Big Winos list from yesterday, pardon my spelling:
2000 Pol Roger Blanc de Blanc
2008 Ornellia Serra Nouve (baby Ornellia)
2010 Switchback Ridge Petite Syrah
2009 Robert Foley Howell Mountain Black Label
2008 Cardinale Propietary Red
2010 Robert Mondavi Reserve To Kalon
Mystery wine was a 2006 Harlan. I guessed it as a 2005 Carter. I pegged it as a To Kalon wine, but just missed the year and maker.

Other wines that made appearances:
2007 Rubicon "Seven" Estate and Red Barn
2007 St. Supery Elu
2007 Paul Hobbs To Kalon
Berehns Family Road Less Traveled
2009 Switchback Ridge Petite Syrah

BSD, out of curiosity, how much for a bottle of Scarecrow?

It's about $300 all in (tax and shipping).

Htown, I'll assume the Harlan stood out but what others were impressive?

The Cardinale and Rubicon were my favorites. The Mondavi is showing some promise, considering that past bottlings of the To Kalon hadn't been that great. If they keep it up, the 2013 vintage of that wine should be back on par to what that wine was when old man Robert was making it.

The Foley was excellent as well (it came in first). It's now mailing list only, and then a lottery after that. He only makes about a barrel's worth of it, and he keeps a large chunk if it for himself.

[This message has been edited by HTownAg98 (edited 3/2/2014 2:55p).]

Yummy

[This message has been edited by Money Game (edited 3/2/2014 5:59p).]

Htown, it's odd that Mondavi can't produce an off the chart To Kalon wine like the people that buy Beckstoffer grapes can. Is the difference in lots that pronounced or is it the winemaking? I'm thinking it's the latter. That said, it is still a good bottle of juice that you can often find on sale. Talking about that vineyard really makes me really want to dive into my MacDonald bottles soon (essentially To Kalon grapes), but I should probably let those rest a few more years.

2011 Scarecrow has been ordered. One bottle from the allocation is available if anyone wants it (at cost). I'll even throw in the wooden crate in which they are delivered.

quote:

---

Htown, it's odd that Mondavi can't produce an off the chart To Kalon wine like the people that buy Beckstoffer grapes can. Is the difference in lots that pronounced or is it the winemaking? I'm thinking it's the latter. That said, it is still a good bottle of juice that you can often find on sale. Talking about that vineyard really makes me really want to dive into my MacDonald bottles soon (essentially To Kalon grapes), but I should probably let those rest a few more years.

---

It's a little bit of the grapes, but mostly the winemaker. Long time ago, Mondavi had virtually all of the To Kalon vineyard. When Constellation bought out Mondavi, they had to give up a bunch of the vineyard, and since Constellation wasn't focused on the ultra premium wines, the quality fell through the floor. The quality has come back some, but it's going to be a little bit longer until it's where it should be.

For all the Houston based folks, here is a link to a top 10 wine list put out by the grape collective. It may be worth a try. https://grapecollective.com/articles/ten-exciting-wine-lists#ws_316

My wife and I had our first Chateauneuf du Pape this weekend. Really enjoyed it. Seems like they’ve been popping up on wine lists more and more lately so we wanted to see what it was about. Definitely an old world wine. We’re fans of California cabs and pinots, and similar bigger international reds like sangiovese, tempranillo, malbec, etc, but there’s certainly a time and a place for something more subtle and earth/mineral leaning. Paired really well with a fairly diverse food lineup as well.

Anybody on here have any du Pape’s that they’re particular fans of? I checked the Specs at Bunker Hill yesterday and they had a few but not a ton. Might require a trip to the Smith St store for a better selection.

Pegau and la Nerthe are very nice.

If you like CdP, check out Gigondas and Vacqueyras wines as well. These are traditionally blends of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourdvedre (GSMs).France is extremely specific when it comes to defining regions and sub regions and neighborhoods even. For instance, could be wrong on this but…, I've heard that if the vineyard is within X meters or kilometers of the Rhone it must be called a Cotes du Rhone regardless of where it is along the river; 2' further inland, it could be a CdP; 100 yds up the road from CdP gets another label. When in reality, when the volcanos blew up and established all the soil characteristics, they were much less specific with their ash dispersion. Hence, Gigonda, Vacqueyras, etc. can get you remarkably similar or better for a fraction of the price. Domain Mourchon (Seguret) is an excellent GSM that can be found in the ~20 range. WTSO has a bunch of CdPs and other CdR's that pop up a lot.

oh - and CdPs are not new at all - they're for folks who "know". just more folks "knowing" these days

I'm going to go ahead and post daily updated of tastings this week . Started off at B.R. Cohn. Their Barbera is outstanding. Then went to Siduti to regular and barrel tasting. If you're wanting to buy some futures, the Castro vineyard pinot is definitely worth putting the money down now. Then we ventured over to Carol Shelton and tasted all her stuff. Her 2012 petite Syrah is worth doing if you like petite Syrah; it's pretty outstanding. I'm going to try to get some of her 2013 rosé of carignan shipped to the store. At $16, it's a steal. In fact, all of her current releases are very, very good and are at good price points.

