Thursday was a big day for us. We received our Land Use Permit from Napa County to build a beautiful winery designed by Backen Gillam Architects on Butterdragon Hill. Stay tuned. Although we’ve had nothing but good experiences custom crushing at Rombauer, we look forward to the day when our wine has its own home.

A path lined by hundred-plus year old olive trees crosses the top of Butterdragon Hill.

During the late 1800’s, these trees shaded vineyard workers traveling up and down the Napa Valley between St. Helena and Calistoga. Now they welcome us home.

Today was a red letter day in our short history. We made our first outside sales. Although our wine hasn’t been officially released [soon!] we made a special exception for a couple of really cool wine enthusiasts who have followed this project almost from the very beginning. And what makes this experience especially sweet: we’ve had the chance to sit down with both of these gents to swap wine and stories, getting to know them a bit better. We’re looking forward to getting to know you too. That’s why we’re in this business. Thanks, DavidN and Grapefulldead!

• 1975 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (11/30/2004)
  A dull, dark, brownish-red wine gives off earthy aromas of cigar box and forest floor. Dusty tannins are still, as Mr Parker put it in 1996, “angular” but there are notes of rum-soaked black cherries, strong coffee, wood smoke, truffles, menthol, and cedar closet. Will this wine ever resolve in to something better? Perhaps. It seems to be holding it’s own and undergoing little change in the past decade. No rush to open. Could be that better things will come to him who waits. (87 pts.)
• 1989 Château Le Gay – France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol (11/29/2004)
  Inky dark, almost black wine — a fascinating color — with just a slight orangish browning at the edges. Aromas of leather, pencil shavings, and old wooden furniture but there’s fruit here too: fig, stewed plums, spiced fruit cake. Chunky, chewy tannins beg for even more time. A classy wine that I liked a lot. Only a mid-palate thinness held this one back from a higher score. Hold for another 3 years and then enjoy for years to come. (88 pts.)
• 1966 Château La Mission Haut-Brion – France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (10/23/2004)
  Not fading, but mature and beautiful. Cedar, leather, spicy fruity. Retains a beautiful red color with little browning. Elegant.
• 1989 Château Chasse-Spleen – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Moulis en Médoc (3/24/2004)
  Beautiful deep color, no bricking, very clean with medium body. Pretty aromas of raspberry, cherry liqueur, pipe tobacco and pine forest. The flavors of the forest continue with cedar and pine, plus pencil lead, leather, mint, and a racy streak of wild berries. Pleasant acidity with firm, but sweet tannins, and wood smoke. Long finish. This wine is just starting to appear “mature” and while lovely after an hour in the decanter, it hasn’t quite completed the transformation from youthful exuberance to distinguished maturity. Give this one another couple of years and then enjoy for many years to come. (93 pts.)
• 1975 Château Pape Clément – France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (3/3/2004)
  Maintaining good color, medium to light red with very little bricking. Musty smell gives way to wet earth and tobacco. After about 15 minutes, the wine reveals currant with pencil lead and river rock flavors. A bit past its prime, but still drinking fine. If anyone has a properly stored magnum, that should be really good. (85 pts.)
• 1970 Château Fourcas Hosten – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Listrac-Médoc (1/12/2004)
  Still good color. Muted nose of herbs and spice. Pencil lead, cedar box, cherry tobacco.
• 1970 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (9/29/2003)
  Had this again last night. This bottle, purchased and stored with the one I enjoyed back in June, was not showing nearly as well. Less body, less fruit, less… well everything. On the downhill slope. NR.
• 1970 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (6/11/2003)
  Superb mature Bordeaux. Elegant, but still vibrant after all these years. Dark brownish red with some amber bricking. Opens with sweet pipe tobacco smoke and cedar. Fantastic things happen in the mouth: black currant, prune, and dried fruit with notes of eucalyptus and tar. But even with these “aged” elements, there is still a youthfulness of sweeter, fresher fruit that emerged about 15 minutes after of decanting and remained for the next 1 1/2 hours. There’s an element of not unpleasant tannins on the finish, but I doubt this wine is going to improve much more. Drink it now while the fruit still leads this parade. (91 pts.)
• 1975 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (6/4/2003)
  Slightly dull, medium ruby color with only slight bricking. Thick full body with long legs. Earthy aromas of tobacco leaf and forest floor. Dusty, tight, stingy tannins but the wine still ekes out a some nice dark plums, menthol, and cedar. Drink now. (88 pts.)
• 1970 Château Beychevelle – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (5/30/2003)
  Mid – Bottom shoulder fill. Dark amber, port like color. This bottle was in even worse shape than the one I had a couple of months before. Tar, oaky wood, little else with a quite EtOH nose. NR.
• 1995 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (5/19/2003)
  Way too soon on this one, very backward and tight tannins but I wanted to see how it was developing. Opened up after 2 hours to reveal nice saddle leather, cedar, raspberry, and blueberry fruit. Such a different style of winemaking from the evening’s other wines. I’ll wait at least another 3 years to open another one of these.
• 1970 Château Fourcas Hosten – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Listrac-Médoc (3/21/2003)
  Slightly cloudy red but otherwise I didn’t detect any obvious flaws. Surprisingly youthful nose for a 30+ year old wine with aromas of dark fruit and tobacco. Tasted plum, black cherries, cherry-flavored pipe tobacco, tar, smoke, and pine wood. This wine must have been big when young — it’s still holding its own. Drink now. (88 pts.)
• 1970 Château Beychevelle – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (3/15/2003)
  Soft and light with a bit of spice, there was very little fruit left, perhaps some plum if one hoped hard enough. The wine still maintains a nice color, but it has certainly seen its better days. Drink now or ten years ago. This bottle’s cork was dry at the core and crumbled on extraction. There was a high shoulder fill. NR.
• 1989 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou – France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (2/23/2003)
  Medium body with a dark ruby color. Aromas of cigar box and asian spices. On the tongue it revealed pleasant, but quite subtle cassis and cherry fruit with a touch of earthy minerals. Medium, balanced finish with some tannins hinting of better things to come. This wine has a bit left in its bag of tricks that should emerge (in a good way) over the next few years. I plan to look for some more. (91 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

