Signorella Hope's Cuvee at Marco's Kitchen

Signorella Hope's Cuvee at Marco's Kitchen La Grange (IL) Dinner

Friday night datenight, we dined at chic Marco's Kitchen in nearby suburban LaGrange (IL). Expecting to order seafood I took BYOB from our cellar a ultra-premium Napa Chardonnay. 

Marco's is a stylish, chic, trendy casual and comfortable dining experience with imaginatively crafted and artfully presented food, a basic but sufficient carefully selected winelist including WBTG offerings, with a reasonable BYOB policy, and professional friendly attentive service. The broad menu offers a selection of seafood dishes as well as duck, lamb, pork and beef entrees, with a range of salads and starter dishes.

We ordered from the menu the Chicken Liver, Shitake Mushroom Cognac Mousse Pate that was delicious, the highlight of the evening for me from our previous dining experience there last winter. To accompany this, I ordered from the WBTG selection (Wines By the Glass) the Böen California Pinot Noir from Joseph Wagner (son of) of Caymus fame, which was an ideal pairing.

Linda loved the Gezpacho with shrimp as her salad course. I ordered the Cous Cous & Orange Arugula Salad with dried mango, cucumber, orange, tomatos and pomegranate ginger vinagrette (above).

For our dinner entree we shared the Pan-Seared Mahi Mahi and Gulf Shrimp with Basmati Rice, Coconut Lime and Basil Broth with Crushed Macademias and blanched asparagus. 

 
The salad and seafood dishes were perfectly accented, paired with the Signorello Napa Chardonnay.

Signorello Hope's Cuvee Napa Valley Chardonnay 2016

As posted in an earlier blogposts, we discovered and acquired (the then current release vintage 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."

(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.

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.

Golden colored, full bodied, rich and concentrated caramelized citrus, honeysuckle, white peach, pear and melon notes with a touch of almond and brioche.

RM 92 points.

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

https://www.signorelloestate.com/

https://www.marcoskitchen.com/

Force Majeure Parabellum Coulée Rhone Blend 2018

Force Majeure Parabellum Coulée Columbia Valley Rhone Blend 2018 

For pairing with BBQ rib dinner we opened this big Syrah based Rhone blend from our wine club allocation shipments from producer Force Majeure.

We discovered, tasted and acquired this wine during our Force Majeure Vineyards Site Visit and Tasting as part of our Walla Walla Wine Experience 2018. We first met Force Majeure winemaker Todd Alexander and marketing, distribution and branding exec Carrie Alexander during the Chicago stop of their promotion tour in 2016 when we hosted them at Italian Village in Chicago. Since then we've acquired a respectable collection of Force Majeure wines, hence, they were one of our shortlist priority visits when we planned our Washington State, Columbia Valley wine trip.

Our visit to the Force Majeure estate vineyard in the Walla Walla Rocks AVA, was a highlight of our visit to the region, hosed by Todd's wife, Carrie Alexander who manages marketing and operations. Since then, they have purchased property at and planted vineyards at the North Fork of the Walla Walla river and have released their own Paxsa Brand and labels. Both Force Majeure and Paxsa brands focus on Rhone as well as Bordeaux varietals. 

Linda loved the sister label to this bottle, Force Majeure Parvata Red Blend 2015, that we took to Duck Inn Chicago unique dining experience BYOB which was a standout that evening. That bottle was another label that discovered and acquired during our Walla Walla appellation and estate visit. 

We tasted the next most recent vintage of this label, the Force Majeure Parabellum Coulée Red Blend 2019 for a special dinner last fall with son Alec. 

Tonight we opened the Force Majeure Parabellum Coulée Rhone Blend 2018.

This is from the Parabellum brand, the second-tier of Force Majeure wines, yet still produced with care to reflect the varieties and terroir and be approachable for early consumption and gratification, without constraints on blending. Parabellum and the rest of the brand are intended to "provide an opportunity to savor an authentic wine of distinction at a great value." To that end, Parabellum wines are unrestrained imaginative blends of both Bordeaux and Rhone varietals and offer good QPR.

While many of these blends are called GSM, a reference to common blend of Rhone varietals Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, the blend of this release, contains northern and southern Rhone varietals, but is 90% Syrah, and 10% Mourvedre, a blend much to our liking since we're lovers of Syrah, one of our favored varietals. 

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/10/force-majeure-vineyards-site-visit-and.html

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2659538

https://forcemajeurevineyards.com/wp/wines/parabellum/

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3979164 

Force Majeure Parabellum Coulée Columbia Valley Rhone Blend 2018

This is sourced from Force Majeure Estate Vineyards from both the Rocks region of Walla Walla and the estate vineyard on Red Mountain, from the Red Mountain AVA, in the Columbia River valley in central Washington State.

