Tonight we held a blind tasting of the following 2005 vintage wines and the employee panel made the following selections (tasting notes to follow):
#1 – Fortis with 69pts
#2 – Hourglass with 66pts
#3 – Diamond Creek Red Rock Terrace with 57pts
#4 – Schrader Cellars Beckstoffer with 50pts
#5 – tie – Revana & Pavilion Rouge de Ch Margaux with 47pts each
#7 – Spootswoode with 46pts
#8 – Switchback Ridge with 42pts
#9 – Ch Rauzan Segla with 40pts
#10 – Insignia with 38pts
#11 – Melka Metisse with 27pts
#12 – Dominus with 20pts
About Me
- Eric C. Maczko
- I've been part of Pine Ridge Winery's Culinary Staff for 7 years. In 2003 I took over the Executive Chef Position and have been pairing food and wine together in a creative environment every day since. I am a Certified Sommelier through The Court of Master Sommeliers and hope to gain my Advanced in the coming year. My love of wine, food and literature are the fuel behind this little site and sharing my experience is my gift. Each year I take a little time to craft my own wine, so as to humble myself. It is a pleasure to sample the hard work and dedication of these so many talented wine professionals.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
September 15, 2008 - Wines Tasted
Pine Ridge Vineyards - Chenin Blanc /Viognier - California - 2007- $13.50 - (Food Wine, Classic, Drink Now) - Parker just gave it 90 points and I'm not surprised, it's such a consistent wine delivering a Vouvray like range of characteristics. Just shy of dry (.28% rs) in the typical Vouvray style, but just more floral and less stony. The nose offers up lime, grapefruit, peach skins, pear, light quince and citrus blossom. Upon entry the wine shows off its bright acid and ripe juicy fruits of grapefruit, pear and peach. I love this with fresh goat cheese, chilled shrimp, crab or lobster, and especially spicy food such as Thai, Chinese, Japanese, or Southwest.
September 17, 2008 - Wines Tasted
Chateau Roc De Pourret - St. Emilion - 2005 - $17 (futures)- (Ager, Classic, Food Wine) - When I picked this wine up I had an idea of the vintage's quality, but nothing of the producer. This wine will make you smile. Showing great right now, but will promise much more in the next 10 to 15 years, and at this price! I wish I had a case.
The wine opens with surprisingly bright and focused black currant, black cherry, red plum, bitter chocolate and clay/earth undertones. Tight to the ground, but never lacking to express its fruit. In the mouth it's full bodied and rich with moderate-high acid as well as moderate but chocolaty-smokey tannins. Good length and tight acid on the finish. I recommend drinking this wine now if you want an unusually open wine to test the vintage but preferably from: 2010 to 2020.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
September 2, 2008 Wines Tasted
Domaine Alfred - Chamisal Vineyard - Pinot Noir - Edna Valley- 2006 - $40- (Modern, Food Wine) - Nose of bright red berry, red cherry, Earth, turned clay, hints of black cherry. Fresh and spicy in the mouth as well as being ripe and fully dry, featuring: clove, cinnamon stick, red apple skin, firm tannins, moderate acidity, moderate length. Clean and fresh through the finish, good balance for 14.5%.
Domaine Alfred - Califa - Chamisal Vineyard - Pinot Noir - Edna Valley - 2006 - $60 - (Ager, Modern) - If I had to say how this was different from the above wine, I'd sum it up by suggesting that it's just MORE...Boysenberry, red cherry, adobe clay, sweet vanilla. Ripe and sweet, yet very dry. The Califa tends towards Red cherry, red apple skin, light coffee grounds; firm tannin, moderate high acidity, great length in the finish with a slight warmth (14.5%) and a sense that much more is yet to come. I refered to it as: "Dense & rich with enclosed fruit waiting to escape".
We enjoyed canapes including, Antelope Empanadas and Filet Tenderloin Wrapped with Applewood Smoked Bacon and Black Plum Sauce.
Domaine Alfred - Califa - Chamisal Vineyard - Pinot Noir - Edna Valley - 2006 - $60 - (Ager, Modern) - If I had to say how this was different from the above wine, I'd sum it up by suggesting that it's just MORE...Boysenberry, red cherry, adobe clay, sweet vanilla. Ripe and sweet, yet very dry. The Califa tends towards Red cherry, red apple skin, light coffee grounds; firm tannin, moderate high acidity, great length in the finish with a slight warmth (14.5%) and a sense that much more is yet to come. I refered to it as: "Dense & rich with enclosed fruit waiting to escape".
We enjoyed canapes including, Antelope Empanadas and Filet Tenderloin Wrapped with Applewood Smoked Bacon and Black Plum Sauce.
Monday, September 1, 2008
August 29, 2008 Wines Tasted
For dinner this night, I cooked up some venison loin steaks, hen of the woods mushrooms, roasted squash and eggplant and finished it with a veal stock based pan sauce with concasse of tomato. I allowed Joe to pick the wine from my collection to pair with dinner. He selected the Foxen to taste head-to-head with his White Cottage. Three out of Four picked the White Cottage. I was the odd man out.
When asking, "What wine is better?", one must ask one's self, "Better alone, better example of the grape, better with food, etc...?
I felt the Foxen was the better wine overall, but the White Cottage was lower in alcohol and easier and more fun to drink. So, you tell me. What makes one wine "better" than another.
Foxen Vineyards - Tempusquet Vineyard - Syrah - Santa Maria - 2005 - $45 - (Modern, Ager) - Black plum, meat, baked beans, cedar, coconut, sawdust, candied red apple, and a close to the Earth note in the bouquet. The palette exposes: high alcohol(15.2%) typical of the region, raspberry, plum, black mission fig, cedar plank, high acidity and high tannin, block-o-chocolate, red apple skin, and Luden's Cough Drops. A big brash syrah that isn't for summer sippin...
Best from 2010 to 2013.
White Cottage - Syrah - Contra Costa - 2005 - $30 - (Modern, Food Wine, Easy Drinker) - Opens with caramel, light cafe latte, red cherry, currant, red plum, red raspberry, perfumy and floral which includes both white and red flowers. In the mouth it shows a light tartness of early picked bluberries, raspberries, cool red plums, menthol, red apple, moderatly low tannin but moderatly high acid. With light to neutral oak this wine comes off as quaffable(13.8%) and easy to like. Drink it now.
When asking, "What wine is better?", one must ask one's self, "Better alone, better example of the grape, better with food, etc...?
I felt the Foxen was the better wine overall, but the White Cottage was lower in alcohol and easier and more fun to drink. So, you tell me. What makes one wine "better" than another.
Foxen Vineyards - Tempusquet Vineyard - Syrah - Santa Maria - 2005 - $45 - (Modern, Ager) - Black plum, meat, baked beans, cedar, coconut, sawdust, candied red apple, and a close to the Earth note in the bouquet. The palette exposes: high alcohol(15.2%) typical of the region, raspberry, plum, black mission fig, cedar plank, high acidity and high tannin, block-o-chocolate, red apple skin, and Luden's Cough Drops. A big brash syrah that isn't for summer sippin...
Best from 2010 to 2013.
White Cottage - Syrah - Contra Costa - 2005 - $30 - (Modern, Food Wine, Easy Drinker) - Opens with caramel, light cafe latte, red cherry, currant, red plum, red raspberry, perfumy and floral which includes both white and red flowers. In the mouth it shows a light tartness of early picked bluberries, raspberries, cool red plums, menthol, red apple, moderatly low tannin but moderatly high acid. With light to neutral oak this wine comes off as quaffable(13.8%) and easy to like. Drink it now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)