Gary: Hello everybody and welcome to Wine Library TV, and this my friends is the thunder show, the blinding tasting version. So we’ve been talking a whole lot about Napa valley lately, and a, Napa valley cabs specifically, two days ago, yesterday, and now today, we finish off with this little three part series, with a blind tasting of five topnotch. I had Ian pick out five, here is what I’ve told him, five top notch premium California cabs, 30 to a hundred kinda range, let’s battle them out, battle royal blind style. A lot of you watching right now just did this, yes! Because you love the blind format, people love the blind format. Mott, I love the blind format. Do you love the blind format?
Mott: I get in trouble with the blind format.
Gary: Yes, we had that whole thing with the wine, that’s a very good point. We did have a whole problems before. So, let’s a, let’s get right in to it, wine number one, Mott. So what I’m gonna do is I wanna break them down, Mott, could you get me a pen, if you don’t mind. I’m just gonna put little notes like I did last time, which is pretty helpful actually. This is wine number one. Thanks Mott. Wine number one. And we’ll unveil them at the end. Let’s get into this wine. Let’s give it a sniffy… I’m good, I’m in good shape.
Mott: Try to write on the…
Gary: Yeah, right on the back. Let’s give it a sniffy sniff. This one. Big dark fruit. Now a lot of these wines are gonna be driven. You’ll gonna see a lot of similar tasting notes, cabernet. Let’s talk about cabernet globally. You’ll gonna get lot of black fruit. You do get red fruit, plums, black berries. You get sometimes some tobacco, black tea, I pick up quite a bit on cab. When they’re over oak, or not even over oak , there’s a good amount of oaking. You get vanilla. You definitely get a, you know, a milky, kinda dairy component that I tend to get. Asian spices, sometimes sort of peppers, but really a lot of black and red fruit. Very candy ask a times that they’re over the top. Very big bold wines. People love, you know, the love that’s what cabernet has definitely subside. I mean, the first part of my career was completely built on cabernet. From the ’92 to 2001 vintage, that 9 year stretch. Really ’94 to 2001, that 7 year stretch, the majority that I sold in the store, hand selling, was California cabernet. Insignia got hot in those years. White Whole Lane. Just big in those categories, those were the wines people bought from us. Much more than Bordeaux. Much more than Spanish and Australian wines. And they definitely tilled off a little bit, coz I think people drank a lot of them. When you go into the steakhouses or in the country, people drank the Cake bread, the Kiss, excuse me, the Cake breads, the Fanreientes, the Kamisis, the Opus Ones, Silver Oaks, the Staglins. People kinda run that course, and their exploring other parts of the world, but that should not diminished the fact that Napa valley cabernet is some of the best wine in the world and very fan favorite out there. So, you know, keep that in mind, where’s my tone sometimes at Napa cab might be a little lower, it’s only coz I kinda just did that for 7 years, I think. So, a little bit of that sparkle, the possess has got away. But it’s like your, you know, your significant other, you know, maybe the first wreak you started dating. That sparkles a little bit diminished, it’s still great, you know what, and you got to keep that in mind. Though my sparkle with Lizzy is still on, unlike Dalky Kan. Let’s give this a sniffy sniff. Again, this is kinda interesting right off the bat. A little bit than I expected. This actually smell a lot a hundred grand candy bar. You know the hundred grand, there’s a little of that coffee, the kick, I mean the a, the wafer component that I’m getting here. It’s also a little stinky, which is kinda unusual. So, right off the bat, I kinda prep it like this is gonna be this and we’re going in a totally different direction, and that’s the beauty, my friends, that’s the romance. That’s what gets me fired up about Vino. You think one thing and it goes in totally different direction. I get a little stinkiness here. Little dirt component like soil. Little