Napa Day Trip 1- New Sojourn Releases and dinner with Ruston

Wow how time flies. It’s October so we’re back in Napa/Sonoma for our annual trip. I can’t believe it’s been a year already. The first day was our longest travel day ever. I can’t believe for how small the Oakland airport is how long it can take to get your luggage and a rental car. My buddy’s delayed flight added some more time so 2 hours hanging in the Raiders hood. There goes a late lunch in Sonoma.

I wanted to start the trip off right and since we were staying in Sonoma no better place than the new Sojourn tasting room right off the main square. We met Craig last year at their warehouse winery and tasted through 10 different wines. I thought that visit would be tough to top but Craig was up for the challenge. The tasting room is really nice and a great location to sit and try all the wines. Craig starting things off by letting us know we would be going through 16 wines. We tasted through most of the current line up, the new releases and some great Cab barrel samples.

My notes are quick impressions of the wines and I’ve decided on this trip to keep it easy and rate wines- average, pg(pretty good) good, vg, OMG…

First flight 2007 pinots- all the pinots had been open several ours in the tasting room.

07 SC- drinking very good now. I think in general all their 07 pinot’s are coming along faster than the 2 prior vintages. G to VG. Balanced, crisp nice red fruit and good acidity. Ready to go now. Did I say balanced… Best version yet of this wine. I ended my note with Buy it !

07 Alder Springs- I din’t have notes on this one from last years tasting. This is a really interesting wine. Perhaps the most exotic spice profile I’ve had in a pinot. Spicey with a strong earthy component. Very pronounced tannins that were fine grained and added weight and heft. The finish lasted at least a minute. The spice profile kind of reminded me of a Skewis wine. I really liked this but I could see some folks might feel differently. Even though this is very drinkable now I’m going to leave mine alone and see how they develop in bottle. I had this as good to vg but I think this has real potential to develop and round out. This wine is also begging to go with a nice winter earthy dish.

07 Demuth- now we’re talking. My wine of the flight. This wine has really come around since we tasted last November. Back then it was my favorite pinot based on potential. It’s really developed very nicely. Clove, spicey cola, deep red fruit and a bit of earthiness. Fine tannins and a real silky finish. Terrific mouthfeel. The total package. VG to OMG.

Wines of the flight- Demuth, Alder, SC. Bought more of the Demuth and SC.

05 Cabs- I didn’t spend a lot of time with these as I knew what was coming.

05 Sonoma- My notes are pretty similar to last year. I like the acidic backbone on this wine and think this is one to make sure to have with food. This is ready right now, Nice red and black fruit with a touch of chocolate. A little more developed since last year. Silky finish. Good. Still some left at $ 28 so bought some more.

05 Mountain Terrace- a step up from the Sonoma. This has really come around. My notes from last year describe a real earthiness to the wine. This is not all about the fruit and I really like it. I’ll probably let mine develop a bit more and again I think this is one to have with food. Very Good and on sale for $ 45. This was all of our’s wine of the flight.

Here come the new release 2008 Pinots….

08 Rodgers Creek- Wow, who said the 08 pinot’s aren’t as good as the 07’s. Red fruit, very silky, nicely balanced. Very good and I can see it getting better. Loved it.

08 Russian River- probably my least favorite of the pinots. This was pg to good. I think it just needs a bit more time to come around and develop. RRV profile. Not as spicey as their SC pinot’s.

08 Windsor- very much reminded me of the 07 version. Probably the one most ready to drink now. This was all about the fruit and had a nice creamy finish. Good.

Wines- Rodgers, Windsor, RRV

And here come the heavyweights

08 Gaps- if you liked the 07 version of this you’ll love this. Spicey red fruit.Big fine grained tannins. Touch of herbs. This needs time to continue to round out.Loved it. Very good to OMG.

08 Sangiacomo- I love what they do with this vineyard. Wow, big red spicey fruit. My notes say Juicy. Very balanced already. Loved it. VG to OMG.

Had them tied. It’s like picking which of your kids you liked better. It was great to get a sneak peek at the 08’s. I see them rounding out and improving as the 07’s did. Really good stuff.

Had plenty of crackers and club soda to keep the palate going. I’ve never tasted this many wines at 1 shot. Time for more cabs

06 Mountain Terraces- wow, this is very very good and a different wine than the 05. You get big dark chocolate. Not in a bad or overextracted way. Very fine grain tannins, balanced. I can’t believe how good this is drinking now. Bought more and I’m not sure how long I’ll sit on these. This is a cab to drink young simply because it’s so good now with some air.

In 07 Sojourn made the move from Sonoma to Napa cabs. Based on what we tasted heck of an idea…

07 Spring Mountain- big red fruit. Very nice spring mountain cab. Balanced with nice structure. I really like that you don’t get a lot of oak and you can tell these wines were not pushed to the limit alcohol wise. Really very approachable now. Very good and may be my favorite spring mountain cab I’ve had.

