Matsui said:

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What's the address of the winery?

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Address: 10303 US-290, Fredericksburg, TX 7862

Phone: (830) 997-2304

Look forward to seeing you!

Pedernales if it's not too hot outside.

Calais is a must - call for reservations.

William Chris - Aggie owned

12 Fires - Aggie owned

We stopped in at Inwood yesterday passing through, and I'd forgotten how good their tempranillos are.

jh0400 said:

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We stopped in at Inwood yesterday passing through, and I'd forgotten how good their tempranillos are.

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Thank you! I wish we weren't almost out of the '17 Cornelius Reserve...

Lots of great wine coming out soon. The '17 Magellan Pauillac style Bordeaux blend will be bottled this week and released next month. Dan says "wait a year or two" but from the sample bottle Diana and I enjoyed, the odds of that are very low.

Thank you!

Pauillac style is more Cab less Merlot, right?

MooreTrucker said:

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Pauillac style is more Cab less Merlot, right?

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More tannic and bold.

MooreTrucker said:

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Pauillac style is more Cab less Merlot, right?

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Yes. It is "Left Bank," which is characterized by using more Cab than Merlot. Right Bank is more Merlot heavy.

And that's Pomerol, correct? So what is St Emilion?

MooreTrucker said:

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And that's Pomerol, correct? So what is St Emilion?

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Both of those are Right Bank

What the difference between them?

Geographically, they are right next to each other. I am guessing they are fairly similar. I don't know though if different wine making rules apply to each.

Chipotlemonger said:

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Geographically, they are right next to each other. I am guessing they are fairly similar. I don't know though if different wine making rules apply to each.

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Or react they are two appellations in the Right Bank, and are adjacent. Pretty similar, though Pomerol is where Petrus is located, which is pretty much the top Right Bank wine. You can get the 2016 if you have a spare $3k per bottle.

Bordeaux winemaking rules are consistent whether Right or Left Bank a Bordeaux must be a blend of at least 2 of the Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cab Franc and Merlot). Percentages and techniques are up to the winemaker.

Planning a trip to Napa in August. Already got tastings lined up at Detert and MACDONALD. The rest are still TBD. But it's a heck of a start.

JCA1 said:

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Planning a trip to Napa in August. Already got tastings lined up at Detert and MACDONALD. The rest are still TBD. But it's a heck of a start.

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You'll really enjoy Macdonald. Alex and Graeme are great guys.
Not a big Cab Franc fan, so haven't done Detert, but Same family and should be fun.

Almost next door is Vine Hill Ranch highly recommend. Similar story to MacDonald family vintage that sold their fruit fo years, the started making their own. Contact Bruce Phillips

Then Head north to Seven Stones.

Take a bottle of Yquem to share with the MacDonalds. They love that.

Appreciate the advice. The couple we're going with did VHR the last trip (they got in a day before us). Loved it. Thought the 2016 VHR was one of the best wines they've ever had.

JCA1 said:

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Appreciate the advice. The couple we're going with did VHR the last trip (they got in a day before us). Loved it. Thought the 2016 VHR was one of the best wines they've ever had.

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It is. We have VHR bottles going back to 2010. All great. If they don't mind going again, it's worth the trip to spend a couple of hours with Bruce walking the vines.

Oh on Macdonald take them some salsa and bbq sauce from Texas.

Have y'all been to Blankiet? That's one we're considering. I know Graeme is now their winemaker.

Cab Franc is very important for the right bank as well.

AOC rules are complex, and at times arcane. You just have to look up each of them. e.g. for Pomerol: "Pomerol is exclusively a red wine with the only permitted grape varieties for AOC wine being Merlot, Cabernet Franc (Bouchet), Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec (Pressac). Harvest yields are restricted to a maximum of 42 hectoliters/hectare ( 2.2 tons/acre) with the finished wine needing to attain a minimum alcohol level of at least 10.5%".
The low yield plays a role in both the quality and price of the wine.

