Trefethen Vineyards, the Good
Founders Eugene and Catherine Trefethen were ahead of their time starting their vineyard in 1968 looking forward to a philosophy of “sustainability” and growing their own grapes on their estate. Today the third generation of the family continues with the same attention to detail. I have driven by the vineyard multiple times and never visited until this trip and was pleased that I did. Frankly, their wines surprised me. I was also highly impressed with the tasting they did for us which ended up being a sit-down gourmet lunch with their best wines and well worth the cost. I ended up buying a couple of cases with no initial intent to do so which speaks to a good point. Ratings and opinions are great and can be a guide. But in the end, you should buy the wines you like and you don’t need a reason to like a bottle of wine. If you like it buy it. The variation in the number of taste buds on the human tongue goes from 500 to 10,000. Anyone can understand somebody with 500 taste buds will taste the same wine tasted by somebody with 10,000 taste buds differently. You may hate the wine and I may love it. It is OK. A cliché but truthful is don’t judge a book by its cover. The only way you can determine if a wine is good for you is to taste it. I recommend you go to Trefethen and taste their wines and do a lunch tasting.
2020 Trefethen Dry Reisling a favorite puchased a case $26/Bt
I have been having a recent love affair with Reisling. As much as I love Chardonnay I also understand the ABC(anything but Chardonnay) crowd. At some point, you need to expand your horizons and drink something different. The reality is with spicy food, Thai being one example, you cannot beat a good Reisling. And Reisling can come in many styles from sweet and a dessert wine to a dry white as an aperitif. I admit a classic German Reisling with that strong “petrol” smell and flavor doesn’t turn me on. But I have recently had some really good dry Rieslings this wine being one. It did have a very light petrol smell letting you know it was a Reisling but it was not overwhelming. The wine was tart on the taste and had lots of pear flavor. It was very balanced and a simple but well-made wine. It had a tart but pleasant mouthfeel. The winemaker describes the tastes of Mandarin Orange peel, apple, and lemon and agrees with the tart description. I like it a lot and purchased a case and that is the first case of Reisling I have purchased in decades.
2019 Trefethen Katies Acre Chardonnay $50
There was a hint of light oak and vanilla flavor on the nose as well as lots of fruit flavors including pear and apple as well as in the taste. On the taste, the oak was more moderate but not unpleasant. It went well with the food match of Red Kuri Squash puree with goat cheese complimented with a tart apple, and pumpkin seed granola.
2019 Trefethen Cabernet Franc $50
A very unique soft leather nose smell followed by a very smooth fruity taste. Oak was moderate and I didn’t particularly like it. I felt this wine clashed with the food pairing of roasted delicata squash and chicories with crispy pancetta, burrata, and toasted pecan. I am going to make an editorial comment here and by no means is this meant to be a criticism. There are different food preparation philosophy’s out there the current rage de jour is the “slow food movement” and “farm to table”. There is nothing inherently wrong with any philosophy as they all seek to improve the betterment of food and wine. I have had a philosophy for years of “no more than 5 components of any dish”. I appreciate complex flavors, but in the end, the reality is the more flavors you have the more chances they will conflict and it makes it much harder to pair a wine. I think that is what was going on in this pairing. God love her the chef was trying to be creative but in the end, the dish was too complicated and had too many flavors.
2018 Trefethen Dragon’s Tooth Cabernet $65
One of their red blends. Interestingly the nose smelled of parmesan cheese, something unique. The winemaker feels this wine is full-bodied and I felt differently thinking the wine was somewhat lightweight. It was well balanced and had plenty of fruit. It was paired with duck confit and potato croquette with garden herbs and to me, not the best food pairing.
2017 Trefethen Reserve Cabernet $115
The nose was light but complex. Mouthfeel was good and tannin and acid were well balanced. Decanter magazine has rated this wine as their best for their estate. I see nothing to disagree with that. The food pairing was good with sous vide beef short rib with Spooner rice congee and wild arugula. I think I wanted seconds on the food.
2019 Trefethen Chardonnay $38 bonus taste
On the nose, a fair amount of fruit and smells of apple and vanilla and a fair amount of oak. These flavors persisted in the taste and again somewhat overoaked. I did not feel it was as balanced as some of the others.
2020 Trefethen Sauvingnon Blanc $30 bonus taste
A light nose. On the taste very crisp and a lot of tart pucker up fruit. I tasted granny smith apple flavor and again quite a tart taste profile. A nice Sauvignon Blanc with more of an apple flavor than say the usual grapefruit.
