cabernet sauvignon
07/152008 /
Meyer Family 2004 Mendocino County
Syrah
The blend: 100 percent Syrah
A little bit about it: Meyer Family Cellars is a little bitty family-owned winery up in the Yorkville Highlands. Justin and Bonny Meyer, the founders and former owners of Silver Oak, established the winery in 1987.
What it tastes like: My God, this is a smooth and delicious wine! If there’s a place called Wine Heaven, you can bet the ’04 Meyer Family Syrah is on the list. It’s not all that easy to accurately describe how “balance” manifests itself in a wine, but even neophyte oenophiles know it when they taste it. Well, this is an exquisitely balanced wine. You’ll taste vanilla and cherry pits and a little tobacco on the back end. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Let it breathe a while after pulling the cork…it’ll open bigger than a Will Smith movie.
What to serve it with: Whatever you feel like eating. Just focus on the wine. I had it with edamame and seared tuna, and it was delicious.
Say this and sound smart: “Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.” — Aristophanes
The price: $30
The Imbiber’s rating: We don’t give numbers like this out very often but this wine earned it… (drumroll please)… a 95!!!
Luke Donald Collection 2005 Claret – Napa Valley
The blend: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot
A little bit about it: This is collaboration between professional golfer Luke Donald of Great Britain and wine pro Bill Terlato.
What it tastes like: It’s really good… not Tiger Woods level good, mind you, but certainly good enough to, say, win a few times on the PGA tour, which Donald has done.
What to serve it with: Whatever rich old white guys at country clubs are eating these days.
Say this and sound smart: Donald had wanted to play his college golf at Stanford (where Woods went for a minute) but he was not admitted to the university. He wound up at another great school instead – Northwestern.
The price: $40
The Imbiber’s rating: 90
Shannon Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 Lake County
The blend: 90% cabernet sauvignon, 10% petit verdot
A little bit about it: Lake County, which was created from parts of Napa and Mendocino counties, was known for producing world-class wines in the early 20th century. During prohibition, however, most of the vineyards were torn up and replaced with pear orchards. The vino comeback began in the 1960s.
What it tastes like: Bing cherries with toasty vanilla bean
What to serve it with: Sweetbreads might work; a big juicy burger definitely would.
Say this and sound smart: The cabernet sauvignon grape is the result of a chance crossing between cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc in France sometime during the 17th century.
The price: $19
The Imbiber’s rating: 88
The blend: 100 percent Syrah
A little bit about it: Meyer Family Cellars is a little bitty family-owned winery up in the Yorkville Highlands. Justin and Bonny Meyer, the founders and former owners of Silver Oak, established the winery in 1987.
What it tastes like: My God, this is a smooth and delicious wine! If there’s a place called Wine Heaven, you can bet the ’04 Meyer Family Syrah is on the list. It’s not all that easy to accurately describe how “balance” manifests itself in a wine, but even neophyte oenophiles know it when they taste it. Well, this is an exquisitely balanced wine. You’ll taste vanilla and cherry pits and a little tobacco on the back end. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Let it breathe a while after pulling the cork…it’ll open bigger than a Will Smith movie.
What to serve it with: Whatever you feel like eating. Just focus on the wine. I had it with edamame and seared tuna, and it was delicious.
Say this and sound smart: “Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.” — Aristophanes
The price: $30
The Imbiber’s rating: We don’t give numbers like this out very often but this wine earned it… (drumroll please)… a 95!!!
Luke Donald Collection 2005 Claret – Napa Valley
The blend: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot
A little bit about it: This is collaboration between professional golfer Luke Donald of Great Britain and wine pro Bill Terlato.
What it tastes like: It’s really good… not Tiger Woods level good, mind you, but certainly good enough to, say, win a few times on the PGA tour, which Donald has done.
What to serve it with: Whatever rich old white guys at country clubs are eating these days.
Say this and sound smart: Donald had wanted to play his college golf at Stanford (where Woods went for a minute) but he was not admitted to the university. He wound up at another great school instead – Northwestern.
