Merlot

Walk the County Line, And Taste Some Fine Wine!

Pride Mountain has been one of my favorite Napa wineries for years now. Well actually, they’re not JUST a Napa winery! The Napa/Sonoma county line is on their property, and most of their wines are made with fruit from both AVAs.

Tonight my husband and I cracked open a bottle of their 2010 Merlot, comprised o 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. After about an hour and a half of decanting, the aromatics are lovely! Dark fruits including black cherry, blueberry and ripe plum burst from the glass. Accompanying the fruit are some cedar, tobacco and chocolate.

The palate reflects the fruit on the nose, with chocolate covered cherry, velvety tannins and some nice acidity that balances the wine beautifully. This wine is great with the cheddar cheese on which we’re nibbling. It would also be delicious with a full meal, or simply sipping on at the end of a hectic workday!

Be sure to schedule an appointment to visit this special winery the next time you’re in Napa or Sonoma. You’ll have the opportunity to go deep into the caves and experience some fabulous barrel tastings. Visiting Pride Mountain isn’t the typical “tour”. This is an extraordinary tasting. On one of our visits we were shown the actual county line that separates Sonoma from Napa, right where the crush pad is located.

Pride Mountain Vineyards is located on Spring Mountain. Their eighty-three vineyard acres on the Mayacamas Mountains are about 2000 feet above the floor of Napa Valley, providing many of their vines with a desirable southern exposure. The location also provides spectacular views for your viewing (and sipping!) pleasure.

To learn more, check out their website here:  http://www.pridewines.com

 

 

Are You Waiting to Arise??? Meet Blackbird Vineyard’s Arise!

I’ve always been a Right Bank kind of girl. Now don’t get me wrong, I love wines from the Left Bank as well. How the heck could anyone not????  But for me there is just something about the smooth, easy to drink wines from Pomerol, St. Emilion, etc.

Blackbird Vineyards has a great example of a Right Bank Bordeaux blend from Napa. Made of mostly Merlot (which means blackbird in French patois), founder Michael Polenske named this particular blend Arise, taken from the Beatles’ song Blackbird. In fact, the label is fabulous! It features nine blackbirds (as the notes) sitting on a telephone wire (as the music staff) representing the beginning notes of the Beatles’ song. Check it out! It’s true!

Please excuse the sloppy wine stain dribbled down the label. That was a bad pouring job on my behalf and was not intended on the label. I’ve therefore included an example of the label from their website as well. I wanted to be sure to include my tarnished example too, however, because I absolutely love the feathers on the bottle above the label. I’m not sure what they represent, but I like to think that it’s a symbol of the flock of people it takes to make a great wine.  And this is a great wine!

The 2012 Blackbird Arise is a blend of 58% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The garnet colored wine has licorice, blueberry, blackberry and black cherry on the nose. The well-balanced palate has lush black cherry, blueberry, cocoa powder, tobacco and a long smooth finish.

It’s hard not to sing the Beatle’s song while drinking this lovely wine. “All your life … you were only waiting for this moment to be free”! It’s like a bottle of wine, isn’t it? Opening the bottle on a specific day determines the experience the wine will become. The wine is waiting for the moment to become free from the bottle and to arise. The 2012 Blackbird Arise is drinkable now, but it will truly “Arise” with some time in the bottle. I’m going to stock my cellar with a few more and try one again in a year or two, and then another a year later. I have a feeling that I’ll then be singing “All your life … you were only waiting for this moment to arise”!

If you’d like to learn more about Arise and Blackbird Vineyards other wines, check them out here: https://www.blackbirdvineyards.com

This Wine is “Fergalicious”!

I’m having a “ME” night tonight. The hubby is off working and I’m on my own with a good book and a hopefully good bottle of wine. So I went into our cellar and pulled out a bottle of 2011 Ferguson Crest “Fergalicious”, knowing only that it’s a blend of 56% Syrah, 25% Merlot, 13% Grenache and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon. I’m a huge lover of Syrah (in case you didn’t already know that) and the price wasn’t outrageous (I feel guilty opening an expensive bottle with my husband off working), so I grabbed this bottle thinking that it was the perfect wine for the night.

I popped and poured it without decanting … and actually really liked it right off the bat! I’m used to Syrah from the Rhone Valley, which this is NOT! Well, of course it’s not! This is only 56% Syrah, and it’s from the Santa Ynez region of California’s Central Coast AVA. The “Fergalious” is an interesting blend of Rhone varietals with Bordeaux varietals. It’s a lush, full-bodied wine with lots of dark fruit, violets and some spice on the nose. On the palate are the ripe dark fruit, mocha, olives and sweet tannins.

Holy crap! After reading up a bit on this wine, I realized that it’s a family-owned boutique winery established by Pat Ferguson (whose passion for years has been growing many different types of fruits) and his daughter Stacy Duhmel. In case you don’t know, that’s THE Fergie! Yes, THAT Fergie, the vocalist from Black Eyed Peas. I had no idea that she has a wine!!!!

