Kenwood Cabernet Sauvignon

Posted on February 24, 2020 by thewineraconteur

I have been trying to keep consistent here, but both my Bride and I have been out of sorts for the entire month of January and half of February.  Thankfully I had enough articles stockpiled and the most of the time I was able to keep up a flow of writing, as we both tried to keep each other in good shape.  Though enough of that, I finally got a chance to visit our local wine shop The Fine Wine Source, where we have a club membership and I was able to pick up both the January selections as well as the February selections.  When I got there, they were quite busy with a couple of couples and I really didn’t feel like disturbing the tastings that were going on.  I figure that I can always go and do a tasting at another time, which is one of the joys of retirement, as they say, every day is a Saturday.

Kenwood Vineyards was established in 1970 in Sonoma.  It was founded by the Lee family when they purchased the estate and winery of the Pagani Brothers that began in 1906 and were successful until Prohibition.  In 1999 the winery was bought by F. Korbel and Bros. and in 2014 Kenwood was bought by the international beverage concern of Pernod Ricard.  Kenwood Vineyards has twenty-two acres of estate vineyards and also sources fruit from dozens of other growers in Sonoma.  The winery has been known for years for some of their Single-Vineyard wines, as well as some of their other collections.  The first time that I ever had a wine from Kenwood Vineyards was their famed Jack London Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. 

So, my newest wine is the Kenwood Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County 2015.  The fruit for this wine was sourced from vineyards in Sonoma, Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys, hence the Sonoma County AVA.  While the wine is a Cabernet Sauvignon, there are small amounts of Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc blended in, to add to the final product.  The wine is described as being full-bodied with a nose promising black fruits and spice notes of nutmeg, sage and vanilla.  It is noted to be balanced and lively with a nice long finish.  I am sure that this wine will be perfect with a dinner or a party that is featuring plenty of red meats. 

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Weingut Pfluger

Posted on February 22, 2020 by thewineraconteur

There are times when you are tasting wines that notes aren’t taken as studiously or the moment is rather hectic as it was while we were at The Fine Wine Source.  As I have said, my Bride becomes the center of attention and sometimes I end up just going with the flow as she was on her quest for a new white wine.  She can take over the situation and then I have to play catch-up as I am secondary at the moment.  

Alexander Pfluger is the second generation at the helm of Weingut Pfluger, which is an organic and biodynamic estate, one of the first so designated in Germany.  While they are not part of the Verband Deutscher Pradikatsweinguter (VDP) elite group of the premier wine producers of Germany, he is in the VDP Academy and is considered one of the up and coming winemakers to watch and perhaps to start following.  The Pfluger vineyards are in the area around Bad Durkheim in the Pfalz.  Alexander Pfluger is convinced that the quality and the balance achieved in his wines is from his commitment of his biodynamic work in the fields. 

We had a chance to try two of his wines.  The first thing that I noticed, is that when I first started learning about wines, especially those from Germany were that the labels were very Teutonic in appearance and there used to be plenty of gold ink, whereas these bottles had very low key black and white labels.   The first was Weingut Pfluger Biodynamite Pfalz 2016.  This wine was a blend of Riesling and Gewurztraminer and I would say it was aged in Stainless Steel.  The wine had a crisp refreshing citrus nose and flavor with limes and lemons and a nice finish with some mineral notes.  The second wine was Weingut Pfluger Pinot Blanc Quarzit Pfalz 2017.  This wine while considered Dry, I found to have some sweetness, but that is to be expected I guess from Pinot Blanc, the nose was floral and whiffs of quartz (minerals) with a taste of tart apples and some lemons and a better than average finish.  Much better than I had expected and I did enjoy both of them. 

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February Birthdays 2020

Posted on February 20, 2020 by thewineraconteur

For any of you that even casually read these articles, you have noticed that once a month, we all get together to celebrate all of the birthdays within the month for the immediate family.  There are some aberrations to this tradition, but for the most part it works very well and smoothly.  Instead of trying to schedule perhaps five or six different parties in one month, there is one party and one big dinner.  This concept was already a tradition when I met my Bride and the group was smaller, but as it has expanded, the tradition has continued to be successful.  My Bride has been a very strong advocate of this, and I think that perhaps she is a frustrated caterer, but she basically only acts as a caterer to the family and a fine job she does, even if I am biased.

