Monday, May 22, 2023

Birthday Surf & Turf Dinner with favorite Howell Mtn Cabernet

Birthday Surf & Turf Dinner with favorite Howell Mtn Cabernet

For my birthday dinner, we grilled out surf & turf New York Strip steak with lobster tail, served with grilled asparagus and baked potato. To pair with the steak I pulled from the cellar one of my favorite Napa Cabernets from Howell Mtn. 

I pulled from the home cellar this Robert Craig Howell Mountain Cabernet. This was a perfect accompaniment to the grilled steak beef and the lobster tail. 

Robert Craig Cabernet is featured often in these pages as it is the largest or one of the largest producer holdings in our cellar collection. 

Of the five or six different Cabernet labels offered by Robert Craig, his Howell Mountain is my perennial favorite. Indeed, if I had to choose my favorite appellation of the seventeen found in Napa Valley, it would be Howell Mountain.

We have visited Robert Craig's estate winery and vineyards high atop Howell Mountain several times over the years, for a private tasting, release parties and tasting tours. One of our memorable trips featured a picnic lunch at the site overlooking the valley below. 

We hosted Robert and Lynn at a wine producer dinner at the CIA back in 1998 and met them for one here in Chicago years later.

Sadly, Robert passed a couple years ago and I offered a Robert Craig Tribute in this blogpost.

We've focused on and visited Howell Mountain producers on several of our Napa Valley trips including most notably, Arns, Dunn Vineyards, Clark Claudon, Viader, Ladera, Lamborn and of course Robert Craig. 

Our holdings of these labels from Howell Mountain may be the most represented appellation of the more than 1000 Napa Cabs in our cellar. Indeed, our cellar collection includes seventy-five bottles of fifty different labels that also include LaJota, Lakoya, OShaunessey, Outpost and Pilcrow. This includes a dozen vintages of Robert Craig and sixteen vintages of Dunn Vineyards Howell Mountain.

Other notable Howell Mountain producers we hold are Outpost, Cakebread, Duckhorn, Cade and Robert Foley, but there are many more emerging as the number of producers and labels continues to increase. 
 
In my opinion, Howell Mountain wines have one of the more distinct and distinguishable terroir based profiles in Napa Valley. The characteristics of Howell Mountain wines are my favorites, big bold fruits driven with highlight tones of mocha, clove and cinnamon spices. I still remember my first Dunn Vineyards Howell Mountain Cabernet from back in 1990 with its distinctive cinnamon spice accents.
Robert Craig vineyard high atop Howell Mountain

Howell Mountain is located in the northeast corner of Napa Valley at the north end of the Vaca mountain range that forms the eastern boundary wall of the valley. The elevation of its vineyards ranged between 1,400 and 2,200 feet above sea level. This is interesting and notable since the elevation means that the vines are located above the fog line which rolls in from the south San Pablo Bay and the valley floor. 

That fog line reaching up to 1200 feet in elevation is the demarcation point between the Napa Valley and the Howell Mountain appellations, since it's impact results in different sub-climate growing conditions, thereby resulting in the distinctive terroir of the two areas. Being above the fog lines results in more sunlight, cooler days and warmer nights.

The Howell Mountain A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area, as designated by the US Dept. of Treasury Alcohol And Tobacco Bureau) was the first sub appellation of Napa when it was designated back in 1983. The area is notable for its two soil types: volcanic ash, also known as “Tuff’, and a dry red clay, both of which are nutrient deficient.  Combine that with the steep hillsides and rocky and porous terrain and you have an environment that places high stress on its vines, resulting in rich concentrated fruit. Stressing the vines produces smaller harvests and smaller berries, but the fruit that is produced is more concentrated, intense and complex, perfect for making superior wines. 
 

Robert Craig Napa Valley Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2002

This Robert Craig Cabernet from the Howell Mountain appellation vineyards showed all those classic characteristics that showcase the terroir of the appellation.

At twenty-one, this bottle is drinking wonderfully right now but may be a bit past its peak as it is showing slight signs of diminution as the fruits are just starting to fade. 

The fill level, label, foil and importantly the cork, were all in ideal condition, aside the label being slightly soiled.

Tonight's tasting was consistent with earlier tasting notes of this label dating back to September, 2009, and August, 2010.

Dark inky garnet colored, medium full bodied, concentrated complex core of black raspberry and black currant fruits accented by a layer of sweet mocha chocolate turning to tones of clove and hints of vanilla and spicy oak, turning to smooth fine tannins on the lingering finish.

RM 93 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=49572

http://www.robertcraigwine.com/

https://twitter.com/RobertCraigWine 

@RobertCraigWine

Son Ryan and kids joined us for our cook-out dinner and he brought from his cellar these two favorite producer premium labels that he had opened at home earlier. 

Long Shadows Saggi Columbia Valley Red Blend - Sanviovese, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

We're members of the Long Shadows wine club and hence get regular Vault Key Club release allocation shipments of their top labels of which we share our case lot with son's Ryan and Alec and fellow Pour Boy Dr Dan. We've written in these pages about the Vintners Collection wherein Long Shadows collaborates with world class winemakers to craft varietal compositions from Washington State fruit

This label is inspired by the great wines of Tuscany and father-son winemaking team Ambrogio and Giovanni Folonari, winemaker Gilles Nicault crafts Saggi in the style of its original winemakers.

