Our last full day in the Napa Valley.
Our morning appointment was at Seavey. When we arrived, Mary Seavey was waiting, greeted us, and told us that Michelle would be over to take care of us in a few minutes. Michelle was GREAT! She opened a few bottles, then recommended we tour the facility while the wines got some air. They have a new winery and a new storage cave, that, when we went in, was full of bins of freshly picked fruit. That moment may have produced the most intense aromas of the entire trip.
We went back to the tasting room to sample some wine. First off was the 02 Chard. They only made 150 cases (apparently because Mary likes chardonnay). It's done in a non-malolactic style. This wine was crisp and tasty, with the fruit dominating. Next was the merlot - sorry, it was just merlot.
We moved on to the 01 Caravina, their 'second label' wine. This turned out to be surprisingly good stuff, certainly much better than I expected, around 90 points.
We finished with side-by-side tastings of the 00 and 01 cabs. The 00 was more approachable and smoother at this point, but the 01 has the potential to be a WOW wine once the tannins soften. We both liked the 01 a lot!! Mary stopped by to say hello again, and we asked her a few history questions, which she answered very graciously.
We left with a mixed case, mostly 01 cab, along with 2 bottles of the chard.
In the afternoon, we hooked up with our very own Babnik in the parking lot at Rombauer, where Match Vineyards wines are made and stored. We traversed through the caves looking for the Match barrels (which had been recently relocated), and Randy began opening barrels for us to try. We were soon joined by Randy's winemaker, Cary Gott, and he proceeded to take us through many of the 03 Match components, including tasting from a barrel of 03 press wine. After that, Cary led us out to the crushpad where the 04 Match grapes were busy fermenting in large open top stainless tanks. He drew off a glass of 2 different clones (5 and 7, I think) and we sampled them while still somewhere around 4 to 5 brix. Cary then took off and we sat outside at a picnic table with Randy. He was gracious enough to bring with him a 375 of 02 Match Butterdragon Hill cab. Even fresh from a newly opened bottle, it was delicious. Looks like we've got another winner in our midst!
Thanks to Randy and Cary for showing us the ropes from soup to nuts of the Match operation. We'll be hearing a lot from them soon.