Château du Tertre Margaux with grilled beefsteaks

Château du Tertre Margaux with grilled beefsteaks

Saturday dinner at home, Linda grilled some beef tenderloin beefsteaks, served with a medley of roasted potatoes, corn, onions and cheese. I pulled from the cellar a middle aged vintage Bordeaux blend for the occasion, served with toasted bread. 

According to the label, this is a trade sample bottle which would’ve been acquired from the producer for serving at the UGCB 2014 Release Tour in Chicago.

The UGC Bordeaux' (Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB)) annual release tour traverses America showcasing their vintage release wines. The tour visits some combination of Miami, New York, Chicago, LA and San Francisco.

As we have for fourteen years, our 'Pour Boys' wine group helps host the event in Chicago at the Drake Hotel in the elegant grand ballroom (shown left).  

More than a hundred producers were participate at the event that is attended by over five hundred members of the trade, media and industry.

Earlier UGCB and related events are featured in earlier unwindwine blogposts. More than once, winter storms delayed or disrupted travel prohibiting some of them to get to Chicago for the event which started our standing in, hence we coined the name the 'pour' boys.

Château du Tertre Grand Cru Classe Margaux 2011

Château du Tertre is a Fifth Growth property in Margaux, one of the oldest properties not just in Margaux, but in the entire Left Bank dating back to 1143. The name, “Tertre,” refers to its geography, the word tertre means, “hill,” or, “rising ground," referring to the location, a couple km inland from the Gironde River estuary, the Margaux terroirs there are the highest, with one of the most elevated gravel outcrops of the Médoc. 

The estate sits in the hamlet of Arsac, where it has historically been called “beautiful Tertre d’Arsac”, just 4 km south of the Chambres de Margaux in the Margaux village centre where we stayed during our Margaux Bordeaux region tour in 2019,  just a 1/2 km south of the village perimeter. 

The footprint of the 52 hectares, 125 acres of vineyards, has not changed much since the 1855 Classification when it was designated Margaux Grand Cru Classe. The graveled, sloping soils are planted to customary Bordeaux varietals - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, with the majority of the vines planted near an ambient forest, which yields cooler temperatures and preserves the freshness of the wines. 

The estate began to rise to prominence in the 1700's, when it was owned Pierre Mitchell of Bordeaux, known as a famous glassblower. Mitchell was known to have created the first jeroboam (a five liter bottle), and given his expertise in crafting glass bottles, it is likely that the first wines in Bordeaux were bottled at Château du Tertre.  

The Château du Tertre estate was very popular with the Dutch wine market and was acquired by Henri de Koenigswarter from the Netherlands before being taken over by the Cruse family, a famous négociant, in the 1900s.  

During the turbulent disruption of World War II, the estate fell into disrepair and its sterling reputation declined as a result. 

In 1961, the property was acquired by Philippe Gasqueton, the well-known owner of Château Calon Ségur in Saint Estèphe, who embarked on the long, intensive process of turning the estate around.  

1n 1997, Dutch businessman, Eric Albada Jelgersma bought the estate and invested in the large-scale overall restructuring, returning its former noble personality to the Chateau du Tertre. Since March 2021 the Helfrich family has taken over the property with the intent to continuing the tradition and pursuit of excellence. 

The viticultural team is headed by Alexander Van Beek, who made some critical changes such as eliminating machine harvesting.  Frédéric Ardouin from Château Latour was hired as Technical Director and winemaker in 2008, and the property has been on the rise ever since with biodynamic transformation of the viticulture and rebuilding of the production facilities with new technology. Château du Tertre wines are known to be versatile, able to be enjoyed younger with one to two hours decanting and show improvement with 10 years of bottle age. 

The 54-hectare Chateau du Tertre vineyard is planted to the Appellation designated Bordeaux varietals, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. This marks a major change from the historic mix in the vineyard with less Cabernet Sauvignon and more Merlot.

The du Tertre vineyard is planted in one large single block of vines and is one of the largest single blocks of vines in Margaux, as well as in all of the Medoc.

Notably, the vineyard is also one of the few estates that is the same size today, as it was at the time of the historic 1855 Classification of the Medoc.

The terroir is mostly gravel, with some sand soils on two, gentle, sloping hills. The elevation close to the chateau graduates up to 27 meters, making it one of the highest peaks in the Margaux appellation. The location for much of the vineyard is situated close to a forest, which produces a slightly cooler, micro-climate.

