Kacaba Vineyards - Duck, Cab, Goose

Prior to this visit, Kacaba Vineyards and Winery had flown under my radar.  Its two darling grapes, cabernet sauvignon and syrah, require a longer growing season than Ontario typically allows in order for the skin to thicken sufficiently to imbue the wine with tannins, structure, and aging potential.  Kacaba is thus one of only a handful of Niagara wineries to specialize in such 'big reds'.  There are two ways you can look at that; either they must be really good at it, or they just haven't given up yet like everyone else.  Until now, I must have been assuming the latter - that any Ontario riesling will be better than any Ontario cabernet sauvignon, so I might as well not waste my passport coupons somewhere that insists on only featuring its reds during festivals.  Man was I wrong. 

The bridge is near the property's entrance off King Street.  The red roof in the top-left
is both the production facility and the boutique.  Read the sign; it's funny.

In hindsight, I'm glad that Kacaba had a strategy to attract people like me; it advertised such an over-the-top indulgent food pairing that it didn't matter whether or not I would like the wine!  And so, Chris and I headed to Kacaba not for its cabernet sauvignon, but for Chef Ryan Shapiro's Duck Confit Poutine.  This may be one of the best things I have ever eaten.  The hand cut crispy fries were topped with 'pulled duck', aged white cheddar, and a foie gras gravy-like sauce.  That made for four very strong, distinct tastes that complemented each other beautifully.

Enter the wine.  The 2011 cabernet sauvignon not only stood up to each of these tastes, but also tied them together nicely.  It has a very sharp, focused flavor, almost like a malbec.  Although there is definitely dark fruit at play (blackberry? black cherry?), it is under-ripe fruit, and not very prominent.  The taste softened slightly with the food.  Although this wine was not to my particular taste, it was, without a doubt, good wine.  It got me thinking that if Kacaba could produce this quality of cabernet sauvignon against the odds, what could it do in a good year to a grape that grows well here?  With that in mind, I purchased a bottle of its 2010 Reserve Cabernet Franc for $44.95 without even tasting it first.

Joseph Phelps Vineyards

Our final winery visit in Napa Valley was to Joseph Phelps Vineyards, which makes some of the best wines in the world.  The winery, however, does not offer tours and tastings are by appointment only.  The entrance and reception was the most businesslike and least friendly of the wineries we visited (see Mondavi and Montelena) as if they are doing you a favour by letting you visit.  Of the two tasting packages available, we chose to sample 6 wines for $30 dollars each.  Although that may seem very expensive, you would have to spend $450 to buy those 6 bottles so it wasn't unreasonable to pay $30 to taste these wines.

Reception gave us each a glass, then escorted us out to the patio, surrounded by beautiful vistas of vineyards.  The serving staff were much friendlier and clearly very proud of their winery and its wines.  The servers had a very standard pour, though, of about 1.25 oz; no amount of schmoozing would get you extra wine here.  Actually, since any purchases are made back at reception on the way out, the servers aren't that connected to the sales function.  I suppose they expect (rightfully so) that the wine will sell itself.

Below are the highlights of our flight of 6 wines.  Each wine was far more complex than these notes indicate.

2012 Sauvignon Blanc, St. Helena, $35 - chemical nose, flowery palate, fuller bodied than most I've tried.

2011 Chardonnay, Freestone Vineyards, $55 - loved it, better than Montelena, brought 1 bottle home.  

2011 Pinot Noir, Freestone Vineyards, $55 - bright red colour, nose of sweet red cherry / pie filling and orange peel,  fantastic balance of acidity and tannin, spicy and juicy with a strong finish.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, $65 - rated 94 by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, but needs another 10 years to soften the tannins.  Beautiful mid-palate flavour.  Brad loved it, Chris didn't, Brad drank Chris' glass!

2009 Insignia, $200 - Phelps' signature wine, this vintage rated 95 by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.  Tar, spice, sweet red apples.  Better than the cabernet sauvignon, but $135 better?

2011 Eisrebe, $50 - California's answer to icewine is to put the late harvest Scheurebe grapes in a freezer.  Honey, apricot, peach, orange blossom, a  hint of caramel and brilliant acidity.  

At checkout, we needed to purchase some extra wine-skins (wine bottle fitted bubble wrap for travelling) to keep the bottles we'd bought safe in our luggage on the plane.  Much to our delight, Joseph Phelps sells resealable wine-skins, which we'd never seen before.  The ones we usually buy are single use, but can usually be pushed to 2 or 3 uses.  We stocked up on these, knowing we'll never have to buy them again, and comforted by the fact that YOU CAN PUT NEW WINE INTO OLD WINE-SKINS AFTER-ALL!  

Chateau Montelena

The iconic castle, (je m'excuse, "chateau,") is a modern
production facility inside.  It appears on all Montelena
labels.

Have you seen the movie Bottle Shock?  It's about Chateau Montelena when, in 1976, its chardonnay beat the world's best French white wines in a blind taste test now referred to as 'The Judgment of Paris."  Because of both the story and the movie, (starring Alan Rickman, Chris Pine and Bill Pullman,) I expected this winery to be both very touristy and very crowded; fortunately it was neither.

