As parents of a school-age child, we have learned to take advantage of his Spring Breaks for travel. This year, his Spring Break was spent in the Bay Area to visit our friends and relations out there. Many of these folks take our visits as excuses to open up their long-awaited treasures (either that, or stuff they can't get anyone else to drink). A bottle of 1998 Tinhorn Creek Cab Franc (Okanagan) proved to be surprisingly tasty, with a leafy, herbal quality atop dark berry fruit and firm acidity. The bottle of 1997 Staglin Cabernet Sauvignon was much less interesting, with the usual blackberry/graphite thing, soft and glossy and still primary. Ho hum.
A visit to our friends Bruce and Joy is always great fun, but Joy (aka Queen of the Mailing Lists) loves to pull out older bottles of cult wines for us to try. On this occasion, we got to try 2003 Aubert Chardonnay "Lauren" with a nose full of tropical fruit and a rich, viscous mouthfeel complete with low acidity. That was followed by a pair of Pinot Noirs, the first of which, the 2004 Aubert Sonoma Coast smelled of pine needles and sappy red fruit with a surprisingly tart sense to its very deep fruit. The second wine, the 2002 Williams-Selyem Westside Road Neighbors clocked in at 14.3% ABV and was huge, oaky, soft and hot. Yuck. We had a great dinner and much fun with our friends, but the wines weren't the highlight.
Jean and I took one day out of our NoCal swing to venture up to Sonoma for a day of R&R. Of course, R&R in Sonoma must include a few stops at wineries of interest, so we found ourselves in the early afternoon visiting the operations at Wind Gap and Arnot-Roberts in Forestville. At Wind Gap, we were hosted by Susan, their marketing director (Pax was in LA that day) who guided us through their current releases.
2009 Chardonnay James Berry Vyd - somewhat muted citrus, butter, dry
2008 Chardonnay Yuen (James Berry/Brosseau) - apples and distinct mineral notes, crisp and dry with a slightly buttery finish
2009 Pinot Noir Griffin's Lair - bright, juicy cranberry, lactic, light on the palate with a long finish
2008 Syrah Sonoma Coast - savory, dark fruit, well structured but tight
2008 G/S/M Rana - somewhat hot, meaty, red fruit with firm acidity
2008 Syrah Griffin's Lair - seaweed and soy sauce, dark fruit, plenty of structure
2005 Agharta black label - soy sauce, black fruit, huge, tannic
The talk here was about sustainability as in the use of lighter glass bottles. The highlight of this visit was getting to see their concrete egg fermenters.
The Griffin's Lair vineyard was proudly proclaimed to be the coldest Syrah vineyard in California, apparently acing out the competing claim of the Peay vineyard (much talk about the inversion layer over Peay that involved Duncan from Arnot-Roberts, too). The wines were quite interesting. Of the two Chardonnays, our preference was clearly with the Yuen. We were quite impressed with the Pinot Noir and also liked the Sonoma Coast Syrah. The Rana, like many CA GSM blends, left me a bit cold. Susan explained that the Agharta label is used for wines deemed too big for the Wind Gap label and such was this wine. Big and brawny, it may turn into something very nice with sufficient age, but I was unsure whether it had enough acidity remain fresh.
Mark Lipton
