NOTES FROM THE COAST

RIDGE GRENACHE BLANC? A NEW STAR FROM A VAUNTED ‘OLD DOG’

You kind of have expectations from a producer like Ridge who has achieved great success with historic lineup of traditional California bottlings from grapes like Cabernet, Zinfandel, and Petit Sirah. Probably as a result of their constant experimentation with all kinds of ideas in their Advanced Tasting Program, they seem to have quickly mastered white Rhone varietals if this bottling is any indication.

Though this was our first look at this particular bottling, it looks like the program goes at least back to the 2018 vintage. The 2021 is a blend of 90% Grenache Blanc, 6% Roussanne and 4% Picpoul from the Adelaida Vineyard in Paso Robles (it’s right on the bottle). Fairly deep, healthy yellow color, it’s an energetic display of apricot, yellow melon, spice and floral notes.

There’s deceptive richness which the vibrant acidity keeps perfectly lifted and in line and an almost European sleekness to it’s definitely California body. We kept going back to it during the presentation to verify that it was really that good. It is! It probably isn’t unreasonable to compare it to other distinctive domestic whites like the old vine Chenin Blancs from Foxen and Chalone in that it is beautifully expressive and unique unto itself.

Another serious example of why we taste everything. A great match for white fish, shellfish, lighter handed chicken dishes and German styled pork roast. It can play all by itself as well.

‘THE BUNNY’ IS BACK PLUS OTHER VALUE CAB NOTES…

First, we’ll reiterate our broad massage. Thanks to the wildfires in Napa in 2020, there will be a lot less Cabernet on the market thanks to the residual smoke taint that affected the later-ripening Cabernet grapes. A lot of wineries simply did not produces Cabernet from the vintage, and were sure the juice is out there somewhere cleaned up in someone’s blend. That said, we suggest people be more attuned to the wines that are currently available, from prior, non-tainted (and actually quite good) vintages,

First up is the Coniglio Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, affectionately called ‘the Bunny’ around here (coniglio is the Italian word for ‘rabbit’). This winery has been a repeated feature over the years as they wind down what we presume are suspended operations. This family winery has favored a rich, well oaked style Cabernet for as long as we have dealt with them … a rich, savory, full-throttle mouthful that begs for some grilled beef.

The Coniglio Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2015 is all could you could ask of a Napa Cab. The nose speaks of spicy oak and a fruit component that centers on cassis and mulberry spice and a direct, full throttle approach. We’ve sold many manifestations over the years that are usually district focused. This one, from a respected and historic district, off the Silverado Trail has the structure one expects from mountain vineyards, yet it is approachable and enjoyable now. It bears that family resemblance to all of the Coniglio Cabs we have sold in the past…full flavored, well seasoned with French oak and with loads of character. It carries a $70 list price on their website but, because of our long term relationship, we can sell you this delicious Napa Cabernet, with bottle age, for a lot less ($32.98). The timing couldn’t be better.

The wines of Rowland Cellars in the Napa Valley (Ramspeck, Cenay, Rowland) aren’t widely known, but they have been on our radar for a long time and we have tasted a number of offerings over the years. They are always solid with the occasional ‘hit’. The Ramspeck Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019 really hit the spot, a particularly timely effort given the current outlook for Napa Cabernet. WInemaker/owner Gerry Rowland is Australian born and got his degree at the prestigious Roseworthy College in Adelaide. Plump, honest, pure varietal black fruits laced with some spice and flacks of minerality, this is a pleasing, round, user-friendly Napa Cab at a great price ($26.98).

Just a reminder, we got in the last bits of the Thread Feather Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District 2019. The Thread Feather lineup, from the obvious well-connected negociant firm Flight Wine Company. To quote ourselves from an earlier email, “Simply put, this wine blew us away, and you know we don’t say that kind of thing all that often. We’ve had plenty of top-end, ‘reserve’ bottlings from Stag’s Leap wineries at three to five times the price that don’t deliver this much character and joy. A gorgeous, hedonistic Cabernet even in its impetuous youth, at $39.98, you’ll feel like you got away with something that was mismarked.”

