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.
Vintage
The 2020 harvest started with ideal growing conditions in Sonoma Valley. Temperature rose consistently through Labor Day while September brought high temperature spikes accelerating the last weeks of harvest. It took an unpredictable turn in mid-August with wildfires leaving uncertainty around the county. Luckily, the early harvest allowed us time to pick the Caton Vineyard with quality fruit. This vintage resulted in smaller berries and concentrated fruit.
Vineyard Notes
BLOCK 1 & 2 In the 1960s, the base of this vineyard was originally a baseball field for the San Francisco Boys and Girls Club – Ballfield Syrah honors this history in its name. The two unique blocks of Syrah planted side by side on the Caton Vineyard offer distinct characteristics and harmonious balance when together. Block 1 is a 2.6-acre planting with a North-South row direction. This block consistently offers bold fruit and complex flavor profiles. Block 2 is a 3.9-acre site with East-West row direction. The block is warm with limited afternoon sun, so it produces a wine with the best of both worlds: fruit forwardness of a warm site and spice qualities of a cool site.
Specs
Vintage: 2020
Varietal 100% Syrah
Appellation: Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Valley
Vineyard: Estate Grown, Caton Vineyard
Aging: 15 months, 50% new French oak
Alcohol: 15.2%
Bottled: May 2022
Release Date: September 2022
Production: 405 cases
2020 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot, Estate
93 points Wine Enthusiast
Tasting Notes
This elegant Merlot greets the nose with rich aromas of ripe cherry and violets, followed by a lush mouthfeel 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.
Vintage
The 2020 harvest started with ideal growing conditions in Sonoma Valley. Temperature rose consistently through Labor Day while September brought high temperature spikes accelerating the last weeks of harvest. It took an unpredictable turn mid-August with wildfires leaving uncertainty around the county. Luckily, the early harvest allowed us time to pick the Caton Vineyard with quality fruit. This vintage resulted in smaller berries and concentrated fruit.
The Vineyard
Located in the foothills of Moon Mountain District, the Caton Vineyard is defined by its sustainable farming and belief that healthier vineyards produce unique and distinctive wines. 3.13 acres of Clone 3 Merlot is planted with East-West row direction leading into a ravine. The deep, rocky volcanic soil on the vineyard is rich with iron clay - an ideal atmosphere for producing the highest quality crop with slow, even ripening.
Specs
Vintage: 2020
Varietal: Merlot
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. Ty Caton wines have received critical acclaim in world renowned wine publications and competitions, including many Best of Class honors. As a grape grower and winemaker, Ty strives to produce the “wow factor” by making wines that are bold, beautifully structured and are a true representation of the vineyards they come from.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, 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
The countdown is on! And a chocolate Advent calendar can’t compare to an e-mail from Alice with a rattage opportunity for pre-Christmas weekend!! We were very excited to see the UPS tracking showed an inbound Ty Caton Merlot. In checking through our wines like a rabid squirrel trying to find where all those acorns were tucked away, I found that our Ty Caton burrow only had two bottles of 2012 Petite Sirah- a Christmas Miracle? Maybe not, but at least incredibly coincidental and fortuitous for us.
While Merlot caught some shade in the film Sideways, Miles Raymond never had a bottle of this, and if he had that whole scene would be on the cutting room floor. Don’t make Mile’s mistake, we truly enjoyed this one from Ty!
Day 1 tasting: Bottle arrived safely and was lightly chilled and opened to breath for about 20 minutes. Initial tasting was at 64°. Cork was lightly stained less than 1/8”, no signs of sedimentation. Wine is a deep crimson to lighter burgundy at the edges. The nose on this was very nice. I got clear blackberry, plum, and light earthy leather. Fruit was prominent. Mrs. Rat called out cola, dark cherry, and some woodsy-pepper notes (oak?).
