Excellent. Fitting tribute to what may be our last dinner at CYC. — 8 months ago
Cliff Lede Winery cage match tonight. All wines decanted 2 hours.
2012 Cliff Lede Poetry..Stags Leap Vineyard
2012 Cliff Lede Songbook...Abreu Madrona/Thorevilos vineyard.
2012 Cliff Lede...Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard
Poetry(9.3). Wine to drink now. Subdued nose. Taste: smooth, velvety, soften tannins, dark cherry, cedar, spice, orange rind, dark chocolate.
Lede To Kalon (9.2). Very expressive nose. Taste: smooth, soft, velvety, red and blue fruit, cedar, cinnamon, spice, smokey oak.
Songbook(9.1). Wine I would like to drink with 5 more years on it and might move to top score. Subdued nose. Taste: smooth, red fruit, cedar, spice, cassis, charcoal, touch of heat on the end and some still there kicken tannins — a year ago
1 hour decant(lots of fine/cloudy sediment). A marvelous murky dark purplish garnet color. On the nose: stunning aromas of dark fruit, currants, herbaceous, worn leather, peppery jerky, rich soil. Taste: velvety, rich, structured, leaning savory wine with dark plum/cherry, chocolate, gravel, smokey earth, spice and a long graphite/leather finish. YUM! Napa cab kickin it at age 16 with time to go. — a month ago
Inspire Napa Valley Sat. afternoon tasting with Antonio Galloni. Panel includes:
Brad Grimes - winemaker Abreu
Helen Keplinger- Keplinger wine
Mary Maher - Silverado farming
Francois Peschon -accendo, vine hill ranch
Jason Smith- MS
WINES
2018 BV George de Latour
2019 Stags Leap SLV
2018 DVO Napa Valley Red
2017 Bond Quella
2019 Lingua Franca estate chardonnay
2019 Domaine de Bichery brut champagne
Each panel member picked a wine that had an impact on them. — a year ago
Fruit from Abreu Madrona and Thorevilos vineyards.
Decant for sediment (lots of chunky/fine sediment). A startling purplish reddish magenta color. On the nose: plum, creme de cassis, smoked meat, mint, vanilla nuts. Taste: This Songbook is singing! A smooth, velvety, balanced medium body wine with blueberry, bitter chocolate, red currants, spice, tar, and a minerally cedar semi dry finish. Nice start to the weekend! — 2 years ago
The follow up to the 03 Leonetti. @Paul T- Huntington Beach & I have been telling readers about older Jones Family Vineyards for some time. If you haven’t had or not tried this producer it will be the last time I try to entice to you to try this producer. Talking about it more will only drive up the prices on the secondary market.
This 09 is damn beautiful after nearly a four hour decant but it is still fairly youthful.
It is ruby, lush, gorgeous, ripe fruits of; blackberries, black raspberries, black plum with skin, dark cherries, plum, hues of purple, blue fruits & raspberries, poached strawberries, black licorice, mixed, dark berry cola, steeped black tea, dry crushed rocks, limestone minerals, dry top soil, dry herbs, hints of eucalyptus, dry clay, dry tobacco, new leather, spice, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon & vanillin, withering red & dark florals framed in violets & lavender, beautiful round acidity, beautiful; balance, tension, structured, smartly polished finished that lasts minutes.
Still needs another 5-8 years to show its best self.
The Jones Family vineyard is located off Bale Lane in Calistoga and was planted to all five Bordeaux varieties by David Abreu in the early 1990s. Heidi Barrett made the wines until 2008, and Thomas Rivers Brown now makes the wines. — 3 months ago
Roller coaster wine. This one was really nice. — 2 years ago
Vino Joe
Rich and perfumed. This has a ton of weight and depth. Dark opaque purple in color. Acidity is a bit high but it helps on the length. Early on the drink range but I was too curious. I think this will be even more special in several years to ten years from now. — 3 days ago