Archive for the ‘General’ Category
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+
Posted on 2009 11, 13 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 2009 11, 02 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 2009 10, 28 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 2009 10, 21 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
Posted on 2009 08, 06 by pcook
Carol and I are on our 21st anniversary and we decided this wine was great enough to take five minutes and blog. If you can find it (although not hard to find) get it and drink some every year for the next 5 years or more… Let’s see I need to buy 3 per year for 7 years – I need 21 bottles… And a second job.
Anyway, beautiful blueberry and cassis with licorice. Very smooth and yes it is exceptional. The Margaux nature is hard to miss and maybe that is the 5% Cab Franc or maybe it is the wine making skill of Beth Novak, Rosemary Cakebread, or Jenifer Williams – have we ever said how much we love women winemakers… They have the nose and tastebuds for wine making.
Ok – i’m done – Carol rates it 97 and I am rating it 96.
Btw- if you are looking for a wine bar in Fort Worth look no farther than Zambrano’s Wine Cellar – who although had a sold out wine tasting made room for me and my lovely wife – Cef is the best.
Had my in-laws over for dinner to celebrate my mother-in-laws birthday and opened this very nice Rhone style GSM from winemaker John Duval formerly formerly with Penfolds for over 29 years. This is the fourth release of Plexus with RP scoring the 2006 release a 95. It runs around $39.00 US Dollars, so is a very good value!
Proprietor: John Duval Wines
Vintage: 2006
Region: Barossa Valley
Varietals: Shiraz 52%, Grenache 30%, Mourvedre 18%
Shiraz was sourced from vineyards in the Stockwell, Light Pass, Krondorf and Marananga regions.
Grenache from old bush vines 50-60 years old from Stockwell, Light Pass and Krondorf regions.
Mourvedre from old bush vines, the oldest over 100 years old, from the Light Pass and Krondorf regions.
Note: Fermentation with submerged cap in both traditional old open top tanks and small stainless steel fermenters. 100% barrel matured for 16 months. Some Shiraz finished fermentation in new oak. 10% new fine grain French oak hogsheads (300 litres), balance; 3 years and older mostly French oak.
Tasting: Beautiful dark purple-red in the stem. Raspberry, red cherry, black cherry, blueberry, followed by Spanish cedar, tobacco, spice box, smoked game, black pepper, and nice floral notes. Excellent full-bodied structure and impeccable balance with rich ripe fruit and finely grained tannins. The finish is generous and pleasant. This wine will improve with bottle rest and will drink for around 10 years or more, but can be enjoyed now with some decanting.
Rating: 94 JH
« Older Entries
