Gary: Hello everybody and welcome to Wine Library TV, I am your host Gary Vaynerchuk, and this my friends is the thunder show, aka, the internet’s most passionate wine program, and my friends, I’ve got to tell you, I’m extremely enthusiastic about this episode, because it’s a give back episode, it’s an episode that touches my heart, I’m really excited about it, and I’m really don’t excited about trying this wine, specifically. Now, this program, that’s put together by Gordon Holmes from Lookout Ridge is one of the more interesting, touching programs in the wine history that I come across, they reached out, would you do an episode about this, bring some attention to it, it is my pleasure. Now, I don’t know about the wines, I’m gonna taste them and hopefully they’ll be great, but I did want to bring a lot of attention to the viniacs to all the people on the news stream, to everybody in the world really some of the great things that are being done in the wine industry, sometimes you hear the hundred dollar price tags on wines and you frown on them, but sometimes people are doing amazing things, I’ve been very honored by doing the show, it’s seems like the Wheelchair Foundation of America have donated a wheelchair in my name, I assumed to this young gentleman right here, I’m not sure, it doesn’t get real specific, I don’t know if it’s a generic, but I like to think it is, I’m gonna keep it and hope it is. What’s amazing about this project is that Gordon from Lookout Ridge has put together an all star team of wine makers, some of the best wine makers in all of California, the three that I’m having, Cathy Corison, rock star, we talked about her on the show with Jansen Robinson, if you remember Mott, and all you fellow viniacs, Marco Digiulio is just an absolute rock star wine maker from Laquioa, one of the biggest colt wines in the whole of California, and then finally, Andy Erickson made this Napa blend, and this gets really sick, I mean this is the guy who makes something called Screaming Eagle, I don’t know if you ever heard about this, there’s only 24 cases made of this. Here’s what’s amazing about this, every bottle that is sold of Lookout Ridge, a wheelchair is donated to somebody in the, Mott, zoom over here, they actually sent us a wheelchair, a pretty, you know, pretty cool about that, oh look at Mott getting, Mott’s getting motivated, he’s getting on his horse. It’s a really amazing situation, they partnered with the wheelchair foundation to create this program. You can go to wineforwheels.com, Mott, link that up for sure, and also you can go to the Lookout Ridge winery website, lookoutridge.com. That’s where you can purchase these wines, again, these wines are at very nice price tags, they’re a hundred dollar wine, so a hundred bones a pop, and they got some other wines, as you can see, some syrah, some pinot noirs, different wines made, they have the slew of the top, crème de la crème wine makers, and a lot of it comes from these great vineyards up in the Mahicamas mountains, and I’m just really excited about all this wine makers donated their time and some of their fruit even for this project. I mean we’re talking about serious stuff, stuff that normally does command that 60 to 2000 dollar price tag a bottle, they do come in 6 pack containers, but they can also bought separately. I’m just very, very excited about tasting these wines, I feel that I’m a part of something bigger, something more important, and that makes me feel tremendous and hopefully, and you know, economy’s tough, I get all that, but hopefully we find a superstar over here that’s really worth your while, not for the wines standpoint, but obviously for what buying a bottle of a wine like this represents. So let’s get right into it. I’ve guess we’ve done the set, Mott, let’s also link up the video we just watched in youtube that came from the website, so the website, the wineforwheels.com and the video, those three, let’s link those up. First wine, Lookout Ridge 2005 Napa valley cabernet sauvignon from Cathy Corison, only 80 cases are made of this wine, and this comes from the Chronos vineyard, which is an amazing vineyard at the Corison winery, and so, one of the great, great vineyards, I’m dying to try this, Cathy’s wine is, are impeccable, again, we spoke about the balance and the, you know, awesome quality that we see from her wines with Jansen Robinson the other day on the thunder show, only 80 cases produced of this wine, very small production. Let’s get into the color, gorgeous, like Mott. Let’s give it a sniffy sniff, coz that’s what we do. Now this is a, you know, classic cabernet, get a really dense, black