Browse Tag

california

Sierra smile

[label]Easton 2005 Sauvignon Blanc (Sierra Foothills) – Big and aromatic…is that a little creamy leesiness?…with a surplus of ripe gooseberry and some fat to the texture. The cream and its accompanying butter are deceptive, as the wine doesn’t go through malo, but the ripe greenness reasserts itself on the finish. It’s like sauvignon blanc aromatics wedded to a viognier texture (though with the heat that so often plagues the latter). Interesting, and unmistakably New World.(5/07)

The Sentinel

[label]Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2003 Syrah Sentinel Oak Pyramid Block (Shenandoah Valley) – Surprisingly hollow at first sip, this very quickly fills out, showing blueberry and blackberry with a sharp bite of tannin. There’s oak, but it’s very nearly overwhelmed by the fullness of the fruit. Very structured, yet juicy and appealing, with a long life ahead. (5/07)

I long to see you

[label]Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2003 Viognier (Shenandoah Valley) – There’s a metallic edge here, along with more typical peach skin and apricot. Surprisingly, the acid is prominent…not something one always finds in viognier, especially from the New World. The finish is shy, showing only a little thyme honey. It all seems a little less than it should be, so I try moving the wine to a bigger-bowled glass. This does make a difference, bringing out more of the floral aspects and seemingly expanding the wine’s overall profile. (5/07)

Fiddletown while Rome burns

[label]Easton 2003 Zinfandel “Old Vines” (Fiddletown) – 14.5%. Spicy black pepper, thick and structured, with black cherry, pine, cedar and good acidity. It’s very wood-primary right now, but I expect that to absorb (somewhat) with age. Still, the collection of various trees has me slightly concerned about the wine’s overall balance. At the least, it’s worth keeping an eye on. (5/07)

High, how are you?

[label]Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2003 Syrah “High Slopes” (Sierra Foothills) – Smoked blackberry on enamel. A bit short. With more air comes more intensity and interest, so this might just need some time to figure itself out. (5/07)

Estate planning

[label]Easton 2002 “Estate” Zinfandel (Shenandoah Valley) – 15.1%. Bigger, with a more silken texture than the Fiddletown. There’s cedar, dark black pepper, tar and asphalt, with chocolate added on a finish that’s a little more abrupt than I’d like. However, I think there’s plenty of potential here…the wine just needs time. That said, it’s a little more “worked” than the Fiddletown, and it shows. (5/07)

How Dry is my Valley?

[vines]Nalle 2004 Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley) – Juicy red fruit with a great deal of refreshing acidity, like a series of berries bursting with early-summer crispness. The wine hints at fruity exotica, but this proves to be a feint, and the only other noticeable aroma is a faint dusting of coconut. This wine seems unusually advanced for its age, in that the edges seem to have eroded away, leaving a naked core of sharp fruit, but that could just be Nalle going through its usual aging curve. Thanks to the acid, it’s very, very good with food. (12/07)

Bassetti hound

[vineyard]Edmunds St. John 2003 Syrah Bassetti (San Luis Obispo County) – At long last, some of this wine’s most muscular attributes show signs of taming. I wouldn’t call it civilization, because it’s still a hulking brooder; it’s just that the fruit (classic meat/leather/black fruit syrah) is a little more accessible behind the thick, fleshy wall of tannin. In recent tastings, this wine has been so structure-dominated that I’ve been tempted to call it imbalanced, but now – as it ages – the balance is clearer. And with clarity, comes the inevitable patience: based on the evidence, this isn’t going to be mature anytime soon. Anytime soon. Stick it in a dark corner of the cellar…though in front of the 2005s, which will probably live forever. (12/07)

True Grist

[vineyard]Bradford Mountain 2003 Zinfandel Grist (Dry Creek Valley) – Very concentrated, perhaps overly so…it’s not big (for a zin), it’s just sort of a neutron star of a wine, with everything in a tiny little volume of gravitational singularity. There’s a good deal of dark, toasty oak spice, but that too is drawn inward. For all this, it manages to be a pleasant drink, but it needs the right food (something equally concentrated) to avoid being somewhat like a spirituous reduction of zinfandel. (11/07)

Say it three times fast

[bottle]Gundlach Bundschu 2003 Gewürztraminer Rhinefarm (Sonoma Valley) – Soft but varietally true, with the fruit more in the spiced peach spectrum than the lychee/cashew realm. It drifts along pleasantly, neither demanding nor asserting, for a surprising length of time. A solid wine. (11/07)