March 19, 2019 |
All Blogs, Wine Club Selections |
Adelaida Team
2019 Spring Custom Tasting Notes
2017 Chardonnay, HMR Vineyard | $32/club
- This complex wine is a unique expression of the vintage, full of sea-spray, ocean salinity, yet expansive in its texture with a surprising beeswax viscosity, delicate white peach fruitiness and finishing hints of almond paste. This year’s effort has the personality of Grand Cru Chablis without the French accent, tangy acidity, liquid stone, citrus blossom extract and an unctuous mineralized finish. Drink now through 2025.
- Aroma: “Sea Fever” by John Masefield, sea spray, white peach, citrus peel, faint smoke
- Flavor: Preserved lemons, extract of white pear, mouthsmacking salinity, almond paste
- Food Pairing: Fresh Maryland Crab Cakes over Mexican Corn Soup; Cedar Planked Salmon with lemon, garlic and herbs; Louisiana Parmesan Fried Oysters
2016 Viking Blend, Viking Vineyard | $40/club
- A Cabernet dominant blend, this ensemble cast of 4 classic Bordeaux varieties (Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc) from our celebrated Viking Vineyard demonstrates the precision of fruit character from these mountain grown grapes. A textbook expression of mountain grown grapes the wine is a laser beam of crisp edged fruit purity, violet aromatics and salivating flavors of just-picked black cherries and blueberries with crystalline minerality and finishing notes of extra dark chocolate and vanilla bean spices. Recommend decanting for current drinking, will move into a willowy congeniality in due time, developing silky textures and further integration of fruit and oak. Drink through 2030.
- Aroma: Violets, crème de cassis, black cherries, cedar, vanilla, graphite minerality
- Flavor: Just picked black cherries, blueberries, mocha, dark chocolate shavings, vanilla bean spice
- Food Pairing: North African style braised chicken with green olives and preserved lemon; Chinese style ribs with Guava BBQ sauce; grilled burgers with Argentinian parsley sauce
2017 Pinot Noir, HMR Vineyard | $48/club
- The wine is sappy with a towel snap of fresh natural fruit acidity and a restrained coil of inner energy, ultimately unwinding to reveal a fruit precision of black cherries, Earl Grey tea, Asian spices and sandalwood leading to a long, lush, voluminous finish of lifted dark fruit. Its current youthful ardor is embellished by aeration, drink now through 2025.
- Aroma: Black cherries, star anise, blueberries, Earl Grey tea, sandalwood incense, “Miniver” rose
- Flavor: Black cherry/blueberry compote, Earl Grey tea, Chinese 5 spice, sandalwood, miso paste
- Food Pairing: Tomato, prosciutto and melted Gruyere sandwiches; lightly seared salmon with roast Shiitakes and mushroom sauce; Chicken Tikka Masala with minted cucumber salad and garlic naan
2017 Zinfandel, Heaton Vineyard | $32/club
- A scent expert known as “La Nez” (the nose) would be in berry heaven with this wine. Hearty dark fruit aromas are confirmed in the waves of luscious flavors (think of extra ripe blackberries, boysenberries and olallieberries) that saturate your palate with a super-rich quality, approaching fruit preserves improved with sweet baking spices. The wine captures remembrances of grandmother’s berry cobbler cooling in the window sill, finishing with a brooding soft succulence accented by shavings of milk chocolate and cedar wood. Drink now through 2024.
- Aroma: Pick your berry (extra ripe blackberry, black raspberry, boysenberry, etc), milk chocolate shavings
- Flavor: Berry preserves, baking spices, cedar, and cocoanut milk
- Food Pairing: Mediterranean grilled beef shish kabob brushed with cardamom/cinnamon marinade, baked Cajun chicken drumsticks with rhubarb cornbread, grilled Italian sausage and radicchio pizza
2015 Anna's Red, Anna's Vineyard | $36/club
- The final blend is a result of many trials and seeks to achieve parity with previous grape compositions, ultimately a savory concoction, fruit at the core with earth, mineral and a sense of meaty complexity. Expressive aromas of blackberries and a subtle roasted meat, herbs-de-Provence quality are restated in the supple textured, well integrated flavors of dark berries, bouillon and smoked herb-olive paste. Drink now through 2020.
- Aroma: Plum and blackberry conserves, roasting meat juices, wild thyme, wet earth.
