What had been designated as a West Coast blind tasting turned into a California parade of wines.
2011 Dutton Goldfield Chardonnay Dutton Ranch Rued Vineyard – bit of colour, a nice chard nose, clean through the middle and then the oak kicked in and if not ruined the show, certainly affected the response from our group of tasters. Mer et Soleil lovers will also love this one. Those who value a more deft and restrained hand with the oak, probably will not. Funny that the oak didn’t affect the nose as much as one would expect.
1991 Gallo Estate – this cab was early in the Gallo vintage dated premium wine history. Good colour, lightening a bit, and a good cab nose with plum and hints of anise. Quite tasty, if long in the tooth. Developed some mint notes with time in the glass. Good length.
1997 Gallo Estate – the person with this jumped in when he saw what I had poured. Rather different presentation here – darker, a bit riper, mint from the start, fully mature, with cherry hints at the end. Not much complexity here.
1999 Signorello Padrone – this wine is a selection of very low cropped cabs (too low for normal commercial wines), made in only some vintages. This one was dark, had an excellent cassis based nose, and was big, ripe and concentrated in the mouth. Good length, nice wine.
1999 Whitehall Lane Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve – I have always viewed this winery as a middle rank producer (sometimes even lower), but this wine wasn’t bad. Fairly dark with a briary cab nose, sweet entry, decent weight, and a slightly elevated terminal acidity.
2001 Bonny Doon Old Telegram – I bought a case of this (of a different vintage) and ended up returning all but two bottles. It was priced above the then available Chateauneufs, which were simply better wines as well as far better value. Oak in this nose, but along with the vanilla, also a hit of rubber, but not in a bad way. Sweet, pleasant enough, and decent length, and clearly much better than the earlier example I had, but it did little to change my mind – I’ll still take Vieux Telegraphe over this any day. Should have been put out of its misery a few years ago (OK, that may be too harsh, but I felt it was past prime and that even at prime it lacked the complexity of a decent CNduP).
2007 Relic Ritual – the torture continued with this one. A blend of Mourvedre, Grenache, syrah, and petite sirah, this one had zero nose when opened – I mean zero – we could have been smelling a glass of water. By the time it came up for pouring the purveyor was in doubt about whether he should offer it or not. We prevailed on him to pour, if only as a learning experience, as it had by now developed a bit of a nose. Raspberries and cocoa sounds nice, but the wine showed as being quite simple and we really didn’t think it merited the price tag it carries.
2007 Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains Estate – this similarly priced wine turned the tide – dark colour, very decent nose of berry and vanilla, balanced, middle weight and not hot in the finish with an alcohol content of 13.7%.
1997 Geyser Peak Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve – somewhat to my surprise this was in pretty good shape. Showing fading orange at edges, a decent nose of smoke and mint, and an almost elegant middle, now with only soft tannins. Tasting this spurred me to check my cellar list to see what I had. Hmm – I find some 1986 Geyser Reserve Alexandre. Oops…..
We finished up with a couple of half bottles. The host only told us that one was in theme and the other wasn’t. I tasted both and said that the first was clearly inferior and must be the US wine, while the second wasn’t bad at all. Joke was on me.
1976 Wilbert-Eifel Thornicher Ritsch Riesling Beerenauslese – brown wine with a burnt sugar nose and only some old oxidized notes on offer. Spoiled.
1997 Beringer Nightingale – also dark colour, orange amber, and with a nose of apricot and intense sweet fruit flavours. Despite being a Bordeaux/Sauternes blend, it wasn’t much like a French version, but was interesting in its own right. Good showing.