Opus Once

Merry Edwards Winery is a winery that manages five vineyards and collaborates with other Russian River Valley growers. Their wines are primarily available direct and through restaurants. They don’t have any wine club. Merry Edwards used to be the winemaker for Matanzas Creek, but the wines of both places are currently pretty dissimilar. We got to Merry Edwards a bit early, so we wandered around the grounds and snuck some grapes to sample as well as raspberries and blackberries. People were busy getting ready for harvest season it seemed.

Our tasting was informal, with some of the office people coming and going as they were taking care of orders and so forth. Their tastings are free, but they were probably slightly disappointed when we didn’t leave with any wines. We generally enjoyed all the wines here. The workers were busy and distracted enough that it felt like a small operation where everyone has to multitask.

2011 Sauvignon Blanc, $32/bottle. Fruity, tropical and pretty balanced. It was slightly sweet to me and not very acidic. Anna got a very strong floral nose and thought it was very smooth and not typical for a Sauvignon Blanc.

2009 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, $36/bottle. A little oak,very fruity, somewhat simple, grapey, but an easy drinker. Anna thought this was fruity and not very tannic.

2009 Klopp Ranch Pinot Noir, $57/bottle. The staff here indicated that this and the Meredith Estate wines are designed to hold up for 5-7 years. This wine was definitely more masculine and extracted. It is cabernet-like but not overly fruity and still pretty young. This wine was exciting in a way.

2009 Meredith Estate Pinot Noir, $57/bottle. Ruby in color. This is earthy and rather fruity with stone fruit. The tannins are silky smooth.

2009 Flax Vineyard Pinot Noir, $54/bottle. Some spice on this one.

2010 Coopersmith Pinot Noir, $60/bottle. Anna found this to be tannic with slight chocolate.

2010 Georganne Vineyard Pinot Noir, $57/bottle. This was very fruity and from a recent bottling. Anna called it jammy.

2006 Angel Wing Pinot Noir, $90/bottle. This was in an etched bottle in memorial of the death of the winemaker’s son. They opened a bottle for us and I guess I didn’t feel guilty not buying one because the day was young for them. This was garnet to almost brick. It was still tannic but there wasn’t much fruit. It did have some cherry cola character. Anna thought this was layered and the tannic structure was still there. It was not smooth to her, but she thought it was a complex wine.

For some reason while driving up to Matanzas Creek I thought we needed to play Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, but we didn’t have it. So I yelled it. This place is straight out of the 70′s. Unfortunately, we were a little underwhelmed by some of the wines. The quality was better for some of the higher priced wines, but we feel there are many better values out there. The gardens were nice, we got a few pictures, and the history of the area inside was very good. This was in Santa Rosa, on the way to the house we were staying at, known as Rattlesnake Haven, in Sonoma. We both felt this tasting was sucky and rather rushed. Our original pourer abandoned us, and overall for a full price tasting it was not the greatest.

2011 Sauvignon Blanc, Sonoma, $21/bottle, 87 pts. Grapefruit and heavy cat pee on the nose, with a grape stemmy finish.

2011 Sauvignon Blanc, Bennet, $30/bottle, 89 pts. This had grapefruit characteristics and some chewy grapeseed on the finish.

2009 Chardonnay, Sonoma, $26/bottle, 89 pts (Noah), 90 pts (Anna). This had some lemon and tropical notes on it, it was bright with a little more grape peel in it. It had quite a tropical fruit nose. Anna thought it was honey and silky, and quite perfumy, and rather unique for California.

2008 Chardonnay, Sonoma County, $75/bottle, 91 pts. This had brighter acidity, was somewhat plain, but had a long finish. It is a light, unique blend made of the best of the grapes.

2007 Merlot, Bennet, $35/bottle, 77 pts (Anna), 88 pts (Noah). Anna got some currant on this, but it was pretty unremarkable otherwise.

2009 Merlot, Bennet, $40/bottle, 75 pts (Anna), 86 pts (Noah). Anna got some spice on this, and I agreed that it was spicy and tannic. But it didn’t have the nice, round, merlot like tannins, it was a cab-like tannic and not complex and had some bitterness. It was pretty unbalanced.