As its name suggests, it is actually neither a mountain nor is it composed of red earth. The area’s springtime proliferation of cheatgrass, which has a reddish color, actually gives the area the name, "Red" Mountain. 

The appellation is an anticline of the Yakima fold belt, a series of geologic folds that define a number of viticultural regions in the surrounding area on the eastern edge of Yakima Valley with slopes facing southwest towards the Yakima River. The terroir of soils, sunlit slopes exposure, and climate are ideal for the ripening of grapes. 

The steep upper slopes of Red Mountain, sit at 960 to 1,230 feet elevation and produce some of the most mineral-driven, tannic and age-worthy red wines of Washington. It is just about the hottest appellation with normal growing season temperatures commonly reaching above 90F. The soil is particularly poor in nutrients and has a high pH, which results in significantly smaller berry sizes compared to varietal norms. The low juice to skin ratio in smaller berries combined with the strong, dry summer winds, leads to higher tannin levels in Red Mountain grapes.

Red Mountain is relatively new to the fine wine scene. Force Majeure were pioneers in planting some of the very first vineyards on the steep, upper slopes of Red Mountain. The first wine pioneers to the region initially walked the land in the summer of 1972. They found a gently sloping sagebrush covered hillside that had been largely overlooked by both early settlers and local indigenous peoples. There were no roads, wells, power- lines or any other signs of civilization. 

Planted in those early days focused on carefully matching the optimal varietal and clonal selections, trellising and irrigation to the nine distinct soil types formed by the ancient Missoula floods, winds and volcanic activity. The result was a vineyard articulated into many small "micro-blocks," to meet the management demands of this unique and dynamic site. Due to the rough, rocky nature of the acreage and elevations ranging from 960 to 1,230 feet, mechanization is virtually impossible in the upper portion of Force Majeure, requiring true "farming by hand," while the lower blocks of the vineyard are comprised of deep, well-drained Warden soils. 

The Red Mountain AVA is the smallest appellation in the state. AVA status was achieved in 2001. Red Mountain now hosts approximately fifty-four vineyards covering more than 2300 acres, making Red Mountain one of the most densely planted AVA's with 57% of the 4,040 acres of the AVA currently planted. 

The climate and terroir boasts approximately 3,200 degree days but with significantly higher total acids than are typically found in this warm a region. It has 2 hours more sunlight per day during the growing season than Napa Valley and receives only five to six inches of annual rainfall a year.

The terroir coupled with the diversity of the vineyards results in versatility to grow a variety of fruit characterized by intensity, depth and concentration, complex flavors and fine tannins. The reds of the area tend to express dark black and blue fruit, deep concentration, complex textures, high levels of tannins and as previously noted, have good aging capabilities.

The producer website says this is a blend of 86% Syrah 14% Mourvèdre, wine reviewer Jeb Dunnuck writes its is a blend of 93% Syrah and 7% Mourvèdre. As shown above, the rear label of our bottle says 90% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre.

Dark inky purple plum colored, full bodied, round, textured, black berry, black raspberry and hints of blueberry fruits with cassis, spice, hints of pepper and black tea with notes of floral violets, Red Mountain minerality, and a firm full tangy tannin laced lingering finish. 

RM 93 points.  

 

This label release was awarded 93-95 points by Jeb Dunnuck. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3612601

https://twitter.com/ForceMVineyards 

https://forcemajeurevineyards.com/ 

@ForceMVineyards

 

Zaca Mesa Clydesdale Santa Barbara Santa Ynez Syrah 2016

 Zaca Mesa Clydesdale Santa Barbara County Santa Ynez Valley Syrah 2016

For midweek sipping with artisan cheeses and fresh fruits and nuts we opened this Santa Barbara County Syrah from the Santa Ynez Valley. We discovered, tasted and acquired this wine during our Zaca Mesa Winery and Vineyards Visit as part of our Santa Barbara County Santa Ynez, Santa Maria Valley Wine Experience last month. We joined their wine club and received this bottle as part of our first inaugural allocation shipment.

Zaca Mesa is a family and close knit group owned and operated winery with a storied history in Santa Barbara County. This label, Clydesdale Zaca Mesa Vineyards Syrah, pays homage to co-founder John Cushman's family’s historical middle name, Clydesdale.

I wrote in my detailed account of Zaca Mesa and our estate vineyard and winery visit about Cushman and a group of friends purchasing the land that would become Zaca Mesa in 1972. At that time, it was only the third winery to exist in Santa Barbara County. Through much experimentation to determine the best grape varietal (s) to match with the terroir - terrain, climate, soil, elevation, exposure - all that attributes of a site, they planted their first block of Syrah in 1978 (known as the Black Bear Block). 

