Thanks, Dan. You always know what to say. 🙂

Second that. I just saw Giants beat Jets.
Congrats Mott
Im sorry Gary

The thursday wine.
Vasse Felix Heytesbury Red 2007
77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Petit Verdot and 10% Malbec.

Color deep deep red black with a purple hue.
The sniffy sniff reveal lots of fruit, ripe and sweet fruit, concentrated blackcurrant from the cab sauv, recurrent from the Malbec and chocolate strawberry from the Petetit Verdot 🙂 well I don?t know that but ….
There is a definite scent of oak and hints of sweet tobacco, violet, licorice roasted spices . The cedar smell of the oak hints young wine.

On the palate there is at first really intense fruit, with an oaky dryness , nice acid and tannins that sandpaper your tounge. Sweet and flowing all the way, mid and back palate packed full of tangy, mineral-like acidity and the back end is more wood and spice with the fruit lingering nicely. Full body on this one.
Good structure and intensity and focus seem to be on the exceptionally long, dry finish that ends with the beautiful Cabernet perfume of violets graphite and cedar.

Ready to drink, but also good for keeping a decade. Expensive but good.

Holy smokes, even better then I remembered it tasting at the vineyard. I might be the food. Roast with potato and carrot cake served with wine reduction. (Yes, I did a three course meal this Thursday again. despite of promising to cut down on the food intake.)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Hanukkah! I had a nice, long week with family and friends that included some stellar Napa cabs (thanks to my brother and his awesome wine cellar). Here is a list (in order of preference):

1. 1997 Joseph Phelps – Insignia – Wine of the night – it was unanimous. It deserved the 97-pt score by Wine Spectator. Highly recommend this, if you can find it.
2. 2003 Behrens & Hitchcock – Herrick-Moulds vineyard cab. Stellar wine – different style than Insignia (more fruit and oak).
3. 2005 Etude – Rutherford cab. (loved this wine – similar in style to the 04 Corison cab I had recently).
4. 2006 Lewis Reserve Napa cab. Yummy.. Big wine, rich, dense and chewy (big fruit and oak).
5. 2001 Joseph Phelps – Insignia. Very good, but not stellar.

The only non-cab we had was a bottle of 2001 Etude Carneros Pinot Noir – Good. Was surprised it held up so well. I didn’t think that Calif pinots could drink well after 10+ yrs. I give it 89 points.

Cheers!

Happy New Year to all the Vayniacs!

Mott: Good luck this weekend vs the ‘Boys. Jets need to win and get some help but doable.

Cheers everyone!

P.S. Tebow stinks. Suck for Luck!

QOTD: What are you drinking this evening?

Me:
Blanc de bLanc Dubois-Clery NV to the lobster
Brunello di Montalcino Col D’orica 2004 to the veal in tomatssauce
Castello di Gabbiano Chianti Classico Riserva 2006 the cheese platter
John Anthony Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2006 to the Glce au four with blackberry
Cremant Marques de Haux 2009 to the midnight celebration

Wow! Love Blanc de Blanc… and lobster!
Not drinking anything memorable at the moment, but the evening is still young. Cheers and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Dom!
I’ve always liked the Cotes de Tablas blanc.. my favorite of all the Tablas Creek wines. Glad you liked it. The pinots sound great. Be sure to report back. I have a bottle of 08 Shea Wine Cellars – Shea Vineyard and a 09 Ken Wright pinot that I’m anxious to try.

Posted at DG just a few minutes ago. Let me know what the Vayniacs think.

I just had a NY Revelation. I don’t make “resolutions” since we have little effect on what really happens in our lives. This could be debated but for now, I was thinking about this and the few who come back to check the mail and sweeps the floors, well, let me know what you think.

I just received two gifts from the Tasting Room, yes, sent to myself of “Wines for Dudes” http://www.tastingroom.com/samplers/1981280/Gary+Vaynerchuk+…+Wines+for+Dudes selected by our friend and wine guru GV and “Wines of Balance” by Rajat Parr. http://www.tastingroom.com/samplers/1981263/Rajat+Parr+…+Wines+of+Balance

What if I produced a video running through GV’s “Wines for Dudes” and posted it to youtube or give a date where I can do it live on ustream where everyone can join in?

