Tasting Notes, Inventory, and Visitors

Before some tasting notes from the pros, we'd like to inform you that the 2010 3Ls are all sold out. Head over to our shop at karllawrence.com to see what you can still get your hands on. Now for the fun stuff.

Assistant winemaker Mike Henry, along with the dynamic duo, Richard Zulch and Craig Issacs, got together to give the '09 reserves a quick taste. 

After the three of them discussed each one in the warehouse, Mike took the bottles home for a more "thorough" tasting. Here's what they determined:

Henry Brothers' Ranch 

Dense dark fruits, "red mountain" dust, pepper on the nose. Bold forward red fruits turning to dark black fruits, eucalyptus, pomegranate, spicy dark chocolate. Very "mountainy."

Richard & Craig said the HBR "has a finish a mile long; it will last forever." 

Gary Morisoli

Bright nose, black cherry, woody. Definitely shows "Rutherford dust." Very structured, elegant, a bit firm. Nice balanced dark fruits and vanilla woodiness.

Dr. Crane 

Spicy plum "chutney" on the nose. Black fruits, chocolate covered cherry. Long finish. More chocolatey than the others.

To Kalon

Very floral and perfumey sweet nose, plush. Rich and "slutty." Very bold and dense dark fruits. Definitely needs time to spread out. Most opulent of the four.

--

Mike also suggests waiting at least 5 years before opening any of these four. So patience, friends. 

The three of them, as well as Ric, agreed the Henry Brothers' Ranch definitely stands out from the three Valley wines.

To finish up this KL update, here's some recent photos:

Kirsten Modrich from the Marin swung by the office with her mother, Margaret, and her two children, Johann, and Sophia:

Afshin Arya from Rocklin, CA also came by to pick up a case:

Finally, Cycle Team Karl Lawrence had to make another appearance. Here's the crew "training" near Los Alamos:

Celebration of Life: Jim Barrett

As many of you know, one of Napa Valley's legends, Jim Barrett, passed away a couple of weeks ago. During harvest last year, Jim, and the rest of his and Ric's tennis crew, swung by Karl Lawrence.

We blogged about the office's brief shine of celebrity spotlight then, and would love to post the photos again. So here they are.

Here's Jim holding a painting of himself at the court done by St. Helena artist, Greg De Lucca:

Ric was happy to see the above picture used in Jim's celebration of life slideshow Tuesday at the Meritage in Napa. There were 500 people in attendance. Greg's painting was on display, as well.

Here's the whole tennis crew. At the ceremony, the gang sported their tennis gear and all stood up together as a tribute to Jim.

Jim was their leader, organizing four doubles matches a week. With Jim gone, the crew is leaderless, but will keep on playing in his memory.