Syrah emerged as the 'flagship' varietal of Zaca Mesa with over half of the vineyards eventually planted to the varietal, along with the other Rhone varietals that became predominant in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Zaca Mesa Syrah reflects the vineyard sites, producing fruit with medium acidity since Zaca Mesa is situated at the high elevations of the mesas in the valley at altitudes about 1,500 feet above sea level. That, along with the cool Pacific Ocean breezes that follow the transverse aligned mountain ranges and valleys that are perpendicular to the ocean shore, allows the grapes to mature and retain their all important acidity.

Producer notes about this label: The 2016 Clydesdale is a superb expression of Syrah from our estate vineyard. The core of black fruits are intertwined with notes of violet, tobacco, and leather. The voluminous texture cascades along your palate, carrying flavors of red plum, blackberry, and hints of toasted spice. This wine is impressive with depth and character, perfectly suited to age in your wine cellar for many years to come, or enjoy upon release.

Winemaker Bryden says, "I like a balance between strength and elegance," she said. "A core of black and red fruits mixed in with some earth and spice and structure as well. Part of the beauty of syrah is the structure of the wine. If you can get all that into one glass, you're doing a good job."

For this particular wine, harvest took place at the end of August and beginning of September 2016.

"It was a great vintage," Bryden said. "This wine is made of multiple blocks. With syrah, we have nine different clones of syrah on the property—different vine age, different root stalks—so they tend to ripen at different stages. That's where the range comes from."

This Syrah is sourced from five different blocks (along with a few sub blocks) from a south facing hillside of the vineyard. 

"I think the tannin profile is a little softer," she said. "We aged it a month longer than some of our reserves, and there is just a nice viscosity to the wine."

This was dark blackish garnet colored, more medium than full bodied, somewhat subdued core of black berry and plum fruits are accented by notes of cassis, tobacco, black tea, hints of soy and caramel on a moderate smooth finish. 

RM 91 points. 

 

Wine Enthusiast awarded this 94 points while Antonio Galloni of Parkers Wine Advocate gave it 93 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3249008

 

https://www.zacamesa.com/

Zaca Mesa Winery Twitter - @ZacaMesa_Wine

First Drop "Mother's Milk" Shiraz 2020

First Drop "Mother's Milk" Shiraz 2020

For a Sunday night dinner we ordered in pizza and opened this Barossa Valley Shiraz. We picked up this bottle from the email promotion from Wine Disount Center, vinchicago.com - easy and simple since they deliver curbside pickup just down the road from our house. 

From the vinchicago promotion mailer: "Recently named "Value Pick of the Week" by Wine Spectator, the 2020 Mother’s Milk is not just bold, but also impressively elegant. From 1998 through 2006-ish, Australian Shiraz was the hottest category in wine. This one shows that they still deserve your attention. There is so much to like about this wine. You will find yourself quickly pouring a second glass!"

This is from producer First Drop, founded in 2004, they produce single vineyard shiraz's sourced from distinct vineyard sites in the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and Barossa.

They operate out of the First Drop Wines Cellar Door & Tapas Bar at The Home Of The Brave, housed within the walls of the historic striking 1930’s built distillery on the Provenance Barossa Precinct (previously the site of Penfold’s winery).

They have a broad portfolio, perhaps best known for their premium "Eden Valley" series sourced from the higher elevation above the Barossa Valley that "embrace the funk to make even more diverse expressions of Syrah that speak of their unique sites", and their ultra-super premium "Fat of the Land" series of Shiraz' that "showcase the sub regions of the Barossa, and the contrasting styles of Shiraz that can be made (t) here. One can make such varied expressions of Shiraz, due to the different meso-climates of each subregion, the elevation range, and the myriad of soil types that are to be found throughout the Barossa." 

They also produce some super ultra-premium labels of Cabernet Sauvignons from McLaren Vale, 'Dragon's Blood' and 'Votum', they cite as an ode to the Penfolds style, rich, intensely structured McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon, both promoted with a release price of $350AU. 

First Drop "Mother's Milk" Barossa Valley Shiraz 2020 

This release was awarded 94 Points by James Suckling and 92 Points by Wine Spectator

Nice easy sipping with pizza, I wouldn't save it for a grilled beefsteak dinner lacking elegance and polish. But hey, screw top simple and enjoyable pleasant sipping with a great QPR - Quality Price Ratio!

Dark garnet purple colored, medium full bodied, full round, dark plum, blackberry and black raspberry fruits with bramble, pepper, earthy spice, black tea and what Suckling describes as slate, with tangy acidity on a moderate firm tannin laced lingering finish.

 RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3996033

https://www.firstdropwines.com/

https://twitter.com/firstdropwines

@firstdropwines

Château du Tertre Grand Cru Classe Margaux 2011

Château du Tertre Grand Cru Classe Margaux 2011

With left over grilled ribeye beefsteak from the other night, I opened this classic Left Bank Bordeaux for dinner food and wine pairing. 

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. 

 

Château du Tertre Grand Cru Classe Margaux 2011

 

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.

 

Dense dark garnet purple colored, medium bodied, floral notes with black berry 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

Château Gruaud Larose, St Julien, Bordeaux 2010

Château Gruaud Larose, St Julien, Bordeaux 2010

The family celebrated my decade significant birthday with a special treat, attending the greatest spectacle in racing, the Indianapolis 500 together, one of the biggest most thrilling sporting events in the world. Coming out of the Covid disruptions, this year was back in full swing with more than 300,000 race fans attending. 

Its been years since we attended the race and we were amazed at how the speeds have increased. In the attached videos, look at how incredibly fast they go these days, reaching speeds above 230 mph, and, the thrill of them all coming into the pits at once when there is a yellow flag due to a crash. 

We had four hotel rooms in Lafayette the night before where the grandkids partied with their cousins in the pool and the adults relaxed with some wine after dinner. 

But back to the wine .... Ryan brought from home this 2010 St Julien Bordeaux from a case that I acquired and we shared/split together. 

Château Gruaud Larose, St Julien, Bordeaux 2010 

Our visit to and tour of Château Gruaud-Larose estate, winery and vineyards was one of the highlights of our St Julien appellation trip in 2019.

We hold more than a dozen vintages of this wine in regular and large formats dating back to our kids' birthyear vintages in 1981, '82, '85 and 1990. 

This vintage release was awarded  96 points by James Suckling, 95 points by Wine Enthusiast, 94 points by Decanter and Vinous and 93 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator. It also was awarded 92 points by Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar. 

A classic Gruaud Larose and St Julien wine, this begged for a grilled beefsteak and potatoes accompaniment. At twelve years this is just starting to hit its stride coming across as still youthful and probably could use another decade to settle in and more fully integrate.

Dark garnet/plum/purple colored, medium bodied with full round concentrated complex dark berry fruits, note of gaminess initially turning to accents of tobacco, cigar box, leather and garrigue spice with earth and underbrush and finishing with cassis and licorice with firm grainy tannins and fresh tangy acidity on a long finish.

RM 93 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1123336

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

 

Tensley Wines Tensley Vineyard SBC Syrah

Tensley Wines Tensley Vineyard Santa Barbara County Syrah 2020

During our tour of the Santa Maria Valley Foxen Canyon Wine Trail we were advised by one of the other producers to check out Tensley Wines. We drove by the Tensley Vineyard and then visited the hospitality tasting room downtown Los Olivos. We were so impressed with their wines that we joined their wineclub and subsequently received our first shipment which included this label, which we did not taste during our tasting room wine flight. 

For a grilled tomahawk beefsteak dinner, with grilled asparagus, mashed potatoes and ceasar salad, we opened this special Syrah that we just received in our wineclub allocation shipment from Tensley Wines. We were anxious to try this label since we did not get a chance to taste it during our visit to the producer's hospitality tasting room downtown Los Olivos.

Tensley Wines Tensley Vineyard Santa Barbara County Syrah 2020

This vineyard was planted in 2011 in Tensley's backyard in Los Olivos.

Winemaker notes: "Talk about meticulous farming! Being in our backyard this vineyard gets a lot of love, probably to much! All of the time spent in the vineyard here results in a rustic savory style with amazing texture, while toeing the line of finesse. Tiny berries and low yields make this wine dark in color and tannic in the mouth. Not a wine for the meek. If you plan to drink this wine in the next 3-4 years give it an hour to open up so you get the full experience of the texture and complexities."

This release was awarded 93 points by Jeb Dunnuck and 93 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.

This is the classic big bold Syrah style that we love. Deep dark inky purple colored, full bodied, rich, round, concentrated black currant fruits with notes of anise, menthol, clove spice and wet earth with firm tannins and tangy acidity on the lingering finish. 

RM 93 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4140592

https://tensleywines.com/

https://twitter.com/tensleywine

@tensleywine

 

Hugh Hamilton Black Sheep Shiraz Saperavi

Hugh Hamilton Dark-Arts Black-Ops South-Australia Shiraz Saperavi 2017

For our family gathering for my birthday bbq, we also opened this South Australia McLaren Vale Shiraz. I found this interesting blend at Binny's, Chicagoland's big box beverage super store and picked up a couple bottles to try. It proved to provide good QPR - Quality Price Ratio with its $22 pricepoint. There were 1,200 cases producer of which only 180 were imported.