The cooler ambient temperature adds more freshness to the wines. Geographically, they are next to their sister property, Chateau Giscours. In fact, only a small stream separates the two vineyards. Their best parcels are located just behind the chateau, and as well as on the peaks of their gravel hills.

At fourteen years the foil, label and most importantly the fill level and cork were still in pristine condition. This is probably at the apex of its drinking window and profile, not likely to improve with further aging, but certainly will age well for another decade or more.  

Château du Tertre Grand Cru Classe Margaux 2011

The du Tertre is a blend of 10% Merlot, 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot and 20% Cabernet Franc.  

The relative high percentage of Petit Verdot, brings firmness, structure and deep color to a blend. 

This release was awarded 92 points by Wine Enthusiast and Jane Anson of Decanter.com, 91 points by James Suckling, 90 points by Wine Spectator, and 88 points by Robert Parker Jr., The Wine Advocate.

 

A nice pairing with the grilled beefsteaks. 

Dense dark garnet purple colored, medium bodied, floral notes with black berry and black currant fruits with notes of anise, black tea, earth and leather with supple tannins and well behaved acidity on the finish. 

RM 90 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1362619 

http://chateaudutertre.fr/en/home/

 

https://twitter.com/tertre_gcc 

 

@ Tertre_gcc

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2022/06/chateau-du-tertre-grand-cru-classe.html 

Signorello Hope’s Chardonnay BYOB at Entourage DG

Signorello Hope’s Cuvée Chardonnay BYOB at Entourage DG

We dined Friday afternoon early dinner at Entourage DG (Downers Grove). This week we ordered one of our favorite entrees, a replay of our recent Entourage dinner selections as featured in these pages in an earlier blogpost,.

Entourage DG, one of the our favorite go-to eateries with its great menu, ease of parking, great service, and reasonable BYOB policy. 

We have several favorite menu selections, both beef and seafood, so we’re routinely challenged on which wine we want to take BYOB, if any, for our dinner pairing. And, of course, we don’t know what the Specials will be, so, tonight we brought a red and a white to cover all contingencies on dinner entree selections. 

Linda opted for our perennial favorite dishes, the Entourage signature Miso Marinated Chilean Seabass with Broccolini, Charred Peppers, Shiitake Mushrooms and Black Truffle Risotto, Yuzu and the new offering approach, Lemon Butter Sauce. 

As I wrote in a previous post - Spectacular dining experience at Entourage Restaurant Downers Grove, that this was extraordinary, delicious in all respects, the fish artfully prepared and served hot, and the Black Truffle Risoto was spectacular. We love it all, the harmony and synthesis of the many artfully crafted robust flavors. 

Hence, I selected the Daily Special, a seafood dish, Hawaiian Wahoo, with which I asked they substitute the truffle risotto as the accompaniment. 

Based on our seafood entree selections, we opened BYOB from our cellar this ultra-premium Napa Valley Chardonnay, one of our favorite vintages/labels from a favorite producer. 

Signorello Hope's Cuvee Napa Valley Chardonnay 2016

As posted in an earlier blogposts, we discovered and acquired (the then current vintage release of) this wine during our visit to the Estate on Silverado Trail in Southeastern Napa Valley during our Napa Valley Wine Experience in 2013. At that time I wrote about this label: "I am predominantly a red wine drinker and while I enjoy an occasional glass of white, most often with appropriate food, I don't normally get excited about a white wine. This chardonnay was the exception,  memorable and special."

We're getting down to the last few remaining bottles of the label that we've acquired over time and we look to refreshing our inventory with more, from the current release. 

(Former) Signorello Estate overlooking vineyards 
and valley floor.

The Signorello winery sits at the very southern end of Napa Valley and has 43 acres of vineyards, including some of the oldest Chardonnay vines in all of Napa Valley - fruit from 37-year-old vines goes into his Hope’s Cuvée.

The magnificent Estate was destroyed in the fires that engulfed much of sections of Sonoma and Napa in 2017. Fires came down the foothills to the property that sat up the hill back from the highway.

The fire reached the winery and completely destroyed the hospitality center that also housed offices, a wine lab and a family residence upstairs. The adjacent  crush pad and stainless steel tanks survived intact along with the barrel cellar and equally if not most importantly, the vines of the adjacent vineyards. 

In the wake of the destruction from Napa Valley’s October 2017 Atlas Peak Fire, Ray Signorello vowed to rebuild. We're relieved to read about the Phoenix of Signorella Estate, rising from the ashes, literally, and being rebuilt, even grander and larger than before. Signorello said he viewed the tragedy as an opportunity to do something new and exciting and is rebuilding with a larger fermentation facility, wine caves and a stunning expanded hospitality center. 

