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Last Saturday I was invited to attend a lunch with winemaker Shane Finley in Sebastopol to taste his 2006 releases as well as some of the white Rhones that influenced his winemaking. I met Shane last year when I was visiting Kosta Browne where he is Assistant Winemaker. We were the first account to offer a small amount of  his first release of 2006 Shane The Unknown in January.

After whetting our palates with a couple flights of 2001 Yves Cuilleron and Pierre Gaillard white rhones from St. Joseph, we dove into the trio of Shane's 2006 Syrah; Jemrose, The Unknown and Valenti.  Out of these three I heavily favored the silky violet, cassis quality of the Valenti which paired beuatifully with the lamb leg I ordered.

Following lunch, we departed for Kosta Browne where Shane makes his wines. The entire production is barely 20 barrels in 2007. He has added a fourth Syrah called The Villain coming from a pair of distinct vineyards; Alder Springs (Emerald Pond) and Broken Leg.  My impression of the four Shane Syrah has the Valenti and Vallain showing the most concentration at the moment. The wines will be bottled in about a month.

Shane's new project with a partner  is a micro production Pinot Noir called Spell. He has fewer than 180 cases of a pair of wines that will not likely see the light of day until 2010. The smallest lot is a mere 50 cases of Pinot Noir from Barton Vineyard in Russian River. It is accompanied by 120 cases of a multi-clone bottling from Weir Vineyard in Yorkville Highlands that uses about 25% whole cluster.

Vinfolio plans to grow our relationship with Shane Finley and his projects as they move forward. His ultimate goal is to get to about 1000 cases, even at that there will never be a lot to go around.

Shane was mentioned as one of my winemakers ON THE CUSP OF DISCOVERY in my June 9th blog post.

Don't worry about the title to this blog post, there is no need to throw on the heavy coat and bundle up. I have just brought back a favorite wine of late Winter, coincidently called Winter.

If you followed this wine back then, it had a very compelling story - Custom home builder Rob Winter comes to Napa Valley to build a home for a client and ends up meeting some high end wine personalities and decides to never leave. Trust me, it happens to a lot of people. One of the people Rob met was Jayson Woodbridge who introduced Rob to his winemaker, Philippe Melka who happened to have an Australian woman named Helen Mawson, as his assistant. When Rob Winter decided he wanted to produce a Cabernet Sauvignon, he tabbed Mawson to make it.

Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, gave the premiere release 2004, and 2005 scores of 94, and 95 points, respectively. When I reviewed the 2005 in February, I also gave it a 95 point review.

A very limited amount of 2005 Winter Cabernet Sauvignon, VF 95 arrives next week, and is currently available on the Vinfolio website. Remember that Vinfolio will hold your purchases for up to six months so consider this 95 pointer for Fall and Winter holidays.

Among the best new release of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to cross my desk in the last year is the 2005 Phifer Pavitt Cabernet Sauvignon Date Night. I had the chance to taste this wine for the first time last week after hearing about it from a friend who had tried it a couple months ago. As it stands, the label presents some challenges to fully illustrate the important design elements since it wraps around 270+ degrees of the bottle (which is a good explanation for the images spliced above).

Owned by Shane and Suzanne Pavitt, the project began in the late 1990's as the couple set their sights on creating a wine together. It took nearly ten years for the first wine to be released, made by Ted Osborne. Harvested off the organically grown Temple Family Vineyard in Pope Valley, it gives substantial credence to the idea of sourcing high end Cabernet from this area. Phifer Pavitt can certainly stand up to the Napa Valley status quo competing head to head on quality.

I had heard from my friend how delicious the wine was but I wasn't expecting the silky palate appeal it demonstrated immediately after opening. I tasted the sample over a couple hours and it showed remarkably well.

2005 Phifer Pavitt Cabernet Sauvignon Date Night, VF 94+  is blended with 2% Petite Verdot and aged in 2/3 new French oak. The vintage produced only 300 cases for its premiere release.

What would I compare it to?

2004 Altamura Cabernet Sauvignon

2004 Rocca Cabernet Sauvignon SOLD OUT

2005 Emerson Brown Cabernet Sauvignon SOLD OUT

2005 Drinkward Peschon Cabernet Sauvingnon SOLD OUT

2005 Kapcsandy Cabernet Sauvignon NOT AVAILABLE 

From this list you can see there isn't much in the category that we still have available. Vinfolio only received a small allocation and we won't have it to offer for long.