She always starts with appetizers, usually something simply like cheese and crackers, and vegetables and dips, though she has started to branch out and she did a Baked Brie in Bread with Oranges that I thought was delightful.  She does like to offer choices and there were three entrée platters.  There was Chicken Cacciatore with Spaghetti Squash, Turkey with her acclaimed stuffing and gray, and Pork Tenderloin marinated with Balsamic and Rosemary.  There were also platters of mashed potatoes and glazed carrots and I am sure, some plates that I forgot.  Afterwards, she had a sheet cake decorated with all of the honorees, an apple pie, cup cakes and of course ice cream.  There is a group “blow-out” for the candles on the cake as well, and of course gifts are opened. 

We also never worry about running out of wine, at our house, if we did, it would be a major party and perhaps no one would be left to report on the party.  As always, I try to get the non-wine drinkers to try something new and of the wines that we poured I will mention two of the wines.  The first wine was a spectacular wine from Michigan with some Black Star Farms Arcturos Dry Riesling 2017.  In their Twentieth year of production Black Star Farms on Old Mission Peninsula in Michigan, they were honored to receive the 19’th Annual Canberra International Riesling Challenge (CIRC) -Best Wine of the 2018 Challenge and only the second time an American wine came out on top.  There were 567 Rieslings from six countries (Australian, New Zealand, USA, Germany, France and the Czech Republic).  The Black Star Farms Arcturos Dry Riesling 2017 scored 98 points, in addition to taking home Best Dry Riesling and Best American Riesling.  I don’t think we bought enough of this really pretty wine.  The second wine is from an area that I think is very easy, even for non-wine drinkers to enjoy as it is not real heavy or over-powering. The other wine was Pies Negros Rioja 2011 with a logo of a pair of bare feet crushing the grapes, and the name translates to Black Feet. This wine is from Artuke Bodegas y Vinedos from the Alavesa region of Rioja.  There are two brothers that maintain the forty-acre estate and the vines are from thirty to one-hundred years old.  The wine is ninety percent Tempranillo and ten percent Graciano.  They produced thirty-three-hundred cases of wine and it was a big Rioja, in fact bigger than I expected with some of the newer wine tasters.  All in all, a great way to enjoy a Sunday with the family.

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Famille Sichel Bordeaux Blanc

Posted on February 18, 2020 by thewineraconteur

There are times when my Bride is the catalyst for a wine discovery, as she was at The Fine Wine Source.  I sometimes think that I am tolerated, but she is the Queen, when she is with me, after all she is the Royal Exchequer and that makes her very popular.  We were sampling different wines and she must have had something distinct in her mind, as we  had just tasted a couple of great Chardonnay wines, but she was looking for something more easy to drink and something to use as a springboard for some of her sisters from White Zinfandel and other sweet wines to something that she felt was more serious without being too heavy, as we attempt to proselytize the rest of the family members.

She was talking to the owner of the shop, with her thoughts and how she was trying to describe the wine that she had envisaged in her mind’s eye.  Jim was listening to her, and immediately thought of a wine that we should both try.  He described it as his house white wine when at home for just an easy drink, and my Bride’s ears perked up, in fact that could have become Mr. Spock’s ears as she was that geeked up.  So, he grabbed a bottle that was chilling and poured us a couple of tastes.

Famille Sichel Bordeaux Blanc 2017 was the wine that was poured.  Famille Sichel is a family owned negocient firm from 1883 in Bordeaux, as they were in the procurement process for their locations in Mainz, London and New York.  In 1938 they even bought Chateau Palmer, which at the time had fallen on bad times and have since brought it back to all of its glory.  The family does not believe in resting on their laurels as in 2001 they even built a completely new bottling and storage facility in the Bordeaux region.  This particular bottle of wine is a blend of the two leading white grapes of Bordeaux, namely Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.  I don’t think that I would be amiss to opine that this wine was aged in Stainless Steel as there was plenty of fruit and very refreshing.  It starts off with a nose of citrus fruits and finishes with some terroir with a decent finish.  I could tell that she was excited, and by the way, we started off with a case of it, just to make sure that we have some of it to enjoy. 

