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MORE CALIFORNIA CABERNETS
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- MINER FAMILY
- 2005 Napa "Oakville" CABERNET Sold
Out
2005 "ORACLE"
Sold Out
 Dave Miner is the head honcho here, retiring (in his 30s!) from
the software business to run a winery for his aunt, Mary Miner. Her late husband Bob
Miner was a founding partner of a little firm called "Oracle."
With his
the fortune he made there, they purchased what is "Oakville Ranch Vineyards."
This is in prime territory by the Silverado Trail in Oakville. Phelps' Backus
Vineyard is in the vicinity, as is Dalla Valle's "Maya" property. Dave had
been a partner in a software company and made a small fortune, too. Uncle Bob had
been diagnosed with cancer and Dave came on board to manage the Oakville Ranch project.
After a while he started producing wine under the "Miner Family"
label, too. I believe the "Oakville Ranch" labeled wines are exclusively
from that property, while Miner sources Cabernet from a nearby vineyard to augment the
fruit from Aunt Mary's vines.
The winemaker is Gary Brookman, a graduate of the
University of Joseph Phelps as well as Franciscan Vineyards.
 "Oracle"
is a dynamite Bordeaux blend. It's about one-third each of Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The fragrance is most appealing,
showing sweet, cedary notes and dark red and black fruits. Though it
does have a bit of tannin, the oak balances it, presently, with a certain
sweet aspect. It is lovely now and ought to develop handsomely for a
number of years. It is one of our favorite deluxe Cabernet
bottles in the shop.
The 2005 Oakville Cabernet is a treat! It's blended with 7% Cabernet
Franc and is a lavishly-oaked, rich red wine. We find it very
drinkable now and it will remain in good condition for a number of
years. Showy...! -
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- MOUNT EDEN VINEYARDS
- 2005 Santa Cruz Mountains "Old Vines Reserve"
$51.99
- This 50 acre vineyard in Saratoga makes some terrific wines. Its first
vintages were crafted by Merry Edwards, who went on to Matanzas Creek before disappearing
as a consulting winemaker for several producers. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
established the fame of this vineyard, but in recent years the Cabernet Sauvignon wines
have become rather distinguished, too.
The winemaker is Jeffrey Patterson and he's
doing some very fine work. The wines are decidedly different from Napa Valley
Cabernets, a combination of terroir and clonal selection.
We'd lost touch with the Cabernets a few years ago, but over the past
handful of vintages, they've been exceptional.
The 2005 is a brilliant wine, showing clear red fruit notes and a whiff of
wood...it's not the pushing-the-envelope, mocha/espresso, slightly sweet
affair which get a lot of praise from critics. It's a classic Cabernet
and drinkable now. We suspect it will age quite handsomely for 3-10
more years.
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MOUNT VEEDER WINERY
 Michael and
Arlene Bernstein founded this small enterprise on Mount Veeder. He was
an attorney and we first met him when he gave my dad and I a tour one day at
another new winery, a place called "Robert Mondavi Winery" in
Oakville.
The Bernsteins bought the property in the 1960s and planted some
"sticks" in 1965. Some of them actually grew and soon the
vineyard was producing a modest amount of fruit. The first vintage was
1973 and they made curious wines from Amador County Zinfandel and Chenin
Blanc from Napa.
The wine business, though, can be challenging and the Bernsteins sold the
place to Franciscan. Some vintages have been good and periodically
we've found wines which we can recommend.
The 2002 vintage did really well in one of our blind-tastings and the 2003
strikes us as a similarly-styled wine. At the sale price of $31.99,
the wine represeted pretty good value as Napa Cabernets go. I
included the 2005 in a blind-tasting of wines priced from $50-$85. All
were small producers except this...and it handily won the tasting!