The winery has kept almost all of its team employed as an interim step toward returning to normalcy and they have been operating out of a modular building was brought in to serve as a temporary hospitality center.

The adjacent Darioush property nearby the sits at the valley floor closer to the highway and similarly situated properties were untouched. 

Signorello "Hope's Cuvée" Napa Valley Chardonnay 2016 

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate gave the 2015 release 98 points and said, "The best Chardonnay I have ever tasted from Ray Signorello has to be the 2015 Chardonnay Hope’s Cuvée." Vinous gave it 91 points.

Perhap’s due to nearly a decade of aging in our cellar, tonight's tasting was the best experience we’ve had of this label. 

This Hope's Cuvée Chardonnay was full bodied but nicely balanced and polished for very pleasant drinking. It is bursting with flavorful fruit with layers of peach and poached pear giving way to hints of honey, almond, nutmeg, vanilla and creamy soft spicy oak. There is very pleasant full mouth-feel with rich texture on the palate with a long lingering finish of sweet mellow oak.

Rich golden butter colored, full bodied, rich and concentrated but silky smooth, elegant, balanced and polished, caramelized citrus, honeysuckle, white peach, pear and melon notes with a touch of almond and brioche on a harmonious finish.

RM 96 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2806461

https://www.signorelloestate.com/

https://twitter.com/SigVin 
@SigVin 

https://entouragerestaurant.com/downers-grove/

Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu-Dit-Malakoff Shiraz

Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu-Dit-Malakoff Shiraz 2019

Another quiet Tuesday night at home, we settled in to watch our time-phased recording of “The Voice” with a selection of artisan cheeses and bold sipping Shiraz wine - much like last week as featured in this post Long Shadows Sequel Syrah w/ Focaccia & Murray’s Cheese. 

Like last week, we had a selection of Murray’s and other cheeses, fresh whole berry jams, and fresh cut Chive herbs, with toasted sourdough bread. 

Tonight our cheeses included aged blue cheese, Gruyère, Beemster Swiss, aged white cheddar and aged sharp cheddar, 

For a wine accompaniment we pulled from the cellar this big bold everyday Australian Shiraz.

Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu-Dit-Malakoff Shiraz 2019

This label is from the partnership of two global beverage heavyweights, global wine producer and distributor Terlato and French based global producer Chapoutier. 

Suburban Chicago based, family owned, Terlato started as a retail store in 1938 and has grown into one of the world’s leading importers, marketers and producers of luxury beverage brands. Their global portfolio includes more than 85 fine wine and artisanal spirit brands from world-class producers in more than a dozen countries and is the leading fine wine & spirits marketer in the U.S. Some of their well known brands include Chimney Rock, Rutherford Hill and Rochioli in the US and I’ll Poggionne, Feudi di San Gregorio in Italy. Notably, they are the exclusive distributor of ultra-premium Gaia wines in North America and the portfolio also includes Champagne Roederer,Joseph Drouhin and Louis Latour.

Maison Chapoutier, founded in 1808, has vineyards throughout France, primarily the northern and southern Rhône river valleys, as well as in Portugal, Australia and Spain and produces iconic brands with over two hundred labels.

The Terlato & Chapoutier partnership dates back to 1987. Michel Chapoutier joined forces with the Terlato family (the company’s American distributor) in 2000. This domain brand is the company’s third project in Australia, and the second domain in Victoria, to the north-east of Melbourne. 

This is a single vineyard designated wine from the Pyrenees appellation in the Western Victoria sub-region of the Victoria wine region of Australia. While Victoria may be Australia’s second smallest state, it’s home to over 600 cellars, the largest number of individual wineries. 

Not to be confused with the Pyrenees region bordering southern France and Spain, the Australian appellation is the most prolific of three appellations in the sub-region, and is home to 50+ wineries that produce over 600 wines. 

The project is in the Central Highlands region in Western Victoria, Australia, about 198 kilometres west of Melbourne, on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera in what is known as the Grampians wine region.

The ares’s proximity between 100 -200 kilometres to the Southern Ocean provides a Mediterranean climate with cooling influence during summer.

This label, Lieu dit is a French term referring to a specific part of a vineyard or region recognized for its own topographic or historical specificities, commonly used in Alsace, Burgundy, the Rhône Valley. It is a bit disingenuous for Chapoutier to use it outside of France. 

