Elan Vineyards Atlas Peak Merlot 1995

Elan Vineyards Atlas Peak Merlot 1995 

With son Alec back home from NYC, in Chicago for business this week, it prompted a gala family dinner. Linda prepared flank steak, potatoes, asparagus, french bread, salad, bacon wrapped dates, and Erin brought chocolate mousse which we had with fresh mixed berries.

I pulled this aged Bordeaux varietal from the cellar for the occasion which mapped perfectly with dinner especially the steak, bacon wrapped dates, chocolate and berries.

We discovered and acquired this Elan Napa Merlot during one of producer dinner winery tastings with Elan Vineyards Patrick & Linda Elliott-Smith during our Napa Valley Wine Experiences back in the nineties. We still hold a half dozen vintages of their Cabernet but this is our last Merlot from that era.

Consistent with and still close to last review five years ago. At that time I wrote "Surprisingly lots of life in this 14 year old!" That still holds at twenty but its showing its age and beginning to enter a later chapter of its tasting window. The profile and character show much the same. Blackish garnet colored with tinge of purple hues, medium bodied, bright tangy spicy black fruits, tones of floral and cedar, hints of leather, eucalyptus and moderate tannic creosote and hint of anise on the long lingering finish.

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=615841

Lewis Cellars Ethan's Syrah 2012

Lewis Cellars Ethan's Napa Valley Syrah 2012

We're big fans of the artwork of Lewis Cellars, partly because they focus on the varietals that we favor most, notably Cabernet, and they also produce this Syrah, another of our favorites. Also, we identify with their Hoosier connection to the Indy 500, and we respect and support their devotion to family, such as their labels named for their grandkids.

Indeed, we've adopted their Alec's Blend as a signature wine for our Son Alec. Lastly, we whimsically have fun with their 'L' labeling which we identify with our Linda, and two generations of Lucys, and we're all about labeled wines for special occasions and birth year wines.

We track the Lewis range of varietal releases from vintage to vintage.  This vintage release just appeared in distribution so we picked up a few bottles to try while it is still generally available. Tonight, for a casual evening at home we pulled from the cellar our favorite profile Syrah to try.

Its not as flavorful or polished as the earlier release (s) I've reviewed due to a the detracting aftertaste from a not-so-subtle metallic graphite tone on the finish. Moreover, the fruits are somewhat subdued relative to earlier brighter, more vibrant vintages.

Dark garnet purple colored - full bodied - rich moderately concentrated and nicely balanced and polished black and blue fruits are accented by a layer of mocha chocolate and vanilla offset by a somewhat hard tinnish graphite edge that detracts from the firm full finish. Still it warrants a high rating and is pleasant tasty sipping.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1889084

www.lewiscellars.com

Meiomi California Chardonnay 2013

Meiomi California Chardonnay 2013

Meiomi gets its name from the native American Indian word for “coast” from the Wappo and Yuki tribes who lived along the central/northern California coasts in the early days. The Meiomi wine label began in 2002 with their release of Pinot Noir, in a quest to deliver reasonably priced good QPR (quality price ratio) easy drinking wines that are approachable and ready to drink while young. I've written often and regularly in this blog about the challenges of finding such a Pinot Noir. I've tasted the label several times but have never been moved to write of the experience, until now.

Now Meiomi has applied such principles striving to produce a respectable high QPR affordable Chardonnay. I think they've come closer to achieving that goal with this Chardonnay than with their Pinots.
Both are blends from reputable vineyard sites in three different California regions - Sonoma County, Santa Barbara and Monterey Counties. Such a blend, lacking a sense of terrior or place, without predominance from one site or another, therefor warrants the 'California' designation for its origin, although they don't use such in their branding.

Meiomi is the handiwork of fifth generation offspring from the legendary Napa Valley winemaking family. Founder and winemaker Joseph Wagner is the son of  Chuck Wagner, winemaker of Caymus Vineyards, who is the son and co-founder with principles Charlie Wagner and Lorna Wagner who started Caymus Vineyards in the early seventies.

Joe's first wine enterprise was Belle Glos, named for Chuck Wagner's great-grandmother who first acquired the Napa Valley estate, followed by this label, Meiomi.

This is our first tasting of this label which is the second vintage release of Meiomi Chardonnay. This is surprisingly flavorful showing the essence of the Chardonnay descriptors of creamy and buttery in a nicely balanced pleasant drinking wine at a good QPR affordable pricepoint.

