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 Last year when I was at Pinot Camp in Oregon I ran into someone I was very surprised to see -Dr. Revana of Napa Valley's Revana Vineyards.When I asked him what he was doing at Pinot Camp he explained enthusiastically that he was working on a project  that wouldn't be released till 2008, he didn't give me too many specifics but did tell me it was being made by Lynn Penner-Ash at her state-of-the-art facility in Dundee.

Just last week I got the chance to taste the first Revana wine from Oregon; A Pinot Gris named Alexana (for Dr. Revana's daughter)

2007 Alexana Pinot Gris Dundee Hills; VF 87-90

I first tried the wine at room temperature and found mineral, melon apricot and nectarine flavors which were all beautiful but the wine seemed to lack a little acidity. After chilling a few ounces in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, the wine developed more of a solid backbone of acidity and made the aromas and flavors more precise.

There isn't much of this wine to go around with only 400 cases produced. This likely won't be the last wine Revana and Penner-Ash team up for. I suspect there will be Pinot Noir before too long!

Today was the most recent Pinot Days Grand Tasting in San Francisco, now in its fourth year. The festival this year seemed to be missing a few of the names I was expecting to see like Kosta Browne, Patz & Hall, La Fenetre and Loring. There was seriously no shortage of great wine I made sure to get around to as many of the new producers and ended up tasting nearly 150 wines.

Here is what I wanted to mention as the best of the new crop I tasted:

2006 Addamo Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley Reserve; VF 93

A nose of violet. lilac, red cherry and raspberry Very nice flavor profile as well.

2005 Ampelos Pinot Noir Rho Santa Rita Hills; VF 92

Spicy nose of sassafras and cherry, smooth on the palate with a backbone of dark fruits

2006 Arista Pinot Noir Russian River Longbow; VF 93

Superb structure with a smooth ripe flavor profile - everything in solid proportion

2006 Aubin Pinot Noir Dundee Hills; VF 92

Burgundian in style with delicate aromas, nicely made

2007 Bohemian Pinot Noir Freestone; VF 94

A really beautiful barrel sample, nice acidity with good concentratio of black cherry and creamy midpalate

2006 Benovia Pinot Noir Cohn Vineyard; VF 95

Beautiful and abundant raspberry, cherry and blueberry theoughout

2006 Clos Pepe Pinot Noir Clos Pepe Vineyard; vf 93

Elegant and focused nose the cherry and mineral influenced flavors have a solid texture

2007 Coterie Pinot Noir Saralee's Vineyard; VF 93

Smooth and elegant aromas of cherry and violet. The palate shows delicate cherry and plum

2007 Couloir Pinot Noir Roma's Vineyard: VF 93

An exciting project good acid profile and dense fruit flavors of cherry, black raspberry and plum

2006 Demetria Pinot Noir Gaia's Vineyard; VF 92+

Supple and delicately scented fruit, nice emphasis on palate

2006 Dovetail Pinot Noir Windsor Oaks; VF 92

Full of rich extracted cherry and plum

2005 Eno Pinot Noir Fairview; VF 94

One of the best wines of the day, super supple and beuatifully balanced

2006 Foursight Pinot Noir Charles Vineyard; VF 94

A great find and one of favorites of the day, pretty cherry and spice aromatics with a smoothe rounded palate

2006 Jalama Pinot Noir Cargasacchi Vineyard; VF 93

Firm and brilliant on the palate with excellent structure

2006 Jim Ball Pinot Noir Anderson Valley; VF 92

Nice wine a solid backbone with plenty of cherry raspberry strawberry on the palate

2005 Kindred Pinot Noir Anber Ridge Vineyard; VF 95

Smooth core of cherries, pomegranate, spice and red raspberry

2005 Mcintyre Pinot Noir Monterey; VF 94

Very pretty nose with a smooth flavor profile

2006 Shandel's Pinot Noir Oppenlander Vineyard; VF 91

Nice nose with good fruit concentration. The palate seems a bit young but certainly one to watch

2006 Small Vines Inot Noir Sonoma Coast; VF 91

pretty nicely focused aromatics, black cherry and a bit of violet throughout

2007 Sojourn Pinot Noir Demuth Vineyard; VF 91

Lots of bold black fruit in nose with baking spices on the palate; cinnamon, clove and black cherry

2006 Stephen Test Pinot Noir Russian River Valley; VF 93

Great aromatics of chalky charry and spice, the palte is well focused and delicately smooth

2005 Thorne Pinot Noir Rio Vista Vineyard; VF 93

Premiere release nice aromatics of cherry and mineral, black raspberry on palate with a bit of licoice

Many of these wines will receive more formal tastings in the next few weeks before appearing at Vinfolio. Keep an eye out for them in the Wilder Side of California.

