This garage wine project from Andy Erikson and Anie Favia is once again outstanding, and for the money is IMO one of the best red blends from all of California.
Leviathan is made by the incredibly talented husband and wife team of Andy Erickson, (Staglin, Hartwell, Favia, Ovid, Dancing Hares, Jonata, Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle and Arietta), and Anie Favia (viticulturist for Abreu and Screaming Eagle). You can find many wines on this site that have been influenced by Andy and his wife Annie.
Proprietor: Leviathan Wines
Vintage: 2007
Appellation: 100% California
Varietals: 47% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Syrah, 14% Merlot
Tasting: Beautiful dark black/red in the glass. concentrated flavors of baked Cherry, blackberry, raspberry, scorched forrest floor, toasted oak, black pepper, roasted beef, coffee, and chocolate. On the palate the wine is intensely flavored, full bodied, round, with soft tannins, bright lively acidity and great balance, with a beautiful long velvety finish.
It is really hard to find a more pleasant red wine from California in the mid $40.00 range than this one. Get it and enjoy!
Rating: 93+
Tierra Roja, is very small vineyard, and a very special wine. Located in the eastern hills of Oakville, the property is surrounded by other ultra premium wineries such as Rudd, Screaming Eagle, Joseph Phelp’s Bacchus, Dalla Valle’s Maya, Plumpjack, and more. Linda Neal the proprietor has been growing grapes the Tierra Roja Vineyard since 1987. The first vintage of Tierra Roja was the 2004 vintage and was released in September of 2007 to much acclaim from those that were fortunate enough to get their hands on it. Linda Neal the owner of Tierra Roja has over 20 years of vineyard management experience and is actively involved in the vineyard doing a lot of the work herself. The winemaker for Tierra Roja is David DeSante who has a reputation for detailed planning, and execution, leaving nothing to chance.
If you are a collector of fine wine, you should seek Tierra Roja out, as it is quite memorable.
Recently tasted the 2006 Armada from Cayuse Vineyards in Walla Walla, and it blew us away. Their fifth vineyard, Armada, planted in 2001, contains 3 acres of Grenache, 3 acres of Syrah and 1 acre of Mourvedre. With four feet between vines and five feet between rows, 2178 vines were planted per acre—nearly double the standard vine quantity—and easily marks it as the highest density vineyard in the Walla Walla Valley. Cayuse Vineyards is bio-dynamically farmed and even the most labor intensive tasks are performed manually.
Posted on November 13, 2009 by pcook
Top 20 of 2009 – Ovid is “wonderous and new”! It has been a long week with some great results and Carol and I are treating ourselves to a little special treat from winemaker Andy Erickson this Friday afternoon at Brix Wine Cellars.
Sometimes the stars align and the week’s events fade like an old photograph and the red juice speaks your name… Such is the case with today and Ovid.
Dark currant and cassis, licorice and blackberry along with a supple smoky blue texture. Well balanced with round silky tannins this wine breathes a fragrant bouque of evolving textures. Lovely and alluring. The finish goes on for days with fruit coming out more and more with dark cherry notes.
My friends shall damn me for not saving this one… But it called my name! Get here quickly if anyone wants a sip.
93 Paul, 93 Carol
David Powell the Managing Director and Chief Winemaker for Torbreck Cellars was once a Lumberjack, and it probably is no coincidence that the second wine we enjoyed was bold and masculine just like your stereotypical Lumberjack. Torbreck Cellars The Pict is an amazingly bold large-framed intense and concentrated wine that strikes an amazing balance of fruit, tannins, and acidity.
Proprietor: Torbreck Cellars
Vintage: 2005
Appellation: Barossa Valley, Australia
Varietal: 100% Mataro or what some of you know as Mourvèdre from a single vineyard
Note: Two years in new French barriques. Unfiltered and unfined.
Tasting: Dark purple in the color. Beautiful notes of cassis, plum, followed by tobacco, tar, dark olives, leather, eucalyptus, scorched earth, roasted meat and a beautiful mineral component. The wine shows great balance even though it is not blended with another varietal such as Grenache. The Pict can be immensely enjoyed now but has the structure to age and improve with cellaring.