current flavor are coming through on the nose which I like quite a bit, little sour cherry as well which is quite delicious. Very froc, focus, frocus? Very focus black fruit coming through, a little smokiness, I would almost call it a beef jerky component, and definitely you can get a little bit of the oak vanilla component coming through on the nose as well, just classic Napa, Sonoma, just, you know, classic, classic, California bright fruit, excited about trying this, let’s give it a whirl. Big dense fruit, nice tenan structure on the back end. Classic gabs of black cherry. Well made, good fruit, very balanced, let’s see if there’s anything here in the back of the label that I should mention, state grown, know that, all of the profit of the sale of this wine goes, provide wheelchairs for people without mobility around the world, I mean, this is just where’s it’s at, Gordon’s wife, Gordon Holmes’ wife had MS, probably where some of the motivation can stem from, you wanna make a difference, and boy has he. I’m just really proud, I thank you Gordon for allowing me to be a part of this process. Again, great fruit, very balance, reminds me of a lot of classic 60 to 80 dollar Napa cabs with big density. I like it, it’s not bowling me over, it’s extremely solid. It’s got a goldish charcoal component on the mid palette transition to the black cherry fruit on the back end. Very well made. Reminds me of a lot of cabernets from Napa, you know, that Chatomantelina, the Beringer reserved stuff, that stuff that tends to roll on that 70 to a hundred fifty dollar a bottle range, definitely has that density and that quality, that, that overall charisma and fruit. I’m gonna score this wine 92 plus points, I think it’s very good, and it’s, it’s extremely well made, it’s, it’s exceptionally strong cabernet, a tremendous example of what can come out of the region, I feel that it’s a 78 to 82 dollar bottle, in my palette, where don’t get excited at the price point, but again, you know, the money is going to a very good place, and it is very, very good wine, and I always wanna support anything Cathy Corison does, because I’ve respected her from afar and met her in a couple of tastings in New York through the years and, I think she’s a wonderful lady. Marco, this label, this got a little bit more girk, girth to the, Marco Digiulio is the amazing wine maker at Laquioa, the fruit has been grown at Lookout Ridge vineyard, located above the fog wine, at the top of the Sonoma, Maycamas mountains, so this comes from Lookout Ridge vineyards in Maycamas in Sonoma, made by Marco Diguilio, again, a very, very talented wine maker, I’m excited about trying this, see what’s going on here. Mott, let’s give it a sniffy sniff, it’s exciting to get into serious California wine, we haven’t done that in quite a while, so I’m enjoying that, the first wine was very good.
Mott: My wife is just asking.
Gary: What’s that? I forgot to give this a sniffy sniff.
Mott: Have you done any cabs lately?
Gary: That’s right. She was mad huh.
Mott: It’s not…
Gary: Let’s give this a sniffy sniff, by the way, it tasted pretty good, I get it in there a little. Now this is kinda interesting nose, I do get some really interesting cranberry components. But there’s almost like a smoky mint, almost like somebody lit some mint in the fields. Also, has a little bit of a smell of the stuff you can be busted for, if you like chishishong coming through a little bit on the nose, and that’s kind of ironic and interesting on this nose. You’ll never know what’s going on those Maycamas mountains in California, there’s plenty of interesting things being grown, besides grapes Mott. I’m getting a little bit of that interesting smell. That being said, I’ve never smoked anything in my life, including cigarettes or cigars, just vaguely mentioned, but I’ve hangout with plenty of individuals. Really good black cherry again, coming through on the back end. Very interesting flavors, almost like tea like, weed like, fruit like, very fascinating nose. Let’s give it a whirl. Not the polish and refined elegance of the last wine, but more of the interesting little layered cabernet here. More medium to full bodied, I think the Corison wine was more full bodied monster, this tends to be a little bit more medium, more, more tame, almost Bordeaux like body quality coming through in the mouth feel. Let’s give it one more shot. Good frocus fruit. Fro, I’m getting real close to frocus. Good focus fruit. I really enjoy this very long black licorice twizzlers wrap in a, almost like a, a grainy, that was the weirdest sound I’ve ever heard. Wow. Grainy, woow.
Mott: Ha! Ha! Ha!