Initial afternoon tasting backed up the aromas. Additional dark fruits, bramble and cherry were noted, lingering well after the nice level of tannins faded. Mrs. Rat noted the taste of dark cherry/cocoa/dark fruit. Minimal alcohol heat, even with the 15.6 % ABV on the label. As the glass warmed, the bramble and berry aromas came up a notch. Legs formed quickly on a swirl. Key observation from the first ten minutes: “Very nice!”
Food pairing came courtesy of a Pedroncelli recipe for “Chicken Chile Verde” with Jasmine rice (highly recommended) which was a fantastic pairing for this Merlot. The chicken was packed with spicy goodness and some heat, and the Upper Bench Merlot kept up with it easily. We would definitely do this pairing for company in the future. No surprise that pairing this wine with both dark and white chocolates was also very successful.
Day 1 evening retaste- after about 6 hours of open bottle, we poured a few ounces to see what changes might be evident. If anything, it felt a bit ‘softer’. We know that’s a fuzzy word, so how about ‘rounder’? Still very smooth. Two thumbs up for the Day 1 wrap up.
Don’t be on the fence for this one given the Friday only deal. Our experiences with this wine and Ty’s past wines make this a very promising offer!
@benguin986 You’re aware, of course, that Miles’s proclaimed distaste for Merlot did not reconcile well with his proclaimed desire for Château Cheval Blanc, which in a typical vintage is more than half Merlot, for example, 53% in 2022.
@benguin986 Day 2 update- after 26 hours uncorked, the fruit still dominates, and is strong on the nose. Biggest difference to us was the alc heat is down quite a bit, which brings the other aromas and flavors out strongly.
Concurrence from both of us- the Merlot is delicious.
Kudos to Ty for the work it takes from his and his team to bring us these wines!!
Got the golden ticket I was excited that I got the Ty Caton 2020 Ballfield Syrah. In a nutshell great wine, really enjoyed it, now on to the more in-depth report. On pop and pour there is a cloudiness present, perhaps unfiltered unfined? I also just got it off the brown truck so it didn’t have much time to sit. Nevertheless I didn’t find it to be bretty or any other microbial taint. First whiff was dark fruits, my wife who’s not a huge wine drinker also said fruit and she smelled an earthiness.
First taste was a dark berry, maybe stewed prunes and dark chocolate. A grippy tannin was present and not unwelcome. It provided structure to make sure it wasn’t flabby. Surprised on how not hot this wine is, at 15.2 I expected to smell notes or taste heat but neither were present.
I had this with a venison stir-fry and it was great, the wine had enough structure to handle the chili-crisp that was a spice note with the deer. Also the deer’s flavor again worked well with the slightly earthy, dark chocolate, stewed plum notes. It also went well with the chocolates I had for dessert. This was an interesting wine as it was bold enough to be a stand alone but had enough structure to handle food with fat contents.
I saved enough for a glass tonight and had this with a venison cottage pie. Again the stewed plum and earthy dark chocolate notes stood up well and accompanied the food. I enjoyed the wine and would buy it, the $25/bottle price for 4 bottles is great and the case price is a screamer.
Any peninsula or southern San Francisco people let me know if you want to split, otherwise i’ll pick up a 4 pack even though I’m stuffed to the gills with wine.
I received an email from Alice that a bottle was coming our way! Yippee! The box contained a Casemates glass and a bottle of Ty Caton 2020 Moon Mountain District-Caton Vineyard Upper Bench Merlot. Oooo, a Ty Caton! I was excited and knew that we were in for a treat! Ty makes some really nice wines. ddeuddeg and I have been drinking Ty’s wines since a few of us stopped there before the first RPM Tour in 2008. I decided to open the bottle about a half hour before dinner to give it some time to breathe. This baby is 15.6% alc!
I did a quick taste before getting fully involved with dinner prep and having the aromas of dinner mess with my nose. I was really surprised that this wine, as young as it is, did not seem hot at all. It was really well-balanced and smooth with the first taste. On the nose, I was able to detect bold ripe cherries and some kind of floral aspect. On the palate, the ripe cherries exploded and some blackberries chimed in with some nuances of chocolate and a nice smooth finish.
