By: Ryan Tedder
Sometimes we might seem like hopeless Francophiles based on our blogs about consuming copious amounts of Bordeaux and Burgundy. We for every great bottle of Old World wines we consume at least one fantastic bottle of Californian win is consumed. We certainly do enjoy drinking these over the top delights with a little bit of age on them. The beauty of these wines is that they drink amazingly well at far younger ages than their European cousins. Earlier this week we did a nose dive into some wonderfully lush, rich wines with remarkable balance.
We started with Ivan the Fiver and a smashing bottle of 2012 SQN The Monkey White Blend. This was an enchanting blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne that was outstanding. It had more limestone minerality than many other white SQNs I have drank. There was an opulent yellow peach, apricot, quince, cantaloupe nose with some musty white truffle and elderflower notes. The wines was creamy and supple on the palate with a touch of menthol heat. The finish was long and pleasing and this wine had excellent balance for the style. Not the absolute best white SQN ever but fantastic nonetheless!
Next up was the classic Old School producer of Napa, 2006 Caymus Special Selection Cab. As always this wine was solid with a juicy and loamy core of cassis, black cherry and blackberry. There was a slight violet and mocha note to the nose with sweet baking spices and cocoa notes. The wine was drinking wonderfully at 8 years with a sweet core of fruit tannins and a nice creamy, toasty Cinnamon Toast Crunch oak thing going on. This was like drinking candy you really like. I think a Reese’s peanut butter cup with be excellent with it. We slurped this down rather quickly.
The following wine was my first experience trying this producer. The 2009 Maybach Materium Cab Blend made by Thomas Rivers Brown from the Weitz vineyard that lies at 1000 feet in elevation high in the hills east of Oakville @ Rudd. This had a brooding meatiness with saturated black currant, licorice, pipe tobacco and new leather on the nose with a super plump blackberry cobbler, hot embers and heady flowers. The wine is extremely dense and loaded with power and potential. I would personally hold off on drinking another one of these for at least 2 years. The excellence of the wine is still somewhat wound up currently. This list is impossible to get on and now I understand why. Next to Futo as my top couple of New “Culty” wines this year so far.
Last up and the class of the evening was also from the one and only Ivan the Fiver, another superlative bottle of 2010 Colgin Estate IX Red Blend. This is the third bottle of this 100 Point wine that I have drank with our friend. I don;t understand how you can start to age a wine that tastes so damn good right now. Seldom do wines have such a profundity of flavor and extract but yet, they maintain wonderful balance and seamless complexity. Truly a wine to seek out and experience once in your life. There is a myriad of amazing flavors in the wine but the blueberry, violets, asphalt, pencil lead, sweet mulled black cherries, caramel, toast, and raspberry tart. Mind-blowing juice that I am happy to say I called producer, year and bottling…just saying;)
As often happens, several other great wines were consumed over the course of the night.
The goodies included:
NV Gonet Medeville Brut Rose
NV Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs
2009 Arnaud Ente Meursault
2001 Jadot Clos de La Roche Grand Cru
2011 Papillon Cab by Orin Swift
2005 Realm Beckstoffer To Kalon Cab
2000 La Conseillante Pomerol
2010 Domaine d’Ardhuy Corton Charlemagne Le Vigne Dieu GC
2010 Kosta Browne Russian River Pinot Noir
2002 Ken Wright Elton Vineyard Pinot Noir