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What We Say 2005 Estate Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
EXCLUSIVE PRE-RELEASE!:
Today’s wine is available here, first! Today’s wine is from one of our fastest-selling wineries. Be sure to take advantage of this offer – before we run out
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SUPERIOR WINE ALERT!
Today’s wine deserves a special special alert. This is a richly delicious wine that is great now, and will continue to age beautifully. If you have never experienced a Burgess wine, you need to get on board!
Mission Codename: The Western Slopes, Redux
Operative: Agent Red
Objective: Secure a supply of Operative favorite Burgess Cellars 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon – before it becomes available anywhere else
Mission Status: Accomplished
Current Winery: Burgess Vineyard
Wine Subject: 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
Winemaker: Steve Burgess
Backgrounder: Our Operatives love Burgess Cellars’ Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2004 we featured here earlier this year quickly became a Top Five best-seller! When we got wind that Steve’s 2005 was ready, we sent Agent Red to negotiate for a special preview supply of Steve’s 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, a stunner of a wine that should beat our previous record for a Burgess wine! Read Agent Reds tasting notes and mission report below.
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Deepest dark garnet to pure ruby at the edge of the glass, with an inky-dark heart. This wine shows a tight surface when swirled, leaving behind widely-spaced and ultra slow moving legs take forever to move down the glass
Smell – Characteristic Burgess Cab, with aromatic perfume of deeply layered fruit with rich cassis, blueberry, spicy blackberry, currant and smoky plum with vanilla and soft spice
Feel – Tender up-front, then wet, then big and mouth-coating with lush medium all-over-mouth tannins
Taste – WOW! (ahem) Delicious and rich and deeply extracted with flavors of dark mixed berry, dark strawberry, bing cherry, cocoa and softest spice
Finish – Rich and dark with smoky flavors that become bright and fruity as flavors and tannins tail off very slowly
Conclusion – Dear Steve Burgess, will you make our first Wine Spies wine? This wine is delicious, beautifully balanced and way fun. Once again, we are blown away by a Steve’s winemaking prowess – and the supreme quality of the west-side Howell Mountain fruit that goes into this fantastic wine. Steve absolutely nails it with the ready to drink wine and I am certain that it will only get better with a bit more time in the bottle. Enjoy now, to be sure, but the truly patient will be amply rewarded. My advice? By a full case!
Mission Report:
What follows is Agent Red’s first encounter with Burgess Cellars. Now that we have a mole deep within the Burgess organization, procuring specials like today’s pre-release allotment is a snap. Please enjoy this mission recap:
In which Agent Red has enjoyed a few glasses of today’s 2004 Burgess Cabernet Sauvignon – and finds himself waxing poetic. Or does he?
Ode to Burgess and their fanTAStic Cabernet Sauvignon
Millenial
Generational
Dedication
Preservation
Your wines appeal
they make us feel
a connection
to the Mountain Howell
Maceration
Vinification
Fermentation
Mere words
The true soul of your wine shines
in the tall pours that I desire
Succulent
Juicy
Delicious
Bright fruit
Deep roots
Your Cab is beyond compare
_In which Agent Cuvee, sensing that Agent Red is not the Pablo Neruda of wine, steps in and stops Agent Red from writing any more poetry.
Okay, Red, put down the pen and go get some rest. I got this one.
Greeting Dear Operatives. Agent Red had to, umm, leave. I’m taking over this briefing.
All of us here at Wine Spies Central Command agree: Bill Sorenson is a winemaker of remarkable talent. All of his wines shine with a uniqueness and distinctiveness and all of his wines taste great. The fantastic Howelll Mountain fruit grown on the Burgess estate doesn’t hurt, either.
We recently had the great fortune to taste through all of his current release red wines and it was his Cab that really stood out as our favorite. With bright fruit, a tender mouth feel and a rich finish, this wine is not a massive monster Cab that bullies your senses. This is a refined wine that is real pleasure to spend quality time with.
During our tasting, we found ourselves discussing this wine at length. It was really interesting to pull apart and describe in detail all of the aromas and flavors that the wine conveys. With its bright acidity, we suspect that the wine would pair nicely with most anything. We were hoping to enjoy it with the meal we had planned for later that evening, but Agent Red seemed to have enjoyed most of the remaining bottle, leaving none for our dinner. Alas. At least it led to some poetry that we can tease him about – once he returns from his latest mission!
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The location of the Burgess Cellars in Napa Valley can be seen in this satellite photo.
What the Winery Says
Burgess Cellars
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Burgess Cellars, Member, Napa Valley Vintners
About This Wine:
This wine was produced from grapes grown on the Burgess Cellars’ hillside vineyards. One vineyard is on the western-side of Howell Mountain and the other on the eastern-side overlooking Pope Valley. The environment in the two mountain vineyard areas produces grapes of different characteristics. When fruit from both vineyards are blended together they complement each other and create a complex, balanced Cabernet. The vines were replanted in the 70’s and 80’s and now show a high level of maturity and consistency. We use the most modern fermentation concept of horizontal rotary fermenters to extract all the positive components and manage tannin extraction.
Winemaker’s Comments:
Dense, rich flavors of black and red fruits. Incredibly complex and ponderous as the wine gives and gives. The core of blackberries, cassis, and cherry leads to a smooth cocoa, vanilla, and baking spice finish. A dynamic wine with character from the hillside and bench land fruit.
About The Winery:
Burgess Cellars, located on the slopes of Howell Mountain in Napa Valley, focuses on creating exceptional, hand-crafted estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot & Syrah.
Burgess traces its origins to an original winery on the property in the 1880’s. Since 1972, Napa Valley pioneer Tom Burgess and his family have followed the belief that it is vital to grow only those varietals ideally suited to a particular vineyard’s soil composition, sun and wind exposure, and overall micro-climate. The French refer to this as “terroir,” and it certainly explains the consistent aromas and flavors found in the hillside Burgess Cabernet Sauvignon.
Over the years three distinct estate vineyard sites have been cultivated and nurtured to create the very best handcrafted wines. The Burgess flagship wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, thrives on the western slopes of Howell Mountain near the winery; Merlot is ideally suited to the Triere Vineyard on the Napa Valley floor in the Oak Knoll AVA just south of Yountville; Syrah is perfectly matched to conditions in the estate vineyard site on the eastern slope of Howell Mountain.
Burgess is somewhat unique in the Napa Valley today, in that it is truly a family-owned winery which has employed the same gifted winemaker, Bill Sorenson, since the winery’s re-birth in 1972.
Technical Analysis:
Vintage: 2005
Appellation: Napa Valley, California
Vineyard location: Burgess Winery Vineyard – St. Helena
Grape Varieties: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec
Alcohol: 14.4%
pH: 3.69
T.A.: 0.50
Fermentation: 100% Malolactic
Cases produced: 5,800
Suggested retail: $38.00 / bottle
Release date: To Be Determined