This is from Hugh Hamilton Wine, a family owned producer for six generations spanning 180 years. Current owners Hugh Hamilton and his daughter Mary Hamilton are the 5th and 6th generation of the Australian Hamilton wine dynasty that stretches back over 180 years. In 1837 Hugh’s great great grandfather Richard emigrated to the new colony of South Australia and planted Australia’s first wine grapes starting perhaps South Australia’s first wine dynasty that continues to this day.

Before emigrating to South Australia, Hugh’s great, great grandfather Richard was a tailor on the high streets of Dover, England. He was also known to be engaged in smuggling contraband Bordeaux from France. Hamiltons speculate his dark secret caught up with him because Richard, with his wife Anne and eight children packed up and left the country, emigrating to Australia where they settled on 80 acres of remote rural land. There he planted what may have been the region's first wine grapes. 

Hence, the Hamilton brand plays on the sordid past of a 'black sheep' character. 

I've written often in these pages about the Australian sense of humor and some of their whimsical branding and labels (Mollydooker). This label is one of those whimsical fun play on words labels: "As with all families one is a Black Sheep and (co-owner-producer) Hugh is it. Hugh Hamilton wines are far from ordinary. Hugh has a clear vision about the way he sees wines and he produces accordingly. Hugh’s legacy continues as Mary is now the CEO of the family winery and brings insight, energy and enormous talent to this exciting winery." 

The Black Sheep branding carries over to their Wine Club, the Black Sheep Club, where they offer special and limited production labels, "and our premium range of eclectic wines designed by the family themselves to be of an outstanding quality".

Today, Hugh and Mary produce a own unique trio of wines, a Grenache, a Shiraz and a Pedro Ximenez in honour of their forebear, Richard Hamilton along with this interesting Red Blend, 60% Shiraz and 40% Saperavi. I admit I had never heard of our encountered this varietal before and knew nothing of it. 

The Saperavi grape roots (pun intended) trace back to Georgia where the name translates literally "paint, dye, give color". It is a hardy variety able to handle extremely cold weather and thus is popular for growing in cold climate inland regions.

It is the most predominant varietal in Georgia and is also found grown throughout the region east of Europe in Russia, Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan. It is the basis for the region's most popular wines. It has also been imported and is grown in the Niagara and Finger Lakes regions of New York State and the Erie region of Northeast Ohio. 

 

Seperavi produces an extractive wine with a characteristic bouquet, a harmonious taste, and pleasant astringency. Saperavi grapes produce very deep red wines that are suitable for extended aging. It has the potential to produce high alcohol levels, and is often blended with lighter varieties. 

 

Hamilton vineyards are on the north-eastern fringe of the broader McLaren Vale region in the Blewitt Springs sub-region. There the higher elevation and distance inland from the sea have a cooler climate and later-ripening than the main region, hence the use of Separvi is found in conjunction with Shiraz. 

 

The Hugh Hamilton ‘Black Sheep’ vineyards are planted mainly to Shiraz, Grenache, Saperavi and some Cabernet, each of which is divided into smaller sub-blocks according to the patchwork of soils. Many of the vines are what Hamilton calls ‘Old’ Shiraz, differentiated from the ‘Ancient’, with vineyards dating back well over 60 years old. The Cabernet date back as much as 25 years.

Hugh Hamilton Dark-Arts Black-Ops South-Australia Shiraz Saperavi 2017

This is sourced from the Church Vineyard which stands east of the winery surrounding on three sides the old Bethany Chapel for which it is named. It is planted to Shiraz, Saperavi, Merlot and Sangiovese. The soil is alluvial as the vineyard is an ancient creek bed  with a deep, winter-only creek in a distinct very shallow gully which cuts across the Merlot and Shiraz vineyards; and at the western end has a band of soil which is shallow and tough, with bits of quartz and scattered ironstone. The rows run east/west, which provides maximum shade from the sun during heatwave conditions.

Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast both rated this label 88 points. 

 

Dark inky purple colored, full bodied, muscular, rich blackberry and black plum fruits are accented with herbal notes of black olive, bell pepper, black pepper and hints of spice and mint with a full firm lingering finish. 

 

RM 89 points. 

 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3303145 

https://hughhamiltonwines.com.au/product/black-ops-shiraz-saperavi-2020/

https://hughhamiltonwines.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

Deci-significant Old Man's Birthday Wine

Deci-significant Old Man's Birthday Wine

For my deci-significant birthyear birthday celebration, I pulled from the cellar this aged vintage aptly-named top rated super premium Barossa Valley Shiraz for the occasion. 

