Muscardini Cellars

I mentioned previously that Muscardini Cellars shares a tasting room with Ty Caton Vineyards in Kenwood (see link below).  We stopped in last Saturday for a taste of Michael's current releases and were not disappointed.  Muscardini's tasting room, as I mentioned in the review of Ty Caton, is a friendly, active room, with the staff pouring from an extensive list of wines from both wineries.

We started with the 2010 Rosato di Sangiovese ($19, 254 cases produced).  The grape is from the Monte Rosso vineyards.  The wine is a rosy pink and has a clean, crisp mouthfeel.  It would be a wonderful summer refresher.

Next was the 2010 Barbera from the Redwood Valley in Mendicino County ($36, 394 cases).  The wine is a thick, dark red.  The Muscardini website says, "An homage to the Old World. Opens up with aromas of bright red fruit, raspberry, wild herbs & roasted espresso beans. On the palate, lively flavors of ripe plum, raspberry and cherry, vibrant acidity, balanced tannins, silky mouthfeel and a long smooth finish. Overall, young, ripe, and incredibly complex."  This wine won a gold medal at the recent San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.

From there we got a taste of the 2009 Monte Rosso Sangiovese ($36, 493 cases), which was awarded a bronze medal at the same competition.  Of this wine, the website says, "Enjoy the aromas of crusted dark ripe fruit with black pepper and smoky meat. Savor the seductive ripe raspberry and blackberry sweetness with soft tannins. A great wine with your favorite pasta or pizza."   

The 2009 Gracie Creek Syrah ($36, 141 cases) was an intense purple.  My sweetie, the creamy/buttery Chardonnay lover, was heard to say "nice" upon tasting this one.  Score another bronze medal from the SF Chronicle.

That was followed by the 2008 Tesoro ($46, 542 cases), a Super Tuscan made up of 44 percent Sangiovese, 30 percent Cab, and 26 percent Syrah.  This one brought in a silver medal at the SF event.  The website says, "Elegant, floral cassis nose with dark cherries. Vibrant red and black currants, dark chocolate and a hint of herbs. Graceful finish balanced with velvety tannins." 

The 2009 Monte Rosso Zin ($42, 329 cases) was a gold medal winner at the 2011 SF Chronical Wine Competition.  The Muscardini website says, "Aromas of blueberry pie with cloves, black pepper, cardamom and dried herbs. Ripe berries and big, bold, dark fruit, a little chewy with some spice."

The 2009 Unti Vinyards Syrah ($32, 224 cases) took silver in the recent SF competition.  This wine has been a favorite of mine from Muscardini, I found this bottle of the 2007 vintage in my cabinet at home. 

Last, we tasted the 2008 Fortuna ($49, 522 cases), a blend of 55 percent Syrah, 30 percent Cab, 10 percent Merlot, 2.5 percent Cab Franc, and 2.5 percent Petit Verdot.  This won Best of Class at the California State Fair.

Of the wines we tasted, I'd highly recommend the Rosato, the Tesoro, the Unti Vineyards Syrah, the Monte Rosso Sangiovese, and the Gracie Creek Syrah.  All were rich and flavorful, but these were my favorites.

Along with the webiste, Muscardini is available in some local restaurants and he has occasionally put wines up on wine.woot.com (I bought a three pack a year or two ago).  The website is http://www.muscardinicellars.com/.  He has two versions of his wine club, the Divino Club (two bottles, four times a year, 20 percent discount on wines and merchandise) and the La Famiglia Club (four bottles, four times a year, 25 percent discount on wines and merchandise). 

Michael is often serving in the tasting room (we were told we'd just missed him) and is an attentive and gracioius host.  He even signs bottles of his wine with a gold marker.  Go see him.

Discount Online Wine Sources

There are three websites that I routinely watch for bargains on wine.  One I've mentioned before, http://www.wine.woot.com/.  The others are http://www.wtso.com/ and http://www.lot18.com/.  Each has its specialties and they all offer wines at pretty fair discounts off retail.  I have purchased wines from all three without any delivery or service problems.