The 2018 Saggi is a Columbia Valley Blend: 58% Sangiovese, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 12% Syrah. The Sangiovese is sourced from two distinct Washington State Sangiovese vineyards, both planted in 1998. Both sites with have terrior of well-draining soils, important to managing Sangiovese’s vine vigor and controlling berry size. Candy Mountain Vineyard Sangiovese is a warm vineyard that delivers grapes with ripe, black currant aromas and flavors. Boushey Vineyard Sangiovese, grown in the Yakima Valley, is a cooler site that brings brightness and balanced acidity to the blend. 

The Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Stone Tree Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope, included to add a silky texture to the wine. The Syrah adds a darker hue and another layer of complexity.

Winemakers' tasting notes: "Easily one of our favorite Saggi bottlings to date, this wine showcases the quality of our vineyard sites and the warmth of the growing season. A brilliant garnet-red, the 2018 Saggi is elaborately fragrant, brimming with red cherries, ripe strawberries and notes of nutmeg. Vibrant and
well-integrated with balanced natural acidity, this is a textured wine with great richness and flavors that linger across a generous finish. Drinking beautifully now, the wine’s concentration and structure also make it an excellent candidate for the cellar."

This is becoming a go-to wine for us for Sangiovese complemented Italian cuisine, but bigger and bolder than your typical Sangiovese Brunello di Montalcino. Son Alec, who also shares in our club allocation cites this as one of his favorite wines.

As usual this is a stand out with its big bold style, bright garnet-red colored, full bodied, nicely balanced and well integrated vibrant forward fruits of raspberry, red cherries and ripe strawberries with fragrant floral and notes of nutmeg and clove spices. 

RM 93 points. 
 

Cliff Lede Stags Leap District Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

This is one of our favorite producers and labels of which we hold a decade of releases in our cellar. We have visited the state and done tastings there on numerous occasions. Ryan is member of their wine club and regularly gets this along with their other premium and single vineyard designated labels as part of his regular allocation shipment. 

Winemaker Notes - Inky purple with blood-red tinged edges, the elegant and seamless 2013 Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon's multilayered perfume fills the glass with notes of violets, lavender, and spring flowers. Intertwined with the floral notes are heady layers of plum, blackberry, and red currents. Silky, unctuous flavors of smoked cardamom, cinnamon, and black licorice lay out on the palate and finish with the taste and texture of liquefied rocks. 

The fruit for this release was sourced from the hillside terraces of the legendary Cliff Lede Poetry Vineyard, as well as Lede's Twin Peaks Vineyard estate surrounding the winery, and a few neighboring vineyards in the Stags Leap District. The wine is composed of small lots from the best blocks, representing a diverse range of carefully selected clones and rootstocks. From Poetry’s exposed, rocky terraces that are volcanic in origin, to the ancient riverbed alluvial soils of Twin Peaks, the breadth of contributing sites translates into a wine of impressive complexity.

According to Wine.com, this is a blend of Bordeaux variteals: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot, 6% Malbec, 2% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot 

This release was awarded 94 points by Wilfred Wong of Wine.com, 93 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate,

Robert Parkers said the 2013 Cliff Lede Cabernet appears to be one of the vintage's top wines. 
 
Dark dense ruby/purple color, medium full bodied, floral notes highlight blackberry and black rapsberry fruits with notes of crème de cassis, cinnamon spice and hints of graphite and forest floor on a long silky tannin laced finish.
 
RM 92 points. 
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2077905

 

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Jasmin La Giroflarie at Husk Restaurant Savannah

Patrick Jasmin “La Giroflarie” Cote Rotie Rhone at Husk Restaurant in Savannah, GA

Visiting Savannah (GA) for a getaway and mini-family reunion with Sister Jan from So-Cal, we dined at several local fine dining eateries, Chive, The Olde Pink House, Rhett, The River House, and Husk. 

We also did the Savannah food tour in the afternoon, a walking tour of sections of the city with an overview of several food examples of Savannah coastal southern cuisine.


Husk Restaurant is centrally located in the heart of Savannah’s Landmark Historic District. It is one of the portfolio of establishments of The Neighborhood Dining Group (NDG) that operates and manages restaurants throughout the Southeast, overseen by President David Howard who was a James Beard semifinalist for Best Restaurateur. 

The NDG restaurant portfolio includes Husk (Charleston, SC; Nashville, TN, and Savannah, GA), Minero (Johns Island, SC; Atlanta, GA), and Delaney Oyster House (Charleston, SC).

NDG has been recognized by Bon Appétit for “2011 Best New Restaurant in America” for Husk Charleston, as one of GQ’s “12 Most Outstanding Restaurants of the Year”, an Esquire “Best New Restaurant in America” in 2014 for Husk Nashville, and McCrady’s named one of “America’s Best Restaurants of 2016” in Wine Enthusiast.

We were advised to dine at Husk in Charleston by friends there but it was not open the days we were available when we were in town. So, we targeted Husk in Savannah for our trip there this week. 

We dined in the bar-room with high ceilings and large windows, spacious seating along both walls surrounding the bar, the walls adored by modern brightly colored artwork. 

One wall presents a large abstract painting featuring the grid city map of Savannah with its famous square parks centering each neighborhood. 

 

Husk Savannah focuses on preparations that represent the essence of Southern food that highlight the unique ingredients of coastal Georgia. 

They offer a broad selection of Oysters and a Raw Bar with selections from the Southeast from Virginia, the Carolina's Georgia and Florida.


The dinner menu is somewhat limited featuring offerings of Georgia Shrimp and Grits, Smoked Cobia, Roasted Chicken Breast, Smoked Pork Porterhouse and Prime New York Strip.

