To Age or Not to Age?

As I mentioned in my last post, I had the pleasure of having a quite delicious bottle of 1987 Robert Mondavi Cabernet sauvignon Reserve the other day. I always love to add a wine with a bit of age to it to any tasting I run because it allows people to experience something unusual and perhaps get them to understand what the fuss is all about. As they always say though, with an aged wine, there are no good wines only good bottles. Luckily the Mondavi was stored properly, and was just beautiful.

When a grape is presse and the juice has certain flavors and aromas typical of the grape. So for instance the juice from your Merlot will smell of plums, Cabernet Sauvignon will smell of black currants and cassis, Pinot Noir will smell like red and black cheries. These are called primary aromas. Primary aromas are present before the winemaker does anything.

Once the winemaker becomes involved and after fermentation occurs, some new and very different aromas - called secondary aromas -- are introduced. These can be quite varied, but the most obvious example is vanilla or coconut from the oak barrels. These secondary aromas add complexity to the wine, so that it smells and tastes like something other than just plain grape juice.

As a wine ages, an additional layer of complexity is added; indeed the more developed a wien is, the more prominent these aromas are, eventually coming to dominate the wine. They are tertiary aromas. The Mondavi in particular had a pronounced bouquet of dried leaves and also a bit of earthiness. These are the types of aromas that are in an aged wine. They can't be produced from merely grape juice alone, nor by a winemaker or fermentation. The intense bouquet of an aged wine can only be achieved through the gentle processes that occur in the bottle over the course of years or maybe decades. It is with age that a wine finally eveolves into a noble beverage to bee savored.

If you are going to age wine, here are a few tips:

The wine should be stored in a cool, dark preferably moist place. Cool - as in 55 degrees - ensures that the wine doesn't get "cooked". Dark because wine doesn't like light, and light can prematurely oxidise a wine.

If you stick to those three things, or purchase one of the many excellent designer wine cellars that mimics a traditional one, then you should have no problem replicating my experience with the 93 Mondavi.

The Results Are In: Double Gold Best in Show

I discussed one of our latest additions, Escafeld Winery, earlier in this blog, and, having already covered their peppery, chocolatey Zinfandel, as promised I wanted to follow up on my outstanding recent tasting of Escafeld's 2004 Petit Verdot.

Many of you may be unfamiliar with the grape Petit Verdot, but even those of you who do not know it, may have had it, at least in small doses. Petit Verdot is typically an element in Red Bordeaux, adding tannins and color to the better known Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes. Being part of the "classic Bordeaux Blend", California vintners eventually planted the grape as well.

If you drink only California Cabernet Sauvignon's and similar wines, you may still think that you have never had Petit Verdot: think again. Petit Verdot plays a supporting role in many of the most popular Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines made in California today. Names such as Rudd, Murphy-Goode, Seavey and even last year's Wine Spectator Wine of the Year, Jospeh Phelps Insignia, all contain Petit Verdot.

What's great about Escafeld is that rather than being and endnote to the story, their Petit Verdot is the body of the work. Don't be led down the path to fool's gold in thinking that if Petit Verdot is never seen alone in Bordeaux that it won't make anything special; Monterey County is a long way from Bordeaux. Given that it is often quite easy to tell the difference between Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa as opposed to Sonoma, wouldn't it make sense that Petit Verdot would take on different charcteristics than it does 6,000 miles away in France's famous Medoc?

I think that this wine is quite simply outstanding. The wine has a firm texture, full fruit, a sleek mouthfeel and great length. You could drink it with anything from Burgers to Spicy Pasta (like the Italian Sausage Marinara concotion simmering on my stove right now). Either way, I'll skip the sales pitch and let the judges decide. The results of the recent San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition:

All Other Bordeaux Varietals - 2007 Award Winners


SCHOTT ZWIESEL Double Gold Best of Class
Escafeld 2004 Petit Verdot San Antonio Valley, Monterey County, CA


SCHOTT ZWIESEL Gold
Cinnabar Vineyards 2003 Malbec

SCHOTT ZWIESEL Silver
Berryessa Gap Vineyards 2004 Malbec Berryessa Gap Vineyards
deLorimier 2003 Malbec Alexander Valley Estate
Mosaic 2004 Malbec Alexander Valley
Opolo Vineyards 2004 Petit Verdot Paso Robles
Rancho Sisquoc 2004 Malbec Flood Family Vineyards
Reininger Winery 2003 Carmenére Walla Walla Valley 7 Hills
Snake River Winery 2004 Malbec Wood River Vineyard
Stonegate Winery 2003 Petit Verdot Napa Valley, Wappo Vineyard
Stryker Sonoma Winery 2004 Petit Verdot Knights Valley Speedy Creek Vineyard

SCHOTT ZWIESEL Bronze
Forest Glen Winery 2003 Malbec
Lapis Luna 2004 Petit Verdot San Luis Obispo
McKenzie-Mueller Vineyards & Winery 2003 Malbec

As an addendum, the 2004 Escafeld Petit Verdot is the first ever winery to bear the AVA name of San Antonio Valley .. things look pretty promising so far!