Wine woot, as I've mentioned before, typically offers one wine, or speciality item, each day.  Occasionally, woot has what they call a "woot off" where all the backlog of items are sold off in a single day (or two days).  It appears to me that the wine woot off sometimes has new stock, items that were not offered before.  It can be a pretty exciting day, watching all the great buys go by.  Shipping on all purchases is $5, whether it's a single bottle of wine or a case...or a 52 inch flat screen TV.  There is a woot app for iPhones (I'd assume for other smart phones as well, but I only know about the iPhone).

WTSO is "wines till sold out".  As the name suggests, WTSO offers one wine at a time until they sell the entire stock of that wine, then they move on to another wine.  They can have several wines each day.  Their prices are typically about 50 percent off retail.  WTSO always offer free shipping with a minimum purchase, usually three or four bottles, depending on the price of the wine.  Sometimes one bottle qualifies for free shipping.  There is also an app for WTSO as well.

Lot 18, the third site, offers a number of wines at any one time.  Prices are lower than retail, but not quite half off retail.  Shipping is free with a minimum purchase much of the time.  Lot 18 has buyers around the world, so their items can vary quite a bit.  There are times when you see a number of wines from the Willmanette Valley or Sonoma, and others when you see imports more.  Lot 18 requires an invitation to join.  You can use this link https://www.lot18.com/i/Douglas157752 as  your invitation, or just go to the site and follow their directions.  They will send you one to your email address.

As with wine clubs, these websites have advantages and disadvantages.  One advantage is the price.  All three have pretty good prices compared to retail.  This is based on my knowledge of some of the wines I've seen go across the sites, including some I've purchased or comparisons I've made to the wineries' websites.  Shipping is usually lower than the wineries' shipping costs, with a minimum purchase.  Also, they often offer wines that you're not likely to have heard of before, small lots from obscure (or not so obscure) wineries, so you have an opportunity to try wines with a reduced risk (money spent) if you buy something you don't like.

The disadvantage primarily lies in not always knowing the wines that you are buying.  Occasionally, a wine will be posted that I know.  For instance, WTSO has recently sold BV's Tapestry and George La Tour.  Both were offered at good prices, with shipping included for free with a minimum order.  Woot occasionally offers Ty Caton's wines and those of Michael Muscardini, his tasting room partner.  But I usually don't know most of the wines that I see on any of the sites.  I have gone out on a limb and purchased some that I don't know and have been pleased, but more often I've been disappointed.  They were a decent buy for the price, but not as good as I had hoped based on their retail price.  So stepping out of your knowledge base can be a crap shoot.

Sometimes, though you run across something good at a good price, and that keeps you coming back for more.  Last night we opened a bottle of Sequoia Grove from a Lot 18 purchase.  I bought three bottles of the 2006 Rutherford Bench Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon for $99.  If I remember right, shipping was included in the price.  Checking the winery's website, I found the 2007 currently on sale for $65 a bottle.  So it was a wonderful deal and the wine was fruity and smooth and paired well with the shrimp tacos I had for dinner. 

The thing is, though, I knew Sequoia Grove pretty well already, had other bottles in my cabinet, and felt pretty sure that I was buying a good wine.  There have been other purchases where I haven't been as lucky, always with wines that I did not previously know.  Even basing a purchase on someone else's ratings doesn't always work.  Just as you might not agree with my assessment of a particular wine, my tastes don't always jive with Robert Parker's.  Not that Parker is wrong...just different preferences.  So my advice...bookmark the sites and keep an eye on them.  Buy what you know and what you know to be a good deal, with an occasional splurge into something that really intrigues you.  These sources can be a wine buyers friend, if you use them correctly.

