Vayniac Cabernet Wine Review

Gary tastes the finished product of the Vayniac Cab and also shares a special Champagne befitting the occasion.

Gary: Hello everybody! Welcome to Wine Library TV. I am your host, Gary Vaynerchuk and this my friends is the Thunder Show, A.K.A. the internet’s most passionate wine program, and I’m really, really happy to be here. It’s good to be in a cozy seat, Mott. 2010 right around the corner. I want the entire Vayner nation to know that I’m really excited for next year’s Wine Library TV. We will be hitting our four year anniversary on February 20th, so I just want to thank everybody. Today is a very special show. We actually have a project that we worked on for a very long time, the Vayniac 2007 Napa Cab in the house. I’m excited to talk to you guys about that. A lot of you have already tasted it. I’ve been getting e-mails, a lot of excitement. Since I can't review that since we made that, I’m also bringing another product that I don’t feel I can review just because I’ve had it so many times that I’m biased to it. So it kind of felt like making this kind of like a favorite thing show , like two great products kind of—hopefully you haven’t had the Vayniac Cab yet, the finished product. So I’ve been saving that for you guys. And then, champagne, as many of you are going to celebrate a New Year 2010, not quite the hype 2000 had, Mott. Not even close. But nonetheless, I think a lot of you are going to look to have a special bottle of champagne, maybe not Dom P, maybe not Cristal, so I want to give you an alternative. I want to talk to you about this champagne in a minute. But first of all, I want to give a big shout out to Drew and Sue’s wedding which was nine days ago. They’re big time Vayniacs and I just want to say hello and congratulations. I hope you guys are doing well. And a big shout out to Corporal Brian Gabriel who’s in South Korea, Mott. Merry Christmas to you. We’ve got that passed along. And a couple of things coming up, Mott, link it up. I will be in South Carolina. A lot of people have asked me to be in South Carolina. I will be in Greenville for a wine dinner. I’m going to link up the Facebook invite, contact them, Chophouse ’47, a couple of seats left for a wine dinner. Getting to more stuff in a little bit, but really, I just wanted to chill with you guys today. I mean obviously, I’m on a very, very, very, very, very bad mood. We missed the 19-yard field goal—19 Mott, and the 32 and the—you just couldn’t make it up. It was just a devastating day for me as a Jets fan and so, I’m sad. I’m sad today. And so, having these great products here is a good thing. But more importantly, I have a weird feeling about this season. Dominus, I know you’re watching. We played the Colts this week. Mott, everything will happen. The Raiders came back and beat the Broncos. I mean, you got to break what the Packers is losing, right? A little break, are you done? Mott: I have no expectation, but— Gary: Are you watching the game tonight? You watched, but you’re kind of done. Mott: Yeah. Gary: You don’t think you’ll make—the Giants will not make the playoffs. Mott: I don’t think so. Gary: Got it. Well, you know, that’s that. So let’s get into the wine first for people who watch this for a wine show. This is the R.L. Legras 1996 Saint Vincent. This is an $85.00 champagne, 92 points Stephen Tanzer. I poured this a little bit earlier. I don’t even really know why. Maybe I practiced. I didn’t want to let the—but I poured the champagne as well. The Saint Vincent from Legras, this beautiful little house that makes amazing champagne is only made in great vintages. This is the ’96, which is an exceptional vintage. ’64 was the first year they’ve done it. They did it three times in the ‘70s—’71, ’73, and ’76. They did an ’83, they did an ’88, they did a ’90 and ’96 only. And now, they’ve done it in 2000. This has been always one of my favorite luxury Cuvee-styled wines. It’s not actually—it’s a vintage-driven kind of luxury Cuvee. And I really think that anybody who wants to get serious on New Year’s who wants to have that one special bottle, I know a lot of you Vayniacs are going to have a special dinner or you’re going to be with that special someone on New Year’s and I thought, huh, a little more time before it’s there. Why don’t I show everybody—so I’ve done the Vayniac Cab. Let me show everybody what I would say is my New Year’s pick, what I’m going to use for New Year’s done in Naples with Lizzie if they have it on the list since we’re traveling. As you can see, great, great