The selection of  'Sides' is limited with three offerings, Carolina Gold Rice, Wakefield Cabbage and White Lily Biscuits.

For a starter we shared from the limited selection of four 'Firsts', the Selection of Southern Cheeses with Spiced Pecans, Hibiscus Honey, Blueberry Preserves and toasted Baguette and Pimiento Cheese with Benne Crackers and Husk Pickles, and from the sides selections, the White Lily Biscuits, named for the fineness of their flour.


 Husk offers an extensive imaginative wine list that showcases 'artisan producers, small productions, and rare finds, grouped by terroir and soil type, rather than the traditional classifications of political geography or grape varietal'. They also feature a boutique wine program emphasizing organic and bio-dynamic, family-style producers who share the restaurant’s focus on environmental preservation. Lastly, they also feature three wines created and bottled in Husk’s own vineyard in Valle de Uco, Mendoza, Argentina.

The wine list offerings includes a selection of WBTG - Wines By The Glass - a dozen white, sparkling and Rose' wines and ten Red Wines. The Bottle wine list is extensive covering forty pages including a dozen NV Champagnes and Sparkling wines, and ten Vintage selections.

The White Wines offered include French Burgundies featuring twenty selections creatively listed geographically from North to South, five other French, seven from California, eight from Germany (listed North to South), and selections from Spain (seven), Greece (3), Italy (3) and the Southern Hemisphere (five).

The Red Wines offered a broad selection of French, listed by Region, geographically North to South from Burgundy (12), Beaujolais (4), Northern Rhone and Languedoc (6), Loire (3), Bordeaux (8), and Spain (3). 

They offer American Reds, listed Light to Bold; from California (18) and Oregon (3), Italy (8), Germany (3), Austria (2), and the Southern Hemisphere (3).

There are a dozen dessert wines including ultra premium Château d'Yquem Sauternes, Bordeaux (1998) offered at $38 per ounce. 

Then there is also an extensive list of a half dozen pages of Whiskeys, Rye, Agave, Tequila, Gins, Rums and other specialties. 

The wine prices were a bit crazy, all over the map, offering numerous selections at the customary 2x retail price, but then from Bordeaux they offered some of our favorite producers such as Château Ducru Beaucaillou and Château Margaux, but featuring their second labels, Croix de Beaucaillou (@ $245), and Pavillon Rouge (@ $600), prices more appropriate for their Grand Vin rather than their 'second' wines, such that the effective price is four to five times retail price, almost as if they're confused about the labels, or confusing unsuspecting patrons!?! But then, anyone ordering a $300 to $600 bottle of wine is most likely a knowledgeable consumer, or someone with more money than sense or knowledge, based on these prices. Other Bordeaux were similarly more than customarily priced, Château Pontet-Canet 5ème Grand Cru Classé 2015 at $385, and Château Giscours 3ème Grand Cru Classé, 2015, $225, both offered at about three times retail. 

In the end, we found and ordered a delightful Northern Rhone Syrah from the Domaine of Patrick Jasmin, “La Giroflarie” Côte-Rotie 2019, at $125, an appropriate 2x retail offering, providing reasonable QPR (Quality Price-Ratio) considering its good quality and ratings. It was a nice pairing with Bill's Porterhouse and my New York Strip steak.

For the ladies, we ordered BTG - Buy The Glass, Obsidian “Poseidon Vineyard” Chardonnay, 2021, from Carneros, Napa Valley, California, the only California Chardonnay on offer! It was 'okay', per the girls, a decent complement to their entree of Shrimp and Grits.

I ordered the grilled New York Strip steak and Bill ordered the Smoked Porterhouse Pork, both artfully prepared and presented.

The girls' Shrimp and Grits entree was lackluster and did not compare with those that we had on the Savannah food tour earlier in the day  at the trend-setting eatery at Andaz Savannah at 22 Square.

Our wine selection - 

Domaine (Patrick) Jasmin “La Giroflarie” Northern Rhone Côte Rôtie Syrah 2019

This is a classic example of 'old world' (France, Italy) vs. 'new-world' (US) labeling where they feature the locale source of the grapes rather than the variety of grapes and producer name on the label.  

Côte-Rôtie is a Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) in the northern Rhône river valley wine region of Southern France. The vineyards are located just south of the village of Vienne. The vineyards' terroir are steep slopes facing the river and are known for their picturesque stone walls, so common in the region. The name Côte-Rôtie can be roughly translated in English as "the roasted slope", referring to the long hours of sunlight that the steep slopes receive.

This is from Patrick Jasmin, a fourth generation winemaker, who took over from his father Robert (after his sudden death) in 1999. Patrick's Great-Grandfather, Alexandre, was the chef at Château Ampuis and was granted some vines for his services to the estate in the early 1900's. The property was historically one of the original domaines that started to bottle their own Côte Rôtie over 100 years ago. 

Today, Patrick farms 13 acres of vines located in 12 parcels in 8 separate climats or lieu-dits spread across both escarpments of the Côte Rôtie appellation – the Côte Brune and the Côte Blonde. 

The name 'La Giroflarie' is used to distinguish this principal cuvée from a special cuvée called 'Olea' that Patrick first made in 2015. La Giroflarie is an historic name for the Côte Baudin lieu-dit.

Patrick blends into this label approximately 96% Syrah and 4% Viognier in this classic Côte Rôtie, and produces two cuvées of Côte Rôtie, sourced from 11 different parcels spread across the appellation. He also produces a number of IGP (Vin de Pays) bottlings. 

