Posts Tagged ‘lisa’

Acacia Pinot Noir 2006

January 26th, 2009

Hexagone Group Arlene, Lisa, Joey, Adrian and I ate dinner recently at a great new restraunt. We had a splendid evening of laughter and food, and of course, wine. We had a bottle of the Acacia Pinot Noir 2006 from Napa. We thought it had a really pretty color. Arelene thought she sensed scents of apple, while Joey was accosted with the smell of snails. I think they were just smelling their food. The wine smelled a bit musky, was very fragrant, and had a bit of a peppery or spice to the taste. Arlene enjoyed the pretty gams. I gave it a 7 and a yes that I would order this wine again. Joey gave it a 9 and a yes. Adrian and Arlene both gave it a 7 and a yes. Lisa gave it an 8 and a yes. This wine at Hexagone cost $46, and it retails for acacia1 approximately $25.

Winery Thoughts
The myriad of dark fruit and floral notes in this Pinot Noir come from the cool, windy Los Carneros American Viticultural Area (AVA) in the southern reaches of Napa Valley. Satsuma plum, blackberry, red rose and violet notes weave through the enticing aromas, mingled with warm nuances of vanilla and toasted oak from barrel aging. Silky, elegant flavors echo the aromas, adding blueberry and plum to the rich fruit complexity. You’ll find this wine’s lush flavors, bright acidity and fine tannins are perfectly balanced to complement a broad range of foods.

Tags: adrian, arlene, hexagone, joey, lisa, napa valley, pinot noir
Posted in Wine | 1 Remark »

Sebastiani Pinot Noir 2006

January 26th, 2009

Sonoma County

Joey recently ventured over to my house to a potluck of sorts. With him he toted a bottle of 2006 Sebastiani Pinot Noir from the Sebastiani Winery in Sonoma County. We enjoyed the wine with some steak and some salad. We tossed around thoughts that the wine had a scent that reminded us of camamille and lavendar and upon sipping conjured up tastes consisting of pepper and fruit. I thought it was merely a pretty bottle. Adam gave it an 8.5 and said he would order it again. Juan gave it a 5 on the scale of 10 and said he might order it again. Joey gave it an 8.5 and a yes, while Lisa gave it a 9 and a yes. I gave it a 7.5 and would definetly be up to drinking this wine again. The wine prices retail for about $16.

Winery Thoughts

Winery Map

The Vintage:
The 2006 vintage started off with cool, wet weather in May. Set was dry and stable in late May ensuring a good crop size. Summer continued mild with veraison starting in late July. August was cool, with considerable fog, resulting in long hang time for the grapes and substantial flavor development. We harvested the grapes beginning the third week of September through the second week of October, unusually late for Pinot Noir. The extended hang time allowed us to bring in the fruit at an average 25.5 degrees brix, with average pH at 3.51.

Winemaking:
We didn’t crush the fruit before cold-soaking so as to minimize shearing or tearing, which can impart aggressive tannins in the finished wine. The whole berries were held at a chilly 40F to promote early color extraction. After 3 to 5 days, the must is slowly warmed and fermentation is induced by yeast inoculation. During this time, the wine is pumped over its skins 2-3 times a day at the peak of fermentation, then we chill down to prevent excessive tannin extraction. Once the right amount of color and flavor extraction is complete, the wine is gently pressed by an air bladder and only the free run and light press portions are used. The wine is racked off of heavy lees and re-racked with light lees into French and Hungarian oak barrels. The Pinot is allowed to go through malolactic fermentation in barrels and resides on lees for the duration of the barrel aging process. We stirred the wine occasionally to release proteins that help round out the flavor.

Winemaker’s Notes:
This wine has a beautiful medium to dark garnet color with dried cherry, strawberry compote, vanilla and mocha aromatics. The flavor is balanced between juicy, cherry like fruit and toasted oak. This Pinot has finesse and finishes with lively acidity, firm tannins and well-integrated oak. It is the most Burgundian Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir we have made to date, with excellent aging potential.