This is the flagship wine of Kaesler, one of the traditional old vine family names of the Barossa Valley, South Australia with vineyards dating back to 1893. 

The first owners of the Kaesler vineyards were Silesian pioneers who came to the Barossa Valley in the 1840s and took up 96 acres in 1891. By 1893 they had planted the entire acreage with Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro (Mourvedre) and White Hermitage vines. Some of the gnarled dry-grown Shiraz still remain and provide the backbone of a family of intense wines.

The Kaesler family first purchased several blocks 1893 and operated the property until 1986. In those early days, much of the fruit was sold to Seppeltsfield for port and sherry production.

By 1917 with grape sales flagging, various blocks were pulled up and replanted to orchards including apricot, peach and plums. The remaining vines mostly consisted of red and fortified varieties, some Grenache added in the 1930’s and more Shiraz planted in the 60’s and 70’s. These plantings account for the celebrated aged Shiraz produce to today.

In 1944 the family holdings were divided between the three Kaesler brothers, two selling off their properties, but Arthur Kaesler (the youngest brother) held on to the home block converting orchards back to vineyard and maintaining its old vines. Kaesler sold the property in 1986 to private owners who continued to sell the fruit to local wineries including Penfolds, Seppelt and Orlando. 

At the time, the Kaesler vineyards consisted of over 70% red wine vines, all 40 years of age or more.  

Winemaker Reid ‘Boz’ Bosward heard of the remarkable qualities of this special vineyard when he managed to get his hands on some of the grapes and produce a special batch of the first Old Bastard Shiraz in 1998. 

In 1999, Bosward seized the opportunity to become the head of the new Kaesler family property when he and his partners bought Kaesler, becoming the third owners of the property. Teaming with Swiss banker Edourd Peters, they formed a syndicate and purchased and consolidated two of the three original historic old vine Kaesler Blocks, and Old Bastard was born.

The revered 2.5 acre (12 row) vineyard consists of 125 year old vines that sit just outside the back door of the winery, Kaesler Cellar Door; an old brick horse stable now is a private tasting room, an old cow shed now the Kaesler Kitchen restaurant, and Ernst Kaesler’s old house, now the Kaesler Cottages B&B.

One of the most famous patches of Shiraz vines in the Barossa, sourced from a unique clone of French Rhone Valley Shiraz (now extinct in France) they produce a unique flavour characteristics and distinctive profile that makes the Old Bastard what it is.  It has become recognized as one of Australia’s most highly regarded Shiraz wines, consistently rated as one of the Barossa’s benchmark Shiraz wines and is highly sought after by wine collectors around the world.

Consistent wine making since 1998, focusing on meticulous vineyard management and using the highest quality Burgundian oak for 12 to 19 months depending on the character of the vintage, Kaesler Shiraz is bottled “au naturel”, with no fining and filtration. The result is fruit driven to the core, elegant with density and richness, savoury muscular tannins and underlying oak.

Kaesler "Old Bastard" Barossa Valley South Australia Shiraz 2005  

 

The whimsical label features a distinctive Ralph Steadman caricature.  

 

My records show we also drank the 2001 vintage of this label for my birthday back in 2004 and then again at our OTBN event in 2013 (Open That Bottle Night,)

 

This '05 release was awarded 98 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 95 points by Wine Enthusiast and WS Forum, 94 points from Wine Spectator.

 

Dark inky purple, full bodied, round, full throttled, tight, ultra-concentrated thick forward raisiny spicy blackberry and blueberry fruits with with notes of bacon fat, bramble, game, licorice, pepper, cedar and spice with firm long lasting tannins on the finish. 

RM 93 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=428470

 

https://kaesler.com.au/kaesler-old-bastard/

 

https://twitter.com/kaeslerwines

 

Suzette's Creperie Wheaton

Suzette's Creperie Wheaton for authentic French cuisine in intimate casual setting

Thursday night out, we dined at Suzette's Crêperie in nearby Wheaton (IL), one of the few authentic French cuisine eateries in the western suburbs, and one of our favorite go-to casual fine dining sites. 

Sited downtown Wheaton city centre, adjacent the convenient muni parking garage, a block from the Metra station, Suzette's offers intimate casual fine dining, al fresco dining out front or on the rear patio, a private dining room for special dinners, and a bar, adjacent the authentic Suzette's Boulangerie & Pâtisserie, a French inspired bakery. 

We wish they'd offer a broader selection beyond the Crêpe centric menu, beyond the two nightly specials, which often aren't published or revealed until opening time. But hey, its Suzette's Crêperie, inspired by and built to bring to America authentic Parisian Crêpes.