The price: $40
The Imbiber’s rating: 90
Shannon Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 Lake County
The blend: 90% cabernet sauvignon, 10% petit verdot
A little bit about it: Lake County, which was created from parts of Napa and Mendocino counties, was known for producing world-class wines in the early 20th century. During prohibition, however, most of the vineyards were torn up and replaced with pear orchards. The vino comeback began in the 1960s.
What it tastes like: Bing cherries with toasty vanilla bean
What to serve it with: Sweetbreads might work; a big juicy burger definitely would.
Say this and sound smart: The cabernet sauvignon grape is the result of a chance crossing between cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc in France sometime during the 17th century.
The price: $19
The Imbiber’s rating: 88
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04/012008 /
The varietal: 100% Chardonnay
Why you should buy it: It’s about as Burgundian a California wine as you’re likely to encounter. The combination of an uncommonly cool growing season and some nifty tricks with malolactic fermentation resulted in a very crisp wine that is high in acidity.
What it tastes like: Tropical fruits, butter, lemon, a little vanilla…there’s lots of stuff going in there, baby!
What to serve it with: How about some grapes? Or is that just plain mean?
Say this and sound smart: The barrels this wine was stored in were stirred by hand three times a week to enrich the wine with viscous manoproteins and polysaccharides released from the fermentation lees.
The price: $25
Ghost Pines Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
The blend: 80% cabernet sauvignon, 7% syrah,4% petite verdot, 4% malbec, 4% merlot
Why you should buy it: This new venture sources fruit from vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Counties … plus, did you see all those varietals in the blend – these guys are WORKING IT!
What it tastes like: If blueberry pancakes smothered in Aunt Jemima syrup were a wine instead of a delicious breakfast dish, it would taste like this. The Ghost Pines cab is a big fat dense beefy red that you can totally jam out to. Jam? Get it?
What to serve it with: Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.
Say this and sound smart: A Ghost, or Grey Pine, is a tree indigenous to Northern California.
The price: $23
02/242008 /
The blend: 91% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cabernet franc, 3% merlot
Why you should buy it: ’05 was a good year for cabs in Napa…but you knew that already, didn’t you?
What it tastes like: I detected apricot, oak and Nestle’s Crunch, seasoned with a little pepper. Very, very smooth finish. Quite an easy-drinking wine now, sure to grow in complexity over the next 10 years
What to serve it with: Braised beef short ribs, pork tenderloin, sausage gumbo
Say this and sound smart: Gumbos can be broadly divided into three categories: those thickened with okra, those thickened with filé powder, and those thickened exclusively with roux.
The price: $35
Website: www.raymondvineyards.com
The blend: 100% chardonnay
Why you should buy it: What’s with all the stupid questions? It’s good chardonnay, for chrissakes… buy it already!
What it tastes like: Ever suck on a honeysuckle blossom immediately after drinking a vanilla soda? Well, it tastes kinda like that.
What to serve it with: Quiche Lorraine, Quiche Sylvia or Quiche Miriam. Whatever you do, though, DO NOT serve it with Quiche Barbara… way too salty.
Say this and sound smart: Napa was one of the original counties of California, which was granted statehood in 1849.
The price: $20
Website: www.raymondvineyards.com
09/282007 /
Wild Rock Cupid’s Arrow Pinot Noir
2006
Why you should buy it: Because the grapes are grown in Otago, the world’s most southerly wine region, which could be called the “wow” capital of New Zealand thanks to its rugged natural beauty. The cool weather there fosters fantastic fruit development.
What it tastes like: There’s a strong herbal quality that nicely complements the dense berry flavor. It’s got, uh, girth. Yeah, girth is what it’s got.
What to serve it with: Grill or fry a duck until it’s pink. Set it aside while you prepare the dressing, which is a mixture of the juice of half a lime, half and orange, two tablespoons of fish sauce, a finely chopped small chili, and a little grated ginger. Also add any juices the duck has made. Carve the duck diagonally into thin slices, place on a bed of baby spinach, and add the dressing
Say this and sound smart: It is said that if Cupid's arrow hits you, you will fall hopelessly and madly in love with the next person you meet. If the arrow misses, you’re probably stuck with the idiot you’re with already.
