Carl and Brian Nuss blending wine in 2010.
I first met winemaker Brian Nuss at a Halloween/ birthday party at Didier Loustau’s home in Napa. It was a great evening and carried over to the next day when Didier and I visited the Nuss family at their home and vineyards on Howell Mountain. We sat on their deck which overlooked Napa Valley, tasted some of the prior vintages of their Vinoce blend and had a wonderful brunch. All this was a start to a continuing friendship.
When I decided to try making wine, I called my friend Didier and asked who I could team up with to make wine. His first response (and a good one) was “Call Brian Nuss; he’ll help you.” I did just that and the call turned out to be the beginning of a great relationship with Brian and his family. As I mentioned in my blog on March 30, 2016, Lori Nuss passed away on March 20…my first day of this year’s Napa trip. She was a delightful lady and will be missed by all.
Our very first Cabernet vintage together was our 2008 Glenwood Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. Since that inaugural vintage, we have blended and produced a 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Glenwood Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. Our current release is the 2011. Our 2012 is bottled and resting nicely in the warehouse. I am guessing we’ll release that wine later in 2016.
2011 Glenwood Cellars Cabernet
2011 was not a great harvest in Napa Valley. The quality of its grapes was affected by the weather. It was difficult to get good blending wines as we had been able to in prior years. The blend of the 2011 Glenwood Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc.
I believe the profile of our 2011 Cabernet is more Old World than New World. It has a distinct aroma of earthiness on the nose. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied with a degree of minerality and red fruit with a mild mouth feel.
Here are my comments from our tasting notes when we released the wine:
“With each and every vintage of Glenwood Cellars Cabernet, winemaker Brian Nuss and I strive to blend a wine that is approachable out of the bottle and possesses good depth with an understandable complexity. We want this wine to have smooth, rich, soft layered textures that aren’t heavy on the palate, yet produce a memorable and long finish. I believe that the 2011 Glenwood Cellars Cabernet meets those standards and marries beautifully with food, family and friends.”
We sourced the wines for the 2011 Cabernet from a number of Napa Valley vineyards located in Rutherford, Mount Veeder, Calistoga and Oak Knoll. The wines were aged in oak prior to blending. As I mentioned, the 2011 harvest was a difficult one. We had a tough time getting a blend we liked. It took a number of attempts but we finally got an acceptable blend. After blending, the wine was mixed in stainless steel tanks and then stored back in oak barrels until bottling.
Here is what Brian had to say about our 2011 Cabernet:
“The 2011 yields an intense, deeply-colored wine of concentrated aromas and flavors. Approachable and delicious, the 2011 Glenwood Cabernet is an agile performer that will out-step many bigger, more overbearing California Cabernets. The wine is full of dark cherries and black currants and has notes of cedar, sandalwood and coffee.”
The wine is available locally at Chalet Party Shoppe, and can be ordered at other wine stores through distributor Tiedemann Wines. Just ask your wine store to do that for you. The wine is also available at a number of local restaurants, both by the glass and by the bottle.
As always, I appreciate your support of our wine blog and encourage you to share it with family and friends. If you care to share your comments on this blog posting or other topics, please do so in the comments section below.
Until next week,
Cheers
Please join us for these Upcoming Tiedemann On Wines Wine Club dinners:
August 25, Uptown Kitchen Wine Dinner, Uptown Kitchen in Granger, 6:30 p.m.
October 13, Old World Versus New World Wines, Dinner at McCarthy’s on the Riverwalk in Elkhart, 6:30 p.m.
November 10, Spanish Wine Dinner at McCarthy’s on the Riverwalk in Elkhart, 6:30 p.m.
