Windsor Oaks Chalk Hill Mountain Cuvee 3-Pack
$65.99 $123.00 46% off List Price
2011 Mountain Cuvee, Chalk Hill
CT link above
need notes! I love the Chalk Hill Estate Red. How similar are these two wines in flavor profile?
What two wines? There’s only a 3-pack of a single wine on offer!
A rather sketchy looking monkey ran by the office on his scooter the other day and threw this at my head. Thankfully I caught it, and discovered a couple bottles that screamed for a proper evaluation. Here you go!
2011 Windsor Oaks Vineyards Chalk Hill Mountain Cuvee
Syrah, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon
PnP it’s slightly hot and I can’t get anything out of the nose just yet so I let it sit for a few minutes for it to dissipate, which it did quickly. Now the nose is cherry and fresh raspberry with an undertone of that Indian long pepper we sniffed at St Supery on the Tour. There’s a slightly more savoury component to the nose also.
First sip, this is definitely a young wine with good structure and balance. Chalk Hill lives up to its name with a good amount of chalkiness on the palate. There’s more spice on the palate than I expected and it does nicely balance the fruit. I’m thinking the Syrah is dominant at this moment, with the savoury/meaty component, but there’s a hint of bitter cherry that may come from the Sangiovese and an herbal finish I associate with Cab. I think this will go well with the rib steaks we have prepped for tonight.
Second pour the nose transformed to beautiful ripe strawberries. The palate has already softened somewhat as well, while keeping the savoury and herbal components. Tannins are present but fine grained. Finish is medium and repeats the palate.
At this point, the wine was a nice match for the rib steaks and vanished accordingly. I think this will be a good one at the woot price (which I was pretty close to guessing – I figured $65 for 3) and has some aging upside potential for 3-7 years.
Uhhh, likely the Estate Red vs. the Mountain Cuvee?
That bottle musta gone quickly with the rib eye.
Which Estate Red are you referring to? It’s not on the offer nor in the bottle we demolished! 
He was referring to Chalk Hill Winery which makes this wine http://www.chalkhill.com/product/2010-Chalk-Hill-Estate-Red and he is asking you or someone out there to compare/contrast the one you tasted with it.
Alas, no Iowa…
I happened upon a bottle of this the other night and have a few tasting notes below. Wine was tasted blindly:
18:15 PNP from the cellar (57*)
Color: clear, deep garnet
Nose: dark fruit–blackberry, cassis, maybe a little cherry, oak
Palate: Full bodied, nice tannic structure. Well balanced with dark fruit, oak. A little heat at the end. Long finish. My initial impression is that I like it. Stylistically, I was thinking Cab/merlot or Bordeaux blend. Possibly a zin that wasn’t an fruit bomb.
19:00
Nose: Fresh! Dark berry, slight fig/jammy. LONG legs in the glass.
Palate: slight astringency from the tannins. Minimal heat/alcohol. Some oak, dark fruit, a little peppery. At this point, I was leaning more towards a zin or syrah.
20:30
Nose: fruit still present, though some heat/etoh was starting to show through.
Palate: Dark fruit, cedar/oak, some pepper as well.
I liked it better initially. Now, I think it is a Zin. Still good and worth taking some sips.
21:40
Nose: Jam/pepper/etoh
Palate: more heat, jammy, pepper with a long finish.
The wine stayed nicely balanced throughout, but did certainly evolve over the 3-1/2 hours or so that it was tasted.
I was pretty surprised by the blend. The cab must have shown through more at the beginning, while the syrah showed through more in the end. I’m not sure what to think of the Sangiovese and its role in the wine.
For the price on here, I think it would be worth a try. It should have several more years of aging.
Hi everyone-this is John, GM from Windsor Oaks. We share a lot of similarities to Chalk Hill Winery-they are just over the hill from us, very similar volcanic soils. In fact, they have been a grape customer of ours. Our blend is Cab/Sangiovese/Syrah and I agree with some of the comments that the Syrah is really showing through these days-a nice pepperiness to the wine.
I’ll check back in later-happy to answer any questions.
Thanks,
John
I’m boycotting wine.woot for the time being to protest the Amazon payment requirements. I want to choose which credit card I use, which account I use, etc. IF I’M FORCED TO USE AMAZON PAYMENTS, THEN I SHOULD (at least) GET FREE SHIPPING AS A PRIME MEMBER.
Call me when you stop imposing your requirements on my credit.
Shipping is free the with the new payment system.
Hi john, what was the objective for creating the blend?
Nice notes doc and klez, really has me wanting some. How would you compare it some if the other syrah heavy blends we have had around here. For example the 09’ Ty’s red was syrah heavy and delicious.
I’m signed into Woot, sign in to Amazon. Click continue than a blank screen?..hate this… going back to shopping live.
This is definitely leaner than a Ty blend, or basically any of his wines. In a good way, imo. Concentration is still good, plays well with food. The bitterness from the Sangiovese did come out for a bit, but clearly that didn’t stop us from demolishing the bottle with steak and then moving on to more wine.
Treat it like a boc, just keep f5ing it!
Hmm… are you using a computer or mobile device? Which browser? Have you tried clearing cache?
script blocking and third party redirects also cause problems.
wootazon uses both.
[edit] nice filter TT