Please read ddeuddeg’s review for details on our menu du soir for this wine. I think it paired exceptionally well with everything. I also think it would pair beautifully with a cheese and pepperoni pizza with a thicker-style crust! I know sometimes people get the wrong impression when someone says that it’s a pizza wine. Definitely not so in this case. For us, wine has become our beverage of choice with pizza. Twenty years ago, it was beer!
All in all, this is a good, solid, well-made wine from a highly reputable winemaker and is being offered at a nice price point, especially at the case price!
We still have fond memories of our first visit to Ty Caton’s tasting room, the day before embarking on the first RPM Magical Historical Tour in 2008. We’ve enjoyed a lot of Ty’s wines since then, and this 2020 Upper Bench Merlot was one of them. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Ty Caton Merlot; the most recent one in my records was a 2008, that was 388 weeks ago, and we loved it.
Now to get on point: we opened the bottle last night a bit before serving dinner, to give it some breathing time, and poured a sample taste. I got the usual olfactory profile I expect from a Merlot: dark fruits, cherries and black raspberries. What I didn’t get was a heavy dose of heat. The same with my first sip, typical Merlot flavor profile, but no noticeable heat, which was a bit surprising with 15.6% ABV (according to the bottle label). I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, since our experience with Ty’s wines over the years, with 38 different bottles in our archives, has been that Ty makes wine with balance. Paired with French onion smothered pork chops, sweet potatoes, and roasted cauliflower, this was a wonderful partner, smooth as silk, plenty of flavor, but not in the least obtrusive. However, because we had theater tickets, we decided to save some for after-theater snacks. With a bit more time to breathe, the wine had opened up even more, but as nice as it was with some crackers and Manchego cheese, not quite as perfect as it was with dinner. In fact, I started drinking some before I began snacking, and I found it to be quite delightful on its own. Again, no surprise.
Ty’s wines, in our experience, are invariably well-made, balanced wines, enjoyable with a wide variety of foods, as was this one. I’m very comfortable recommending this Merlot, especially at the case price. As a side note, although I can’t comment on the Syrah in the current offer, an excellent example of the longevity one might hope for was the 2009 Ballfield Syrah we enjoyed with some grilled pork chops just six weeks ago.
@ddeuddeg
recalling as well from the '12 tour where I picked up a half case of the 2001 Merlot, and still have a couple. Last pulled a cork August this year and found it, following others in '13 and '15, to have aged well and still enjoyable bottle.
For the record, bahwm and I make it a point not to discuss the wines in any detail until we’ve completed and are ready to post our reports, to keep them as unbiased as possible, a habit we picked up on the 2008 Tour, where we got to sample some of Cathy Corison’s '96, '97, and '98 Cabernet Sauvignon, with strict orders from the winemaker that there was to be absolutely no discussion for at least the first 10 minutes.
Also, if anyone ever finds our dinner menus interesting, recipes are available upon request.
Thrilled to receive a rat bottle, especially a Ty Caton! We have been enjoying Ty Caton wines for many years. We gladly chilled the 2020 Ballfield Syrah in our wine fridge and next day poured into varietal specific syrah glasses. The cork was clean and there was a good bit of sediment in the shoulder of the bottle. On Pop-n-Pour the color was a dark garnet/very ripe plum. The nose revealed a significant alcohol and dark fruit aroma with notes of blackberry, dark cherry, pepper, a touch of anise and very slight strawberry. On first taste, we were surprised how subtle (not hot) the alcohol was given the ABV of 15.5. Dusty tannins, dark fruit, pepper, very subtle autumn spice and oak presented to the tongue. We let the wine breathe in our glasses for about 20 minutes while we finished preparing a dinner of romaine salad with strawberries, spiced pecans, blue cheese and boysenberry dressing and a lamb ragu. The tanins settled down and lost their dusty quality and the fruit flavors became more subtle and integrated. Suprisingly, this wine did not pair well with the food. Mrs. Rat thought perhaps the spiced pecans fought with the wine. We often drink syrah with roasted lamb, but this did not pair well with the lamb ragu. We saved 1/2 the bottle overnight corked, but not vacuumed.