The Grampians wine region’s primary variety is Shiraz. The region also produces Sparking Shiraz, Riesling, the best performing white variety in the region, along with Chardonnay that can also be found. Cabernet Sauvignon is found in some of the older vineyards, and Pinot Noir is starting to gain a foothold as a straight varietal. In recent years, Italian varietals such as Pinot Grigio (or Gris), Sangiovese annd Dolcetto are making their mark with a growing legion of fans.

The region is know as Shiraz Central in the Victoria Highlands, and it is grown throughout the region in the towns and sub-appellations of Ballarat, Bendigo, Goulburn Valley, Grampians, Heathcote, Macedon Ranges, Pyrenees, Strathbogie Ranges, Sunbury and Upper Goulburn.

Scattered among the old gold mining towns, 250 wineries benefit from long sunny days and cool nights that produce a cool, spicy Australian shiraz, notable for their complexity and finesse.

Terlato & Chapoutier Lieu-Dit-Malakoff Shiraz 2019

Winemaker notes - Deep ruby. Highly aromatic with black fruit aromas (black cherry and black currant) and undertones of dark chocolate, white pepper and eucalyptus. Explosive black berry and black plum flavors with perfectly matched, elegant tannins that give the wine a long, lasting aftertaste. Full bodied and rich. A treat to drink now and will age well for 7-10 years.

This label is widely distributed and can be found priced from $10 in special sales, all the way to $40. At its moderate prices it provides great QPR - Quality Price Ratio for every day sipping.

Dark inky garnet colored, full bodied, complex, concentrated, wild black berry and black currant fruits with notes of earth, spice and hints of black tea, tar, pepper and bitter dark chocolate, with moderate tannins on a long persistent finish. 

RM 88 points. 

https://go.cellartracker.com/wine/4722048

https://terlato.com/s/

https://www.chapoutier.com/en/

La Crema Coastal Chardonnay with Homemade Chicken Piccata

La Crema Coastal Chardonnay with Homemade Chicken Piccata

Sunday afternoon dinner, we prepared homemade chicken piccata with corn, peas, carrots and pasta. I opened a basic Sonoma Coast Chardonnay to pair as an accompaniment. 

La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2023 

This is from a historically family owned and operated winery that was originally named, La Crema Viñera which means "best of the vine," founded in 1979. Over the ensuing 35 years, they focused exclusively on cool-climate appellations and single vineyard sites, from their original home in the Russian River Valley, to Monterey and, now, the Willamette Valley. 

Through rigorous vineyard site selection and boutique winemaking techniques they consistently produced affordable balanced expressive wines such that they were named Winery of the Year in 2024 by Wine Enthusiast.

But the real story here is that La Crema is part of the vast Kendall Jackson portfolio of vineyards, wineries and brands. I wrote about the meteoric rise of Kendall Jackson to the pinnacle of the US wine industry, as it was featured in an earlier blogpost - Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2018, excerpted below. 

Building on the premise of affordable quality wines, Jackson Family Wines have amassed no less than forty leading brands including historic widely popular labels such as Freemark Abbey to ultra-premium labels/brands such as LaJota, Cardinale, Mt Brave and Lakoya. One can’t say enough about the astonishing powerhouse Jackson Family has become in the global wine industry.

The whole story is chronicled in the book A Man and His Mountain, the story of self-made billionaire Jess Jackson and his pursuit of his dream to build a brand of premium varietal based wine for the mass market. His accomplishments over the ensuring two and a half decades exceeded all expectations achieving the art of the possible building a multi-billion dollar wine empire. 

While the book focuses on Kendall Jackson Reserve Chardonnay and its rise to the number 1 selling Chardonnay in America, the same story and principles apply to and strongly parallel La Crema as well. 

The Jackson family acquired La Crema in the early ‘90s, with a belief in “dreaming big (our entrepreneurial energy is intense) and an unwavering commitment to wine quality”. The family cultivated La Crema, as told by Jackson’s daughter, Jenny Jackson Hartford:

“When my father, Jess Jackson, and Barbara Banke acquired La Crema in 1993, my husband, Don Hartford, with my sister Laura and I, set out on a mission to craft wines that truly express the essence of cool-climate vineyards. We were hands-on in those early days, managing operations, building the winery where we still make wine today, and sharing our passion with wine lovers across the country. That vision lead to recognition with the award of  “American Winery of the Year” by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

The Kendall-Jackon Jess Jackson Story

In 1974, Jess Jackson purchased an 80-acre pear and walnut orchard up in Lake County, California, just north of Napa Valley, and replanted it with Chardonnay grapevines. In 1982, Jess and his family set out to make a premium, yet affordable, California wine.