Finally, as an early warning, you’re likely to see an email pretty soon on the Marietta Cabernet Sauvignon Arme 2019. The ‘Brothers Balbro’ are in quite the groove right now, churning out one jaw dropping value after another. You might recall their highly reviewed 2018 Cabernet Arte from last year and their 95-point Old Vine Red from very recently. Well their 2019 Cabernet Sauvingnon Arte finished in the money again. From Wine Advocate, ” The 2019 Armé Cabernet Sauvignon has a medium ruby-purple color and layered aromas of red and black currants, violet, iron, underbrush and mushrooms. The medium-bodied palate is pleasantly rustic and a touch chewy, with bright acidity, pretty floral perfume and an earth-laced finish…94 Points.” From Sonoma, only $24.98.

LEO STEEN, EURO SENSIBILTY IN CALIFORNIA

Leo Hansen was born and raised in Denmark to a father that was a chef and hotelier. So food and wine have always been a part of his life. Leo’s first career was as a sommelier in some of Europe’s best restaurants including Kong Hans, Copenhagen’s first one-star Michelin guide restaurant. Having caught the wine bug, Leo came to the United States in 1999 to check out the food and wine scene, and never went back!

He migrated to the Sonoma wine country, and worked as a waiter and sommelier and, ultimately, a wine buyer at the wine-centric Dry Creek Kitchen and Cyrus restaurants in Healdsburg. He later began working at Stuhmuller winery in the Alexander Valley, and started making a bit of his own wine, at the Stuhlmuller facilities, in 2004.

From his years as a buyer, he noticed there was a decided lack of food-friendly, energetic wines from California. So, it was fitting that the centerpiece of Leo’s winemaking efforts was a bone-dry Chenin Blanc. Steen is also his family’s middle name and it is also what South African call Chenin Blanc.

We met Leo Hansen recently along with his latest releases. While Leo has reputation for Chenin Blanc (he makes three different bottlings), on this day those were not what got our attention. We sense vineyard selection plays a big part here. Leo has a bit of range and works with sites all over the state and we were surprised by a Chardonnay from Santa Cruz and a Grenache Rose from single biodynamic site near Kenwood that made for distinctive additions to our carefully curated lineup. Though they are food friendly, the style here isn’t the usual ‘lean and mean’, sommelier-torture ‘food’ wines. There’s depth, character, and pleasure here.

The 2019 Leo Steen Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains Bruzzone Vineyard comes from a single vineyard located in the southern hills of Scotts Valley, just four miles from the town of Santa Cruz and the Pacific Ocean. The dry-farmed Chardonnay vines on this site were planted in 1998, in sandy soils rich in marine deposits. Surrounded by forests, and featuring a north-south row orientation, these vines yield small, tiny-berried clusters. While this is a very cool vineyard that produces grapes with great acidity, the fruit also achieves lovely ripeness at low sugar levels.

The resulting Chardonnay impressed us as a slightly earthier version of a white Burugundy with some notes that reminded us of something from Mount Eden. Apple, pear, spice, and finishing salinity, there was plenty of flavor but also fine delineation provided by the acidity. Leo is clearly a Euro-palate and typically so are we, so this sneaky little gem was right in our wheelhouse. Deceptive complexity here, a distinctive profile and a very fair fare made it an easy call. Only 265 cases produced.

The Leo Steen Rose of Grenache Sonoma Valley Rose Ranch 2021 comes from the Rose Vineyard at the base of Sugarloaf not far from Kenwood in Sonoma Valley. Sugarloaf is an extinct volcano and this vineyard, made up mainly of clay laced with lava, has been farmed biodynamically since the 1990s. One of our complaint about domestic rose (besides that there are way to many of them) is that they are often blowsy and alcoholic.

Here again Leo’s ‘euro’ sensibilities, and the long, cool growing season of 2021, created a distinctive combination of berries, floral notes and a touch of minerality sitting atop fresh acidity that kept everything humming along. It was a surprising effort from a California vineyard, with purity of fruit and the brightness that is imperative in good rose. It can play alone or pair well with nibbles, gilled fish, and other lighter handed fare.

