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Reviews
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Wine Spectator Review 2005 Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine Aromas of plum and roasted sage lead to intense, youthful black cherry, cracked pepper and licorice flavors, finishing with rich, loamy tannins. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. |
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The Wine Advocate Review 2005 Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine The 2005 Proprietary Red Wine is a blend of 96% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, all from the Oak Knoll sector of Napa. Its deep ruby/purple-tinged color is followed by a sweet perfume of mocha, caramelized black cherries and currants, and hints of chocolate as well as espresso. With terrific fruit, medium to full body, supple tannin, and well-integrated acidity and alcohol, it should be drunk over the next 8-10 years. |
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Vintrust Review 2005 "PARAMOUR" Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine Aroma: Ruby Fruit, Cocoa, Black Plum - 15/15 "Paramour is the latest release from Blackbird Vineyards. The gravel and clay vineyard was purchased by proprietor Michael Polenske in 2003...Winemaker Sarah Gott is formerly of Joseph Phelps Vineyards." |
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Vinfolio Review 2005 Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine, Oak Knoll District "The wine shows a nose of vibrant cassis, orange skins, dark cherry, blueberry, lavender, chocolate, licorice and slate aromas. The palate breaks in with hints of meaty olive shading seductive kirsch and black plum flavors. Bold and smooth on the finish. Continues to evolve over 80 hours." |
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Vintrust Review 2004 Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine, Oak Knoll District Aroma: Dark Black Cherry, Dark Chocolate, Mocha - 14/15 "The wine is a powerful, rich, massive and extracted version of plebian Merlot styles and it is truly destined to become a true cult classic." |
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Born to Fly... 93 Points Yes, another wine with animals on its label. But no, definitely not a 'critter-label' wine, as in mass-market, popularly priced, millennial-generation crowd-pleaser wine. The wine called Blackbird Vineyards is a connoisseur's wine through and through. The vineyard called Blackbird Vineyards is a small, ten-acre property in the Oak Knoll District of southern Napa Valley that was planted to Merlot in 1997. Until 2003, grapes from this vineyard went into the wines of elite Napa Valley producers including Selene, where Mia Klein made an acclaimed vineyard-designated Merlot from this property. The property changed hands in 2003, and now respected winemaker Sarah Gott is custodian of the fruit. The new owner of Blackbird Vineyards is Michael Polenske, who gave up an illustrious career in finance (for example, he was at one time President and Chief Executive Officer of Chase Manhattan Bank & Trust Co., N.A., heading up the private banking business in the Western U.S.) to pursue his dream of making wine. The winery brands itself an 'artisanal producer of Pomerol-inspired wines. The 2004 Blackbird Vineyards wine is 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon but it is labeled as a proprietary wine rather than as a varietal Merlot. Although I consider the word 'elegant' to be over-used to the point of being almost meaningless, I must admit that this is a supremely elegant Merlot wine. The aromas suggest very ripe red fruits, including a note of raspberry, along with dark plum, black cherry and a suggestion of chocolate--all of this fairly quietly, because the wine is young and tight. In the mouth, the wine sends two signals: soft, well-knit, richly-textured fruit and yet firm structure that keeps the fruit in line. The wine has great depth and length, real concentration of fruit character, and complexity of flavor--all the hallmarks of greatness. It also has enormous finesse. Certainly the wine's understatement and finesse is at least partially a reflection of the Oak Knoll District, which ranks as the coolest part of viticultural Napa Valley other than Carneros. Because it is so southerly and also flat, the Oak Knoll District benefits from coastal fog and cooling breezes off the San Pablo Bay, which slow the grapes' ripening and thus enable full flavor development without excessive sugar accumulation. The result, in this wine, is admirable balance of aromatics to structure as well as balance of the wine's structural components themselves. The 2004 Blackbird Vineyards wine has enough fruity character to be impressive if you drink it now, but its firm structure and its concentration suggest that it will evolve beautifully for many years, most likely becoming rounder as its tannins integrate completely. For collectors, it is a wine worth collecting. |
