Drumroll please…
The winner of our Spring Giveaway of a $50 Gift Certificate to Golden Gate Wine Cellars is Gordon McCleary (@ASouthernYankee)! Gordon earned his entry by following us on Twitter. Congratulations!!
Thanks to everyone who entered this time around. Good luck next time and remember to Always Drink Good Wine!
(Pay only $79.99 and receive FREE SHIPPING* when you order six or more bottles BEFORE Sunday 5.23.10 – CALL or EMAIL ONLY!)
Only 200 cases of this stunning 
new release were made. I had a bottle open for 3 days and it was still drinking very well after all that time. I was surprised by the low (91) rating Robert Parker gave it, it warranted a much higher score – but who am I to tell? Robert Parker’s review:
“The dense purple-hued 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon exhibits beautiful aromas of scorched earth and black and blue fruits, graceful, medium to full-bodied flavors, high, but sweet tannin, plenty of glycerin, richness, purity, and intensity, and a multilayered mouthfeel. This beauty should hit its peak in 3-4 years, and last for 18-20. Kirk Venge, along with proprietors Don and Ann Huckfeld (also owners of one of the area’s leading water well drilling companies), are the powers behind these impressive Cabernet fashioned from two vineyards, the well-known Thorevilos, co-owned by David Abreu and Ric Forman, and the Huckfeld Ranch. They are primarily Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot included in the blend.”
On a side bar – I tasted this wine against some big names from Napa, and can tell you that Igneous put them to shame! The wines were: Stag’s Leap Cask 23, Hartwell, Niebaum Coppola Rubicon, Caymus Special Selection, Staglin, Quintessa and Phelps Insignia. This was a blind tasting and Igneous came in #1!!!
Make sure to check out this link to see the faces behind Golden Gate Wine Cellars http://www.youtube.com/GoldenGateWineCellar.
Today we will be reviewing a 2008 Modus Operandi Sauvignon Blanc by winemaker Jason Moore. This fabulous wine was poured as the first course wine at President Obama’s first State Dinner, hosting the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.
Sourced from a small vineyard in the Rutherford region of the Napa Valley, the aromas of this complex wine remind me a lot of the Sauvignon Blancs of New Zeland. Fresh and crisp on the palate, Pineapple, Lemon, Lime; Easy drinking with a nice dryness. A very sophisticated wine.
As always, this wine is available on our website.
This Spring has been an exciting one and we have gotten many wonderful new wines from some absolutely outstanding wineries. We have been reviewing several of them on this blog and facebook over the past few months. Take a look and you are certain to find more than a few real gems.
To celebrate we have decided to give away a $50 Gift Certificate to Golden Gate Wine Cellars! Entering to win the Gift Certificate is easy. Just post a response on this blog before midnight on Monday, May 24 and we will enter you for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to the internet’s best source for incredible rare and hard-to-find wines, Golden Gate Wine Cellars. We will put all the entries together and choose a winner at random on Tuesday, May 25th.
Help us get the word out and you can earn Extra Bonus Entries: (Don’t forget to post here to tell us what you did!)
So, there are a lot of ways to enter! Get creative and lets have some fun! The winner will be announced on May 25th!
This stunning vineyard (mostly planted to Pinot Noir) offers up the amazing fruit that went into the 2008 release! On the nose I encountered some tangerine and lemon custard. The wine’s body is round and intense, I would say creamy but assertive with flavors of candied orange and luscious apricots. This wine is totally dry, but very flavorful and not as sweet as my description might portray. 3,456 bottles produced or 288 cases!
On the nose tons of citrus, honeysuckle and a touch of lime. Intensely aromatic with hints of verbena and lemon oil. Good complexity on the mid-palate, with a nice balance of fruit and acid. Very small production.
After much anticipation, our YouTube channel is live and operational. Our first video clip takes you on a brief trip through the Golden Gate Wine Cellars retail location at 2337 Ocean Avenue in San Francisco and some highlights from our March wine tasting event.
Over the next week we will be adding a few more and then making additional updates on an ongoing basis. The channel will be dedicated to wine education and news. Everything from tasting notes for exciting new wines to education on food pairing to the latest news or events in the wine world.