SERIOUSLY GOOD CABERNET

We taste a lot of Cabernets always with the intent of finding the best and the brightest as well as striking values when the opportunity presents itself. It is rare for us to get ‘wowed’. But in the case of The Setting Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley 2019, we were impressed in a way that rarely happens around here.

We’ll give you the winery spiel first, “Known for his ability to extract the deepest expression of each vineyard into his wines, Jesse uses extended barrel time in new and neutral oak, as well as minimal intervention to produce unfined, unfiltered wines that delicately balance purity of fruit with the distinct characters of each site.”

While that sounds like a pretty lofty profile for winemaker/partner Jesse Katz, son of famous photographer Andy Katz, in our experience nothing is overstated. Having spent time a Petrus, Screaming Eagle, Robert Foley, and Vina Cobos, he had the opportunity to work with top of the heap talent and clearly learned his craft well. He was the founding winemaker at Lancaster, and has been getting accolades for his current work at Aperture, and this project is his own. The expectations were high and they have been met if not exceeded.

The 2018 version of this wine were pretty spectacular and collected a number of impressive scores including a 97 from Wine Advocate. There have been no reviews we have seen on this wine yet, but we suspect it will get its due. What is interesting here is that the review on the 2018 from Jeb Dunnuck is pretty much interchangeable with our impressions of The Setting Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley 2019:

“The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley is stunning stuff, offering up a dense purple color as well as both black and blue fruits, notes of lead pencil, crushed stone, graphite, and tobacco, full-bodied richness, ripe, velvety tannins, and a great finish. This powerful, sexy, seamless Cabernet will keep for two decades or more. “

Like the winery press release says, this wine really does deeply express the dark red fruits and spice, layered with chocolate and coffee tones, that is the Alexander Valley at its best. The depth of fruit, power, poise and balance are at a level that few producers achieve at any price. It is one of the most impressive Cabs we have tasted in a very long time and actually represents a value at a price under $100. As you know, we don’t spend a lot of time trying to sell California wines in this kind of price range. But this one is well worth the experience.

ANOTHER EXCEPTIONAL NAPA CAB VALUE FROM KRUTZ

Not to sound like a broken record but we are starting to see at our end of the distribution spectrum the beginning of what we shall call ‘the great nothing’. We’re referring to the anticipated shortage of Cabernet Sauvignon over the next couple of years. If you’ll recall, late wildfires in the fall of 2020, besides destroying a lot of property, created smoke taint on many of the grapes that were still hanging in the vineyards which, at that time of fall, was mainly Cabernet.

A lot of premium wineries are not producing 2020 vintage Cabs. We’ll leave the rest of it to your imagination except for saying that Cab drinkers need to prepare for ‘the gap’. For our part, we are going double-time through Cabernet options, and still finding some pretty cool stuff from the 2018 and 2019 vintages. But as you can imagine, the number of options are shrinking while our standards are unchanged.

In light of that, let us introduce a label that is new to us. Krutz is a family winery that started in 2003 in Monterey with a 60 case production and eventually migrated to Sonoma. Actually first they migrated to California from Mississippi where the brothers Krutz were born. The bottle bears a magnolia on the label (the state flower of Mississippi) to represent their southern roots.

Thought they are located in Sonoma, they make wine from all over the place. For example there is a Pinot Noir from Soberanes Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands, and under their value Magnolia label a Sonoma Cabernet. But it was this Krutz Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019 that presented us something that was really timely. The fact we could sell this dark, ample, tasty Cabernet for under $40 that made it an even more important find.

The Krutz Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019 is 100% Cabernet from multiple vineyard sites in the Valley. For the geeks out there, the notes say the soils are ‘mountain rock’ and the vines were Clone 4 and Clone 7. Of more specific interest to us is that the wine saw 22 months in French oak, 50% new. Only 300 cases were produced.

This has classic deep Cabernet color and aromas of chocolate, cassis, and cedar. It has the size and volume in the mouth to please Cabernet fans, a plush palate feel and fine balance. The finish brings back the chocolate plus tobacco and the telltale signs of premium oak in support of the fruit.

With only 300 cases, not a lot of pundits have run across it. But Jeb Dunnuck’s take echoes our own, “The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is outstanding. All varietal aged in 50% new oak, it has some pure cassis fruit as well as textbook herbal and tobacco notes. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it’s elegant and has supple tannins, wonderful balance, and a great finish. It could be two to three times the price and still be a good value…93 Points.”

