History.

One word: History.  Groth Vineyards & Winery made Napa Valley history when their 1985 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon received the first 100 point score (for a domestic wine) from wine critic Robert Parker Jr.  There is only ever one first time for anything, just one.  The first perfect score is a great history to have and Groth owns it.  In reading histories of the Napa Valley, it bothers me when I read articles about some or other bog-standard Napa Valley winery and the way in which said winery has helped shape the valley that both locals and visitors see today.  Groth is never mentioned.  (In the same way it irks me when a German, Charles Krug, is credited with producing the first commercial wine in Napa, when historical documents quite clearly show it was an Englishman, John Patchett.)  I always believe credit should be given where it is due.
Groth also have a history of making varietal wines that taste like what the label purports to be in the bottle: 38 years of that particular accomplishment to be exact.  (One would think that was a simple ask, but not every Napa Valley winery can claim that feat.)  Personally, my favourite Groth wine will always be any vintage of their Oakville Estate Cabernet Sauvignon  The Oakville is my go-to cab when I want to drink something that truly tastes like a cab.
Groth most recently proved that they are not the new-kids-on-the-winemaking-block when it comes to producing wonderful Cabernet sauvignon.  Groth's 2016 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was named no. 4 in Wine Spectator's top 100 wines of 2019 (an international list).
So what's the wine like?  Gorgeous.  The nose, redolent with blackcurrant, black cherry, lavender and mint is everything one would want in an Oakville AVA Cabernet sauvignon.  The mouth has more black fruit, red current, raspberry, elegant tannin structure and perfect acid (that is on point, like the acid in cranberries).  Those peeps at Groth know a thing or two about making a winning red wine...again, and again, and again.
Groth is history.

Wine games.

With a particular bottle of wine in mind, I headed into Vinoland's wine cellar for a look-see.  Yikes!  I didn't realise that there is so much crappy, old wine in there.  There's a lot of good stuff, but there is a fair percentage of wine that needs to disappear - down the toilet if necessary.  Then, I had a thought.  I should select a bottle a week, taste the wine and post about it even if the wine is awful and undrinkable.
I remembered that I like doing series/themes of posts.  Amongst some in the past, there have been; Winery Christmas Lights (WCL), Napa Valley's American Viticultural Area Signs (AVA Sign), Wines of the World (WOTW) and, Thud's personal favourite, Week of Weeds (WOW).  Titter, Titter.  (To see all posts related to these series, click on respective labels below.)
As my search continued, dodging cobwebs (some with spiders in them), stubbing my toes on cases and almost triggering a small avalance of teetering bottles, I had fun trying to recall the provenance of individual bottles I espied.  Where did I buy this bottle?  Was it a gift?  Have I been to this winery?  Memories, mental images and single words popped into my head like a game of word association.  Or rather, in this instance, wine word association (WWA).  A ha!  A new idea for yet another (short) series formed in my mind.  One wine, one word.  I grabbed five random (local) wines with which to start.
Never did find the original bottle of wine that I was looking for.
Stay tuned.

October 1982.

I recently got to partake in the tasting of a 1982 Groth Cabernet Sauvignon.  And it was stupendous, probably one of the nicest wines I have ever tasted.  Stunning, really stunning.
In October of 1982, the young Vinogirl had just started college: the vineyard workers at Groth had just started to harvest the Cabernet sauvignon grapes that went into this wine.  Hard to believe that what I was drinking was a 36 year old vintage.  Whilst I got a lovely, crazily nuanced strawberry jam vibe from the '82 (acid was sublime), the tablemate, to my right, got plum jam.  The tablemate to my left wouldn't stop drinking long enough to comment - can't say I blame him.
It is fitting that I post about Cabernet Sauvignon this evening, as I started to prune Vinoland's Cabernet vines today.  It's a little distressing to me that I am only just getting started, I usually set myself a goal of being finished with pruning by the 22nd of March.  That is not going to be the case this year.  However, I must keep calm and prune on.  Panic!

Vicennium.

I attended a retirement luncheon today and although it was a happy occasion - the celebration of a job well done for 37 years - it did, however, cause me to pause and reflect on a few things.  Things like, let's see, the passage of time, the comings and goings in life of friends and family, and the fact that nothing stays the same forever.  Including wine.
A score of years has passed between the vintages that produced these two wines: Groth Vineyards & Winery's 1996 and 2016 Chardonnay, Napa Valley AVA.  (Of course, if I had one bottle to represent each year in this particular span of time I'd have 21 bottles of wine.  Two will do.)  Drinking these two wines, side by side, just seemed fitting considering my mood.
The 1996 was still a beautiful wine, golden in colour with a honeyed-apricot jam thing on the nose.  (I'm thinking the 1996 will be good for a couple more years, at least.)  I just wish it had been a tad more crisp.
The 2016, however, was very crisp and vibrant with a lovely apple-limey-pineapple mouth-filling complexity.  Chardonnay is not my favourite wine varietal, but when it is done well it can be quite fascinating.  Although not fascinating enough to get in the way of my navel-gazing.

