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Wine (alt.food.wine) Devoted to the discussion of wine and wine-related topics. A place to read and comment about wines, wine and food matching, storage systems, wine paraphernalia, etc. In general, any topic related to wine is valid fodder for the group. |
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TN: Old Heitz reach new heights
John and Andy organized a Heitz-centric dinner last night at Apiary, a
night with good food, good conversation, and some great wine. Special thanks to Andy who supplied the bulk of the wine. Apiary is a nice space (if a tad loud), food was excellent (several dishes replicated what I had recently there with Lipton et al, but if anything even better last night), good service. Yellowtail crudo with avocado, sweetbreads with romesco sauce, duck breast with parsnip puree, strip steak, and a cheese plate of Epossies, Tete de Moine, and a goat cheese whose name I missed again. We started with a pair of Champagnes (I think both courtesy of Dan) to refresh us and see us through the hamachi dish: 1990 Deutz Blanc de Blancs Very good, fullbodied with citrus and chalk, fully mature. B+ NV Gosset Rose Yeasty, not really showing much, one person thought vegetal (actually rotting vegetables), I didn't get that - or much of anything. B- On to the reds Flight 1 1984 Heitz "Bella Oaks" Cabernet Sauvignon When I double-decanted this before going to city I thought there was a whiff of ashtray here, it developed more by serving. Redder fruit, hint of green (some thought more than a hint), a bit tired. B- 1985 Heitz "Bella Oaks" Cabernet Sauvignon Herbal, solid fruit, quite good, I think I enjoyed more than some others. B+ Flight 2 1986 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon This seems a bit tight and coiled, some menthol, earth, structured but not bulky. B (with lots of potential) 1984 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon Ripe, full, elegant, mint/herbs, long, lovely. A- Flight 3 1980 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon Ripe, nice texture, full, still some tannins. B+ 1979 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon A touch of VA, forest floor, redder fruits, I actually liked this a lot though much of table didn't. B++ Flight 4 1978 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon Long, warm, inviting, solid fruit, clear menthol signature, elegant, my WOTN against strong competition. A/A- 1976 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon Good, firm, mature, maybe I'd have scored even higher in a different flight.. B+ Soloing NV Heitz "MZ1" Cabernet Sauvignon This is a mix of Martha's and Napa fruit, possibly mostly 1971). Great herbal nose (just a hint of VA, nothing extreme), but a bit flat on palate, and shorter on finish than most of the wines. Still, great nose, and I liked a bit more than others. B Final Flight 1968 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard"Cabernet Sauvignon Other contender for my WOTN (and probably most people's fave). My notes read "yummy, elegant" in total. A-/A 1967 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard"Cabernet Sauvignon A little tired, some ashtray, plummy fruit,. resolved tannins, probably better 10 years ago but I still like. B What a night. I expected to be impressed, but a very solid- nay, great- lineup. Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. |
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TN: Old Heitz reach new heights
On Jun 24, 9:41*am, DaleW > wrote:
> John and Andy organized a Heitz-centric dinner last night at Apiary, a > *night with good food, good conversation, and some great wine. Special thanks > *to Andy who supplied the bulk of the wine. > 1976 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon > Good, firm, mature, maybe I'd have scored even higher in a different flight. B+ I bought a case 0f 1976 "Martha's" shortly after release, and it has been stored properly. I still have a few bottles. It perhaps had a tiny bit more fruit a few years ago, and has since not developed enough added complexity to add much of interest new. It likely will keep several more years. It would have been nice if you had the 1970 and 1974 "Martha's" for comparison with the others, but if one did not buy these much earlier than the present, they would now cost very much. One of the most unusual wines that Heitz made was NV "Cellar Treasure" Angelica. It was a sweet wine and decent, but any wine maker of high repute had to be brave indeed to name any wine Angelica. Angelica apparently was named after LA long ago, and it was a very cheap, sweet, white, fortified wine often bought by street people in California because it offered the most alcohol for the price along with so-called port, sherry, madeira, and Tokay, although there were better versions of these. I still have a bottle of Heitz's NV Angelica which I bought sometime in the 1970s. |
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TN: Old Heitz reach new heights
On Jun 25, 1:51*pm, cwdjrxyz > wrote:
> On Jun 24, 9:41*am, DaleW > wrote: > > > John and Andy organized a Heitz-centric dinner last night at Apiary, a > > *night with good food, good conversation, and some great wine. Special thanks > > *to Andy who supplied the bulk of the wine. > > 1976 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon > > Good, firm, mature, maybe I'd have scored even higher in a different flight. B+ > > I bought a case 0f 1976 "Martha's" shortly after release, and it has > been stored properly. I still have a few bottles. It perhaps had a > tiny bit more fruit a few years ago, and has since not developed > enough added complexity to add much of interest new. It likely will > keep several more years. It would have been nice if you had the 1970 > and 1974 "Martha's" for comparison with the others, but if one did not > buy these much earlier than the present, they would now cost very > much. > > One of the most unusual wines that Heitz made was NV "Cellar Treasure" > Angelica. It was a sweet wine and decent, but any wine maker of high > repute had to be brave indeed to name any wine Angelica. Angelica > apparently was named after LA long ago, and it was a very cheap, > sweet, white, fortified wine often bought by street people in > California because it offered the most alcohol for the price along > with so-called port, sherry, madeira, and Tokay, although there were > better versions of these. I still have a bottle of Heitz's NV Angelica > which I bought sometime in the 1970s. 1976 are long gone for me. Still have 2 bottles of 78 and 79 left. Fruit was gone when we finished the last bottle of 76 last year but they were moved in the interim and I think that damaged them. |