24 hours after initial opening, we felt this wine opened up nicely and became more fruit forward with notes of black cherry and blackberry. The tannins became even smoother. We really enjoyed sipping this while we watched sunset over Tampa Bay from our balcony. The wine continued to breathe for another 30 minutes while we finished preparing grilled burgers with English Cheddar and baked beans. Once again, we were surprised this wine did not pair well with our food selection. Bottom line is that we thought this syrah was delicious to sip, especially 24 hours after initial opening. It is still fairly young, and probably won’t need as much time to open-up after cellaring for a couple of years. While this is a fruit forward wine, it demonstrates a nice degree of complexity and is amazingly easy to drink given the high alcohol content (something Ty Caton always seems to manage). We typically drink syrah with food and are still baffled by how this did not pair well with the foods we chose. But we are certainly willing to try other food pairings and to sip on its own. The case price is certainly attractive. We will probably cellar a case for at least a year. Thanks again for the opportunity to Rat.
Inaugural VMP member, long time Wooter, and early Wine.Woot customer - I was introduced to Ty’s wine years ago on WW and his adult grape juice quickly became one of my favorites. I’ve been a wine club member and even though I really favor Ty’s Red and Petite Sirah, his Merlot and Syrah are quite delicious! Ty is an auto buy and I’m in for one case…
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
Ty Caton Estate Mixed Reds - $50 = 16.66%
That Enthusiast review of the Merlot:
93 points. The saturated red-black color of this wine hints ever-so-slightly at the richness in the glass. On the nose, aromas of milk chocolate and maraschino cherry dominate, with flavors of caramel, cassis and white pepper erupting on the palate of this decadent Merlot. Drink now–2030. — Tom Capo 7/1/24
Enthusiast mentions 15.6 abv as do rats, apparently spec above noting 14.9 is incorrect
Ty Caton was one of the first things we got at the old site, and now we’ve been club members for 15 years. Hard to only buy one case for this, think we’ve had both of these through the club.
I was literally ordering a 4 bottle pack seconda ago and this went out of stock! I need more Ty juice! My first wine.woot purchase ever was Ty. If there’s any way for the winery to honor this pricing buying direct, please let me know
2020 Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah, Estate
Tasting Notes
Vintage
Vineyard Notes
Specs
2020 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot, Estate
93 points Wine Enthusiast
Tasting Notes
Vintage
The Vineyard
Specs
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale on winery website, $540/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, 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
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Jan 13 - Tuesday, Jan 14
Ty Caton Estate Mixed Reds
4 bottles for $99.99 $25/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $249.99 $20.83/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2020 Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah
2020 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot
2020 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot Sonoma County
The countdown is on! And a chocolate Advent calendar can’t compare to an e-mail from Alice with a rattage opportunity for pre-Christmas weekend!! We were very excited to see the UPS tracking showed an inbound Ty Caton Merlot. In checking through our wines like a rabid squirrel trying to find where all those acorns were tucked away, I found that our Ty Caton burrow only had two bottles of 2012 Petite Sirah- a Christmas Miracle? Maybe not, but at least incredibly coincidental and fortuitous for us.
While Merlot caught some shade in the film Sideways, Miles Raymond never had a bottle of this, and if he had that whole scene would be on the cutting room floor. Don’t make Mile’s mistake, we truly enjoyed this one from Ty!
Day 1 tasting: Bottle arrived safely and was lightly chilled and opened to breath for about 20 minutes. Initial tasting was at 64°. Cork was lightly stained less than 1/8”, no signs of sedimentation. Wine is a deep crimson to lighter burgundy at the edges. The nose on this was very nice. I got clear blackberry, plum, and light earthy leather. Fruit was prominent. Mrs. Rat called out cola, dark cherry, and some woodsy-pepper notes (oak?).
