Mr. Ridge Comes a-Knockin?

Master Sommelier Robert Jones came to Day-twah recently to promote the wines of Kysela Pere et Fils, LTD, for which he serves as National Sales Manager. Robert and I go back some years, and in that time, he’s noticed that we have a special place in our hearts for the wines of Ridge Vineyards, a [...]

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Event Report: 2012 Wine Spectator Grand Tour Las Vegas

This is a guest post from my friend Joegish from CellarTracker.

Being an avid reader of the WWP and a fan of Robert on Cellar Tracker, I offered up to write a few notes for him on the recent Cinco de Mayo Wine Spectator Grand Tasting event held in Las Vegas at The Mirage.  My wife and I attended the event with 2 other couples (one from Connecticut and one from California) who are all wine enthusiasts.  We approached this event with 2 objectives:

  1. Taste wines that are not available or that are too expensive for our budget (I am a big fan of the WWP QPR tool)
  2. Taste wines that are either vertical extensions or from a winery whose products we like or may want to purchase.

Pre-Tasting 


Because our group decided wine was our focus and food was secondary, we chose not to rely on the food at the tasting.  This decision was also influenced by the unknown of how The Mirage would handle the event, given that this was a new venue.  There were also some comments written on Cellar Tracker that made us wonder how crowded the event would be.

The information provided by Wine Spectator was very limited before the tasting.  The only real information available was a list of participating wineries, with the actual wines being poured not disclosed before the event.  Given that this was the third (and final) Grand Tasting event, some of the wines being poured were disclosed in other blogs, but the information was sketchy at best.  This severely limited our ability to plan specific wines to taste.  Personally, I view this lack of information as the only significant opportunity for improvement for the event.

The Wait and Entry 


We arrived about 35 minutes before the event started and were approximately 400 people behind the front of the line.  Although the ventilation was lacking, we survived the wait and entered the tasting hall with no issues.  The entrance was actually rather speedy, considering the logistics involved.  We were given a pen, a handy notebook with all the wineries and wines being served, and a souvenir Riedel glass upon entrance. 

If you have ever been to a trade show, you know how this event was set up.  Two hundred 8x10 booths set up in 8 aisles.  A very logical organization by region and varietal made it simple to understand and find wines.  Food and tables were at the one end of the enormous hall.  Other than the entrance wait, the only real crowd to be found the rest of the night was for the 1999 Ch. Margaux being poured.  I am sure it is delicious; however, we skipped that line for the entire evening.

We quickly discovered that there was plenty of time to taste whatever wines you wanted, so there was really no need to hurry.  The food was set up as a buffet, and was rather generous with carving stations, pasta stations, etc., set up in a logical perimeter around the tables.  There was no need to eat beforehand and the quality of the food seemed rather excellent.

The Wines


After a quick review of the notebook, we found at least 6 wines for our ?must taste? list:

2009 Ch. Pontet-Canet Pauillac  (WS 96 $180)
Very nice young Bordeaux. Lots of complexity and fruit. I would give this a 92 (interesting to me, this is the same as I rated the 2009 Ch. Lillian Ladouys at $24/bottle).

2009 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Special Select (WS 93 $130)
I was very excited to see this wine as I bought a few bottles of it, but had not tried it.  Wow, what a fruit bomb.  Rather shocking for a Caymus Special Select ? I hope the fruit fades and other flavors develop over time.  Hardly even tasted like a cab blend to me.
Editor's Note: This aligns almost exactly with my notes on this vintage from a recent retrospective tasting of Caymus Special Selection.

2008 BV Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Georges Latour Private Reserve (WS 93 $125)
I have tried these in the past and always thought them to be over-oaked.  Same with this vintage. Pass.  Maybe after 10 years in the cellar.....

2008 Merus Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2008 (WS 93 $135)
I had read good things about Merus and wanted to try their cabernet.  This wine did not disappoint.  Complexity, depth, finish - what a cabernet.  This was the first wine I tasted that I would have rated higher than WS.  My WOTN. A 95 in my book and worth seeking out.

