Etude wine dinner with winemaker John Priest at Wine Watch

"To make a great wine one needs a madman to grow the vine, a wise man to watch over it, a lucid poet to make the wine, and a lover to drink it." - Salvador Dali, Spanish Painter 1904 - 1989

Last day of the trip and we had an incredible time on Table Mountain this morning such an incredible view of Cape Town from here.  Rented a board and caught an excellent tube ride and having one last dinner tonight which we have managed to drink everything that I brought for the safari, cruise and wine country visit with the exception of the 1969 Leroy Echezeaux and the 1997 Quintarelli Recioto- hey it’s my birthday and the anniversary of our engagement!! 

I’m excited about getting back and we have a lot of great wine tastings coming up this month including one of my favorite California wineries that our good friend Tony Soter founded.  I have been following his handy work since the early 1990's when I was the wine buyer at Cafe Maxx.  In fact, I used to have people in the business tell me that I even looked like Tony.  Tony actually sent me this Salvidor Dali quote so I felt that it would be fitting to use this for an e-mail promoting this tasting and although he is no longer with Etude Winery our host this evening worked with Toni at Etude since 2005.  The wines have just got better and better over the years as the folks from Treasury have invested money to improve the winery and quality of fruit going into Etude’s wines.  They have their own estate vineyards in Carneros and Treasury now owns over 50% of the high end Cabernet Sauvignon vines in Napa Valley so the Cabernet Sauvignon is among the top wines produced and at $75 per bottle, it is a relative value considering all the $200 and up wines that it can be compared to, this 2012 vintage we are serving tonight made my “best of 2016” list and is featured in one of our Wine Watch gift boxes.

Join us as we welcome John Priest to a special tasting featuring the new releases from this most excellent Napa Valley winery.  Wine Watch catering’s Toni Lampasone will be making a special meal featuring some of the exotic spices that we smuggled back from South Africa.  This is a seated event and is limited to 14 tasters, the fee is $75 + tax.   For reservations call 954-523-9463 or email andy@winewatch.com.

Etude wine tasting with winemaker John Priest at Wine Watch
Thursday, March 16th
7pm

Lyric By Etude Chardonnay Santa Barbara
List: $18.00     Sale $15.84     Case $184

Lyric By Etude Pinot Noir Santa Barbara
List: $18.00     Sale $15.84     Case $184

"Fresh cherry and strawberry notes with a rich and silky texture. Displays a balanced structure and bright acidity, making it the perfect pair for an assortment of foods."

2014 Etude Pinot Gris Carneros
List: $26.25     Sale $23.10     Case $268

Fresh pear fruit with notes of white flowers and a touch of vanilla spice. A nice amount of fruit on the tongue with light floral nuance and a nice freshness on the finish. Finish 40+ Very Good

2014 Etude Chardonnay Carneros
List: $37.50     Sale $33.00     Case $383

Delicate floral aromas that are complemented by notes of Meyer lemon zest, kefir lime and nectarine, and a hint of citrus blossom. Consistent with the nose, the wine fills the mouth with rich citrus and stone fruit flavors that are enhanced by a bright acidity, inviting minerality and lasting vitality. This wine is supple with an exceptionally balanced structure and lifted fruit core.

Etude Carneros Pinot Noir 2014
List: $31.50     Sale $27.72     Case $322

This 2014 vintage from northern California has been another standout producing wines with rich concentrated fruit, ripe luscious tannins along with bright fresh acidity.  This is one of the best vintages in the last decade in areas like Carneros for Pinot Noir.  

A pretty nose of red cherry fruit, notes of brown spices and dried floral notes.   Smooth and silky on the tongue, well balanced with light red berry fruit and a nice touch of spice and earth on the finish.  Finish 35+ Excellent

Etude Fiddlesticks Pinot Noir 2013
List: $46.50     Sale $40.70     Case $475

The outstanding 2013 Pinot Noir Fiddlestix Vineyard, which comes from multiple clones, shows a deep color, loads of dark black raspberry and black cherry fruit, earthiness and spice in a full-bodied style. (RP) Etude, when it was owned by Tony Soter before he left for Oregon, specialized in multiple Pinot Noirs. Under the current ownership, that continues. A few other Pinot Noirs from farther south were tasted, and I will have brief notes on them. (3/2016) Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Etude Heirloom Pinot Noir 2013
List: $88.50     Sale $77.88     Case $903

Our Heirloom Pinot Noir stands apart for its aromatic complexity, underlying structure, persistence and finesse. Rich in lush red fruit, star anise and graham cracker spices, and Orange Pekoe tea, the 2014 is alluring and ample with silky, refined tannins and notable length. Cellaring promises even greater complexity and over time this powerful Pinot Noir will only continue to integrate and improve.

2012 Etude Cabernet Sauvignon Napa
List: $85.00     Sale $74.80     Case $867

A wonderful lushness defines the Etude's Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which displays an impactful spectrum of blue and black fruit aromas typical of each unique sub-appellation. On the palate, warm blackberry, dark blueberry and plum are interwoven with cassis and toasted barrel spices. This Cabernet Sauvignon is satisfyingly evolved in its young years, but showcases a rich texture and velvety, long tannins telling of the wine's graceful aging potential.

