Fine wine, finer service™ 1-800-969-1961 Vinfolio Top 25 of 2006 by Doug Wilder Special edition Vinfolio wine offer December 8, 2006 It has finally come to the unveiling of the Top 25 wines of 2006. With nearly 1000 tasting notes to go through from the last 11 months two trends have become very clear. First, the wave of extraordinary Pinot Noir has shown no signs of slowing down. Secondly, the quantity of non California wines making the list has increased 5-fold since last year. Among some other interesting trends and statistics: 60% of the Pinot Noir I tasted rated 90 points or higher, an indication of the quality of wines that are presented to me. Overall about half of the wines I taste score at least 90 points. Pinot Noir again leads the categories with 10 wines followed by Cabernet Sauvignon with 5 in second place. Four wines that appeared in last years list are back and only one wine has made it three year in a row. Oregon and Washington have taken a significant position in the list with five wines compared to only one last year and none the year before. This is the first year since 2003 where a winery had more than two wines on the list. In 2006 one winery has three. The average price for this year is $52.92 compared to $46.84 last year. This year twelve wines in the list are $50, or less. Last year there were twenty wines. Average score is 96.16 in 2006 and 94.96 in 2005. A few comments about tasting wines at Vinfolio Before joining Vinfolio a typical tasting day for me may have included up to thirty wines or more. Most of what I tasted was ordinary at best and I felt fortunate to find perhaps three or four that I liked enough to buy for the wine department. Perhaps only one of those wines would be something special worth letting my clients know about in an email. Philip Togni, Maldonado, Drinkward Peschon and Garretson were wines I couldn't wait to write about. Nowadays I don't have appointments with twenty different companies. I have a carefully selected group of brokers, distributors and wineries where we know each other exceptionally well and when we get together to taste it isn't dozens of bottles, it is more like five or six. More often than not I am very happy because they have already narrowed down the selections to the very best and a proportionate increase in quality wines to offer is the result. Where it used to be one out of seven wines that made the quality cut, it is now more like one of every two. Because of that conscious change in culture Vinfolio is able to bring more great wines to your attention on a regular basis. Our clients expect the best and we deliver with timely reviews and recommendations on the top wines available. I used to only write 12 times a year, now I write at least 52 review columns annually and will add in six or seven other offers during the course of the year, plus the Top 25 list so lets put the number at sixty; five times what I used to think was worthy. Small is beautiful Vinfolio has an enviable advantage of having an Acquisition office in the middle of the Napa Valley, a place I call "where the pebble meets the pond;" the center of the California Wine Universe. It gives us immediate access to new wines when they come out and we regularly see the most interesting small boutique brands. Looking through the list this year most of the wines are 600 cases or smaller with several under 200 cases production. Partly because of working with a small number of purveyors I see the same producer's wines regularly. In some instances I know certain wines will be consistently good before I taste; this year there are four wines that were on the list last year: Dierberg Estate Pinot Noir, Arcadian Dierberg Pinot Noir, Maldonado Chardonnay (three years) and Diamond Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon. When I read the reviews aloud they have a special resonance that befits their excellence. The first ten wines of the Top25 list of 2006 were released three weeks ago and have been receiving an excellent reception. When I began the selection process for this year, as far back as March in some cases, I brought in sufficient quantities to take care of initial demand and then placed the rest in the deepest recesses of our 15000 square foot cellar where they have been resting in perfect storage conditions since. Most of the wines I loved are in excellent supply. There is some where my remaining allocation is as few as two cases. Because of that there will be several wines this week that will be allocated to one bottle. Please note that some of the wines from the list that have already been released are still available in good quantity. Drinking outside the Box - Oregon and Washington wines OK, I admit it, for years I only looked at California wines to taste, write about and offer. But for the longest time that was the most recognized niche I had exposure to. That is until earlier this year when I had a chance encounter with a wine broker named Tom Elliot who I met 15 years ago. We never worked together much then but I admired his dedication to brokering wines which at that time were very much new to the market. We started tasting together again at Vinfolio's San Francisco office in August of this year and I