2010 Kosta Browne Russian River Valley Pinot Noir (Not yet rated)  
This was the only wine I noticed that had not been rated yet by WS.  I'll forgive WS, given that KB produced their WOTY last year.  Nice pinot noir, full bodied and relatively complex.  I would buy some if it were available under $50...but would probably pass on it at a higher price and would definitely not stock up on it.  I'd rate it a 92.

2008 Joseph Phelps Insignia (WS 94 $225)
Way too young to drink yet.  Some complexity and the finish was pleasant, but the fruit was overwhelmed by oak.  Would not drink for at least 8-10 years.

Other Wines that Caught my Eye


2007 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino (WS 94 $110)
I have a bottle of this in my basement.  Now I know why I wrote a 2020 on the bottle tag. Perhaps I should change that to 2030 or save it in my will for one of my children....talk about tannic.  I could not drink it.

As a matter of fact, I tried numerous tannic oak bombs that are just not my style (2009 Ornellaia2005 La Poderina, 2009 Setti Ponti Oreno, et al.  These are just way too young to taste...I really do not understand how people can rate these wines in their youth and I found them generally undrinkable at this point.  Bummer.

Being a pinot noir fan, I think I tried all of the pinots at the tasting.  A couple that stood out for me were:

2010 Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Rosella's Vinyard - in my book as good as the Kosta Browne served in the booth next door.

2008 Domaine Drouhin Laurene - my favorite Oregon wine of the night

2008 Domaine Serene Evanstad Reserve - I have a few bottles of the 07, and the 08 is still a little rough at this point.

2009 Elk Cove Willamette Valley - quite nice, but pretty standard.

2008 King Estate Eola-Amity Hills Roserock Vineyard - I really liked this one, but found it odd that only three hundred  6 packs were produced...why would you feature this at a WS Grand Tasting?  FYI, WS rated this one a 95. 

Other Wines I Thought were Very Good


2008 Chateau St Jean Cinq Cepages

2008 DeLille Doyene

2005 Yalumba Shiraz Barossa The Octavius

2009 Hall Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Jack's Masterpiece - this was my #2 WOTN.  We learned it actually comes from the Sacrashe Vineyard in Napa Valley.  We have enjoyed many cabernets from that vineyard in the past.

2009 Two Hands Lily's Garden McLaren Vale Shiraz Delicious.  Personally, I would probably still go for the 09 Angel?s Share and Gnarly Dudes from Two Hands.  Those 2 are both delicious and very drinkable right now.

We did not try many white wines (one of our friends did love the 2010 Vina Nora Rias Baixas Nora de Neve), but did manage a few trips over to the Champagne and dessert wines rows and tried a few of these as well.  The favorites of the night were the Schramsberg Reserve North Coast 2004, Luis Roederer Brut Champagne Premier NV, Veuve Clicquot Brut Champagne 2004, and the Moet & Chandon Brut Champagne Imperial NV.

Conclusions and Recommendations


Although we tried to pace ourselves, spit when possible, and utilized the full 3 hours, we still only tried about half of the wines we would have liked.  It was a little frustrating to think of the many, many highly rated wines that we just could not taste.  Perhaps next year, our goal will be to try 30 wines we know nothing about...

A lot of the WS staff attended and were fun to talk with.  Tim Fish, Thomas Matthews, and James Laube were all there and chatting it up with attendees.  We met a lot of interesting people and winemakers.

Overall, the opportunity to try many different styles of high scoring wines was pretty amazing.  The venue was very comfortable and I would recommend attending - the $200 was money well spent.

Further Reading: 2011 Wine Spectator Grand Tour Boston Event Report

Editor's Note: My sincere thanks for this guest post! I think a lot of you will agree - it's hard to tell his writing style from mine and this provided excellent insight into an event we all would have enjoyed.

Question of the Day: Did you attend any of the Wine Spectator Grand Tour events this year? They were also held in New York City and Washington DC. If so, what did you think? If not, where do you think Spectator should visit next year?


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Event Report: Wagner Family of Wines at the Boston Wine Festival

The Boston Wine Festival at the Boston Harbor Hotel featured the Wagner Family of Wines this past week. A seminar with six Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignons from 1990-2009 proceeded a paired dinner featuring other Wagner Family wines.