Initial afternoon tasting backed up the aromas. Additional dark fruits, bramble and cherry were noted, lingering well after the nice level of tannins faded. Mrs. Rat noted the taste of dark cherry/cocoa/dark fruit. Minimal alcohol heat, even with the 15.6 % ABV on the label. As the glass warmed, the bramble and berry aromas came up a notch. Legs formed quickly on a swirl. Key observation from the first ten minutes: “Very nice!”
Food pairing came courtesy of a Pedroncelli recipe for “Chicken Chile Verde” with Jasmine rice (highly recommended) which was a fantastic pairing for this Merlot. The chicken was packed with spicy goodness and some heat, and the Upper Bench Merlot kept up with it easily. We would definitely do this pairing for company in the future. No surprise that pairing this wine with both dark and white chocolates was also very successful.
Day 1 evening retaste- after about 6 hours of open bottle, we poured a few ounces to see what changes might be evident. If anything, it felt a bit ‘softer’. We know that’s a fuzzy word, so how about ‘rounder’? Still very smooth. Two thumbs up for the Day 1 wrap up.
Don’t be on the fence for this one given the Friday only deal. Our experiences with this wine and Ty’s past wines make this a very promising offer!
Stand by for a Day 2 update below!
Thank you Casemates and Ty Caton Vineyards!
@benguin986 You’re aware, of course, that Miles’s proclaimed distaste for Merlot did not reconcile well with his proclaimed desire for Château Cheval Blanc, which in a typical vintage is more than half Merlot, for example, 53% in 2022.
@benguin986 Day 2 update- after 26 hours uncorked, the fruit still dominates, and is strong on the nose. Biggest difference to us was the alc heat is down quite a bit, which brings the other aromas and flavors out strongly.
Concurrence from both of us- the Merlot is delicious.
Kudos to Ty for the work it takes from his and his team to bring us these wines!!
2020 Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah
Got the golden ticket I was excited that I got the Ty Caton 2020 Ballfield Syrah. In a nutshell great wine, really enjoyed it, now on to the more in-depth report. On pop and pour there is a cloudiness present, perhaps unfiltered unfined? I also just got it off the brown truck so it didn’t have much time to sit. Nevertheless I didn’t find it to be bretty or any other microbial taint. First whiff was dark fruits, my wife who’s not a huge wine drinker also said fruit and she smelled an earthiness.
First taste was a dark berry, maybe stewed prunes and dark chocolate. A grippy tannin was present and not unwelcome. It provided structure to make sure it wasn’t flabby. Surprised on how not hot this wine is, at 15.2 I expected to smell notes or taste heat but neither were present.
I had this with a venison stir-fry and it was great, the wine had enough structure to handle the chili-crisp that was a spice note with the deer. Also the deer’s flavor again worked well with the slightly earthy, dark chocolate, stewed plum notes. It also went well with the chocolates I had for dessert. This was an interesting wine as it was bold enough to be a stand alone but had enough structure to handle food with fat contents.
I saved enough for a glass tonight and had this with a venison cottage pie. Again the stewed plum and earthy dark chocolate notes stood up well and accompanied the food. I enjoyed the wine and would buy it, the $25/bottle price for 4 bottles is great and the case price is a screamer.
Any peninsula or southern San Francisco people let me know if you want to split, otherwise i’ll pick up a 4 pack even though I’m stuffed to the gills with wine.
2020 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot Sonoma County
I received an email from Alice that a bottle was coming our way! Yippee! The box contained a Casemates glass and a bottle of Ty Caton 2020 Moon Mountain District-Caton Vineyard Upper Bench Merlot. Oooo, a Ty Caton! I was excited and knew that we were in for a treat! Ty makes some really nice wines. ddeuddeg and I have been drinking Ty’s wines since a few of us stopped there before the first RPM Tour in 2008. I decided to open the bottle about a half hour before dinner to give it some time to breathe. This baby is 15.6% alc!