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Two Distinct Chardonnays

Posted on February 16, 2020 by thewineraconteur

My Bride and I were killing some time at The Fine Wine Source after the tasting with Tom Celani, as we were waiting for Tom to autograph the bottles.  We wandered over to another tasting area and tried some other wines, usually one of the barrels are set up with wines to be tasted from the Old World and the other barrel is of the New World.  With the special event at the shop, this tasting area was a mixed bag, and that is fine as we had a chance to try two wines side by side, that we normally would not have a chance to do.

We had some Failla Chardonnay Coombsville 2016. Failla (pronounced Fay-Lah) is a wine producer of recent origin, their first vintage was 1998 and then they were known as Failla-Jordan from the two owners Ehren Jordan and Ann-Marie Failla.  While they own fourteen acres in Sonoma, in the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA, they have been securing fruit prior to their land acquisition and they still source fruit from Sonoma and Napa Valley.  While the estate is in Sonoma, the winemaking and their tasting room facilities are located in Napa Valley.  Depending on the vintage and the harvested fruit, they may use cement, French Oak and/or Stainless Steel during the production of the wines.  The fruit for this wine was harvested from Coombsville and it is the sixteenth sub-appellation of Napa Valley and was designated in 2011.  This wine was a beautiful example of a California Chardonnay, buttery and complex and very balanced.  The oak while giving that buttery and spice tones while evident did allow the terroir of Coombsville to make an appearance as well.  A delightful glass of wine. 

Then we had a chance to follow that classical California Chardonnay with an excellent version of a French Chardonnay.  We had the Domaine Patrick Piuze Chablis Premier Cru Vaillons “Les Minots” 2018.  Domaine Patrick Piuze is a recently founded négociant in Chablis, specializing in the Chardonnay grape.  Patrick Piuze was born in Quebec, Canada and from the age of eighteen began a series of occupations and business in the wine trade culminating with his own winery in 2008.  He owns no vineyards, but has contracts with an assortment of growers who are known for their older vines and they act as consultants on the production of the wines from their properties.  All the fruit is hand harvested and he employs a vertical press rather than a pneumatic press to get the juice.  He has several “Village-level” Chablis wines from assorted sites, as well as eleven Premier Cru and six Grand Crus.  The opening range of wines are done in Stainless Steel and the others are done in neutral oak barrels.  He produces on average one-hundred-ten-thousand bottles a year.   Vaillons is one of the largest Premier Cru vineyards in Chablis and is located in a valley just southwest of the town.  It has the same terroir that is found in the Grand Cru districts and some of the sub-climats use their name and designations and others do not and both are legal in the French wine laws of Burgundy, much beyond my understanding.  This wine was refreshing and what I look for especially in Chablis, the terroir really shines and my notes read “green and flinty” which is my short-hand for a crisp Old-World Chardonnay.  A couple of perfect white wines while we were waiting in the shop. 

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Celani Cab and Ardore

Posted on February 14, 2020 by thewineraconteur

I was standing next to Tom Celani and tasting his wines at The Fine Wine Source and God must have been smiling upon at that moment.  The heavens were aligned and it was a delightful moment.  The wine tastings at The Fine Wine Source are not the potentially stuffy affairs that turned me off, in my youth, where someone was lecturing to you and being condescending.  These are more one on one, even when there is a crowd around the wine barrel that is holding the honored wines of the day.  It was two raconteurs bringing up people, events and places and the bond of all the conversations was wine.  A jovial and philanthropic man, who rather than just pledging money will match the funds raised by an event, and he is pushing other like-minded people to reach in and donate. 

Celani Family Vineyards is a small, family owned vineyard and they produce about four-thousand cases of wine annually.  The estate has twenty acres, with seventeen used for wine, as they also have an olive orchard.  The winery produces eight different wines, we were tasting four and I have had the good fortune to have tried seven of their wines.  The penultimate wine for the afternoon was the Celani Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2017.  This wine is made using fruit from two respected Napa Valley AVA districts; Mt. Veeder and Coombsville.  Here is a wine that was aged for twenty months in French Oak, of which ninety percent was new. That wonderful nose of black fruit, especially black cherry and blueberries. There were several spices that were mingling in the taste along with supple tannins that made this wine great fresh from the bottle and will be stellar ten to fifteen years from now.