Vacqueyras is a terrific wine region, generally the wines are heavier on Grenache and the flavors to me are a bit more forward. I am a fan but finding good ones for less than $30 per bottle is difficult. Specs sometimes has some for specific French AOC's I'd recommend going to Houston Wine merchant and talking to their people.

If you really want to drink a good Syrah from France, find a Cote-Rotie, it will rock your world. of course you can find really good ones from Wash. state too that might be a bit cheaper but they need to age a bit. These are pretty big wines, though.

Château St. Cosme Gigondas is pretty damn good.

If anyone is looking for a place to stay in Sonoma, let me know. I'm currently getting drunk drinking garage wine with my host. He has a 2009 pinot that is damn good.

[This message has been edited by HTownAg98 (edited 3/11/2014 8:48p).]

Just added a case of 75 Cab. Pretty damn good wine.

HTOwn: You've piqued my interest. Can you share as we're thinking Sonoma next trip vs. Napa.

I'm in Sonoma in a week and a half. I'm interested in what HTown has to say.

I'm sitting in the San Fran airport right now. Needless to say, we had a great time. I plan on posting a full trip update tomorrow.

Wasn't really sure that Underground Cellars was a legit deal or not. He sells lots of wine for a fixed price per bottle, and states your approx. odds of each type of bottle. There's usually one that's way more expensive than the others. I just ordered six bottles at $42 each. I got four of the $42 wine, one of the $55 wine and danged if I didn't get one of these babies:

Maybach Family Vineyards Materium 2007 a Parker 99 point cab!

[This message has been edited by cecil77 (edited 3/17/2014 12:02p).]

I had that Maybach about a month ago in SF with some friends. Easily my wine of the year right now! I wish I had more.

Cecil, I've been trying to email you!

Help with choosing a CA Merlot. I am planning the next tasting at our wine get together with friend . I wanted to do 2 from WA,a fronsac,an Italian an 2 from CA. Any suggestions? Local retailers have Duckhorn ,Stags Leap, Keenan, Markham, Neyers, and Franus. Thanks in advance.

Duck horn and Keenan are both good choices.

Anyone ever venture down to the central coast and Paso Robles where I am located? Great wines here, especially rhones. I have a bunch of Saxum, Booker, Alban, L'aventure, etc. in my cellar. Great wines suggested in the parts of the thread I read.

Just drank some Saxum today. It was outstanding. Some Schrader Old Sparky, Heitz, Ladera, and Hundred Acre showed up today as well.

Just got back from Napa/Sonoma. Thanks for the input, we incorporated it. Will detail more of the trip. We hit:

Winery - Silenus
Dinner - Cindy's Backstreet
Winery - Round Pond
Winery - Cliff Lede
Lunch - R&D
Winery - Provenance
Dinner - Oenotri
Dinner - Bouchon
Winery - Domaine Carneros
Winery - J Winery
Winery - Papapietro Perry
Winery - Arista

I'm going to eat salad for a week.

Did you get the black truffle fries at Bouchon? Those were freaking delicious!

I did not. I did get the roasted chicken. That could be the best chicken I've ever had. Chicken is hard to get right when it is just simply roasted. There are so few ingredients that you can't hide a mistake. My wife got the scallops and we both had the broccolini soup. After dessert we were both pretty full. I figured there is a lot more on the menu that would be just as phenomenal, but I'm pretty happy with what I had.

Everything there is delicious. We are there 3 times on or trip last month. There was so much that we wanted to try that we just shared plates to get as much of a variety as we could.

On a wine note, my 2011 Scarecrow just arrived. The offer is still there if someone wants a bottle at cost (I'll throw in the wooden box, too).

Got an offering for Continuum. 2011 was not the greatest vintage from most pubs but they like it since they are much higher altitude. Anyone try?

Just picked up some Law, Nicora, The Farm, and Eighty Four as well. 84 should be interesting since only released to CA as Shafer's side project. No one has tasted them.

This good/bad vintage stuff gets blown out of proportion. It usually doesn't impact the people making premium wines. Where you see the bad vintages show up is in the lower end wines (<$35). That '11 wine may not be as good as an '09 or '10, but it will still be very good.

'09 and '10 were very good. Will be some difference for '11. Paso had some rough weather for '11 as well, be interesting as most are being released now. Much more acidity from what I have tasted so far.

Just got an allocation letter for Marcassin, '09 Chardonnay and Pinot. Not sure I need 6 bottles, anyone interested in splitting?