Patrick's extensive vine-holdings allow him a sufficient production of fruit from which to select to blend and his wines are known for a laudable fine integration of fruit and tannin earning him a reputation for wines described as the 'most Burgundian' wine of the appellation.

Patrick Jasmin's Côte-Rôtie is aged for up to 2 years in oak barrels (with up to 25% being new, originating from France, Russia & the US). Half of the wine is racked into 228 litre barrels and half into 590 litre demi-muids. Approximately 23,000 bottles are produced in a typical vintage.

The Jasmin wines are noted for their velvety Burgundian texture and richness. Typically, a bouquet of violets and stewed red fruits precedes a palate of darker Autumnal fruit with some cooler granitic notes over a framework of fine-grained tannins. Although it is surprisingly approachable on its youthful fruit, it cellars well for a decade and far longer in finer vintages.

This label release was rated 93 points by Josh Raynolds - vinous.com, and Matt Walls - Decanter.com.

According to the pundits, this Côte-Rôtie from Patrick Jasmin is known as one of the most terroir-expressive Northern Rhône Syrahs and one of the greatest values in the category. 

Dark purple colored, full bodied with full, round, concentrated black currant fruits with tones of smoked bacon and cola flavors accented by floral, cassis, and notes of spice and pepper with fine grained tannins on a long finish. A great example of Côte-Rôtie, high achiever with decent value. 

RM 93 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3816597

https://husksavannah.com/

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Patz & Hall Chardonnay at The Olde Pink House Savannah

Patz & Hall Chardonnay at the legendary historic Olde Pink House Restaurant in Savannah

Despite its large capacity seating in the countless dining rooms, The Olde Pink House in Savannah is one of the toughest reservations to get in town. We dined at the historic colonial mansion turned restaurant, an icon of Savannah's historic district with a history as old as Savannah itself. The Olde Pink House recently celebrated their 250th year anniversary as a building and nearly 100 years as a restaurant.

We were visiting Savannah for the week for a mini-family reunion with Sister Jan from So-Cal. During our short week, we also dined at Husk Restaurant, Chive and several local cuisine eateries as part of the Savannah Squares Food Tour.

 

Food & Wine Magazine named it #5 of the 100 Most Romantic Restaurants in America in 2023 with over twenty thousand reviews.

USA Today featured The Olde Pink house as the lone Georgia entry according to OpenTable's 2022 list of the "Top 100 Restaurants" in the United States. The "most beloved restaurants coast-to-coast" were based on 13 million reviews by diners who booked via OpenTable this year and 20,000 diners surveyed in the U.S. and Canada.

Featuring 47 cities across 21 states, the list is "curated for diners" and "by diners" looking for ideas now or in the new year, OpenTable said in a statement. Qualifying restaurants were scored by data points such as overall diner rating, the reviewing accountholder's "clout" on OpenTable, total number of reviews and overall regional rating.

The Olde Pink House Restaurant was the sole mention from the State of Georgia on the list. 

California dominated the list with 21 restaurants, giving the most populous state in the U.S. the most "top 100" restaurants.

Chicago was the city with the largest number of restaurants: all 17 restaurants that ranked from Illinois are in the Windy City. 

The Olde Pink House has a long fabled history in Savannah. It was the residence of  Savannah's James Habersham Jr., a pioneering merchant and wealthy planter, he built the original residence in 1771 on a land allotment granted by the Crown of England. 

In 1811, a decade after his passing, the Habersham property became home to the Planters’ Bank, the first bank in Georgia. Later, in 1864, the house became a military generals’ headquarters for Union troops following Maj. Gen.William Tecumseh Sherman’s Civil War Siege of Savannah

The timeline of the building can be found on the back of restaurant menu, but the menu selections offer much about the history of the City that occurred during the port city’s checkered past: overlooked immigrants, wayward travelers, enslaved peoples brought here against their will.

“The very story we tell through our food is one of survival,” Proprietor Jeffress says. “It’s a way of honoring all of those hardworking people who endured, so that we can be here [today].”

The Olde Pink House features numerous dining rooms throughout, each one appointed with historic decor.

The building is full of history with much care and attention to every last detail. Revived period pieces curated by owner Donna Moeckel fill the walls of The Olde Pink House - Ivy curls around the Palladian portico, crystal chandeliers shimmer in every room and an extensive oil-painting collection tells the story of Savannah through centurial seaside vignettes and portraits of the city’s esteemed citizens.


The menu is extensive with a broad selection of a dozen Appetizers, eight Soups and Salads, more than a dozen entrees, complemented by no less than twenty Sides offerings.

The winelist offers no less than forty wines by the glass WBTG - twenty whites, Sparkling and Rose, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Other Varietals, and twenty reds - Cabernets, Merlot, Pinot Noir and other varietals - all moderately priced. With such a broad selection, there's no need to order a bottle since everyone can order their preferred selection to suit their entry pairing unless one chooses a more premium selection only available by the bottle. We ordered a bottle since it was the best consensus offering as it paired well with all our entrees. 

The basement level has a large cavernous dining room in the bar room. There, is the old vault that today houses a wine cellar, that is more for show than a functional working cellar. The old cellar vault was once used as the bank vault.

Having done the Savannah Food Tour in the afternoon, coupled with an early dinner, we had a light dinner of soup, salads, sides and wine. The staff were understanding and accommodating with gracious, personable, attentive service.