In 1982, he set out for New York City to establish distribution for his new concept wine and unknown brand. That same year, that inaugural vintage of Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay won the first-ever Platinum Award for an American Chardonnay at The American Wine Competition.

Soon thereafter, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy, native Californians, wanted to serve a California wine in the White House. Nancy discovered and fell in love with the taste of Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay and selected Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay as their 'house wine'. San Francisco Chronicle's Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Herb Caen, caught wind of the story and wrote a column about the wine referring to the Chardonnay as "Nancy’s wine." The brand was established, demand exploded, and the company grew exponentially.

By 1991, Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay had become the #1 selling Chardonnay in America, and remains so to this day.

In 2007, Jess Jackson was honored with the Wine Enthusiast Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award, awarded each year to the individuals and companies that have made outstanding achievements in the wine and beverage world. Jess Jackson was one of the first and largest winemakers to introduce America to varietal-specific wine, not only increasing the public’s understanding and appreciation of wine, but also making it affordable.

Jess Jackson passed away in April of 2011.

In 2013, Wine Enthusiast named Barbara Banke, Jackson's second wife and long-time partner who helped him build the business, and succeeded him as its leader, as its 2013 Wine Person of the Year. The first woman to win the award, Barbara shares it with Jess, the magazine’s inaugural recipient in 2000.

In 2017 Kendall-Jackson was awarded Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

https://www.kj.com//wine/grand-reserve/chardonnay

Like Kendall Jackson, La Crema was a pioneer, begun at a time during which few wineries in California were making Pinot Noir, and even fewer were doing so with a single-vineyard focus. A group of wine lovers ran the show back then using old-world techniques such as whole-cluster pressing and open-top fermentation. This was the basis for making fine wines, but with stellar fruit from exceptional vineyard sites. La Crema, like KJ took a different approach. 

That evolution took shape in the early 1990s when Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke instilled in the winery the artisan ethos and simple vision: “That Pinot Noir should be as popular as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and La Crema could be the vehicle to do that.”

Jackson and Banke purchased La Crema in 1993 and produced the first vintage in 1994. Two years later a new winery was constructed in the fog-shrouded, redwood-lined Russian River Valley appellation. Jackson’s daughters, Laura Jackson Giron and Jenny Jackson Hartford, along with his sons-in-law, Rick Giron and Don Hartford, took on leadership roles at La Crema: managing the day-to-day operations and representing the winery out in the market. 

Right after the new millennium, La Crema set out to nurture an estate vineyard program comprising the best cool-climate sites along the West Coast. The winery began working extensively with fruit from appellations including Sonoma Coast, Green Valley, Anderson Valley, and Los Carneros, extending its reach into Monterey in 2008, and then to Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 2012.

Over the next decade, the winery added wines from cool-climate vineyards in California and Oregon. In 2013 they bought the historic Sonoma Valley property owned by Richard and Saralee McClelland Kunde. They launched a three-year rehabilitation of the circa-1900 barn on the property and reopened it as the La Crema Estate at Saralee’s Vineyard in 2016. Today, this serves as their hospitality center and modern tasting room in downtown Healdsburg.

Since 2009, the winery operated under the expertise of Head Winemaker Craig McAllister overseeing production from Willamette Valley in Oregon to Sta. Rita Hills in California. McAllister samples grapes from every block of every vineyard, tasting each lot to craft the best wines possible, applying high-touch but low-intervention, something that’s a rarity for wineries at La Crema’s scale.

A New-Zealand native, Craig McAllister spent his first 20 years in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Lincoln University in New Zealand, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in viticulture and enology.

Craig pursued his passion for winemaking traveling from New Zealand to Australia, Chile and Cyprus before coming to the US and joining La Crema team in 2007 as the Harvest Enologist, and then full-time in 2009. He was promoted to head winemaker in 2017.

La Crema’s story follows the long legacy of chairman and proprietor, Barbara Banke and Jess Jackson, who discovered new vineyard terrains to establish and grow the brand. Today it is operated by the next generation Laura Jackson Giron and Jenny Jackson Hartford, Jess Jackson’s eldest daughters, along with Jenny’s husband. Katie Jackson and Julia Jackson, daughters of Barbara and Jess, and Hailey Jackson Hartford Murray, daughter of Jenny and Don, are the next generation to carry forward the family’s legacy and business going forward. 

