HMB Wine and Cheese Tasting Event

Willowbrook Cellars was featured this week at HMB Wine and Cheese Saturday tasting event.

Winemaker Joe Otos was there, and he is a big guy who likes to make big wines. (He does not seem to want to talk about this, but he is 6' 8" tall.) We tasted all of his wines, and some of them were very impressive from this small production winery.

The 2005 Morelli Lane Pinot Noir was really an interesting spicy Pinot Noir that I liked, and brought a bottle home as well. This Pinot uses grapes from the Morelli vineyard, which is a higher elevation vineyard near the ocean, planted with Pomard clone (traditional) Pinot fruit. I rated this one 90/100.

The 2005 Kastania Vineyard Pinot Noir is another Sonoma Pinot made from a blend of Dijon clone and Pomard clone fruit, and has a very bold taste, yet balanced and smooth finish. This in my opinion is the best of the three Pinots from the 2005 vintage from Willowbrook. Rated 91/100.

The third Pinot we tasted was the 2004 Estate Pinot, and it was very non-traditional, with a very spicy acidic taste, and really reminds one of Zinfandel wine rather than Pinot Noir. I have a hard time rating this Pinot, but it is unusual and interesting to try.

The Cabernet wines that Joe brought are from a different label, Owl Ridge Winery.

The first one served was the 2004 Owl Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma County), a $24 Cabernet made with 100% Cab fruit and a really nice buy, great fruit, very pleasing taste and mild tannins for a young wine. Rating of 88/100. I was favorably impressed already.

Next up was Owl Ridge 2004 Vineyard Select Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine with big fruit, nice balance and very low tannins for a Cabernet. Only 304 cases were produced of this wine, and it is $38/bottle. I will give this wine a rating of 91.

Finally, we tasted the Owl Ridge 2003 Dry Creek Valley Cabernet, made from grapes from the Passalacqua Vineyard in Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley. This was a truly top-notch Cabernet, and I brought one bottle home for a later tasting. This is a big wine suitable for aging, with about 600 cases produced. The wine sells for $48 and is great to serve with a nicely grilled steak. Rating of 92/100.

It was a really fun afternoon at the tasting bar, with a friendly crowd including some real Pinot Mafia club members who keep their Pinot glasses behind the wine bar. I was also able to sample the new 2004 Ryan Peay Vineyard Pinot Noir vintage, which is another low production from Ryan, 71 cases made this time. This is becoming an even more difficult wine to acquire. Based on this tasting, I will rate this vintage of Ryan Peay a 93/100.