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TN: Old Heitz reach new heights
On Jun 24, 10:41*am, DaleW > wrote:
> John and Andy organized a Heitz-centric dinner last night at Apiary, a > *night with good food, good conversation, and some great wine. Special thanks > *to Andy who supplied the bulk of the wine. > > Apiary is a nice space (if a tad loud), food was excellent (several > *dishes replicated what I had recently there with Lipton et al, but if > anything even better last night), good service. Yellowtail crudo with > avocado, sweetbreads with romesco sauce, duck breast with parsnip puree, > strip steak, *and a cheese plate of Epossies, Tete de Moine, and > a goat cheese whose name I missed again. > > We started with a pair of Champagnes (I think both courtesy of Dan) to > refresh us and see us through the hamachi dish: > > 1990 Deutz Blanc de Blancs > Very good, fullbodied with citrus and chalk, fully mature. B+ > > NV Gosset Rose > Yeasty, not really showing much, one person thought vegetal (actually > rotting vegetables), I didn't get that - or much of anything. B- > > On to the reds > Flight 1 > 1984 Heitz "Bella Oaks" Cabernet Sauvignon > When I double-decanted this before going to city I thought there was a whiff > of ashtray here, it developed more by serving. Redder fruit, hint of green > (some thought more than a hint), a bit tired. B- > > 1985 Heitz "Bella Oaks" Cabernet Sauvignon > Herbal, solid fruit, quite good, I think I enjoyed more than some others. B+ > > Flight 2 > 1986 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon > This seems a bit tight and coiled, some menthol, earth, structured but > *not bulky. B (with lots of potential) > > 1984 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon > Ripe, full, elegant, mint/herbs, long, lovely. A- > > Flight 3 > 1980 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon > Ripe, nice texture, full, still some tannins. B+ > > 1979 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon > A touch of VA, forest floor, redder fruits, I actually liked this a lot > though much of table didn't. B++ > > Flight 4 > 1978 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon > Long, warm, inviting, solid fruit, clear menthol signature, elegant, my > WOTN against strong competition. A/A- > > 1976 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon > Good, firm, mature, maybe I'd have scored even higher in a different flight. B+ > > Soloing > NV Heitz "MZ1" Cabernet Sauvignon > This is a mix of Martha's and Napa fruit, possibly mostly 1971). Great herbal > nose (just a hint of VA, nothing extreme), but a bit flat on palate, and > shorter on finish than most of the wines. Still, great nose, and I liked a > bit more than others. B > > Final Flight > 1968 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard"Cabernet Sauvignon > Other contender for my WOTN (and probably most people's fave). My notes > *read "yummy, elegant" in total. A-/A > > 1967 Heitz "Martha's Vineyard"Cabernet Sauvignon > A little tired, some ashtray, plummy fruit,. resolved tannins, probably > *better 10 years ago but I still like. B > > What a night. I expected to be impressed, but a very solid- nay, great- lineup. > > Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. Incredible notes..thanks. I still have a lot of Heitz left in my cellar but the 1974 and 1978 are both long gone. My experience with the 1985 is that there is a lot of bottle variation. I drank a bottle with Joe Heitz many years ago and he told me that his son made the wine as he was recovering from a heart attack...iirc...and it was David's first vintage in charge. |
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TN: Old Heitz reach new heights
On Jun 26, 12:56 pm, DaleW > wrote:
> The reason we didn't have those vintages was John is doing a Heitz article, > he and Andy (who has a rather extensive collection of Martha's) were aiming > for the vintages that John didn't have a recent vintage of. > I've never had the '70, but thanks to Andy recently had the '74. > The Angelica sounds interesting. Mission grapes? This is the 3'rd time I have tried to post this message. Google Groups is making a major change, and since last weekend some posts there do not show or are delayed by up to a few days. Thus my 2 earlier posts may or may not show up. This problem has happened for all Usenet groups to which I post. Also Yahoo mail has made major changes recently. This should cause no problem with Usenet groups unless perhaps if someone tries to send you an email reply from a group post. I have the pay Yahoo mail account, and since their updates I have had a problem with some mail such as from the NY Times being delivered to the junk mail folder. I mark it as non-junk and it works for a while - then reverts to junk again. I am looking at a bottle of Heitz Cellar, Cellar Treasure Angelica, as I write. Additional text on the label is: "A mellow heritage of Old California. Bottle No.568 of a total of 6125 bottles;Perfected and Bottled in Our Cellar by Heitz Wine Cellars; St Helena, California; alc. 22% by vol." There is still a price sticker. for US$ 6.95 on the bottle.For this price, you could get a quite decent table wine back then, while a skid row favorite could be in the $ 1.00 range per bottle, especially in jugs. "Perfected and bottled in our cellar by Heitz Wine Cellars" means Heitz bought wine or several wines from others, and perhaps blended it, perhaps fortified it, and then aged it in the Heitz cellar. What grapes were used is not indicated. The 22% alcohol content indicates that the wine likely was fortified. Mission grapes might have been used in the distant past by some, but the bulk of low end Angelica and so-called California Port, Madeira, Sherry, and Tokay likely usually were made from the cheapest grapes, even table grapes, often from hot regions such as the central valley. Even in the 70s the traditional skid row wines were being replaced by fantasy brand name cheap wines. |
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TN: Old Heitz reach new heights
"cwdjrxyz" wrote ..... > > This is the 3'rd time I have tried to post this message. Yes, and I got all three :-))) |
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