Tasting w/ JakeBilbro at LimerickLane Wed (6/14)
On Tues morning, afore heading out to Occidental, we stopped at my favorite coffee shop on the North edge of
Healdsburg. As I was sitting there reading the Chron and drinking my espresso, a group of three walked in the
back door by our seats. I looked up at him, and he looked back at me & we both did a double take. “Jake?? What are you
doing in MY coffee shop??” They were there for a staff meeting afore heading off to the wnry. He wanted me to come
out to LL that next day to taste their new releases that I’d missed at RhoneRangers, so he rearranged his schedule
so we could try them. After a walk-thru of the LL vnyd, we adjourned to a picnic table out back of the wnry and
got to work:
LimerickLane Syrah Rose 2016: Light garnet color; very fragrant/perfumed cranberry/watermelon bit spicy/cinammon
nose; quite tart fairly rich cranberry/watermelon spicy flavor; a delicious lip-smackin’-good rose.
LimerickLane 60% Syrah/21% Grenache/17% Mourvedre (14.5%) 2015: Very dark color; strong boysenberry/blackberry/ripe
some dusty/OV bit plummy nose; very tart blackberry/boysenberry/ripe/plummy slight strawberry/Grenache very light oak
fairly structured flavor w/ modest ripe tannins; loads of ripe blackberry fruit and the structure to age well.
LimerickLane HailMary (Syrah + 10% Grenache; 100% whole-cluster; 14.7%) 2015: Very dark/near black color; very spicy
intense blackberry/Syrah/bit peppery quite dusty/OV quite aromatic nose; lightly tart rich/structured intense Syrah/
blackberry/peppery light toasty/oak some dusty/OV quite spicy flavor w/ ample ripe tannins; a big peppery Syrah w/
a long life ahead.
LimerickLane Syrah Head-Pruned Block (14.5%) 2015: Very dark color; intense blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry/ripe slight
dusty/OV light toasty/oak huge fruit nose; rather tart intense blackberry/Syrah/spicy light oak structured less complex
flavor w/ ample ripe tannins; loads of Syrah blackberry fruit but not quite as interesting now as the HailMary.
LimerickLane 1023 (52% Zin/45% Syrah/3% Grenache; 15.2%) 2015: Very dark/black color; intense blackberry/Zin/boysenberry/
quite spicy light oak slight plummy/strawberry nose; very tart ripe/structured intense very spicy/Zin/blackberry/
boysenberry some dusty/OV light toasty/oak some complex flavor w/ ample ripe tannins.
LimerickLane Zin (14.8%) 2015: Very dark color; beautiful blackberry/Zin/boysenberry/ripe/very spicy some dusty/OV
light oak quite aromatic/spicy/peppery nose; fairly tart very strong spicy/blackberry/boysenberry/Zin some dusty/OV
light toasty/oak flavor w/ some ripe/smooth tannins; more up-front Zin fruit and not quite as interesting as the
other two Zins.
LimerickLane Zin 1910 Block (15.1%) 2015: Very dark/near black color; very strong Zin/blackberry/raspberry/some
spicy strong dusty/OV bit peppery/classic RRV Zin nose; very tart bright/blackberry/Zin/raspberry/very spicy structured
light toasty/oak flavor w/ ample ripe/hard tannins; seems a bit tight & closed compared to the regular Zin.
LimerickLane Zin RockyKnoll (15.2%) 2015: Near black color; intense very spicy/blackberry/Zin/DrPepper some dusty/OV
light oak very perfumed nose; rather tart structured/ripe intense blackberry/Zin/very spicy some dusty/OV light
toasty/oak some complex flavor w/ ample ripe tannins; seems a bit more complex & restrained & subtle compared to the
other two Zin; a beautiful classic RRV Zin.
CruzWine Grenache (barrel sample) 2016: Dark color; beautiful strawberry/Grenache/very spicy bit dusty very perfumed
nose; lightly tart fairly rich/lush strong strawberry/Grenache/blackberry very spicy slight dusty rather primary
flavor w/ light bit edgy tannins; very long/lingering very spicy strawberry/Grenache/raspberry finish; a pretty serious
Grenache that avoids the excesses of an Alban or SQN Grenache.
