The middle of last week, I was in San Francisco on business and took a couple of days on the weekend to visit my son, who is doing his residency at the University of California, San Francisco. After a 30 hour on-call that lasted closer to 36 hours, and a follow up the next morning to check on the patients he admitted, we headed out to see part of San Francisco. We ate a late lunch in a neighborhood Chinese restaurant (very good food in a family run restaurant), we walked and bussed our way over to the wharf area. Our destination was Ghirardelli Square.

 
Ghirardelli Square is know for it headliner tenant, Ghirardelli Chocolate. But there is much more than chocolate here. Also in this complex of buildings, in the Woolen Mill Building, is Cellar 360. Cellar 360 is a unique shop featuring a good selection of wines for sale by the bottle, a wine bar, a deli and a generous selection of wine related accessories. By the way, the wine bar is really, really long and the pours are generous. And if you hadn’t guessed, the view is spectacular.
 
We were seated in the back room with panoramic views of the bay. We selected the “Reserve Flight” of wines. This is a flight of four wines for $25 per person, $10 per person if one of you is a Club Member. The other wine flights that are not paired with food are free to club members. Our reserve flight consisted of the 2005 Beringer Private Reserve,   the 2004 Stags’ Leap Ne Cede Malis, the 2005 Wolf Blass Platinum Label Shiraz, and the 2003 Penfolds RWT.
 
Just at they poured the Beringer Private Reserve, the server seated a couple with us at the long tasting table. My son looked up and recognized them as people Loren had introduced him to several weeks ago. Loren is a high school (Kansas City area) and college (University of MO – Columbia) classmate. Loren knows everybody. Loren now lives in San Francisco. They have a cheese plate to go with their tasting. Included on the cheese plate is most of a two pound round of Humbolt Fog Blue Cheese. It is so good to me a friend of Loren. They offered to share their cheese plate as we worked through our wines.    
 
As you would expect, the Beringer Private Reserve was an opulent, rich, concentrated wine. It is always a joy to drink. By request, they poured the Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon for us to taste side by side with the Private Reserve. This really helps to distinguish the differences between the wines. The Knights Valley Cab is well structured with bright cherry and vanilla. But it also has distinctive, and pleasant, dried herbs aromas and flavors, especially sage and mint. It is not the powerhouse the Private Reserve is, but it is solid and affordable.
 
Next we enjoyed the Stags’ Leap Ne Cede Malis along side a pour of the Stag’s Leap Petite Syrah.  If you are not familiar with Petite Syrah, the “petite” refers to the size of the berries. The effect of the smaller berries is a much higher ratio of skins to juice during fermentation. This results in deeply colored, highly tannic wines that can take some years of cellaring to reach their potential. Petite Syrah wines will always turn your teeth purple because of the intense concentration of color.
 
The Ne Cede Malis is distinct because it is primarily Petite Syrah, but also has some 15 other grapes that grow among the Petite Syrah and are included in the pressing and fermentation. Truly a field blend, the amounts of Mourvedre, Viognie, Granache, Syrah, etc. vary by vintage. Side by side, the Ne Cede Malis is much more complex, but very approachable early. The Petite Syrah is more powerful, but still needs more years in the cellar. Both wines will continue to improve with proper cellaring.
 
We then shifted to the Wolf Blass Platinum Label Shiraz and the Penfolds RWT Shiraz and tasted these two side by side. The Wolf Blass is a virtually opaque purple-black Shiraz. A creeping fog of blue and black fruit spread out from the glass. As it begins to open up, you can detect little eucalyptus. This plush wine is full of the blackberry, blueberry, black plum and pepper that you would expect from a ultra-premium Shiraz. The long finish evolves with a meat to tar to caramel, followed by a lingering hint a vanilla. 
 
The Penfolds RWT takes a more finessed approach with silky tannic structure to support the black plum, current, blackberry and mocha. It has more spice box and less pepper than the Wolf Blass. The RWT also has a lingering finish that takes a more cherry-vanilla approach. These are two outstanding wines that take quite different approaches to achieve spectacular results. 
 
And did I mention our view of the Bay while we experience the wines? Very, very enjoyable. And we were still not done.
 
In my Next blog, I will take us through the Port and Chocolate parings we enjoyed. 
 

MikeR is a Consultant, Level-1 Sommelier, Independent Journalist and blog contributor to VinVillage.com