Butter colored, medium bodied, balanced acidity with tones of oak butter, hints of lychee fruit accented by citrus on a creamy finish. This is a blend of fruits that is 49% from Santa Barbara County, 30% Sonoma County and 21% Monterey County.

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/notes.asp?iWine=1854212

http://www.meiomiwines.com/

BBQ on the deck features medley of Red Wines

Late Spring BBQ on the deck features medley of Red Wines

A pleasant late spring evening on the deck at Bill and Beth's with Bob and Gloria, chargrilled burgers, caprese and summer salads with a medley of wines provided a delightful setting to watch the Blackhawks struggle to a game 4 playoff win in double OT.

Hazy Blur Barossa Shiraz 2004

This is a fun wine, great for easy sipping on the deck with burgers, but its not a simple sipper by any means with its robust full bodied fruit forward profile.

We've enjoyed the various labels from this producer on many occasions including a super New Year's eve (2009) horizontal brand tasting at Bill and Beth's, shown in the link here, and an earlier vintage of this same label just earlier this week. Interesting that this '04 was showing well and still holding its fruit nicely, compared to the '02 which was showing its age.

Dark garnet colored, full bodied, rich concentrated black and blue fruits with tones of spice, hints of vanilla, smoke and pepper.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=150186

Justin Paso Robles Iscosceles 2007

This may have been the best Isosceles I can remember. The hotter Paso Robles clime tends to add a harsh edge to the Bordeaux varietals at times but this release was quite nice - polished and balanced for smooth easy drinking.

Dark ruby colored, medium to full bodied, black berry and black cherry with a red berry tone, hints of sweet mocha and anise and a touch of sweet oak on the back palate with soft tannins provide easy approachable sipping. A blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc and 4% Merlot.

RM 90 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=786610

http://www.justinwine.com/




Constant Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 1998

We discovered and acquired this wine with Bill and Beth during our Napa Valley Diamond Mountain Wine Experience back in 2011, at the spectacular winery high atop Diamond Mountain.

Dark garnet colored, the medium body and softer more moderate profile of this wine render it more approachable for casual drinking although it is complex and sophisticated enough to stand up to foods for an elegant dinner. 

Bill's notes from an earlier tasting: "Clove, pepper and smoke on the nose. Medium bodied but the spice carries over on the palate along with plum, cassis and blackberry. Still ample but well integrated tannins. Update: evolved after 2 hours to reveal additional minerality with notes of leather and mocha."

A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, and 22% Cabernet Franc.

WCC 92 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=395853

Pichon Baron and Viader 'V' 1999 Flight

Château Pichon-Longueville Baron and Viader 'V' Highlight Birthday Surf-n-Turf Dinner

For a family gathering for a gala birthday dinner, L prepared the ultimate feast, lobster tails and filets of beef. To pair with the entree's we served Fritz Sonoma County Chardonnay and Pichon Baron Pauillac, one of my favorite reds. Following the Pichon we pulled from the cellar Viader 'V' Proprietary Red Blend from the same vintage for a mini horizontal comparison. Son Ryan brought from his cellar a Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape. To complete the dinner we had baked potatoes and sweet potatoes and haricut verts. We were joined by Ryan, Michelle, Erin, Johnnie and Marleigh, Lucy and Richie.

After dinner we had celebratory chocolate cake with ice cream. 

Bill and Beth joined later for the second round wines which also included a Groom Shiraz 2004 for the ladies while the men focused on the Bordeaux Blends.

Fritz Winery Sonoma County Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2008

Butter colored, medium bodied, slightly tart on opening with layer of acidity, tone of green apple, tropical fruits, hints of lemon and hints nutty almond. Tartness and acidity conflicted with lobster tail and lemon.

RM 86 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=772492






Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac Bordeaux 1999

Following the last couple UGC Bordeaux tastings where this wine was one of the standouts, I selected this from the cellar to showcase my birthday dinner. This is classic Bordeaux at its best. Even though we PNP - pop and poured this without decanting, it immediately resonated from the glass with classic Bordeaux bouquet and flavors of dark berry fruits, graphite, violets and hints of smoky tar, tobacco and cassis. Dark ruby  colored, medium bodied, polished and nicely balanced, soft and almost delicate for a Pauillac, the tongue coating fine tannins are silky smooth on the lingering finish. At sixteen, this is likely at its prime drinking now.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2339





Viader 'V' Proprietary Red Blend 1999

We acquired a couple vintages of this limited release flagship Bordeaux Blend at the winery during our 2008 Napa Valley Howell Mountain Wine Experience, and then several more vintages at auctions. We met winemaker and principle Delia Viader at the Viader tasting at the Chicago Lakeview  Binny's.