We started with the Cheese Plate with Capital Bee Honeycomb and Fresh Fruit (below).
It was rather minimal and was served with some rather strange crunches that were more akin to Fritos than crackers, too 'big' and thus not well suited to accompanying the cheese or honey selection, in our collective view. The staff were not able to accommodate our request for crackers or bread of any type as an alternative.


Bill and I started with the Strawberry Arugula Salad with goat cheese, spiced pecans and poppyseed vinagrette.

My main course was the Savannah specialty, "Low Country She Crab" soup. I have to say, it was not as delectable as that served on the Food Tour at Rhett's near the waterfront. 

Linda had the Pulled Pork Sliders with Cheerwine BBQ sauce, vegetable slaw and Bread and Butter pickles. They were lean as she hoped, and as promised.

 
Jan had the Fried Green Tomatoes with Grits
 

For a wine selection we had from the winelist a bottle of the Patz and Hall Sonoma Coast Chardonnay.

 Patz & Hall Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2018

Patz & Hall was founded in 1988 by Donald and Heather Patz, and James Hall and Anne Moses, the collaboration dating back to early 1980s when assistant winemaker James Hall and national sales manager Donald Patz struck up a close friendship while working at Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards. 

They shared a vision to produce rich, compelling wines from fruit sourced from elite, small vineyards. 

James and Anne Moses visited France and Burgundy in 1986, and were impressed by the talented and dedicated vignerons and winemakers who crafted rich and powerful Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. That alerted them to look to cooler growing sites with distinct terroir in Napa Valley for Chardonnay and Sonoma Coast for Pinot Noir, to create a collection of Chardonnays and Pinot Noir that reflected the great wine regions of California.

Patz & Hall have become one of California’s highly regarded wineries with a notable portfolio of exceptional limited-production single-vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines leveraging close personal relationships with many of California’s finest growers including Larry Hyde, Lee Hudson and the Martinelli and Pisoni families.

Over three decades Patz & Hall have established long-term relationships with the very best small, family-owned world class sites of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards in California. They produce a broad diverse portfolio of notable cuvées and sought-after single-vineyard wines from world-class vineyards in the acclaimed Sonoma Coast appellation.

This label is sourced from a "who's who" of the appellation's most renowned vineyards, including Sanchietti Vineyard, Gap's Crown Vineyard, Zio Tony Ranch, Dutton Ranch, and Durrell Vineyard. 

Winemaker Notes - 

The 2018 offering is a collection of fourteen single-vineyard quality sites that could all be bottled on their own including; Dutton Ranch, Sanchietti Vineyard, Gap’s Crown Vineyard, Zio Tony Ranch and Durell Vineyard. The wine has inviting aromas of spicy pear, lemon drop and lime zest. As a cool-climate Chardonnay, there’s a nice tartness on the palate giving the wine great poise, balance and energy. A pretty floral note adds a layer of complexity and melds with the peach nectar and apple flavors on the long finish.

This is 100% Chardonnay sourced from partner grower vineyards on the Sonoma Coast. It was aged in 28% new Burgundian French oak barrels.

This label release was awarded 92 Points by Jeb Dunnuck and 92 Points by Wine Enthusiast.

Golden straw colored, medium-bodied, with rich vibrant lemon, green apple, melon, crushed stone, and white flower-like aromas and flavors finishing with hints of brioche and toasted oak on a long and focused crisp acidic finish.

RM 91 points.  
 
 
@PatzHall

Lilac & Kracher Transylvania Romania Icewine 2020 

I was intrigued by and also ordered from the winelist BTG (By-The-Glass) - this Lilac & Kracher Transylvania Icewine from Romania. We hold close to two dozen vintages and labels of Kracher dessert wines in our cellar but have never seen or heard about this label.

This 'Liliac & Kracher' Ice Wine is a joint venture between Rudolf Krizan, the winemaker at Liliac in Romania and Gerhard Kracher from the well-known legendary Austrian Kracher wine family.

Gerhard Kracher and the well-known francen Kracher wine family, who have been making sweet wines for generations. Kracher is considered the genius of the Trockenbeerenauslese category. 

In the late 1980s and up to his early death in 2007, Alois Kracher handcrafted some of the greatest noble sweet wines of the world. His annual collections of numbered TBAs (Trockenbeerenauslesen), produced in Illmitz at the lake Neusiedl, became legends and were often presented and compared alongside the finest sweet wines from Sauternes (namely Château d’Yquem), Tokaji (Szepsi) and Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (Egon Müller, Joh. Jos. Prüm). 

Alois’s son Gerhard Kracher continues the tradition maintaining the prolific high level of quality.

Interestingly, this Ice Wine is made from grapes that were grown in Transylvania, in Romania.

Kracher started the collaboration with the Liliac Winery in Transylvania, so as to enhance the climatic peculiarities of the Lechinta region which are optimal for the production of Eiswein. Zwischen den Seen (traditional with fermentation in steel or wooden barrels) and Nouvelle Vague (modern with the use of new barriques).  

According to Stephan Reinhardt of The Wine Advocate, the joint venture between Rudolf Krizan, the winemaker at Liliac in Romania, and Gerhard Kracher of Austrian fame came about because Kracher  asserts that climate change makes it "harder and harder to produce ice wine in the Burgenland." Teaming with Krizan in making a wine in Romania, "this region offers the perfect conditions to produce this kind of wine every single year."

Ice Wine (Eiswein) is made from grapes frozen on the vine. For best results the grapes need to be hard frozen at temperatures of -8°C or less, which makes waiting for a suitable cold snap very risky. 