Silver Medal from Sonoma County Harvest Fair 2007
Wilfred Wong Rating: 90
Connoiseur Guide Rating: 89
GOOD VALUE, Connoisseurs’ Guide, 2/08
SILVER, 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Comp

Technical Data
Appellation:	Sonoma Coast	Composition:	100% Pinot Noir
Cooperage:	Aged 3 months in French and Hungarian oak barrels	Alcohol:	13.85% by volume
pH:	3.45	TA	0.60 g/100ml
Production:	39,000 cases

Tags: adam, joey, juan, lisa, pinot noir, sebastiani, sonoma
Posted in Wine | 1 Remark »

Layer Cake Cabernet

January 21st, 2009

I attended with Lisa the 2 year anniversary of the Barrell Room this week. Can you believe that place has been around for 2 years already? If I had to wager a guess, I would have said barely over 1 year. I’m really happy that place is doing well. They could make some improvements (desert, main dishes), but their variety is great. They offer the always safe cheese and meat plate, great wine selection, and you can never go wrong with a build your own <panini>. I am either on a brie kick, or I love their brie there as well.

On to the wine. We had a bottle of the 2007 Layer Cake wich is a Cabernet Savignon from the True Vine winery in Napa. We paid $36 for the bottle. It retails for $24.99 The wine bottle had an endearing story behind its name. It said:

“My old grandfather made and enjoyed wine for 80 years. He told me the soils in which the vines lived were a layer cake. If properly made, the wine from these vines was like a delicious cake layerd with fruit, mocha, chocolate and hints of spice …and rich, always rich. ‘Never pass up a good Layer Cake’, he would say. I have always loved those words.” -A. Orlando Tribute, Jayson Woodbridge

Impressions
Sight
Lisa enjoyed this wine more than I did. I was first set off by the coloring. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the brown marble bar that we sat at, but the wine gave off a brownish tint–similar to how wine looks when it is going bad.
Scent
We tried to ascertain what smells the wine had, but surprisingly we couldn’t pick up a scent. Lisa stated “I couldn’t figure the scent out.” To which I replied, “Me neither, usually i just guess either peppery, oaky, or fruity.”
Taste
It wasn’t a super dry wine. It had a light finish. Lisa thought it was easy to drink and held a medium complex finish. I felt that the finish was weak. It kind of drained off and had a watery finish.
Score:
Lisa gave it a solid 6 while I gave it a weak 6 out of 10. She would order it again, but I would not choose to. Though, I would drink it if I had to.

The winery is currently facing charges of making wine without a license.

The wine maker recently spoke at the Culinary Institute Of America (C.I.A) for its recent graduation. If you are ever in Napa Valley, I reccomend that you visit the C.I.A. It’s really a beautiful campus and offers cooking demonstrations practically daily.

Winery Thoughts:

Vintage:	2007
Wine Type:	Bold Red Wine
Varietal:	Cabernet Sauvignon
Appellation:	Napa Valley
Bottling Date:	July 2007
Alcohol %:	14.2

Tasting Notes:
Beautiful deep garnet color. Aromas of blackberry, cassis, violets, cedar, tobacco, and hints of minerals and graphite. Sweet, densely packed and creamy in the mouth, but with firm, underlying structure that gives lift to the dark berry, chocolate, and coffee flavors. This is a very lush, soft, complex wine that coats the palate and spreads out on the long, lingering finish.

Winemaker Notes:
We fermented this Napa Valley Cabernet using hand punch downs and gentle pumpovers; then transferring some to French oak for aging. The most structured, most powerful lots were put into new French oak for aging to balance the tannins and extract the rich flavors from the barrique. Some lots that would benefit from the softening effect of time in oak were put into French barrels that were used to age Hunderd Acre. By carefully blending the differnet lots – varying oak types and different vineyard lots – we created a balanced and compklex wine.

Tags: barrell room, c.i.a, cabernet sauvignon, layer cake, lisa
Posted in Wine | 1 Remark »

Bounded Ambition

January 6th, 2009

Lisa wrote, er, posted an interesting video on the psychology of happiness and the human brain. Its a long video, but its worth a watch and its worth a discussion.

