Ty Caton Vineyards is committed to producing the finest wines made from the highest quality grapes and winemaking dedication at its best. Our limited production allows us to handcraft wines with varietal intensity and balance.
Vineyard Notes
Located in the foothills of Sonoma Valley, the Caton Vineyard is defined by its sustainable farming and belief that healthier vineyards produce very unique and distinctive wines. The vineyards have multiple sun exposures, soil types, and vary in altitude over 300 feet between each other. Our meticulous farming practices showcase the love for our land and our passion for the wines that come from it.
This elegant Merlot greets the nose with rich aromas of ripe cherry and violets, followed by a lush mouth feel with layers of blackberry, currant, and a touch of chocolate. These flavors combine with soft and supple tannins to create a long, silky smooth finish.
Specs
Vintage: 2018
Varietal: 100% Merlot
Appellation: Moon Mountain District ~ Sonoma Valley
Farming Practices: Certified Sustainable
Region: Estate Grown, Caton Vineyard
Cooperage: 15 Months
Alcohol: 15.3%
Production: 635 Cases
2018 Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah, Moon Mountain District, Caton Vineyard
Tasting Notes
This wine is accentuated by aromas of blackberry and mocha and intensified on the mid-palate with flavors of boysenberry and subtle pepper spice. The smooth finish leaves silky, lingering tannins.
Specs
Vintage: 2018
Varietal: 100% Syrah
Farming Practices: Certified Sustainable
Appellation: Moon Mountain District ~ Sonoma Valley
At Ty Caton Vineyards, our commitment to excellence begins in the Caton Vineyard where winemaker Ty Caton sustainably farms the hillside fruit used in his Moon Mountain District wine. As one of the few exclusively estate producers in Sonoma Valley, Ty works with grapes from soil to glass by enabling him to make extraordinary wines that showcase the vineyard. Forging a new definition of quality, Ty Caton is dedicated to Actively Seeking Excellence.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Cheers all! Happy to have The Brown drop off the mysterious (but i looked up the tracking tag so not unknown) box late last week.
2018 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot
So the weather was hot, and with the bottle arriving at 6pm it was hot hot hot as well. Into the wine cellar to chill out for a day. I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be cooked, or bad, or ruined. In the end, no wrongs beset this wine. It had an intact cork, no leakage, no apparent heat damage.
Aroma: At pop-n-pour moderately fruity but a lot of alcohol. I felt like i was in a barrel room with a little mint/eucalyptus. After airing for a bit it toned down, the alcohol went into the background and got more red berries and dust. Overall the aroma wasn’t overpowering. Certainly not flawed, but just light and pleasing.
Taste: Moderate tannin and moderate acid. It served better as an aperitif and was a little overwhelmed with dinner (ribeye, carrot puree, zucchini salad, roasted potato). Both the spouse and i enjoyed it alone and i would think that’s a good place for it. After an hour of being open it showed better, but was still very drinkable.
We enjoyed this bottle a lot! There wasn’t anything brooding, or particularly difficult to understand about this bottle. Merlot isn’t a huge part of my cellar as we tend more Rhone, but this was a good one. Perfectly pleasant and a good example of the grape.
@klezman@radiolysis
Picked up a half case of his 2001 Merlot, Ty’s first Merlot, following tasting a bottle at a WD hosted party following the '12 rpm tour. AbV well controlled for that vintage, $25/btl and well worth it.
@radiolysis@rjquillin I remember having that, and Ty said he’d sell me some but then dropped off the radar. Maybe I’ll just snag a bottle or two from you if you have any left.
@klezman@radiolysis
Someone and I were supposed to split a case, but the other half never did, so I only got the six; didn’t want to pony up for 12. CT, as I’m sure you’ve checked, still thinks I have three.
This is the 4th (or thereabouts) ratty bottle I’ve gotten from Casemates & Wine.Woot and with red blend after red blend, I figured I was destined to forever be without that much sought-after bottle of syrah…but alas my clever email letting Alice know that I was recently married and have a new mailing address worked and two weeks later there was a beautiful single bottle box waiting at my doorstep with none other than…
Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah
Due to pre-holiday dieting, the menu was already planned out the week prior, so chicken breasts with green peppercorn sauce, parmesan garlic mashed potatoes, and garlic & herb cornbread it was and a young syrah was going to go with it, dagnabit!
I popped the bottle about 45 minutes before dinner and took a smell & a sip and alcohol. That’s about all I got. I had been hopeful before opening in that the 2016 TC Syrah (something which I haven’t tried) to 2018 TC Syrah (something I now have had) dropping from 15.9% to 14.8% ABV would be helpful in that regard. That said, I’ve had plenty of good syrah’s that open to strong alcohol bite that opens up nicely, so I still had high hopes when I poured two glasses to open up until dinner was served.
