and Vivere Vertical Tasting

Kathryn Hall Vertical Tasting - Hall Wine Release Tour 2015

Silver Oak Alexander Valley Vertical

 In some cases we did a mini horizontal and vertical in one tasting:

Caymus and Del Dotto Napa Cabernets - 1995-96 horizontal - vertical !

Example of a gala Horizontal Vintage tasting from our Pour Boys Wine Group:

Bordeaux 2003 Horizontal Tasting on the Cityscape Deck - Grilled Steak Dinner

2003 Vintage Bordeaux Horizontal Flight

 
As mentioned often in these pages, we maintain our cellar inventory in Cellartracker.  I was developing a personal app on my own and had a vision for essentially the same solution, however, I'm a marketing guy, not a software engineer with the skills to develop a comprehensive sophisticated application. I spoke of my vision for such a site in my Wine Spectator interview in 2001.

CellarTracker was originally created in March, 2003 by Eric LeVine who was working for Microsoft at the time, to track his own collection. After extending access to several friends the site quickly grew to 100 users tracking 60,000 bottles.

LeVine launched the site to the public in 2004 and left shortly thereafter to manage it full time. Since then, the site has grown steadily every since.

Today, CellarTracker is the leading cellar management tool with hundreds of thousands of collectors tracking more than 75 million bottles. CellarTracker has also grown to become the largest database of community tasting notes with more than 5.8 million notes as of late 2016. The site is also visited by millions of wine enthusiasts annually to read the reviews and get wine recommendations. Patron members who contribute a voluntary fee get access to cost information - the aggregate average price paid for a wine by the community. This in of itself is worth the annual contribution investment, the ability to validate the price of any particular wine across a wide community of mostly astute consumers.

Finally, here is a link to a gallery of our friends' wine cellars, many of which you see featured in these pages over the past years, or certainly the wines from such cellars.  Friends Cellars - Take a look at the cellars of our Pour Boy wine group and other friends. 

Dunham Trutina Red Wine 2010

Dunham Cellars Trutina Columbia Valley Red Blend 2010

As written last night, we discovered Dunham Cellars Cabernets on-line with Winebid.com. Having been awakened to the brand, when we saw this label at local merchant Vin Chicago, we grabbed it, tried it, liked it, and went back and bought some more. That was back with the 2009 vintage, and we then purchased the 2010 vintage when it arrived the following year.

At a price point of $25, this provides reasonable QPR - Quality-Price-Ratio when compared with equivalent quality Bordeaux Blends and Cabernets from California and Washington State.  

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate says, "This is the least expensive, yet the richest of the lineup" from Dunham Cellars.

Dunham Cellars Trutina Columbia Valley Red Blend 2010

This vintage release label got 91 points from Wine Enthusiast. 

The 2010 Trutina is a blend of 63% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Syrah. The fruit is sourced from Washington State Columbia Valley Vineyards: Lewis Estate Vineyard, Double Canyon Vineyard, Phinny Hill Vineyard, Yellowbird Vineyard and Frenchtown Estate Vineyard.

We've tasted a half dozen bottles of the 2009 vintage release but this is our first encounter with the 2010. 

Dark garnet colored, medium-full bodied, smooth and approachable, complex bright vibrant blackberries and black cherry fruits with notes of mocha chocolate , hints of cassis, spice box and notes of sweet oak with tangy acidity and smooth tannins on the lengthy finish.

RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1428241

https://www.dunhamcellars.com/

Dunham Cellars Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

Dunham Cellars Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

We discovered Dunham Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon through Winebid, the online wine auction site. Over the years we've acquired close to a decade of vintages of this label through that vehicle. We've also acquired another Dunham label, Trutina, a Bordeaux Blend from Vin Chicago, a local merchant.  

We stopped by the tasting room during our Washington Wine Experience back in 2018 but it was a drive-by without a reservation and the place was packed. We didn't realize they had the Walla Walla facility and we failed to connect there while we were in town during our Walla Walla Wine Experience in 2018. 

Dunham was founded by Winemaker Eric Dunham. Eric started his career with a 6-month internship at Hogue Cellars in Washington, moving on as Assistant Winemaker at L'Ecole No. 41 in the Walla Walla Valley. With Winemaker Marty Clubb's blessing, Eric began making small lots of Dunham wine at L'Ecole with his first bottling the 1995 Dunham Cabernet Sauvignon I.

After a few successful vintages with Dunham's receiving great acclaim, with some help from his parents, he set out on his own in warehouse space in an old WWII airplane hangar in Walla Walla. A couple of years later, David and Cheryll Blair were introduced to the Dunhams and joined the business to pursue their collective dream of making and pairing great wine with hospitality.

Part of the branding approach from that first vintage was to affix to each vintage the Roman Numeral of the numerical order of each release. Hence, this 2003 Dunham Cabernet Sauvignon, the ninth vintage release, adorns IX on the label.

Dunham Cellars Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

For tasting with grilled burgers I pulled from the cellar this 2003 Dunham Cabernet Sauvignon, the IXth successive release of this label. 

This is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from Washington State Columbia Valley vineyards; Lewis Vineyard, Frenchtown Vineyard and Double River Estate Vineyard. It was aged in 60% French and 40% American Oak, 70% new oak and 30% used; 1955 cases were produced of this vintage release. 

At eighteen years of age, this was holding its own, showing no diminution of aging. 

Dark garnet colored, medium bodied, a structured core of black berry and black cherry fruits with notes of spice, anise and black tea with hints of oak.

RM 89 points 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=287264

https://www.dunhamcellars.com/