|
WINE REVIEWS
QRW's 23rd Annual Best of The Best in California awards FIVE STARS to PARALLEL NAPA VALLEY QUARTERLY REVIEW OF WINE'S - Summer 2007
Wine Review Online Reviews Parallel -
It is difficult for me to imagine a more attractive young Cabernet.
The Wilder Side of California - September 29, 2006
High-class lots are wonderfully low-budget - January 31, 2006
his is a first release from a new Napa Valley producer and the future for this winery would seem to be very promising.
Parallel 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon 9.5 rating - 8/25/2006
Vinography Review: 2003 Parallel Wines Cabernet - January 18, 2006
Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world.
LATEST NEWS
QRW's 23rd Annual Best of The Best in California awards FIVE STARS to PARALLEL NAPA VALLEY QUARTERLY REVIEW OF WINE'S - Summer 2007
Parallel Wines "Magnum" bottle takes Best of Show - March 15, 2006
Parallel Wines takes Best of Show at the 2005 Beverage Packaging Global Design Awards
Winemaker of the Year: Philippe Melka - August 2005
Melka receives some much deserved recognition
A Star Is Born - April 2001
You may not know his name yet, but Philippe Melka is quickly becoming Napa Valley's hottest consulting winemaker.
A Long-Time Business Venture Comes to Fruition - December 2, 2005
Local group releases a 2003 vintage wine from Napa Valley, Calif.
What is that hidden ingredient? - December 9, 2005
Living in a Parallel Universe - Thursday, November 24, 2005
How one couple went from the ski slopes of Utah to the grape slopes of the Napa Valley
PRESS RELEASES
Philippe Melka's Skiing-Inspired Napa "Cabernet" Finds Success on its First Run, Going for Gold -
"This wine is distinctive and reflects a sense of harmony and sophistication."
At Parallel Wines, Success Is A Community Affair -
Parallel has helped raise $120,000 in funds for more than twenty charities through the donation of their wines.
Parallel Wine For The Holidays Offers The Taste Of Skiing Along With The Hint Of A Surprise Holiday Ski Trip - October, 2006
How about the gift of a surprise ski trip accompanied by a bottle of 2004 Parallel ?
Napa Valley's Parallel Wines Celebrates Its Ski Roots with Launch in Park City, UT - Dec 1, 2005
Fine wine and skiing have always been a great match.
Backgrounder - The Parallel Winery Story -
Parallel is the story of our lives and friendships, which have unfolded for more than 20 years.
Find more information in our On-line Press kit at charlescomm.com.
|
QRW's 23rd Annual Best of The Best in California awards FIVE STARS to PARALLEL NAPA VALLEY QUARTERLY REVIEW OF WINE'S
Summer 2007
QRW designates its very best wine in each varietal wine with a "Best of The Best/Best of Show" moniker. This is followed by our "Best of The Best/Five-Star" selections (the high 90s for those needing numbers), and our Four-Star selections (low 90s for those still needing numbers).
California Cabernet Sauvignon has never been better...feel comfortable serving side by side with the best Bordeaux. They are truly "The Best."
The Caymus Special Selection, a perennial favorite, was as fine as ever, earning Best of Show, but our blind tasting gave us new and exciting wines, like Parallel...
A Five-Star California Cabernet Sauvignon - 2004 Parallel [Philippe Melka] Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley), $49. 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot and 9% Petit Verdot. Big, rich, ripe, pure, blackberry, mocha and chocolate flavors - hedonistic to the max!
Parallel 2004 ($49) has aromas of coffee, dark chocolate, black cherry, and black currants that jump from the glass. Well-mirrored flavors are rich, generous, and mouth filling with extended length.
(page 74 Quarterly Review of Wines summer/2007)
Read More: http://www.qrw.com/07summer/califbotb.htm
Source: Quarterly Review of Wines
Instead of grandeur, he aimed for greatness and hit the mark
By: ROBERT WHITLEY
01/17/2007
ST. HELENA - He's a busy guy, winemaker Philippe Melka. He's on the fast track now, a dozen years after landing in the Napa Valley a virtual unknown. Bryant Family, Dalla Valle, Lail - these are just a few of his clients from the list of who's who in Napa wine.
Food & Wine magazine named him Winemaker of the Year when it came out with its annual American Wine Awards in October - no small irony, considering Melka is Bordeaux born and bred. But the soft-spoken Frenchman has earned the accolades. And now he can pick and choose, taking the projects he finds appealing and shunning those he doesn't.
