Affordable, Expensive Washington Wines Upstage Napa Cab Blind Tasting

What started off as a chance to taste small production 2007 Napa Cabs turned into an intriguing game of "guess which one is from Washington?" at a recent blind tasting. Fellow Boston-area wine blogger Adam Japko (Wine-Zag.com) lined up 6 2007 Cabernet Sauvignons from Napa Valley ranging from $30 to $125 then added a twist: Two of the wines mixed into the lineup were from Washington State.

The Washington vs. California angle wasn't so much the story as the specific wines he chose to throw into the mix: The $125 2007 Quilceda Creek Galatzine Vineyard Cabernet (97 Wine Advocate) and a $10 wine you can find in any supermarket in America: The 2007 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet. The results might surprise you...read on.

The evening started off with a tasting of older Stony Hill Chardonnays: 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1997. These wines weren't my favorites - they were kind of just "there" at best and in one case they took on spirit-like flavors (the 1991). I thought the 1997 was slightly corked. Overall, I was reminded of a recent Tweet from Garagiste: "alcohol never dissipates- fruit does". These wines were at a reasonable 13% - how will wines north of 15% fare in 20 years? Not so well I think.

We tasted the Cabernets in two flights of 4. For whatever reason I liked the wines from the first flight a lot more than the second.

Here are my notes on the wines, ranked in order from what I thought was best to worst: 

2007 Stanton Cabernet Sauvignon
$75/NR

Most tannic of the first flight. A big wine with a delicious Napa Cab flavor profile of blackberries, black currant, and some savory notes. Great now but will get better as the tannins integrate. I guessed this was the Realm for whatever reason but I was mistaken.

This wine was also the crowd favorite.

93/100 WWP: Outstanding 

2007 Quilceda Creek Galatzine Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon (Washington State)
$125/97 Wine Advocate

Herbaceous eucalyptus and bell pepper notes. Powerful with gritty tannins. Long finish.Very high quality, but not my style.

The crowd voted this wine 5th place out of 8 - a surprisingly low showing for a $125 wine rated 97 points.

92/100 WWP: Outstanding


2007 Taken Napa Valley Cabernet
$30/NR

Slightly sweet fruit. Some pleasant coconut aromas. Smooth. Quite nice. Drinking nicely for such a young wine.

90/100 WWP: Outstanding

2007 Mica Napa Valley Cabernet
$75/NR

A delicious and flavorful fruit-forward single-note kind of wine. Is this the Columbia Crest?

No, it wasn't the Columbia Crest - though others thought it might be too.

89/100 WWP: Outstanding

Emerson Brown Napa Valley Cabernet
$50/NR

Closed nose. Awkward, but I can see this one improving with time. Caught some acetone aromas perhaps?

86/100 WWP: Very Good

Ad Vivum Napa Valley Cabernet
$125/89 Wine Advocate

Grippy. Kind of bitter. Very tannic. Hot.

A pretty poor showing for a $125 wine.

84/100 WWP: Good

Realm Farella Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet
$95/91+ Wine Advocate/90 Wine Spectator

Meaty. Smells like a ball park hot dog, and a bit like spoiled produce behind a grocery store. Smoky. Lots of grip. Drying tannins.

Finished 2nd amongst the crowd.

83/100 WWP: Good

2007 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet
$10/89 Wine Spectator

Flat, bitter, rough. Caramel. Smells like a wood shop.

3rd place amongst the crowd which is quite an accomplishment considering it sells for 90% less than the top wines in the tasting and a-third the most affordable wine.

82/100 WWP: Good

Conclusions and Outlook

I'm a big fan of Napa Cab and I've had some good experiences with the vintage so far. But trying to guess which wine was the famous Quilceda Creek and which was the lowly Grand Estates was so much fun - it stole the show!

I was surprised how well the Columbia Crest did with the crowd as well as how little I thought of it personally - I've really enjoyed that wine in prior vintages. The Columbia Crest Grand Estate Cab and Merlot (along with their next-level-up H3 bottling) are my go-to grocery store recommendations. I'm still a fan - just not of this bottle on this night.

It was a treat trying the Quilceda Creek. I've heard so much about their wines, and although I'd never tasted it before I wasn't surprised which it was. The quality was undeniable even if its flavor profile didn't align with what I'm looking for in a domestic Cab.

Almost all of these wines will benefit from bottle age, but it's fun checking out wines when they're more readily available. Stanton, my top pick and the crowd favorite as well, doesn't seem to be widely distributed at retail. Here's a link to their website if you're interested in checking them out.