Hailey Jackson Hartford Murray, granddaughter of the legendary Jess Jackson, and daughter of Jenny Jackson Hartford and Don Hartford, grew up in the iconic wine family, growing up amidst the century-old Zinfandel vines in her Sonoma backyard. After working harvests in France, Chile, and the Russian River Valley, she chose to leave her biology degree to dive fully into winemaking. She participated in harvests at Yangarra Estate in McLaren Vale, Australia, and Château Lassègue in Bordeaux. Today she works at La Crema and lives with her husband, Max Murray, and their two children where it all started: Sonoma County.

Sonoma County native Lisa Valtenbergs serves as Facility Winemkaer at La Crema. Inspired by Sonoma’s agricultural traditions, she got her degree in Agriculture Business with a minor in Viticulture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She studied international wine marketing at the University of Adelaide in South Australia and earned a Winemaker’s Certificate from UC Davis.

After stints at several wineries in California, Lisa re-joined Jackson Family Wines as a production enologist for Kendall-Jackson in 2004, and in 2006, she was promoted to assistant winemaker. In 2008, she became assistant winemaker for Stonestreet Estate Vineyards, then eventually winemaker in 2014, producing a string of six vintages of widely-acclaimed high elevation Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Following a year-long global travel sabbatical with a vintage in South Australia’s McLaren Vale, Lisa joined the La Crema winemaking team in July 2022. 

Lisa is joined by Winemaker Eric Johannsen, a native of Santa Cruz Mountains wine country in Northern California. After receiving undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Philosophy, with some restaurant work on the side, Eric began to pursue a Master of Science in Enology at the University of California, Davis.

Before joining the La Crema team in 2004, Eric worked at Mount Eden Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Cuvaison Estate Wines in Napa, and Williams Selyem Winery in Healdsburg. Eric has pursued understanding of wines from around the world visiting Argentina, Australia, and France, including the Grand Cru vineyards of Burgundy.

La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2023

Winemaker notes - “Nose of Meyer lemon, white flowers and subtle hints of oak. Golden peach and pineapple, are followed by flavors of graham cracker crust, with a vibrant and concentrated acidity that drives a lingering ‘

“Aromas of Meyer lemon, pear and white flowers are supported on the nose by subtle hints of oak. Followed by flavors of crisp apple, golden peach, and pineapple. On the palate, flavors of graham cracker pie crust add a vein of richness. Fleshy, vibrant, and concentrated, juicy yet a balanced acidity drives a lingering finish.”

Good QPR - (Quality Price Ratio) in this entry level every day Chardonnay. 

Straw colored, medium bodied, full round crisp fruit flavors of peach peak through the subdued lemon citrus background with notes of apple and hints of pineapple with pleasant balanced acidity on the lingering finish. 

RM 87 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=5091822

https://www.lacrema.com/

https://twitter.com/LaCremaWines

Gruaud Larose BYOB at Entourage DG

Gruaud Larose BYOB at Entourage DG

Returning from our Destin (FL) vacation home, we dined at our newest favorite go-to eatery, Entourage in nearby Downers Grove (IL). Planning to select their fabulous meat loaf or beef stroganoff entree, I took BYOB from our cellar this vintage aged premium Bordeaux Blend. 

I ordered what has become one of my favorite dishes, Wagyu Meatloaf Sundae - Truffle + Parmesan Whipped Potatoes, Brioche, Wild Mushroom Gravy,  Vegetable Succotash topped with Crispy Onions.

A mini horizontal tasting of sorts, following two other similar wines from this same vintage, I selected another 2005 vintage release of a premium label from the same appellation, region. 

I wrote about the other two labels in these two recent blogposts - Clos du Marquis with beef stroganoff, and Sociando Mallet with grilled beefsteak.

Like the Clos du Marquis, this is also from the St Julien appellation, the Gruaud Larose estate sitting less than three kilometers (1.6 miles) away. 

And as we did with Leoville Las Cases, we also visited the Gruaud Larose estate during our visit to the area in 2019, as featured in my blogpost at the time - A Visit to Château Gruaud-Larose St Julie Beychevelle Bordeaux. 

It was one of the key visits on our trip to the St Julien Appellation (AOC) in Bordeaux was Château Gruaud-Larose, a 2ème Cru Classé or 'second growth', one of fifteen Deuxièmes Crus (Second Growths) as classified in the original Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855.

During our spectacular week in St Julien, we visited Léoville du Marquis de Las Cases, producers of the recently tasted Clos du Marquis featured in these pages, Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou, and Léoville-Poyferré, three other second growth St Julien producers, and Fourth Growth  producers Château Beychevelle and Château Branaire-Ducru. As with all the others, we hold or have consumed a selection of Gruaud Larose dating back several decades to the early eighties. 