The final wine for the tasting was one that I have heard about was the Celani Family Wines Ardore 2016. There is a meticulous selection process to secure the finest ten barrels of the Coombsville AVA juice.  These ten barrels are then aged in one-hundred percent new French Oak barrels for twenty-two months with no fining or filtering.  The nose was even more concentrated compared to the Cabernet Sauvignon and there were floral tinges as well.   This was a very big, bold wine that was chewy, balanced, with tannins that all contributed to a wine that will probably become a cult wine, since they only make two-hundred-fifty cases and this wine will be great for at least twenty years, if not longer.  My Bride and I figured out what we were going to order and we had to wait for Tom Celani to sign all of the bottles.

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Robusto and Tenacious

Posted on February 12, 2020 by thewineraconteur

There was a Celani Family Vineyards tasting that I was going to at The Fine Wine Source and I even wanted my Bride to come, even though it could be a dangerous trip.  I think everyone puts up with me, when I show up anywhere, but it is my Bride that gets all the cheers, especially in a wine shop.  I may be more cautious and conservative, but when she discovers something that she enjoys, she can be gung-ho and she may have buyer’s remorse the next day, but then it is over.  When we first met, she only drank Chardonnay and usually domestic, and there is nothing wrong with that, since she only ate fish when we first met.  I was a bad influence and introduced her to red meat and red wine, while she enjoys a good steak, she is crazy for a great red wine. 

I have to admit, that ever since I had a real job, I stopped listening to music on the radio during drive time, because I had to know what was going on in the world, so that I, as a clothier could speak rather intelligently with the customers, a trait that has been lost, I have noticed among the clerks that I now encounter.  I lead in with this introduction, because for years I had heard Tom Celani and all the philanthropic work he has done in the Detroit area, long before he had a winery.  Tom Celani is lauded in the Detroit area for his largesse for charitable organizations that he helps in a grand manner.  He and his father ended up creating one of the largest Miller distribution companies in the United States along with other beers and wines.  Tom Celani fell in love with wines, first as a drinker and a collector and finally acquiring a Tuscan-style estate with seventeen acres of grapes and one-hundred-twenty olive trees in the foot hills of the Vaca Mountain range in Napa Valley.  As the proprietor of the Celani Family Vineyards he has chosen to bottle wine without costs becoming a consideration, to him wine is about quality and not quantity.  In fact, he was joking that he is not sure if the winery, will ever truly show a profit, because of his concern about getting the best wine each and every time. 

After the introductions to Mr. Celani, we had a rather personal wine tasting with the owner of the winery, and it really doesn’t get much better than that.  The first wine that we had was the Celani Family Vineyards Robusto Napa Valley 2018, and I had told him that I had just recently had and wrote about the Robusto 2017.  The 2017 vintage was labeled Proprietary Red Wine and so was the 2018, but Mr. Celani informed me that the 2018 was entirely Merlot and I often espouse about how much I love Merlot.  What a spectacular way to start off the tasting.  Here was a beautiful inky dark glass of Merlot that promised red fruits and spices, and delivered in spades along with a nice finish of terroir with balance tannins.  I already knew the person next to me was in love, and not just with me.

The next wine that we tasted was the Celani Family Vineyards Tenacious Estate Napa Valley Red Wine Unfiltered 2016.  I had tasted and wrote about the Tenacious 2012 and we may have a bottle or two left of it in the cellar.  When I first had the wine, I was told that it was created in the image of Le Pin and Chateau Petrus, and quite a lofty goal.  The wine is a blend of seventy percent Merlot and thirty percent Cabernet Franc.  The wine is aged in new French Oak for twenty-two months and has become their affordable signature wine.  This had a big nose of black fruit and strawberries, with a taste that was dominated originally by the black cherry, and finishing with some rich terroir and some great acidity for cellaring.  If I was crazy about the pure Merlot, the addition of the Cabernet Franc put it over the edge and created a Grand Slam and somebody was really smiling. 

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Ninety-four

Posted on February 10, 2020 by thewineraconteur

I have had the great pleasure to have a Mother-in-Law that is the antithesis to the creatures that have been portrayed on the stage, film, radio and television.  I am sure that some may be envious, but she is just a great lady and she has maintained a great sense of humor.  She is the last of her siblings and there were plenty of them, the last time that they tried to get all of the clan together, they had to rent a city park, because of the spouses, children and their spouses and the grandchildren and their spouses and the great-grandchildren.   I sometimes wonder how I remember my immediate family and she could have her own Zip Code if everyone lived in one community.  My Bride and four of her five sisters with their spouses and just a couple of the grandchildren met to celebrate their Mother’s ninety-fourth birthday and that is quite the number to achieve, especially to be in great shape in body and mind.