The fruit is hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed while frozen, so that the ice (water) is removed, thus dramatically increasing the concentration of sugars and flavours in the grape. The pressed juice is then fermented and matured for 16 months in stainless steel tanks.

The final result is a Ice Wine that shows immense concentration of sweetness and complexity along with a good acid structure. 

Golden straw colored, medium full bodied, rich unctuous sweet notes of white stone fruit, lychee and hints of pineapple, and honey on the lingering finish.

RM 92 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4511959

Monday, May 15, 2023

Château Mouton Rothschild highlights Mother’s Day

Château Mouton Rothschild  highlights Mother’s Day celebration and family gathering

Much of the family gathered for Mother’s Day at son Sean’s house down the street from us, for a cookout including our three son’s. Notably, Sean just recently had another baby daughter making this Mother’s Day extra special. In recognition of the day, and Sean’s new daughter, Lilac, I took a special birth-year vintage bottle of wine to celebrate the occasion – this ultra-premium First Growth Bordeaux.

The boys grilled out fantastic lean hamburgers with mushrooms, onions and peppers served with Muenster cheese on Brioche buns. 

Our daughter and her family were elsewhere celebrating Mother’s Day on this day, as was son Ryan’s wife and kids, hence our gathering featured our three youngest (of ten) grandkids, three young girls, who captured the day with their play and wonderment of the new-born baby. 

The wine.

Château Mouton Rothschild Pauillac Bordeaux 1985

Fitting for the day, not only was this commemorative vintage bottle celebrating Sean’s birth year, but it also adorned a special artists label I felt especially suitable for the special occasion. Mouton Rothschild are legendary for their artist label series wherein each year a notable famous artist is tapped to produce special artwork for their vintage release label. 

As I write on my winesite page devoted to and featuring the Mouton Rothchild wine label library - "No wine producer in the world captures the imagination or attention of wine collectors more than Mouton Rothschild with their annual artist series of labels.'

"Each year a renowned artist is commissioned to do the artwork for that vintage. The featured artist is said to be paid ten cases of various vintages of the classic Château Mouton Rothschild for their work. Every collector dreams of collecting a 'vertical' of Mouton to display the artwork of Mouton. Labels have been produced by the world's most famous contemporary artists, Chagall (1970), Dali (1958), Picasso (1973), Miro (1969), Andy Warhol (1975), as well as other luminaries such as Prince Charles (2004) and Hollywood director John Huston (1982). Many other producers have established artist series, but there is only one Mouton Rothschild."

In 1945, Baron Philippe de Rothschild conceived the original idea of crowning the Mouton label with a work of art created for this purpose by famous artists: These have included paintings by Miró, Chagall, Braque, Picasso, Warhol, Bacon, Balthus, amongst others.

Only 4 vintages have not had Artist's labels: 1953 which celebrated the initial purchase of the Mouton property, 1977 when the Queen Mother stayed at Mouton and the Baron dedicated that year's vintage to her, 2000 where the label is enameled in gold with a reproduction of Jakob Schenauer's Augsburg Ram (below), and 2003 which is devoted to Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild depicted in a period photograph celebrating the 150th anniversary of 1853 acquisition of the Mouton estate by the family. 

We drove around the legendary Château Mouton Rothschild estate and vineyards during our visit to the Pauillac appellation during our tour of the Bordeaux region wine visit in 2019.

https://mcnees.org/winesite/labels/label_library_pages/French_wine_label_pages/MR-Lbls/Label_Library_Mouton_Rothschild.htm

The official Château Mouton Rothschild Rothschild Official Label Art is featuring on pages on the producers website.

The 1985 vintage label features artwork by Belgium surrealist artist Paul Delvaux (1897-1994) showing two diminutive demure girls, apart, yet drawn together by a bunch of grapes, and eventually the wine?

This label is especially appropriate for Mother’s Day with and celebrating Sean’s mother, wife and now two daughters, as well as son Alec’s wife and his next-newest baby daughter. 

One reviewer describes the label - "Paul Delvaux represents here two model and chaste little girls of his drawing seem pensive and invaded by shyness. It is the bunch of grapes, the central element of the drawing, which links the two young women and connects them to each other." 

The 1985 vintage year was one of the driest years on record in Pauillac, with only a few summer storms and warm weather straight through harvest, producing one of the top vintages of the 1980s. 

Of course, I acquired this birth year vintage bottle decades ago, long before I would or could know about all the females that would come to surround Sean in his life, making the occasion, and the artwork on the label that much more special and appreciated on this day. 

This is one of a dozen vintages of the wine we hold or have consumed from our cellar, including the birthyear vintages of each of our kids. 

At thirty eight years, the bottle and wine were in amazing, ideal condition for their age; the fill level, foil and cork, and the label, all in ideal condition for their age. The cork was very tight forming a rigorous seal of the bottle, such that a traditional corkscrew was inevitably going to pull the cork apart up extraction. Hence, I ran back home to fetch my Ahso, two pronged cork puller, which readily extracted the cork intact, despite the fact it had been severely compromised by the complete penetration of the cork all the way through by the corkscrew. 

Winemaker Notes - The wine has an attractive, intense ruby color with a red-orange tint and a nose of considerable aromatic intensity on which lovely jammy fruit (blackberry, bilberry, blackcurrant) mingles with notes of vanilla, incense, cinnamon and roast coffee. Round and smooth on the attack, it asserts a fine texture over nicely rounded, well-integrated tannins, developing a stylish mid-palate on toasted, roasted notes of caramel, biscuit, spice and chocolate. The powerful finish, lush, long and full, reveals all the generosity, elegance and balance of this very fine vintage.

