Christmas Pinots

 Last year Alex and Adam came up for Christmas Eve. We has a wine tasting. Adam asked if we were going to have a testing this year. It seems the start of a tradition.

I ordered 6 wines from Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wine of 2023 and Wine Enthusiast's Top 100 Wine of 2023. I whittled it down to 4 for the tasting, thinking 6 was too much.

• 2019 Rippon, Mature Vines, Central Otago, NZ
• 2021 Big Table Farm, Cattrail Brothers Vineyard, Eola Amity Hills, OR
• 2021 Occidental, Freeatone-Occidental, Sonoma Coast, CA
• 2021 Merry Edwards, Georganne Vineyard, Russian River Valley, CA

I did not include 2021 Convene, Russian River Valley, CA and 2021 Resonance, Willamette Valley, OR.

Ratings

D - 2021 Merry Edwards, Georganne Vineyard, Russian River Valley, CA came in first place with an average of 3.31. It was Wine Enthusiast #9 wine of 2023. It cost $70 from the winery

A - 2019 Rippon, Mature Vines, Central Otago, NZ came in second place with an average of 3.25. It was Wine Enthusiast #5 wine of 2023. It cost $55 from K&L.

C - 2021 Occidental, Freeatone-Occidental, Sonoma Coast, CA in third place with an average of 2.94. It was Wine Spectator's #2 wine of 2023. It cost $69 from Aabalat.

B - 2021 Big Table Farm, Cattrail Brothers Vineyard, Eola Amity Hills, OR came in last place with an average of 2.13. It was Wine Enthusiast #22 wines of 2023. It cost $72 from the winery.

Spring Cabs

Things have been kind of slow since we've moved to Santa Rosa. Late last year we threw a party. I wasn't convinced that our friends would drive two hours to see us, but they did. This year we decided to try a traditional blind tasting.

Last year we joined the BV wine club and acquired a vertical of Georges De Latour. I was thinking we should taste that and the clones that it's made of, but I threw together a couple of other options.

Option 1: Georges De Latour Cab Tasting

• 2017 Georges De Latour
• 2018 Georges De Latour
• 2019 Georges De Latour
• 2018 Clone 6
• 2018 Clone 4
• 2018 Clone 169

Option 2: Cab Tasting

• 2018 Ehret, Hillside Reserve
• 2018 Louis M. Martini, Lot 1
• 2018 Mayacamas
• 2016 Passalacqua, Block 18 & 19
• 2018 Stag's Leap, Cask 23
• 2018 Trujillo, Gary Morisoli

Option 3: Everyone bring a cab

I asked a couple of people what they thought and both of them went for option 3.

I sent out the invite, saying I would bring a Georges De Latour. Ted had mentioned that he would love to see how the Georges De Latour and Hartwell compared.

Sue and I were forced to taste the Georges De Latour vertical and decide which bottle we thought we should bring. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it. We both had different favorites, but compromised on the 2018.

Unfortunately, Carlos and Ling, and Michel and Linda couldn't make it, but we were blessed with the company of the rest of our wine tasting friends.

Sue kept our bellies full with Duck Fat Fries and Fred Steak to name a few standouts.

I debuted my new Fourth of July shirt, that I got on a recent visit to Missouri for our nephew's high school graduation.

Results

E - 2011 Hartwell, Estate, Stags Leap District came in first place with an average of 3.86. Ted and Shannon brought this.

B - 2019 Raymond, Reserve Selection, Napa Valley came in second place with an average of 3.73. Jose and Lili brought this.

D - 2018 BV, Georges De Latour, Napa Valley came in third place with an average of 3.42. Sue and I brought this.

A - 2011 Silver Oak, Anderson Valley came in fourth place with an average of 3.13. Mac and Rebecca brought this.

B - 2006 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, S.L.V., Block 4, Napa Valley came in last place with an average of 2.76. Paul and Jennifer brought this.

It was nice to taste some great cabernets with friends. Many of the cabs were older than I can ever see myself cellaring (they wouldn't last that long).

People brought a lot of nice cabs to share in addition to the wine for the tasting.