It won't be long till this wine is a household word, at this moment it is very much under the radar.

Highly recommended.

Last week I received a visit in my Calistoga office from  Celia Masyczek to show me some of her available releases including Husic, Hollywood & Vine, D R Stephens, Corra and Lindstrom. As one of my favorite winemakers I was very excited to taste with her.

Over the past week you have seen my reviews on both of the Hollywood & Vine - 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, VF 94 and 2007 Chardonnay, VF 92

Celia also poured 2007 Corra Sauvignon Blanc, VF 94, now in its second release. It showed a minerally nose of key lime and grapefruit, with a luxuriously silky palate and a 45 second finish. Drink Corra Sauvignon Blanc over the next couple years. Only 197 cases are produced.

For those of you waiting for Celia's Lindstrom Cabernet Sauvignon, be sure to see our Fall catalog for my review arriving the first week of September..

Last September I offered the 2006 Ojai Roll Ranch Viognier Ice Wine and it was a very popular selection leading into autumn celebrations. This super concentrated offering from Adam Tolmach has developed a dedicated following among connoisseurs of domestic sweet wines. It isn't typical to see much Viognier made in this style and we were able to secure a few more cases over the last couple weeks. This wine is what is not used off Roll Ranch that Adam traditionally co-ferments with his Syrah. Once it is determined it isn't needed for that purpose it is immediately taken to the deep freeze and then crushed at a later time.

If you are looking for a stunning example of dessert wine from California then the Ojai is your ticket.

2006 Ojai Viognier Roll Ranch Icewine; VF 95

Adam Tolmach produced the only dessert wine ever to receive a perfect score from me; it was his 2002 Viognier Ice Wine that practically defied description. The current release is not far off. Typically the Roll Ranch Viognier is used to co-ferment with the Syrah from the site. Whatever grapes are left over are immediately trucked to a commercial refrigeration plant and left for days until they are frozen solid. They are then brought back and crushed yielding over 40 brix as it goes into oak. When it comes out, the results are mouth-watering delicious.

The nose excites with vivid pinepple and grapefruit intensity. Viscous on the palate with rich pineapple, buttered lemon tart and bright acidity.

Last weekend my wife and I hosted our second annual summertime dinner for a dozen friends at a private compound in Napa Valley and since I was responsible for selecting the wine I decided to dive into several we have available at Vinfolio. I was especially curious about one that I had not yet tasted -2006 Arietta On The White Keys; a Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon Blend, made by Andy Erickson. This year marks the first allocation we have enjoyed of the Arietta lineup.

2006 Arietta On The White Keys, VF 94

For a first course the chef had prepared a smoked salmon/asparagus soup accompanied by a hockey puck-sized scallop flown in from Maine that morning topped with caviar. It was a beautiful match to the crisply shaded lushness of the Arietta.

The aromas are mineral, fennel and grapefruit zest with whiffs of honeysuckle. apricot and white peach. With several hours of air, the wine shows a sleek lushness on the palate that is rounded out by firm acidity and a white peach undercurrent, beautifully accenting the toasty apricot, guava in the finish.

The Arietta On The White Keys has received solid reviews from The Wine Advocate (WA 90-92) and International Wine Cellar (IWC 93). Vinfolio has fewer than two cases remaining

 Last year when I was at Pinot Camp in Oregon I ran into someone I was very surprised to see -Dr. Revana of Napa Valley's Revana Vineyards.When I asked him what he was doing at Pinot Camp he explained enthusiastically that he was working on a project  that wouldn't be released till 2008, he didn't give me too many specifics but did tell me it was being made by Lynn Penner-Ash at her state-of-the-art facility in Dundee.

Just last week I got the chance to taste the first Revana wine from Oregon; A Pinot Gris named Alexana (for Dr. Revana's daughter)

2007 Alexana Pinot Gris Dundee Hills; VF 87-90

I first tried the wine at room temperature and found mineral, melon apricot and nectarine flavors which were all beautiful but the wine seemed to lack a little acidity. After chilling a few ounces in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, the wine developed more of a solid backbone of acidity and made the aromas and flavors more precise.

There isn't much of this wine to go around with only 400 cases produced. This likely won't be the last wine Revana and Penner-Ash team up for. I suspect there will be Pinot Noir before too long!

Today was the most recent Pinot Days Grand Tasting in San Francisco, now in its fourth year. The festival this year seemed to be missing a few of the names I was expecting to see like Kosta Browne, Patz & Hall, La Fenetre and Loring. There was seriously no shortage of great wine I made sure to get around to as many of the new producers and ended up tasting nearly 150 wines.