Representing the winery was Joseph Wagner, son of Chuck Wagner of Caymus fame. Along with his three siblings, Joe represents the next generation of Wagner winemakers and is responsible for the current direction of their Pinot Noirs (Belle Glos and Meiomi) and the future direction of their red wines.

Unlike Mondavi, which chooses to market all of their wines under lines bearing the family name, the Wagner Family of Wines contains a fleet of individual brands: Caymus (Cabernet), Belle Glos (single vineyard Pinot Noir) and Meiomi (appellation Pinot Noir), Mer Soleil (Chardonnay), and Conundrum (entry level white and recently red blends).

Recent campaigns seek to tie these brands together. For me, having enjoyed their wines over the years and after this tasting, the common thread is delicious fruit forward wine that delivers value and enjoyment at each price point they compete at.

I'd never been to an event at the Boston Wine Festival before. This is not to be confused with the Boston Wine Expo which is (primarily) a large tasting that occurs in January. The Wine Festival is a series of paired wine dinners at the five-star Boston Harbor Hotel prepared by chef Daniel Bruce.

The evening started off with a sit-down seminar moderated by Joe Wagner featuring six vintages of Caymus Special Selection from 1990-2009. Two Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignons have been named Wine Spectator Wine of the Year: The 1990 ($75 release price) and the 1984 ($38 release price - doesn't that sound nice?).

Wagner described a style shift in Napa Cab in the late '80s/early '90s where many producers stopped trying to emulate Bordeaux in California - Caymus included. Perhaps the most notable difference between Caymus and Bordeaux is how enjoyable Caymus is immediately upon release. A question from attendees along these lines asked what the optimal age for enjoying Caymus Special Selection is. Joe said it was a matter of personal preference. Their wines are meant to be enjoyable on release and to evolve and develop over time. His preference is to enjoy Special Selection at 7 years after vintage.

Caymus has been one of the most reliably outstanding producers of Napa Cab over the past twenty years. Here is a chart showing the ratings Wine Spectator gave their Napa Valley and Special Selection bottlings since 1990 (click to enlarge):

These days the Special Selection carries a retail price of $130 (29,000 cases produced) and the Napa Valley retails for $68 (71,000 cases produced). With these higher production levels they're definitely available at retail outlets - including your favorite deep discounters. The Special Selection seems to bottom out around $99 and the Napa Valley around $59. If you can find them for less, buy 'em!

According to Wagner, the difference between the Napa Valley and Special Selection is that the special selection comes from the best lots, has a more substantial oak regiment, and is intended to be a classier wine.


At the seminar we tasted through six Caymus Special Selection Cabernets from 1990-2009. Here are my notes on the wines:

1990 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
Wine Spectator Wine of the Year 1994

Perfume, florals, caramel, toasty oak, super-well integrated. Slightly skunky - strange. Reminds me of the smell of oak in a cellar. Aged in 100% French Oak 2-3 years.

90/100 WWP: Outstanding


1994 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon

Sour cherry, plum. Easy drinking. Cellar oak. Lots of sediment.

90/100 WWP: Outstanding


1997 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon

Huge jump in style here from the 1994. "A stellar year in Napa." Cinnamon. Pleasant. Right in the middle of the age spectrum.

92/100 WWP: Outstanding


2002 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon

Nice initially but falls off a bit on the mid-palate. Pretty nose, but I don't know if I like it enough to see how it's a $100 wine. Substantial sediment.

90/100 WWP: Outstanding


2005 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon


Cola, black currant, vanilla, and dark fruit. Really nice stuff. Like this one a lot. This is at the 7 year mark Wagner mentioned and I love it. 

94/100 WWP: Outstanding


2009 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon


Fresh and inviting. Lively young primary fruit. Cream soda. Quite sweet. Absolutely delicious but this is pushing it even for me. Wow - it's tasty though. This is so utterly different from the 1990 it's almost hard to compare. 