- Flavor: Dried cranberries, beef jerky, herbs-de-Provence, North African spice blend
- Food Pairing: Pan fried lamb chops with rosemary and garlic, braised chicken thighs with mustard and chestnuts, porcini mushroom risotto
2016 Syrah, Anna's Vineyard | $36.00
- Deep and brooding, the finished wine is jet black, an opaqueness hinting at its dense core of black fruits, crushed black berries and plum sauce dusted with cracked pepper, chocolate shavings and developing hints of meat glaze. Great ageing potential here, drinkable now for its pure primary fruit flavors, yet will reward patience, enjoy through 2026.
- Aroma: Essence of blackberries, blood pudding, sweet pipe tobacco, chocolate shavings
- Flavor: Blackberry liqueur, plum sauce, glace-de-viande, allspice, cracked black pepper
- Food Pairing: Granny’s deep-south slow stewed chicken, boiled potatoes dipped in melting Alpine raclette cheese, duck gumbo
2017 Picpoul Blanc, Anna's Vineyard
- The wine is star bright with greenish-yellow glints, giving off aromatics of citrus rind, pineapple and wheatgrass leading to crisp, pungent flavors of lime and grapefruit, finishing with length and a taste of preserved lemons and tropical greenness. Best enjoyed in the near term, drink through 2020.
- Aroma: Lemon-lime, pineapple, crushed rocks, citrus zest
- Flavor: Grapefruit, preserved lemon, musk melon, wheatgrass
- Food Pairing: Sea Scallops in lemon basil butter over angel hair pasta; Braised chicken thighs with olives, lemon and fennel; lump meat crab salad with mint and Vietnamese fish sauce
Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley (Oregon) 2011, Library Release | $40.00/club
- There is a sturdiness in the substantial mouthfeel which grows with aeration and builds to a dense tightly knit finish of integrated fruit, tannin and soil influence. Aromas of potpourri, rose petals, campfire smoke, roasted tomatoes. Flavors of roasted red fruits, raspberries, juniper berries
2010 Syrah Block 6 Reserve | $40/club
- First impressions reveal a scent of sweet earth, toasted cedar and a compote of Indian spiced fruits. More of a Cote Rotie style, the wine has the plushness of macerated dark plums and the confit richness of a slow roasted cassoulet, leading to a seductive creamy finish of more dark fruits, anise, pleasing warmth, and the first whiff of roasting coffee beans. The Block 6 is best enjoyed through 2020.
2016 Counoise, Anna's Vineyard | $32/club
- A drink-now, lightly colored wine, it combines the aromatics of rose blossoms, anise and just picked wild strawberries. Throughout, it maintains succulently deliciously flavors of tart red plums, pomegranates and cranberries dusted with white pepper. Serve on the cool side (60 degrees), best appreciated in the near term for its appealing primary fruitiness, it is the wine to take on a first date, enjoy through 2021.
- Aroma: Red Jubilee rose, basket of wild strawberries, anise, hints of white pepper
- Flavor: Tart red plum, cranberry-pomegranate-raspberry, anise seed, ground white pepper
- Food Pairing: Grilled lamb chop in olive oil-thyme-rosemary paste, Tuna Nicoise, shrimp and andouille sausage jambalaya
2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Signature, Viking Vineyard | $80/club
- The epitome of mountain grown fruit, this year’s Signature Cabernet Sauvignon displays a whiplash of vibrant red and blue berries (a woven garment of raspberries, ripe cherries and blueberries) in a ‘Pandora’s Box’ of Christmas spices and fresh cedar -- bound in an “iron fist in a velvet glove” tension, crisp-edged fruit and a diamond-like tensile strength in a magnetic embrace. The wine possesses an immediate debutante attraction belying its potential 15 year ageing potential. No need to wait but patience will be rewarded as the wine blossoms into full maturity (in a 3-5 year window), drink through 2031.
- Aromas: Christmas spice, blackberries, and Cuban cigar
- Flavors: Madagascar spices, caffee mocha, penetrating dark berry
- Food Pairings: Cabernet braised Venison Cheeks, Filet Mignon with red wine enriched Balsamic glaze, Gorgonzola topped sirloin burgers with sautéed sweet Vidalia onions
2015 Dessert Wine | $28.00/members
- Always the last pick of the year, Adelaida’s dessert wine is based on a small block of aromatic Muscat au petite grains or Muscat Blanc. The frozen grapes are pressed off, producing only a few drops of sweet nectar-like juice per grape, minus the still frozen water fraction. Sweet wines ferment slowly (over several months) and require a specialized yeast strain that can metabolize the elevated sugars. Small crops from this acre site necessitated a blend of two vintages. Serve well chilled in a normal wine glass to show the full aromatic intensity.