Head to the Mountains to Find Napa's Boutique Wines

Let's face it -- visiting Napa Valley can at times feel more like Visiting Disney World. The sea of wineries that produce hundreds of thousands if not millions of bottles of wine is endless as one drives down Highway 29. That's why we usually "look to the hills" for our suppliers. Despite the incredible attention that the Napa Valley receives, most of it is directed along Highway 29, and the savvy shoppers looking for outstanding wines off-the-beaten track is luckily left with a few options, some of which we have been lucky enough to uncover in our extensive travels to California. Whether going east or west, the key to finding hidden gems in Napa is to do a bit of mountain-climbing.

The Napa Valley is bounded to the east by the Palisades and Mt. St.-Helena and to the west by the Mayacamas Mountains. (Bisecting the two is the Napa River.) The Mayacamas Mountains are further subdivided into three separate AVA's (American Viticultural Areas), or place names, that make wines with special individual charcteristics: Mt. Veeder, Spring Mountain and Daimond Mountain. It's up high on Diamond Mountain, poetically enough on Petrified Forest Road, that we found the amiable conversationalist, Richard Graeser and his traditionally made classic California wines.

First a bit of a lesson in terroir. Terroir is the untranslatable French word that describes the sum total of all the natural elements that affect wine. The primary component is climate, and then I use the alliterative collection of soil, aspect, altitude and slope to describe the remaining dominant features of terroir. These are the primary factors that affect the way the grapes turn out. All the winemaker then has to do is not screw it up!

Diamond Mountain is high up above the Valley Floor. On the Valley Floor, it gets very hot. Heat makes really deeply colored, full wines that are high in alcohol. The trick is getting enough acidity. Diamond Mountain is much cooler - because temperature decreases as you go higher up - think of the snow-covered top of a mountain. In a cooler climate, the terroir shines through more greatly because it is not masked by all the jammy fruit and high alcohol that is present in grapes grown in warmer sites. The wines are a bit more red in color and flavor profile and have better natural structure. So whereas the wines of the Valley floor have blackberries, black currants and ultra-full body, the wines from the Mayacamas Mountains more or less feature red currants, cherries and fraises de bois (wild strawberries). All the winemaker has to do is not screw it up!

I was sold on Richard Graeser immediately. An intelligent man whose former life consisted of running a large commercial farm further south, he immediately makes you comfortable. He is at the same time friendly and serious, and is just the type of straight-shooter with whom we like to work. He could see a pile of manure coming from a mile away, and while he enjoys conversation, he also likes to get his point across.

Our conversation quickly turned to the terroir of Diamond Mountain as we sampled some older vintages of his balanced, sophisticated Cabernet Franc. I told him that I loved California Cabernet Franc with proper age when properly made. He sized me up, knew that my comment was honest, and then agreed. I loved the redder fruits and equilibrium that the wine offered - exactly what I wanted from a cooler, mountain AVA. Mr. Graeser told me that it was his intention to make wines that represent Diamond Mountain. He could just as easily leave the grapes hang on the vines for much longer to try for greater maturity (darker color, higher alcohol), but he wouldn't do it. He's not trying to make wines that fit the current trends, he makes wines the way he likes them, the way that the Daimond Mountain wants them to be, the way I like them.

I sample hundreds if not thousands of California Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot each year. Most wine lovers envy the job of a wine professional, failing to realize that most of the wines I pour directly down the drain within seconds because they all taste the same. Not Richard Graeser's wines though, they taste like Diamond Mountain.

More on Graeser Winery

Graeser Winery 2002 "Alex's Ruff Red" Zinfandel Blend 6 Pack
Graeser Winery 2002 "Alex's Ruff Red" Zinfandel Blend 12 pack
Graeser Winery 2002 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 6 Pack
Graeser Winery 2002 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 12 pack
Graeser Winery 2003 Late Harvest Semillon