Tags: brain, happiness, lisa, psychology
Posted in Ramblings | 1 Remark »

St. Jakobi – Shiraz

December 19th, 2008

Lisa and I visited Capri Blue this past week for a dinner and a glass of wine. When we arrived we found out that it was half price wine bottle night. We ordered a 2003 Shiraz from the Barossa Valley of Austraila named St. Jakobi. This wine hailed from the Dutschke winery. The wine retailed at the restraunt for approx $64, we paid $32. You can purchase it online currently for $27.

Our Thoughts:
I thought it had a pepper and oaky smell to it. It appeared to have a some legs. I asked lisa what it tasted like and she said “it tastes like good wine.” She also thought it had a hint of honey in the taste. It held a strong yet not complex finish. The wine was a nice purple/lavendar hue. There was a taste of some sort of berry that we could not recognize–a btbnl (berry to be named later). We gave this wine an 8 out of 10, and we would definetly order it again.

Winery Thoughts:
In 1934 my Grandfather, Oscar Semmler purchased the vineyard and grazing property across the road from where he and his brothers grew up. The property is located at Lyndoch in the Barossa Valley, along side of the “St. Jakobi” Lutheran church and school. It is in the St Jakobi Church where my great grandparents, grandparents, parents and now Brenda and myself have all been married.

The Shiraz grapes for “St. Jakobi” come from this family vineyard, from vines planted in 1975 by Oscar’s son Ken Semmler (my uncle).

We’ve been blessed by having “great dirt”, and a vineyard that consistently produces fruit each year that shows elegance, richness in spice, plum and chocolate like characters.

This 2003 “St Jakobi” Shiraz is made using the same techniques I started with back in 1998.

We harvest the vineyard on 2 or sometimes 3 occasions, picking across the flavour spectrum, ferment in open fermenters and age the wine in a combination of both French and American oak hogsheads, purchased from 9 different coopers. This allows me to combine the wines from those better barrels to make a more interesting wine showing the full potential of the Shiraz fruit.

Winemaker: Wayne Dutschke
Vineyard: Ken Semmler’s Lyndoch Vineyard
Region: Lyndoch, Barossa Valley, South Australia
Harvest Date: 27th February and 7th March 2003
Alcohol: 14.5%
Oak Maturaton: 24 months in New and Older French and American Hogsheads
Cellaring potential: 5-8 years

Scores
91 pts, WineSpectator, December 05
88 pts., WineFront Monthly May 2005
92 pts, Tyson Stelzer “Wine Press”
94 pts, James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2007

Tags: austrailia, capri blue, lisa, shiraz, st. jakobi
Posted in Wine | No Remarks »

Educated Guess – Cabernet

November 25th, 2008

Yesterday afternoon, Lisa and I enjoyed an early dinner at the Barrel Room. We ordered a bottle of a 2005 cabernet called Educated Guess from the Roots Run Deep Winery in Napa Valley. The restaurant charges $26 for this bottle, but you can purchase it online for about $17.

Our Thoughts:

It had a pretty label/bottle. It was a dark cherry red in color and had a strong oaky bouquet. It was a very strong and complex finish. The wine had long legs. It wasn’t the best of wines and we were not very pleased. However, it was a drinkable wine–if we had to. We ranked it 4 out of 10, and we would not order it again if given a choice.

Winery Details:

Oh, and everyone wants to know about our unique label. Our label was designed to tell the story of how you can make an educated guess in winemaking, not to give you nightmares about your high school chemistry class. It shows you actual winemaking formulas that are either induced or naturally occur during a specific winemaking process. For those of you who aren’t chemists and want to know more about what the 5 formula strings on the label mean, please email us and we will happily send you more information. For the rest of you, drink up and enjoy!!!

2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation
100% Napa Valley
85% Rutherford, 15% Yountville/Oakville

Cases Produced
18,000

Napa Valley Varietals


85% Cabernet Sauvignon		12% Merlot
2% Petite Verdot		1% Malbec

Characteristics
Rich, ripe and focused with juicy blackberry and
boysenberry fruit, all tied together with a creamy
french vanilla middle and a lingering finish.

Cooperage
12 months in French and American Oak

Suggested Retail Price
$20

Tags: barrel room, cabernet, educated guess, lisa, roots run deep
Posted in Wine | No Remarks »

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