2006 Syrah, Sonoma, $30/bottle, 86 pts (Noah), 85 pts (Anna). This was hot and harsh.

2007 Syrah, Bennett Valley, $35/bottle, 89 pts. This was spicy without being hot, it was tannic and had some bitterness but was fairly smooth. It had a medium finish.

2008 Knights Valley, $50/bottle, 90 pts. This was a purple but clear color. It was not strong on oak, had some berry, spice, and burl tobacco. The flavor had a bit of tobacco but was fairly well balanced.

2008 Journey Red, $100/bottle, 93 pts (Anna). This had some cedar and tobacco, the acidity was fairly high, and there wasn’t much heat. It was a very earthy red wine.

2008 Denoument. A good port-style wine, not cloyingly sweet. I didn’t think it was remarkably complex, however.

Seghesio is in Healdsburg and was on the way to our Sonoma lodging. For the most part we aimed for the Russian River Valley since we both like a lot of these wines. Seghesio has been getting good reviews and Anna has liked their wines. She made a note that these wines don’t generally age well, 12-16 months for the most part according to the pourer.

2011 Arneis, $22/bottle, 89 pts. This is a unique grape that is not widely grown. Anna thought this had very crisp fruit and would be an excellent summer wine. It had a fruity nose with strong acid, and I thought it was Sancerre-like.

2010 Costeria Pinot, $42/bottle, 89 pts. Garnet in color. Anna thought this had a very nice delicate berry nose, slight tobacco, and leather. It was an easy to drink pinot, sweet but complex with a tiny bit of heat. Anna thought for the price she would get a Benovia or Swan. She didn’t think the price was in line. I thought it was unique, fruity with a bit of heat and under the profile a bit earthy. It had low tanins and was less acidic than tannic. A smooth easy drinker but not worth the price.

2009 Sangiovese, $30/bottle, 88 pts (Anna) 89 pts (Noah). Purple in color. The oldest vines for these are from 1910, which according to the pourer make them the oldes sangio in the US. A slight nose with currant and berry. Smooth for a sangiovese with currant undertones. Fairly simple and slightly tannic. To me this had the classic sangiovese nose, but I got some kind of mercaptan odor as well, with a medium pepper.

2008 Venom Sangiovese, $54/bottle, 88 pts (Anna) 90 pts (Noah). Anna thought this was peppery with rosemary and bay leaf and was (pun intended I guess) a bit biting. To me it had the same nose as the other sangiovese with a more oak. I got rosemary, herb, pepper, and bay leaf as well.

2009 Cortina Zinfandel, $38/bottle, 89 pts (Anna) 90-91 pts (Noah).  These are from younger vines and has 15% alcohol. Strawberry, with no heat, like a pinot. But at 15% alcohol it is definitely on the higher scale. Anna got pepper and chocolate and thought this was fairly good. I got red fruit and absolutely no heat. I liked this one. It had some tannin, fruit mostly mid palate, rasberry and strawberry but no real “Smarties” factor.

2010 Home Ranch Zinfandel, $38/bottle, 88 pts. The 2009 vintage of this wine got 95 points from Wine Spectator, and it consistently gets high marks and praise from them. Anna thought this was tannic and inky, but had a nice balance and finish, and was more complex than the other Zinfandel. I got a round nose with some earth, mostly fruit, not much heat. It had a fairly short initial finish but ends in some fruit and a slight bitterness.

2010 Monte Rosso Zinfandel, $38/bottle, 89 pts (Anna) 88 pts (Noah). This was the first year for this wine. This was mineral and not much else. It was unique, not a berry ball but had some berry. It was inkier in color than others, but not as complex. I got slight heat, some fruit, some earth, oak, leaves. There wasn’t much tannin but it wasn’t super flabby, it had a medium finish to me with a slight hint of Smarties.

2009 Marion’s Reserve, $42/bottle, 88 pts (Anna) 89-90 (Noah). This is a 1/3 mix of petite syrah, zinfandel, and carignane. Currant cherry nose, heavy, smoky, tobacco. This is a masculine wine that is good with food but stands on its own. It has deep stone fruit but it’s not tannic. To me this had much less earth on the nose compared to other wines and little heat. I didn’t get much other than black fruit (blackberry, black cherry) with a short to medium finish. Agreed with Anna that there was smoke and tobacco there.