The inscription reads, "The Judgement of Paris 1976."

The grounds have been extensively landscaped, including a small network of bridges and pagoda-like gazebos over a lake housing two black swans.  The gazebos are for hosting private picnic lunches, which must be booked well in advance.  Tastings, however, are available without an appointment.  For $20 per person, you can taste 4 of its 5 current release wines.  However, there's a two-for-one coupon available HERE and the winery waives one fee for every $100 spent on wine, so the four of us didn't end up paying any tasting fees at all.  When we arrived at the tasting room there were four servers behind the bar each assisting other groups, but we only had maybe a 10 minute wait before trying the following four wines.

2012 Riesling - I was prepared to not like this wine, being quite stuck on Beamsville Bench riesling for the time being.  Earlier in the trip, I had actually told Kim not to bother buying any rieslings in California.  It seems though, that Montelena makes this wine with grapes it purchases from Potter Valley, further North than Napa, with better growing conditions for riesling.  Brilliantly bright with acidity, this wine really tickles your tongue.  The dominant smell and taste we noted was honey, but the winemaker's notes list peach, apple, lichee (agree), rose, apricot, wet stone (agree) and pear.  Since this wine is not available outside of California, Kim did buy a bottle after all.

2010 Chardonnay - Montelena chardonnay is too light for me.  There.  I said it.  Interestingly though, when I compare my notes to the winemaker's, it's like we're talking about two different wines.  The only thing we agree on is that there's a subtle green apple flavour.  What I call thin, he calls creamy.  What I call vanilla, he calls marzipan.  Given that this was the wine that literally won the west, it's fair to say that the problem is probably with me.  I'm assuming that my palate is just not refined enough to taste the complexity, so I'd rather spend $20 for an Ontario chard than $60 for one I don't appreciate.  (Chris really likes this wine, but I suspect it's because he thinks he's supposed to!)

Despite its fame and wealth, Montelena's tasting bar is
humble, approachable and enjoyable.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon - According to the winemaker's notes, "the beauty of our style is that you get all the wonderful ripe flavors that California is known for, but with much more expression of place, and without all the noise and distraction of high alcohols and overwhelming new oak flavors."  I completely agree, as I've had issues with more typical California Cabs tasting like chewing tobacco, but this one is very drinkable even in its youth while still maintaining a complexity of taste.  It's probably partially due to the 9% merlot + cab franc that are taking off its edge.

When searching for Montelena wines at the LCBO, I always
spell it wrong: Montalina, Montaleena, etc.  When we arrived
I saw it underneath Mount Helena.  It all makes sense now!

2009 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon - I can't believe I spent this much on one bottle, but it is the single best California cab I've ever tried.  Antonio Galloni from the Wine Advocate rated it 93, as did Stephen Tanzer from the International Wine Cellar.  Like its non-estate cab cousin, this wine can be drunk now or aged, but its approachability seems to come from superior wine-making techniques instead of blending.  Both the nose and the taste come in layers of fruit, smoke and spice.  Perhaps its best feature though is its structure; the wine just flows back away from the tongue like silk.  I'm not sure how long it will last in the cellar.

Napa Valley Winery Exchange

Last week Chris and I, with friends Brad & Kim, visited San Francisco and Napa Valley.  As such, the next few blog entries will shift the focus off of my usual Ontario winery reviews to recount our exploration of the region that made new-world wine famous across the globe.  Since Canadian customs only allows each adult traveler to bring two 750 ml bottles back into Canada, we planned this trip carefully, intending to only buy wines that are not available (or rarely available or available but really expensive) in Ontario.  One tool that helped us accomplish this was the LCBO app for iPhone, which we used to check inventory levels of different wines across the province.  (Note: the search engine in this app isn't very "smart" so check your spelling carefully before concluding that a wine isn't sold in Ontario.)

For some perspective, consider that there are just over 80 wineries in the Niagara region and that it's taken me a year and a half to blog approximately half of them.  As such, what proportion of Napa's 450+ wineries could the four of us realistically visit in just 3 days?  Solution: the Napa Valley Winery Exchange has shopped most of the region's boutique wineries (and some of the larger ones too) to bring together a collection of wines that generally are not sold outside of California.  It's a small storefront near the not-so-desirable Tenderloin district of San Francisco with limited  hours (10-6 most days), but for wine tourists it is an absolute must-shop while you're in town.  It's well organized inside, with shelves divided by varietal and with professional reviews, tasting notes and ratings beneath most wines.  Perhaps the best feature of the NVWE, though, is its staff.  On one hand, they really know their stuff; you can give a fairly detailed description such as "cocoa and eucalyptus with no tobacco" and they know which bottle to recommend.  On the other hand, if you're not as wine-literate, they will coach you through easy questions, beginning with "red or white?"  Below is a look at the 3 bottles we purchased from this store.  Each photo links to more information about the wine.  However, just like in Ontario, the smaller wineries don't seem to spend much time maintaining their websites! 

Anderson's
 Conn Valley Vineyards
2010 Right Bank

Limerick Lane
2009 Zinfandel
Block 1910

John Robert Eppler Wines
2009 Cabernet Sauvignon
Howell Mountain