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 fruit100% Stoneridge Vineyard located northeast of the Wahluke Slope AVA, across the Saddle Mountains, near Royal City, 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
Recently enjoyed this wonderful red blend of which most is Merlot with Paul and our wives. Since the 2003 inaugural release Blackbird Vineyards has been receiving high scores from some of the industry’s best wine critics.
Proprietor: Blackbird Vineyards
Vintage: 2006
Appellation: Napa Valley’s Oak Knoll District
Varietals: 86% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon
Note: Aged for 20 months in French oak barrels of which 70% are new and 30% are older.
I read an article about the Blackbird winery in November 2008 issue of the Robb Report and had been looking for it ever since in Houston. Blackbird wines can be found at Brix Wine Bar in Houston and you can find a link to their web site in the Blogroll on the front page of this site.
Paul and I recently enjoyed the 2006 Amuse Bouche with our wives on a night out in Houston and it was spectacular. The name Amuse Bouche is a French noun meaning “amusement for the mouth”, and that it is 
. Each vintage is quite literally, a work of art. The 2006 bottle artwork was created by Louisiana artist George Rodrigue, best known for his famous loup-garou or Blue Dog. This Pomerol-style Merlot/Cabernet Franc blend is made from some of the best grape sources in the Napa Valley. The winemaker is Heidi Barrett who Robert Parker has called “the first lady of wine.” If you have ever had a wine made by Heidi Barrett, you know that they always display impeccable balance.
Posted on August 6, 2009 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.
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