Forty bucks for good Napa Cabernet is a sensational deal in today’s market, particularly given the Cabernet outlook for the next couple of years. But it is also part of our Blue Chip Wine Club, so members can save even more!

ANOTHER VALUE CAB FIND (LIKE UNDER $20!)

It’s always good to find a well-performing California Cabernet Sauvignon at a great price. It has been a prime directive of ours almost since ‘day one’. But it should be stressed that, over the next couple of years as the market deals with the aftermath of the 2020 wildfires, this particular crusade is only going to get harder. Finding an ample, tasty Cab for under $25 is a greater achievement than it has ever been. For that reason, we are digging harder than ever, our task even more difficult because of our own unwavering standards.

That said, there are still things in the broad market from the very good 2018 and 2019 vintages out there at present that one should consider stockpiling to get through the ‘dark times’. Our latest find is Valravn Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County 2109, the California wine project that has been building over the last decade as an adjunct for an importing company. Over that time they have developed sourcing relationships that are clearly paying off if this wine is any indication.

This is an ample, ripe Cabernet is composed of 92% Cab and the remaining 8% a mix of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. The grapes hail from a variety of Sonoma County vineyards including the sub-appellations of Dry Creek Valley, Moon Mountain, Sonoma Valley, and the cooler Knights Valley.
Combining elevations, aspects, climates, and soil types allowed the producers to blend the components for a seamless composition.

In the cellar, it is handled like an expensive wine. Hand-sorted grapes undergo an extended cold-soak followed by primary fermentation in stainless steel. The wine is then racked to French oak barrels (new, second use, and neutral) for 18 months of aging. After aging, the wine was gravity settled and bottled unfined and unfiltered.

There are a few stumbling blocks on the marketing end. For example, as you’ll note, the juice came from Sonoma. They do grow some fine Cabernet there however. Just think back to the delicious Sinegal Details bottling we offered a while back. But Napa has done a better job of promotion.

Also, the name looks like someone forgot to buy a vowel. But the name is in fact a reference to Danish folklore where ‘regular’ ravens who ate the hearts of kings felled in battle became supernatural. Sounds more like an episode of ‘Vikings’ than a name for a wine but we aren’t ‘judging’. Besides, the value here supersedes all of that.

The happy outcome of all of this is a big, juicy, fruit driven display of black fruits laced with flecks of clove, spice, espresso and dark chocolate. Deep color, honest fruit, sleek texture, this delivers far beyond its remarkably modest price point ($19.98).

THE ‘LITTLE BOAT’ HAS LANDED

As much time as we spend researching and tasting in our never ending quest for exceptional wines, there are times when it can just take a little luck. We would likely never have crossed paths with Jose, the proprietor of these wines, had it not been for random chance. The wine has been almost exclusively sold in elite eateries like French Laundry, Daniel Boulud, Jose Andres and Spago.

The short story is that Jose Ignacio Cuerco, a native of Spain, was scratching his ‘homesick’ itch at a Saturday paella lunch offered at one of our favorite food sources, La Espanola Market. Randomly, someone whom we knew from a consulting gig happened to sit next to him at the lunch and they began to talk. He told Jose about these wildly passionate wine merchants that he knew and, as a result of the conversation, we got a call asking if we might be interested in checking out his wines. “Of course”, we said.

Jose picks the sourcing and, having worked with a few top flight sommeliers who were instrumental in developing the program, is very hands on about the stylistic results of the wine. He is not in the wine biz per se. But this is not an ego project either. This is a ‘passion’ project and speaks of his wines as if they were his actual children, clearly very emotionally involved in where they go. The name “The Little Boat” was chosen with reference to a song Barquito de Papel (‘Little Paper Boat’), an ode to peace and friendship. The project is dedicated to his son Mateo.

Jose brought in three wines and we bought all three of them, something that people who know us know that is a rare occurrence. The thing is that they hit all of the parameters we look for. They were tasty, well conceived and well made, and the prices were quite reasonable for the quality in today’s market. Most important perhaps is that they are classically styled, varietally pure, easy to like and food friendly. The style isn’t to bowl you over. This is California fruit with Old World sensibility.

