After the special wine tasting of Maison Trimbach at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia Michigan, we went back to the original shop and we were presented with a total of seven red wines.  I wrote about the first three, the fourth will appear when I write about that wine, when we pour it at home, and now for the final three California wines. I know that it is hard work, what I do, for the sake of my continuing education.

We started the next wine with Silver Oak Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley 2020, which on earlier vintages was labeled North Coast AVA.  Silver Oak Cellars is known for their Cabernet Sauvignon wines.  The winery was founded in 1972 by Raymond Twomey Duncan and winemaker Justin Meyer; and they make two keys wines, one in Alexander Valley of Sonoma, and the other one in Napa Valley, The Alexander Valley wine traditionally was a varietal, and the Napa Valley wine may have some blending with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot; but both now have some blending.  Each has its own dedicated winery, and each location has three vineyards in each valley; and they also have long term grower partnerships in each valley as well.  Silver Oak Cellars is also unique as they own their own cooperage.  The estate vineyards are all located above the fertile valley floor.  Wines undergo an initial blending, according to the vineyard source, into lots which are then aged separately for a year, before being re-tasted.  The wine is aged in a fifty/fifty split of new and once used American Oak barrels and see about twenty-four months in oak, then bottled and they are then cellared for an additional eighteen months before release.  A deep garnet-red wine that offered notes of black cherry, strawberry, raspberry, plums and distinctive notes of sage and thyme.  On the palate, this savory medium-bodied wine displays great textured tones of the black and red fruits, with fresh acidity and tight tannins, ending with a long count finish of fruit and spices.

The next wine was Far Niente Cabernet Winery Sauvignon Napa Valley 2022.  Far Niente Winery began in 1885 by John Benson and is one of the most storied California wineries. Benson was the uncle of the American impressionist painter Winslow Homer and a “forty-niner” during the Gold Rush.  He bought land in Oakville and had a gravity-flow winery built and vineyards planted.  The winery was successful until Prohibition and the winery was abandoned.  In 1979, Gil Nickel bought the winery and adjacent vineyard and began to refurbish them.  Originally the Benson name was kept, until they found a stone inscribed “far niente” from the Italian expression il dolce far niente or “without a care.”  The wine is a blend of ninety-two percent Cabernet Sauvignon, six percent Malbec, two percent Cabernet Franc, two percent Petite Sirah and one percent Petit Verdot.  The wine had skin contact for fifteen days, and after fermentation it was aged for seventeen months in French Oak (sixty-five percent new and thirty-five percent once-used).  The deep garnet wine offered notes of dark cherries, currants, violets, lavender, thyme, baking spices, black tea and toasted oak.  On the palate this full-bodied wine displayed tones of black fruits, mocha, herbs and spices, with rich-balance acidity, firm tannins and ending with a silky, long-count finish of fruit, spices and graphite terroir.   

The final wine of the evening was Opus One Overture Red Wine Napa Valley 2021.  Opus One is one of the world’s most famous wines, and one of the original cult wines of Napa Valley.  The concept began in the Seventies, and the first vintage was released in 1979, between Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Robert Mondavi of Napa Valley.  Its fame was sealed when a single case sold for $24,000 at the first Napa Valley Wine Auction in 1981.  In 2004, when Robert Mondavi Winery was acquired by Constellation Brands, Opus One also became part-owned by this multi-national company.  Opus One was the only wine produced by the winery, until 1993, following the tradition of Bordeaux’s famous houses and created a second wine from fruit that didn’t make the cut for Opus One.  Opus One Overture was this second wine and for years, it was a blend of grapes and vintages and was only sold at the winery.  The 2021 vintage was the first year that a single vintage was released.  The wine is eighty-nine percent Cabernet Sauvignon, four percent Cabernet Franc, four percent Petit Verdot and three percent Merlot.  The wine had skin contact for nineteen days and then was barrel aged for nineteen and a half months in new French Oak.  This deep garnet wine offered complex notes of blackberry, cassis, black cherry, currants, rose petals, sous-bois and earthy minerals.  On the palate this full-bodied wine displayed tones of the black fruits, great acidity blended with a velvety texture of tannins and ending with a rich and long-count finish of fruit, with tones of coffee and dark chocolate and terroir.