For the last three years the Hestan label, owned by Stanley and Helen Cheng has received great accolades from critics and has been in demand from collectors. Those wines are made by Mark Herold (Merus, Buccella, Harris Estate, Kobalt).

For his new project called Stephanie, Cheng brought on Saxon Brown and Black Kite winemaker, Jeff Gaffner, (who had worked on the Chateau St Jean Cinq Cepages project),beginning with the 2005 vintage.

I had the chance to taste the premiere release of the Cabernet Sauvignon earlier in  the week and found it was showing beautifully. Cheng's 127 acre ranch in the eastern part of the Napa Valley is the source for this Cabernet Sauvignon also produces a Merlot and Bordeaux Blend bottling. The total production of this project focusing on the five Bordeaux varieties is only about 2400 cases.

2005 Hestan Vineyards Stephanie Cabernet Sauvignon; VF 93

A rich cherry and clove-like orange spice nose with extracted black fig, cherry and licorice on the palate with coffee and plum on the finish.

This wine should be available to order at Vinfolio within the next week.

With the beginning of summer more and more winemakers want to get together and show me the upcoming releases for Fall and beyond. Today I was finally able to get together with Kenneth Juhasz, owner/winemaker of Auteur, for lunch in Calistoga and a chance to catch up with the 2007 vintage Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Kenneth brought a pair of Chardonnay, one each from Hyde and Donum Vineyard and five different bottlings of Pinot Noir - Ophelia (the only blended wine in the lineup) along with Hyland and Shea Vineyards out of the Willamette Valley followed by Sonoma Stage and Manchester Ridge from Sonoma Coast, and Mendocino Ridge, respectively.

We began by tasting the Chardonnay served with Hog Island Oysters that showed off the impeccable structure of the Hyde Vineyard yet were a bit overmatched by the Donum Vineyard's powerful Old Wente clone's oily concentration. Believe it or not this was my first chance to taste Ophelia, Kenneth's ORCA blend of Shea, Hyland and Sonoma Stage.

Getting into the Pinot Noir designates is where I usually find the boldest strokes of greatness from this producer and we went through them in succession from Hyland, Shea, Sonoma Stage and Manchester Ridge. As these are all impressions of wine in barrel that will not begin reaching the market for at least another 6 months I have evaluated them with a range that envelope my impressions.

My experience with Auteur over the last five vintages has taught me a few things:

1. The wines seem to get better every vintage
2. The evaluations of the barrels are always exceeded by the finished wine
3. Patience, patience What you don't understand now, leave the bottle open for a couple days

All of the samples had just been pulled from barrel this morning and were presented in 375mL format and were initially sampled at room temperature.

2007 Auteur Chardonnay, Hyde Vineyard; VF 93-95

Polished lemon and mineral intensity on the nose with a supple creamy core of pear and lemon. The wine goes through no malo-lactic fermentation, retaining a vibrant intensity to the silky long finish.

2007 Auteur Chardonnay Donum Vineyard; VF 92-94

From the oldest 30+ year-old Old Wente block at Donum, this will be the last vintage from Auteur. Rich color decidedly deeper than the Hyde showing a shimmering nose with minerally white peach that is proniunced in its forwardness. The palate carries the peach, lemon and pear theme beautifully.

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Ophelia; VF 92-94

A delicate nose of salt, geranium blossom, verbena and wet quartz. The palate is nicely focused  and creamy with a solid core of acidity balancing the concentrated black cherry and blackberry

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Hyland Vineyard; VF 84-86

The wine smells and tastes a little smoky but shows nice texture throughout the palate. This will bear close watching in evolution as it is a clearly an abberation of the Hyland profile.

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard; VF 94-96

Wow, beautifully rich nose - carbon, dried violet flowers black raspberry and licorice already in a surprisingly integrated form. Black raspberry, licorice and plum are evident on the palate yet to attain the polish that is a hallmark for this wine.

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Sonoma Stage Vineyard; VF 95-97

A little lilac and forest aromas, the palate is already showing nice intensity for such a young wine. Intertwined black cherry, raspberry, pomegranate and violet come through vividly.

2007 Auteur Pinot Noir Manchester Ridge; VF 98-100

It is scary to think this wine won't be out for another nine months. It is already better than 80% of the 2006 releases in the market. Mind blowing is the way to describe the aromatics in this wine - geranium, violet, white raspberry with a hint of sweet fig. The palate is the most evolved of any of the barrels already showing layered flavors with the foundation of complex cherry, lavender. mineral and red cherry.

I've said it before - Kenneth Juhasz is creating what are likely some of the most important Pinot Noir in America yet he seems to be doing it with relative ease and I hasten to add, a great deal of humility. During lunch when I was deep in thought with one of the Pinots, I turned to him and said "Kenneth, you should be required to make wine with one hand tied behind your back".