07 Howell Mountain- Ok, my notes starting getting shorter at this point. We tasted a barrel sample of this last year and both times our first reaction was Wow !. This is a serious wine and one to age. Great structure. Fruit starting to peak out behing the tannins. The total package.



Very tough to rank these in preference. I’d say the 06 MT and 07 Spring for right now but the Howell will probably be the best long term. The 07’s were in real nice shape considering they had been in bottle only 1 month.

And last the 08 barrel sample cabs.Now the notes get real short

08 Spring Mountain- very good.

08- Howell- very good

08 Beckstoffer Georges 3rd- Whoa Nelly ! OMFG !. Did we just have the wine of the trip on the first day ? Hugely concentrated, mouth coating and incredible moutfeel and fruit. I think this will be released in 2011 ?

My last notes on the cabs were the same as last year. Vibrant acidity and structure. Very balanced. Don’t pick up any heat. Really great stuff with Napa fruit.

Thanks Craig. What a way to start the trip.

We were very glad at this point that we had decided before coming out to cancel our reservation at Cyrus. There is no way we could have headed up to Healdsburg later that night and done the full tasting menu. We were in the mood for some good food though and we were able to get into La Toque. We cabbed it over after a break at the hotel.

John Ruston was kind enough to swing by and share some wine and food. We chose only to do 3 courses which was the smart move.

Had the 06 Royal Takaj(sp) with the first course Foi Gras. Loved them both. Great pairing.

John brought the 05 La Maestra. We had it decanted and followed it through the course of dinner. John describes this wine as BDX like and I would agree. The 04 is more fruit forward and the one to drink now but this is the total package. Reminded me of the 05 Sojourn Mountain Terrace. A real nice earthiness to the wine. Black fruit, minerals. Very nicely balanced. It’s really an elegant wine and one to serve with food. It went really well with the antelope and my wife’s rib eye. Hands down this is my Napa QPR. John has a nice deal now for those on the mailing list. He was also cool as a cucumber when I spilled half a glass in his lap. DUH ! It had been a long travel day. Note to self. Let the professionals handle the wine when there are many bottles and glassed on the table.

We opend the 06 Cuvee Simone and decanted as well. John feels his 06’s are going to need some time. I would agree but this really rounded out very nicely with about an hour decant. This is a spicey earthy wine and really begs to be served with food. I really liked it with the chickpea and mushroom ravoli. Not the perfect pairing but it drank really nice with the dish. This may become my house wine to serve with anything Italian. It’s a crazy value as part of the summer release. Look for more great things coming from Ruston. You need to have them on your radar.

Dinner was great. The kitchen was in top form. Would have loved to have had the stamina to do 4 courses and desert but it had been too long a day.

Now day 2- Lamborn, Switchback Ridge and our annual Trespass marathon to finish the day.

In effort to comply with the FTC all wines were provide by the wineries to taste

Fred… great notes!! How long is your trip???

3 more days of fun and head back Monday.

Fri/Sat Napa

Sunday Sonoma

Enjoy the rest of the trip, and keep us posted!!!

Great notes.

Be on the lookout for my trip report in a week when I spend five days in Napa.

Bottega ! Meal of the trip…

While we were out there in Augusty with our kids, they went to Bottega, and loved it!

Went there with Mike and Leah Smith of Myriad, Quivet, 12C,Tamber Bey etc… We got lucky and ended up in the wine room. We were kind of loud so it was lucky for the other diners as well. It was very good.

Had the Myriad 07 Beckstoffer Dr Crane and 06 Myriad Spring Mountain. We had barrel tasted the Dr Crane with Mike the first time we met him in 07. The wine is terrific. Total package. Ripe and silky with enough tannins and acidity to really balance everything out. Great match with the short ribs. The 06 Spring is really coming along nicely. Surprised at how well in drank. Very good.

As usual Mike was also extremly generous and brought a small production Rose Champagne. Wow, I need to drink more of this stuff. After a day of tasting it just wakes up your entire mouth. Loved it. Got find out what it was called again. Mike also had a 1967 and 1998 Barbesco. I’ve never had a 40 yr Italian. It almost looked like a rose. It smelled of flowers and was just silk. Incredible wine The 98 was identical in flavor profile with quite a bit more tannin and structure. Great wine as well and just unbelievable to compare the 2. What a way to end the Napa portion of our trip. Mike and Leah are just great folks and a blast to hang with. My favorites of his

07 Myriad Dr Crane
07 12 C- I think the fruit was from Georges 6th ??
06 Tamber Bey Oakville
06 Myriad Spring Mountain
07 Quivet Kenefick


I couldn’t agree more. One of the main highlights of our trip was sitting on Mike & Leah’s back porch and tasting through his entire 07 Myriad/Quivet lineup.
Wonderful folks!