The Iliad, our white Rhône-style blend, begins with a bright perfume of honeysuckle and acacia flowers and continues its tale with undertones of sandalwood and herbs. With elegance and harmony, this succulent beauty flaunts good acidity, concentration, and balance while serving up flavors of apricots and a hint of citrus. The long, clean finish offers a structured minerality with a hint of tannin and cream. An epic poem if we’ve ever tasted one.
Specs
Blend: 59% Roussanne, 41% Marsanne
Appellation: Napa Valley
Harvest: October 12th - 22nd, 2018, Picked at 24.7 Brix
Vineyard: Stagecoach Vineyard, Naggiar Vineyard, Sierra Foothills
Fermentation: 92% Barrel Fermented, aged 6 months, 30% New French Oak, 8% Stainless Fermented
Alcohol: 14.6%
pH: 3.60
TA: .56
Production: 433 cases
Bottled: April 2nd, 2019
Release Date: Spring 2020
What’s Included
4-bottles:
4x 2018 Miner The Iliad White Wine, Napa Valley Case:
Miner Family Winery is a family-owned winery tucked into the eastern hills of the Oakville appellation, squarely within the heart of Napa Valley. Founded in 1998 by Dave & Emily Miner, this family-owned winery makes a wide range of boutique bottlings from some of California’s most acclaimed vineyard sites.
We have sought and secured a number of vineyard sites, but only those allowing complete farming control. It is this level of detail and control, from vine to wine, that ensures a wine’s consistency and quality. Our relationships with these owners and farmers are paramount to all we do. Each wine is crafted in a style to encapsulate the distinctive elements and the indelible fingerprints of their respective vineyards. This combination of excellent vineyard sites along with passionate and thoughtful winemaking provides the necessary components for creating profoundly joyful wines.
Available States
AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY, PR
I’m hoping this isn’t a stupid question, but curious about the mix of vineyards - while Stagecoach Vineyard is indeed in Napa Valley, Naggiar vineyard is 75 miles to the northeast, in Nevada County on the other side of the Sacramento Valley, very different areas and, I would think, not in the same appellation. Is one varietal from each vineyard, and how can the specs be the same?
@stolicat By labeling it “white wine” rather than a varietal wine they have a lot of freedom. Only 75% must be from Napa Valley and the rest can be from anywhere else in California. If it was labelled Marsanne/Roussanne then 75% of each variety would also have to be from Napa. Cam Hughes breaks it down in detail: https://blog.chwine.com/understanding-ava-75-rule/
Edit: Napa Valley appears to fall under the 85% rule since it’s a recognised AVA rather than a region.
@stolicat Hi! Thank you so much for your question. The Miner Iliad white wine is a traditional blend of the Rhône varietals, Marsanne and Roussanne. At Miner Family Winery, we are huge fans of Rhône wines, so we wanted to celebrate our passion by creating the perfect white Rhône blend. Although we do use a small amount of fruit for this particular blend from our vineyard partners at Naggier Vineyard, the wine is predominantly from the Napa Valley AVA and well above the 85% legal requirement required for it to be labeled as such. That information is transparent on our tech sheet and is submitted to the TTB that way as well in order to label the wine as a Napa Valley appellation. If you would like more specific percentages, feel free to shoot me an email at jenn@minerwines.com and I can connect you with our winemaker after the weekend. Have a wonderful Sunday! Cheers, Jenn
@Jennrossiminer@stolicat Can you get the info from the winemaker and post it after the sale closes? We like to have this stuff in the thread to refer to in the future.
And fwiw nobody was worried about skirting the rules!
I received an email from Alice last week stating a wine was coming my way. I was so excited; it was like Christmas in July. We were so happy when we opened the box and saw our bottle. We were sent the 2018 Iliad by Miner their white Rhône-style blend. Since the wine arrived last week, it gave us some time to let the wine rest and chill. It also gave us time to decide what we were going to pair with the wine.