Critics Acclaim - This vintage release was awarded 99 points by James Suckling, 94 points by John Gilman, and 93 points by Decanter and Wine Advocate 

This Premier Cru Classé is made from 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot.

At thirty eight years, the wine was in remarkably good condition, well within its drinking window, albeit starting to show slightly with some bricking to the deep garnet purple color, and showing a slight bit of vegetable funkiness in the fruit, that for the most part gave way after a decanting and short period of time. Really good, we caught it in time, but clearly nearing the end of it's drinking window.

Purple garnet colored, medium-full bodied, elegant, polished, complex and finely integrated blackberry and black raspberry fruits highlighted by notes of spice, leather, tobacco, black tea with hints of mocha, graphite and smokey oak, with a lingering smooth moderate tannin laced finish.

RM 92 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1582

https://www.chateau-mouton-rothschild.com/ 


Sunday, May 7, 2023

Great selection of fine dining in Destin - Bijoux

Great selection of fine dining in Destin includes Bijoux Restaurant in Sandestin Miramar Beach

We spent a week traveling, visiting the Emerald Coast of the Florida Panhandle getting to know the area and evaluating the real estate market and several properties. During our stay, we dined at four local legendary restaurants. In Destin (FL) we dined at Louisiana Lagniappe, Boshamps Seafood and Oyster House, and The Crab Trap, Destin. We also dined at Bijoux in the Sandestin Resort community. The wide range of fine and casual dining options in one of the key reasons we're considering the Destin area for a vacation or vacation home. 

We featured some other wine and dining experiences in recent posts from a trip to the area earlier this month - Kistler Les Noisetiers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay at Emerils Coastal.

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2023/04/kistler-les-noisetiers-sonoma-coast.html

Bijoux Restaurant Destin/Miramar Beach

Bijoux is one of Destin’s top award-winning restaurants since 2002, offering “coastal cuisine with a New Orleans flair.” Bijoux is a full service fine dining restaurant located in The Market Shops at the entrance of Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Miramar Beach. Its open for dinner seven nights a week which is great since so many restaurants close one or two nights a week, most often on Mondays. They feature fresh Gulf seafood, prime steaks and an extensive award winning wine list.  

Bijoux has been selected Best of the Emerald Coast from 2009 through 2018 and the Best French Restaurant by Emerald Coast Magazine.

The restaurant is tucked away in the back behind another more prominent restaurant at the front, so its easy to miss if you're driving by. There is parking in the front or in the rear, beyond the resort security access entry gate. 

They offer a spectacular imaginative and well selected wine list with a wide range of favorites and several ultra-premium reserve selections, as well as numerous respectable modest budget selections. Its easy to offer great high priced wines. Its difficult to offer great wines at entry level or lower tier prices. Of course, most often I am focused on finding the best great values with high QPR (Quality Price Ratio) across price points. That is what readers of these pages most often ask about. Bijoux does a great job offering great wines and some good values at all price points. 

While most often I'm challenged to find a choice of more than a couple interesting and tempting offerings, Bijoux's wine list offered a dozen such labels. Their wines are priced at about or slightly above the customary 2x retail. Their wine list was awarded the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence award over the last decade.

For a starter we had the imaginative and superbly prepared and presented Blackened Brie with Toasted Walnut Bread Pickled Grapes and Local Honey. It was fabulous.

 We also had the Roasted Beet Salad, Baby Arugula, Walnut Bread Croutons, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Whipped Goat Cheese, and Citrus Vinaigrette.

Linda had the Grouper Almandine Toasted Almonds, Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette, Creamy Herb Risotto.

For our wine selection we had one of our favorite labels, a Right Bank Bordeaux Blend that would be an ideal pairing with my steak as well as Linda's seafood. 

Spring Valley Vineyard “Uriah” Walla Walla 2015

I featured the Spring Valley Wines in detail in this detailed blogpost Spring Valley 2013 Blends - Uriah vs Frederick, and this particular label in a recent blogpost back in February - Uriah Spring Valley Red Blend 2015.

From that February posting - With a dinner of take-out of one of my favorite dishes from local eatery Gia Mia, their Meatballs al Forno, Veal Meatballs with Creamy Polenta and Roasted Tomato Sauce, and some artisan cheeses including Raclette cheese which was featured in our spectacular dinner the other night at 3-Michelin Star Alinea restaurant, that we were eager to try. 

For this favored meal combination, for a nice relaxed evening dinner together, I pulled from the cellar one of my favorite drinking Right Bank Bordeaux varietal blends from one of our favorite producers, Spring Valley Vineyards

We visited Spring Valley during our appellation visit to the Walla Walla (Washington) wine region in the fall of 2018. We visited the Spring Valley Vineyard tasting room in downtown Walla Walla, then ventured out to the vineyards and winery northeast of town. There, we met Dean Derby patriarch, and husband to Shari Corkrum Derby, grand-daughter of Uriah Corkrum, namesake for this label. Meeting Mr. Derby was one of the highlights of our Walla Walla Wine Experience, especially since he has since passed on. We posted a Tribute to Dean Derby and memorium of that visit - Spring Valley Vineyard toward the end of 2021. 

All of the Spring Valley wines are named for one of the ancestral or current family members. Spring Valley Vineyard wines are all produced from 100% estate-grown fruit, a relative rarity in Washington.

Washington State and regional powerhouse Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates purchased the winery and the brand from the Derby family recently, but they continue to own and operate the vineyards.