Take a minute to visit our channel at http://www.YouTube.com/GoldenGateWineCellar and become a friend or subscribe.
Clark-Claudon 2005 Estate Cabernet 
– Retail 90.00 – NOW 69.90
Robert Parker 94 Points: “This family-owned vineyard in the northeast mountains of Napa Valley has produced a sensational 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. Its dense ruby/purple hue is followed by a Pauillac-like perfume of spice box, cedar, black currants, and subtle background oak. The wine is full-bodied with sweet but noticeable tannins, and a savory, expansive mouthfeel. Drink this beauty now and
over the next 15-20 years.”
Tasting Notes:
The 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, darker than the most recent vintages, presents with heightened aromas of cassis, violets, fine cedar, & bright black cherries. This medium bodied wine fills front, middle and back pallet with round, complex layers of fruit, spice and fine textured French Oak. To drink now, give this wine a chance to breath or allow it to evolve overtime in your cellar; well balanced, elegant and perfectly integrated, it leaves a long signature finish of roasted chocolate; Yes, 2005 was a very good year! Drink now-2025.
Blue Rock 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley – Retail 50.00 – GGWC 34.99
A full bodied wine, with lots of intensity, this Cabernet is elegantly and solidly proportioned with aromatic notes of rose petal, black currant, and well integrated vanilla. Rich and silky on the palate. This small production winery has been well-received among our clients for many years now!
Blue Rock special pricing of 34.99 is only available in a solid case purchase and only when you call in your order at 415.337.4083! Order A full case of Blue Rock and receive FREE SHIPPING (offer on this wine only – same address only)
11th Annual Whiskeys of the World and Artisanal Spirits Fest
Saturday, March 27, 2010 6-10 PM
The Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason Street, San Francisco, CA
The Whiskeys of the World Expo gathers the world’s most fascinating distilled spirits along with their makers and ambassadors to give guests an opportunity to sample, learn, and experience a night of delicious spirited fun.
After 10 years in San Francisco, the expo is adding new and exciting details to the evening and making sure this is the event of the year! Come to enjoy a full buffet dinner; meeting and learning from the worlds spirits producers, creators, and experts. Enjoy a live Pipe and Drum concert, mixology demonstrations, Celtic craft and whiskey gear booths, artisanal food pairings with exclusive whiskeys, live music, and more.
Learn, Celebrate, Experience!
Get tickets to the event using an exclusive discount code for Golden Gate Wine Cellars fans.
Enter the code: DDC8P on the checkout page for an 8% discount on tickets and Dram Club Memberships.
For those of you who bought the 
2006 vintage (and loved it – it received BIG PRESS!), the 2007 is even better — Really! This release is a blend of 44% Zinfandel, 35% Syrah and 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, hand-sourced from some of Napa’s best vineyard sites.
The nose offers up an intense aroma of ripe black currant and plum with a touch of chocolate and pepper spice. The wine is full in body loaded with bright boysenberry/black currant and dark chocolate flavors. This wine is silky on the mid palate and finishes with a whiff of fine integrated tannins. Only 700 cases were produced, so this will (again) go very fast.
Retail 34.00 – GGWC 29.99
Ted Lemon (Littorai etal), does it
again with this stellar Pinot Noir sourced from three Sonoma Coast vineyards. Only 495 cases of this little gem were produced.
Chronicle’s Sonoma Coast Pinot shows hints of spice and sandalwood with pronounced notes of strawberry and Bing cherry. This medium to full-bodied wine offers up a dose of almost sweet cherries and strawberries. The wine is elegant and drinks amazingly well. It is structured and balanced, and finishes will silky and lively tannins.
Ace winemaker Ted Lemon 
(Littorai) produced 240 cases of this amazing Pinot Noir! Cerise is a low-yielding property in the Anderson Valley at 800 – 1200 feet elevation. Those familiar with Ted’s winemaking and for that matter Cerise vineyard, know that he is “the” Pinot man!
This wine aroma offers of a touch of barnyard with hints of black and raspberry. On the palate this medium to full bodied Pinot offers similar flavors. Well-structured and with good concentration (good balance of fruit and acid!), this wine has a modest tannic finish that will enable you to store this wine and enjoy it for many years to come!