A wee BloodyPulpit:
Cruz: This is Jake’s son. When I toured GibsonRanch a few yrs ago, Jake brought Cruz along with us. One of the
neatest kids I’ve ever met. And the kid knows tractors. Green? “JohnDeere”/Orange? “Kubota” (what happened to
Allis-Chalmers? The first tractor I ever drove!)/Yellow? “Caterpillar”. That was the limit of my knowledge of
tractor colors. Fortunately, he was born into the right family to pursue tractors. But it does scare the holy
bejeesus out of me that Jake’d let him drive his first tractor thru GibsonRanch.
It was really neat that last Christmas I got a Christmas note/thank you card for being a loyal LimerickLane
customer…written by Cruz. According to Jake, Cruz saw his Dad writing thank-you’s and volunteered to write
a few himself. I still have the note, taped to the side of my refrigerator…one of the World’s great
archeology sites.
This is Cruz’s first stab at making his own wine…not unlike Morgan T-P’s first wine…a PinotNoir. The label
hasn’t been decided yet, I believe. This project is intended to be a fund-raiser for the Roseland School District
in SantaRosa, a district that is 97% minority, mostly Hispanic. A very noble cause I would say.
Anyway…Cruz is a really neat kid. You all should meet him someday before he becomes a teenager.
Another stunning lineup from LL. Most of these are in the up-coming LL release in end of Sept. It would be hard
to choose a favorite amongst them, but maybe a slight edge to the HailMary. All have huge ripe/blackberry pretty
classic RRV fruit, a brisk acidity, and very structured for the long haul. They all carried the alcohols well and
none seemed hot or fumey. You can’t go wrong w/ any of these wines. I’m in.
Tom
What’s the deal with visiting Limerick Lane? I’m up in Sonoma this week. I’m not a customer of theirs (yet?) though, so I’m not sure what they would do.
Since you popped in, Jake, can you share any word on the ‘Obsidian Block’ zin mentioned on the same-the-date card I received the other day. I believe that’s what it was called…
Hi Andrew,
Obsidian Block is a new wine for us that I stumbled upon somewhat by accident. We’ve been slowly grafting and adding new varieties here over the last few years (We now have 2 different clones of Grenache, Mourvedre, Viognier and Petite Sirah on the estate.) One variety that has really stuck out to me has been Petite Sirah. Grown here, it is incredibly aromatic and effusive. It still has substantial tannin and color but the aromatic and high toned fruit is really amazing. With the 2015’s I blended small quantities into various wines and when all of our blends were finalized, I realized I had a little less than a barrel left. Just to play around, I blended it with some whole cluster Syrah (our Hail Mary) and even though I only had enough for 30 or so cases I had to bottle it. The aromatics on this blend are so pronounced it is almost mind bending and the fruit is amazingly bright and fresh. Think of the proverbial rhino in a tutu but as graceful as a butterfly…
This wine is a work in progress. (That’s not to say this is anything less that spectacular but I stumbled onto it, so to speak, and bottled what I had. In future vintages I can totally see blending Mourvedre and Syrah/Viognier into this as well. I’ve got some other ideas as to where it may go but…?
Oh and we find a crazy amount of Obsidian on this ranch but the biggest piece we’ve ever found was in this block of Petite, hence the name.
Tom,
Thank you for taking the time to taste with me and I’m happy to see that you enjoyed the wines.
On a much more personal level, thank you for your words about my son. He is a good little boy and I am inordinately proud of him for liking what he likes and not conforming to the norms around him. The fact that he loves vineyards, work boots, tractors, and forklifts doesn’t mean more to me than if he liked playing the tuba. What I’m proud of is that he loves something so much and is continuing to define himself by it.
I read your notes to my family and Cruz’s little brother punched him in the arm and said “Dude, I think you might be famous!” Cruz was very shy about the whole thing but was beaming wth pride.
This site is about wine and for wine lovers and Cruz’s single barrel of Grenache doesn’t necessarily warrant a write up but your including him in your notes means an awful lot to me and is immensely impactful for him so thank you for that.
Regarding how we are going to sell it, the proceeds are definitely going to charity. I do not intend to make any money off this wine. We are still looking at the best way to make the biggest impact but we have decided that it will benefit children less fortunate in some way. As the direction develops, I’ll definitely keep you posted.
Thanks for the response, Jake. Sounds like an interesting wine, as does your son’s Grenache. Perhaps the latter would be a good Berserker Day offering? I suspect you would find plenty of interested and generous folks here who would be thrilled to try the wine AND contribute to a good cause.
Well, Jake…there are a number of my favorite wineries I’m the second generation with. When Cruz pushes Dad out the door at Limerick Lane and says “I’m taking over”, I’ll still be there sucking down LL Furmint. My first third generation winery.
