Tara Bella Russian River Cabernet Sauvignon Black Tie Buy 2-Pack
$69.99 (Normally $160.00) 56% off List Price
2010 Tara Bella Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Russian River Valley
2009 Tara Bella Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Russian River Valley
CT links above

Winery website

We at the nor-cal vintage pinot tasting were lucky enough to have Neil stop by and share a bottle of the 2010 with us. Being not a pinot kind of guy, this was my wine of the night. Here are my notes:

Color: dark purplish red. Dense

Nose: Jalapeño jelly with Extra jalapeño. No seriously. I was, and it was big, and really unique and enjoyable.

Palate. At first was green pepper and olive and dark fruits with a medium+ finish. As the wine opened it went through an awkward phase with not much fruit and not much finish but emerged after 4 hours to a fairly balanced Jalapeño, green olive flavor with a fair touch of acidity and a decent if not spectacular finish.

This is a unique wine. This is a high quality wine. If SWMBO didn't just get a new job (expenses without new $ yet) I'd completely be in for this. It was damn good.

Fred: You need this. ;-)

I had the chance to sample this wine at the NorCal Pinot night, thanks to Neil. Here are some notes I typed on my phone.

2010 Tara Bella Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Color: Very deep ruby

Nose: Lively nose of pickled jalapeño, olive, mushroom
 
Palate: blackberry, bell pepper, plum and balanced oak. Moderate tannin. Good acidity. 20+ second finish of vanilla and blackberry

This wine is definitely not your everyday cab! Unique flavors and complexity make it a must try for any cab lover. It is medium to full-bodied, but it's not a tannin monster or an oak monster. It has the complexity to satisfy drinking a la carte and the acidity to pair well with food.

I happened to have a bottle of the 09 a couple of nights ago.

The nose was nice I got a lot of cranberries and had some floral notes, decanted for an hour and the first glass was all about cassis and tart red fruits and cassis did i mention cassis, nice tannin and acid structure, there is some greenness that I think will flesh out with time . As the wine opened up it started to take on some notes of dark fruits and some tart plum and a nice long finish. There is a lot going on with this wine and I think this wine will do very well with some cellar time. I liked this a lot!

And since I seem to be on a buying binge today i'm in for a set.

Status: Awaiting Shipping

tytiger58 wrote:I happened to have a bottle of the 09 a couple of nights ago.

The nose was nice I got a lot of cranberries and had some floral notes, decanted for an hour and the first glass was all about cassis and tart red fruits and cassis did i mention cassis, nice tannin and acid structure, there is some greenness that I think will flesh out with time . As the wine opened up it started to take on some notes of dark fruits and some tart plum and a nice long finish. There is a lot going on with this wine and I think this wine will do very well with some cellar time. I liked this a lot!

It's quite amazing how different these vintages seem based on the tasting notes.

ajrod27 wrote:It's quite amazing how different these vintages seem based on the tasting notes.

Yea the 09 had some serious tart fruit but i liked it a lot.

I have a bottle of the 2009 (thank you Neil!) which I will be tasting today and reporting on.

cmaldoon wrote:We at the nor-cal vintage pinot tasting were lucky enough to have Neil stop by and share a bottle of the 2010 with us. Being not a pinot kind of guy, this was my wine of the night. Here are my notes:

Color: dark purplish red. Dense

Nose: Jalapeño jelly with Extra jalapeño. No seriously. I was, and it was big, and really unique and enjoyable.

Palate. At first was green pepper and olive and dark fruits with a medium+ finish. As the wine opened it went through an awkward phase with not much fruit and not much finish but emerged after 4 hours to a fairly balanced Jalapeño, green olive flavor with a fair touch of acidity and a decent if not spectacular finish.

This is a unique wine. This is a high quality wine. If SWMBO didn't just get a new job (expenses without new $ yet) I'd completely be in for this. It was damn good.

Fred: You need this. ;-)

Last Wooter to Woot:
fredrinaldi

Just when I was getting excited, no shipping to NH

Great - just great. I finally have my wine buying tendencies under control and these cabs come. sigh I'm excited about the reviews (thanks all), so I'm in for a set. There is always tomorrow - right?

Hey Wooters, Kevin and Wendy from Tara Bella. Thanks for all of the awesome posts! What's goin on?

Does anyone have any tricks to getting the wax off the bottles? I love the look it adds to the bottles, but is a PITA to get off from my experience.

HA,HA,HA! That's a great question...we use a waiters cork puller (with the hinge) twist the cork screw right through the wax and pull. It cracks right off the top. ENJOY!!!

Hi Kevin and Wendy!
Can you talk to us a bit about the style of wine you are aiming for here? At 13.5% the alcohol is relatively low for a CA Cabernet (a good thing in my book!). Was this intentional (picking at lower brix)?
I apologize if this was covered in the voice mail, I haven't had a chance to listen yet.