• 2002 Woop Woop Shiraz – Australia (3/31/2004)
  This wine has taken on some weight since I last had it a year ago. Sweeter fruit, rounder, better integrated flavors. Score for me has jumped 5 points to a strong 88. (88 pts.)
• 2002 Marquis Philips Cabernet Sauvignon – Australia, South Eastern (2/9/2004)
  Initial blast of berry aromas, then decanted 3 hours. This bottle is a little more together than my last six months ago. Wave of fruit aromas, backed up by flavors of vanilla cream, cherries, blueberries, and cedar. Oak and tannins are more abrupt and bitter than they should be — they betray this wine’s rather pedestrian heritage and are the unrefined element keeping this wine from being great. Still, it’s not a bad drink at all for 13 bucks. One more point than last time — 87 points.Revisited the remainder of this bottle 24 hours later — only a point or two better perhaps but much more enjoyable. This wine will definitely benefit from 3-4 years in the cellar but the dilemma is whether to dedicate badly needed cellar space to a sub 90 point wine… (87 pts.)
• 2001 Kangarilla Road Shiraz McLaren Vale – Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale (11/17/2003)
  No notes. (89 pts.)
• 2002 Marquis Philips Cabernet Sauvignon – Australia, South Eastern (8/28/2003)
  Dark garnet, strong ETOH with fruity aromas that became more defined after about an hour in the decanter. This wine smells like the little syrup bottle racks they have at IHOP — or at least used to — blueberry in particular. Creamy blueberry, vanilla, medicinal, a touch of oak. This wine seems very disjointed to me. It has the right elements but they are not well integrated giving a sort of a haphazard start, middle, and finish to the wine. Youth? Bottling shock?Do I consider it a good value? For drinking right now, there are wines available at the price that I would enjoy more. However, this one seems to have a richness that hints of more potential. Sure would have liked to see this one have more time in oak, but then, that would drive up the price. I’ll try another one in a year and see if it was a good deal or not. 86+ pts.

  Note: after 24 hours served slightly chilled the various components of the wine have melded a bit better to make it more drinkable alone. The first day it was only enjoyable while eating the lamb and did not complement the rest of the meal or by itself. (86 pts.)

• 2002 Woop Woop Shiraz – Australia (5/22/2003)
  Deep crimson color in the middle with lighter edges. Light body. Lovely sweet cherry nose. Initially tasted of tart cherries soaked in alcohol, oak, wet earth and pebbles. After about an hour in an open bottle, the oak calmed a bit, the cherries tasted sweeter, and I picked up a bit of mocha and raisins. I agree that this makes a nice weekday wine. I enjoyed it with spicy Mexican food and the slight sweetness helped it hold its own. 83 pts. Not bad for $10.99 at a local wine store. (83 pts.)
• 1991 Yarra Yering Shiraz Underhill – Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley (2/28/2003)
  Almost black. Light bodied with a bizarre stewed tomatoes (Sasha thought it was a fruit) aroma. This oddity carried over on the pallate with an unidentifiable fruit, black pepper, and gamy flavors that flattened out in an unexciting way on the finish. I didn’t finish the bottle, or even my glass. What a waste for $110 dollars on a wine list. I’ll give it an 80 and figure that someone else who knows more about Aussie Shiraz would appreciate it more. (80 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker