QOTD: Shafer hillside select

Good show. Great cause. Immediately went to the website to see if they had any Andy Erickson left and found out that you have to spend 1200 just to get a bottle. Granted, you get 12 bottles, but still... How do I get my hands on something that this guy makes for less than a kidney donation and my entire bank account????

QOTD: Favorite bottle of California wine last year was a Stags Leap Reserve Cab, I think that it was 06.

What a fantastic concept. I hope I can somehow get a bottle of it to support such a great cause. Even if I dont like it, the money is worth it. QOTD: A 2006 Tears of Dew from Paso Robles. Sorry, the sugar gets me every time. :P

QOTD: A tie between Saxum, Broken Stones 2005 (74% Syrah, 24% Grenache, and 2% Mourvedre)(Paso Robles) and Behrens & Hitchcock, Napa Valley Merlot 2004 - generally not a big right bank/merlot person, but this blew me away.

What a beautiful idea! QOTD: Shafer 05 Cab

QOTD: 2004 Sebastiani Cherryblock Cabernet Sauvignon and 1997 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.
I'd love to try an Abreu wine. My mother's maiden name is Abreu so I'm sure we're related somehow.

QOTD-L'Aventure '06 Cote a Cote...super expensive but delicious

QOTD: I live in California, in the middle of the El Dorado AVA. About 90% of what I drink is local, so it's impossible to pick a favorite.

Great show and a tremendous cause. They sound like wonderful wines and so I went to their website to make a purchase and found that they do not ship to Ohio (or New Jersey for that matter) so I cannot make a purchase. Too bad.

QOTD: The best Cali wine I had this year was a 2003 Garretson Reliquary Red.

What a great cause, unfortunatly way out of my price range, but I will pass this on!

Great cause and impressive winemakers!

QOTD: Ive been very happy with the wines from Alma Rosa. Reds and whites, they're quality.

QOTD:
Can't choose just one...
Best overall: 1978 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill, 1978 BV Georges La Tour
Best current release: 2004 Lakoya Diamond Mountain, 2005 Ovid

What a great cause and some good wines....thats awesome!@!!

QOTD: 2005 Kamen Cabernet Sauvignon

I think those are some of the highest scores I've heard you give a wine.

QOTD: Educated Guess- 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon $22
It has lots of spice and smoke. Love it.

All the talk in this episode about price made me want to see another blind tasting show.. but having Gary guess the recommended cost of all the wines on offer.

QOTD: 2005 Frank Family Vineyards Zinfandel or their Zinfandel Port..tough call. But, I haven't had a lot of Cali wines this year as I have focused primarily on Argentina, Spain, Italy, and Washington

Great show! Glad I have some time to finally watch!!

QOTD: A bottle of 2004 Michel-Schlumberger Cabernet Sauvignon I had for a #ttl was pretty darned awesome.

QOD...2001 Screaming Eagle (just kidding) Actually I loved a 2005 Edge Cab.

G, great cause, great show.

QOTD: 2004 Robert Sinskey Cabernet Franc

QOTD: Booker "Fracture" (Paso Robles)

QOTD: 2004 Pina cabernet.

Cool cause! I will have to look it up on the LINK - thanks Mott!
Just a brief comment on your reference to smoking - cigarettes or any other product, legal or illegal. People need to learn that saying that they never smoked is a very defensive statement thought to protect the one saying it. You are better off staying silent on the matter because your comment either says - those who smoke are "lesser than you", or I did not smoke because I lived a sheltered life. Whether you smoked or not has no bearing on anything you are doing on this show. It just leaves you sounding a bit shallow.

QOTD - the best Cali Cab this year has to be the 1999 Carmenet Moon Mountain Reserve that I opened up 2 months ago - spectacular.

that's a wonderful idea, what they call in Spain a "vino de autor" but then to charity...obviously, the winemakers have really taken it seriously and everyone is pleased in the end : buyer, charity and winemaker. Good to indicate it in a show.
QOTD : if living in USA, I would drink californian cabs, but in Spain I can find so many wines cheaper (and generally better QPR), so why drink US wines? But when visiting US, I don't pick European wines in restaurants either, so I'll need to go there again...now preparing my holidays to Australia (in 2 weeks' time), not a bad pick for a wine lover!