Shake it off.

Today marks the 4th anniversary of the 6.0 earthquake that shook the Napa Valley to its core.  I'm still mourning the loss of the magnum of Havens, 2001 Syrah that I had been saving for a special dinner with friends.  I know Vinoland was lucky to get away with very little damage, just three bottles of wine in total broke, but still I find myself almost shedding a tear over spilt wine.  Sigh.

Jefferson's Reserve.

I am always on the lookout for something unusual in the bourbon-department to buy for Thud.  I think this particular bottle of Jefferson's Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey fits the bill.
Jefferson's Reserve specialise in small, one-off batches of bourbon whiskey, or "very uncommon" and "ridiculously small batches" as the distillery likes to put it.  This particular small batch was finished off in retired French oak barrels that once held Groth Vineyards & Winery Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  I thought this would be a fun bourbon for him to try because of Thud's, and the bourbon's, connection to the Napa Valley.
I hope he likes it.

I love Groth!

I blame it all on my sister, La Serenissima.  She had played a little bit of tennis back in grammar school (with nuns, in habits), but come British summertime she'd be glued to the telly for the entire fortnight of Wimbledon.  I mean, nonstop.  And being 10 years younger, what was a little Vinogirl to do?  La Serenissima soon had me hooked. Nowadays, if I am not watching the news, or something English on PBS, I am watching tennis. Only now, I get to blame my fondness for the game on Vinomaker, who does actually play tennis 3 or 4 times a week.
I tried learning to play tennis a few years ago (a funny story in itself), but I wasn't very good, as, alas, most English people aren't.  So, in lieu of having countrymen and women to cheer on, I gravitated towards the Australian players who were all just so good at chasing that little white ball - I'm showing my age - around the court.
Tennis is hard, really hard, and that's why I appreciate a player like Sam Groth, a current Australian player on the ATP tour.  Sam has the distinction of having the fastest serve on record (that's serve, actually getting the ball in play), which was clocked at an incredible 163.4 mph.
I love tennis.  And I have it on good authority that Sam is, "a big wine fan."
Go Grothy!
Photograph courtesy of Samuel Groth, professional tennis player.

Pluviophile, I am not.

I am not ombrophobic, nor am I pluviophobic. No, I am not afraid of rain, I just dislike rain intensely.  So I have decided that I am most definitely a heliophile.  What is there not to love about going outside, anytime time one wishes, and staying dry?  Not much, for me anyway.
My drive home from TWWIAGE on Tuesday evening was an interesting one - not fun, but certainly an experience.  Nearly every other winery in the Napa Valley had closed early due to a major rain storm so, consequently, traffic was light, but it was dark and very, very wet. Come daylight, and on my commute to work yesterday morning, I could see that most valley-floor vineyards were under water.  This photograph, of a rather waterlogged Groth Vineyards & Winery, was not an uncommon sight as I made my way across the valley.
Napa is officially at 171% of normal rainfall for the season: I think we've had enough.  I know I certainly have.

Gratitude and gladness.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Even though Thanksgiving is not an English holiday I think it is good to have a day when all of us count our blessings be they big, or small.  I am thankful for family, friends, good health, a roof over my head and a full tummy.  And, last but not least, Vinodog 2.  (I just love her to death).
Vinomaker is currently enjoying a chilled glass of 2014, Groth Chardonnay (Napa Valley AVA). Of course he is.  I haven't decided what I am going to quaff today, but I have a pretty good idea that it is going to be sparkling.
Let's get this holiday season started!

One man's meat.

