California Red Wine with John Syfor

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

Wines of the Week with John Syfor

2010 Rickshaw Cabernet Sauvignon California

     First I would like to offer my apologies for not posting last week. My reason for doing so was simply that I had not come across a wine I felt strongly about. Well, I am back and I have a great value from California. 

     Rickshaw is a second label from the talented people behind Banshee Wines. Their purpose with the Rickshaw wines is to both provide quality wines at affordable prices and also give back to the people. They are able to provide great value by finding quality fruit sources from the well know wine producing regions of California, then creating a final blend of all sources. They give back to the people by donating 5% of every bottle sold to feed the hungry in the state where the bottle is sold. Good wine, good cause and now you can drink to feed the hungry.

     Rickshaw makes three wines, but it was the 2010 Cabernet which caught my attention last week. This wine is dark garnet in color with aromas of dark berry, plum, dark chocolate and cassis spice. In the mouth it is full bodied, balanced and bright with flavors of dark plum, cinnamon, dark chocolate and graphite. At around $15 this Cabernet is a fantastic red wine to enjoy by the glass or with grilled steak or pork.

John Syfor

john@federalwine.com

Wine of the Week with John Syfor

2009 Finca Decero Cabernet Sauvignon

     This weeks' pick is a recent find from Argentina. Though a bit more money than the wines of the last three weeks, it is a steal at $18. Coming from the Remolinos Vineyard in Agrelo, a sub-appellation of Mendoza, this is higher elevation fruit from the foothills of the Andes. My experiences with higher elevation fruit in other regions of the world is that it produces wines with greater character, the same applies here.
     In the glass the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon is a dark garnet color with aromas of dusty blackberry, cherry, vanilla, and cedar with a floral note. On the palate it is medium to full bodied with a balance of blackberry fruit, smoke and mild grainy tannins. This is an elegant wine with the structure to age for a few years which is unusual for this price point. This wine will continue to develop and improve even further with a couple more years of bottle age. It should be drinking its best over the next 3 to 5 years.
This is an ideal wine for grilled steak.

John Syfor
john@federalwine.com