Somewhere from Marble falls down to Johnson city and toward luckenbach, where do you recommend for food prior to wine visits or during the middle to break it up? Ideally somewhere can sit outside or space accordingly. A spot with a beer would be great too

Matsui said:

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Somewhere from Marble falls down to Johnson city and toward luckenbach, where do you recommend for food prior to wine visits or during the middle to break it up? Ideally somewhere can sit outside or space accordingly. A spot with a beer would be great too

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Depends upon what you want. Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls is iconic. Hill Country Cupboard in Johnson City fills the bill as well. Once you go west of JC on 290, it's slim pickings. Alamo Springs Cafe is near Luckenbach with great hamburgers and other food as well. After that it's Fredericksburg.

In the middle of the wine trail quite a few wineries (including Inwood offer some food). The Chevron station in Stonewall actually has good diner fair. Hye Market Deli is really good as well. Alstadt brewery is impressive and a fun break and has a large outdoor seating area.

Perfect! Thank you.

MooreTrucker said:

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What the difference between them?

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I am not a Pomerol expert, but I have found them to be an unusually smooth wine, and there are some great labels in the $100 range.

St. Emilion is still my favorite region, but St. Julien (on the Left Bank) has a wine that I really enjoy ( Leoville-Barton).

If you want to try to discern the difference, I would choose a region and drink it for 3 months. When you swap over to something else, you can do a blind tasting, and will be able to choose the wine you drink all of the time.

One of my friends always buys Chateauneuf du Pape. Everyone seems to prefer something a little different, and it is what makes wine fun to explore.

I like Leoville Barton as well. Building a nice little vertical of it. Nice to visit as well, brand new state of the art facility.

My first two de Negoce cases are arriving tomorrow. I noticed one of the e-mails stated that the wine should be stored for two months to avoid bottle shock from the bottling and shipment. I'm sure they are promoting the strictest recommendation so that the wine presents well. For those of you familiar with this, what are your thoughts? Should this be followed, or is it more of a hit and miss scenario?

My first two de Negoce cases are arriving tomorrow. I noticed one of the e-mails stated that the wine should be stored for two months to avoid bottle shock from the bottling and shipment. I'm sure they are promoting the strictest recommendation so that the wine presents well. For those of you familiar with this, what are your thoughts? Should this be followed, or is it more of a hit and miss scenario?

I've got 3 cases of de Ngoce showing up tomorrow. One bottle will be opened by the weekend. At this price point, I'm willing to sacrifice one.

I believe in one of the emails the main guy said he tasted it and it was good but would benefit from the 2 months. I wonder how refined of a palate you need to tell the difference though.

Good question. If I try it and it's fairly good then there probably won't be much left in a couple of months.

Why would anyone release a wine that has not passed the bottle shock stage? Yes, there can sometimes be "bottle shock" from shipping, but that is a short-lived (I.e. a couple of says) issue. Releasing a wine that is still in the bottle-shock stage from bottling (which will take longer to settle) is simply a bad practice.

At that price point, who cares? It looks like it's a wine that's meant to be consumed upon release. There a ton of wine that is bottled and shipped, without any kind of advice to wait a month or two.

If you want to be cautious, wait two weeks and try one. If it's drinking well, start popping corks.

It may be sulfur additions just before bottling. If you can go ahead and ship just after bottling you can get the revenue. However it can take some time for the wine to taste right. When we bottle a new wine we'll bottle several cases first w/ no sulfur additions for immediate consumption (like within couple of months) and then sulfur the remainder for normal aging. That way we can begin serving it in tastings right away.

And even a winery like Spottswoode does it. If you receive a new release in the spring, the advise holding it until the wider release in the fall before drinking.

Just got my 3 cases (Nos. 2, 3, and 4). The wine is slightly warm but, by no means, hot. Being one of the first stops on the delivery route and having it delivered by 10:00 a.m. certainly helped.

I suspect I'll have some sort of review by the weekend.

We got wine from Justin yesterday evening. The cooling block thing inside was no longer frozen, or even especially cool, but the wine was not hot at all.