The Wines of Aaron Pott

July 27th, 2010

Aaron Pott has been working on developing his own wines for many years. Owning a tiny vineyard (less than an acre) and developing several more acres, he is in the process of devising incredible Napa wines that stand out from the rest. These are hand crafted wines produced in very small quantities. His home on Mt. Veeder is called “Chateauneuf du Pott” after the legendary Rhone varietals of Southern France.

JV Wines and Spirits is proud to announce that Mr. Pott’s four varietals is one of a few select retailers to offer these magnificent wines. In this BLOG post, I will discuss my two favorites.

First, is the 2007 Pott Howell Mountain Cabernet, known as “St. Ralph the Liar.” This is 100% Howell Mountain fruit, almost all Cabernet Sauvignon with just a splash of Cabernet Franc. This is a classic Cabernet Sauvignon from the mountains without the heavy tannins that can come from Howell Mountain. Up front are the dark fruit noses that are well known-blackberry, currents and dark plums. The middle palate is very rich and balanced, which makes this a very integrated wine for being so young.

The next wine is my absolute favorite of all the varietals, the 2007 Pott Cabernet Franc. This is not an over-ripe Cabernet Franc with noses of green bell peeper or licorice on the nose.  Nice herbal tones and earthiness pervade this wine, grown in the Coombsville area in very small batches, this is a wine that stands wonderfully by itself. Since the beautiful acids do not overwhelm the wine, this is a wine that is drinkable now or will age beautifully over the next few years.

Both these wines are great to pair with food. Any nice red meat will go well with the 2007 Cabernet and the Cabernet Franc goes very nicely with roasted duck, lamb with mustard sauce or a nice pork loin. Both wines also are great by themselves or aging in your private cellar.

JV also has the Spring Mountain Cabernet and the Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville region. Please visit us at JV and let one of our Wine Consultants assist you. These wines are rare to find (many are running low) and JV is very proud to showcase them all.

Jon T. Finley

Wine Consultant

JV Wines and Spirits

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The Brain Game

August 20th, 2009

Good customers of ours come walking into the store all the time and they want to try something new. When we suggest a wine, say, from Chile, we often receive reactions like “ah, Chile, I think I tried a Chardonnay from there once, or maybe that was Argentina..” It is REALLY hard to remember all of the wines drunk or loved throughout our wine loving lives, and the phenomenon is very common. People try a couple of wines from a famous wine region and they get all excited about that region, feeling like they know it inside and out. But then the excitement is forgotten; the intrigue of the wines’ flavors are lost; and we start playing a recollection game that goes something like this:  “Oh, I had a bottle of the, ah, the, oh–what is that famous winery up on that hilltop….the name rhymes with “cone”?

We’re pretty much wine fanatics here at JV, so we thought, hmmm-who better to come up with a cure than us! Think, think, think – what could we do to forever infuse famous and fabulous wines of the world into the wine loving brains of the world? And then it hit us. Hold great tastings of the world with wines that will so knock people’s socks off so that they will forever remember them. Well, we did it, and the memory test results are not in yet, but, man, these tastings were killer.

$76, $119, $95, $90, $192 : when JV says to come taste some Great Rhone reds, they are NOT kidding.  These are just some of the prices of wines tasted on Rhone night. Price isn’t everything, of course, but Rhone wines are hugely popular right now, and the top quality wines are fetching huge prices. And these are just some of the wine prices in our list of 8 Rhone greats. After an evening filled with history of the region, tales of love and war, and sip after sip of hedonistic reds, we just know our cure is going to work.  How could anyone possibly forget these wines???  For an inkling of future wine tastings to come, here are a couple of the wines we tasted that evening:  The Château Rayas Reserve  2004 Châteauneuf-du-Pape  ($192.99) – This Chateau is a shack, to hear Robert Parker talking about it, but a VERY GOOD shack. He describes the wines as being some of the most distinctive in the world.  Here, here. We agree with Mr. Parker (on this anyway.) The Pierre Gaillard “Le Cret” Côte-Rôtie  2006 ($94.99) was incredibly powerful while wrapping you up in its incredible aromas and flavors. The finish of this wine is still going, and the tasting was weeks ago.

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