Gary: Something is wrong? What’s going on? Grainy, grape nuts, weed like, dandelion meets road bush flavor, very fascinating. I like it a lot, it actually, really would pair tremendously with food. That being said, for me, on my palette, this is a 91 point wine, I’m getting more feel of like a 50, 60 dollar cabernet, if I’ve got to be upfront like I always do front of the Vayner nation. Nonetheless, a very serious bottle of cabernet, I like it quite a bit, and I think it’s quite good. Want went back to the Corison, because, actually as I was transitioning to the second wine, I was tasting something on the back end palette, I might have underestimated this first wine, to be honest with you. Especially as I tasted a little bit compared to that, that gives me a reference point. I think there’s a lot of people, if you know that you’re a Peter Michael Laypavo fan, which is spectacular 95 to 97 point type parker wine, I think you should really take a quick look at that, I wanna bump that up to 93 points, coz it just deserves it. Let’s move on. And finally, and this one’s really, the last wine by the way, I did not mention, 250 cases made of the second wine. And finally, Andy Erckson, one of the biggest rock stars in the wine industry, big cu for Lookout Ridge to get him as well, 14.8 percent alcohol content, red wine, so it’s a blend. He is the wine maker of Screaming Eagle, Favia is his own label, he also makes the wines for Ariata this days. He, this grapes come from three vineyards, Madrona Ranch, six tough Abreiou used to make whites or still probably makes wines from there, is amazing place, Mediore vineyards and a, and Renchochimiles, I mean you’re talking about superstar vineyards, a blend of cabernet franc, 58 percent cab franc and 42 percent cabernet sauvignon, really excited about this, and, and Annette Fabia and Andy Erickson worked together on making this happen, 24 cases, made of this wine, I’m awfully excited to be able to taste this, very excited that Andy and, and, Andy and Ms. Fabia were able to be a part of this, I mean, I think it’s very, very smart, and, just, just, just awesome. See what’s going on here. Great solid color, as you all know, I’m a humongous cabernet franc fan, so I’m already excited about this wine before we even taste it, besides the pedigree of the people behind it, let’s give it a sniffy sniff. Just excellent. Very good nose. This has almost like a, a plum meets a, plum meets gogi bep plum fruit and then gogi berry from China, if you haven’t got, had gogi berries yet, I’m getting quite a bit of gogi berry component coming through as well in here. Very exotic fruit coming through here, almost tropical like, maybe it was like dragon fruit and papaya notes on the tail end of the nose, which are very fascinating and unusual sometimes for red wine. I definitely get some of that new cinnamon, eggnog oak type thing going on, on the nose, which I like quite a bit as well. Very, very fun. Interesting. I also thinking a little bit of a skid mark, just little gzzt, little BMX skid mark on the finish. Let’s give it a whirl. Hell of a big wine. Mott. Holly majolly, this is like grape ape, remember the cartoon character Grape Ape? If you turn into a grape and you tried to eat him, he was very big, and this wine, explodes. By far the biggest wine, and the, and the, and the Cathy wine was very big, this wine is just ginormous, like watching ESPN late night in the ‘80s when they have those power builders, you know, body builder guy, that was just muscles coming out of their eye balls, that’s how I come across with this wine, but it’s loaded with cherry, strawberry, raspberry, lots of red fruit component is coming through in this wine. Mott what do you think?
Mott: What’s on the end?
Gary: I don’t know. Let’s see. This is blockbuster stuff guys, I mean over the top, big fruit, tons of density, there’s clearly new French oak being involve in this product, just, you know, but it’s not an oak monster, the fruit is so ridonkulous, that you just feel honestly like you’ve taken fruit from a tree of bush and stuck it directly in your mouth, you were apeace, but then a gremlin came over and kept stuffing it in your mouth until you couldn’t breathe anymore, there’s that much fruit, I mean it’s layered, levels and levels of oak. This is the atypical wine that the major wine press has continuously given 96 to a hundred points, and this is what you’d taste when you have those kind of wines, to me, it’s a little too much for my own palette, I like a little bit more diversity, I like a little bit more balance, but I still can appreciate an absolute… fruits, fruit bomb when I see it, especially with the elegance and especially when it’s for such a good cause, take the cause out, if this was made by the most evil people, like say, Patriot fans, I would still be forced to score this wine 96+ points. This is fruit bomb city, done in the best possible way. Am I influenced by the people who are making it, probably, but the fact of the matter is this wine is loaded with fruit, and I know for so many people out there this will crush you, this wine is extremely good. I like it quite a bit. And I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go 95+ points, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do it like a, I’m gonna be true to myself, 95+ points. But I like it whole lot, reminds me a lot of classic insignia wines, 94, 97 insignia wines, I love. 95 pinot coletfavo, some of my real favorites, 97 harlen, this is really colt like wine. It’s exceptional, kudos to Gordon for pulling this together. I mean this really makes Lookout Ridge, to me, a colty wine. Very good stuff, 95, 91, 93. Big time stuff. Big time price points. Hundred bones is nothing to sneeze at, but oh boy, oh boy, when it goes in the right direction, and, you know, I was very worried about doing this show, very. Such a great cause, I was really excited, and to come out and score this wines in the 80s and 70s, would’ve really hurt my feelings. These wine makers, true to their names and their reputations came through, made it very easy for me. Your favorite California wine you had this year, the year’s almost over, this year. You, with a little bit of me, we’re just a little part of changing the wine world, these guys, they are changing the wine world, and we should be very thankful for that.
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