Meyer Family
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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