2010 Rock Pile, $38/bottle, 90 pts (Anna) 90-91 (Noah). This has a distinct nose with slight heat. It is rustic but more sophisticated. It is not elegant or delicate, but has character. To me it was fruity with some cedar and a tannic, longer finish. This is definitely unique.

Anna and I prepare a sophisticated matrix of factors to select our visits. At the top are whether they are free or not. Ravenswood was not free, nor was it planned, so it came by our second criteria: it was cheap (thanks to tasting pass, an iPhone app), and our third criteria: I insisted on going. I felt like I regretted this once we got there, the Yelp reviews sounded so good but overall it was somewhat of a downer when we left. Given the choice again, I think we would both choose to revisit Ridge over Ravenswood for Zin blends.

This year, when we remembered, we started putting scores on the wines. This is mostly for our later recollection, but maybe it will help someone else who shares our tasters. We usually do this blinded from each other and see if it compares later. I dropped the tables from last year, it was too complicated and even confused ourselves. For Ravenswood, Anna didn’t remember to put scores down.

2009 Dickerson Zinfandel, $28/bottle, 89 pts. Anna thought this was light and smooth. I thought this was a strong zinfandel, robust and brambly, but quite a bit of heat on the nose. Some blackberry and fruit in there as well. It had some acid and generally good structure.

2011 Sangiacomo Chardonnay $25/bottle, 89 pts. Yes, it’s confusing, but Sangiacomo is their vineyard name. Anna thought this was buttery and oaky. This had strong oak and vanilla, some good structure, but it had a slightly bitter finish.

2009 Belloni Zinfandel, 87 points. This was a bit simpler than the others, but not my favorite. Anna thought this was chewier than Dickerson, and she didn’t prefer it.

2009 Teldeschi Zinfandel, 88 points. This has some carignane character on the nose. It was a little hot (high in alcohol, low in flavors), though it is one vineyard that is dry farmed, according to the pourer. Anna liked this, she thoguht it was very good and unique and not a berry bomb, it had some complexity.

2009 Old Hill Zinfandel, $60/bottle, 89 pts. This was smooth and balanced, with juice, wood, dry leaves, and some heat but it was buried in the structure of the wine. It had some leather on the nose, it was slightly bitter and had the tannic structure of a mash of dark stems. Anna thought this was very good and very smooth.

2008 Cooke Zinfandel, $35/bottle, 87 pts. This had a little more raspberry, and was a little less bitter than the previous wine. Anna thought this was very bitter.

2009 Rancho Salina Zinfandel, $40/bottle, 91 pts. This had a bit of heat but good structure. It was pretty tannic. Anna thought it was slightly bitter and tannic, but underneath it has some complexity.

2008 Pickberry Bordeaux Blend, $50/bottle, 90 pts. This had a zin-like nose and cab-like flavor. It also had a bit of bitterness. Anna thought it was smooth but not as much going on.

2008 Icon, $75/bottle, 88 pts. Some zin and heat on the nose, but it seemed a bit hot and simple to me. Comparing to the Old Hill, The Old Hill is more bitter but more complex. Anna thought this was a berry superswirl.

2008 Carignane, $18/bottle, 89 pts. This is an interesting varietal, and one that others use quite a bit in zinfandel blends. It didn’t have too much heat, and it had the creaminess and other characteristics that Carignane has. Anna described it in two words. Smooth, berry.

Anna was very kind and decided to send me a bottle of Numanthia Termes, and we had a long-distance wine tasting. She got this from wineanthology.com, for the great price of $20.99, and it was imported by that super Gauloise company, LVMH.

This opened up as a woody, fruity wine. After a few minutes, it showed a lot of complexity, some mustiness, and cedar. After a good thirty minutes of air time, it became quite nice and drinkable, with some cedar, fruit, and some flavors wonderfully reminiscent of pencils I chewed in the fourth grade.

In terms of complexity and balance, I think it drinks much better than the ordinary bottles of plonk that Anna sends me. We were going to try this a day or two ago, when my sister Barbara and her adorable kids were staying with Anna, but I was tired and grumpy and went to sleep early.