We decided to open and taste our wine mid-week. Our menu for the night started with some warm brie cheese with a little local honey drizzle. We opened the wine and poured a little into the glass while the brie was warming up. The nose was beautiful, we both got a bit of citrus and honey. We sipped before the cheese and the wine was very crisp and the citrus notes came out. The wine tasted delicious with the brie, not overpowering, a nice compliment to the local honey on the cheese and notes of honey in the wine.
Dinner was yellow tail snapper that my husband caught over the weekend, with fresh green beans sautéed with baby portabella mushrooms. The fish was a perfect choice for the wine. With dinner, the citrus became more defined with a touch of tart plum. The wine was very nice, we enjoyed it more with food than before. We would definitely recommend this wine.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations).
2018 Miner The Iliad White Wine - $35 = 17.94%
Always excited to get an email letting me know wine is on the way. It also came with a casemates wine glass which was a nice surprise. So being primarily a red wine drinker I always seem to get a white wine to give my opinion on. I am not complaining, I am just prefacing my review by saying that I don’t normally drink white wines.
Being 90 degrees in Florida made drinking this chilled white wine refreshing. Upon opening the bottle and sharing it with a couple friends we all took a smell and noticed hints of citrus and an almost sweeter smell. Upon tasting it, the word we all used to describe the mouth feel was buttery. It tasted like similar but not exactly like a chardonnay. I personally don’t love chardonnays but enjoyed the taste of this more. It was a very smooth wine and I didn’t taste any alcohol on the finish. The citrus came through a little more as the bottle opened up and I really only tasted apricot after reading the description, so I probably tricked my brain into tasting it.
We had this with appetizers of pita, cut veggies, baba ghanoush, and matbucha. It paired really well with the Mediterranean food and we all finished our glasses and agreed it was tasty overall. If you are a white wine drinker I could see you enjoying this and the price, having just seen it, looks like a great deal.
The Miner Iliad white wine is a traditional blend of the Rhône varietals, Marsanne and Roussanne. At Miner Family Winery, we are huge fans of Rhône wines, so we wanted to celebrate our passion by creating the perfect white Rhône blend. This wine is giving summertime stone fruits like peaches and nectarines and a pop of lemon citrus with just a kiss of French oak to give it a little vanilla silk. Not too much oak to overwhelm, but just enough to balance the beautiful acidity, making it a perfect white wine for summertime sipping. Enjoy!
@Jennrossiminer thanks for stopping by!
There was a question above asking about the provenance of the grapes in this wine given the Napa Valley appellation and the mention of a Sierra Hills vineyard. Could you please clarify what percentage of each variety come from each vineyard and any additional harvest details you have?
2018 Miner The Iliad White Wine, Napa Valley
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
$378.00/Case for 12x 2018 Miner The Iliad White Wine, Napa Valley at Miner Family Winery
About The Winery
Available States
AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY, PR
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Aug 21 - Wednesday, Aug 23
2018 Miner The Iliad Napa Valley White Wine
4 bottles for $64.99 $16.25/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $159.99 $13.33/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
I’m hoping this isn’t a stupid question, but curious about the mix of vineyards - while Stagecoach Vineyard is indeed in Napa Valley, Naggiar vineyard is 75 miles to the northeast, in Nevada County on the other side of the Sacramento Valley, very different areas and, I would think, not in the same appellation. Is one varietal from each vineyard, and how can the specs be the same?
@stolicat By labeling it “white wine” rather than a varietal wine they have a lot of freedom. Only 75% must be from Napa Valley and the rest can be from anywhere else in California. If it was labelled Marsanne/Roussanne then 75% of each variety would also have to be from Napa. Cam Hughes breaks it down in detail: https://blog.chwine.com/understanding-ava-75-rule/
Edit: Napa Valley appears to fall under the 85% rule since it’s a recognised AVA rather than a region.
@klezman Thank you, I did not know how that worked. Still just curious about the mix.