This label is one of my favorite Bordeaux and key holdings in our cellar collection consisting of more than a dozen vintages spanning three decades dating back to 1980 including the birth year vintages of each of our kids, 1981, 1982, 1985 and 1990. We hold many vintages in large format bottles including 3 liter double magnums which we served at daughter Erin's and son-in-law Johnny's wedding. 

This is a wine that demands, but then rewards holding for the long term and several years if not decades of cellaring. 

Château Gruaud Larose is one of the most historic estates in the Médoc dating back to 1725 when Abbot Gruaud bought just under 125 acres of land and planted vineyards. Since then, four families have succeeded one another at the head of Gruaud Larose: the Gruaud and Larose families, the Balguerie and Sarget families, the Cordier family and the Merlaut family.

In 1812, the property was sold to Pierre Balguerie, Baron Jean Auguste Sarget and David Verdonnet.

Shortly after the official 1855 Classification of the Medoc, control of the property was split further among their descendants, but remained intact until 1867 when it was split into Château Gruaud-Larose-Sarget (after the Baron Sarget) and Château Gruaud-Larose-Faure (after Adrien Faure, who married the heiress to a portion of the estate).

Baron Sarget constructed the château on the property in 1875. The other half of the original vineyard remained with the Bethmann descendants. The wines were bottled and sold as both Chateau Gruaud Larose Faure and Chateau Gruaud Larose-Bethmann at different times.

The two château were reunited by the Cordier family, who purchased the Sarget piece in 1917 and the Faure piece in 1935 and the château became a centerpiece of the Cordier properties along with Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey and Château Talbot.  

The Cordier family had been negotiants since 1886. They acquired the Bethmann family holding in 1935. This allowed the Cordier family to recreate the original estate and the wine was renamed Chateau Gruaud Larose.

In 1983 it was purchased by the Compagnie de Suez, and in 1993 it was sold to the French conglomerate, Alcastel Alstom. In 1997 it was sold to Jacques Merlaut who also owns a broad portfolio of Bordeaux properties including Chateau La Gurgue, Chateau Haut Bages Liberal, Chateau Citran, Chateau Ferriere and Chateau Chasse Spleen. 

The Gruaud Larose Chateau and estate sits just outside the village of St Julien-Beychevelle at the southern end of the appellation located on the plateau to the west of Château Beychevelle. on the opposite side of the D2 Route from Ducru Beaucaillou and Leoville Barton.

The vineyards of Gruaud Larose have the highest point of elevation on the Saint Julien plateau and has a distinctive 'tower' which serves visitors a vantage point to view the entire estate.

The 200 acres of vineyards are planted in the Bordeaux sanctioned varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon (65%), Merlot (25%), Cabernet Franc (8%) and Petit Verdot (2%) with old vines averaging 40 years.The vineyards are adjacent to those of Chateau Talbot and Chateau Branaire Ducru which have smaller parcels. The property is divided into 110 parcels with the best terroir found in the 2 sections that surround the chateau and that adjacent to the park.

Chateau Gruaud Larose is known for wines that are concentrated, complex, full-bodied and long-lived, best consumed after several years of aging, typically at least 12 years or more, and often reach their peak maturity and optimal drinking window after 15 years and often last 35 years or more after the vintage release.

Chateau Gruaud Larose on average produces close to 18,000 cases of Saint Julien wine each year.

The wine is fermented in stainless steel vats, and aged in oak barrels for 20-22 months, renewed annually in thirds. 35% new oak.

Château Gruaud Larose St Julien Grand Cru Classé 2005  

This release was rated 98 points by Jane Anson, 95 by The Wine Independent, and 94 by Wine Enthusiast.

Pundits wrote, “You have really had to be patient for this wine, but it is utterly spellbinding, and starting to show its potential.” And, “This is one of the best wines from Gruaud-Larose for several years.”

With a similar sensation of the near perfect 100 point wine we drank recently, this is more notable for its lack of blockbuster boldness, that knocks you over with big forward fruits, or some other highlight, rather, it’s remarkable for it’s lack of excessive notes and it’s flawless, and seamless polish with it’s harmonic integration.

Medium to deep garnet-brick in color. medium to full bodied, that signature St Julien finesse, elegant, polished, finely balanced black currant, black and hints of red berry fruits with notes of herbs, dark black chocolate, cassis, black tea, truffle, hints of cedar and spice with a smooth layer of graphite and crushed rocks with firm, fine-grained tannins on a long finish. 

