TN: 2006 Terraces Chardonnay (USA, California, Napa Valley)

Dave, how long ago did you taste this? It sounds quite similar to the 2005 which I tasted from barrel. I’m still a little concerned about the 2006 NV vintage because of the early rains and the late bud break. Did you taste any Petite Sirah while you were there? I’m going to go to The Terraces sometime over the next few months since I’ll be in the Valley in March and then again in April. The bit about neutralizing the barrels is interesting.

On Thursday afternoon. I never got to try the 2005 Chardonnay - haven't visited Terraces in a while. We didn't taste the Petite, only the 03 Cab and 04 Zin, plus a sip of three 05 blends that they were considering for an auction event this weekend. The pure 05 Cab is showing beautifully at such an early stage.

You know that barrel with the plastic spikes coming out of it? Tim was trying to hang it up above the kitchen area in the tasting room. I hope he's done the calculations right - I'd hate to be under that if it fell down!

We bought three each of the 04 Zin and 03 Cab.

I think that the guy that wrote this posted on this forum at one time, but here is a thread from everybody’s favorite wine forum about Napa Vintners on tour in NYC. This guy really likes The Terraces Premiere Cabernet but I think that only 25 cases of it were made. It might be one of the special blends that you mentioned.

Interesting. Yes, this was for the Napa Premiere auction. They have to create a wine that's not available elsewhere and were trying to decide what to submit; comparing a blend of 90%Cab/10%Zinfandel, a 92/8 zin blend and a 100% Cabernet.

The 90/10 was way too tannic. The 92/8 was significantly better (amazing how much difference 2% makes) but the pure cab was stellar. They said they'd probably go with that. I said I thought it had to be a blend, but apparently a single barrel "reserve" is also allowable. Looks like that was the final selection - see The Auction

Either way, 2005 Terraces Cab will definitely be one to look out for.