Hosts: David & Diane Gandara
Napa
The May tasting revisited 2016 Bordeaux (from our previous tasting) and compared these wines with 2016 Napa Valley Cabernet. As expected, the wines were spectacular and the Napa wines outshined their Bordeaux competitors. However, in all fairness, the Napa wines were considerably more expensive.
It was also a cheese tasting. No voting, but they were also superb.
2016 was an excellent year in both Napa and in Bordeaux, where 2016 has been described as the “second coming of Bordeaux” because it was both a quite warm year and also to reflect the gradual warming of the Bordeaux region due to climate change. The result is that Bordeaux in 2016 is the most “California-like” in history, especially right bank wines. Conversely, in Napa wine makers have continued to refine and re-define their goals for Cabernet and Cabernet-based blends, resulting in wines that are more “Bordeaux-like”.
The wines for this tasting were hand-picked to reflect this convergence and included mother-daughter Heidi Barrett winemaker selections, the “most French” of the new age Napa winemakers and iconic vineyards such as To-Kalon, dubbed “Napa’s first growth vineyard”.
Many thanks to David and Diane for a great tasting and introducing us to these wines.
Ranking:
| Rank | Points | Wine | District | Price | Btl |
| 1 | 81 | Stag’s Leap SLV RP94-97, JS95, WE94 (discounted price) | Stags Leap | $140 | 1 |
| 2 | 82 | Mondavi Res To Kalon RP96, JS96, JD96, WS93 (discounted price) | Oakville | $140 | 8 |
| 3 | 84 | Paradigm (Winemaker Heidi Barrett) JD90 | Oakville | $85 | 6 |
| 4 | 103 | Ch. Fleur Cardinale JS94, JD95, RP93, D92 | St Emilion | $50 | 5 |
| 5 | 110 | Seavey Caravina JD94, V93 | Rutherford | $105 | 4 |
| 6 | 112 | Ch. Sansonnet V96, JD96, JS95, RP94+ | St Emilion | $42 | 3 |
| 7 | 119 | Ch Leoville Barton JS97, WS97, JD95, RP95 | St Julien | $159 | 2 |
| 8 | 137 | Ch Branaire-Ducru WS96, JS95, RP94, D94 (discounted price) | St Julien | $68 | 7 |
Pretasting Wines
| Materra “Right Bank” (Napa, winemaker Chelsea Barrett) | NA | $50 |
| Handwritten (Mt. Veeder, discounted price) | NA | $110 |
| Ch. Barde-Haut (St. Emilion) | JS94, JD94, V94, RP93 | $45 |
| Chateau Labegorce (Margaux) | JS95, JD94, RP93+, D93 | $40 |
Individual Votes:
| Rank | 1 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
| Total Points | 81 | 119 | 112 | 110 | 103 | 84 | 137 | 82 |
| Your Name | Btl1 | Btl2 | Btl3 | Btl4 | Btl5 | Btl6 | Btl 7 | Btl8 |
| Jim | 5 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Bob | 2 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 1 |
| Karen C | 1 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 5 |
| Sandy | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 1 |
| Marjie S | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
| Diane K | 1 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
| Vince | 1 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Steve Shank | 4 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 2 |
| Laura Wilson | 3 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 2 |
| Betty Hood-Gibson | 7 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
| Sue Beyer | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 7 |
| David Gibson | 6 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| David Gandara | 3 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 4 |
| Mahatma Ghandi | 6 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Suzi mills | 3 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Bette Felton | 4 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 3 |
| Diane G | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| David Hartford | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 8 |
| John Henry | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 7 |
| Lisa | 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| Richard M | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| Steve Smith | 8 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Rick | 4 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
Cellar Society of San Francisco 