I found a bottle of the 2010 lying in the street by my house. Weird, huh? I was excited, but then my heart sank. Before even opening this wine, I hated it. Some of you may be able to guess why before I even say it.... WAX SEAL?!?! Why winery? Why? I hate wax seals. I think they're unnecessary and a huge pain in the ass. Strike one. Strike two is the label which I really don't like. I prefer modern style with almost all things aesthetic. Strike three doesn't come, though. I opened the bottle and...

On the PnP: very classic Cab nose -- tobacco, green veggies, bright red fruit, beets, and cigarette ash. The wine was graceful on the palate. Bright acidity, red fruits, beets again, and a little green. Very structured. Strong, fine tannins.

After an hour decant: definitely more pyrazine characteristics, tannins come through stronger, red fruits still present, but have moved back a bit. Paired very well with salt and pepper filets, sweet potato fries, and a wedge salad with blue cheese dressing and that balsamic we all love.

Conclusion: this is definitely not your Napa Cab fruit bomb. It is far more restrained (low alc., little oak influence, no sweetness from RS or fruit, etc.) and what I'd consider more "classic." SWMBO prefers big fruit in her wines so she didn't love it. Personally, I rather enjoy the Napa Cab fruit bomb style, also. However, this wine is elegant, medium-bodied, and well structured, and just enjoyable. I think it should sleep for at least a couple years and will benefit from doing so. Drinking windows are always guesses, but this wine seems to have the stuffing to age and show better than it does now (not saying it doesn't show well now at all).

I am guessing this will be a 2-pack for $89.99 assuming it's a 2-pack of the RRV CS. Retail is $67/bottle. That's pricey. However, this is a "boutique winery" at 350 cases (the bottles are individually numbered). So the value of a bottle changes, IMO, if you care about such things as the size of a winery.

If I may soapbox a bit. Many people on these boards claim to want hard-to-find, boutique-type wines on wine.woot while complaining about cost. Sub-$30 boutique wines are nigh impossible to come by. If you want to support a very small producer, you're going to pay the bucks to do so. This is an opportunity to do just that. Is it better than other $67 wines? Perhaps not. But at such low production numbers, it provides an opportunity if you are so inclined to want such a thing.

There's about a glass left in the decanter which I will try tomorrow early (10 AM PST) since some of you don't finish bottles in one night (weirdos!). And I'm always around so if you have any questions or want some palate calibration, Pat Benetar me. Sounds dirty. What I mean is, fire away. Uh... kind of sounds dirty, too. Whatever.

jhkey wrote:Hi Kevin and Wendy!
Can you talk to us a bit about the style of wine you are aiming for here? At 13.5% the alcohol is relatively low for a CA Cabernet (a good thing in my book!). Was this intentional (picking at lower brix)?
I apologize if this was covered in the voice mail, I haven't had a chance to listen yet.

Hey jhkey.... I was waiting for you to ask that question.....
Because of the cooler weather here in the RRV.... getting our grapes to 24+ brix is quite a challenge.....
We planted Cab, well, cuz we like Cab....
With all of the super high alchy wines from Alex Valley & Napa etc... the lower alc and natural acidity from our RRV fruit is so fresh.
We thin our crop a bit.. our goal is 24 but ususally pick at about 23.8/23.9 because of our area.
Also, letting the grapes hang to get higher sugars means sometimes changing the pH. We like to pick at 3.5/3.6 to retain that natural light acidity that just makes your tastebuds cry out for some more. Also.... killer food wine.

North316 wrote:Does anyone have any tricks to getting the wax off the bottles? I love the look it adds to the bottles, but is a PITA to get off from my experience.

Oh yeah.... just screw it in and pull it out.... you can do it!

kylemittskus wrote:I found a bottle of the 2010 lying in the street by my house. Weird, huh? I was excited, but then my heart sank. Before even opening this wine, I hated it. Some of you may be able to guess why before I even say it.... WAX SEAL?!?! Why winery? Why? I hate wax seals. I think they're unnecessary and a huge pain in the ass. Strike one. Strike two is the label which I really don't like. I prefer modern style with almost all things aesthetic. Strike three doesn't come, though. I opened the bottle and...

On the PnP: very classic Cab nose -- tobacco, green veggies, bright red fruit, beets, and cigarette ash. The wine was graceful on the palate. Bright acidity, red fruits, beets again, and a little green. Very structured. Strong, fine tannins.

After an hour decant: definitely more pyrazine characteristics, tannins come through stronger, red fruits still present, but have moved back a bit. Paired very well with salt and pepper filets, sweet potato fries, and a wedge salad with blue cheese dressing and that balsamic we all love.

