Something Extra for the Wine Lovers
(Since I Failed To Post Last Week)
Ever since Tom Burgess founded Burgess Cellars in 1972, his small Napa estate has remained family owned and true to its original vision of affordable, high quality, food-friendly wines. The Burgess’ carefully match the right varietal with each of their vineyards so to produce wines which represent the best qualities of each.
The 2008 Merlot Triere Vineyard first drew my attention to Burgess. The vineyard is in the Oak Knoll District on Napa’s valley floor. It is far different from the flood of juicy plonk that ruined Merlot’s reputation a few years ago. Instead, this is both full bodied and elegant, gracing the palate with layers of fruit and integrated tannins It calls out for a grilled steak. With a bit of decanting, this wine is a pleasure now but will improve with a few more years in bottle.
The winery’s flagship is the 2008 Napa Valley Cabernet. It is a ridiculously good value, far outperforming many others at half the price. Its fruit comes from Howell Mountain, which is known for its structured age worthy wines. It is more restrained than the Merlot, but shows lovely dark fruit and spice. This will really benefit from at least 6 - 8 years of cellaring. You can drink it now but be sure to decant.
2008 Merlot Triere Vineyard: Color: dark garnet; Aromas and flavors of dusty mocha, flowers, blueberry, black cherry, coffee with a bit of wood spice with long finish and integrated tannin Very Good - Excellent 26.99
2008 Napa Valley Cabernet: Color: dark ruby; Aromas: of dark fruit, anise with a bit of wood sweetness; Mouth: full, plum, dark fruit, long dark berry finish with a hint of dark chocolate Very Good - Excellent 31.99
Also, for anyone interested in tasting how this wine develops over time, there is still a limited amount of the 1998 Napa Cabernet Library Release. The cool growing season caused critics to pan the vintage, but time has proven the skeptics wrong. This wine is drinking more like a mature Left Bank Bordeaux, very structured with notes of dark fruit, smoke and leather and still a few more years to go. Excellent 70 Net
John Syfor
john@federalwine.com
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