I recall from the tasting at the winery that this blend features a higher percentage of Petit Verdot accented by Cabernet Franc, to compliment the Cabernet Sauvignon, which manifests itself as more firm, greater backbone and more predominant lead pencil graphite tones propping up the black fruits.

Dark blackish garnet colored, medium bodied, this opened with an obtuse acidic edge of black cherry that took a half hour to shed. Over the course of the hour it gained complexity and depth with concentrated black fruits punctuated by pencil lead, creosote and tobacco leaf. The longer it was opened the more it took on a layer of sweetness with tones of dark chocolate/mocha and sweet oak with gripping tannins on the moderate finish. This too is likely at its apex now at fifteen years.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=25929

Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée 2003

Son Ryan brought this from his cellar for our celebration dinner.

This was tight and a bit closed with the fruits subdued and overtaken by a layer of black tea, tobacco leaf, with hints of creosote over the black berry fruits. This needs bold zesty bar-be-que to offset the tight firm black fruits and non-fruit layer.

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=19857










Groom Barossa Valley Shiraz 2004

Fruit for this wine comes from vineyards directly adjacent to the renowned Penfolds Kalimna vineyard - source for their legendary Grange Shiraz, the Groom Kalimna Bush Block was planted with Shiraz in 1997 and produced its first crop in the 1999 vintage, and from another reputable quality Barossa vineyard, the Fechner Vineyard, which is home to 50 year-old vines.

This was fuller and richer than I remember from other vintages, dark garnet colored, full bodied with concentrated blackberry and black raspberry fruits accented by ripe plum, turning to a layer of caramel/mocha, vanilla and spice with hints of tar and leather on a chewy gritty tannin lingering finish. 

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=113265

http://www.groomwines.com/

Hazyblur Baroota South Australia Shiraz 2002

Hazyblur Baroota South Australia Shiraz 2002

Following yesterday's tasting of Hazyblur Adelaide Plains South Australia Shiraz 2002, and the realization it is time to drink these '02's, we pulled this other last remaining bottle to take BYOB to Angeli's Italian, our favorite neighborhood trattoria. As written before, we're dining there less often since they raised their prices and started charging a $20 corkage fee which we feel is a too high. This is the same fee we paid at Flemings Prime Steakhouse in Chicago recently, for vastly superior wine service - the difference akin to a prop vs a jet.

This is the last vintage that showed the old label packaging/branding (shown below), before switching in 2003 to the new branding with the larger more modernistic stylish larger graphic label scheme - gold for Baroota and McLaren Vale, green for Kangaroo Island, as shown in photo (left) from our New Year's eve horizontal tasting in 2009.

As with the 2002 yesterday, its time to drink as this label too has entered the last phase of its drinking window, with the fruit taking on a more ripe raisiny character and the berry and plum flavors starting to give way to non fruit tones of leather, wood and smoke or tar.

Taking into account the slight diminution of the fruits as described above, tonight this showed consistency with our last tasting which was in 2009. Full bodied, super ripe plum, blackberry and currants with hints of and hint of cedar, leather and licorice on the full firm lingering finish. Still this showed better than the Adelaide Plains from the same vintage last evening.

RM 89 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=25284

Hazyblur South Australia Adelaide Plains Shiraz 2002

Hazyblur South Australia Adelaide Plains Shiraz 2002

We have several vintages of this label, times several labels from this producer, who generally provides high QPR tasty easy drinking.

This is the oldest in our cellar and oldest when tasted. It wasn't as concentrated, smooth, balanced or polished as my earlier rating of the 2001 vintage, or of the 2003 vintage might indicate. Setting aside the fact these are three different vintages, when I analyze those reviews, they were 94 points at 2 years of age, 92 at eight years of age, 91 points at ten years of age, and now 87 points at fourteen years of age. Is there a message or a trend here? I would say so, the tasting window on Cellartracker says drink by 2009 ... drink up ... It was great with pizza in any event.