Conclusion: this is definitely not your Napa Cab fruit bomb. It is far more restrained (low alc., little oak influence, no sweetness from RS or fruit, etc.) and what I'd consider more "classic." SWMBO prefers big fruit in her wines so she didn't love it. Personally, I rather enjoy the Napa Cab fruit bomb style, also. However, this wine is elegant, medium-bodied, and well structured, and just enjoyable. I think it should sleep for at least a couple years and will benefit from doing so. Drinking windows are always guesses, but this wine seems to have the stuffing to age and show better than it does now (not saying it doesn't show well now at all).

I am guessing this will be a 2-pack for $89.99 assuming it's a 2-pack of the RRV CS. Retail is $67/bottle. That's pricey. However, this is a "boutique winery" at 350 cases (the bottles are individually numbered). So the value of a bottle changes, IMO, if you care about such things as the size of a winery.

If I may soapbox a bit. Many people on these boards claim to want hard-to-find, boutique-type wines on wine.woot while complaining about cost. Sub-$30 boutique wines are nigh impossible to come by. If you want to support a very small producer, you're going to pay the bucks to do so. This is an opportunity to do just that. Is it better than other $67 wines? Perhaps not. But at such low production numbers, it provides an opportunity if you are so inclined to want such a thing.

There's about a glass left in the decanter which I will try tomorrow early (10 AM PST) since some of you don't finish bottles in one night (weirdos!). And I'm always around so if you have any questions or want some palate calibration, Pat Benetar me. Sounds dirty. What I mean is, fire away. Uh... kind of sounds dirty, too. Whatever.

Sorry about your wax envy..... we've heard it before.... heh, heh.... we'll probably leave it on cuz that's how we roll...
The label? Yeah.... we're old.... hence: the old school label.

Ageability: yes we've got that in huge amounts.... The '10s have only been in the bottle since Aug 2012.... still just a naughty baby.... put it in it's crib for a couple of years...
Our '08 Estate is hitting it out of the park with critics everywhere....
The '09 is showing fab right now... lay those 10s down.....

Thanks for all the info!! Based on the tasting notes, it sounds like you all go light on the new oak? What's the oak regiment that you use on this wine and is the same each year?

North316 wrote:Does anyone have any tricks to getting the wax off the bottles? I love the look it adds to the bottles, but is a PITA to get off from my experience.

Don't use the rabbit on these wax seals, permanently damages the Teflon coating.

jhkey wrote:Thanks for all the info!! Based on the tasting notes, it sounds like you all go light on the new oak? What's the oak regiment that you use on this wine and is the same each year?

jhkey: We use strictly French Oak.... we like American Oak, which is spicier, for other endeavors but for this elegant Cab, we prefer the softer vanilla characteristics of one & two year old barrels. We like a medium toast. We only use our barrels for 2-5 years and transfer them accordingly to retain that consistency.
Yes, we aim to keep that regiment year to year.... for that signature style.

Dealing with the challenges and variances in the weather year to year is a whole other story.....

cmaldoon wrote:We at the nor-cal vintage pinot tasting were lucky enough to have Neil stop by and share a bottle of the 2010 with us. Being not a pinot kind of guy, this was my wine of the night. Here are my notes:

Color: dark purplish red. Dense

Nose: Jalapeño jelly with Extra jalapeño. No seriously. I was, and it was big, and really unique and enjoyable.

Palate. At first was green pepper and olive and dark fruits with a medium+ finish. As the wine opened it went through an awkward phase with not much fruit and not much finish but emerged after 4 hours to a fairly balanced Jalapeño, green olive flavor with a fair touch of acidity and a decent if not spectacular finish.

This is a unique wine. This is a high quality wine. If SWMBO didn't just get a new job (expenses without new $ yet) I'd completely be in for this. It was damn good.

Fred: You need this. ;-)

hey cmaldoon... love your notes. Jalapeno jelly? Wow! I think now, I need to go open a breakfast bottle and re-visit this characteristic.
Yes! The ripe green olive with subtleties of tobacco are some of the first hints I get from the nose and flavor also.
I love reading the tasting notes of others as I can then go back in and say, "How'd I miss THAT"?

Hey Wooters...
Loving the comments and tasting notes.....
Just wanted to give a little back story here.

The ESTATE vineyard is our small 3 acres that was planted in 2005 to Clone 7 Cabernet Sauvignon. These vines are only, what, 8 years old... still just children. In the next couple years they will be more mature and produce grapes with even deeper characteristics.
Clone 7 is definitely French... it is LaTour and is THE clone that put the Napa Valley on the map a few decades ago.