45 mins later, my wife and I took our first taste with a baked brie and dark chocolate appetizer and it was very nice. It screamed red fruits - blackberry, plum, dark cherries (depending which of us you asked) and I definitely got dark chocolate…but that could have just been chocolate in the brie! There were then subtle flavors of pepper and spice that worked well with the dinner (and a wide variety of dinners at that - I have some Syrah’s that I feel improper serving with anything other than red meat - that isn’t the case here). There is then those pleasant lingering tannins that just stick around for a while! Overall, a very nice wine, that I’d happily pick up a few bottles for $42 each at the winery if I swung by. At $21 a bottle shipped, it is a no question grab a case of this and the merlot and toss it in storage for a few years. Unfortunately, with an impending move this winter, the wife ixnayed on the orderyay, but I’m definitely adding a stop at the TC tasting room to our Napa/Sonoma trip over New Years!
Apologies for the delay in the report, my 5 y/o nephew had to hit up the ER this morning at 1am, so it threw off my schedule helping out with his brother for the morning! All is clear, but I’m definitely having the other half of this bottle with dinner tonight - we’ll see how it goes with homemade Runza’s for the Nebraskans in the crowd (or Bierocks for any Volga Germans out there)!
@karenhynes So I discovered the idea in making grilled cheese with brie and coarsely chopped dark chocolate, which was fall-over amazing! I’ve tried a few different ways, but just take a small round of brie (or a large one, but when it’s just my wife and I…we stock up on small brie wheels because there is never leftovers) - cut it horizontally in half and add chopped up dark chocolate and a few leaves of torn basil in the middle (and recombined the two brie halfs) and then bake 375* for 15 minutes in a ramekin until nice and bubbly! The next step is pretty obvious…
@larsrulz
Seeet Jesus (or insert deity of choice)!…I’m so doing this the next time I do anything vaguely social. If that takes too long…it’ll all be for me!!!
@karenhynes@larsrulz I may do it for others, a mini wheel for myself with white chocolate and another wheel with the dark chocolate, since I’m allergic to chocolate and we all know white chocolate has no real chocolate in it!
I’m agreeing that unsweetened chocolate is likely too bitter for this to work well, but you could definitely up the cocoa percentage to something like an 80-85% if you don’t have an overly sweet tooth. Or maybe you could try adding the necessary sweetness with something like currants or raspberry, but I fear we’re starting to add too many flavors that’ll overwhelm the brie! Unfortunately I’m a dark chocolate fan, so I don’t comprehend why to use something else!
Ty was always an autobuy for me before OH was dropped off the buy list. Since then I filled the basement with an over abundance of full wine cases. I’m glad I did before prices started to rise resulting into a strict SIWBM.
If I remember correctly, Ty’s wines seemed to always have alcohol around 15.3, but they were very balance and got better with age! Can’t go wrong with Ty’s wines!
I’ve been a fan of Ty’s wines since the WW days and was a club member for a while. Generally an auto buy for me, as well. I have found they benefit greatly from time in the cellar and time in the decanter, but it’s time well spent and worth the effort. My cellar has 2-3 cases of Ty now, but a 1/2 case is perfect and my order is in.
Was checking my basement wine shelf and found I had some 2003 Tytanium and 1 each of 2003 Cab, Zin, and 2002 Cab. I knew I still had Tytanium but didn’t remember the others.
Was hoping for some more engagement in the discussion, ideally from winemaker. Not sure if they are selling on the product or the name and reputation. And obvious history from W.W. days.
The thing is that at $22 I know I can get some pretty good WA state Merlot and Syrah, and in general tend to prefer those over CA producers; not speaking about this wine specifically as I haven’t had any experience with this or their previous vintages of these varietals.
@losthighwayz Here are some I’ve enjoyed in the past. The first few are blends and can vary greatly in character from year to year. But usually <$20. Getting up to single-varietal, the retail will usually jump up a lot for the premium producers, but sometimes there are still good deals to be found.
Saviah Cellars “The Jack” blend
Desert Wind “Ruah” blend
Syncline “Subduction Red” blend
Hedges “Red Mountain”
Waterbook
Canoe Ridge
even the “big producers” Ch. Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest have good affordable offerings in their higher lines, but stay away from the basic grocery-store ones.
Often Costco on West Coast has a pretty good selection of both CA and WA/ OR, but it’s regional in terms of what they carry and often comes and goes a few cases at a time. There have been some of my favorite whites I found there that don’t seem to ever come back to Costco so now I can find them elsewhere, but not at nearly as good a price.
In general Wahluke Slope, Horse Heaven Hills, Red Mountain are dependable AVAs for WA reds.