The price: $18
Website: wildrockwine.co.nz Read More...
Why you should buy it: Because the grapes are grown in Otago, the world’s most southerly wine region, which could be called the “wow” capital of New Zealand thanks to its rugged natural beauty. The cool weather there fosters fantastic fruit development.
What it tastes like: There’s a strong herbal quality that nicely complements the dense berry flavor. It’s got, uh, girth. Yeah, girth is what it’s got.
What to serve it with: Grill or fry a duck until it’s pink. Set it aside while you prepare the dressing, which is a mixture of the juice of half a lime, half and orange, two tablespoons of fish sauce, a finely chopped small chili, and a little grated ginger. Also add any juices the duck has made. Carve the duck diagonally into thin slices, place on a bed of baby spinach, and add the dressing
Say this and sound smart: It is said that if Cupid's arrow hits you, you will fall hopelessly and madly in love with the next person you meet. If the arrow misses, you’re probably stuck with the idiot you’re with already.
The price: $18
Website: wildrockwine.co.nz Read More...
09/132007 /
Composition: 80% cabernet sauvignon, 8% malbec, 7% petit verdot, 5% merlot
Why you should buy it: It’s the best cab I’ve sampled all week… and I’ve sampled a shitload of cab this week! J. Davies comes from the historic Diamond Mountain AVA in Napa Valley, where the vines produce fruit that is late-ripening and dense – coincidentally, a lot of my grammar school teachers described me the very same way.
What it tastes like: A fruity bar of chocolate that lingers on the tongue like a kiss from Petra Nemcova (or, at least, how I imagine a Petra Nemcova kiss might linger)
What to serve it with: Steak tartare; a French dip sandwich; pork chops
Say this and sound smart: The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
The price: $75
Atlas Peak 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley)
11/022006 /
The taste: Blueberries. Vanilla ice cream. A little plum. Toothpicks made out of French oak.
Quite a pair: T-bone steak, which also happened to be winemaker Darren Procsal’s nickname in high school. This would be quite a funny coincidence if it were actually true.
Say this and sound smart: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
The damáge: $42
Wattle Creek 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon
10/262006 /
The taste: Supple tannins, ripe sweet berries ... this big red begs for over-use of expressive adjectives. It's as smoky as a party at Snoop Dogg's crib.
Quite a pair: Is such a natural match with steak, it's a wonder they don't force-feed this wine to cows.
Say this and sound smart: "When a wine spends 19 months in small French oak barrels, as this one did, you can really detect the aroma of tasted oak."
The damáge: Fifty beans ... that is, if beans were a dollar each.
This screams "Sophistication"
09/222006 /
Several observant readers who clearly have nothing better to do have sent e-mail pointing out the omission of sparkling wines from this series. With apologies, I offer this suggestion: Try a 1999 vintage Comtes de Champagne Rosé from venerable producer Champagne Taittinger. It’s brilliant. It screams “sophistication.” It’ll score you major points with a significant other. It’s $210 a bottle. There, now … happy? If you’re interested in a bubbly of superior quality that’s a bit more affordable, Taittinger’s Prélude ($70) won’t do you wrong. Comprised exclusively of “grand crus” grapes – the best of the best – Prélude is produced with equal parts pinot grapes from Bouzy and chardonnay grapes from Avize and Le Mesnil sur Oger in the Cote des Blancs. And in case you’re wondering, yes, this is indeed the first time in newspaper history that the Mets, Yankees and chardonnay grapes from Avize and Le Mesnil sur Oger in the Cote des Blancs have been mentioned in the same story. Further proof of our commitment to groundbreaking reportage and journalistic excellence.
For you wine-lovers who don’t like champagne and/or are barely employed, I recommend Gallo’s Twin Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. This surprisingly complex red strikes a nice balance between fruit and acidity, and the price is nice at $5.99 a bottle. Hell, with the money you save you might even be able to afford a ticket for the cheap seats at the ballpark, where you’ll no doubt wow everyone with your newly acquired knowledge about hard-to-pronounce French winegrowing regions.