Notably, it's difficult enough for restaurants to carry on in the post covid era with reduced limited staff, Biden induced inflation increased costs, and budget conscious diners. 

C'est la vie. 

Tonight, I selected the 'daily special' Sole Meunière, which is one of my favorite dishes, along with the Country Style Pâté, another of my favorites. 

As featured in recent previous posts in these pages, the Chicken Liver Mousse and slice of Country Style Pâté  are served with Dijon mustard, Cornichons and delicious Red Onion Marmalade with toasted Brioche on the side.  

Suzette's Sole Meunière is served in the classic French style, Filets of Sole were dredged in flour, pan fried in butter and served with the resulting brown butter herb sauce, parsley and lemon, alongside spring vegetables and mashed potatoes. Wonderful, delicious, as usual.

Linda order the Ham & Cheese Crêpe, which described in the menu as simple but delicious, and it was, delectable, exceeding both our expectations. 

I had already ordered this Domaine Chevalier Les Voleyses Crozes-Hermitage Northern Rhone Syrah to accompany my Country Style Pâté starter, before selecting my Sole Meunière entree, otherwise, I would've opted for a white wine. Never-the-less it went well with the my starter and Linda's entree. 

This was a wine we had ordered in a previous visit from their somewhat limited but artfully and carefully selected wine list. The Wine Spectator Magazine Award of Excellence wine list offers close to a hundred French wines from an inventory of nearly 600 bottles, as well as champagnes, sherries, French beer, French Ciders, Cognacs, Armagnacs and spirits. They offer wines in all price ranges from modest house W-B-T-G (wines by the glass) or bottles from basic to to super premium vintage first growths.

Marlène & Nicolas Chevalier Les Voleyses Crozes Hermitage 2018

I wrote about this wine and this producer in an earlier blogpost. This Tain-Hermitage, Domaine Chevalier is produced by brother and sister team of Nicolas and Marlène Chevalier. Nicolas tends the vineyards and crafts each cuvee, while Marlène handles all of the sales and marketing for Domaine Chevalier.

Marlène and Nicolas Chevalier farm three small vineyards at their meticulously tended family property comprising 3 1/2 acres in Crozes-Hermitage from which they produce on average 500 cases of red and white Rhône wines in tiny lots which are highly allocated. Their wines are found only in a couple of importer direct wine clubs and renowned restaurants in North American.

The 2018 vintage was top rated in the Northern Rhône.

 

Importer notes: The 2018 Domaine Chevalier Les Voleyses Crozes-Hermitage sports a brilliant purple robe and a captivating aroma redolent with the scents of blackberry, plum, violets, and exotic spices. Sensuous and seductive in the mouth, the 2018 Les Voleyses graces the palate with a silky texture and pure floral, fruit, and forest floor flavors that have aptly been described as hedonism in a glass. Moreover, the 2018 Domaine Chevalier Les Voleyses is juicy and harmonious to the finish, as it makes an exit with joyful panache.

 

The Voleyses Cuvée is 100% Syrah made from younger vine fruit and aged in stainless steel.

Consistent with my earlier tasting notes, Deep inky purple colored medium-full bodied, full round layers of blackberry and plum fruits, notes of black tea, spice and leather overtake the fruits, turning to soft chewy textured tannins on a medium finish. 

RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3495672

http://suzettescreperie.com/index.html

Beckmen Ballard Canyon Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah

Beckmen Vineyards Estate Visit - Ballard Canyon Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah

During our visit to Santa Barbara County, Santa Maria and Santa Ynez Valleys, we stopped in at Beckmen Vineyards. It is one of the wineries that has distribution in the Midwest (Illinois) so we can buy their wines here. Hence, we knew of Beckmen and had had their wines. But, of course, only a few labels from their broad portfolio are distributed here, so it was a chance to discover their wines. Regretably, we didn't allow or take time to do a tasting. We'll definitely make it a priority for a future visit to the region. 

Beckmen produce nearly a dozen white wines, and more than a dozen reds, primarily Rhône varietals on their vast estate vineyards. Once again, we were taken aback to discover Rhône varietals in this region, belaying our preconceptions that it is primarily Burgundian varietals (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), as we discovered with our visits to the Tensley and Zaca Mesa vineyard estates and tasting rooms.

Beckmen is a family owned and operated business founded in 1994 by Tom and Judy Beckmen, their youngest son Steve and more recently by their oldest son Jeff. Beckmen have established themselves as a leading grower and producer in Santa Barbara County, their wines crafted almost exclusively from their two vineyards sites of 150 planted acres combined, the Thomas and Judith Beckmen Estate Vineyard in Los Olivos District AVA and Purisima Mountain Vineyard in the Ballard Canyon AVA. 