If you come across this wine, don’t hesitate to get a bottle. It has all of the classic red wine flavors – tobacco, spice, cedar, graphite, etc, but it’s not over the top in any one of those. It was extremely well balanced and complex to both of us, and drank like a $40 bottle.

Here is what Wine Anthology told her about the bottles:

91 Points – Wine Spectator

91 Points – Wine Advocate

91 Points – International Wine Cellar

FROM THE CRITICS 

“The 2008 Termes offers up a sexy perfume of cedar, spice box, violets, incense, espresso, and blackberry. Savory, concentrated, and well-balanced, this flavorful effort will benefit from several years of additional cellaring but can be approached now.” -Jay Miller

“This bold red matches ripe blackberry and currant flavors with toast, dark chocolate and oak notes. The tannins are firm and well-integrated, and the smoky mineral note is alluring. Drink now through 2016. 7,000 cases made.” -TM

“Opaque ruby. Sexy, oak-spiced dark berries and fresh flowers on the nose, along with notes of cola and star anise. Lush, palate-coating blackberry and candied cherry flavors are lifted by tangy acidity and gain sweetness with air. Fine-grained tannins add shape to the lush fruit flavors and carry through a long, spicy finish. Give this a bit of air if you plan to open it any time soon.” -Josh Raynold Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar

OUR REVIEW

When Moet Hennessy decides to add a wine to their portfolio, one can be sure that it will join their other products as global leaders in the luxury wine and spirits industry.  Numanthia’s wines are a valuable part of Moet Hennessy’s mission to represent the most refined “Art de Vivre” around the world by embodying elegance, creativity, tradition and innovation.

In North-West Spain near the Portuguese border lies Toro, a region where wine has been made since Roman times.  Across a patchwork of hillside vineyard plots, vines planted between 50 and 120 years ago withstand fierce summer heat and chill winters.  Their precious, concentrated Tinta de Toro grapes give birth to Numanthia’s wines.

The Toro region’s grape is the Tinta del Toro, a dark, tough-skinned variety from the Tempranillo family and one of the very few to resist the phylloxera blight that ravaged European vineyards in the late 19th century.  Sometimes called the “blackest of black grapes”, the Tinta de Toro is only found in this part of Spain.

Vibrant and fruity, Avanthia’s Termes stands out for its lively character.  This wine perfectly expresses the Toro region. Deep bright cherry-red, with light purple tones, Termes expresses toasted notes with a richly layered, juicy texture on the palate.  After a persistent and intense attack, and an explosion of fruit, the finish is long and complex, with spices, tobacco, raspberries and blackberries notes.

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It seemed appropriate, with all of the Russian River Valley wines, that we got some pictures of the Russian River.

The sun went down on our way to the Russian River Valley. We made a lot of stops in Napa and we had a bunch more in Sonoma.

Sonoma has more farmland that seems to be slowly converting to vineyards.

This winery had things set up right. Our tastings were set up on a tray, there were cards describing the wines, and the pourer had us get settled in an area and then left us alone. There wasn’t any sales pressure, he accomodated our schedule, and had a great understanding of the winery and the area. We liked this on Facebook, which gave a special price to the whole affair, $25 for two tastings of a good complement of wines. Even though I personally wasn’t a huge fan of the wines, I really liked the setup. And even though Anna hated their graphic design, she liked the setup as well.

In the end, for entertainment, we ranked the wines independently and then compared our results. We only agreed on our least favorite, which was the 2006 Paraduxx.

2008 Parajaxx, 72% Zinfandel, 28% Merlot, $30. I thought of this as a good party red wine, with an earthy nose and fruitiness. It has a bit of leather. Anna thought it was very light, but developed a lot as it opened up, wiht berry flavor.

2010 Parajaxx Rosé, 72% Zinfandel, 28% Merlot, $23. This was sharp to me, with some merlot character shining through, and very berry. To Anna this was very floral, a bit complex which she likes compared to other rosés. What? A rosé Anna likes?

2008 Postmark Rector Creek, Napa Red, $70. This had some oak and pepper, and more orchardy. To me this seemed a little dumb right now, and in four years it will be really good. It had a little leather.

2007 Goldeneye Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, $55. Very fruity nose and taste, seems very unique with fruit then pepper. Has a medium to long finish.

