We publish a newsletter twice a year to discuss Mayacamas happenings and announce new wine releases. Below is the Fall, 2011 edition. To view our other newsletters, click here.

Vol. II No. 89Fall, 2011

A very late, wet spring, followed by another mild summer - which makes two in a row - has required patience aplenty (again). As of this writing, we have yet to harvest our first bunch of grapes. It is still just mid-September, but I've seen Halloween costumes in a couple of stores and I was actually scared. At least we have Greek fiscal dramatics in the news to keep us entertained. Inspired, I broke out some Homer after a while to pass the time.

Meanwhile, we are releasing our 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. The '06 is a bit riper than normal for us - it's more rich, more dense, than typical - although still recognizably restrained, when compared with most Napa offerings. It's greater glories will gain traction in time; but perhaps it needs less time than most of our Cabs. A decade and a half of cellaring will have it just entering its wheelhouse. It'll surely go another decade after that. The aromatics are deep in black cherry and licorice and mint. On the palate, again, the black cherry predominates, with elements of lavender, local volcano soil, all backed by briary-brambly Mount Veeder typicity.

The 2009 Sauvignon Blanc is also now for sale. This is a mouthful of mountain SB: again, ripe and rich, and at the same time, drilling down to a nice minerality. It has a good acidic cut on the palate. The concentrated honeydew-lime-fruitiness is focused by the sharpness of structure. This wine will eat raw oysters by itself.

The Library Chardonnay now rolls into the 2004 vintage. This is stupendously good wine at this stage of its development. It shows fantastic acidic vibrancy and lively, lychee-banana-fruit character, along with a note of dry honeycomb, and slate of earthiness underneath it all. It offers subtle nuances that young wines simply cannot deliver, and a graceful sense of being grounded in place.

The Library Cabernet Sauvignon continues to be the 1999. This wine has captured the imagination of not a few sommeliers recently as I've brandished it around the country, with the Odyssey on my knee on flights, more than once in the middle seat in coach between the Scylla and Charbydis of a couple of fat guys. This wine has serious heft, and still has miles to go. It demonstrates an array of anise, currants, dark cherry, and blackberry aromatics, along with the quality a forest floor littered with mulching pine needles and mushrooms.

The library Merlot continues to be the 1998, which hits you at the get-go with a funkiness whose closest approximation may be a baseline from Stevie Wonder (whereas it's understood that his "Superstition" boasts the funkiest baseline ever laid down - -recommended listening while drinking this wine in particular). Violet tones slide in underneath, and the fruit character of black cherries, plus some licorice quality, combine to go long on the finish.

The 2008 Chardonnay maintains its crisp lines, while continuing to evolve a slightly richer showing of fruit in the mid-palate. This wine is recommended after a walk with someone you like on the Santa Monica beach around sunset, accompanied by the great cracked crab and steamed mussels at The Hungry Cat, just across the Pacific Coast Highway from the strand.

The 2006 Merlot is almost gone, but we do have a few cases left. It's deep red cherries and bay leaf characteristics are a great accompaniment to duck confit in a salad with champagne dressing and plums. It's hard to say no to a structurally sound mountain merlot with duck cooked in its own fat, let's face it.

So harvest tarries, but it's getting close. When Odysseus finally got back to Ithaca and straggled ashore, mist had settled over the island, and he went incognito—perception was hazy, true identity hard to discern, and the suitors were happily chugging the library selections, likely viewing things through a fog of their own, which is easy enough to identify with, for a wine guy. Meanwhile, Penelope was waiting. At the moment, we can identify with her, as well.

Cheers,
Chris Travers