The Beck­men Vine­yards are sited in two locations with dra­mat­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent soils and climates. See their vineyard map (s) at https://beckmenvineyards.com/blog/updated-vineyard-maps.

The 40 acre (25 plant­ed) Beckmen estate vineyard surround the winery and hospitality facilities just outside and south of the town of Los Olivos, on the west­ern bor­der of the Los Olivos Dis­trict. The Beck­men Estate is most­ly plant­ed to Caber­net Sauvi­gnon with small amounts of Grenache, Mourve­dre, and Syrah.

Several miles to the west is Purisi­ma Moun­tain on the west­ern side of Bal­lard Canyon AVA lies their 365 acre (125 acres plant­ed), Purisi­ma Moun­tain Vine­yard. Com­prised most­ly of clay and clay loam, with vary­ing amounts of grav­el, the most unique aspect of this site is the lime­stone sub­soil. The lime­stone soil lim­its vine vig­or and pro­duces small­er vines with low­er yields and more intense­ly fla­vored fruit. 

With peaks reach­ing 1,150 feet, Purisi­ma Moun­tain has almost 500 feet of ele­va­tion change with mul­ti­ple expo­sures. With a cli­mate and rare lime­stone sub­soils sim­i­lar to those found in Côte Rôtie and Châteauneuf du Pape, the vine­yard has proven per­fect for pro­duc­ing a range of Rhône vari­etals, espe­cial­ly Syrah and Grenache, Mourve­dre, and Counoise. 

PMV is also the home of Beck­men’s white wine port­fo­lio, con­sist­ing of Rosé, Sauvi­gnon Blanc, Chardon­nay, Viog­nier, and Grenache Blanc.  

Tend­ing vines from dor­man­cy through har­vest since 1994, the Beck­men's have learned about their two dis­tinct vine­yard prop­er­ties - acre by acre, the unique soil and micro­cli­mate, the elements of terroir, that best hosts each grape vari­etal, fine-tuning their plantings and viticulture to ensur­e every block in the vine­yard con­sis­tent­ly pro­duces the high­est qual­i­ty fruit possible.

The Beckmen estate is tucked back off the road from the side road south of town. 

Past the winery and production facility (below) is a hospitality center (above) with a tasting bar, outdoor decks, patios and lawns overlooking ponds. 

They offer numerous tasting flights and WBTG including some of their limited, allocated, some club-only, and Library wines.

Across the drive is the stately residence, what in France they would refer to as the Chateau, with outdoor gardens and groomed grounds overlooking and surrounded by the vineyards, with views of the hills in distance. 

As soon as we returned home I sought out Beckmen labels at our local wine merchants and found at Binny's, our big-box wine and beverage superstore this Beckmen Syrah.

Beckmen Vineyards Ballard Canyon Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah 2019

I must say, this label exceeded my expectations and provided great QPR - Quality Price Ratio - better than my earlier forays into this brand. I've gained a new appreciation for Rhône vari­etals from Santa Maria Valley and the range of high quality production from there. 

Winemaker notes: "The cool 2019 growing season produced a very savory vintage of PMV (Purisima Mountain Vineyard) Syrah. Cured meats, game, roasted earth, pepper, blackberry, and coco highlight the aromas of the 2019. Elegant and rounded on the palate (reminiscent of the very successful 2015 vintage), the mouth shows off sweet black fruits, dark chocolate, game, mocha, and pepper with fine tannins that carry the flavor through the very long, savory finish. A bit young and tight upon release, the 2019 should be decanted or aged for the short term and will age beautifully for the next 15-18 years or longer. Crafted from 100% certified biodynamic syrah grapes."

Antonio Galloni of Vinous gave this wine 94 points in Oct 2021. "The 2019 Syrah Purisima Mountain Vineyard is a wild, exotic wine. Blueberry jam, chocolate, spice, leather and licorice fill out the layers effortlessly. This unctuous, heady Syrah shows just how distinctive Ballard Canyon is. A year or two in bottle should help soften some of the harder edges."

Interesting that he notes the "harder edges", which is what I encountered and found off-putting on earlier tastings from this producer, but they were moderated and not impacting this release. This was dark inky garnet purple colored, full bodied, unctuous brambly blackberry and blueberry fruits with a nuance of sweet clove spice and vanilla punctuated by notes of licorice, black pepper and hints of dark chocolate and leather, with lingering moderate tannins on the finish. 

RM 92 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3948161

https://beckmenvineyards.com/

https://twitter.com/BeckmenVineyard

@BeckmenVineyard