RM 95 points. 

https://go.cellartracker.com/wine/224096

https://www.gruaud-larose.com/en/

https://entouragerestaurant.com/downers-grove/

Long Shadows Sequel Syrah w/ Focaccia & Murray’s Cheese

Long Shadows Sequel Syrah with Focaccia and Murray’s Cheese

Returning from a week of travel we settled in for a quiet evening to watch the latest session of ‘The Voice”, time-phase recorded for convenient viewing. 

Linda prepared a creative unique crescent foccacia bread with a medley of sweet and savory flavoring combinations including cheese, bacon, chocolate, apricot butter and raspberry spread. 

After baking, it was cut into bite size squares. 

We also had a selection of robust artisan cheeses, Widmer 6 year old aged cheddar, and Mango Ginger Stilton, and an aged Gruyère.

Two of these classic selections are from Murray's Cheese from Greenwich Village, New York City. We discovered the NYC cheese purveyor, Murray's wine and cheese bistro on Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village, a favorite eatery which we visited many times with son Alec and Vivianna when they lived in nearby Chelsea in Manhattan. How ironic or fortuitous that Murray's was acquired by the parent of our local grocer/marketer Marianno's and is now available here locally in the in-store cheese shop!

I pulled from the cellar one of our favorite sipping wines, a hearty robust premium Syrah (Shiraz). this classic Long Shadows Syrah from our club allocation cellar collection. 

Readers of these pages will note several such occasions where we have enjoyed artisan cheeses and robust red wines, here an earlier tasting similar to tonight, Long Shadows Sequel Syrah 2016, and another favorite - Blue Eye'd Boy and CDP for Italian Beef Dinner.

Tonight, this Sequel label is part of the Long Shadows Vintners Collection - a portfolio of wines, each crafted by a world renowned winemaker, noted for each particular varietal selection. We gained appreciation for the Long Shadows program during out visit to their tasting room during our our Seattle Culinary and Washington Wine Tour back in 2018 -  https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/08/long-shadows-cellars-feature-world.html.

This is the Syrah varietal member of the collection and was crafted by legendary John Duval who was winemaker for Australia’s iconic Penfolds Grange for 16 years. John Duval came to Washington State's Columbia Valley in 2003 as the “sequel” to his life’s work with Syrah. 

 

Long Shadows Vintners Collection Columbia Valley Sequel Syrah 2016

This is a fun wine that we enjoy and started collecting, not only because of the QPR - quality price ratio of these Washington State sourced wines, but also due to the extraordinary portfolio of legendary winemakers' handicraft. 

Lastly, this particular wine is sourced from vineyards of a distant family connection, our niece married into the Den Hoed family, boutique producers and vineyard owners and grape growers for Long Shadows and several other leading brands and labels. 

I took a rare, limited release Den Hoed on vacation last month to have with son Ryan BYOB for a special family dinner.    

 

This is sourced from Yakima Valley’s Boushey and Den Hoed Grandview Vineyards, comprised 50% of this blend which gives the 2016 Sequel its bright, vibrant character. Also, Bacchus Vineyard Syrah (25%), grown on a south-facing block planted in 1993, adds black fruit character and richness. And, a Shiraz clone from Sonnet Vineyard at the Benches brings blueberry notes to the wine, and a small amount of Red Mountain area Syrah adds to the wine’s dark, brooding character. Dionysus Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon provides added backbone. 

I featured another similar label sourced from this famous vineyard in this blogpost - Arnaut Avenida Boushey Vineyard Columbia Valley Syrah.

 

The blend is 93% Syrah and 7% Cabernet Sauvignon. 1,924 cases were produced.

This was rated 93 points by James Suckling, 91 by Wine & Spirits, and 90 by Wine Spectator.

Winemaker's notes: The 2016 Sequel Syrah has a dark, garnet color with enticing aromas of black fruits, sweet spice, fresh espresso and roasted meats. Expressive on the palate, this is a complex and layered wine with vibrant flavors of ripe figs, wild blackberries and a hint of olive tapenade that linger on the finish.

Dark inky purple colored, full bodied, concentrated full rich round flavors of blackberry, black currant and plum fruits with notes of black tea, bitter dark chocolate, spice, black olives and hints of black pepper and anise with moderate tannins on a lingering finish. 

RM 93 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3096199

 

https://longshadows.com/  

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@LongShadowsWine