There has been a lot of dithering on wine blogs lately about the merits of the 100 point scoring system for reviewing wine.  Love it or hate it, the 100 point scale is, unfortunately, here to stay.
It is perhaps inherent in human nature for some, but not all, individuals to try to convince the rest of us that they alone know what is best.  This trait is seemingly amplified within certain wine reviewers (with overly inflated opinions of their individual sense of taste, bordering on fanaticism) who feel the need to tell others what is good to drink. Personally, I only trust my own buds to tell me if I am enjoying what is in my glass and I can draw my own conclusion as to whether a specific wine is merely a pleasant tipple, a stupendously mind-blowing experience, or rather something to be avoided like the plague.  After all, aren’t my taste buds a survival mechanism that will send, tout de suite, a quick message to my digestive system to warn me that I am about to swallow something that might not be advantageous to my well-being?  Nobody else can make this decision for me.  Hemlock, anyone?
The fixation with the 100 point system began for some in California (more specifically Napa) on a singularly auspicious day, more than two decades ago, when a certain Robert Parker Jr. bestowed upon one wine, the Groth 1985 Reserve Cabernet sauvignon, the, perhaps now dubious, honour of being the very first American recipient of his preposterously grandiose perfect score. To be delivered into the annals of wine history by such magnificent taste buds was surely a tremendous privilege for Groth Vineyards & Winery.  One can only imagine that being thus catapulted into the realm of enological-infamy was a bit of a shock for the unassuming Groth family who (like other wine producers in the still, relatively sleepy Napa Valley of the 1980s) were simply trying to produce the best wine possible from their little slice of Eden.  But, Parker interfered and things in the wine-reviewing game have never been the same since, or in the wine industry for that matter. It now seems that some wineries are obsessed with trying to manipulate their product into something that may please one particular critic’s palate. Cha-ching!
One could ask what exactly is being scored anyway?  A particularly extraordinary vineyard/terroir? Mother Nature’s beneficence in the deliverance of an ideal growing season?  The green-fingered expertise of the viticulturalist?  The alchemical-prowess of the winemaker?  The bankrolling ability of the proprietor? Of course there is no simple answer, wine is far too complex to pigeonhole.  Just as the 100 point scoring system is, in some perverse way, far too simplistic - but it is always subjective.
Recently I got to taste the Groth 2005 Reserve Cabernet sauvignon. Some twenty vintages later, this is a wine worthy of reviewing.  This is not a typical over-blown Napa Cabernet; instead it is a restrained, but intricately layered interpretation of a much revered wine varietal.  I have no idea what score Mr. Parker bequeathed upon this particular vintage, and I’m not even going to look it up, I simply don’t care – and I wish more people didn’t care.  A little while back I was speaking to a stranger about wine scores and mused aloud that surely no one took these scores too seriously, only to be berated and told, in no uncertain terms, that "some people need to be told what to drink".  What?  Did this lemming really utter those words? Unfortunately, it seems that there are more people out there than one might imagine who cannot make the most basic of choices for themselves.
Of course, this is coming from little old me who, as a self-confessed contrarian, hardly ever agrees with film reviews, never even reads book reviews, so, therefore, is not likely to take a blind bit of notice of a wine review in which someone else feels the need to tell me that what they are tasting is more valid than my own perception.
Ho hum!

Happy Halloween.

Nothing says Halloween in these parts like a late harvest Sauvignon blanc, spicy pumpkin and cream cheese muffins...and a few spooky plastic Halloween rings.
Happy Halloween.

Winery Christmas Lights 3.

In comparison to my last post, the lights at this winery are positively understated, but very tasteful. Tucked away on the Oakville Crossroad I nearly missed this staid display of electric merriment. The Groth winery is stylised California mission, based on the architectural impact the Roman Catholic church had on early 'Alta California'.
Over a period of 54 years, beginning with Mission San Diego, established in 1769, 21 missions were established by the Spanish stretching 650 miles along the 'El Camino Real'.  All were established near the coast and were designed to be one days walk apart.
Franciscan monk Junípero Serra is generally credited with planting the first grapes for wine production in California at Mission San Diego. Father Serra's grapevines, of uncertain genetic heritage, had originally been introduced from Spain to Mexico. The original European strain having been lost, the grapes were simply called Mission grapes since the Catholic missions were where they were generally grown.
The final mission at Sonoma, in the Sonoma Valley, has proved to be an ideal location for grape production; fertile soil, maritime fog, and a mild and sunny climate.  And over the hill, here in Napa, Vinogirl is enjoying a glass of wine and her own Christmas lights.

Return.

Last Saturday afternoon, as you may recall, I toiled away in the vineyard ensuring Vinomaker a supply of raw materials for future vintages.  I spent today enjoying the fruits of somebody else's labour.  A premium up valley winery released a much anticipated Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon after an absence of 5 years.  It was worth the wait. Complex, layered, luscious and bold, without being overbearing like so many other Napa Cabs, the Groth 2005 is a treat for your tongue.
Reserve wines are not regulated by any governing body, unlike most things in the wine industry, and quite honestly some wineries just cheat.  Michael Weis and his staff have produced a wonderful tipple and have gone above and beyond to create something which is quite extraordinary.  Obviously just one technique of theirs, gravity-flow racking, results in a very cherry, and Vinogirl merry, libation.