92/100 WWP: Outstanding


The trend here for me is similar to what I've experienced as I've tasted other aged Napa Cabs: There are diminishing returns after 10 years. I agreed with Joe Wagner's preference that the wine was showing at its best 7 years post-vintage. The wines are good upon release. They change substantially in the next couple years. Then they begin a slow progression into a very soft and less substantial presence than they had on release.

I discovered something interested as I was pulling the Spectator ratings for the plot above. I found that James Laube had re-tasted these wines with regularity as part of retrospective tastings.

Notice in the plot below how all of the re-tastings were lower than the wines were rated on release. It makes me think twice before saving this style of wine for special occasions in the distant future in hopes that the wines improve significantly with age.

Conclusions and Next Steps

It was a treat to taste through these wines and get a feel for how they've evolved stylistically and aged. They're reliably delicious special occasion wines. I brought a bottle of 2008 Special Selection on a recent Disney Cruise we went on. It was gorgeous. Couldn't believe how quickly that bottle was drained. (Full review of the cruise here if you're interested)

The Caymus brand is a staple at nicer restaurants, regularly featured alongside Cakebread and Silver Oak. See how it fared in this Steakhouse Cab Blind Tasting.

Further Reading: The second half of this evening where we tasted the rest of the Wagner Family of Wines paired with dishes from Chef Daniel Bruce.

I'd love it if you subscribed to the Wellesley Wine Press to keep in touch.

Disclosure: I attended the event on a complimentary blogger pass.

Question of the Day: What do you think of Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon? What's your rule of thumb in terms of aging Napa Cab for maximum enjoyment?


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Littorai Visit and Tasting Report

 
Littorai is a Sonoma based winery focused on the sustainable production of high end Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Founded in 1993 by Heidi and Ted Lemon, they seek out sites with outstanding potential then let those vineyards reveal their unique character in the wines they produce.
 
I visited Littorai a month or so ago and got a chance to see first hand what makes them special. When you talk about "off the beaten path" in Sonoma it has an entirely different meaning than in Napa. If you think a small mailbox with a family name is charming, try visiting Littorai. They take take it to the next level. Ask for a visit and you'll be greeted with directions and a gate access code for a property you'd never find on your own with no signage whatsoever.
Founder, owner, and head winemaker Ted Lemon can seem like the grown-up in the room when extolling the virtues of terroir driven wines, balance, and the potential for California Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. What resonated with me about his message is that he's not looking simply to emulate Burgundy in California. He's looking to embrace the unique characteristics and capabilities of each site and deliver wines that speak purely to that site.

 When I visited I met with assistant winemaker John Wilson who most recently worked with highly regarded Thomas Rivers Brown of Schrader/Outpost/Rivers Marie fame. He took me for a tour around the thirty acre site - only three of which is dedicated to vines in the form of The Pivot vineyard. The site is also home to Littorai's winery which is built with hay bale walls and features gravity flow wine movement.

 

 
We tasted through the Littorai Chardonnays first. Ted Lemon has a great line in the video embedded below along the lines of "Chardonnay's first duty is to make you forget red wine." These white wines were brilliant and delicious and made me think I should drink more white wine - especially Chardonnay of this style. They're flavorful and powerful yet elegant and light. Really pretty.

 The Pinot Noirs showed fabulously as well, each with different characteristics that rang true to the Littorai focus of letting sites speak for themselves. All of the Littorai single vineyard Pinot Noirs are made exactly the same way. The only difference is the site.

 My only complaint with the tasting experience is that it was a little chilly so it was hard to differentiate the Pinots as much as I'd have liked to. The room felt south of 55F and I like to taste Pinot in the low to mid 60Fs.

 
When I got home I had a chance to sit down and spend some quality time with a 2010 Littorai Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. It was a beauty. Here are my thoughts on that wine:

 

2010 Littorai Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
13.3% alcohol
$38

 Aromatically expressive immediately upon opening with rounded edges of strawberry and raspberry fruit, spice box, and tea notes. Elegant on the palate with a touch of acidity and tannic grip, it's a pleasure to drink.

