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TASTING
NOTES,
Winter 2006
What Robert Parker, Wine Advocate has to say about Ahlgren Wines, Click HERE
2004 AHLGREN Semillon
Livermore
Valley
Ahlgren Semillon continues to find
favor as the versatile white wine enjoyable as an apparatif before
meals, and also with shellfish, curries, spicy Asian food, and so on. It
is hard to imagine a better wine/food match than Ahlgren Semillon with
oysters or Dungeness crab, two of our special favorites.
Many have never even heard of
Semillon, even though it is ranked as one of the five noble grapes of
France, and is reputed to be the most planted variety there. It forms
the base wine for the great wines of Sauternes and is the premier white
wine of Bordeaux.
Although Semillon is sometimes
thought of, and made, as a sweet wine, at Ahlgren it is fermented to
dryness in barrels, and then aged on the lees, developing its complex,
distinguishing character. The lees are what falls to the bottom of the
barrel when the yeast has completed its work. The French call aging on
the lees, aging sur lees, and
the we use this method for both of our whites, Semillon and Chardonnay.
When the aging is complete, the wine is gently pumped from the barrel
and prepared for bottling, leaving the lees behind.
There are those who tell us they neither like nor drink white
wines, except that they do like Ahlgren Semillon. We think it is the
complexity and character of our Semillon that appeals to palates that
might otherwise favor the reds.
This particular vintage has given us a wine with a bright, flowery
bouquet and classic Semillon flavors with a hint of pear. It is crisp,
dry, complex, balanced and mouth filling. It can stand alone as a wine
to sip, and yet joins with food in a way that truly enhances the meal.
And remember, Semillon ages beautifully for many years. Serve lightly
chilled. This 2004 is currently released only to the Wine Club. Barrel
fermented. Aged on the lees. Unfiltered. 181 cases produced.
2003
AHLGREN Pinot Noir
Santa Cruz Mountains
The last Wine Club shipment brought you the 2004
Ahlgren Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains. Now, here comes the 2003! What
gives? Well, we just thought it would be interesting to show you this
wine with an extra year of bottle age. Again, this is a very limited
production, essentially reserved for Wine Club Members.
Typical of Ahlgren Pinots, you will find that
they respond enthusiastically, if a wine can possibly show enthusiasm,
when decanted and given air.
Fragrant, rich floral bouquet. Violets? Dark in
color with deep Pinot flavors. Mouth filling. Elegant and balanced. Aged
in French oak barrels.
Unfined and unfiltered. A mere 46 cases produced.
2003 AHLGREN Cabernet Sauvignon
Santa
Cruz Mountains, Bates’ Ranch
The Ahlgren Santa Cruz Mountains, Bates’ Ranch Cabernet continues to
impress. The 2003 is reminiscent of the 2001 and 2002, but somewhat
richer, deeper, a bit more intense and definitely delicious. The only
problem the Ahlgrens have with this wine is keeping it in stock.
274cases produced.
OLD
NEWS!
We have recently celebrated a significant family birthday, and as part
of the festivities, not all in one sitting, we opened some older wines.
Here is our report:
1976
Ahlgren, Chardonnay, Ventana Vineyards:
The fill was very low, down about two inches and the cork was wet and
just slid out. The wine still had good color, but the flavor was not
terrific.
1977 Ahlgren, Chardonnay, Ventana Vineyards:
Fill about
as low as that of the ’76, color just fine, flavors delicious!!. This
may have been the last bottle. We will be searching for another. With
the fills this low, there is no sense in keeping them any longer. Thirty
years for a Chardonnay? Amazing!
1979 Ahlgren Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Rutherford,
Adamson/ Tupper Vineyard:
This vineyard was
once a favorite of ours. At one point, we were advised that Joe Heitz
told the owner he would no longer buy any of the grapes unless he got
them all, so Ahlgren was cut out. Sometime later, the vineyard was sold
to El Molino, and we are told the vines were pulled and replaced with
Pinot Noir. A sad act, we would say.
