RATINGS/SCORES:
****************50% OFF!!*************

A POSITIVELY SPECTACULAR WINE...
****EVEN BETTER THAN THE '02!

Jonathan Newman - 94/100!

"This superb small-production wine (only 225 cases were made) was made by David Bader, owner/winemaker of Phoenix Vineyards in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. David's estate vineyard lies in the middle of the original Mexican land grant known as Rancho Napa, created before California became part of the United States. For this wine, David supplemented his estate Cabernet and Merlot with some Merlot from Rutherford for extra depth and intensity. The wine was aged for more than two years in French oak barrels. With an enticing nose of dark-chocolate covered cherries, this wine delivers flavors of cherry, coffee, graphite and Tahitian vanilla bean, and you can detect some of the famous "Rutherford dust" as well. Supple tannins melt away into a long finish. While it's drinking well right now, its fine balance and good tannin management would allow you to cellar it for 10 years or more. David only makes Rancho Napa in years when he thinks it's appropriate; this is the first vintage since 2002."

note: image is not 2005 vintage
(Product description)
 
UNIT SIZE: 750.00 ml
VARIETAL: Proprietary Bordeaux Blend
VINTAGE: 2005
COUNTRY: United States
REGION: Napa Valley

Quantity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
 

Product Description:

Phoenix Vineyards & Rancho Napa Wines

Napa Valley Meritage Rancho Napa 2005

2005 Rancho Napa
Wine Type: Dry Red Wine
Wine Varietal: 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 44% Merlot
Appellation: Napa Valley
Rating: 94/100

By Jonathan H. Newman
This superb small-production wine (only 225 cases were made) was made by David Bader, owner/winemaker of Phoenix Vineyards in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. David's estate vineyard lies in the middle of the original Mexican land grant known as Rancho Napa, created before California became part of the United States. For this wine, David supplemented his estate Cabernet and Merlot with some Merlot from Rutherford for extra depth and intensity. The wine was aged for more than two years in French oak barrels. With an enticing nose of dark-chocolate covered cherries, this wine delivers flavors of cherry, coffee, graphite and Tahitian vanilla bean, and you can detect some of the famous "Rutherford dust" as well. Supple tannins melt away into a long finish. While it's drinking well right now, its fine balance and good tannin management would allow you to cellar it for 10 years or more. David only makes Rancho Napa in years when he thinks it's appropriate; this is the first vintage since 2002. You won't have many chances to try it; don't miss this one.

By phoenixvineyards.com

50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Cabernet Franc
From the estate vineyards of the Bader family, which owns Phoenix
Vineyards in Napa.
ALC 13.2 % by VOL
Winemaker's notes (from David Bader):
In the years before California became a state most of the Napa Valley  was divided into Mexican land grants known as Ranchos. This wine is  named after, and our winery lies in the middle of, what once was Rancho Napa. This wine is made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (Napa and Rutherford). It was aged for over 24 months in French oak barrels, and it is unfined and unfiltered. Fewer than 230 cases were bottled. This proprietary blend of Bordeaux varietals has a smooth complexity and will go well with red meat dishes. 

 

The Phoenix Legend
Immortality is timeless precept of ancient mythology. Among these artifacts of our antiquity, none is more obscure or more mystical than the legend of the Phoenix. Thought to take the form of a great bird, crimson in color, that is able to coax life from its own ashes, rising to wing again from death.

The origin of the Phoenix legend is thought by many scholars to be Middle Eastern or Egyptian but the real answers are so arcane that no one really knows. With only partial agreement among academics, a clear mythology or history of the bird's origin remains to be seen. The different versions all share the idea of immortality however; this ancient bird refuses to die.

The legend of the Phoenix has an element of primal spirituality coming from beyond our civilized history and harking to an age when life's mysteries were given identities of a mythical dimension. And nothing intrigues us more than the fundamental nature of our human spirit and its apparent mortality. The Phoenix is the ancient face painted upon this phenomenon of rebirth, of being part of a perpetual cycle of life.

This spirit of rebirth is directly connected to the transformation of life we see upon the Earth every year as winter turns to spring. In the vineyard the vines arise from dormancy to pass the mark of a new vintage into the essence of our wines. Science attempts to find the answers, and has done an admirable job in this case, as to how this happens but the end result is the same regardless of if you try to describe it in legend or in the laboratory. Legends, like wines, have a life all of their own; that is their nature, and part of their mystery.

 

 

(*)Jonathan Newman served as Chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (“PLCB”), the largest buyer of wine and spirits in the U.S., and the largest purchaser of California wines in the world. Jonathan was Wine Enthusiast’s Man of The Year (2003) and received the American Wine Society’s Award of Merit (2004).  In 2005, he was awarded the Guild of Sommeliers highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award. He was also named by Market Watch Magazine as one of the Top Five Leaders in the alcoholic beverage industry (2005). In 2006, he was elected as Chairman-elect of the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.