By: Ryan Tedder
Every year it is like Christmas all over again when we host the legendary winemaker Robert Foley in January and taste through his current releases. Not only do Bob’s wines sing with marvelous consistentcy and overly generous flavors, he is a wonderfully down-to-earth guy, a great host and just an all-and-all great guy. We tasted through a good sampling of Bob’s wines and a great time was had by all!
These were the wines:
2010 Pinot Blanc: This was beautiful and crisp but still rich with lots of peach and jasmine with nice minerality and stone fruits.
2011 Pinot Noir: The second vintage of this showy Pinot was a crowd favorite! Sourced partially from Hudson vineyard (where I got married!) and with a nice kiss of oak. the 2011 Pinot had a silky tannin with ripe boysenberry and black cherries and a nice vanilla and hard spice nuance. Bravo!
2011 Charbono: A personal favorite because of its low alcohol, elevated acid and yet still extremely lush flavor profile-the 2011 Charbono was loved by all. Wild jelly flavors, light toast, soft, silky tannins and heady, violet aromatics.
2010 Merlot: The Best Merlot in Napa repeats as grand champion of the category! A Cabs drinkers Merlot in every sense-the black fruits, chocolate and espresso flavors combine with soft tannins to yield a rich Blockbuster.
2010 Claret: The Claret is the most unsung value in Napa today! Put it blind against wines 2 and 3 times the price and the Claret spanks them hands down! Brooding dark fruit, blackberries, chocolate and layers of espresso/coffee/vanilla bean, smoke and licorice make this a wine of extremely high depth. Having a had a bottle of 1997 last year, this will be a wine to stash and covet and if don’t drink it all!!
2011 Kelly’s Cuvee: The 2011 vintage is equal parts Syrah and Petite Sirah and the wine was definitiely a crowd pleaser! Spicy blackberry explodes on the palate with great balance to the juicy fruit/floral/spice palate. A gorilla of flavor in ballet slippers
After the official wines, we drank our colelctive weight in great wines. More blogs to come about the other goodies from the night! Thanks Bob!