Here is what I wanted to mention as the best of the new crop I tasted:

2006 Addamo Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley Reserve; VF 93

A nose of violet. lilac, red cherry and raspberry Very nice flavor profile as well.

2005 Ampelos Pinot Noir Rho Santa Rita Hills; VF 92

Spicy nose of sassafras and cherry, smooth on the palate with a backbone of dark fruits

2006 Arista Pinot Noir Russian River Longbow; VF 93

Superb structure with a smooth ripe flavor profile - everything in solid proportion

2006 Aubin Pinot Noir Dundee Hills; VF 92

Burgundian in style with delicate aromas, nicely made

2007 Bohemian Pinot Noir Freestone; VF 94

A really beautiful barrel sample, nice acidity with good concentratio of black cherry and creamy midpalate

2006 Benovia Pinot Noir Cohn Vineyard; VF 95

Beautiful and abundant raspberry, cherry and blueberry theoughout

2006 Clos Pepe Pinot Noir Clos Pepe Vineyard; vf 93

Elegant and focused nose the cherry and mineral influenced flavors have a solid texture

2007 Coterie Pinot Noir Saralee's Vineyard; VF 93

Smooth and elegant aromas of cherry and violet. The palate shows delicate cherry and plum

2007 Couloir Pinot Noir Roma's Vineyard: VF 93

An exciting project good acid profile and dense fruit flavors of cherry, black raspberry and plum

2006 Demetria Pinot Noir Gaia's Vineyard; VF 92+

Supple and delicately scented fruit, nice emphasis on palate

2006 Dovetail Pinot Noir Windsor Oaks; VF 92

Full of rich extracted cherry and plum

2005 Eno Pinot Noir Fairview; VF 94

One of the best wines of the day, super supple and beuatifully balanced

2006 Foursight Pinot Noir Charles Vineyard; VF 94

A great find and one of favorites of the day, pretty cherry and spice aromatics with a smoothe rounded palate

2006 Jalama Pinot Noir Cargasacchi Vineyard; VF 93

Firm and brilliant on the palate with excellent structure

2006 Jim Ball Pinot Noir Anderson Valley; VF 92

Nice wine a solid backbone with plenty of cherry raspberry strawberry on the palate

2005 Kindred Pinot Noir Anber Ridge Vineyard; VF 95

Smooth core of cherries, pomegranate, spice and red raspberry

2005 Mcintyre Pinot Noir Monterey; VF 94

Very pretty nose with a smooth flavor profile

2006 Shandel's Pinot Noir Oppenlander Vineyard; VF 91

Nice nose with good fruit concentration. The palate seems a bit young but certainly one to watch

2006 Small Vines Inot Noir Sonoma Coast; VF 91

pretty nicely focused aromatics, black cherry and a bit of violet throughout

2007 Sojourn Pinot Noir Demuth Vineyard; VF 91

Lots of bold black fruit in nose with baking spices on the palate; cinnamon, clove and black cherry

2006 Stephen Test Pinot Noir Russian River Valley; VF 93

Great aromatics of chalky charry and spice, the palte is well focused and delicately smooth

2005 Thorne Pinot Noir Rio Vista Vineyard; VF 93

Premiere release nice aromatics of cherry and mineral, black raspberry on palate with a bit of licoice

Many of these wines will receive more formal tastings in the next few weeks before appearing at Vinfolio. Keep an eye out for them in the Wilder Side of California.

For the last three years the Hestan label, owned by Stanley and Helen Cheng has received great accolades from critics and has been in demand from collectors. Those wines are made by Mark Herold (Merus, Buccella, Harris Estate, Kobalt).

For his new project called Stephanie, Cheng brought on Saxon Brown and Black Kite winemaker, Jeff Gaffner, (who had worked on the Chateau St Jean Cinq Cepages project),beginning with the 2005 vintage.

I had the chance to taste the premiere release of the Cabernet Sauvignon earlier in  the week and found it was showing beautifully. Cheng's 127 acre ranch in the eastern part of the Napa Valley is the source for this Cabernet Sauvignon also produces a Merlot and Bordeaux Blend bottling. The total production of this project focusing on the five Bordeaux varieties is only about 2400 cases.

2005 Hestan Vineyards Stephanie Cabernet Sauvignon; VF 93

A rich cherry and clove-like orange spice nose with extracted black fig, cherry and licorice on the palate with coffee and plum on the finish.