At the conclusion of the lunch Kenneth offered to send all of the ungassed samples back with me,however since they had only been under cork for an hour before coming to me, the corks had expanded and refused to go back in the bottles. I was forced to keep all of the samples bolt upright (uncorked) in my car back to the office and then carried them home the same way.  After being open to air for nearly 12 hours the wines had gained additional dimension. I will taste all of these wines again prior to release to determine a final review, but with the exception of the Hyland  at this juncture the Auteur portfolio seems in very good shape.

If you are going to the Pinot Days event in San Francisco this Sunday, look for Kenneth's table near the front. I could tell you what he will be pouring but that would spoil the surprise!

Philippe Melka has made some beautiful wines for Robin Lail over the years originally concentrating on the excellent J Daniel Cuvee named in honor of her father, John Daniel Jr. , the great-nephew of Inglenook founder, Gustave Niebaum. Desiring to make a Lail white analogous to the red, Melka stunned the wine community by creating a Lail Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc named "Georgia" named for Jon and Robin Lail's first grandchild that sold for $75.00 a bottle. This Bordeaux-styled wine instantly became the center of attention among retailers wondering "what could you do to Sauvignon Blanc to make it worth that much?" The premiere release of Georgia, 2004, received high praise from wine critics. Aged in 100% new french oak for 18 months it seemed to be the ultimate expression of what you could do with this stalwart variety to create an age-worthy style.

The most recent addition to the Lail portfolio is the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc Blueprint positioned as is the the Blueprint Red as more approachable wines sourced from younger vineyards. The wine is coming to market just now and I had the chance to taste it earlier today.

2007 Lail Sauvignon Blanc Blueprint, VF93 $42.00

Quartz-like mineral, graphite, lemon, tangerine and nectarine aromas. The palate is beautifully formed with an elegant creaminess to the focused acidity on the finish. 617 cases produced.

This wine will be available on the Vinfolio site later tomorrow.

Last Saturday night I attended the opening of the C. Donatiello Winery, a new boutique producer of small production Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The winery owned by Christopher Donatiello in partnership with Bill Hambrecht is sited on Hambrecht's former Belvedere Winery. With the emphasis on quality over size, the winery received a complete makeover to optimize working with 7000 cases instead of the former 125000 case capacity.

Winemaking duties are handled by Troy McEnery and Web Marquez (co-owner of Ant Hill Farm)

Among the wines I tasted was a deliciously focused Rose of Pinot Noir that I think may be available at the winery only. It was a great way to start the evening of meeting the principals and enjoying the estate and getting the

The lineup includes a

2006 Chardonnay Russian River Valley

a clean and correct style aged in 50% new oak for 9 months - production 3400 cases, priced just under $30.00

2006 Chardonnay Russian River Valley, Orsi Vineyard

planted to the Robert Young clone and exhibits more of a crisp spicy character that sees the same oak regimen - production 225 cases, priced just under $40.00

2006 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley

A well made example of the variety with pretty cranberry, cherry and peppered black raspberry - production 2750 cases priced just under $50.00

2006 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Floodgate Vineyard Old Vines -

Off of thirty year-old vines. Somehow I missed tasting this at the event. Floodgate has always been one of the grail vineyards for me from the region - production 175 cases priced just under $60.00

2006 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Maddie's Vineyard Estate bottled

All Pommard clone with smooth and bright complex black and red berries, cherry and blue plum - production 185 cases priced just over $60.00

I will be doing a more in-depth tasting of C. Donatiello in the next few weeks and an offer should be coming soon after that.

Everybody loves a winner - that goes for just about anything from auto or horse racing, boxing, baseball - and wine. Apart from relishing in the triumphs of others vicariously through spectating, wine is one of only a few activities where you can actually obtain a winner, and for a relatively small sum. Additionally there are many opportunities to do this as new "winning" wines are anointed pretty regularly. One of the most talked about wines in recent years is Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon.

When the 2003 Scarecrow premiered in 2006, Vinfolio had the first review on the wine (VF 97) in the Spring that was ultimately vetted by a Wine Advocate score of 98 points eight months later. Later, we wrote the first review on the 2004 vintage, VF 96, five and six months before Laube, WS 96 and Parker, WA 95, respectively.  I observed that Parker also wrote a review of the 2005 vintage, and published his impressions in his December 2007 issue (as a 94-97 range) from a barrel tasting (presumably conducted at the same time he opined on the 2004 in bottle).  I was pleased to see that Stephen Tanzer reviewed the 2005 Scarecrow in May, and gave the wine an enthusiastic 95+?. In this instance, I uncharacteristically am the last to taste the wine but as it is traditional that we release Scarecrow in June, it was my first opportunity to taste it last week and I gave the wine a VF 98 (In the limited time I had to taste I am confident that the wine had not peaked when I put my pen away after two hours)

The Triple Crown

With the recent inability of Big Brown to secure the horse racing Triple Crown earlier this month, I am happy to announce that Scarecrow has acheived that status with a trio of scores that are in rare territory from Parker, Tanzer and Vinfolio. Vinfolio currently has only a limited amount of 2005 Scarecrow remaining. It is available on the website here.

