Dinner with Stagecoach Vineyards Owner Jan Krupp at Cafe Maxx
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - 07:00 PM
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Wine makes every meal an occasion, every table more elegant, every day more civilized.
~ Andre Simon, "Commonsense of Wine"
[FIRSTNAME], the first time that I heard of the wines of Stagecoach Vineyards was from a customer of Cafe Maxx. Apparently someone was holding out on me, because after acquiring the wine for that customer, I tasted the Veraison Stagecoach Cabernet Sauvignon and it has been on my "best of" list every year since. I met Jan Krupp just as serendipitously at the bar of Gary Danko restaurant. I stopped in last minute while in town for a long weekend and just happened to overhear his conversation with another patron about owning a vineyard in Napa Valley and my curiosity got the best of me. I had to ask what the name of the vineyard was. When he mentioned "Stagecoach", my eyes lit up and exclaimed "I am Andrew Lampasone from the Wine Watch" and Jan said, "you are our biggest fan in Florida". So you can imagine I am very excited to have Jan in town for an event that will be hosted by the folks that turned me on to this outstanding producer. Chef Oliver Saucy has prepared a special five course tasting menu to accompany the new releases. The fee for this dinner is $125 per person + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463.
Dinner with Stagecoach Vineyards Owner Jan Krupp at Cafe Maxx
Wednesday, February 24th
7pm
Reception
Crispy blue cheese olives with saffron aioli
Romaine poached oysters with herb butter
Seared salmon with apple-mint relish
Grilled shrimp and roasted pepper mayo
Black Bart’s Bride Napa 2006
Price: $56.25 Sale $49.50 Case $574
A blend of 42% Marsanne, 38% Viognier and 20% Chardonnay. Focused, intense floral nose of honey suckle and orange blossom, almond kernels, honeycomb. Complex and rich palate, flavors of lemon pie, pie crust, and minerality lead to a succulent and creamy textural finish.
First course
Berkshire pork filet mignon in bacon with black truffle pesto and white bean mash
Veraison Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard Napa 2005
Price: $67.50 Sale $59.40 Case $689
97% Cabernet Sauv, 1% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot,1% Cab Franc The origin of great wine is superb fruit. Veraison honors this philosophy with its Bordeaux-inspired Cabernet Sauvignon and a blend called Synchrony. The fruit for these wines is sourced from Stagecoach Vineyard.
Second course
Grill braised veal cheeks with dark sundried cherries in coarse ground grits
and cherry-red wine demi glaze
Veraison Synchrony Stagecoach Vineyard Napa 2005
Price: $67.50 Sale $59.40 Case $689
A blend of 56% Cabernet Franc, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon 2% Merlot and 2% Malbec. Inky with black/garnet hues; Cassis, licorice, green olive and wild sage aromas are blanketed with dusty earth and cedary oak. A dense, sweet fruit center attacks the palate, ripe fruit flavors of blueberries, sweet raspberries and black cherry. The tannins frame the mouth perfectly, fine and dusty.
Third course
American Kobe beef NY striplette with Yukon gold au gratin potatoes and mixed berry gastrique
Black Bart's Bounty Syrah Napa 2006
Price: $49.50 Sale $43.56 Case $505
A blend of 98% Syrah and 2% Viognier Vibrant ruby in color with black tints. Pure aromas of blackberry, blueberry, licorice, and white pepper. Concentrated and intense smoked bacon and graphite nuances add complexity to the wild dark berry and violet flavors
Fourth course
Rack of lamb chop with eggplant & tomato jam, parmesan and roasted garlic fried risotto
Black Bart Syrah Stagecoach Napa 2006
Price: $67.50 Sale $59.40 Case $689
Sweet aromas of blueberries, black raspberries, lavender, as well as bacon fat and graphite. Unctuous with mouth filling flavors of raspberries, black raspberries, blueberries, vanilla, and smoky oak. The tannins transition seamlessly across the palate of this full bodied wine.