2020 Trefethen Quandry $25/Bt bonus taste favorite purchased a case
A huge surprise. A terrific value quality-price ratio wine. You cannot beat the quality for the price. Everyone loved the wine. A nice light nose with tart flavors of apple and pear. On the taste, a good acid background makes it very food-friendly. It is a white blend made with 3 of my favorite white grapes, Riesling, Viognier, and Chardonnay. Lots of fruit flavors and some honey and lemon zest. A nice rounded mouthfeel and a clean and bright long finish. Will be an ideal summer picnic, patio, or poolside sipping wine and will pair wonderfully with seafood and poultry. 13.5% alcohol, Think summer fried chicken!
Frank Family, The Bad
Nobody makes bad wine anymore. Winemakers and owners don’t spend millions of dollars and years of time figuring out how they can make bad wine. They spend their time and money trying to make the next 100 point blockbuster. Sometimes they succeed. A lot of times they don’t. And in the end, it really boils down to style and being able to control what they in fact can control. Frank family has a long history of winemaking and lots of people love their wines. I have never been a big fan in the past so I agreed to do a tasting there with an open mind understanding things change over time and maybe they would be the greatest wines I tasted this trip. Sadly I have to report that did not happen. I again emphasize it more an issue of style rather than quality.
Lady Edison Reserve Brut $110
Started out with their sparkling wine. Is all Chardonnay. To me, it was not that dry as I tasted some sweetness and residual sugar. To me, it had a higher concentration of carbonation which for me is a plus. On the taste, I tasted a fair amount of pear and the finish was nice. It sort of grew on you as you tasted it. But for me, the price was too high for what you were getting.
2018 Lewis Chardonnay
Not to be confused with Lewis Family wines a totally different animal. I did not like this wine. The nose was not particularly pleasant. It was a typical California overoaked Chardonnay that overwhelmed the wine and in addition, again it had some sweetness to it indicating a higher residual sugar load. There really was no complexity here. My opinion is these grapes were harvested way too early and had not matured enough to make a bottle of better wine.
2018 RHF Cabernet
Had a cheery nose and taste but was not balanced well. I know some like the style in that it was “jammy” but to me that made it smell and taste more like cough syrup than a good wine. Just not for me.
2017 Winston Cabernet
A lot of tannin here. It will definitely age for a long time. Smelled and tasted like a typical California Cab. The vineyard is at the southern portion of Calistoga to the east of Highway 29 and lays in the valley. So it does not have complexity as say vineyards further north and upon the mountains would have.
2017 Patriarch Cabernet
A lot of unbalanced alcohol and tannin here and not yet approachable. Needs a lot of time to develop.
Peju Vineyards The Ugly
Rutherford wines are fairly distinctive and have what is called the “Rutherford” dust. Most Master Sommeliers would be able to spot a Rutherford Cabernet without any effort. Our friends recommended Peju as they had been before and liked the wines. So again with an open mind, we checked them out. They are right in the middle of the Rutherford area next door to St. Supery just off Highway 29. Oops, not what we expected and not in a good way. To begin with a corporate presentation with enthusiastic young salespeople telling you over and over again 100 times in 10 minutes these are great, great wines trying to implant into your brain with brainwashing these are great wines. Pretty much a pump and dump strategy. Other than their sweet dessert wine which was quite good nothing stood out as something we would want to buy.
Very sorry but not impressed at all. The nose smelled like dishwasher soap and we did discuss maybe they did not rinse out the glasses well enough after washing them and if that was the case then they don’t pay attention to detail and if they don’t do it in the tasting room most likely they don’t pay attention in the vineyard or production facility either.
This is a Chardonnay Pinot Noir Sparkler. It color was somewhat strange. I called it a “dark” rose color. It was pretty disjointed with no balance at all. Technically seemed to be poorly made. Again my thought is maybe harvested before the grapes were actually mature.
Another wine with what seemed to be a “funky” color or off-color. Good fruit on this one with a cherry nose and taste. Some tannins but again not well balanced and not impressive
Made one simple statement, not impressed.
2017 Rutherford Stained Glass Series
Finally a better wine. It is one of their top wines. Had a good tannic structure and solid fruit with better balanced. A fairly high alcohol concentration made the wine taste a little stringent. Better but still not anything I would buy.
2019 Calmere Chardonnay
An overoaked wine with fair fruit. But nothing I would buy.
2014 Merlot Meritage
Another good wine they should maybe push a little more. Had a nice cherry nose and I also tasted licorice well. Overall I would say a good wine
Sweet Orange Muscat was the best wine for me and I purchased one bottle to drink down the road.
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