I did a quick taste before getting fully involved with dinner prep and having the aromas of dinner mess with my nose. I was really surprised that this wine, as young as it is, did not seem hot at all. It was really well-balanced and smooth with the first taste. On the nose, I was able to detect bold ripe cherries and some kind of floral aspect. On the palate, the ripe cherries exploded and some blackberries chimed in with some nuances of chocolate and a nice smooth finish.
Please read ddeuddeg’s review for details on our menu du soir for this wine. I think it paired exceptionally well with everything. I also think it would pair beautifully with a cheese and pepperoni pizza with a thicker-style crust! I know sometimes people get the wrong impression when someone says that it’s a pizza wine. Definitely not so in this case. For us, wine has become our beverage of choice with pizza. Twenty years ago, it was beer!
All in all, this is a good, solid, well-made wine from a highly reputable winemaker and is being offered at a nice price point, especially at the case price!
2020 Ty Caton Upper Bench Merlot Sonoma County
We still have fond memories of our first visit to Ty Caton’s tasting room, the day before embarking on the first RPM Magical Historical Tour in 2008. We’ve enjoyed a lot of Ty’s wines since then, and this 2020 Upper Bench Merlot was one of them. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Ty Caton Merlot; the most recent one in my records was a 2008, that was 388 weeks ago, and we loved it.
Now to get on point: we opened the bottle last night a bit before serving dinner, to give it some breathing time, and poured a sample taste. I got the usual olfactory profile I expect from a Merlot: dark fruits, cherries and black raspberries. What I didn’t get was a heavy dose of heat. The same with my first sip, typical Merlot flavor profile, but no noticeable heat, which was a bit surprising with 15.6% ABV (according to the bottle label). I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, since our experience with Ty’s wines over the years, with 38 different bottles in our archives, has been that Ty makes wine with balance. Paired with French onion smothered pork chops, sweet potatoes, and roasted cauliflower, this was a wonderful partner, smooth as silk, plenty of flavor, but not in the least obtrusive. However, because we had theater tickets, we decided to save some for after-theater snacks. With a bit more time to breathe, the wine had opened up even more, but as nice as it was with some crackers and Manchego cheese, not quite as perfect as it was with dinner. In fact, I started drinking some before I began snacking, and I found it to be quite delightful on its own. Again, no surprise.
Ty’s wines, in our experience, are invariably well-made, balanced wines, enjoyable with a wide variety of foods, as was this one. I’m very comfortable recommending this Merlot, especially at the case price. As a side note, although I can’t comment on the Syrah in the current offer, an excellent example of the longevity one might hope for was the 2009 Ballfield Syrah we enjoyed with some grilled pork chops just six weeks ago.
@ddeuddeg
recalling as well from the '12 tour where I picked up a half case of the 2001 Merlot, and still have a couple. Last pulled a cork August this year and found it, following others in '13 and '15, to have aged well and still enjoyable bottle.
@ddeuddeg @rjquillin Nice!
For the record, bahwm and I make it a point not to discuss the wines in any detail until we’ve completed and are ready to post our reports, to keep them as unbiased as possible, a habit we picked up on the 2008 Tour, where we got to sample some of Cathy Corison’s '96, '97, and '98 Cabernet Sauvignon, with strict orders from the winemaker that there was to be absolutely no discussion for at least the first 10 minutes.
Also, if anyone ever finds our dinner menus interesting, recipes are available upon request.
