Corison
Togni
Dominus - older vintages only (as in 12+ years old)
Monte Bello - same
Forman in older vintages (12-15+ years) only. Newer vintages don’t even remotely resemble traditional wines, and frequently top 15.2% abv.
Dyer, Volker Eisele, Shypoke.
Dyer is a great rec. Lovely wines.
Corison has been mentioned many times, but needs to be mentioned many more.
Howard,
Methinks you and I are close to the same age… From 54 to 62 the Mick probably had the best run ever, but Willie’s career will be hard to top. Hard to imagine what his numbers would be if he hadn t played in a wind tunnel.
The wine biz has crept into your spelling…it’s Clos de la Marechale in Nuits St Georges…it’s Juan Marichal
I could bring a 2011 or 2012 Dunn NV Friday night if you want to try it. Or a 2010 Drinkward Peschon.
interesting! I’ve not heard of this one either. ill have to check them out
I think this seems to pretty much be the consensus! Guess I know what to look for!
Plenty of great recommendations above. I’m throwing Calluna and White Rock into the mix.
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At least I confused him with Burgundy!!!
Howard,
You might have confused Willie Mays with Louisville Las Cases…
No. Maybe with Mays Chambertin.
Can’t say I’ve ever heard of this producer or seen the wine - tell me more…
Ken Burnap was an owner and manager of The Hobbit restaurant (which Alice Waters came to fame copying) then bought a site in the Vine Hill subregion of the Santa Cruz Mountains, which had been continuously growing grapes since 1863, from David Bruce, who had just switched it over from Zin to Pinot. Prior to that it had been well regarded for Germanic whites. Further back, around the turn of the century, a prominent east coast wine writer cited it as one of the only three grand cru vineyards in the United States. Structured, age worthy Pinots until he retired and sold the label to his long time assistant winemaker Jeff Emery, and the vineyard to a naive rich person who hired a big talking inexperienced winemaker. They ripped out those wonderful old vines while also expanding their plantings, which doesn’t make much sense. As far as Cab goes, SCMV along with Ahlgren put Bates Ranch on the map in the late '70s. Jeff currently (starting in '05) gets Cab from the Luchessi Vyd. above Saratoga, a small quality site planted in 1981. It won’t be easy to find a mature bottle due to small production and a local sales model. Woodside Vineyards Estate Cab is a similar old school quality Cab. They lost their need for national distribution in the early '80s.
Have not seen their wines for many, many years, but I liked what I had from them years ago.
I expected to see Seavey mentioned by now. Then again, I haven’t heard them mentioned in any context in years. What’s going on with them? I checked their web site and they’re still pulling big points from AG and others - why no chatter?
Dan Posner had some 94 Cab a few months back. I assume he probably still has them.
Wes - great info on SCMV. Still enjoying their wines. Other than Arcadian, I can think of no other producer’s pinot that has a track record for aging so well. And yes, they did a wonderful job with the Bates Cab.
I was invited to the pick-up party a few years ago even though I was not in their wine club. They had a Merlot, Cab and Pinot open that were all over 15 years old and I really enjoyed the Cab and Pinot (the Merlot was totally in the AFWE camp at that point).
Also enjoyed a Ghostwriter Bates Cab last year but not sure who is getting the fruit these days.
Surprised Kathryn Kennedy has not yet been mentioned. Their estate Cab ages and improves for decades and has a balance and lightness like few others.
I. Brand gets Bates CF (think he gets CS, too, but maybe not released yet?) Don’t need to taste it to know it’s good, with traditional ripeness. A friend of mine got some last year as a sort of pre-commercial test batch. It’s quite good. Fun fruit to play with. He’ll be getting some again this year. Maybe it’ll be the next board darling. ![[berserker.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8600bbd4810d342b8fbd4ffb62b4f0026275fd37.gif "berserker"){kind=small}
Kathryn Kennedy’s estate vineyard has shrunk considerably, but the Small Lot has expanded. There’s some really good juice in there. It’s a preference thing, but I generally like the Small Lot better since it has more mountain character. It’s long had a good amount of Martin Ranch Cab in the mix, which is right next door to Bates. More recently it includes a small bit of Bates.
If you recall the old Harvest Moon Vineyard, which Ahlgren and others used to get, that’s the old higher up vines at Martin Ranch, which is in the SCM. There lower vines aren’t due to elevation - which was the default fallback criterion when drawing up the AVA, while the lower part of Bates right next door is in, because it met the quality and character primary requirement. So, their own Therese Vineyards Cab has to use the Santa Clara Valley AVA. We did an extensive tasting of '07 SCM and SCV Cabs back when they were the current release. This beat out Monte Bello and Mount Eden with the group. That’s just because it was a bit more accessible. It was my third, but not by much.
Thanks for the great info Wes. Really great wines from Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard and Ahlgren from Bates Ranch. One small nit to pick is the Luchessi Vineyard is in Cupertino but close to Saratoga. George Luchessi was my brother and sister’s 2nd grade teacher and is a really a great guy.
Sean - great bit of trivia! Do you know how large the vineyard is? When I drive by Katherine Kennedy I always imagine it to be some of the most expensive vineyard land in the world considering what nearby homes are selling for in Saratoga.