golden color, nice beautiful bubbles. You might want to zoom the zoom-zoom. Let’s give it a little sniffy sniff. So I’m getting a little nuttiness on it. I’m also getting a little bit of like a baked bread. I’m going to give myself a little room here. Sorry, I know, it’s like six bucks. There’s a little bit of apple coming through as well here. So you get this great kind of like—almost like cereal-like component, like apples, crunched bread, Danish because it’s kind of creamy, just beautiful on the nose. Let’s give it a whirl. So Tanzer gave this a 92. You know, it’s funny. I saw a tasting on this once when I was drinking and loving it. I was like, “What is that?” Somebody afforded the tequila, Mott. Almost like a tequila component and I really taste it now more than I have in the past. 96 is an outrageous vintage. It really can cellar extremely well, great mouth feel on this sparkling wine for me. Great acidity, great baked apple flavor and a wonderful grip on the palate. To me, the creaminess and the elegance of this champagne matched with lobster with cheeses, shellfish, it’s just spectacular. And for somebody who’s a bubble head like I am in a big way, all about the sparkling. This wine really brings the thunder for me. To me, this is more like a 95, 96 point type wine, though I’m not going to officially score it. And what I really like about this is how much magic it has. It’s very Houdini-like on the palate. And what I mean by the magic is there’s a lot of different flavors. I almost feel like a steeliness right now, like in the back of my palate. It’s got gorgeous apples. I mean guys, go to the best apples you’ve ever had, cut them right from the tree, smell it, bite it. That’s what you’re getting here. There’s a little apple sauce action, and clearly a focus from the bread yeasty aspect. I love this Danish flavor I’m picking up. It’s just well-made. It’s crisp, it’s clean. There’s almost like a shattered oyster shell flavor. There’s almost like a marzipan candy flavor on the back end, which I think is really neat. This is spectacular! I’m so into this. I’m going to—because I want people to have special bottles this year, it is very pricey, $84.99 but still less than Dom and Cristal, and for anybody on Wine Library TV, use the password WLTV coupon code and we’ll free ship it anywhere in the country, even that one bottle. Mott, please remind me to tell Brandon that as soon as we’re done taping here. I just really hope that people can have something special instead of last minute running out and getting another Dom or another Perrier-Jouët Flower bottle or another Cristal. If you want to ball a little bit, if you want to have something special, if you want to have something real that has real guts, we’ll do that for you. So let’s do that. Let’s do a little of that today. Why not? Great, great stuff, gorgeous. Now, I’m downright excited and nervous. Vayniac Cab ’07 Napa Valley, 83% Cab, 10% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 3% Cab Franc, $45.00, let’s give it a sniffy sniff. Now, I’ve seen Barbados and some of the other guys on the forums talking about tasting this. The results, have you seen it? There’s been really good vibe, good buzz from people tasting this. As a matter of fact, let’s link up the Vayniac Cab forum here, Mott. Gorgeous black cherries, blackcurrant coming through, it’s a big nose. It’s got a very serious structure coming across on the nose. I was worried, but both of these are aromatically huge. I get a little bit of like a cedar box flavor, a hint of tobacco on the back end as well, but very dark fruit. Let’s give it a whirl. Great grip in the middle of this wine, kind of approachable, a little more drinkable than I expected as a matter of fact—at least, for my palate. The tannins are sweet. There’s a really black tea meets blackcurrant, inkiness on this wine that I find quite exceptional and it’s showing great youth. It’s quite surprising actually how structured this wine is for this young of a wine. It’s showing a little bit better than I expected it to at this point. I really thought that this was going to be more of a put-away wine but I’m surprised about the approachability and the fruit is quite sweet. Mott, you should definitely taste a little Vayniac Cab. Mott: You have a cold. Gary: I don’t have that much of a cold, Mott. Fine, I’ll get another glass. Mott: I don’t want to be sick for Christmas. Gary Fair. So what I wanted to do really today, as you can tell, we’re not really reviewing. We’re kind of recommending and hanging out and