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David Ramey |
The Wine Spectator and Robert Parker have anointed David Ramey as a California superstar for both Cabernet and Chardonnay, but it was not that David Ramey who met with an assembly of the Boston restaurant scene’s wine glitterati (and me) at a lunch at Mooo late last month. Two others showed up instead.
First there was Dr. David Ramey, the erudite academician, master of both history and science of the vine, lectured on the nuances of Napa and Sonoma viticulture, with special attention to its roots in the Old World. A self described classicist, he stressed how bordeaux was his model for his Cabernet-based reds, and Burgundy for his chardonnays.
The other David Ramey kept burbling through. This was David Ramey the sybarite; pleasure loving, funny and puckish, full of gentle gibes at both his models and his peers. This was the Ramey who balanced the other’s severity with unabashed sensual indulgence.
His wines showed both characters, precise and delineated in their composition and textures, rich and flowing in their flavors. It was perhaps this to which Robert Parker referred. when he praised the 2005 Pedregal Cabernet Sauvignon for its “elegance and purity” as well “richness and intensity {and] Wonderfully sweet expansive fruit flavors.” I loved that wine Is it, as Mr Parker called it “a Screaming Eagle look- alike?” He could say better than I, but to my palate, even in its youth, Pedregal Cabernet tasted the more nuanced and complex.
There was a 2005 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that had a fine dusty filigree of cocoa and herb over a bed of rich fruit. it had developed considerably over my tasting a few months ago. A 2005 Syrah from Rodgers Vineyard on Sonoma Mountain was as spicy as a Cote Rotie, but rich as an Hermitage.
Mr. Hyde is not David’s alter ego, but the Carneros grower of what I have found to be in most vintages, his most successful single vineyard Chardonnay. We tasted the 2006, but i have gotten all I could of the 2005 Hyde Chardonnay a vintage that is in full rich flower now. We also have kept some of the 2005 Ramey Carneros Chardonnay , which is a smaller version of the Hyde.
My notes for some of these wines fell victim to a computer operator malfunction, so i have quoted Robert Parker in some places.
We have all the wines below in stock, most in very limited quantity
White
| 2005 Ramey Chardonnay Carneros:
Aroma: clean tight, sweetly oaky, heady; Mouth: herbal light clean, tight acid firm, light lemony, clean, leanish;
Very Good - Excellent |
$44.95 |
$40.46 |
$38.21 |
| 2005 Ramey Chardonnay Hyde
Mouth: very firm, , very dense, a point, very nicely composed between oak fruit and acid, long finish;
Excellent |
$69.95 |
$62.96 |
$59.46 |
Red
| 2005 Ramey Cabernet Sauvignon:
Napa; Aroma: heady sweet dense earthy, very rich, clean firm, dark toned sweet; Mouth: clean very rich linear, very dense tannic, very earthy & thick, good length;
Very Good to Excellent |
$58.95 |
$53.06 |
$50.11 |
| 2005 Ramey Pedregal Cabernet Sauvignon
Robert Parker: “Readers looking for a Screaming Eagle look- alike should check out David Ramey’s 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Pedregal (85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Petit Verdot), a wine that has put on amazing richness and intensity since last year. Beautifully pure creme de cassis fruit interwoven with notions of spring flowers, espresso roast, and truffles jump from the glass of this wine. Wonderfully sweet, expansive fruit flavors, a massive, full-bodied palate, and superb elegance as well as purity suggest this stunner should drink well for 20-25+ years”
Excellent Plus |
$150 net |
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| 2005 Syrah Rodgers Creek:
Parker “a black/purple color as well as abundant notes of crushed pepper, incense, Chinese black tea, plums, tapenade, and blackberries. It reminds me of a 2003 Clape Cornas from the Rhone Valley. Huge, tannic, and promising, it will drink well for 8-12 years”
Very Good - Excellent |
$75 net |
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