Cinnabar Winery
A barrel tasting is always fun. All of the sudden a wine
tasting becomes a circus or a carnival, in the good sense of the word. The people
are a little more excited, the tasting routine is a little different, it
becomes an event. The other part of barrel tasting that is so much fun is that
it lifts the vail a little on what an art form wine making is. How at every
step you need to understand what you have, and what you can do to make it
better. From the soil, to the grape, to the process, to the barrel, and to the
bottle, how are you making something good, better. That is true wine making. I
just went to a barrel tasting at Cinnabar Winery in Saratoga California. They
had two wines in barrel for tasting, one Chardonnay, and one Cabernet Sauvignon,
and both were amazing.
Chardonnay
Let’s talk about the Chardonnay first. I’ll follow the
tasting order. One of the things I really liked about the tasting is that they
mixed the in barrel wines into the normal tasting cycle. It helped to compare
the barrel wines in their unfinished states to the wines, minus a year or so vintage,
they will become. So what was in barrel number one? It was a 2015 Chardonnay
from the Santa Cruz Mountains. The grapes were sourced from two different vineyards,
one in Scotts Valley, the other in Los Gatos. The two different locations,
while fairly close to each other, they have some very unique qualities that add
to this wine.
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| Santa Cruz Chardonnay barrel tasting |
My first impressions when seeing the wine was to notice the cloudiness
of the wine in the glass. Alejandro Aldama, Cellar Master and head of Grower
Relations for Cinnabar, explained why. He stated that what we were seeing was
the lees that have been stirred up while the barrels were moved. Lees are the
sediments in the wine that come from 2 different sources. The first are the dead
yeast cells, the other is from the grapes themselves. Yeast lees and grape
lees. While I’ll save the in depth scientific winery alchemy for another time,
the reason they are there is to do a couple of things. As both the grape lees
and the yeast lees breakdown, they reduce the tannins (good for white wines)
and add different flavors and aromas to the wine, which adds complexity. In a
word, yum.
The next impression was related to the temperature of the
wine as I held it. White wines are served cold, this was cellar temperature. It
wasn’t a negative thing, but it did come into play for both of the next two
tasting steps, breathing in the aromas, and actually tasting the wine. My point
here is don’t let this effect your judgement, but understand it will affect
smell and taste.
Ahhh, the aroma. This enjoyed more than a typical white wine
due to the earthy, nutty aromas due to the lees and the higher tannins. This
wine will sit another 8 months or so in barrel which will allow more of the
tannins to be neutralized before bottling. Good for a real Chardonnay fan, and
this bodes well for this vintage.
Taste. Remember when I mentioned the temperature? I was
expecting that cold crisp pop on my tongue. It wasn’t there, because the wine
was cellar temperature. Take 2. The next sip was very different due to my
adjusted expectations. Now I could taste the buttery flavors from both the new
French oak, as well as the work the lees have been doing. Over those flavors
rode the fantastic fruit flavors one expects in a Chardonnay. I really look
forward to tasting this again in just under a year from a nice cold bottle.
To summarize, this is going to be a fantastic wine.
Cabernet Sauvignon
Now we can talk about my favorite, I know, I have a red varietal
bias. I try not to let it show too much. No who am I kidding, I love Reds and I
cannot lie. When the thief, that’s the little tube to take wine out of a barrel,
entered the barrel of the Cabernet Sauvignon I started to get excited. The opportunity
to taste something new, raw, and fresh is a treat. This 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon
is from Bock Vineyards in the Alexander Valley in Sonoma County AVA, and
displays everything this area promises.
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| Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon |
First Impressions, after I calmed my excitement, was the
color. Deep purple, vibrant color that just promised a deep rich flavor.
Something else that I noticed was the head, or bubbles, on the surface of the
wine in the glass. This is due to several different factors. First, just the
action of the wine flowing from the thief to the glass will cause some bubbles.
Second, if you look at the thief as it comes out of the barrel you will notice
bubbles at the top of the wine, this is due to the fermentation that is still
going on in the barrel. Third, I believe that the wine right out of the barrel
is just thicker, more dense, which also allows this.
My next impression is the aroma. I could smell it before I
got it close to my nose. I could also smell the oak from the outside of the
barrel that only seemed to add to the experience. Putting my nose directly into
the glass, I was able to block some of these outside influences, and I was not disappointed.
If anything the more condensed aromas just kept getting better. There was still
the oak, but it was now not the raw oak of the outside of the barrel, but the
toasted oak of the inside of the barrel. The wood smells continued with some cedar
cigar box aromas that just lingered. The deep fruit aromas made it seemed I had
already taken a taste. I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to taste.
Now the taste. Wow. I could put a tap in this barrel and be
done, right now. Great deep dark blackberry flavors you would expect from an
Alexander Valley Cab, mixed with the vanilla oaky flavors that mirrored what I got
on the nose. Great mouth feel that covered my mouth without clinging. I’ll be
sad to see this wine go back to the cellar till it’s time to bottle, yet I’ll
be so happy when it comes back.
I don’t think I have to summarize the thoughts for you as I
left them all out there for you. Let me just say this is a wine to watch, at
100 percent Cab and not even finished yet it is amazing, one can only imagine
what it will be with a little more age and a little more wine making magic.