hal, halbeno, I mean, this is kinda stinky for a cabernet. Black berries are coming through as well, I get a little kasis. Not getting a huge amount of oak, which is exciting me. Really, this is an, you know, Ian could be kinda getting on me, so, you know, almost Bordeaux like on the nose. Let’s give it a whirl. Good red fruit. Maybe kinda say, okay, not Bordeaux. But, little coffee. Little tobacco on the back end. We’ve been hearing tobacco from Mott and my guest two days ago, and I wasn’t picking it up, but this one I do. Ahm, good licorice component. Like melted down licorice. Really, actually, really that’s a good one. Melted down black licorice. If you take a bunch of black twizzlers, put in a microwave, stay away from the… comeback, gab that up, you know, with some, kinda hand that wouldn’t burn. You’ll gonna get this kind of taste. I get a really rich licorice, kasis. Little hints of milk chocolate. Little hints of tobacco. I like this wine. It’s a good start. Let’s move on. Wine number two. Right off the Mott, almost, you notice? A lot darker. A lot darker on the color. Wine number two. This is three, right Mott. Two. Let’s see what’s going on here. Let’s give it a sniffy sniff. One thing I notice right off the bat, little bit of darker denser color than the last wine. Now this much more canyesque on the nose. This is very heavy in raspberry meets kasis, makes a baby. Let’s call it raskis. Raskis on the nose. Big bold red fruit flavors, much different than the last one. More, that is more dark night, this is more strawberry short cake. Let’s give it a whirl. Little orange peel coming through as well. Very seductive little nose. Good firm tenance on this wine. Little basic to me. No, no, I know, I’m going, thank you Mott. Mott was like no, what are you doing. I’m writing down the price tag that I think it is of the last wine. Little basic to me. Again, not trusting Ian, I, this could be a ringer. Kinda like fluff in its approach. Good, good fruit. Cherry. Dark cherry. Raspberry flavors coming through. Gabbled up in little bit of oak. Little too much oak for me. Little basic, I don’t know, very much textbook 20 dollar, you know, cabernet, and kinda boring to be honest with you. Good fruit, and nothing else. So, it’s like, you know, I mean, yeah, he could throw the ball far, you know, it’s like good looking or, wow, that’s a great prospect, but not accurate and not leading the person and, you know, not as tights aspiral even. Like a floppy lame duck that went 70 yards. That’s what it taste like a little bit to me Mott. So, good tenance on the back end. Really, nice tenance, which aren’t bitter and have good blue fruit in them, like blue berries, and great red fruit flavors, but a little bit of a, lack of mid palette, which is always an issue to me. Let’s move on. Wine number three. Couple of rinse. Zoom it in Mott. Blind tastings are a lot of fun for me, you know, you get rid of the preconceive notions, I like when Mott zooms in to a brown paper bag, I think that’s funny. I also like the fact that we get to spend time together vayniacs, it’s a lot of fun, miss you guys, thanks for all the emails and the support, please keep passing on the show. Getting a lot of people email me last couple of weeks saying, hey! Randy sent me the show and, she was right this is rock, so, keep doing that, that’s always fun, want new vayniacs. Great color again. Let’s give a sniffy sniff. Now this is the candy of the bunch. This smells exactly like cotton candy. Just absolutely, positively carnival Flemington fair, Big Ups, 1993, carnival candy, cotton candy action on the nose. Did you get that Mott? Like… it’s unbelievable, like really cotton candy. Like big time. Big, big cotton candy play, I don’t even have anything else, coz this smells so much… this smells exactly like the pink cotton candy. I got nothing else, I’m moving on, it’s unbelievable, really. Aaaah! The oak monster has made an appearance. Heavy on the vanilla. Goopy. Plenty of a, love handles, almost too much. Just a very thick viscous driven cabernet. Too oaky for my palette. A style that a lot of people would like out there so I’m not gonna bash it, but to me this is