The sisters got together and decided on a restaurant, that I have never been to, and it is probably because I have always imagined it to be a step up from fast-food, and yes, I can be snarky about food.  We went to a place called Outback Statehouse that sounds like it should be based in Australia, but was actually conceived in Tampa, Florida and some of the dishes have “Australian” sounding tag-names. There are over a thousand locations spread across eighteen countries, including Australia.  It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Parent Company which is named Bloomin’ Brands, named after the signature appetizer of a one-pound onion that is specially sliced and cooked and a takeoff on breaded onion rings, and it is called the Bloomin’ Onion.  I won’t try to discuss all the meals, as there was fourteen people having dinner.  I know that we ordered a Bloomin’ Onion and another appetizer called Shrimp Scampi Dip with tortilla chips, which had Parmesan and “Jack” cheeses (and doesn’t sound anything remotely what I would think of for Australia), but I have to admit they dishes were interesting.  My Bride of course, ordered their version of a Caesar Salad called the Brisbane, with a dressing not even close to her classic interpretation and topped with “Grilled Shrimp on the Barbie” which I guess refers to a barbecue grill and not the legendary statuesque doll, and she said that the dressing was very spicy and not what she expected, but she did eat it without any complaints.  I had a classic Surf & Turf, which was a Filet Mignon and a small Lobster tail with a small container of melted butter, and some grilled Asparagus and something called a Loaded Baked Potato. I have to admit that the food was better then I had expected, but not my idea of a steakhouse, but who knows, I am probably in the minority anymore. After dinner, one of the sisters had stopped at a famed bakery and got a special cheesecake for the group with a candle. 

There were an assortment of libations ordered by the attendees and my Bride decided to take the bull by the horn and order a bottle of wine, before I had a chance to see the wine carte, and I did finally find it, and I believe that there was about a dozen or  more assorted wines, and they were all priced by the glass, instead of the bottle.  We had a bottle of Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio delle Venezie DOC 2018 and this is a new designation from 2017.  The wine had thirteen percent Chardonnay, which I guess was permissible and was fermented in Stainless Steel for three weeks and then aged sur lie for two months before bottling.  The wine was a very easy and light drinking wine and was crisp and refreshing with all of the spices in the dishes.  I also ordered a glass of La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2017 to go with my Filet.  La Crema was originally a producer based in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County and started in 1979 with the desire to produce Burgundy style wines, as they only produced Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  In 1993 they were purchased by Kendall-Jackson and to their credit the winery is now known for making a quality wine at value pricing.  This particular wine is their entry level Pinot Noir for the Sonoma region and it is aged for nine months in barrels before bottling.  It is a good dependable glass of wine, balanced and easy drinking, not made for cellaring, but for drinking and enjoying immediately.

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From Mendoza to Burgundy

Posted on February 8, 2020 by thewineraconteur

Some days the tastings at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan just never end, and I am not one to complain.  I had just finished fourteen wines from Korbin Kameron and I was directed over to try a couple of extra wines, and all I can say is that it is a good thing that I had training in the fine art of imbibing from my old neighborhood, though thankfully they are just a tasting.  There were two wines that they thought I should try, while I was there and I am always willing to try either of the two wines.

The first wine that I tried was Bodega Carmelo Patti Cabernet Franc Lujan de Cuyo 2015 and part of the Elixir Wine Group.  Lujan de Cuyo is a subregion of Argentina’s largest wine producing area of Mendoza.  It was officially recognized in 1993 as an area unique for the terroir, as the land is rich from the alluvial soils that came down from the Andes Mountains, and the hot, dry climate from the high altitude, and I have friends that swear that the only wines to drink are mountain wines.  The area is mostly known for Malbec, but it is also known for some excellent Cabernet Sauvignon wines; so I was very interested in trying a Cabernet Franc from the region, not to mention that, that particular grape can melt my dear Bride’s resistance and I am sure that they are aware of it at the shop.  Bodega Carmelo Patti is considered to be a small, rustic winery in the heart of Lujan de Cuyo.  Carmelo Patti was only a one year old when his family moved from Sicily to Argentina and he has thrived in his new country.  He is known for insisting that he won’t release a wine, until he thinks the time has arrived, so that may require four to five years after harvest.  He is also a purist, with no chemical alterations and only using native yeasts.  The wine was fermented and aged in concrete for twelve months and then moved to neutral French Oak for an additional twelve months and bottled unfined and unfiltered.  The wine was delicious and I am not sure if it is me, but I always feel that Cabernet Franc always displays more terroir in the finish compared to many other varietals.  I was a happy camper.