2020 Ty Caton Ballfield Syrah
Thrilled to receive a rat bottle, especially a Ty Caton! We have been enjoying Ty Caton wines for many years. We gladly chilled the 2020 Ballfield Syrah in our wine fridge and next day poured into varietal specific syrah glasses. The cork was clean and there was a good bit of sediment in the shoulder of the bottle. On Pop-n-Pour the color was a dark garnet/very ripe plum. The nose revealed a significant alcohol and dark fruit aroma with notes of blackberry, dark cherry, pepper, a touch of anise and very slight strawberry. On first taste, we were surprised how subtle (not hot) the alcohol was given the ABV of 15.5. Dusty tannins, dark fruit, pepper, very subtle autumn spice and oak presented to the tongue. We let the wine breathe in our glasses for about 20 minutes while we finished preparing a dinner of romaine salad with strawberries, spiced pecans, blue cheese and boysenberry dressing and a lamb ragu. The tanins settled down and lost their dusty quality and the fruit flavors became more subtle and integrated. Suprisingly, this wine did not pair well with the food. Mrs. Rat thought perhaps the spiced pecans fought with the wine. We often drink syrah with roasted lamb, but this did not pair well with the lamb ragu. We saved 1/2 the bottle overnight corked, but not vacuumed.
24 hours after initial opening, we felt this wine opened up nicely and became more fruit forward with notes of black cherry and blackberry. The tannins became even smoother. We really enjoyed sipping this while we watched sunset over Tampa Bay from our balcony. The wine continued to breathe for another 30 minutes while we finished preparing grilled burgers with English Cheddar and baked beans. Once again, we were surprised this wine did not pair well with our food selection. Bottom line is that we thought this syrah was delicious to sip, especially 24 hours after initial opening. It is still fairly young, and probably won’t need as much time to open-up after cellaring for a couple of years. While this is a fruit forward wine, it demonstrates a nice degree of complexity and is amazingly easy to drink given the high alcohol content (something Ty Caton always seems to manage). We typically drink syrah with food and are still baffled by how this did not pair well with the foods we chose. But we are certainly willing to try other food pairings and to sip on its own. The case price is certainly attractive. We will probably cellar a case for at least a year. Thanks again for the opportunity to Rat.
@pseudogourmet98 We’ve found Ty’s Petite Sirah to be a marvelous pairing with roasted lamb, as well as with a Turkish lamb and quince stew.
Inaugural VMP member, long time Wooter, and early Wine.Woot customer - I was introduced to Ty’s wine years ago on WW and his adult grape juice quickly became one of my favorites. I’ve been a wine club member and even though I really favor Ty’s Red and Petite Sirah, his Merlot and Syrah are quite delicious! Ty is an auto buy and I’m in for one case…
/giphy bounteous-splendid-snowman
@nathanbsmith Yes Nathan. Started on 3/23/07 with a purchase of the Ty Caton Trio from Woot. Never looked back.
@margav @nathanbsmith That was one of my first wine.woot orders as well.
@klezman @margav if my memory serves me right, I believe my first Ty purchase was a 2009 Racchus Red
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
Ty Caton Estate Mixed Reds - $50 = 16.66%
Anyone in NYC looking to split a case?
/giphy relaxing-sharing-partridge
That Enthusiast review of the Merlot:
93 points. The saturated red-black color of this wine hints ever-so-slightly at the richness in the glass. On the nose, aromas of milk chocolate and maraschino cherry dominate, with flavors of caramel, cassis and white pepper erupting on the palate of this decadent Merlot. Drink now–2030. — Tom Capo 7/1/24
Enthusiast mentions 15.6 abv as do rats, apparently spec above noting 14.9 is incorrect
fwiw
@kaolis 15.6 abv is on the label.
/giphy kindly-bountiful-mantel
Ty Caton was one of the first things we got at the old site, and now we’ve been club members for 15 years. Hard to only buy one case for this, think we’ve had both of these through the club.
@winedavid59
CASES SOLD OUT
Any chance of a reload?
@rjquillin just added a few more 4 packs
I was literally ordering a 4 bottle pack seconda ago and this went out of stock! I need more Ty juice! My first wine.woot purchase ever was Ty. If there’s any way for the winery to honor this pricing buying direct, please let me know
@foxdye81 just added a few more 4 packs
@WCCWineGirl thank you!!! Just placed my order. Bring on the deliciousness!!!
/giphy illuminated-enriching-punch
Timing is everything. Checked out today’s offering right after 4 packs added.
/giphy flashy-mirthful-vixen
