Another Napa Trip

Merryvale
$22 - 2004 Sauvignon Blanc, Juliana Vineyards
$29.50 - 2003 Dutton Ranch Chardonnay
2001 Napa Valley Reserve Merlot
$35 - 2003 Sonoma Pinot Noir
$35 - 2001 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
$29 - Antigua Desert Wine (Muscat)
Chateau Montelena
$125 – 2001 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
$140 – 1999 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
$115 – 1998 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
$18 – 2004 Potter Valley Riesling
$35 – 2003 Napa Valley Chardonnay
$28 - 2002 Estate Zinvandel
Clos du Val
$21 – 2003 Carneros Chardonnay
$24 – 2003 Carneros Pinot Noir
Darioush
$38 – 2001 Red Table Wine
$44 – 2002 Signature Merlot
$64 – 2002 Signature Shiraz
$68 – 2002 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon

Shane’s Notes

This certainly was not our best tasting trip. We enjoyed tasting at Merryvale and Chateau Montelena but the other wineries were disappointments. The trip culminated in a visit to a Persian-style nightclub serving rather flat wines. It was only later that we discovered it was really a winery called Darioush.

We began the day tasting at Merryvale. It had been years since I had tasted there and I was anxious to try their wines again.

The Sauvignon Blanc was very interesting. It was less acidic than the average Sauvignon Blanc and the flavor palate was surprisingly rich showing flavors of melons, oranges and tangerines. I know a fellow wine drinker who says that drinking Sauvignon Blanc is like licking a steel ball. I suspect he would have liked this one.

The Chardonnay is 100% malolactic. The aroma is buttery. Surprisingly, the butter taste does not overwhelm the palate. It is definitely present, but so is a nice fig flavor and a lemony finish. It is okay but nothing special

The Merlot smells spicy. The palate is spicy, briny and brawny. It is an interesting style and quite un-Napan: there is no fruit burst in this wine. In fact, it is slightly vegetal. I wasn’t thrilled with it but it might appeal to some.

The Pinot shows a smoky, dry strawberry aroma. The palate is very restrained – in fact, much too restrained. Neither of us liked it.

The Cab was similar in style to their Merlot. The flavors are very soft and the texture is silky. There is a mild cranberry flavor on the palate and the finish is a bit alcoholic.

The dessert wine has an orangey, rich Sauternes-like aroma. The texture was syrupy and once again, the palate was restrained. There were mild flavors of oranges and hazelnuts. The finish was long but the flavors should have been more concentrated.

After Merryvale, we made the long journey to Chateau Montelena. We figured this would the be best winery of the trip so we decided to do both their tastings. For the first tasting, we paid $25 a piece and were ushered into a semi-private room to taste three of the estate Cabernet Sauvignons.

The 2001 was herbal, concentrated and rich. The palate showed olive, spicy currants, tobacco and thyme. It was my favorite of the tasting.

The 1999 had a dry finish. It showed aromas of cinnamon, coffee cake and streusel. The palate was spicy, minty and showed mild fruit flavors.

The 1998 had a very Bordeaux like aroma showing earthy and herbal notes. The palate was very earthy, leathery and full. There was also some licorice. This was Jen’s favorite.

All of these Cabs were amazing. They were elegant, complex and eschewed the Napa tendency of producing fruit bombs.

While we were walking back to the main tasting room, we spotted the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay hanging on the wall ensconced in a glass case. This bottle of Chardonnay is perhaps the most famous bottle of wine to ever come out of Napa. If you know your wine history, then you know that this Chardonnay took first place in the 1976 Paris Tasting. I wanted to salute the bottle and break into a chorus of God Bless America.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, the French assumed that Napa was only producing plonk. They scoffed at the notion that Napa could compete with their fifth growths, much less with their first growths. A British gentleman who owned a wine shop in Paris had travelled to the United States and actually tasted California wines. He recognized the high quality and brought some bottles back to France. He set up a blind tasting in Paris pitting Napa wines against French wines. The judges’ credentials were impeccable and they took great joy during the tasting in denouncing American wines. When the wines were revealed, Chateau Montelena’s 1973 Chardonnay had won in the white category and a Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon had won in the red category. Time magazine called the event the “Judgment of Paris” thereby mythologizing the tasting. The display at Chateau Montelena includes a copy of the Time magazine article.

We split a regular tasting at Chateau Montelena because we simply had to taste the newer incarnation of that famous Chadonnay.

The tasting started with their Riesling. It was sweet and dry. The palate showed flavors of apricot and lemon. While not as complex as a good German Riesling, it was okay.