There was one more wine that was strongly touted for me to try Domaine Arnaud Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin 2016 from the legendary Cotes de Nuits of the Burgundy region of France.  Arnaud Mortet began his own Domaine after working for his father at Domaine Denis Mortet and his father passed away in 2006 as the winemaker. The family has holdings in several famed plots in Burgundy and he has since added more, while the Domaine Arnaud Mortet vines are young, the 2016 was his first vintage.  This wine is a mixture of parcels in the Gevrey-Chambertin region from three different quadrants.  The wine was aged in oak, but only a third was new.  This was a very chewy wine and the fruit was still quite forward, but really a beautiful finish, but I think that this wine will be excellent after some additional cellar maturation and to let it mature.  While some may want to snub this wine as it is only a “village level” offering, it was bigger than that to me and after all the wines that day, I enjoyed the finish and did not rinse it away with some water. If this was his first vintage, a couple of years down the road, this wine collection will be awesome, in my estimation.

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Korbin Kameron Estate Red Blends

Posted on February 6, 2020 by thewineraconteur

Imagine having enjoyed ten wines from Korbin Kameron and knowing that there are still four more bottles to try while I was at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Well, we already had discovered that Mitchell and Jenny Ming had twins Korbin and Kameron, but they also had a third child Kristin, who eventually became the Director of Design for Moonridge Vineyards and Korbin Kameron Vineyards.  Kristin has the honor of having inspired Cuvée Kristin. 

While the last nine wines that we had tasted were either Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon, the next and final four wines that we tried were Blended Red Wines, and all carried the Sonoma Valley AVA.  These wines also were aged in French Oak, of which seventy percent were new and aged for eighteen months. The Korbin Kameron Estate Blend Red Wine Cuvée Kristin 2007 was thirty-one percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty-eight percent Merlot, nineteen percent Cabernet Franc, thirteen percent Malbec and nine percent Petit Verdot.  There were seven-hundred-sixty cases made and this wine was a big Bordeaux style wine and the additional aging even made it more elegant and I wrote “wow” and I know that I will be drummed out of the wine bloggers group for that erudite description.  The Korbin Kameron Estate Blend Red Wine Cuvée Kristin 2009 was a blend of thirty-nine percent Merlot, twenty-five percent Cabernet Franc, eighteen percent Malbec, nine percent Petit Verdot and nine percent Cabernet Sauvignon.  This wine had three-hundred-fifty cases made and I had written Pomerol/ Saint-Emilion, because it was more elegant and the tannins and spices were just so pleasing.  The Korbin Kameron Estate Blend Red Wine Cuvée Kristin 2011 was thirty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty percent Petit Verdot, twenty percent Malbec, seventeen percent Merlot and thirteen percent Cabernet Franc.  There were two-hundred cases made of this wine and it was a big chewy red that would stain your teeth and have you wanting more.  As you can see, these were not repetitive of prior vintages and they were looking for the best qualities of the grapes to shine.

The last wine of the tasting I separated, not so much because it was different from the other three, but the labeling had changed and I thought it worthy to mention.  The last wine we tasted was the Korbin Kameron Proprietary Red Wine “Kristin” Moon Mountain District AVA 2015.  The wine had a new name and a new designation.  This blend was forty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, thirty percent Petit Verdot, twelve percent Cabernet Franc, twelve percent Malbec and six percent Merlot.  There were one-hundred-twenty-four cases produced and I detected more black fruits, spice and a bit more terroir.  Of the blends there really was not a bad wine as they were each so distinct, but I was really impressed with the 2009 vintage, but I was in the minority once again with the group that I was tasting with.

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