The current vintage, 2008 is robust, as usual. The wine, though not carrying the
actual appellation of Mount Veeder, shows a certain "mountain"
character. It's also nicely oaked, having been matured in both French
and American barrels. We like the dark blackberry fruit notes and
cedary/woodsy tones in the wine. The 2008 is drinkable now, especially
with food. We suspect it will last another 5-10 years.
Currently in stock: 2008 Mount Veeder "Napa" Cabernet
Sauvignon (list $40) SALE $29.99-
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- NARSAI DAVID
 The name
Narsai David is family to most Bay Area foodies. Narsai owned a
noteworthy East Bay restaurant a lifetime ago and has been a vineyard owner
in Napa for many years.
There have been Narsai David wines over the years...we recall tasting some
made by our old pal Travis Fretter many years ago.
 Narsai is heard on San Francisco's KCBS radio with his off-the-cuff food
news. What his "reports" lack in polish they make up with
enthusiasm. (I think he'd do well to actually write down his spiel
and read it, rather than record these bits of 'news' off the top of his head.
But, then, I'm an old radio news journalist.)
With his wife Venus, Narsai owns a Merlot vineyard in Oakville and some Cabernet
vines in the Conn Valley.
We tasted a rather nice, old-fashioned (that means it does not have 16% alcohol,
a ton of sweet oak and the requisite "gobs of fruit" that are
mandatory for a 95 point score from various wine critics) Napa Cabernet from the
2001 vintage. This wine is blended with both Merlot and Cabernet
Franc.
Bob Gorman, who's older than dirt and the author of Gorman on California Premium
Wine (printed in 1975!), found this to be a delight, reminding him of the wines
of his youth.
We like the dusty notes on the nose of this wine. It's a medium-bodied
Cabernet and decidedly different from the wines-on-steroids so prevalent in the
market. The fruit is bright and the wood is in the background. This
is a lovely, elegant wine today and will be a lovely and elegant old wine if you
hang on to it for a decade or so.
- Currently in stock: 2001 Narsai David Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
$49.99
Neal's estate vineyards on Howell Mountain in Napa.
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NEAL FAMILY VINEYARDS
2007 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon $44.99
Please inquire about the rare 2001s...we still have some bottles in the
shop.
 The story of this
family goes back 30-something years to 1968 when Jack Neal started his
vineyard farming business. The firm handles all phases of vineyard
management and takes care of hundreds of acres around the Napa Valley.
Neal's son Mark took over the company a few years ago and has recently
completed the construction of a winery up on Howell Mountain in the town of
Angwin. Caves have been dug into the hill to mature future
vintages.
The Neal's first vintage is 1998 and it showed that, with good vineyard
management, one can make good wine in a difficult vintage.
Neal, by the way, farms organically.
Their first wines were exceptional and they even skipped the 2000 vintage,
Mark Neal saying he was not happy with the quality. The 2001 flew out
of here, the wine having gotten quite a bit of "buzz" on the
internet as computer-savvy wine geeks with a lot of time on their hands sent
up a lot of virtual smoke signals singing the praises of Neal's 2001.
The 2007 Napa is their current offering. There's a lot of mountain
Cabernet in this wine. Howell Mountain, Atlas Peak and Mount Veeder
all contribute to this blend, complemented by Cabernet from Rutherford, St.
Helena and Coombsville. I was pleased to see this vintage is
bright and deep, without being hugely-oaked, though they DO use lots of new
barrels. The tannins are firm, but
balanced, so if you want to pair a bottle of this tonight with a steak, go
right ahead. The price remains rather reasonable, especially consider
what I've tasted recently in the $50-$100 price range.
A couple of vineyard-designated wines have been released. One is from
an Atlas Peak area vineyard and it's labeled "Second Chance"
Cabernet. It's $80 a bottle if we still have one or two for you.
A Howell Mountain bottling is even more scarce and was the same price.
 Most Napa vintners
think you need to beg for the right to throw hundred dollar bills at
them. I told Mark Neal he ought to consider a
"reserve" label: KNEEL.
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