Trefethen: Bottle of Red, Bottle of White

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Written by Arianna Armstrong March 21, 2010 Hits: 999

by Arianna Armstrong

Last night I sat down with my friend Jess to get some serious work done. By “serious,” I mean “devoted,” and by “work” I mean drinking our way through two bottles of Napa Valley’s Trefethen wines, while eating some snacks.

Trefethen Winery is located in the Oak Knoll District AVA of Napa Valley, nestled cozily between Yountville to the north and the city of Napa to the south. While the original estate was established in 1886 by the same Scottish sea captain who designed the Far Niente and Inglenook estates, the one-two punch of the phylloxera epidemic in the 1890’s and Prohibition in the 1920’s left the property dormant and decrepit. The Trefethen family took over the estate in 1968 and restored it to such an extent that it was recognized by the US Department of the Interior, and put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It is currently the only 19th-century, wooden, gravity-flow winery surviving in Napa County. The Trefethen family also practices sustainable growing and production, including using soy-based, bio-diesel fuel in their trucks and tractors; year-round living wages to all employees; natural pest and weed control; and powering their vineyard operations, offices and winery with solar power. 100% of their wines are estate bottled.

All this groovy stuff aside, Jess and I were excited to know how well a $20-something bottle of 2007 Chardonnay and $30-$50 bottle of 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from these folks would go down.

The best way to describe the journey, I figured, was to take you along for the ride. Below are my tasting notes, taken throughout the evening. Please enjoy…

5:30pm

2007 Trefethen Chardonnay

Smells like sunshine! Stone fruit, apple, hay, pineapple, dried honey on the nose. Grapefruit, grass, granny smith apple, dried honey on the palate.

Excellent structure, balance, little acidic, little too much…tart? Alcohol is a bit overpowering. But excellent structure and balance, anyway.

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

Smells of blackberry, licorice. Ugh, it’s hot and needs to breathe.

Tasting a ton of licorice and some blackberry, but can’t drink this right now because of all the alcohol, even though we poured through an aerator. Hoping it will be better in an hour.

*DISAPPOINTED*

6:30 pm

Cabernet Sauvignon

The longer it sits, the better it is…but it’s already five years old!

8:00 pm

White

Tastes like apple, coconut. Balance has gotten better. Smooth.

Red

Tastes like blackberry, anise, bramble (giggle). Fucking alcohol!!

-   At this point, Jess pulls out the laptop and we discover that this wine was supposed to age for 10 – 15 years, so we’re drinking it young. OK, so that explains why this stuff is hotter than Mexican asphalt on an August afternoon.

-   Next, we find that the only online reviews are from wine shops, which leads us to believe that there isn’t a lot of love for the stuff. We theorize that because it’s not so yum, the shop where I bought the Cab Sav prob got it at a good price b/c of overruns. Most wine shops score it between 90 – 93 points. We begin to wonder if all the 05 Napas taste like a hospital.

-   Jess says that for $30, she isn’t unhappy. But some stores charge as much as $50. We decide that anybody paying $50 for this stuff is a sucker.

9:00 pm

Red

Oak.

- Long conversation about S&M ensues. Then we eat some snacks.

9:30 pm

Red

Oak!
Alcohol!
Red.
Headache?

-   We begin watching Bones. Wish I had a beer.

-   Jess’s husband, Mitch, comes home. I make him drink the red, because I like the white better. He tastes it and announces, “I’ve had better, I’ve had worse.”

-   On Bones, all the women have the exact same hairstyle.

White

Damn, that’s a good Chardonnay

-   I really like pizza

10:00 pm

White

Now tastes watery, flabby. Pears.

- We’ve moved onto House. Aussie doc reminds me of… Well. Nevermind. Hot. Wonder if he lives in LA.

- drunk