Ty Caton Vineyards

My first experience with Ty Caton Vineyards came through http://www.woot.com/.  Woot is a website that sells one item each day.  A couple of years ago they added a wine site; http://wine.woot.com/.  I watched the site for a while, then one day they listed Ty Caton's TYtanium; two bottles for $75.  I quickly checked out the website, saw the list price for one bottle was $75, so I went back to woot and bought a pair.  As it happened, I was going up to Sonoma that day anyway, so I dropped into their tasting room (8910 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood, CA, the Kenwood Village Plaza shopping center) and tasted their wines for the first time.  I was not only glad that I'd ordered the TYtanium from woot, I also bought a couple more wines that day.

Caton shares a tasting room with Michael Muscardini in Kenwood.  The tasting room is located in a shopping center on the Sonoma Highway.  On any given day, Ty or Michael are likely to be there helping serve their wines.

Everything I've tasted from Ty Caton has been wonderful.  I don't think one could go wrong ordering their particular varietal favorite from the website.  Looking at the website today, you can see how popular some of his wines have become.  The 2009 Petite Sirah is sold out, as is the Petite Verdot and all the Cabernet Collection.  The Petite Sirah is the thickest wine I've ever seen.  On a visit to the tasting room a few months ago, our pourer splashed some into a wine glass then layed the glass on the bar and rolled it.  The wine coated the glass in a rich purple blanket that hung on even after the glass was righted.  And the taste was superb, velvety and elegant. 

The 2009 TYtanium ($80) is a red blend of 31 percent Cabernet, 30 percent Syrah, 18 percent Petit Sirah, 12 percent Merlot, and nine percent Malbec.  Caton produced 827 cases of this wine.  It, also, is a wonderful wine, if your pocketbook can bear the weight.

Ty's Red is a hearty wine that puts less weight on the pocketbook at $32.  Ty's Red is a blend of 62 percent Syrah, 26 percent Merlot, six percent Cab, and six percent Petite Sirah.

A red wine specialist, Ty introduced a Riesling last year so that white wine lovers would have something to taste at his tasting room.  My sweetie, who loves her big, buttery Chardonnays, was impressed enough with the Riesling to buy a bottle.  Ty produced 350 cases of the Riesling, which sells for $28.

Last night I opened a bottle of Ty's Caton Cabernet Collection Big Hill Vineyard.  The Caton Cabernet Collection is a group of single vineyard Cabs, each limited to 45 cases.  They sell for $50.  The Big Hill was a rich, supple cab with a long finish.  My sweetie, who doesn't often identify any particular flavor in a wine, insists she tasted butterscotch on the finish.  The entire 2009 collection is sold out, but I'm betting the 2010 collection will be just as fabulous as the 2009.  I went to a barrel tasting of the Cab Collection a couple of years ago and found them all to be wonderful.  Big Hill was simply my favorite of seven.  The others in the collection are; Arroyo, Barracks, Knoll, Little Hill, Terraces, and Upper Bench.  If I remember right, Barracks was my second favorite and my purchase from the previous vintage.

Ty has several options for wine clubs.  The Silver Club ships two bottles four times a year and members get a 20 percent discount on wines and merchandise.  The PlaTYnum Club shipe four bottles four times a year and members receive a 25 percent discount.  The Caton Cabernet Collection Club ships twelve bottles per year as the member chooses.  Members received a 25 percent discount on Cab Collection purchases.

Caton has developed quite a following on woot.  I've read some very good feedback about Caton wines on the woot website from happy customers.  I notice his wines on sale there about once a quarter now, so you might keep an eye on it in the future for some good deals.  His Racchus Red shows up there occasionally and is a very high quality, less expensive wine ($19 on Caton's own website, less on woot).  The Caton website is http://tycaton.com/. 

Caton's tasting room hours are 11 am to 6 pm, seven days a week.  If you can get to the tasting room sometime it's a stop that I'd highly recommend.  The wines are wonderful and Ty and Michael are great hosts (if they happen to be there when you stop in).  I'll write about Muscardini wines in a future post.