@stolicat Hi! Thank you so much for your question. The Miner Iliad white wine is a traditional blend of the Rhône varietals, Marsanne and Roussanne. At Miner Family Winery, we are huge fans of Rhône wines, so we wanted to celebrate our passion by creating the perfect white Rhône blend. Although we do use a small amount of fruit for this particular blend from our vineyard partners at Naggier Vineyard, the wine is predominantly from the Napa Valley AVA and well above the 85% legal requirement required for it to be labeled as such. That information is transparent on our tech sheet and is submitted to the TTB that way as well in order to label the wine as a Napa Valley appellation. If you would like more specific percentages, feel free to shoot me an email at jenn@minerwines.com and I can connect you with our winemaker after the weekend. Have a wonderful Sunday! Cheers, Jenn
@Jennrossiminer @stolicat Can you get the info from the winemaker and post it after the sale closes? We like to have this stuff in the thread to refer to in the future.
And fwiw nobody was worried about skirting the rules!
I received an email from Alice last week stating a wine was coming my way. I was so excited; it was like Christmas in July. We were so happy when we opened the box and saw our bottle. We were sent the 2018 Iliad by Miner their white Rhône-style blend. Since the wine arrived last week, it gave us some time to let the wine rest and chill. It also gave us time to decide what we were going to pair with the wine.
We decided to open and taste our wine mid-week. Our menu for the night started with some warm brie cheese with a little local honey drizzle. We opened the wine and poured a little into the glass while the brie was warming up. The nose was beautiful, we both got a bit of citrus and honey. We sipped before the cheese and the wine was very crisp and the citrus notes came out. The wine tasted delicious with the brie, not overpowering, a nice compliment to the local honey on the cheese and notes of honey in the wine.
Dinner was yellow tail snapper that my husband caught over the weekend, with fresh green beans sautéed with baby portabella mushrooms. The fish was a perfect choice for the wine. With dinner, the citrus became more defined with a touch of tart plum. The wine was very nice, we enjoyed it more with food than before. We would definitely recommend this wine.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations).
2018 Miner The Iliad White Wine - $35 = 17.94%
Hi All, I will be adding a lab rat review when I get back home. Reviews by me and the family was positive overall. I’ll break it down shortly.
Hi All,
Always excited to get an email letting me know wine is on the way. It also came with a casemates wine glass which was a nice surprise. So being primarily a red wine drinker I always seem to get a white wine to give my opinion on. I am not complaining, I am just prefacing my review by saying that I don’t normally drink white wines.
Being 90 degrees in Florida made drinking this chilled white wine refreshing. Upon opening the bottle and sharing it with a couple friends we all took a smell and noticed hints of citrus and an almost sweeter smell. Upon tasting it, the word we all used to describe the mouth feel was buttery. It tasted like similar but not exactly like a chardonnay. I personally don’t love chardonnays but enjoyed the taste of this more. It was a very smooth wine and I didn’t taste any alcohol on the finish. The citrus came through a little more as the bottle opened up and I really only tasted apricot after reading the description, so I probably tricked my brain into tasting it.
We had this with appetizers of pita, cut veggies, baba ghanoush, and matbucha. It paired really well with the Mediterranean food and we all finished our glasses and agreed it was tasty overall. If you are a white wine drinker I could see you enjoying this and the price, having just seen it, looks like a great deal.
Hi Friends!! Happy Sunday
This is Jenn Rossi, National Sales Manager from Miner Family Winery. Please let me know if you have any questions.
The Miner Iliad white wine is a traditional blend of the Rhône varietals, Marsanne and Roussanne. At Miner Family Winery, we are huge fans of Rhône wines, so we wanted to celebrate our passion by creating the perfect white Rhône blend. This wine is giving summertime stone fruits like peaches and nectarines and a pop of lemon citrus with just a kiss of French oak to give it a little vanilla silk. Not too much oak to overwhelm, but just enough to balance the beautiful acidity, making it a perfect white wine for summertime sipping. Enjoy!
@Jennrossiminer thanks for stopping by!
There was a question above asking about the provenance of the grapes in this wine given the Napa Valley appellation and the mention of a Sierra Hills vineyard. Could you please clarify what percentage of each variety come from each vineyard and any additional harvest details you have?