Anyway, ’79 was not a vintage we liked much at the time. The grapes did
not reach the full maturity we really wanted, and the alcohol was only
12.3%, a little light for a Napa Cab. The label description says,
“…elegant … claret style, reflecting the character of the vintage…”
Well, the wine has outgrown its somewhat wimpy beginnings and is full
and deeply flavored. A very pleasant surprise. The cork did not
cooperate and pretty much crumbled, the wine was just lovely.
1978 Ahlgren, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford,
Adamson/Tupper Vineyard.
This wine was terrific as well. It has a luminous history, winning a
series of tastings of sixty four California Cabernets conducted back
East over a number of weeks in flights of eight wines. It then went on
to a wine tasting of the top eight of the original sixty four Cal wines
with eight French Bordeaux of similar prices. The dollar was very high
then, and the French selections included such names as Beychevelle, and
Leoville-Las-Cases. Ahlgren won over all the French and over the other
seven California Cabs as well, which included: William Hill, Cakebread,
Shafer. The magic of this tasting was that Terry Robards had been
invited. He was then the wine writer for the New York Times, and he
wrote up the tasting. (We are enclosing a copy of the article.)
1978, Ahlgren Zinfandel, Livermore:
We were impressed
that a Zin would hold up so well. It was delicious, good color, much
enjoyed.
We have more of the ’76 Chardonnay, each bottle of which has a low
fill, as did the one we tasted and commented on above. So, we will just
have to open them and check them out. There are also older Bates’ to be
tasted. Work, work, work!!
Courtney
Cochran
Founder & Principal
Your Personal
Sommelier TM
To Each His Rhone
 This
past Tuesday I had the pleasure of tasting a number of
excellent wines
at the Santa Cruz
Mountains Winegrowers Association trade
tasting in downtown San Francisco (subtitled, rather cutely,
"Santa Cruz Mountains Wines Are Coming to San Francisco"). I
particularly enjoyed the region's
Chardonnays,
although there were some standout Pinot Noirs and a Syrah to
boot.
 My
absolute favorite people at the tasting were Dexter and Val
Ahlgren of Ahlgren
Vineyard, whose
2001 Ventana Syrah
had black pepper and salami aromas bang-on typical of a
Syrah from the Northern
Rhone, the
varietal's ancestral home in the south of France. It's so
rare to find a California-grown Syrah that so truly fits the
varietal's profile,
and I couldn't have been more tickled to find it in my
glass. As I enjoyed the Ventana I thought to myself,
"the Ahlgrens are alright."
Retails for about $24/bottle.
The
winemakers generally forego
filtration and
follow a very hands-off winemaking philosophy, which I'm
sure is much to the credit of this
fabulous wine.
What's more, the Ahlgrens are sweet, dedicated winemakers
whose flair for enjoying life was all to obvious. Val and I
kibbitzed
about their upcoming trip to France (they'll be visiting
most of the country's fab wine regions during a
month-long trip!)
and I've since been corresponding with them via email.
"Government
warning:
(1) according to the surgeon general, women should not drink alcoholic beverages
during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. (2) consumption of
alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery,
and may cause health problems.
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This
past Tuesday I had the pleasure of tasting a number of
excellent wines
at the Santa Cruz
Mountains Winegrowers Association trade
tasting in downtown San Francisco (subtitled, rather cutely,
"Santa Cruz Mountains Wines Are Coming to San Francisco"). I
particularly enjoyed the region's
Chardonnays,
although there were some standout Pinot Noirs and a Syrah to
boot.
My
absolute favorite people at the tasting were Dexter and Val
Ahlgren of Ahlgren
Vineyard, whose
2001 Ventana Syrah
had black pepper and salami aromas bang-on typical of a
Syrah from the Northern
Rhone, the
varietal's ancestral home in the south of France. It's so
rare to find a California-grown Syrah that so truly fits the
varietal's profile,
and I couldn't have been more tickled to find it in my
glass. As I enjoyed the Ventana I thought to myself,
"the Ahlgrens are alright."
Retails for about $24/bottle.