This wine should be available to order at Vinfolio within the next week.

With the beginning of summer more and more winemakers want to get together and show me the upcoming releases for Fall and beyond. Today I was finally able to get together with Kenneth Juhasz, owner/winemaker of Auteur, for lunch in Calistoga and a chance to catch up with the 2007 vintage Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Kenneth brought a pair of Chardonnay, one each from Hyde and Donum Vineyard and five different bottlings of Pinot Noir - Ophelia (the only blended wine in the lineup) along with Hyland and Shea Vineyards out of the Willamette Valley followed by Sonoma Stage and Manchester Ridge from Sonoma Coast, and Mendocino Ridge, respectively.

We began by tasting the Chardonnay served with Hog Island Oysters that showed off the impeccable structure of the Hyde Vineyard yet were a bit overmatched by the Donum Vineyard's powerful Old Wente clone's oily concentration. Believe it or not this was my first chance to taste Ophelia, Kenneth's ORCA blend of Shea, Hyland and Sonoma Stage.

Getting into the Pinot Noir designates is where I usually find the boldest strokes of greatness from this producer and we went through them in succession from Hyland, Shea, Sonoma Stage and Manchester Ridge. As these are all impressions of wine in barrel that will not begin reaching the market for at least another 6 months I have evaluated them with a range that envelope my impressions.

My experience with Auteur over the last five vintages has taught me a few things:

1. The wines seem to get better every vintage
2. The evaluations of the barrels are always exceeded by the finished wine
3. Patience, patience What you don't understand now, leave the bottle open for a couple days

All of the samples had just been pulled from barrel this morning and were presented in 375mL format and were initially sampled at room temperature.

2007 Auteur Chardonnay, Hyde Vineyard; VF 93-95

Polished lemon and mineral intensity on the nose with a supple creamy core of pear and lemon. The wine goes through no malo-lactic fermentation, retaining a vibrant intensity to the silky long finish.

2007 Auteur Chardonnay Donum Vineyard; VF 92-94

From the oldest 30+ year-old Old Wente block at Donum, this will be the last vintage from Auteur. Rich color decidedly deeper than the Hyde showing a shimmering nose with minerally white peach that is proniunced in its forwardness. The palate carries the peach, lemon and pear theme beautifully.

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Ophelia; VF 92-94

A delicate nose of salt, geranium blossom, verbena and wet quartz. The palate is nicely focused  and creamy with a solid core of acidity balancing the concentrated black cherry and blackberry

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Hyland Vineyard; VF 84-86

The wine smells and tastes a little smoky but shows nice texture throughout the palate. This will bear close watching in evolution as it is a clearly an abberation of the Hyland profile.

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard; VF 94-96

Wow, beautifully rich nose - carbon, dried violet flowers black raspberry and licorice already in a surprisingly integrated form. Black raspberry, licorice and plum are evident on the palate yet to attain the polish that is a hallmark for this wine.

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Sonoma Stage Vineyard; VF 95-97

A little lilac and forest aromas, the palate is already showing nice intensity for such a young wine. Intertwined black cherry, raspberry, pomegranate and violet come through vividly.

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Manchester Ridge; VF 98-100

It is scary to think this wine won't be out for another nine months. It is already better than 80% of the 2006 releases in the market. Mind blowing is the way to describe the aromatics in this wine - geranium, violet, white raspberry with a hint of sweet fig. The palate is the most evolved of any of the barrels already showing layered flavors with the foundation of complex cherry, lavender. mineral and red cherry.

I've said it before - Kenneth Juhasz is creating what are likely some of the most important Pinot Noir in America yet he seems to be doing it with relative ease and I hasten to add, a great deal of humility. During lunch when I was deep in thought with one of the Pinots, I turned to him and said "Kenneth, you should be required to make wine with one hand tied behind your back".

At the conclusion of the lunch Kenneth offered to send all of the ungassed samples back with me,however since they had only been under cork for an hour before coming to me, the corks had expanded and refused to go back in the bottles. I was forced to keep all of the samples bolt upright (uncorked) in my car back to the office and then carried them home the same way.  After being open to air for nearly 12 hours the wines had gained additional dimension. I will taste all of these wines again prior to release to determine a final review, but with the exception of the Hyland  at this juncture the Auteur portfolio seems in very good shape.

If you are going to the Pinot Days event in San Francisco this Sunday, look for Kenneth's table near the front. I could tell you what he will be pouring but that would spoil the surprise!