Spring Valley Vineyards Uriah Red Blend 2015

The Spring Valley Vineyards adjacent to the
farmstead site
This label, Uriah, is named for the Spring Valley Vineyards founder Uriah Corkrum, grandfather of matriarch Shari Corkrum Derby. Born in Walla Walla on June 1, 1866, he began successfully farming on his own during the 1880s. Unusual summer rain kept him from getting his harvested wheat to the warehouse so he lost everything in the depression of 1893. He persevered and, in 1897, acquired land in the area known as Spring Valley that is the site of the vineyards today. Uriah is featured on the flagship label Uriah Spring Valley Red Blend. This is our favorite label from the Spring Valley portfolio. 

This is 100% sourced from Spring Valley Vineyards in the wind-shaped Palouse Hills 12 miles northeast of Walla Walla, amid the picturesque wheat fields of southeastern Washington and the Blue Mountains in the distance. The initial block of Merlot was planted in 1993 on a southern hillside facing southwest. The vines follow the north-south slope of the hills in vertical rows, an orientation that when combined with the declination of the slope, allows the vines to take optimal advantage of air drainage, sunshine, and the reflective nature of the surrounding wheat fields.

The 2015 vintage was one of the warmest growing seasons on record in Washington. Warm temperatures continued through the spring and summer, moderating slightly into fall and extending an early harvest. Overall, 2015 saw very favorable growing conditions, producing optimal ripening across varieties and yielding outstanding wines throughout the region.

This label, Uriah, is a Right Bank Bordeaux Blend, meaning it is predominantly Merlot based rather than Cabernet, complemented by Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. This release has a high percentage of Cabernet Franc which provides spiciness and bright flavor sprites.

This 2015 release is a blend or Bordeaux varietals, 43% Cabernet Franc, 38% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot and 2% Malbec. It was aged 18 months in 100% French oak, 40% new.

Winemaker Tasting Notes: “Our most terroir driven blend, mostly Cabernet Franc and Merlot. A rich wine coming from one of the warmest harvests. The tannins are velvety and the finish is long and soft.”
~ Serge Laville, Winemaker.

This was rated 93 Points by Wine & Spirits, 92 Points by James Suckling, 91 Points by Wine Spectator, and 90 points by Sean Sullivan of Wine Advocate. 

We hold half dozen vintages of this label and pulled the oldest vintage as part of effective cellar management rotation. 

At eight years this is probably at its peak, the apex of its drinking profile, not likely to improve further with aging, but certainly to age gracefully for another decade if you're patient enough to keep it that long. 

Bright garnet colored, medium bodied, elegant polished, rich but approachable for pleasant but sophisticated drinking, its right-bank style blend shows vibrant black berry and dark plum fruits with notes of cassis, spice, floral and hints of balsamic and herbs with dusty minerality with polished soft tannins on the lingering finish.

RM 92 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2648699

Linked referenced in this blog:

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/10/spring-valley-vineyards-tasting-and.html

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2019/11/spring-valley-vineyards-nina-syrah-2017.html

https://www.springvalleyvineyard.com/

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2023/02/magnificent-dinner-at-alinea-kitchen.html

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2023/04/kistler-les-noisetiers-sonoma-coast.html 

Great selection of dining in Destin - The Crab Trap

Great selection of dining in Destin - The Crab Trap on James Lee Park / Destiny Beach

In a recent blogpost Great selection of fine dining in Destin - Bijoux we featured Bijoux Restaurant in Sandestin Miramar Beach.

We spent a week traveling, visiting the Emerald Coast of the Florida Panhandle getting to know the area and evaluating the real estate market and several properties. During our stay, we dined at four local legendary restaurants. In Destin (FL) we dined at Louisiana Lagniappe, Boshamps Seafood and Oyster House, besides The Crab Trap, Destin. As featured in that earlier reference blogpost,  we also dined at Bijoux Restuarant in Destin/Miramar Beach in the Sandestin Resort community.  As mentioned, the wide range of fine and casual dining options in one of the key reasons we're considering the Destin area for a vacation or vacation home. 

We featured some other wine and dining experiences in recent posts from a trip to the area earlier this month - Kistler Les Noisetiers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay at Emerils Coastal.

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2023/04/kistler-les-noisetiers-sonoma-coast.html

We visited the Destiny neighborhood (shown in background, opposite the Crab Trap restaurant) in Destin on Florida's Scenic Highway 98. We had lunch at The Crab Trap, Destin, the original historic Gulf/beach front seafood restaurant located at James Lee Park, first opened in 1991.

The Crab Trap has several dining options, inside, with open air windows, on the veranda, or out on the patio deck. The restaurant features local art and hand carved sea side sculptures and a playground for the kids, all on the central site of the community beach with incredible views of the beautiful beach on the Gulf of Mexico. 


The Crab Trap Destin is a favorite of both tourist and locals with unparalleled views of the sugar white beaches of the Emerald Coast, They offer a wide variety of menu options featuring Fresh Seafood with  daily specials ranging from Bronzed Grouper or Grilled Filet to Alaskan Crab Legs. Their 'secret' to fresh Gulf seafood is their very own wild fish processing facility, known as the Seafood Commissary, located at The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island, it is a hub for all locally-sourced seafood for the Crab Trap and their sister restaurants. With deliveries arriving daily straight from the harbor, each year the commissary prepares over 250,000 lbs of fresh-caught Gulf seafood such as shrimp, grouper, snapper, mahi-mahi, cobia, wahoo, and amberjack. 

https://www.crabtrapflorida.com/