Vineyard Notes
2018 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot, Moon Mountain District, Caton Vineyard
Tasting Notes
Specs
2018 Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah, Moon Mountain District, Caton Vineyard
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
6-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
$581.84/Case at Ty Caton for 6x 2018 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot, Moon Mountain District, Caton Vineyard
& 6x 2018 Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah, Moon Mountain District, Caton Vineyard
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Nov 8 - Friday, Nov 12
Ty Caton
6 bottles for $129.99 $21.67/bottle + $1.33/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $239.99 $20/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2018 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot
2018 Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah
Cheers all! Happy to have The Brown drop off the mysterious (but i looked up the tracking tag so not unknown) box late last week.
2018 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot
So the weather was hot, and with the bottle arriving at 6pm it was hot hot hot as well. Into the wine cellar to chill out for a day. I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be cooked, or bad, or ruined. In the end, no wrongs beset this wine. It had an intact cork, no leakage, no apparent heat damage.
Aroma: At pop-n-pour moderately fruity but a lot of alcohol. I felt like i was in a barrel room with a little mint/eucalyptus. After airing for a bit it toned down, the alcohol went into the background and got more red berries and dust. Overall the aroma wasn’t overpowering. Certainly not flawed, but just light and pleasing.
Taste: Moderate tannin and moderate acid. It served better as an aperitif and was a little overwhelmed with dinner (ribeye, carrot puree, zucchini salad, roasted potato). Both the spouse and i enjoyed it alone and i would think that’s a good place for it. After an hour of being open it showed better, but was still very drinkable.
We enjoyed this bottle a lot! There wasn’t anything brooding, or particularly difficult to understand about this bottle. Merlot isn’t a huge part of my cellar as we tend more Rhone, but this was a good one. Perfectly pleasant and a good example of the grape.
@radiolysis this confirms my impression that 15.3% and “elegant” don’t usually go together. Sounds like a fun wine.
@klezman @radiolysis
Picked up a half case of his 2001 Merlot, Ty’s first Merlot, following tasting a bottle at a WD hosted party following the '12 rpm tour. AbV well controlled for that vintage, $25/btl and well worth it.
@radiolysis Thank you for the rattage.
@radiolysis @rjquillin I remember having that, and Ty said he’d sell me some but then dropped off the radar. Maybe I’ll just snag a bottle or two from you if you have any left.
@klezman @radiolysis
Someone and I were supposed to split a case, but the other half never did, so I only got the six; didn’t want to pony up for 12. CT, as I’m sure you’ve checked, still thinks I have three.
@rjquillin Funny you think I actually checked CT…I just figured you take so long to get through anything that it was mostly still around!
@klezman @InFrom
@klezman @radiolysis @rjquillin that was a good one! We’re dating ourselves!
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2018 Ty Caton - $20 = 7.69%
This is the 4th (or thereabouts) ratty bottle I’ve gotten from Casemates & Wine.Woot and with red blend after red blend, I figured I was destined to forever be without that much sought-after bottle of syrah…but alas my clever email letting Alice know that I was recently married and have a new mailing address worked and two weeks later there was a beautiful single bottle box waiting at my doorstep with none other than…
Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah
Due to pre-holiday dieting, the menu was already planned out the week prior, so chicken breasts with green peppercorn sauce, parmesan garlic mashed potatoes, and garlic & herb cornbread it was and a young syrah was going to go with it, dagnabit!
I popped the bottle about 45 minutes before dinner and took a smell & a sip and alcohol. That’s about all I got. I had been hopeful before opening in that the 2016 TC Syrah (something which I haven’t tried) to 2018 TC Syrah (something I now have had) dropping from 15.9% to 14.8% ABV would be helpful in that regard. That said, I’ve had plenty of good syrah’s that open to strong alcohol bite that opens up nicely, so I still had high hopes when I poured two glasses to open up until dinner was served.
45 mins later, my wife and I took our first taste with a baked brie and dark chocolate appetizer and it was very nice. It screamed red fruits - blackberry, plum, dark cherries (depending which of us you asked) and I definitely got dark chocolate…but that could have just been chocolate in the brie! There were then subtle flavors of pepper and spice that worked well with the dinner (and a wide variety of dinners at that - I have some Syrah’s that I feel improper serving with anything other than red meat - that isn’t the case here). There is then those pleasant lingering tannins that just stick around for a while! Overall, a very nice wine, that I’d happily pick up a few bottles for $42 each at the winery if I swung by. At $21 a bottle shipped, it is a no question grab a case of this and the merlot and toss it in storage for a few years. Unfortunately, with an impending move this winter, the wife ixnayed on the orderyay, but I’m definitely adding a stop at the TC tasting room to our Napa/Sonoma trip over New Years!