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Restaurant Wine Four Stars + (out of Five) Fleshy and full bodied, this is a fine Merlot, tasting of plum, black cherry, blueberry, and toast, with a smooth, long, lightly tannic finish. Pomerol-like, in the best sense. Unfined, unfiltered. 5% CS. 1,100 cases. |
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THE WILDER SIDE OF CALIFORNIA There's rare, and then there's really rare... The stunning debut of Blackbird Vineyards 2003 Blackbird - Merlot, Oak Knoll District, Before discussing this particular wine in too much detail, as much as I want to, it makes sense to first talk about the background a bit. Beginning in 1999, Mia Klein, owner and winemaker of Selene Winery introduced a vineyard designate Merlot from Blackbird Vineyards, south of Yountville. This bottling quickly gained wide acclaim among the trade and I noted the 1999 vintage (95 points) as my recommendation over the much heralded 2001 Paloma Merlot (Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year in 2003). I very quietly sold dozens of cases of Selene's Blackbird to my clients who wanted to know what I was so excited about. It wasn't long until the mere mention of Blackbird stopped people in their tracks. It was the best Merlot nobody had ever heard of. In 2003, the vineyard changed hands. While most of the fruit that year went to Shafer, Behrens & Hitchcock, Viader, and Lail, new owner Michael Polenske and winemaker Sarah Gott carved out a miniscule amount of fruit to begin his legacy. This wine not only follows in the footsteps of the string of the superb Blackbird Vineyards Merlot made by Klein, it sets a new standard unsurprisingly from the same source. An important note here is that as great as the Selene Blackbird was, it only contained 55% of Blackbird fruit. The 2003 is sourced 100% from the vineyard. Michael and I tasted his 2003 Blackbird last Friday at my office in St. Helena, and I was left with an extremely solid impression of 94 + points. When finished with our meeting, I put the cork back in the bottle and left it on my desk to revisit Monday. The evolution left me speechless... after being open for 80 hours, only being gassed once on Sunday afternoon, the wine had evolved in unexpected ways. The nose reminded me of powdered strawberry and blueberry sifted into a chocolate brownie, laced with ginger snaps, underplayed by the faintest hint of kaffir lime zest and rich coffee. The palate is flawlessly smooth showing amazingly pure blueberry and cherry nectar with seamless integration of the aromas. The sweet finish with high acidity propels this wine into a very rare territory. The sublime finish is that of a rich triple espresso and creme de cassis. La dolce vita! Is there a better Merlot produced in America? 3 bottle limit. Drink: 2005-2010. |
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Acme Fine Wines, October 18, 2005 2003 BLACKBIRD VINEYARDS, MERLOT, OAK KNOLL DISTRICT, NAPA VALLEY $70 Every wine tells a story. Michael Polenske's Blackbird Vineyard tells a story you've probably heard before. The grapes grown on the property have been sold to Behrens & Hitchcock, Lail, Shafer, Pride and Robert Foley Vineyards in the past, as well as to Mia Klein's private label, Selene, with a Blackbird Vineyard designated label. Sarah Gott shines as Polenske's winemaker of choice. She left Joseph Phelps and Quintessa to make a splash in a few smaller ponds. (She also makes the following wine). It is with wines like this that we never question why we are in this business. |
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Vintrust, Fall, 2005 Sommscore: 95 Drinkability: 2010 - 2025 Tasting Notes: SOMMscores: A team of 14 Sommeliers of the nations best Sommeliers have partnered with Vintrust to provide objective and transparent reviews of wines that encounter as they perform their professional duties. SOMMscores have been designed to provide transparency to each wine review. Each SOMMscore isolates the five characteristics that often make up a wine's rating and prescribes a number of points for the related descriptor, which add up to total score of 100 - Aroma (15 points), Flavor (15 points), Structure (15 points), Length (15 points) and Balance (40 points). This is the criteria our Sommeliers use when reviewing wine. |
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Wine Enthusiast, December 15, 2006 …Rich and complex, with the classy mouthfeel that Napa provides so effortlessly. You might mistake it for a valley floor Cabernet for the new oak-infused blackberry, cherry and cocoa flavors and soft, immediate appeal. The tannins are there, but they’re melted, sweet and gentle. 90 points |
1330 Oak Knoll Avenue, Napa, CA 94558 • (707) 252-4444 tel • (707) 252-9999 fax
Client Services: Heather Yargus
COO/CMO: Paul Leary
Winegrower: Aaron Pott
Winemaker: Sarah Gott
Proprietor: Michael Polenske
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