The Little Boat Chardonnay Russian River Valley 2020 had the classic Russian River nose of peach/pear fruit, spice, and toasty oak. In the mouth, you get that same impression of delicate but insistent peach and pear, with just the right touch of toasty accents and a little underlying minerality, but the well proportioned acidity lifts at the finish a leaves the palate ready for the next bite.

The Little Boat Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2019 offers up aromas of baking spice and ripe strawberries with a little touch of cocoa. In the mouth it is silky and seamless with the spicy berries as the elegant center of attention. Great purity of fruit here but also the added bonus of drinkability. So many things from the vaunted but loosely defined Sonoma Coast can be very ungiving. This one is tender and ready for prime time.

Sometimes random chance can work in one’s favor. Enjoy these classy Cali efforts. We also have a small quantity of a Spanish Rioja called Barquito Rioja Gran Reserva 2014 (barquito is Spanish for ‘little boat’) that was made for him by La Rioja Alta, the first time the winery had done a contract bottling for someone else in 150 years we are told. We have big plans for that one, too, but must wait for the ‘big boat’ to come in to have enough stock.

CAB ALERT AND REDUB OF THREAD FEATHER ‘STAG’S’

We’ve mentioned this in passing in a number of articles and emails but felt we should take a moment to make the point specifically here as well. There are shortages on the horizon of some of your favorite beverages. Thanks to the wildfires in northern California in 2020, which occurred rather late in the growing season, a number of vineyards containing later harvested varietals like Cabernet were affected by smoke taint.

There are those that will tell you that smoke taint in grapes can be ‘handled’ in the cellar. That is a subject for debate and we definitely don’t agree. Neither do most producers and most of the quality Napa vintners will not be bottling Cabernets from the 2020 vintage.

Bottom line? There will be less Cabernet to go around, obviously, if you eliminate the majority of an entire vintage. Some vintners will choose to the conserve and stretch the ’18 and ’19 vintages to cover the gap. Others will simply clamp down and protect the wines for restaurants (so you can pay more for them) or raise prices. Other simply won’t have anything to sell. In short, there will be much less to choose from for what we estimate to be a period of 18 to 24 months.

So what does one do? Simply, by a little more now and put it aside. The 2018 and 2019 vintages are quite good and still fairly available, so the old adage of a ‘bird in the hand’ is very appropriate right now. We are doing to do our best to build our own back stocks of reds to ride the storm, but there is only so much we can do.

While we’re on that subject, we went back an bought out the rest of the delightful Thread Feather Cabernet Napa Valley Stag’s Leap 2019 which we offered via email late last year. A high-quality $69-list Napa Cabernet for under $40 is a good place to start your Cabernet ‘survival kit’. Thread Feather Winemaker Niel Koch has trained at elite places, with Philip Melka at Seavey Vineyards, Bryant Family and Vineyard 29, as well as a stint as Assistant Winemaker at Lewis Cellars. He knows what great wine is supposed to taste like.

This particular bottling is important for a lot of reasons, though a Cabernet this good for this kind of price is always relevant. This, and the 2018 Howell Mountain, were the elite efforts of a serious run of excellent Cabernets from Thread Feather. The blend is 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Merlot, and 1% Cabernet Franc grown on an eastern facing slope on the west side of the Silverado Trail.

The Thread Feather Cabernet Sauvignon Stag’s Leap is bright and opulent with dark fruit notes of dark cherry and blueberry compote and hints of baking spice, cedar, violet, crushed stone and a slight whiff of mint. It is rich with beautiful structure, superb balance, polished tannins, and luscious layers of fruit that represent the nuances of Stag’s Leap, the appellation, to a tee. Simply put, this wine blew us away, and you know we don’t say that kind of thing all that often.

We’ve seen plenty of top-end, ‘reserve’ bottlings from Stag’s Leap wineries at three to five times the price that don’t deliver this much character and joy. A gorgeous, hedonistic Cabernet even in its impetuous youth, at $39.98, you’ll feel like you got away with something that was mismarked.