Gary-

Great show (as usual). I was actually hoping that you were not going to score these wines, given the charity aspect. If the wine, in your mind, is worth $70 and you pay $100 for it, you have, in essence, given a $30 donation to a good cause. (If the wine is worth $150 to you, then you really haven't given anything away!) I think it is enough to know that the wine are "good enough" to be worth the effort of ordering some -- it does seem clear that the winemakers put a lot of effort into making these wines. (Just one man's opinion.)

Keep up the good work and thanks for raising the profile of this great cause!

QOTD: Loved the Newton Unfiltered.

Great wine for a great cause!

My favorite Cali Cab this year has been the Neal Family 2005 Cab. Really good stuff at a really good price.

Good luck to all involved with the cause
and thanks for spotlighting people trying to make a difference.

QOTD- Best Cali wine this year is probably Jerry Garcia Merlot (Clos DuBois) 2005 or Martin Ray Merlot 2000. Not a big Merlot fan usually but I am drinking what is in the cellar/basement.

When the new owners of Screaming Eagle up the production to the thousands, and start diversifying and outsourcing the fruit, do you thing the price will come out of the intergalactic heights where it is? Will the wine even be the same as the former vintages? Will we still be seeking it's wisdom, like a godhead, on top of a mountain?

Putting "Screaming Eagle" in the title is completely disingenuous of you. Not to dismiss Andy's stelar accomplishments thus far, but he's only been at SE for about two years. Those wines aren't even in a bottle yet.

Heidi Peterson Barrett, wife of Bo at Montelena, and lesser known as the daughter of the legend/genious blender/wine brand creator Dick Peterson had been the guiding hand behind SE, since it's inception around '92. Was she involved? No? Were the grapes for this wine sourced from SE's plots? Highly doubtful. Were Jean Philips, or the current owners involved? Nope.

Going back to the first vintage, with annual production between 200 and 500 cases /year, there have been, by quick math, most likely, less than 10,000 BOTTLES of SE produced. TOTAL. It is something that I, and 99.9% of us simply are not going to be tasting. Mrs. Peterson's other wines can be found, albeit in small, quantities, to say the least. Usually for less than thousands of dollars/bottle for current releases, which most of us willl find ridiculous, if not outright obscene. I, in no way intend to dismiss the very talented hands of either Heidi or Andy, I'm just saying that the wines in question are not even close, in the sense of 'itness', to the Eagle in its mythic, nearly holy grail like essence.

$100/ bottle, on the other hand, and for a benevolent cause, does sound like reason for immediate sellout of every bottling. Kudos, again, and best wishes to Gordon and his Team.

Gary awesome episode, I love how you identified "weeeeed" as one of the characteristics on the Digiulio Cab, priceless!!

QOTD: Haven't had too many California big boys, but I really liked the 2005 Napa Cellars Zinfandel.

Check out this video about the cause,
http://www.inwinecountry.com/?cat=7274242&s...

I've never spent a hundred bones on a bottle of wine. Your review of the Andy Erickson wine convinced me to try. I was a little disappointed to find out on their website that this wine is only available as part of the TWELVE pack. But this is a great cause and I congratulate all involved for pulling it together. Most recent Cal. wine is an 05 Columbia Crest Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet.

Wonderful Cause, that is awesome to see the greats team up!

QOTD: This is a tough one because when you said you haven't done a big California wine show in a while I was thinking, I've hardly had any California wine in a while. That's not by design, I think we've just been trying a lot of different things from around the world this year. So I'd have to go with a 2004 A to Z Pinot Noir for my answer.

Gary, good show.

QOTD: 2004 Hewitt Rutherford Cabernet

Another great episode, and for a great cause! QOTD, tough, tough. Hmmmm. I'm going to say a 1999 Sebastiani Cherryblock Cabernet Sauvignon. Beautiful, beautiful wine drinking fabulous.

2004 Rodney Strong Alexander Crown Cabernet

QOTD: 2001 Rudd Oakville Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
... first to come to mind, but probably not the best for the whole year.