quickly became a disciple of how delicious Oregon wines were as a whole. As you may have noticed over the last three months Oregon wines have caught on like a firestorm. Excellent quality and value abound. Every fire needs a spark and for me that happened In June of last year when I tasted a producer for the first time. I had never heard of the winemaker and he was doing something uncommon; bringing grapes from Oregon's Willamette Valley to be vinified in California. His first wines were a pair of Pinot Noir, one of which only produced 77 cases and the other was just twice that. It was then that I became a fan of these wines and one of them had the special distinction of being the only Oregon wine to crack the otherwise California dominated list in 2005. That in itself was a bit of a shakeup. The winery was Auteur and the owner/winemaker, Ken Juhasz. These first two wines were an intriguing glimpse into what would follow. In 2004 vintage Auteur dropped the Momtasi Vineyard bottling (VF93); the wine was a Top 25 in 2005. However they also added one the following year that is the first Pinot Noir from Auteur actually grown in California and was introduced in August.2006. Designated 2005 Sonoma Stage Vineyard (VF96) it was an instant favorite at Vinfolio. However there was yet another bottling that Juhasz introduced me to that was off the charts delicious. That wine was the 2005 Auteur Pinot Noir, Shea Vineyard, the first wine to receive a perfect score from Vinfolio in nearly 18 months. It was a pretty simple choice to decide who would receive the top honor we bestow on a winemaker and a winery. Ken Juhasz, Auteur Wines - Vinfolio's Winemaker of the Year 2006 Please join me in congratulating Ken and his wife Laura for this honor. To be named Winemaker of the Year, it takes consistent winemaking excellence across a winery's offerings in a given year when compared with the other wines in the Top25. In 2005 it was Abe Schoener of SCHOLIUM PROJECT cited for his flawless Chardonnay and noted for the additional excellent small production wines that were gone within a few weeks of offering. In 2003, it was Andy Smith of DuMOL who placed five wines on the list. Every wine I have tasted from Auteur this year has been excellent. With the 100 point Shea (#1), followed by 96 point Sonoma Stage (#12) and 93 point Hyland (#25) they were the first winery with more than two wines on the list since 2003. Auteur also produced a 92 point Chardonnay, sourced from Donum Vineyard that did not make the list. I caught up with Ken Juhasz in Santa Rosa recently and he told me what makes him so excited about working with the wonderful Shea Vineyard fruit; his favorite source in the state. Basically it comes down to the choice of clone. In this case the wine is made entirely from a Swiss specimen called Wadenswil. Ken refers to "its amazing perfume." Remember this name as you will likely hear more about it in the coming year. Furthermore, the source is the Back Block with East, West and South exposures. It is the oldest of the new plantings put in during the very early 1990's and has historically only gone to Dick Shea, the owner, for his own wine. The future looks bright for Juhasz and Auteur; he has a long term contract on this American Grand Cru Vineyard and production will double in 2006 to 300 cases. There is also the intriguing possibility of a Shea Pommard clone from Auteur in the works. The Top 25 2005 Auteur - Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard 180 cases 750ml VF 100 2005 Hartwell - Sauvignon Blanc 750ml VF 98 2003 Arcadian - Pinot Noir Dierberg Vineyard 750ml VF 98 2004 Maldonado - Chardonnay Los Olivos Vineyard 750ml VF 98 2004 Kapcsandy Family - State Lane Vineyard 1,400 cases 750ml VF 96 2003 Miura - Pinot Noir Talley Vineyard 200 cases 750ml VF 98 2003 Favia - Red Cerro Sur 230 cases 750ml VF 98 2005 Garretson - Grenache Blanc The Berwyn 120 cases 750ml VF 97 2003 Drinkward Peschon - Cabernet Sauvignon Entre Deux Meres 500 cases 750ml VF 97 2004 Peay - Chardonnay Estate 610 cases 750ml VF 97 2004 Ambullneo - Pinot Noir Mastiff Cuvee 250 cases 750ml VF 97 2005 Auteur - Pinot Noir Sonoma Stage Vineyard 195 cases 750ml VF 96 2003 Fidelitas - Cabernet Sauvignon Champoux Vineyard 100 cases 750ml VF 96 2003 Diamond Terrace - Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District 250 cases 750ml VF 95 2004 Scholium Project - BABYLON Tenbrink Vineyards 400 cases 750ml VF 94 2004 Auteur - Pinot Noir Hyland Vineyard 195 cases 750ml VF 93 2004 Serene - Pinot Noir Yamhill Cuvee 750ml VF 94 2005 Margerum - Sauvignon Blanc Purisima Mountain Vineyard 277 cases 750ml VF 94 2003 Chehalem - Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Reserve 750ml VF 94 2004 Togni, Philip - Cabernet Sauvignon Tanbark Hill Vineyard 28 cases 750ml VF 94-95 2003 Tandem - Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard 385 cases 750ml VF 95 2003 Harris Estate - Cabernet Sauvignon Jake's Creek Vineyard (Limited Reserve) 410 cases 750ml VF 95 2004 Garretson - Syrah Mon Amie 250 cases 750ml VF 95 2004 Dierberg - Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley 1,800 cases 750ml VF 96 2004 Hansel, Walter - Pinot Noir Cahill Lane 750ml VF 96  or call 1-800-969-1961