So I was intrigued when I discovered Melka was making a new Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon from a start-up winery called Parallel. The Parallel cab's debut vintage was 2003. I tasted it for the first time on a visit to San Francisco last year, when I was told of the Melka connection. I loved it, but I held my breath, expecting a formidable price tag.
I was surprised to learn it was a reasonable $44. Not cheap, but nothing close to what I expected. A hundred bucks or more for a debut release from a Napa Valley producer with a rock-star winemaker would hardly have been shocking. This piqued my curiosity.
I caught up with Melka in the cellars of a custom-crush facility over on Spring Mountain, where the Parallel wines are made. I knew by that time that Parallel was owned by eight partners from Park City, Utah. Four couples, ski buddies who had known each other for years, decided one day to purchase land in the Napa Valley and make wine.
This is a familiar story line in wine country, but with a twist. The Parallel partners weren't on an ego trip. They weren't looking to build a mansion, nor a monument to themselves.
They just wanted to make good wine and have a Napa hangout for cozy weekend escapes. They hooked up with Melka in 2002, and he helped them find a property up on Howell Mountain, about seven miles off the Silverado Trail.
"I wasn't so busy in 2002 as I am today," Melka told me, basking in the moment as he tasted barrel samples of newly minted wines from the '06 harvest. "But I also really liked the idea for this project. It is very humble in some ways. The partners wanted to make an above-average Napa Valley wine, but with an average Napa Valley price.
"If they had told me, 'We want you to make the best wine in the world, money is no object,' I wouldn't have been interested," Melka added. "What they wanted to do was make the best wine we could make from the grape sources we have - a wine all of the partners could enjoy, and a wine that would be easy to sell. It is a wonderful concept."
Of course, Philippe Melka being Philippe Melka, there is nothing average about the Parallel cabernet. The first two vintages - sourced from mountain vineyards on the eastern side of the Napa Valley - are stunning wines. They were made in limited quantity - the 2004 vintage (reviewed in this column) is 900-plus cases - and could easily fetch a heftier price.
I suspect the higher price will be coming soon, after the estate vineyards come online, but for now Parallel Cabernet Sauvignon is perhaps the steal of the decade in Napa Valley cab, and an interesting story to boot.
Read More: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070117/news_lz1c17...
Source: The San Diego Union Tribune
Sun Valley Wine Auction to benefit Sun Valley Center for the Arts - Parallel's Repeat Performance
10/01/2007
Read More: http://www.sunvalleycenter.org
The Wilder Side of California
By: Doug Wilder
September 29, 2006
Over the last couple weeks I attended a tasting in San Francisco hosted by one of my most important brokers, Hunter Boon of West Coast Wines, who continues to bring new, exciting producers to my attention. The tasting was responsible for the first two wines that begin this issue of The Wilder Side of California.
There currently are more and more releases of Cabernet-based wines which will be the center of my focus for the next few weeks. I lead off with a new brand called Igneous, coming from one of the top fruit sources, David Abreu's Thorevilos Vineyard, and made by Kirk and Nils Venge. There has been considerable buzz on the wine bulletin board I frequent talking about a Sonoma producer called Audelssa, a monumental project striving for excellence from their rocky terraced vineyards in the Mayacamas range. We look at their proprietary red wine named Summit. Larkmead, made by Andy Smith (DuMOL), is again making history from one of the oldest vineyards in the valley, founded by Lillie Hitchcock Coit in the late 1800's. D.R. Stephens, with Celia Masyczek as winemaker, produces excellent wines every year. We look at the October 1 release of the new Cabernet. John and Tracey Skupny are long time wine professionals in the valley. They produce high quality, value based Cabernet Franc under their Land and Reed label. We conclude this week with an ambitious partnership know as Parallel. Four couples who know each other from the skiing community in Park City have developed a vineyard and are now in their second vintage. Philippe Melka is winemaker and Jim Barbour manages the vineyard.
2004 Parallel - Cabernet Sauvignon
USA - California - Napa - Napa Valley
Prearrival
VF 93
$50
750ml
Initial aromas of dark chocolate, mint and cherry in the nose with some sweet currant on the front of the palate. The dusty chocolate, black cherry, plum and currant flavors are polished and expansive for such a young wine. Nice acidity on the finish. Drink : 2008-2012.
Read More: http://blogs.vinfolio.com/do/wilder?issue=71
Source: Vinfolio
|