Rating: 94 JH, 94 PC
Recently the gang met up at Cellar-17 in Houston for a couple of really nice wines from Torbreck. Torbreck cellars was founded in 1994 by David Powell who was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. David’s style of wine making blends his love for the Barossa with his admiration for the Northern and Southern Rhône valleys. The first wine we tried was the 2006 Descendant, a single vineyard wine that was planted in 1994 from 13 year old cuttings from the RunRig vineyards.
Proprietor: Torbreck Cellars
Vintage: 2006
Appelation: Barossa Valley, Australia
Varietal: 92% Shiraz, 8% Viognier
Tasting: Beautiful black purple color in the stem. This wine has a massive bouquet of dark fruit, roasted beef, eucalyptus, sasparilla, dark truffles, bottle caps (the candy), caramel, black cassis, cola, minerals, and toasted oak. The palate is silky smooth, with a full round mouthfeel. The wine coats your entire mouth and lingers for an elegantly long and generous finish.
This wine can be greatly enjoyed now with some decanting, but will improve with some rest in the cellar. I will continue Part 2 of this post tomorrow.
Review: PC 94, JH 95
Posted on November 2, 2009 by pcook
Great wine follows me around these days. Carol and I were feeling like a little wine tonight and grabbed this Tenuta Di Arceno at Cellar 17. What a great wine find! A little unknown to me, this Super Tuscan style wine brings it and it is really nice.
Rasberry notes with dark fruit very interesting nose with some rose and licorice. The dark fruity nature of this wine comes out as it opens. The finish goes on for some time giving a great taste of tannic fruit in your mouth.
The lost art of finding great wine and then finding it’s little brother and then having them together is hard to do these days but that is just what we did.
Arcanium II was right next to the Arcanium I… So we had it as well.
92 Paul, 93 Carol
Posted on October 28, 2009 by pcook
We met up with Don of Brix Wine Cellars and Michael Landry of Pioneer Wine here is Houston, Texas. They stared talking about great wine and Spotteswood soon came up and then Marston Family Vineyard came up. So, we got some and started tasting.
Up front burgunday cherry, cassis, and awesome tannins for
2004. Good spice and and dark fruit with spice. Black cherry and a nice spin of spice and fruit.
The mid pallet is full of cedar spice and dark fruit with a long complex finish of corriander and dark berry goodness.
This wine has an ability to last 5 to 10 years. You should open a bottle of current wine one hour or more before drinking.
Release in 2007, this wine brings “the thunder” to quote Gary V… Licorice on the finish speaks of this wine’s power to bring it.
PC 94, Carol 95, Don 94, Micheal 94
Posted on October 21, 2009 by pcook
Carol and I are out on a date night… And of course we are thinking, drinking, and writing about wine. We are at Brix Wine Cellars in Houston. Nita brought us some Henriot champagne to start the night off and Carol has finally Found a rose that she loves. And btw, the truffle fries are addicting.
We were very pleased to find that Don and Nita had brought in the 2006 Royal City syrah from winemaker Charles Smith. This wine was very nice and deservedly so, wine enthusiast rated it a 100 points. Generated from Walla Walla Washington fruit, each glass is continuing to open and show this wine’s fantastically complex structure.
Notes of blackberry, plum, tobacco, and a short burst of floral goodness. Very nice long finish, a little tanic on the finish and now some tobacco but this wine has only been open about thirty minutes.
We ate some sliders which where fantastic, like all the food here (check out the new menu). The wine went great with the food. And we are hopeful this wine will age well for 6-10 years. Stacked with fruit goodness, but not so much that it blows the structure away, we love this wine. I will be buying for locker and cellar. Get some!
Paul 94 Carol 94
Paul and I recently reviewed this very limited production Cabernet, Waypoint “Beckstoffer Dr. Cane” from Bounty Hunter Wine. You can view their web site and read more about their wines at http://www.bountyhunterwine.com.
Vintage: 2005
Proprietor: Bounty Hunter
Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced exclusively from the Beckstoffer Dr. Cane Vineyard
Appellation: St. Helena, CA AVA
Note: Aged 22 months in French Oak of which 70% is new. Only 257 cases produced.
Tasting: Black cherries, black currant, violets, cigar humidor, graphite, black pepper, and Hatch chile pepper’s. The wine
shows nice balance and and a generous pleasant finish.
Rating: PC 92, JH 93
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