2008 Paraduxx, Napa Red. To me this seems really alcoholic  with some toasted vanilla. Anna says it’s hot but good.

2008 Postmark Howell Mountain, Napa Red, $70. This was smooth and well-balanced, and had a woodsy flavor with mild spice. Anna liked this one, said it was very good, but not worth $70. We talked about volcanic soil for about five minutes on this one.

2006 Paraduxx, Napa Red, $60. This was earthy, slight vanilla, and slightly chewy tannic structure. Anna said this doesn’t taste as light as others, and doesn’t seem as ready. She noted that the ’07 and ’08 drink much smoother.

2007 Paraduxx, Napa Red, $53. My only notes on this was that it was grapier than the 2006 Paraduxx.

Hall Rutherford was another Lexus tasting (we had three set up: Merryvale, Hall Rutherford, and Silverado). We got there slightly late, because we first went to Hall Winery in Napa. Similar, but totally different location. It also seemed like every time Hall Rutherford called us to give directions, we were driving and navigating and couldn’t take notes.

For this winery, I left the camera in the car and had every intention of going back for it. But by the time this was over, it was pretty clear they were done with their presentations and were happy to see us all go.

We tasted four wines, and the setup was the way I like it, all of them in seperate glasses in front of us, pens and tasting sheets at the ready. Later at Phelps winery we met some Hall (not Rutherford) people and they wondered how we got to go to Hall Rutherford, as it was rare to get invited. Gosh, we felt so special!

One thing that was interesting during this tasting is that Anna and I noticed the flavors of the wines really changed as time went on. And sometimes the same wine seemed different in each of our glasses.

The sales pressure, however, was a little odd. We didn’t want to join a wine club, and we were at a disadvantage being able to surreptitiously search wine prices online since we were in a cave with no reception. Shucks.

What scared me about this place is that they said it doesn’t matter who the winemaker is for their wines, the wines will make themselves. Oh, really? Maybe I can get a job here, I know very little about winemaking. Just about every vineyard besides this one prided themselves on their winemaker or team.

If you ever are special enough to get here, do so just for the art. Jack Hall is a collector of art and there is installation art everywhere here. In fact some large art movers were onsite figuring out how to get the next piece up there. Their residence is up the hill so these caves must be a perfect tax writeoff!

This place is just up the road from l’Auberge du Soleil, a great hotel with a super deck to have drinks and look out over Rutherford. Their wine list is a book to behold.

2010 Hall Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, $22. This was handed to us as we arrived. It didn’t really stand out, but I remember some grapefruit in there. It wasn’t my favorite Sauv Blanc.

2005 Hall “Kathryn Hall” Cabernet Sauvignon, $100. Spicy, dense, and smooth. Anna got a strong licorice note that was a first for her in Napa. I got some leather, smooth oak, and an incredibly concentrated nose. It had good acidity, a long finish, but it was slightly hot.

2007 Hall “Bergfeld” Cabernet Sauvignon, $100. This comes from grapes in the valley floor, with 10% Merlot. The nose seemed to have cassis, mint, less leather than the Kathryn Hall, slight oak, cigar, and cinnamon. Wow, that’s a lot. It had slight acidity and was an inky black purple. Anna though this one was very good, and lighter and more ready to drink now.

2007 Hall “Exzellenz” Sacrashe Vineyard Red Wine, $165. This seemed a little hot to me, but it had an extremely long tannin finish, with flavors of anise, dirt, and jam. Anna was trying to decide if this was better than Opus One. She got a lot of complexity from Opus One. I am going to tell her now that it wasn’t as good as Opus One for a simple reason. My feeling is that if the wine has been open for a while (which they were), any sense of an alcoholic smell means something is not in balance. Either it needs more time to age or it needs more aromatics or it needs less alcohol. I didn’t get the sense that Opus One was hot. We both got it from this one. Therefore, I wouldn’t pay $165 for it.

2006 Hall Merlot, $28. Brickish red, with a nose of popcorn, pepper, blackberry jam. There was some sweetness with a medium to long finish. Anna got that hot alcoholic nose. She thought the taste is far superior to the nose, and it was thick with complex layers. She thought it was a bargain at $28.