sugarfied. This to has the most sugar in it. Border lining dessert winesque to me. I get a lot of plums, cut a plum in half, suck it, pour some sugar on it, and a little, maybe like cherry juice from like a sips, and bite that. That’s what this taste like. Throw a little vanilla extract, now this is what it taste like. A complete lack of tenance. Makes me feel that this wine will only last 2 to 3 years. And it’s quite boring, I know I can this for 15 dollars from Australia. I just don’t know how much this cost from California… or Ian got sneaky, sneaky, and I’m gonna have one of my best moments on Wine Library TV history. A mess. Not into it, let’s move on. Wine number four, ooh, I teared it, wine number four. Give it a rinse. Mott, did not like that last wine. You know it right away. Ice creamesque, like the a… Wow, this is the darkest wine of the bunch so far tonight. Great dark color on this wine. All this wine so far are definitely your hamburger, your steak, your big meats kind of wines. You know, Martin’s steakhouse kind of thing, you order this kind of cabs, that’s where they rock and roll. Great dark color, let’s give this a sniffy sniff. This is interesting. Little bit different. Little charcoal component right of the bat right on the nose, which is really intriguing to me. Red bits coming through, which I think is quite interesting on the nose. Smokiness. Leather. Tobac…ah no, leather. Beef jerky, thank you, tobacco, beef jerky, you know, well. So, leather, beef jerky, charcoalesque, very dark. I like this. I like the nose. Again, Bordeaux like. Got a kind a interesting shape, maybe, maybe Ian’s fooling around here a little. Let’s give it a whirl. This is very good. I like this wine. Good dark fruit. I’m getting lots of blue berries. Lots of black berries, like gorgeous black berries. Good firm tenance, this wine will last an easy 7 to 15 years. This is the kind of wine that I love to decant and get into. I like the charcoal. I like the secanteer flavors, the black berries the blue berries. Very dark blue fruit. Black fruit. I like that. Great length. Great cannon. No deepy, deep here. This is straight line city my friends and it explodes on your palette. A very focus bottle of wine. It comes down to when you see two athletes, or like horses, like you can see in their face sometimes when you have to bet the ponies. You know, great, sometimes you find this great athletes, I mean, I think about Luthor Right, former center from Elizabeth in New Jersey, went to Seaten Hall, the have all the physical attributes, Eddie Curry, but they don’t have the focus. The eye of the tiger as Rocky Balboa wanna say. This wine has the eye of the tiger my friends. This focus. This comes from great fruit source clearly. The wine maker was not bull shitting. You understand? This was an absolute great effort from top to bottom, I’m still tasting it, 1 minute finish. Great length. Coats your palette, doesn’t apologize for it, and bring straight thunder. A perfect pairing of food and a wine that I definitely put away and sell it for 10 years, this wine rocks the hizzy and it’s not joking. Give it one more shot. There is some oak here. There’s a little oak monsteresque kinda thing, but the blue fruit and the dark fruit and that charcoal has really riding the day here. It’s not smoky, think of charcoal, chalkiness kinda, very good. Great dryness. By far the dries wine. If you’re an old school dry fan, a lot of people don’t say that anymore, as he did 7 or 8 years ago, and he said, I like dry wine. This is dry, it’s pucker city. This is good wine. It’s a good, good wine. Nice one, it’s good to get wines like that. And finally, wine number five. Now this one has a little slight come out of advantage, because five is my favorite number of all time. So, you know, let me just, gonna tell you how it is. Wanna be upfront, transparent with you guys. I feel like a skittles rainbow myself, the purple. Alright, let’s give this a sniffy sniff. This is completely weird. Wow. This is fun. This has like an evergreen, minty, slight eucalyptus, mohito minty, isn’t that wild.
Mott: It’s different.
Gary: Really different, right.
Mott: There’s something else there.
