Vine Cliff (3.88)



Open: 10am-4pm

Appt required? Yes

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012

Directions:

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Tasting:
Vine Cliff is a place that had beckoned to me for several years, and I finally worked it into the schedule last August. We arrived a bit early for our appointment, and dialed the keypad at the gate. Ring…ring…ring…nothing. We waited a moment and noticed a car coming down the driveway. The gates opened to let them out, and we sneaked through up the driveway to the tasting room.

We wandered in to an empty room, and in a few minutes a man came out.

“Uh, how’d you get through the gate?” he asked.

Well, hello to you too! I explained the lack of answer and the people leaving, and he seemed barely okay with that. “Let’s take a quick tour.”

To help paint a picture, our guide was not quite like most. You wouldn’t call him friendly; you might likely call him arrogant. Pompous is probably a better word. Imagine a belt straining to hold up jeans under a substantial gut, with a golf shirt clinging to man boobs, and add in the social skills of Chris Farley on “The Chris Farley Show”, but with the cockiness of someone with none of these traits. I felt dirty talking to him; I can only imagine the creeps he gives women as a single man in his 40s likely hitting on 20-year-olds. In short, we didn’t click. We stopped first at the winery cave and ducked inside for a minute.

“Winemaking is the second oldest profession in the world.” He paused. “Do…do you know what the oldest is?”

“Prostitution?” I asked.

Crestfallen that I’d “heard that one”, he moved on. We walked up the hill to the vineyard from the cave and chatted about the vines, soil, etc. before heading in to the cooler tasting room to get started with some wine.

Although we typically share tasting, our host brought out two glasses and I didn’t want to have the discussion. We started with the 2009 Chardonnay Dijon Clone 95. A low-production Chardonnay (only 150 cases), this was decent but not overly memorable. It was followed by the 2009 Chardonnay Proprietress Reserve. Sourced from Carneros, this wine had the expected notes of vanilla and a heavy dose of caramel. Quite good, but a bit pricey at $60.

From there we moved to two big reds. First was the 2009 Oakville Estate Cabernet. This was a solid wine, but not quite in the same category as other wines I prefer in its price range ($85), We tried that against the 2008 Private Stock 16Rows Cabernet. This wine had more structure and I got more oak (despite being in the barrel the same amount of time). It also had more cost – $65 more, to be precise. The $150 was not justified, but this was a very good wine sourced from the first sixteen rows of vines in front of the family’s hilltop home.

While I liked the wines, I thought they were pricey, and this definitely got poor marks for an awkward atmosphere that started with the first words out of our host’s mouth. We paid our tasting fees and moved on to greener pastures.


Recommended wine: Surprisingly disappointing wines. Nothing to recommend.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
4.00
TASTING ROOM
4.50

ATMOSPHERE
3.50
VALUE
3.50

OVERALL
3.88

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