Dessert
Imported and domestic cheese platters with fruit and such
Finger chocolates
Krupp Brothers The Doctor Napa Valley 2006
Price: $87.75 Sale $77.22 Case $895
A blend of 37% Tempranillo, 28% Merlot, 21% Malbec and 14% Cabernet sauvignon. A complex and intriguing nose with aromas of exotic flowers, sweet & sour cherries, blood orange, dark plums, and spice which play beautifully with the ensuing flavors. The palate is plush and seamless with dense flavors of plum, rhubarb, blackberry, blueberry, and cinnamon. The flavors are persistent and balanced by soft, supportive tannins.
A bit about Stagecoach Vineyards:
Stagecoach vineyard lies high in the Napa Valley’s rugged eastern hills of the Oakville appellation. This remarkable 500 acre vineyard was carved out of rocky, reddish-brown volcanic soils. Although the history of this vineyard site goes back over 200 years, the current chapter of the Stagecoach saga began in 1991 with the current owner Jan Krupp. One of the biggest fans of this site is the current winemaker for Cardinale winery Charles Brown. Cardinale Winery in Napa Valley is owned by Kendall-Jackson’s Artisan & Estates Group and is the largest purchaser of Stagecoach Vineyards fruit. Charles explains in an interview with the Wine Spectator, "Some of what’s happening is we’re rediscovering the past," adds Thomas, "and to have had vines up there then means it must have been something perceived as pretty darn good back then." He also points out that "going up there" is what wineries have avoided for so long because of the difficulties of planting mountain vineyards. In the 1980s, William Hill planted several hundred acres of vines in Foss Valley. He later sold the vineyard, which is now Atlas Peak Vineyard. Those who saw Hill struggle to develop a vineyard in the steep, rocky terrain and cool, windy climate decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
The Stagecoach story begins in 1991, as Jan Krupp began his search for a vineyard site in the Napa Valley he came across an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle touting a location with great soil and water; however the potential vineyard site was remote and almost impossible to get to. Krupp went to visit the site and was impressed with what he saw, including some gnarly old wines that appeared to be close to 100 years old. Located on Pritchard Hill overlooking Oakville, this potential vineyard site would soon yield some of the most sought after grapes that Napa Valley has to offer as well as provide the foundation for Dr. Jan Krupp's new label Veraison. Soon after Krupp decided to make this his next project in life, he found that this type of commitment would take upwards of a decade to see the fruits of his labors. Looking at the land on which Stagecoach Vineyards is planted you would think that it took at least a decade just to plant the vineyards on these rocky soils.
Veraison (Ver-AY-zhun) takes its name from the time of ripening in the vineyard when grape growth ceases and color turns from green to deep red and dark purple. Krupp came along and planted Stagecoach Vineyard with an amazing diversity of grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon (300 acres), Merlot (110 acres), Cabernet Franc (40 acres), Syrah (25 acres), Petit Verdot (20 acres), Malbec (3 acres), and smaller plots of Chardonnay, Zinfandel, and Sangiovese. Some of Krupp’s neighbors include: Dalla Valle, David Arthur, Bryant Family and Jason Pahlmeyer’s new Waters Ranch Vineyard. Some of the people that buy grapes from Stagecoach Vineyards include: Cardinale, Miner Family, Cain, Paul Hobbs, Altamura, Honig, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Stonehedge.
Both time-honored and innovative techniques are employed to produce Veraison wines. Using the finest French Oak cooperage each lot of grapes is carefully matched to select barrels. All elements of the winemaking process are persistently fine-tuned to enhance and maximize the potential of the grapes selected from our mountain vineyards. The Krupp family produced their first vintage of Veraison Cabernet in 1999. Currently Veraison Winery is releasing its 2002 Merlot, 2002 Synchrony and their 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon. Stagecoach Vineyards was well above the fog each dawn in 2002 for all but two summer days. This optimum sunlight exposure day in and day out allowed the grapes to reach an unprecedented level of ripeness and maturity, leading to full bodied, dark, wines with fabulous structure balanced by an elegant yet intense tannin profile. Yields were initially low and further reduced through careful thinning to create some of the finest wines possible in this part of the world. This is only the fourth vintage of this wine that we have had in the store and this 2004 vintage wine is once again one of our "top picks" for a California Cabernet Sauvignon in this price range. It drinks like many wines from Napa Valley at double the price, and actually cost ½ the price of most of the wines that use this vineyard’s fruit!