Menu

Selection of Cheese:  Beemster Gouda, Parmesan Reggiano

South African Spiced Venison Loin, triple bean puree and potato hash

Chocolate Covered Bacon and Berries

This is a seated event and is limited to 14 tasters the fee for this tasting is $75 + tax per person.   For reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com

A bit about John Priest:

Raised on the Central Coast, Carneros reminds me of the small communities of my childhood. There is a mix of agriculture, ranching and vineyards, the laid-back nature of the people and the familiar cool ocean breezes. Pinot Noir was my early inspiration to pursue winemaking and winegrowing, a quest that brought me to Etude and the pastoral hills of Carneros.

Jon Priest strongly believes and lives out the Etude philosophy. This has allowed for the continual cultivation of the highest quality wines, reflective of  the profound influences of the land and the season, as well as the hand of its steward; hence, the concept of winegrowing.

A bit about Etude Winery:

In music, an étude is a composition built on a technical motive, essentially to hone skills, but one that can be played for its own intrinsic artistic value.  If the old adage "practice makes perfect" applies to winemaking as it does to music, then Tony Soter, the founder, owner, and winemaker of Étude Wines has it down pat.  For a long time Tony Soter has been known to the world of wine as the artist who was the driving force in creating, developing, managing, and making the great Cabernet Sauvignons of Napa's Spottswoode Vineyard.  However, local cognoscenti who follow the scene even more closely have been watching Tony Soter's solo effort since its inception in 1982.  Now that Étude is becoming more available on a national level, thanks to an increase in production, Soter's own brand may eventually become as well known as Spottswoode.

Tony Soter's winemaking career began in 1975 in the cellar at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars at about the time the famous 1973 Cabernet was being bottled (that Cabernet went on to win the famous 1976 Paris Bicentennial Tasting in which it vanquished some of the top French Bordeaux).  Tony came to wine via the study of philosophy with an eventual legal career in sight, but serendipity would have it that a college job selling wine blunted his legal leanings and piqued his palate for wine.  After the brief stint at Stag's Leap, he went to work for Stonegate Winery while doing postgraduate work in chemistry, enology, and viticulture at U.C. Davis.  In 1976 Tony spent the harvest at Napa's Spring Mountain Winery and then went on to Chappellet Vineyards, where he became the winemaker there in the summer of 1977.  Soter's talents became quickly evident with the 1977 Chappellet Cabernet - one of the top wines of the 1977 vintage.  Soter's intellectual prowess and obvious natural talent for winemaking earned him a reputation that burgeoned rather quickly, and a number of California wineries began to seek out his services on a consulting basis.  Over the course of the next few years, Soter had a hand in making some great wines with clients like Cain Cellars, Far Niente, Ritchie Creek, Sequoia Grove, Shafer and William Hill.  In 1982 the Novak family, proprietors of the Spottswoode Estate, hired Tony to completely handle all aspects of Spottswoode wines from vineyard management to winemaking.  When the 1982 Spottswoode Cabernet was released, it caused something of a sensation among critics and consumers - we can remember few Cabernet producers that debuted so auspiciously.  Since that first release in 1982, Spottswoode has continued an unbroken string of successes right through the 1998 vintage.  Spottswoode has been consistently in our list of top ten Cabernets of the year for the past decade in The Wine News.  Soter has never rested on his laurels.  He has taken on winemaking duties at Napa's Niebaum-Coppola, Viader, and Araujo Estate as well as an unusual winemaking project at the Moraga Estate in Bel Aire, Los Angeles. Some of the red wines he has made at Araujo and Viader have drawn rave reviews and have catapulted those estates to the very top of the Napa Valley elite.  Soter’s associate Mia Klein now serves as a consultant to Spottswoode, Araujo, Viader and Dalla Valle as rumor has it- Tony is a full-time dad.  His winemaking career taking a bit of a hiatus over the last year.

The original intention of Étude was to produce only Pinot Noir, and the name Étude was intended to thematically convey his approach to winemaking, which is fundamentally an exploration of the elements of style.  By his own account Soter “consciously focuses on technique to achieve the desired results in a California context.  Subscribing to the Socratic ideal of continually searching for wisdom through challenging assumptions, Étude Wines are dedicated to learning something about the winemaking craft.  Perhaps because Pinot Noir, in particular, is so difficult to master, the name also implies a certain humility of approach toward the most technically and stylistically demanding of table wines.”  Although we had heard much about the very limited Étude Pinot Noir, we did not have an opportunity to sample it until the 1985 vintage.  This wine was quite a revelation and was certainly one of the finest Pinot Noirs made from Napa Valley fruit that we had ever tasted.  In 1985 Soter also released his first Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine that we dubbed "rookie of the year" for Cabernet producers.  Cabernets produced at Étude since that first vintage have been excellent and sometimes outstanding. Soter has been experimenting in recent vintages with a small amount of Pinot Blanc (about 350 cases) and Pinot Gris (50 cases).  In addition, he produces one of the finest rosés (a Rosé of Pinot Noir) made in California.  Current production of Pinot Noir is about 6000 cases; and Cabernet is about 1500 cases.

Today, Tony is still making some of the best Pinot Noir that Oregon has to offer.  Beringer Blass Wine Estates bought the Etude label in 2001, they had been searching for a strong Pinot Noir label and to have Tony Soter added to their all-star line-up of winemakers was another feather in their cap, but this arrangement came to an end as Tony is now focusing solely on Soter winery in the Willamette Valley in Oregon.