The Chardonnay was amazing. There is 0% malolactic in this Chardonnay, yet Montelena has still somehow reduced the mouth-puckering acidity. The complex palate shows flavors of pear, green apple and lime. The palate is crisp, rich and juicy. We have recently had some high price Chardonnays including the Newton and the Forman, but this clearly is the best of all them. The French never had a chance in 1976.

The Zinfandel was restrained with the palate showing a raspberry flavor. The texture was silky. It was nice but I don’t want a nice Zinfandel – I want a floozy bursting with flavors.

(Non-oenophiles may skip the next four paragraphs)

During the tasting, someone asked us if we liked Mondevino. Both Jen and I mentioned that we didn’t like it and were stunned when someone working at Montelena began defending the film. Someone working at the winery that won the Paris tasting is admitting that he loves the American-wine bashing Mondevino? It was tantamount to blasphemy. I was still feeling patriotic after my encounter with 1973 Chardonnay so I attacked Mondevino. The documentary constantly made the argument that American wines do not show terroir. I told the Mondevino lover that we had done a vertical tasting at Nickel and Nickel (where each Cab comes from a single vineyard) and that each Cab had distinct nuances and flavors revealing the effects of the terroir. He said that he preferred the blending approach of Montelena which allowed their Cabs to show the effects of several terroirs. I was getting a little confused because it seemed like he was backing up my side.

He switched gears and mentioned disdainfully that Michel Rolland was now consulting all over Napa Valley. I asked him to name some of the wineries that the infamous Rolland was consulting for and he named Merryvale. Fortuitously, we had just tasted at Merryvale so were in a position to defend Merryvale the techniques of Rolland. I mentioined that we thought the Merryvale wines were pretty good and did show complexity and varietal flavor. He didn’t directly respond to me but he did admit that Rolland’s methods weren’t necessarily bad. I then asked him what he thought of micro oxygenation, and he admitted that the technique had been unfairly villified in the film. He said that it is fine when done properly.

He and Jen discussed Robert Parker for awhile and they both agreed that Parker had been portrayed fairly in the movie. Jen and I were now out of Mondevino topics – it seemed like he agreed with most of our views yet he liked the film. What did Mondevino mean to him? After our long, dilatory conversation, he finally made his point. He said that he was against the usage of overripe grapes in wine. Interestingly, I don’t even remember that being mentioned in Mondevino.

My response to all these contrarians is that in order to prove their point of view, they have to ignore the incredible diversity of wines on the market. There is literally something out there for everyone. Without even leaving Napa, you can find wines from Nickel and Nickel and Chateau Montelena which are not fruit bombs, are structured very elegantly and express the terroir magnificently. You can find wines like the Rombauer Zinfandel and the Rutherford Hill Merlot which are fruit bombs but they are still serious wines and do show some complexity. You can find a restrained, Bordeaux style wine at Opus One, and a “soft tannin”, flavorless, well-made ready to drink Cab at Silver Oak. You can find a great malolacted Chardonnay that retains some varietal flavor at Newton or you can go to Clos Pegase and find a simplistic, butter bomb Chardonnay. If you don’t like wine at all, you can always head for the plonk at Coppola and Sutter Homes. It is a great era for wine drinkers.

After the tasting and the conversation, we walked over to Jade lake. It really is more of a pond, but it is still absolutely beautiful.

We tried Peju Province but there was actually a waiting line for the tasting. We drove to Cakebread and were were stopped in the parking lot by a peon who snobbily informed us that we would be unable to taste unless we had an appointment. With his attitude, you would have thought he was working for Lafitte!

From Cakebread, we went to Clos du Val, and unfortunately, they let us taste there.

Their Chardonnay was 65% maolactic but it was not well-made. It was very buttery and lacked varietal flavor underneath. It may as well have been 100% malolactic.

The Pinot Noir had floral and graphite aromas. The palate did not live up to the aroma. It was flat and simple. The finish was astringent

We tasted a few others but did not take notes. Overall, it was a disappointing tasting.

We decided to try one last winery so we went to Darioush. The design of Darioush is supposedly based on a building at Persepolis. It is the type of building that gives Napa a Disneyish glow. Inside, there are even wide screen televisions showing scenes from Persepolis while a techno style music is playing. At one point, Jen and I even started dancing.

Jen and I can forgive bad architecture but not bad wine.The Darioush tasting was amazing but for all the wrong reasons. We tasted three different varietal wines and a Bordeaux style blend. I could barely distinguish any differences between them. We couldn’t tell if the tasting was a horizontal or a vertical flight. All the wines had soft tannins and some mild, generic berry flavor and no complexity. It was like drinking lesser versions of Silver Oak. Their wines are lousy.