TN's: Vineyard Lunch Gang does Blind Cabs

VINEYARD LUNCH GAND DOES BLIND CABS - Jason Hagen’s office (2/19/2009)

Another lunch time addition of blind wines at a place of work. Bagged Cabs, at least 75%, was the latest edition. All wines tasted blind in flights of two. All reveals came after the entire lineup was tasted and time given for revisits. Nothing stood out as awesome to me but I liked a lot of the wines. Wine #9 did stand a hair above the pack for several of us and ended up winning which surprised me. The Louis Martini was just a throw in since I wanted to check out the hype on the bottle. My 91 Ridge was supposed to blow the competition off the table and not my ‘extra’ wine. Gotta love blind tastings. 2nd place overall was the Slingshot and 3rd was the Von Strasser. I voted 9/8/1 preferring the balance and older world characters of the Leeuwin for 2nd place.

• 2007 Biggio Hamina Cellars Melon de Bourgogne Deux Vert - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton
  Honey and flowers on the nose. Lean austere palate similar to a tight chard with some straw notes. Not going to replace Muscadet any time soon but an interesting expression with the nose the clearest departure from the French version.
  
  
  
• N.V. Ozlandia Emerald City Lights - USA, Kansas
  I think Jim Dietz is trying to tell me he doesn’t like me anymore in a passive aggressive way. Weird spicey nose in a shellac sort of way, kind of like Retsina. Sweet tart palate. Well at least he found a way to get rid of a bottle.
  
  
  
• 1997 Von Strasser Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain - USA, California, Napa Valley, Diamond Mountain
  #1 - Nose like that of a Cab with some age on it. Thick, broad and a bit heavy but lingers on the palate giving a touch of green notes late and tons of tannin still. Guess it might have been a Bordeaux since I didn’t notice and oakiness or overt ripeness. Nice wine.
• 1991 Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
  #2 - Aged traditional Cab nose with some minerals. Tinge of greenish notes. Balanced with still good acidity and plenty of tannin. The fruit wasn’t as expressive as my last go around with this bottle. Decent but not memorable.
  
  
  
• 2004 Grgich Hills Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley
  #3 - Ripe raisiny with a touch of VA which grew bigger with time. Bit hot with a weak midpalate, chunky with late acting tannin. I doubt Mike is still making these.
• 2004 Cornerstone Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain - USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain
  #4 - Nose shows a lot of sweet oakiness in the way of vanilla and coconut. Thick soft palate with lots of char. Boysenberries pick through before some astringency. I guessed a Switchback.
  
  
  
• 2005 Merryvale Cabernet Sauvignon Starmont - USA, California, Napa Valley
  #5 - Weird nose of salty fish and sweet cocoa. Chunky but light bodied with some sweetness. Finish seemed nice but somehow the oddness of this wine kinda worked. Wasn’t wild about it but was surprised that I enjoyed it overall.
• 2005 Frei Brothers Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve - USA, California, Sonoma County, Alexander Valley
  #6 - Ripe nose of cocoa sprinkled prunes. Juicy palate of dark chocolate with a weak finish.
  
  
  
• 2002 Jones Family The Sisters - USA, California, Napa Valley
  #7 - Nose has some nice earth but is a bit hot. Has some sweetness but actually tastes like Cab which is always note worthy in its rare sitings from Napa. Well balanced but not particularly interesting. Weird I had never heard of this before last week and then had it twice in 7 days from the same vintage.
• 2001 Leeuwin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Art Series - Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River
  #8 - Never would have guessed Aussie. Herbaceous nose of tobacco and green notes. Lean with late acting tannins this showed bell pepper in a very Cab Franc sort of way. Drank most similarly to a Loire Cab Franc from a lighter vintage like 2004. I enjoyed it for that reason. Nicely balanced wine that would be a great meal companion.
  
  
  
• 2006 Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County - USA, California, Sonoma County
  #9 - Sweet vanilla and boysenberry nose. Broad balanced palate showing big bright boysenberry type fruits with some minerals. Modern styled but in check. Nothing stands out too much but nothing really lacks either. Nicely done and a terrific bargain at $11-12. Won our blind tasting of 10 Cabs as a surprise throw in let’s try this out wine.
• 2005 Slingshot Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley
  #10 - Ripe with some heat and minerals which is a note worthy combo. Note of oak that is complimentary rather than overt. Juicy and ripe. Overall this seemed like a very modern styled Cab but nicely made as it did show good balance. I liked it less on the revisit but this would be great for a non wine geek crowd.

Posted from CellarTracker

Nice notes Cris.

I picked up 2 of these from Costco a few months back and was disappointed with them. The 2003, of which I still have one, are so much better than the 2005, being much fuller bodied and an overall better blend. I was hoping for something similar, but got waht you describe, but without the fish.

I really need to get some of this '06 Louis Martini Sonoma cab - it continues to surprise in TN’s

Also, the correct term for your title is ‘sight-impaired’…

Thanks for the notes Cris. I was pretty happy with this tasting. I found 9 out of 10 wines working for me on some level. I felt pretty good about my top three but really the top 5 were a bit like splitting hairs. I left my sheet at the office and can’t remember for sure but I am pretty sure my voting went.

1. 2005 Slingshot Cabernet Sauvignon ( I was surprised)
2. 2002 Jones Family The Sisters (my wine so glad to know I like it even when I don’t know it is being poured for me.
3. 2001 Leeuwin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Art Series

The Martini would probably make my top 5. It has something weird going on throught the middle that through me off but it was very cool that it showed so well against some very established (and much higher priced) wines.

Cris do you remember the final order of the group vote? I think it was 9, 10, 8.