The 2001 at fourteen is garnet colored, medium bodied with bright cherry and black berry giving way to tones of cedar and leather with hints of green pepper and tar returning to a bit of cedar on the lingering finish.

RM 88 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=7295

Eyrie Robert Morris Special Dinner and Neiman Cellars Red Blend

Eyrie Robert Morris Special Dinner and Neiman Cellars Red Blend Punctuate Wright Plus Weekend

This weekend was the annual Wright Plus House Walk of historic homes in suburban Chicago. The event is sponsored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust which owns and operates the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, and manages and offers tours of the famous Robie House in Hyde Park, and the Rookery Building and Emil Bach house in Chicago.

The highlight of this years event centered on the showcase Avery Coonley House in Riverside (shown left).

As part of my work as a volunteer docent/interpreter for the Trust, after working the preview night tour at the Coonley house, we headed to Oak Park to visit the FLW Balch house. We made arrangements to dine at Eyrie Restaurant, the outlet of the Robert Morris College Institute of Culinary Arts. Tonight they offered a special price fix four course dinner prepared by two alumni chefs, Brad Hindsley and Rachel Murphy, Owner and Executive Chef and Pastry Chef of Spire Farm-to-Fork Restaurant in LaPorte, Illinois.

We naturally are wine centered in our dining choices so this was the perfect occasion to pull a prized bottle from our cellar since BYOB is the standard at Eyrie. To accompany the filet of boeuf entree we brought a Neiman Cellars Napa Valley Red Blend 2004.

The Dinner

(Pictured at bottom)
Amuse Bouche 
First - Smoked Trout Pate, Pickled Vegetables, Crusty Bread, Saxony Cheese
Second - Duck Confit Risotto, Spring Peas, Morel Mushrooms, Parmesan Cheese
Third - Porcini Crusted Fillet, Grilled Asparagus, New Potato Hash, Bearnaise
Finale - Rhubarb Sorbet, Polenta Cake, Ginger - Orange Jam, Candied Orange
After - Dark chocolate cookie



The Wine

Neiman Cellars Napa Valley Red Blend 2004

This exceeded our expectations - this is the best Neiman we have had to date from the half dozen vintages we hold in our cellar. I forgot how good this wine is until I went back and read an earlier review. It is like the 2002 which we reviewed in an earlier blogpost. 

This wine was a perfect accompaniment to the smoked trout, the duck confit with morel mushroom and the parmesan cheese, the filet of boeuf, and even the sorbet with orange, and finally the chocolate cake.

This comes packaged in a heavy oversized almost magnum weight bottle. 

Dark garnet colored, medium to full bodied, it opened a bit hot, but this burned off (no pun intended) after a third of an hour ... 

This tasted like a vibrant expressive Bordeaux, full forward complex berry fruits accented by floral, leather, tobacco leaf, some slightly earthy tones and long lingering notes of cedar with a smooth polished tannin finish that resonates with silky floral cedar mouthfeel long after tasting. Blend of equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

RM 92 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=914199 

The special dinner and perfect wine selection provided a delightful evening out and a wonderful wine and dine experience.  Eyrie is a jewel and worth checking out for a BYOB experience. When I can get my hands on Linda's smartphone/camera, I'll post pictures of our dinner courses and restaurant.

www.eyrierestaurant.com 
www.spirefarmtofork.com


The Dinner 
Amuse Bouche - Ginger and berry
First - Smoked Trout Pate, Pickled Vegetables, Crusty Bread, Saxony Cheese
Second - Duck Confit Risotto, Spring Peas, Morel Mushrooms, Parmesan Cheese
Third - Porcini Crusted Fillet, Grilled Asparagus, New Potato Hash, Bearnaise
Finale - Rhubarb Sorbet, Polenta Cake, Ginger - Orange Jam, Candied Orange
After - Dark chocolate cookie 

Amuse Bouche - Ginger and berry

First - Smoked Trout Pate, Pickled Vegetables,
Crusty Bread, Saxony Cheese

Second - Duck Confit Risotto, Spring Peas,
Morel Mushrooms, Parmesan Cheese

Third - Porcini Crusted Fillet, Grilled Asparagus,
New Potato Hash, Bearnaise

Finale - Rhubarb Sorbet, Polenta Cake,
Ginger - Orange Jam, Candied Orange