Keplinger Fall Release

Release letter came earlier today.
2012 Caldera
El Dorado, 58% Mourvedre, 38% Grenache, 4% Counoise
Situated at 2900’ on Aiken red volcanic soils strewn with lava pebbles, the dry-farmed, head-trained, 17 year old vines at Ron Mansfield’s Goldbud Vineyard produce something special every year. The 2012 Caldera begins is the most savory since the 2007, with similar spice notes of coriander, cardamom, fennel, and sage. The salty roasted meat, rust, and suede are highlighted with rose petals and red raspberry. This wine has great depth and evolution, and the tension is delightful.

2012 Lithic
Amador, 47% Grenache, 28% Mourvedre, 25% Syrah
This wine is comprised of three Grenache blocks, two Mourvedre, and one Syrah block – all on rocky volcanic hillsides with different exposures. They are picked piecemeal and cofermented in small lots with some percentage of whole clusters. The small lots are blended together before it goes to barrel, resulting in beautiful integration and balance. The 2012 is truly seamless and has a really insane texture. The aromatics and flavors are just layers of red and blue fruit, blackberry, orange oil, lavender, bergamot, anise, graphite, dried aromatic herbs. The finish is looooong.

2012 Sumo
Amador, 68% Petite Sirah, 11% Syrah, 3% Viognier
Also from Shake Ridge Vineyard, this wine shows crazy intensity from Ann’s impeccable viticulture. The two petite Sirah blocks were harvested in two picks and cofermented with Viognier, then blended with Syrah. It is such a fun wine – intense and concentrated, brooding and dark but with high notes of star gazer lily, white flowers, ginger, and black peppercorn. It is an immense wine, but always finishes light on its feet. The art of Sumo.

2012 Diamond Bar
Fair Play, 100% Syrah
This wine hails from a single block of gnarly older vine Syrah at Skinner Vineyards, where my talented friend, Chris Pittenger, is the winemaker. It’s such a pleasure to work with him on the farming at this special site of granola-like decomposed granite soils and granite outcroppings at 2700’. The soil is literally all stones, which translates to crazy minerality in the wine – a nose of granite, concentrated violets, and a deep, dark, black olive, musk, leather, blackberry – and a lovely talc-quality to the tannins, which are muscular and long. This wine will definitely reward patience. And we’re thrilled to add this to the line up.

I’m not sure how to approach these. 2011 was a big step down from the 2010 vintage from Keplinger, and they’ve stopped producing Kingpin Rows, which is what brought me to Keplinger in the first place (the '08 might be the finest bottle of new world red I have ever tasted). There are only a couple of notes on the '12s on CT, and I’m on the fence about rolling the dice on bottles this expensive. Since Helen is in at Grace Family, I’m half expecting to be priced out of future releases. Anyone else planning to buy on this release?

I bought each of the offerings last year, then saw as the 2011’s were subsequently hammered in Cellar Tracker reviews after getting great ratings from the critics. With that, I’m a bit nervous to jump back in, although Helen’s notes would suggest the 2012’s are back to normal.

It’s a shame these are so expensive, I guess it’s what happens when a boutique winery starts to source fruit from one of the last value regions in CA. These have got to be some of the most expensive wines coming from the Amador county/foothills region. There are so many great wines and wineries in this region I don’t really see the point of dropping $60 on these when there are plenty of other options at half the cost.

Tyler, wish I read your note before I picked up 3 bottles, ugh!

Tyler

Can you provide some suggestions?

In amador:

Terre Rouge/Easton is a great entry point, most of their wines are under $30 with a few in the mid $30 range. Their zins and syrahs are great, give them a look.

Cooper and Dillian are two others that come to mind, I think all of their wines are under $30. Solid Barberas, zin, syrah, sango and I like Coopers mourvedre. Even the wines from Sobon which are true entry level at around $15 are pretty good even on the modern side of the scale. The zins are decent and the barbera is great stuff for around $10, you might be able to find it at total wine.

What are the prices of these wines?

And as far as being priced high for the region, my understanding is that these are some of the ‘finest’ wines coming out of there, no? And price certainly seems to be relative.

Have only tried a few of her wines but was impressed - but yeah, if these are north of $50, and unless they are truly ‘unique’, I’d probably be selective . . .

Cheers!

They’re $60 across the board. Shipping isn’t included, so for small orders coming to the east coast, it approaches $70 a bottle. And let me say, again, that for the '08 Kingpin Rows syrah, it was worth every penny–it was an otherworldly bottle. But the '11 vintage was kind of a mess, and without tasting notes, I’m hesitant to commit to the cost when there are so many other producers coming in at half the price.

Erik, I will have to check in on one of my '08 Kingpin Rows, likely with Larry. I had an '07 N=1 Grenache a few months ago and it was probably the best or certainly one of the best domestic Grenaches I’ve ever had.

Sweet, that bottle is in my cellar. What was your take on whether to drink or hold? I’m gathering drink, not that it couldn’t hold.

I’m still going to place an order. I know that 2011 was a challenging year for many winemakers in CA and I have higher expectations for 2012 and 2013 wines. Sure, it might not be a QPR star, but that has never stopped me. I like variety and have always wanted to try her wines.

k.

Just had a Bottle of the 2011 Sumo. Right out of Bottle with no Decant, I found it to be approachable and Quite Good!
Ordered a couple Bottles of each 2012 I was offered. Have never had a bad Bottle, so far.

Chad, it’s drinking great now, but I can only see it improving with more time in the cellar. I don’t know if you’ve seen the CT scores and comments, but its 93.3 from CT users and got a 94 from Tanzer, and 94+ from Jeb Dunnuck. I’m not a score guy but it seems to be pleasing to most.

I haven’t drank any of mine yet, but I’m guessing by the reviews on CellarTracker, that this is a polarizing wine. Last review scored it a 76 (ouch!) I believe that was from a fellow Berserker who appears to have good taste in wine.

Erik - who wrote the tasting notes that you included here?

Keplinger.

I guess one could also argue that it isn’t that polarizing. Outside of the difficult 2011 vintage (and the couple reviews of young 2012s), the scores seem consistently in the low to mid 90s over several years. I have never tried Keplinger wines, but just ordered some this morning. I’m probably going to lay mine down for a couple of years.

k.

I ordered last year and this year (reluctantly) and very much want these wines to be good. Like Karring, I not be opening these for awhile.

Btw, this is what DJ (Helen’s husband and partner in crime) said about the 2012s in an e-mail when I placed my order. Read into it what you want; I am sure he wasn’t intending it to be posted on this forum. With that said, I would probably expect a better showing for the '12s than the '11s.

“The 12s are really quite stunning - they have it all - structure, attack-mid-palate-finish with beautiful layers and just the right amount of weight. They will enjoy a few years of cellaring and have the ability to age for quite some time…”

Lastly, I do wish that I had gotten a Diamond Bar in my allocation. I got the big goose egg option for that new offering.

k.

Out of curiosity I just popped a 2011 Lithic. Om going to sip it over the next three days:

Right out of the bottle/first 2 hrs: Nose is limited to graphite and a hint of sour cherry. Initial taste tart light fruit and tannin but in the form of almost effervescence on the tip of the tongue. After one hr full tongue-drying tannins mask almost all fruit. The wine is light-bodied, very unlike the 2010s that I have had.

More to come.