trying the Vayniac Cab together. It’s just to thank everybody for another amazing year. Here you go, Mott. Actually Mott, why don’t you join me since we’re kind of—don’t worry about the zoomy. Get the chair right there. There’s the chair right there. Oh, you got your chair. What, are you like comfortable with that one? Mott and I—let me just make sure you’re looking good, Mott. Mott: Don’t zoom in on my forehead. Gary: I won’t zoom on your face. Mott, I want to thank you. It’s a good year. It’s a lot of fun, right? Mott: It’s always—it’s been a great year. Gary: This is not the last show of the year, so don’t worry. But what I do want to tell you is that there’s a lot of thought being put into next year’s shows. I’ve decided to do a lot more shows here. I want to get back to basics, less guests. I just want to rip. I want to have more guts. Mott: Old school. Gary: Old school, I’m going to go a little old school. I have been debating though—I’d love to hear you guys’ thoughts on this—I have been debating going blind the whole year. Mott: That’s a big commitment. Gary: I know, but it could be kind of fun. The other thing I was thinking about is if we do Dolcettos, do two blind and have one out. Mott: That’s fun. Gary: So I’ve definitely been excited about the reaction to the double blind. People really like that. So there’s a little bit of that going through my mind, but I want to get back to really sitting here and nerding it out with you guys. Cork’d, I’m going to integrate Cork’d, corkd.com. We’re working on that. Link that up. We’re going to be integrating that heavier into the show next year. I got some ideas. I’m excited about that. Oh, cinderellawine.com, link that up. Tonight, if you want to talk about value, if you want to get a $15.00 wine that gets you excited, tonight—now, some of you will watch this tomorrow, so yesterday, but it does change at nine PM tomorrow. So you’ve got 24 hours. You’ve got to check out the wine that’s being offered there. A bunch of people ordered the Christmas pack. We’ll tape that today, so we’ll see you on Christmas day for that. And if you’re in New York, New Jersey, you’re still in. Or if you want to taste it along later in the holidays, so let’s link that up Mott. Mott: Okay. Gary: What else? Vayniac Cab, what do you think? Mott: It’s pretty good. Gary: Not bad, right? Mott: Not bad at all. Gary: This is really made for the Camus Karl Lawrence kind of—a little bit lighter, a little bit more approachable, but definitely Camus, Shafer Napa, definitely Karl Lawrence. This is quite a bit of the Karl Lawrence Cabernet fans, really, really, really popular. This is a popular style because there’s fruit, it’s smooth, but it’s big. Mott: It’s very good. And you know, everyone knows I’m not a big fan of the reds. Gary: Is it because of the fruit, Mott? Mott: Uh-huh. Gary: Yeah, like that raspberry—do you want to try the champagne? Mott: Yeah, I’ll try the champagne. Gary: We’ll just do it the way we do. so you’re worried about the—are you like deep down outwardly saying it’s over but in the inside of you is hoping they make the playoffs? Mott: I don’t see how these teams could possibly make the playoffs with their defense. They cannot stop anybody. Gary: It’s more of a reverse. We could stop anybody except for the last strive in the game, but we can’t score. It’s just young and raw. It smells good, right? Mott: This is different. Gary: This is really good champagne, really good. This is what champagne is. Mott: That is good. Gary: You like it? Mott: This is good. Good juice. Gary: You know, it’s kind of like boys and then when a woman dates a man for the first time. She’s like, “Oh!” Those were boys. That’s what this is. This is like the Big Leagues. This is what real sparkling wine can taste like. And listen, at 85 bones, it’s not inexpensive but pretty good. I mean, it’s kind of fun to do these kinds of shows where there’s not pressure, just drinking along. I really hope that all of you guys have the luxury during this holiday week and next week to drink some wine with people you love and care about. That is definitely the biggest thing I can wish for anybody. And so, looking ahead into next year, I look for a lot of lurkers to come out. I’d love to get a feedback from you guys. I’d love for you guys to tell me what you like to see happen in 2010. So let me know what you’d like to see WLTV focus on in 2010. You, with a little bit of me— Mott: We are changing the wine world. Gary: Whether you like it or not. Mott: Happy Holidays everybody! Gary: Happy Holidays!