 Serious, but not overly so. This wine succeeds in finding the intersection between being terroir-driven and letting the site speak for itself and revealing the California sunshine. A tremendous introduction to the producer.

 93/100 WWP: Outstanding

 Lemon was named winemaker of the year in 2010 by The San Francisco Chronicle. Check out this excellent piece by Jon Bonne.

 Check out this outstanding video with wine director Raj Parr of Sandhi Wines and Ted Lemon from Littorai:

  
(try if the video doesn't embed sucessfully)

 Littorai's wines can be hard to track down. You can do a wine-searcher.com search for retailers in MA that sell the wine but you won't currently find any. But check out The Urban Grape in Chestnut Hill if you're in the area. They've got a bunch of 'em. Case club?

 You can sign up for their mailing list by visiting their website: http://littorai.com

Question of the Day: Have you visited Littorai or tasted their wines? If so, what did you think? Either way, what are some of your favorite terroir-driven California producers?

 


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Tasting Leelanau 2012 ? Verterra Winery

We don?t need much in the way of coaxing, convincing or cajoling to get us back up to northern Michigan wine country. It seems like every time we visit Traverse City and the nearby Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas (we?ve been going since the late ?80s), we find at least a couple more good reasons [...]

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Do Case Discounts Actually Stifle Wine Purchases?

This question has been on my mind for some time so I thought I'd get it out there for discussion both from consumers and retailers alike.

If you're like me and many of my friends, your cellar is full, you've got more wine than you need and yet you're always in the market for certain specific wines. If a retailer has a wine you're looking for, and that retailer has a pricing model where for example a mixed case is 20% off - what do you do?

Do you put together a 12 bottle case of other wines you know you'll eventually drink? Do you get together with friends to split a mixed case? Or do you consider the whole production a hassle and delay the purchase indefinitely?

Are case discounts actually having the opposite effect they're intended to have?

There are basically three pricing models in stores in this respect: Low, medium, and high case discounts.

  • Low
    On the low side we have operations where the first bottle is offered at the maximum discount. There are no case discounts.
  • Medium
    In the middle is a more moderate 10% - 15% discount for a mixed 12 bottle purchase.
  • High
    At the other end of the spectrum are placed where 25% or even 30% discounts are offered for mixed case purchases of 36 bottles. Typical margin for a retail wine shop is 33% so when a retailer offers a 30% discount it's usually what's required to get the prices down out of the stratosphere.
For both the middle and high discount case purchase models, sale items are typically excluded because offering a wine for 30% off would create a situation where the retailer would sell a product for less than they paid for it. Not that a retailer would like to do this, but it's illegal in Massachusetts. Sale items usually count towards reaching the required quantity of bottles, but they're not discounted below their sale price.

Which model works best for consumers? And which is most effective for retailers?

My reason for writing this is I often find myself not buying from retailers whose model requires hefty case purchases for favorable pricing.

If there's one thing a deal hound hates it's paying more for something than he has to. Even if it's just a few dollars here and there, it's a percentage game because over time the dollars add up.

Some retailers will give you a case discount if you're a regular even if you buy just 2 or 3 bottles. While this sounds good in theory in reality it's annoying to both consumers and retailers. It's annoying to consumers the first time they visit a shop and the employee who typically gives them the discount doesn't ring them up. And it's annoying to retailers because once a customer gets a discount they expect it forever.

What do I Like?

I like a model where I only have to buy what I want, and everything I buy is at the best possible price. I like receiving emails offering specific wines at very aggressive prices that I can pick and choose from, buy what I want, and over time build towards a case purchase. Then, I'll either pick it up at the store or arrange for shipment a couple times a year.

This is different than what I look for when buying, for example, a bicycle. Or tires. I don't buy bicycles or tires often enough to sweat it. I just visit a local shop or two, consider convenience and service, and go with my gut instinct.

But when you're buying wine again and again it pays to think about this stuff. 

Consumers: What do you think? Looking back over the past couple years which models have earned more of your business?

Retailers: What are your thoughts on this? How did you decide to go with the case discount model you're using? And what trends have you seen as you've run specials offering deeper discounts with lower quantity purchases?


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