I was surprised and kind of bummed the Realm didn't show better for me. That was one of the few producers I'd heard of before and I was looking forward to trying it. Others liked it so maybe I was off my game after the intermission. Oh well - I guess I saved myself $95 tasting it instead of buying a bottle.

Adam puts on great tastings - my thanks to him for hosting me and others at this event. He's such a generous, kind, and wide open kind of guy. Definitely check out his wine blog when you have a chance - especially his piece that focuses on the Stony Hill Chardonnays at this tasting.

Question of the Day: Have you had any of these wines? If so what do you think of these results? If not, what are some of your recent discoveries in Napa or Washington Cab?


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Report: Acura press kit causes bomb threat near Automobile magazine offices

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Acura Emblem

Thanks to one very suspicious-looking press kit from Acura, the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan had a bit of a bomb scare on its hands this afternoon. The Japanese automaker sent a special-edition package to our friends at Automobile magazine in conjunction with the release of Thor. That kit happened to find its way into a recycling bin outside of the publication's Michigan office. A stand-up citizen reported what they thought was a bomb, which resulted in the evacuation of parts of downtown.

A helicopter was reportedly called in to provide an eye in the sky for a few hours as well.

We can't blame the authorities for taking action. The Automobile offices are situated directly across the street from a Federal building, and with the ne'er-do-wells of the world plotting revenge for the termination of the nefarious Osama bin Laden, a little caution is more than warranted.

As of the time of writing, everything had returned to normal around the Automobile enclave. For a look at the kit itself, head over to The Car Connection.

Acura press kit causes bomb threat near Automobile magazine offices originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 13 May 2011 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/13/acura-press-kit-causes-bomb-threat-near-automobile-magazi/

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Video: Autocar and the Lamborghini Aventador are slingin' in the rain

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lamborhgini aventador in the rain
Autocar and the Lamborghini Aventador enjoy the wet weather - Click above to watch the video after the jump

We got right up close and personal with the all-new Lamborghini Aventador when our own Matt Davis spent some quality time with the latest raging bull, and the exotic supercar earned itself plenty of high praise. But if our opinion on this newest Lamborghini isn't enough for you, we would like to offer up another point of view. Steve Sutcliffe of Autocar secured some time with the Aventador and, despite the rain, put together an informative video review.

The clip, which you can view after the jump, is filled with wet-weather drifts, insight from Sutcliffe and the other-worldly howl from that 6.5-liter V12 engine. We're going to end it here so you can stop reading and start watching.

Continue reading Autocar and the Lamborghini Aventador are slingin' in the rain

Autocar and the Lamborghini Aventador are slingin' in the rain originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 13 May 2011 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/13/autocar-and-the-lamborghini-aventador-are-slingin-in-the/

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Video: Audi A1 commercial highlights big pieces of a small car

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Audi A1 commercial
Audi A1 commercial is big, yet small - Click above to watch the video after the break

The Audi A1 may be small, but the latest home-market spot for the supermini highlights the car's features in a big way. How big? How about a towering wall of guitar amplifiers that's really an enormous Bose speaker like those you'll find inside the A1? Or a movie screen that's actually the Navigation System display.

We have no explanation why you'd want to jacklight rabbits, as depicted in the commercial, but the A1's HID headlamp clusters carry out the task. Like those rabbits, Audi's going to need to proliferate its vehicles worldwide if it wants to meet its goal of becoming the largest luxury automaker in the world, and the A1 is one of those bunnies.

Whatever the case, you'll definitely want to see it for yourself in the video pasted after the break.

Continue reading Audi A1 commercial highlights big pieces of a small car

Audi A1 commercial highlights big pieces of a small car originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 13 May 2011 20:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/13/audi-a1-commercial-highlights-big-pieces-of-a-small-car/

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A spot of wine relief

If you live in the UK I’m sure you’ve heard of Comic Relief. If you don’t, please forgive the eccentricities of this peculiar little country, but there are times when you just have to do something a little out of the ordinary. Comic Relief is a charity event, based around “Red Nose Day” on March [...]

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Neuville reclaims Corsica lead

Thierry Neuville holds a 15.8-second advantage over Jan Kopecky after five stages of the Tour de Corse, having benefited from main rival Bryan Bouffier picking up a puncture just after taking the lead. Highly-rated Kronos Peugeot driver Neuville established an 8s cushion over the field on yesterday's two stages, but then had a quick spin on today's opener, on which Guy Wilks and Bouffier were first and second fastest, bringing both much closer to the leader.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/3rdparty/neuville-reclaims-corsica-lead/

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