When a winery has a debut release like Blackbird did with their 2003 Merlot, a Vinfolio 98 pointer that set the tone for everything to follow it may seem strange to blog about the virtues of a simple Rose wine from them. I first mentioned this new addition to the Blackbird lineup in February after attending the unofficial unveiling of the wine, called Arriviste, at the Premiere Napa Valley Blackbird lunch. I was particularly charmed by winemaker, Aaron Pott's, explanation on the traditions he observed during his time in Bordeaux that influenced the making of this wine. I am happy to report that Vinfolio will be receiving a small amount of this 333 case debut wine next week. It is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc.

2007 Blackbird Vineyards Arriviste VF 92 - 93

From my impressions in February, I recall the wine had pretty cherry, and strawberry aromas with a fine crisp acidity on the palate that accented the core of focused red fruits; cherry, wild strawberry and hints of tart red raspberry. That was winter and a chilled Rose on a hot summer evening was at most an unspoken wish that can now be realized. Drink 2008 -2009

The wine has only been added to the Vinfolio website today, so if you haven't yet ordered some, don't delay. Summer officially begins Saturday!

My friend Rick who lives in Philadelphia is out in San Francisco pretty regularly now and we try to get together every few weeks for a wine dinner. Since he is a Vinfolio client as well I usually pickup his wines that he wants to open from our San Francisco warehouse. We decided to get together last night and he asked me to fetch a bottle of the second release 2001 Drinkward Peschon Cabernet Sauvignon, VF 98  and I brought along the 2006 Scherrer Chardonnay Helfer Vineyard, VF 97 and 2005 Dierberg Pinot Noir Steven, VF 98.

Beginning our meals with the Tuna Tartare, the lush richness of the Scherrer Chardonnay, served at room temperature proved equal to the firm bites of tuna served up on paper thin flatbread. The wine was drinking like silk even after being opened three hours earlier.

We then moved into a medium sized ribeye with frites and the Dierberg and Drinkward Peschon duelled it out for the rest of the evening. The Dierberg is showing a mouthwatering spearmint on the nose that dances across the raspberry and cherry backbone. Note: Vinfolio is fortunate to have a limited quantity of this wine available again on an allocated basis.

Upon pouring the Drinkward Peschon the wine showed beautifully for another 2 hour+ before sliding in and out of a phase where the flavors got a little rough but just as we were lamenting over this, the next sip was back to being solidly focused and we were back in love with what was going on in the glass. My initial assessment of this wine from release showed some Lapsang Tea which comes through firmly on the mid-palate now giving some solid backbone. If you have any of this 240 case production wine, I would recommend opening a bottle in the next few months to see how it is doing.

Last Thursday we finally got our clients together to try some of the top Pinot Noir I have written about in the last few months. The event, held at Coffee Bar, just downstairs from our San Francisco corporate office swelled to a maximum guest list of 70 people eager to taste some special wines including the first public tasting of the 2006 Hospices of Sonoma Pinot Noir poured from a grand format, Radio Coteau La Neblina. It was the first wine to disappear during the evening. The good news is we have a little over thirty magnums of this wine left in stock. Here is the complete list of our limited 2006 Hospices of Sonoma magnums:

2006 Radio Coteau Pinot Noir, La Neblina VF 96

2006 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir, Keefer Vineyard VF 97

2006 Siduri Pinot Noir Keefer Vineyard VF 95

2006 Flowers Pinot Noir Sea View Ridge VF 94

In addition, we had winemakers, Ryan Zepaltas and Kenneth Juhasz on hand to pour 2006 Zepaltas Pinot Noir Suacci Vineyard VF 94, and 2005 Donum Pinot Noir Carneros VF 94 , respectively as well as the representatives from Dierberg, Eric Kent, Raptor Ride and Elk Cove pouring

2005 Dierberg Pinot Noir Estate VF 95

2006 Eric Kent Pinot Noir Stilling Vineyard VF 91

2006 Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir Reserve VF 94

2006 Elk Cove Pinot Noir Five Mountain VF 95

2005 Tyler Pinot Noir Fiddlestix Vineyard VF 92

2006 Antica Terra Pinot Noir VF 95

Virtually all of these wines are limited to available stock and represent the very best of what I select to go into our domestic portfolio. Contact your Wine Specialist today to pick up some of them before they are gone.

Look for a future Wilder Side tasting of Cabernet Sauvignon in the Fall.