Let me know what you think. I’m getting brazen.

Hope all had a magnificent Happy New Year!

Cheers!

just do it 😉

Favia 2006 Cab and Caymus 2007 for New Years! Enjoyed with a Filet and Lobster at Friday Station in South Lake Tahoe.

TTF…. Any new wine finds ????

I just got a letter that WL site was hacked and card info compromised. I have to go now and check all my card transactions since Oct 20!!! Does anyone know what the hackers charges come up as if they did hit your card??

Go Niners !!!! Let’s beat the aint’s !

Ha! Finally!! It’s Santa Barbara County.. St Rita Hills to be exact. Yeah, well, there is a lot of hype with Sea Smoke. I loved my first 07 Sea Smoke – Southing (did you have the Botella, Southing, or Ten?) but was underwhelmed last year with 2nd bottle. I like O8 better. Definitely not Oregon or Burgundy style but yummy. It’s $55 (for Southing) plus tax and shipping for list members.

I had some charges from a online gaming site. The amounts were small but numerous. Must have been some young punk gamer.

Obviously, cancel that card and have them re-issue you another one.

Episode 1001 Vayniac Pays Homage to Guess Who
http://youtu.be/M42yWzWb4Kg

Mott “Link It Up!” References in Show
http://tv.winelibrary.com/2009/12/21/the-vayniac-cabernet-has-finally-arrived-episode-790/

95 Pt Wine Challenge (’03 Dominus)
http://tv.winelibrary.com/2007/06/11/the-95-point-wine-challenge-episode-253/

I hope everyone enjoys. Critiques are welcomed.

Cheers!

P.S. I apologize for not remembering everyone’s name, i.e. esp John_J during my shoutouts. I was a tad nervous. 🙂

OMG! You did it! Very entertaining, well done, and thoughtful! You’re a natural!! I think you need to keep doing this, Dom. I’m not kidding. Enjoyed the reviews (espec the 2000 Dominus) and loved the props (espec little Peyton and spit bucket)!

Go Niners!

PS: Thanks for this and the shout out. 🙂

Itunes were the place where my crad was missused.

My first class with the Munskänkarna ( a non profit wine organisation in Sweden with 23 000 members) It was about the history of wine and how it spread around the world and then a little about winemaking. We tasted four wines at the end just to get to 1. distinguish the most acid wine and 2 the most tannic wine.

Georg Breuer Riesling Sauvage 2010 Most acid
Lot of green aroma and lots of starfruit, soft ripe pears. Very acid, some minerals, not a typical Riesling in my eyes.

Hubert Beck, the Pinot Gris Réserve you Chevalier 2010th
A little more golden, I guess chardonnay but was a little hesitant because of the tropical nature. Very light touch of sweet fruit, soft, little acid, high viscosity

Cline Zinfandel 2010
When I was set to the old world since the classes was set on that, thought it was a merlot. Jam with red and black berries, some clay, not so rough, sweeter.

La Bastide Blanche 2009 Most tannins
70% Mourvèdre, 25% Grenache, 3% Cinsault and 2% Carignan.
With such a clear graphite aroma, tobacco, leather, blackberries and lots of coarse tannins I thought it was a cabernet sauvignon. Should have known that the tannins were too rough.

Sorry about the double post. Disqus acting up on me.

Go Niners and thank goodness, Tebow is done. 😉

I just don’t think he is that good. He’s a good guy but maybe tired of hype.

G-Men and Niners on the championship. Very fitting if you ask me.

Mott and Lisa’s teams move on! Hip hip!

Giants win, congrats Mott.

Hello Gary… congrats on making it to your 1,000 episode and continued success.

Yeah! I like football but not a die-hard fan.. And I live in 49rs territory. So happy to see them do well.. it’s been a while. I recently saw Steve Young at a shopping mall graciously and patiently taking pictures with fans. Joe Montana and his wife are good people, too. I think they are selling their house in Sonoma.. (a tad over my price range though). 🙂