We have another 3 acre vineyard, RESERVE, planted in 1998 that is Clone 4 Cab. Clone 4 most likely originally French or even Middle Eastern...is mostly propogated in the mountains of Argentina... in the Mendoza Region... also referred to as 'The Mendoza Clone". It produces a wine that is much more fruit forward with definite black cherry characteristics.

Don't even get me started on the differences of '09 and '10 weather.... they couldn't have been more different.
'09 was a classic almost textbook growing season (like the 2012s) hot, long and gorgeous. Plenty of hang time.
2010.... rain rain rain.... then cold cold cold... like June-uary and Fog-ust.... and then a 105 degree spike for 3 days in late September..... many growers had pulled leaves all over California... and experienced mucho sunburned grapes... and THEN it rained... many of those growers (especially the zin guys) grapes just self destructed on the vine.
Cab is a tougher skinned grape, we did not pull our south facing leaves and harvested gorgeous fruit.... just not a lot of it.....
Hope this interests you as much as it does this vineyard nerd....

tarabellawine wrote:Sorry about your wax envy..... we've heard it before.... heh, heh.... we'll probably leave it on cuz that's how we roll...
The label? Yeah.... we're old.... hence: the old school label.

Ageability: yes we've got that in huge amounts.... The '10s have only been in the bottle since Aug 2012.... still just a naughty baby.... put it in it's crib for a couple of years...
Our '08 Estate is hitting it out of the park with critics everywhere....
The '09 is showing fab right now... lay those 10s down.....

Hope you can come out and visit us one of these days.... you'll fall in love with this little known jewel, tucked away in the Olivet Road area of RRV....
thanks for the shout out...

rpm wrote:I have a bottle of the 2009 (thank you Neil!) which I will be tasting today and reporting on.

Looking forward to your thoughts! (And I could be in trouble)

klezman wrote:Looking forward to your thoughts! (And I could be in trouble)

word

klezman wrote:Looking forward to your thoughts! (And I could be in trouble)

Luhhh -key

klezman wrote:Looking forward to your thoughts! (And I could be in trouble)

You will like this wine.

kylemittskus wrote:You will like this wine.

My plastic doesn't need to hear this.

rjquillin wrote:My plastic doesn't need to hear this.

Speaking of, I got your other case of wine today.

kylemittskus wrote:...There's about a glass left in the decanter which I will try tomorrow early (10 AM PST) since some of you don't finish bottles in one night (weirdos!). And I'm always around so if you have any questions or want some palate calibration, Pat Benetar me. Sounds dirty. What I mean is, fire away. Uh... kind of sounds dirty, too. Whatever.

Hey Kyle - how was that breakfast glass???

Gah.... Resolve breaking down....

I am so glad to see the winery here answering questions and am remembering how unique and lovely this wine was.

Holding off a bit longer....

jhkey wrote:Hey Kyle - how was that breakfast glass???

Early lunch glass commencing in 20 minutes.

I ordered a set, thinking of ordering another one...

Day 2: tannins have subsided substantially, but are still present. I'll jump on board with the jalapeno (my original note mentioned "green" without specification). I think the '10 is a baby and it is going to be lovely in 3-5 years.

The short of it is: boutique winery, super low production, classic style, winery participation. All good things. And at the woot price: WORTH IT. But the wax! Oh, the wax!

I just hit the BIG YELLOW BUTTON because this price beats my inner-winery discount!

Hey all, Jon here from Inspiration... This is a neighbor of mine on Olivet Road. I knew the original owners (Rich & Tara) who started the winery and now I'm good friends with Wendy & Kevin who took over.

Consistently these cab vines produce a very deep rich CS that can lie down for years. Also, this wine has consistently received GOLD medal awards because it’s made with total passion and commitment and really high quality! The fact that it’s grown in Russian River Valley proves that my neighborhood can produce something other than Chardonnay (that I grow) and Pinot Noir. In fact, I’m starting to think that some Pinot Noir producers are making their Pinot’s from the RRV in the style of this Cab! ;)

All of you Wootsters have been awesome supporters of my brand – Please extend a BIG warm WOOT welcome to Wendy & Kevin as they join the World of Woot with this first outstanding offering.

Cheers...
JP

kylemittskus wrote:You will like this wine.

Yeah, this totally sounds in my wheelhouse. Sounds a lot like the Woodside Vineyards Santa Cruz Mtn Cab, actually.

kylemittskus wrote:Early lunch glass commencing in 20 minutes.

That sounds like an excellent idea.... we'll join you....

tarabellawine wrote:That sounds like an excellent idea.... we'll join you....

You took good notes when David was talking to you about manning the boards. Thanks! I wish more wineries were this responsive. Your sales and more importantly long term goodwill will benefit.

Thanks again!