WINE enthusiasts?
Jeanthemachine
Earl of Limerick
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2010
- Messages
- 2,795
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- Location
- Englewood, Florida, United States
- Handicap
- GHIN 7.7
As long as its not 2 cases EVERY 3 days.
arydolphin
GTHC!
Very funny. I'm also talking with a wine shop via email out there to ship me some more stuff. I need to back away from this computer screen.
dhill
New member
I bet that was a great trip Ary!
Sounds like an excellent trip. 2 cases is a good start... Lol
On my iPhone T.. T.. Tapatalking away!
RoundersRob
New member
What places did you visit?
interlooper
Wishing I was golfing now
Yeah; I love going out there as well. Which wineries did you choose, Ary?
syndicate559
Sweet Trajectory
Skimmed through, but for the OP, if you're looking in the $30 range, Justin from Central California has some very nice wines. I'm a Cab guy for the most part, and there's is very good for the price. Gotta love the Silver Oak and Groth lines, only when I'm not buying, though 
arydolphin
GTHC!
This trip was all about smaller places, we've hit some of the bigger names in the past. First day: Larkmead, Outpost, Lamborn. Larkmead is just south of Calistoga, and they will basically tell you "we have awesome wine, now let's taste it and show you why we say that." It could rub some people the wrong way, but their cabs and red blends live up to the hype. Sadly they didn't have much on sale at the vineyard, they push their wine club pretty hard so you can get access to their really good stuff, but it's a no-go for us being in Massachusetts. Outpost has Thomas Brown as their winemaker who is a big star right now, we enjoyed their variety of offerings at the top of Howell Mountain. Lamborn was the most interesting as my wife and I tasted wine with the owner and his wife for almost 2 hours on the back porch of their house! Such a personal experience, and they were incredibly nice. Their Zinfandel is really good, and that's coming from a person that normally doesn't enjoy Zin.
2nd day: 750 Wines, Chateau Boswell, Failla. 750 Wines is a really interesting experience: wine shop in the middle of St. Helena that is run by a husband and wife that have connections throughout Napa Valley to get their hands on limited stuff. They only open their shop to private tastings, we were able to get a slot at 10 AM on that day. Based on our preferences that were discussed via email, she had 5 different wines for us to taste, all of which were decanted before our arrival. All of their wines were pretty good, and I'm talking about her about getting a bunch of stuff from her shop shipped to us. JB will be jealous, one of the wines we tasted was the 2009 Robert Foley Napa Valley Cabernet, his first release of a Cab from the valley floor. Chateau Boswell was a 2-hour tasting that included tastings of 3 whites in their cave, followed by barrel tasting of 3 different reds. It turns out that one of the main guys at that vineyard lived in the exact same apartment in Charleston that my wife and I lived in a few years later, what a small world. Failla was just down the road after that, and was a big difference from Chateau Boswell: pinots from Sonoma County are their stars as opposed to the cabs at Chateau Boswell. The combination of the 2 vineyards makes for a really good afternoon.
We did a small tasting at Ma(i)sonry in Yountville on the last day as we headed back towards San Francisco, which was fun as they have an art collective there and also give you access to multiple different small vineyards. I had never heard of Tor Kenward wines, but was amazed by his 2010 Mast Vineyard Cabernet and bought 2 bottles.
Feel free to ask me any other questions on here. My wife and I both agreed that this was one of the most fun vacations we've ever taken!
- Admin
- #260
Was the 09 good ary? I have a special bottle of it they sent me.
RoundersRob
New member
A friend of mine used to intern under Thomas Rivers Brown and now is a winemaker himself. TRB wines are always stellar. Boswell also does some great stuff. Did you get a chance to try any of their wines that are under the Jacquelynn label? Those are fantastic.
arydolphin
GTHC!
This is the one that we tasted: http://www.robertfoleyvineyards.com/nvcabernet.html
It was quite good. My wife is the bigger cab fan between the 2 of us, and she really liked it. It suffered a slight bit because we tasted a Broman 2007 Cab that was a little more fruit-forward and I think a little more approachable because it was an 07, but I have no doubt that a couple of the bottles of that Foley cab will be ordered soon. However, I didn't get to taste any of the other Foley wines. The shop that we were at does offer other Foleys, but one of them was ~$200/bottle, a little too rich for my blood.
We only tasted the Cuvee Blanc from the Jacquelynn line, they didn't have any of the cabs from that line available. Interesting story: we asked a guy during our tour how he was involved with the vineyard. He said to us "I married a girl named Jacquelynn and that's how I got here." The guy is Josh Peebles, who was also the guy that spent some time in Charleston and lived where we did. Very laid-back guy, great guy to talk wine with, we really enjoyed our time there.
- Admin
- #263
His Claret is my favorite wine on the planet. I have a long vertical of it in storage and just about every wine he makes I enjoy it.
RoundersRob
New member
Too bad you couldn't try any of the cabs or chardonnay. Great stuff.
arydolphin
GTHC!
I stand corrected! We tasted a couple of the Jacquelynn cabs from the barrels. I just looked back and saw that we pre-ordered 2 of them.
RoundersRob
New member
I stand corrected! We tasted a couple of the Jacquelynn cabs from the barrels. I just looked back and saw that we pre-ordered 2 of them.
Must have been good then...
TheCrest4
#UrbanLumberJack
Giving the Paleo a try so that means no beer. So I am having a glass of red wine. Best thing about knowing nothing about wine is that the cheap stuff tastes good to me. Haha gonna have to read through this thread to get some ideas and recommendations
- Admin
- #268
Its a great way to form your palate. Price does not dictate taste or quality, merely demand. There are some incredibly good inexpensive wines.
RoundersRob
New member
- Admin
- #270
The same could be said for some "expensive" wines as well. I watched a "sought after" wine made in Australia and a snake fell in with the grapes and was mixed right in.
TheCrest4
#UrbanLumberJack
RoundersRob
New member
Not sure how much you like to read but there are a lot of good wine education books that are fun to read while you are trying new stuff from different regions. I find the wine more enjoyable when you know a little about where it comes from, etc. Kinda like learning the mircobrew story of the small brewery when you are visting them and tasting their beer.
TheCrest4
#UrbanLumberJack
Cool I am definitely going to check into that and do my research. Makes sense about the regions. Thanks again for the advice I appreciate it.
RoundersRob
New member
Cool! As JB said - you don't have to spend a lot of money to find great wines. There are some fantastic values in the $10-$15 range if you know where to look. I've had the entire spectrum from a great $10 to a horrible $1000+ bottle. (fortunately the latter was provided by someone else)
TheCrest4
#UrbanLumberJack
Here is what we tried tonight. Pretty good.
