Tag: mount veeder

THE LATEST STYLISH CAB FROM THREAD FEATHER

Thread Feather continues to a people’s choice.  Clearly this label resulted from the rivers of unsold juice at some of the elite addresses in the Napa.  Throw in a pandemic and things would have gone on for a long time, but the fires in Napa in 2020 will definitely have an effect moving forward.   Clearly, we have learned that ‘the bird is the word’.  We have made the point long ago that California vintners, particularly in Napa, have continued to raise prices and pretend that everything is just rosy.  If that were the case, a label like this wouldn’t exist.  For us it has been a fantastic source of intriguing, very polished Cabernets that taste like they had much higher price aspirations.

Given the current state of affairs, owner/winemaker Niel Koch has dialed himself in to get some remarkable juice. His company called Flight Wine Company has developed an impressive program of ‘one-offs’.  He specializes in small lots of 100-500 cases of what he calls ‘sub AVA’ wines.  Everything we have seen thus far has been a ‘district’ bottling, as is today’s menu item, the Thread Feather Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder 2018.   Koch clearly knows what great wine is supposed to taste like.  He learned from the best having trained under Philip Melka at Seavey Vineyards, Bryant Family and Vineyard 29, as well as a stint as Assistant Winemaker at Lewis Cellars. 

The Thread Feather Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder 2017 comes from a single vineyard (they can’t tell us which one) situated at 1000 feet above sea level  on the eastern slopes of Mount Veeder on the western side of the Napa Valley just south of Oakville.  The grapes, 91% Cabernet and 9% Merlot, were handpicked, sorted and then optically sorted. After a 3-day cold soak, and 14 day fermentation with extended skin contact the wine was moved into 100% French oak, 30% new.  As has been the practice, production is limited and the original retail in this case stood at $65.

As with the other Thread Feather wines we have offered, this Cabernet speaks of its origins.  The flavors start with urgent cassis and plum fruit laced with Veeder’s telltale insistent baking spice character.  There are ticks of graphite, tobacco, and earth, but the spice wins the day as it so often does in this part of the Valley. 

This is mountain fruit, so it sits a little firmer out of the gate. A little air time makes a big difference.  But the tannins are ripe and supple.  This is a 2017 as well, so there is more structure and a little more reserved personality.  It’ll take a touch more coaxing but you will be rewarded. It impressed the buyers more on the second day as the air had really allowed this one to expand.

There’s a lot to like here, particularly for the price.  We aren’t talking the previously mentioned fare either as we are offering this ‘reserve level’ effort for a modest $34.98.  It’s another winner from Thread Feather as well as a great buy on serious Napa Cabernet.

HESS CABERNET: TASTE THIS ‘LION’ THIS WINTER

We have been selling Hess wines for a long time. There have been many incarnations, ups and downs, and an import company that brings in wine from the southern Hemishpere (including Hess’ own Argentine label from the ‘high country’ of Salta). There has probably been a little confusion along the way, too, as the name Hess is on a lot of different bottles…Hess Select, Hess Collection, Lion, Lion Tamer, Lioness (their ‘crest’ is a lion). There are ‘small batch bottlings’ of all sorts of things from Albarino to Gruner Veltliner to Orange Muscat. There are many different Cabernets (what is an ‘Allomi’, anyway) and an art collection.

There’s a lot to sort through, though most of it came later. They started out being known for their Cabernet and Chardonnay, and sometimes those classics get lost in the very busy picture. We aren’t going to try to explain all the permutations and combinations of the ‘Hess’ experience. We are simply going to mention that the 2016 Hess Collection Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is the best effort we have had from them in a long time.

Yes, it is rich and polished, bestowed with well infused notes of high quality oak, and has plenty of stuffing, though that sounds like a lot of Napa Cabernets. A couple of things make this one stand out in the crowd. First is the wine’s layered complexity and elegance. As soon as one says elegance, though, a lot of ‘Cabernet types’ read that ‘light’. Not at all. The wine has power in its cassis, plum and dark berry fruit component, but it also has perceptible layers from that ‘Veedery’ savory/spice component and chocolate notes that speak more of a ‘chocolatier‘ than a common chocolate bar. They got all of this one and it commanded our attention in a way few have.

Even better, at a time when the winery put forth their best Cabernet effort in some time, they also decided to dial back their pricing (via a special offer) to reach a broader audience. How refreshing and totally un-Napa that is.

Apparently Wine Advocate’s Lisa Perotti-Brown is of a like mind, ‘
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Mount Veeder aged for 22 months in 75% new French oak. No 2017 vintage of this wine will be made. Deep garnet-purple colored, it delivers a very serious nose of baked plums, crème de cassis, dried mulberries and dark chocolate with nuances of tapenade, chargrill, licorice and menthol with a waft of tree bark. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is built like a brick house with a solid structure of firm, grainy tannins and oodles of freshness supporting the taut, muscular black fruit, finishing on a provocative mineral note. ..95 points.”

She only has it a point or two above prior recent efforts but we think the ‘style points’ here merit a greater separation. In any case, this Cabernet, at this price, is a treat!