2006 Leviathan

Tonight I decided to pull one of these out of the cellar in celebration of Zelda's Mom's birthday at her favorite pizza place, DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies on Hamilton Avenue in Trenton. I know, you want to know why we always specify Hudson, Robbinsville, or Hamilton. Well, long and short of it is because Hudson Street was always the best, then the Amico family opened up the Robbinsville store, and Gary's son Sammy runs it. But there has always been the Hamilton Avenue store as well that was opened originally by a second brother way back in the day. Regardless, Hudson and Robbinsville are still out favorite stores, but I think that the pie at Hamilton Ave is a lot better than the first time we went there...but our hearts will always be on Hudson Street!

So in celebration tonight I brought a 2006 Leviathan, and what a pure pleasure it was to drink this wine tonight! For those of you who do not know, Leviathan is a project by Annie Favia (past work with Harlan Estate, Spottswoode, Araujo, Colgin, Staglin, Bressler, Favia and Pahlmeyer. She is currently the principal of Libelula Viticultural Services, her own company, which provides project management for Abreu and Screaming Eagle) and Andy Erickson (consulting winemaker, making wine for Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Arietta, Dancing Hares Vineyard, Ovid Vineyards, and consulting for Jonata in the Santa Ynez Valley). Their reputations say it all!

Upon opening the bottle, the first thing you will notice is the gorgeous color in the glass! But when you put your nose anywhere near the glass, the aroma's are intoxicating! What a gorgeous nose this wine has! Huge oodles of dark black cherry, jammy raspberry, and blueberry, a subtle hint of caramel, and spice. From the nose alone, I could not tell what grape was a majority here, but I was assuming it was cabernet. We could tell that there was some syrah, merlot and probably some cabnernet franc, but I was also guessing maybe a bit of petite verdot. Regardless, upon looking at their website, the final blend was 41% cabernet sauvignon, 32% merlot, 21% syrah, and 7% cabernet franc = "100% California." We were close...and never said to be professionals. .

So on to the palate, this wine was as smooth and creamy as could be. Big black fruits filled the mouth with some blueberry, boysenberry, black cherry, and raspberry. Subtle hints of spice and vanilla rounded out the finish, which was very nice, although not all that long. I was expecting to have more wood on the palate but this is definitely not the case. For such a young wine, everything was very well integrated, and it was amazing how well this wine came together. This was popped and poured, and between the 4 of us, we polished this bottle off in an hour, so it really did not have a lot of time to open, but the beauty of it is that it didn't need it. Annie and Andy did their homework in developing this wine, and it seems to be ready to drink right out of the gate.

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All in all, this is a very solid wine, and I look forward to seeing how this wine develops in the future. Unfortunately with my cutbacks in wine purchasing this year, I did not bite off of the mailing list for this wine, although I was allocated 12 bottles. I did purchase 2 locally at CoolVines, and I am glad that I did. I will definitely pick up at least another in the future, and for the money, I think that this is a great California blend, made from some of the best California fruits! A pleasure, and worthy of 93 points! Cheers!

2004 Lieu-dit les Poyeux Saumur-Champigny

After a long weekend working on annual United States Air Force requirements, it was nice to come home and relax with Zelda with some good warm chili, and a bottle of wine after working out on the cold McGuire flightline all day! I can't say that I have ever been big fan of cabernet franc, but at a friends suggestion, we have tried a few in the last year. I definitely didn' expect a whole lot from this wine, but after seeing it in CellarTracker last night, I figured I'd go on a hunt to find this one in the basement and managed to succeed in locating it.

This is a very subdued wine, that is not really showing a whole lot of fruit, but this has been a common trend we have found with Saumur-Champigny. This was a very dark color in the glass, with a nose of black cherry, tobacco, tar, and oak on the nose. On the palate, this is definitely not a fruit forward wine, but we weren't expecting it to be a fruit forward wine. The finish wasn't isn't really on the tannic side, but there is definitely a bit of a sour bite and acidity to it. You would think that it would be integrated in 5 years, but I am not all that familiar on the "life expectancy" of this wine. It definitely is not over the hill, I just think that this is typical for this varietal.

All in all, a nice wine to drink, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find this wine. If we did see other vintages in a store of this wine, I would purchase it again for comparison sake. All in all, very drinkable, just not my style. 83 points.

2006 Domaine Saint Vincent Saumur-Champigny

Had this varietal a time or two, and all that it really is would be French cabernet franc. We're definitely not fans of U.S. cab franc, but this seem to fit the bill for tonight. Unfortunately, it is a little on the sour side, and doesn't have the fruit that we have come to appreciate on our palates. Popped and poured, this might have done better with some decanting. Exactly similar to the same bottle we had a few months ago, a good nose of plum and cherry, with hints of vanilla or caramel. Unfortunately, none of that really came through on the palate, and it was more hints of red and dark, sour fruits. More of the same on the palate, and I think that we have come to find that we don't mind a little cab franc in our Bordeaux, but it's not one of our favorite varietal. Medium length sour finish didn't do much at all for me, and it's good to have this bottle out of the cellar. Maybe some other Saumur-Champigny are better. We'll find out eventually. 82 points.