2007 Biggio Hamina Cellars Melon de Bourgogne Deux Vert - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton (2/23/2009)
Glad to see new things popping up and new pioneers. As I have said before I don’t very little Musadet so I don’t have a previous grid. The wine is austere, briny and interesting. I am curious what this will be like in 24 months. (88 pts.)

1991 Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains[/url] - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains The nose needed to clear up a little. It really bothered me at first. So much cocoa powder. With a little time in the glass it faded and went to a more earthy cab nose. I really didn’t think I would like it but at first sip, it showed that it was clearly a good wine. Near the top for me.

2004 Cornerstone Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain[/url] - USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain Wow I was pretty surprised by this (wait I thought it was an older wine … like an 02). This did remind me of the Switchback vein. So much oak. Still a very tasty soft sippin wine. I was surprised because the 90s Beatty Ranch wines were very structured.

2002 Jones Family The Sisters[/url] - USA, California, Napa Valley
I love Jones Family but this was actually the first time I have opened The Sisters. Less structured than the top bottling but still very good. A very tasty cab. Lots of ripe and somewhat sweet fruit that fits right in with the moderate structure. Not a fruit bomb but leaning that direction. I brought the remainder of the bottle home and Laura and both continued to enjoy this. (92 pts.)


2001 Leeuwin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Art Series - Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River (2/20/2009)
Had with The VLG. I was intrigued by this wine. I would guessed it was Cab Franc over and over. Not sure what direction this will evolve from here but it is very enjoyable now. You have to have a tolerance for bellpepper and herbs as they are present.

Thanks all for joining and glad to see the Martini clean up.

Jason

Sounds like the '97 von Strasser is doing well. We’ll be having '94, '96 and '97 out of magnum for Flannery Fest II.

I believe it was 9, 10, 1. At least that is what I wrote that at the top of my page of notes.

Sweet! Mini-vert.

I can always call Rudy and see if he has a '95 in the cave.

2001 Leeuwin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Art Series - Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River
#8 - Never would have guessed Aussie. Herbaceous nose of tobacco and green notes. Lean with late acting tannins this showed bell pepper in a very Cab Franc sort of way. Drank most similarly to a Loire Cab Franc from a lighter vintage like 2004. I enjoyed it for that reason. Nicely balanced wine that would be a great meal companion.

Aussie Cab never really did it for me. In spite of the location and climate, I tend to think it is the not the best variety for that specific terroir.

Nice tasting. No one wine stood out, but I’d say at least 7 were more than acceptable.

Most disappointing, perhaps, was the 1991 Ridge Santa Cruz, though it was much better on the palate than on the nose, which, at least at first, was awful. My last go around with this wine was awesome. But since between Cris, me and AV we have about 10 more bottles, we should have ample time to check in on it again.

Dr. Lin… .that Aussie Cab was mine… the only one I owned, and while it didn’t make my top 3 of the day, it was up there. Interesting stuff.

If i drank during lunch on a work day it’d be painfully obvious =(

We have practiced and practiced, CF… you just need to do more of it… In fact, we think we are even better in the afternoon after drinking that much. We also are waaay better looking too.

Sounds like you are already set but it might be fun to do an Aussie Cab tasting. It seems like I used to drink some in the early 90s but very rarely now. I certainly liked the 01 Leeuwin and one I stumble onto 1 off bottles in my cellar (more often Cab/Syrah) I have found that they have aged well.

Obviously they need to keep growing Cab for Grange! … even if it is just a splash.

Hey, why aren’t their more Syrah/Cabs in Cali. Or are there more. I know of a handful but with Grange as a model, why isn’t there more?

Jason

I have a 99 Aussie Bordeaux blend I got off of Garagiste that’s looking for a Bordeaux blend tasting.

Eric posed a similar question.
http://www.wineberserkers.com/viewtopic.php?p=11743#p11743" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I recall others telling me they weren’t fans of Aussie Cabs, too. Actually, I kind of like them. I see them more as spicier versions (almost as though a small amt of Shiraz has been added) of the varietal than I am use to seeing from the U.S., so they sort of fill a different niche.

OTOH, I’m not as big a fan of domestic Cabs having Syrah or Petite blended into them in any amount, because I prefer the predominance of the Cabernet profile, and I find the non-Bdx varietals detracts from that.

That said, I do know there are several Cab-Syrah blends produced here, which, depending on the amt of Cab may/may not be labeled thusly. It seems it’s all about choices.

Thanks for the link.

J

Another thought, this bell pepper thing that seems more prominent in Aussie Cabs, as opposed to Cal Cabs, is an interesting distinction, and might be part of the reason people don’t favor them. Cris’ comparison to Cab Franc is apt, and there are more than a few trace elements in Aussie Cabs that bear resemblance to Chinon and the Medoc for than matter. Interestingly, there was a time when many of Napa Valley’s Cabs, and nearly all of Santa Ynez’s Cab had some of this profile. Little by little it disappeared, IMO almost entirely due to better growing techniques like canopy management. Still, many people find the herbaceous, bell pepper, green tobacco quality adds something interesting to the final wine. And, I see a comeback of sorts for domestic Cab Franc too.

Good points Eric, but I also think that pick ripeness/harvest date can be pretty squarely blamed here. The bell pepper character is usually attributed to methoxypyrazine, and as a general rule it decreases the further away from veraison you get. If you’re picking at 23 brix, there’s a much better chance of having some pyrazine character than if you’re picking at 28 brix. Just a thought.

This would probably help explain my predilections when it comes to Cab a WHOLE lot. A lot of the things that make Cab complex and interesting to me I so rarely see in them these days. The more I learn the more I realize ripeness levels are the #1 factor.