North Coast Express Hoopsters

Fall 2007 Wine Tasting Fundraiser

Saturday, November 17, 2007

2-5pm

Tickets -$40 in advance/$45 at the door

Maxwell's Lounge - 341 - 13th Street, Oakland

Please join us for an afternoon of adult fun to raise funds for the North Coast Express Hoopsters Basketball Organization. All proceeds will be used for ongoing team expenses. This was one of our most successful events of early 2007, and we have brought it back to help you stock your wine cellar for the holiday season. Check back to this site soon for announcements of participating winemakers, but buy your ticket for the event now.

Silent Auction Wines:

1994 Dunn Napa Magnum ($225-350)
The 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa reveals an opaque purple color, followed by a sweet, rich, black currant and creme de cassis-scented nose with no evidence of oak. This fruit bomb displays considerable breadth and expansiveness on the palate, in essence revealing only two dimensions - fruit and tannin. It is slightly softer and more precocious than the 1995 and 1996, so perhaps it will only need 10, rather than 15 years of cellaring. This immensely impressive Cabernet is a candidate for 20-30 years of cellaring. One of the issues about which Randy Dunn is sensitive is the fact that his wines are so remarkably consistent that it is often difficult to tell vintages apart. I think the vintage character will become more apparent when the wines are 15-20 years of age. Even the most professional palate will be inundated with a furious blast of tannin and concentrated cassis and blackberry fruit when these wines are young. With that in mind, the notes for the wines reviewed in this segment do sound similar, but I feel 1994 may turn out to be Dunn's finest of the three most recent vintages.

1998 Silver Oak Magnum ($220-320)
The 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa (93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot) is a narrowly constructed, firmer, less generous offering than previous vintages of the nineties. The attractive dark ruby/purple color is accompanied by sweet aromas of cassis, smoked herbs, oak, and earth. Gritty tannin is noticeable in the finish.

1994 Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet ($149-249)
"The 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is another prodigious example of why Montelena Cabernets have been so popular, as well as have stood the test of time. It possesses an opaque purple color, followed by a sweet, jammy nose of black fruits, earth, wood, and spice. Dense, powerful, and full-bodied, with terrific extraction of fully ripe fruit, sweet tannin, plenty of glycerin, and expansive layers of flavor, this wine should ultimately rank alongside some of the most memorable Chateau Montelena Cabernets."

1998 Joseph Phelps Insignia ($100-150)
The 1998 Insignia . . . is a fabulous wine from a . . challenging vintage. More evolved than the 1997, with a saturated ruby/purple color, it possesses a sumptuous bouquet of smoke, cedar, licorice and cassis. This full-bodied, fat, succulent effort reveals admirable purity and symmetry, and a soft finish with remarkably deep flavors that caress the palate." A dark, deliciously rich and complex youngster, brimming with layers of currant, blackberry, plum, mineral, spice, chocolate and cedar. Finishes with a gush of flavors, yet maintains its finesse and grace.

If you would like to purchase tickets or make a donation by check please make checks payable to the North Coast Express Hoopsters, and mail to PO Box 2182, Alameda, CA 94501

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