Given the nature of our shop, you would expect that we would be in attendance when the best Napa Valley Vintners appear en mass in New York; and that we were! We tasted through a lot of impressive wines at the Metropolitan Pavilion on West 19th Street yesterday when ‘Taste Napa Valley: New York’ came to town. One hundred wineries, big and small, were represented and overall the tasting was well done and well attended.
Our only real gripe was the thimble sized spit buckets. Seriously?! The buckets were frighteningly diminutive and it seemed like every time you put a wine in your mouth and swished it around – wooosh – a staff member would whisk the bucket away for a much needed emptying. This attentive service left you with the option of drinking the wine (a clear detriment when you have to return to work) or leaving it simmering in your mouth until the bucket reappeared. Not a pretty thought, aye? But I digress, so on to the TOP TEN of the tasting for us, in no particular order:
2006 Blackbird Illustration (86% Merlot with Cabernet Franc & Cabernet Sauvignon)
2006 Cliff Lede Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Corison Cabernet Sauvignon
2005 Cornerstone Cellars Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
2005 Lail J. Daniel Cuvee (Cabernet Sauvignon blend)
2006 Larkin Cabernet Franc
2008 Lieff Sauvignon Blanc
2005 The Terracess Petite Sirah
2005 Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon
2005 Twomey Merlot
Wow, and you thought Napa was not all about Cabernet anymore! It looks like from our notes that the Cabs reigned supreme for the most part ─ at least in our memory. It’s going to be a crazy week with Wine Makes galore in town and distributor Michael Skurnik’s portfolio tasting tomorrow. Stay tuned as we persevere through purple teeth and palate fatigue to bring you more favorites and other news from the “front lines”! In the meantime, check out our website for some of the Top 10 selections noted above!
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