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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

Thursday, February 02, 2006

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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