Apologies for the delay in the report, my 5 y/o nephew had to hit up the ER this morning at 1am, so it threw off my schedule helping out with his brother for the morning! All is clear, but I’m definitely having the other half of this bottle with dinner tonight - we’ll see how it goes with homemade Runza’s for the Nebraskans in the crowd (or Bierocks for any Volga Germans out there)!
@larsrulz
Nice report. Tell me more about this dark chocolate brie concoction…
@karenhynes So I discovered the idea in making grilled cheese with brie and coarsely chopped dark chocolate, which was fall-over amazing! I’ve tried a few different ways, but just take a small round of brie (or a large one, but when it’s just my wife and I…we stock up on small brie wheels because there is never leftovers) - cut it horizontally in half and add chopped up dark chocolate and a few leaves of torn basil in the middle (and recombined the two brie halfs) and then bake 375* for 15 minutes in a ramekin until nice and bubbly! The next step is pretty obvious…
@larsrulz
Seeet Jesus (or insert deity of choice)!…I’m so doing this the next time I do anything vaguely social. If that takes too long…it’ll all be for me!!!
@karenhynes @larsrulz I may do it for others, a mini wheel for myself with white chocolate and another wheel with the dark chocolate, since I’m allergic to chocolate and we all know white chocolate has no real chocolate in it!
@karenhynes @larsrulz
Yeah this sounds so crazy out in left field I gotta try it
@karenhynes @larsrulz
You think unsweetened bakers chocolate might work?
@karenhynes @larsrulz @rjquillin
That sounds bitter on top of brie yuk. Jalapeno jam works with brie because it’s got sweetness I think
@karenhynes @rjquillin @ScottW58
I’m agreeing that unsweetened chocolate is likely too bitter for this to work well, but you could definitely up the cocoa percentage to something like an 80-85% if you don’t have an overly sweet tooth. Or maybe you could try adding the necessary sweetness with something like currants or raspberry, but I fear we’re starting to add too many flavors that’ll overwhelm the brie! Unfortunately I’m a dark chocolate fan, so I don’t comprehend why to use something else!
I would be hesitant to try this with a rando white chocolate, but I’ve done something similarly savory (just not with brie) with a Gusto White Chocolate bar (https://fortechocolates.com/shop/chocolate-bars/gusto-bars/gusto-rosemary-sea-salt-bar/) and butternut squash, and I think that would work well here!
Wasn’t I here for a wine report?! It feels like a baking blog with 10 pages of life story to get to the actual recipe…just vice versa!
Ty was always an autobuy for me before OH was dropped off the buy list. Since then I filled the basement with an over abundance of full wine cases. I’m glad I did before prices started to rise resulting into a strict SIWBM.
If I remember correctly, Ty’s wines seemed to always have alcohol around 15.3, but they were very balance and got better with age! Can’t go wrong with Ty’s wines!
@Boatman72 ohio is on the buy list. I didnt like all of the ty wines but the upper bench merlot was one of my favorites from woot days.
I’ve been a fan of Ty’s wines since the WW days and was a club member for a while. Generally an auto buy for me, as well. I have found they benefit greatly from time in the cellar and time in the decanter, but it’s time well spent and worth the effort. My cellar has 2-3 cases of Ty now, but a 1/2 case is perfect and my order is in.
Was checking my basement wine shelf and found I had some 2003 Tytanium and 1 each of 2003 Cab, Zin, and 2002 Cab. I knew I still had Tytanium but didn’t remember the others.
Was hoping for some more engagement in the discussion, ideally from winemaker. Not sure if they are selling on the product or the name and reputation. And obvious history from W.W. days.
The thing is that at $22 I know I can get some pretty good WA state Merlot and Syrah, and in general tend to prefer those over CA producers; not speaking about this wine specifically as I haven’t had any experience with this or their previous vintages of these varietals.
@pmarin care to share some of the $20 WA wines?
@losthighwayz Here are some I’ve enjoyed in the past. The first few are blends and can vary greatly in character from year to year. But usually <$20. Getting up to single-varietal, the retail will usually jump up a lot for the premium producers, but sometimes there are still good deals to be found.
Saviah Cellars “The Jack” blend
Desert Wind “Ruah” blend
Syncline “Subduction Red” blend
Hedges “Red Mountain”
Waterbook
Canoe Ridge
even the “big producers” Ch. Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest have good affordable offerings in their higher lines, but stay away from the basic grocery-store ones.
Often Costco on West Coast has a pretty good selection of both CA and WA/ OR, but it’s regional in terms of what they carry and often comes and goes a few cases at a time. There have been some of my favorite whites I found there that don’t seem to ever come back to Costco so now I can find them elsewhere, but not at nearly as good a price.
In general Wahluke Slope, Horse Heaven Hills, Red Mountain are dependable AVAs for WA reds.
If anyone in Houston is thinking about this but haven’t pulled trigger let me know. Up for a 3 way split and just need one more.