The 2006 DK Clajeux Cabernet Sauvignon 
features a dense purple hue, and intense aroma of chocolate and black currant and sweet cherries. The wine is full in body, loaded with concentrated, yet very elegant fruit and the right touch of balanced acidity. Bright black stone fruit dominates the mid-palate. This wine drinks well after decanting, but could use a few years in the cellar. LIMITED AVAILABILITY!
Ehren Jordan (Failla/Turley) did it again. This Sonoma Coast is a blend of 70% Hirsch and 30% Keefer vineyard fruit. 
Those familiar with these two vineyards will know that they produce stellar fruit. Hirsch is at 1500 feet elevation on a rugged ridge close to the Pacific Ocean and Keefer Ranch is in Green Valley, a cool appellation. Both of these great cool-climate sources add distinctive components. The wine is intensely aromatic. One encounters wild raspberries, Bing cherries and a touch of Chinese black tea on both the nose and palate. This wine is full in body, without being big and bold. The wine is elegant, well-balanced and structured with great finesse from start to finish. Only 500 cases of this excellent wine were produced.
Winemaker Ehren Jordan (Failla/Turley) produced 
a stellar wine from this cool climate vineyard in the Anderson Valley. Only 500 cases were produced, so it will not be around for a long time. This wine has intensity written all over it. Aroma, Color, Flavor, Body and Finish! The wine is lush with nice aromas and flavors of Gravenstein apples, lemon curd and Anjou pears as well as touch of toasty vanilla and a whiff of “Burgundian” (read terroir) minerality.
Pretty, brilliant garnet color and aromas of dark
ripe cherries and berries fill the glass along with smoky, toasty layers of spices, black tea, sandalwood and cedar. On the palate, the entry is round and rich and the fruit flavors flirt back and forth between red pie cherries and black raspberries alongside earthy qualities and forest duff. The texture builds from the beginning to a round, mouth coating middle with a long persistent finish. Over time, the flavors continue to evolve on the palate with black licorice and savory, spiced meats.
This wine is sourced from the To-Kalon Beckstoffer and Stagecoach vineyards in the Napa Valley. Excellent focus, balance, purity and precision are combined with an expansive perfume of liqueur de cassis, chocolate, licorice, grilled red peppers and spice. This juicy, complex, dark wine reveals chewy silky tannins and fine acidity giving structure and delineation to the beautiful fruit. Only 350 cases produced!
Retail 115.00 – GGWC 75.99
This might be the next “hot, hard-to-find” winery you will be reading about in Parker, Spectator, or Tanzer’s publications! I met James Moss just recently, but feel that I have known him for years. This was a real find, a real gem! The Spicer vineyard is located the in the heart of the Stag’s Leap District. Only 150 cases of this wine were produced! The wine has black berry flavors that dominate this full-bodied release. An elegant and silky entry precedes a toasty, rich chocolate, hint of spice and dark fruit finish. This remarkably complex Cabernet shows a long finish with many layers and depth. Nice tannins make for a wine that can be drunk (decant!) now or cellared for a good ten years!
I attended the 14th Premiere Napa Valley this past weekend and purchased some great auction lots! Soon, some of these new finds will show up on our website and in emails to you.
I visited with some new wineries, Ashe (their upcoming Cabernet release is stunning). Winemaker is Philippe Melka, who does not need any intro. I purchased lots from Cornerstone (Howell Mountain) Cabernet, Larkin (Pritchard Hill – same source as Bryant Family, Chappellet, etc.), and of the Boeschen lot.
The greatest find was Boeschen winery. I was blown away by this little gem. I should have their 2007 Cabernet in stock by the end of March, the wine is stunning!
As for the Auction, there were 200 lots (I tasted about 80 of them over a three day period). I was very impressed with the quality (all of them 2008 vintage), and had my bidding paddle up many times. For those of you who would be interested next year to have me bid on certain lots, please get in touch ASAP.
Most lots are 5 cases, which are exclusively produced for this auction. They are labeled with a private label as well! It would be great to have 5 people combine in a purchase so you get something very limited.
I had a few of my clients take me up on this offer, and soon they will be in possession of some one-of-a-kind Cabernets from Premiere Napa Valley 2010!