We had these two older CarnerosCreek Reds from Blair's cellar ystrday at Pig+Fig:
1. CarnerosCreekWnry Zin EsolaVnyds/AmadorCnty (14.5%; http://www.CarnerosCreekWinery.com) Napa 1977: Dark color w/ some bricking; rather musty/oldZin rather cedary/pencilly/old Zin fairly alcoholic rather tired nose w/ little Zin or Amador briary character; quite tired oldZin/cedary/pencilly slight blackberry/briary pretty tired flavor w/ tired drying tannins; long pretty tired/drying out slight cedary/pencilly/oldZin finish w/ tired dryed out tannins; in decent condition for a 40+ yr old Zin but not a whole lot left to this wine. $6.50 (JL)
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2. CarnerosCreekWnry CabSauv EsolaVnyd/AmadorCnty (14.6%) Napa 1991: Very dark color w/ slight bricking; rathe cedary/pencilly/Am.oak/oldRed some blackcurranty/Cab fairly strong nose that speaks strongly of Cab. lightly tart/tangy some blackcruuanty/Cab fairly strong cedary/pencilly/oldRed somewhat complex flavor w/ modest smooth tannins; very long rather blackcurranty/Cab fairly cedary/pencilly/oldCab slight earthy rather complex finish w/ light gentle tannins; starting to fade into the Sunset but in remarkable shape for a 30+ yr old no-name Cab; not drying out but fully mature. $??
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More klackerhorton from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. I have, of course, followed the wines of FrankMahoney from the very start...his '72 Napa Gamay...which was a lovely wine. I first met Frank when he was a buyer for Draper-Esquin (or Connoisseur Wine Imports) in SanFrancisco. I was struck by his passion for wine, especially PinotNoir/RedBurgundy. So I was excited when he started CarnerosCreek. He planted a bunch of different clones of Pinot there on his property on the Northern edge of Carneros. He vinified them separately & did one of Calif's seminal studies of Pinot clones. They wine were blended together to make a single Estate Pinot, the first being released in 1976. It was one of the best Pinots being produced in Calif at that time.
Until his Pinot plantings came on line, he went up to AmadorCnty & purchased Zin from the Esola & Eschen Vnyds, paralleling those wines being made by Ridge & MtVeeder Vnyds of MikeBernstein. He (and Mike) also made a huge NapaVlly PetiteSyrah in '75 that was profound.
Frank's Amador Zins tended to be on the very ripe/alcoholic side and some were made as LatePicked and LateHrvst when they had RS. Finally, about '79 he gave up on making Amador Zins because of the overripe issue. I have never forgiven Frank for that &, to this day, complain to him bloody-hell for doing that.
During those early yrs, he also bought a small amount of Esola Cab from Ernie & John Esola & continued to make it into the mid-'80's. He particularly liked it because it was very dark in color. He sometimes bttld it separately as an Amador Cab. He was also making a NapaVlly SteltznerVnyd Cab & would often use some of the Amador Cab to boost the color in that wine.
I always liked Frank's Amador Cab (more so than his Steltzner Cab) because it spoke strongly of the ShenandoahVlly & reminded me more of Amador briary Zin. This '91 has pretty much lost that briary character & speaks strongly of older Calif Cab.
Frank was very innovative and was one of the first to go to YoloCnty to buy Cab/Zin/RubyCab in order to make value-priced wines. Afore Bogle made the region famous.
Both Ernie & John Esola have long since died. The vnyd is now farmed ably by Denise Esola. And now that Bedrock makes Esola Zin, Morgan has returned Esola to the glory yrs it enjoyed back in the '70's.
In the late '70's, I was writing an article for Philip Seldon's Vintage Magazine on "Wines of the Esola & Eschen Vnyds" and made an appt to visit w/ Ernie & Lena d'Agostini Esola. They were so excited that a "famous" wine writer was coming to visit them that they dressed all in their Sunday finest & invited me to stay for lunch. Of all the wine personages I've met/interviewed over the yrs, this was one of my most favorite visits. Ernie & Lena were some of the nicest/no-nonsense/down-to-Earth/friendliest folks I've ever met. I've always regreted that I never made a follow-up visit with them as I'd drive by their home right there going into Plymouth. Alas, to late now, as they have both passed. But the farm is ably run by Denise and Morgan makes a great Zin from her grapes.
Tom