NOTABLE UNDER-$10 REDS

When we started back in 1982, the world was a different place. The internet didn’t exist, nor did emails or social media and shipping to consumers beyond the local neighborhood was out of the ordinary. Most everything was sold by someone coming to an establishment and physically picking up the bottle. A lot has changed over the years, but a handy, go-to, well-made, and well priced offering still has value in the marketplace.

We keep tabs on all price ranges here, but admittedly have little tolerance for clearly manipulated wines in any price range. Unfortunately, in the lower price rungs, the majority of offerings seem to fall into that category. We are looking for wines that are honest and varietal at every level.

We became aware of Shannon Ridge wines many years ago but, in truth, the wines weren’t particularly memorable. A lot has changed since then. It is unique in a few ways. This family-owned winery is in Lake County, which has seen a lot of development in recent years. Also the vineyards from which the Shannon Ridge wines come are situated at 2200 foot elevation and the winery is committed to sustainable farming. If you start with good fruit, odds are you can do something exciting with it. Wines like this, with honest, unfettered fruit and a sub-$10 price are exciting to a lot of people.

The winery is working on offerings in a variety of styles and price points, but it was this pair of reds under the ‘High Elevation’ banner at the value end of the spectrum that presented the most potential. Such wines are not abundant in the marketplace. Good color, good weight, varietal character and this kind of pricing may not ‘shock the world’, but they will make a lot of friends.

The Shannon Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Lake County 2019 , all from mountain fruit, is a direct presentation of ripe blackberry and dark cherry, some spice and woodsy notes, and honest flavors. It got a 92 point nod from Wine Enthusiast with comments, “Bold and nicely spicy, this full-bodied wine wraps delicious black-cherry and blackberry flavors in moderate tannins, while hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla weave in and out of the fruit.”

The Shannon Ridge Petite Sirah Lake County 2019 is definitely something of a throwback style and has the punchy, full throttle black fruit one expects from the varietal. Pretty much a fast ball down the middle for fans of Petite Sirah, with flecks of pepper and spice woven into the aromatics and flavors. Wine Enthusaist said of this, “Quite ripe and jammy, this deeply colored wine also sports nicely integrated tannins that balance the intense blueberry and blackberry flavors. Being relatively smooth and polished for the varietal, it’s ready to drink through 2026…90 points.”

Will these wines change your life? Probably not. But do they show the potential of Lake County ‘done right’ and deliver exceptional value? Absolutely. Stuff like this never goes out of style.

ANOTHER GREAT ‘UNDER-THE-RADAR” NAPA CAB

We’re always looking for another sneaky good Napa Cabernet at a great price no matter what. The upcoming shortage of Napa Cabernet (and a few other things) thanks to the 2020 wildfires has made the search even more urgent. A lot of folks haven’t really taken our message that seriously but, as an example of what we are talking about, our supplier just informed us that there will be no Cakebread Chardonnay available for retail until September! Armagedden? Maybe not quite, but certainly worth noting.

This one is a bit unique in a “French connection” sort of way. Winemaker Christine Barbe was born and raised in Bordeaux France. She studied biochemistry and received her doctorate degree in Enology and Viticulture from the Bordeaux Institute of Enology. Her knowledge of Sauvignon Blanc is extensive as she made wine at Chateau Carbonnieux and La Louviere in Pessac-Leognan as well as the renowned Denis Dubourdieu.

WHile the winery seems to be best known for Sauvignon Blanc, which has a style that mimics a white Bordeaux, clearly she picked up a few nuggets on Cabernet while she was at it. The style of the Terroir Coquerel Cabernet Sauvignon Walnut Wash 2019 definitely shows a Bordeaux sensibility and elegance, but still has the richness and body of something New World.

Plush and tender for its age and definitely in that value price range for Napa Cabernet, there’s a seamless presentation of blue fruits with notes of of savory spice, cocoa, and toast that delivers a nicely proportioned mouthful that will deliver substance alongside grilled red meats while not being s0 ‘big’ that it will overpower food. Nicely defined, lovely Cabernet, there aren’t any current reviews on this bottling but, in the upcoming Cabernet crisis, this is a fantastic option to have on hand from both a performance and price perspective.