Gary: Musky. I’m not gonna say it’s corked, coz it’s not, but it’s a very different. I have blue berry syrup thing on the depth in the, on the nose. I would say this is a minty pancakes with syrup. Eucalyptus component. Almost smells like cactus juice. Kinda wild kinda thing going on here guys. This is very interesting. Eucalyptussy, kind of minty is where it’s coming from, but not that hide style. Little different. I do get the concentrate like syrup. Like anchimayma syrup. Maybe that’s where I was going with the ayhop syrup. I get like a syrup component. It really make me think of Belgium waffles and, and, pancake, because it’s like the topping, it’s like the fruit and the syrup. I get a little bit of that coming through. Very curious where this is gonna go in the palette, let’s give it a whirl. Gosh, this taste like something. Gosh, this really taste like something, like a food. Not faux gras, not a, which I don’t eat that much of anymore, because I’m the vayniacs. Not escarg. Damn. Darn it. This tastes like something I’ve had, and I can’t put my finger on it. It’s kinda like oyster juicy meets caviar. It’s like frozen oysters. I can’t put my finger on this, this is a very unique cabernet. I definitely get a eucalyptus, minty kind of component going on for sure. There’s a cough syrup kind of thing going on. Yeah, that’s what, like a, like a, little bit of cough syrup. There’s also something I love so much, almost like a root beer component coming to this wine. I’m completely confused by this wine to very blunt with you, and I’m excited about unveiling it. Let’s see. So, to put in order. Little pomegranate action too. Here’s how I have them. Mott, so, wine number four is in first place. Wine number one is in second. Wine number five. Wine number two. And the last is wine number three. Let’s unveil them vayniacs, let’s go backwards. Coz that’s the fun. In last place, with the score of a 79, I guessed this wine’s 30 bucks, because I just know the style, but I wouldn’t pay more than 10 is… Beringer Napa valley cabernet, 90 point Wine Spectator, 30 US dollars, Mott, look at that, I said 30 on the bag, see that? it’s good work and I said 82 but then I drop it 3 points. I totally agree, disagree with the Spectator, I’m a big fan of Beringer’s Napa valley program, but this really did not show well, I didn’t like it at all. I thought it was over oaked, they tend to do that at Beringer, at times, again, I’m pretty big fan of their normal stuff. I’m pretty surprise, to be honest with you, pretty disappointing effort. Let’s move on. In second to last place, wine number two. Scoring this wine 84 points, I’m guessing 21 dollars, no mid palette, and… Barnett, 2005 spring Mount valley, Spring Mountain district, Napa valley cabernet, 91 points Spectator, 52 US dollars. I’m not feeling it, and I’m normally a huge fan of Barnett, this is very surprising to me, but did not do it for me friends. Let’s move on. Wine number five. Completely baffled. You just saw it. I don’t even know what the heck is going on, I’m gonna go 89 question marked. You know, I didn’t, I like that it was unique, and you know I like that, but I wasn’t really enjoying it, but I’m giving it the question mark coz I’m confused, so sorry SS Chris, that’s where I’m going. I’m guessing it’s a 40 dollar wine. Steltzner, 2004 Reserved Barrel Select Stags leap district cabernet sauvignon and this wine is 92 points Spectator, 55 US dollars, I’m gonna think of that as pass as well, and so, you know, not kind of really doing it’s thing so far, Mott. This is what I like, wine number one. 90 plus points, I’m giving it, I’m guessing 35 US dollars. Newton, unfiltered 2005 cabernet from Napa, 92 points Parker, 40 US dollars, I agree with Parker, I thought this was a very good wine, thought it was quite sound, it was a great starter for all of us, and I think it did it’s thing, and a, and I’m proud of Newton. Good job by Newton, usually you think of them more for their white wines, but this unfiltered cab was very, very good. And finally, the wine that definitely stole the show, I went 92 plus on this, guessing 45 dollars, 7 to 15 years in your cellar, whatever this is, buy it. Find it. Write it down. Order it on the menu. Go to your local store, find this wine. It rocks, unless it’s expensive. Cliff Lede, 2005 Napa valley cabernet Stags leap district, 92 Parker, 90 plus, 48 dollars, I went 45, though I did know they were between 30 and 60, so I am no hero, however, this wine is exceptionally good. 2005 vintage, 48 bones, 92 Parker. I think you could find this on a lot of restaurants. I think they knocked it out of the park. Kudos to Cliff Lede, and to Newton. Both wines in the 40 to 50 dollar range, and ironically. Huh, look at that, besides the Beringer, the two wines that are most expensive, 55, and 52, I really didn’t love. But again, 91 Spectator, 92 Spectator, 90 Spectator, didn’t do well. But, hmm, kind of, you know, listen, I love the Spectator, and I’m no Parker, right, either. I just, you know, everybody got their own palettes, but, kinda ironic, three wines I hated 90s, above Spectator, two one’s I liked 92 Parker. Kinda neat. Kinda interesting. That was kinda wild. Blind tastings, Mott. Blind tastings is where it’s at. Might need to go blind forever. Might go blind for the whole year 2009. Question on the day, should I go blind for the whole year in 2009, this is where you need to come out lurkers. We’ll gonna do data, listen, if it’s overmel, whelming one way or the other, we may go there. So, let your vote count, it’s cool to vote, remember, you, with a little bit of me, we are changing the wine world. I like this episode.
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