I want to try to find a few more of these, hold on to them, and see how they taste after a few years in the bottle. I can’t help but think that they’ll get even better than they already are. I also look forward to trying some of Ferguson Crest’s other wines!

Meanwhile, I’ll be sure to save the other half of this bottle for my husband to try tomorrow night! It’s right up his alley, AND he thinks that Fergie is hot!

If you want to learn more about Ferguson Crest, check out their website here:  http://www.fergusoncrest.com

Some of the Lovely Wines & People of Bordeaux!

Oh how I love France.  I’ve been a Francophile since I can remember, and it only increased after catching the wine bug.  I’m blessed to have traveled to France many times exploring many of their wine regions, but I have yet to go to Bordeaux.  Well this past week, Bordeaux came to me!

More than 30 chateaux from Bordeaux stopped in Orlando during their “North American Tour”.  This night’s tasting was sponsored by ABC Fine Wine and Spirits.  Representing these chateaux were owners, winemakers, marketing reps and some distributors.  None of the First Growths were there for tasting, but many of the other Growths, as well as some lovely Cru Bourgeois and fabulous wines from the Right Bank!

Almost all of the wines being poured were from the 2012 vintage.  Here are some of my favorites of the evening:

 2012 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron (2nd Growth from Pauillac) – Winemaker Jean-René Matignon was pouring his lovely 2012, which is comprised of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot.  On the nose are tobacco, forest floor, blackberry and black cherry.  The palate has the dark fruit, cassis and vanilla.  The finish seems to go on and on and on.

2012 Château Lynch-Bages (5th Growth from Pauillac) – This needs time, but oh it will be worth the wait.  Made from 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, some earth and licorice come through on the nose.  The palate is rich and yet fresh, with dark fruit and a touch of baking spices. 

2012 Château Clinet – From Pomerol on the Right Bank, this wine is a blend of 90% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc.  With aromas of cherry, wet earth and licorice, the palate explodes with black cherry and blackberry.  There is a hint of chocolate on the finish as well.

2012 Château Gazin– Again from Pomerol and considered one of the great wines of Bordeaux.  Christophe de Bailliencourt, the delightful Co-Owner and Co-Manager of Château Gazin, was pouring their lovely wine.  Gazin is located in the eastern part of the Pomerol plateau.  The 26-hectare vineyard adjoins the vineyards of L’Evangile and Petrus.  On the nose are cassis, blackberry and smoke.  Chocolate covered black cherry and the cassis and blackberry come through on the palate, leaving a long and lush finish.

Truthfully, there wasn’t a dud at this tasting.  I wish I had room to write about them all.  Perhaps I’ll do that as they have more time in the bottle.

Meanwhile if this tasting comes anywhere near you and you’re a lover of the wines of Bordeaux, don’t miss it.  For me it was a night that won’t be forgotten.  I have a feeling that my next adventure in France will include a visit to Bordeaux!

Cahors!

I’m a faithful (and thankful) member of a tasting group!  Every other week I get together with a handful of fellow wine geeks and we blind taste wines.  Most of us are studying for the next level of a certification, while others are well educated wine lovers who want to expand their palates.

Sometimes our group has a theme (we all bring a Chardonnay or an Italian wine) and sometimes we just wing it! This past gathering we all brought a red.  That was the only stipulation.

We tasted through a bunch of lovely wines, but a few stuck out to me.  One was a wine from the Cahors AOC (now AOP) in France.

Argentinean Malbec is one of the “in” wines right now.  They can be a great alternative to a Merlot, or a great wine to order with a steak at a nice restaurant when you don’t have the budget for a big time Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  Argentina does, however, need to thank Bordeaux and especially Cahors for this fabulous varietal.

Cahors is located in the Quercy district in South West France, 100 miles east of Bordeaux.  It is the only appellation producing exclusively red wines that use neither Cabernet Sauvignon nor Cabernet Franc.  The wines of Cahors are allowed to use up to 30% of the tannic Tannat grape and the supple Merlot grape combined, but must contain a minimum of 70% Malbec.  Many of the wines here are 100% Malbec.  It is known as the “black wine” due to its deep intensity of color.

The Cahors I tasted with my tasting group this week was the 2011 Lionel Osmin & Cie.  This deep purple colored wine has blackberry, plum, and cinnamon on the nose.  In fact, we decided that it wasn’t just cinnamon, but Big Red chewing gum!!!  A fellow taster also suggested smelling wet saddle, which I agreed with completely.  This fruit driven wine is of medium to medium-plus intensity and has black currant, black cherry and a bit of licorice on the palate.  Although there is a lot of fruit here, there is a lovely earthiness and some serious tannin, giving it some backbone.

Cahors is a noble and ancient red wine.  In fact, this wine region is older than even Bordeaux, and is a hidden and affordable gem in the French wine world!

I strongly suggest that you seek out wines from Cahors!

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