Wine Berserkers - international wine social media, online community, and discussion

Such wonderful memories. Fingers crossed that later this year we can have more tastings like this one.
Happy new year!

Paul

Surprised no one has gone with Clusel-Roch nor Jasmin. Both affordable, classic (lower oak) Cote Rotie.
I think Champet is a good Benetiere replacement. I enjoyed the 2013 but I see the negative CT notes on the 2015 that Robert mentioned.

Paul

I believe his lists are 100 top red wines, but it isn't always clearly indicated. LOL I was going to say the same thing. Wonder if he posts a white wine lists then. In any case, some variety on a number of axes. I found at least one white on this list: #30 2019 Guigal Condrieu La Doriane Edit: #94 ...

Paul - I don't have much experience with Petite Sirah and would be interested in your thoughts on drinking these. I have 2015, 2016, and 2018. Thank you. Stephen It is a wine that definitely benefits from 3-4 years to integrate and mellow a touch. Try that 2015. It will certainly have some tannin b...

Thanks to you all for the great feedback and all the support over the years!

Paul

Brian

It is 50% whole-cluster. Definitely adds a lot of savory character.

Paul

I am picking up 2013s and 2016s where I can. I find 2015, 2017, 2018, and I suspect 2019, all a little roasted and jammy for my palate.

Paul

Yes it's the time of year for lists. I scanned this pretty well and didn't find a single Anderson Valley OR Mendocino county wine. I guess '17 & '18 were good in many other locations. I'm expecting many amazing wines from the north coast to be released soon. Casey We were #28 in the Cellar Sele...

I use Cellartracker for updates on our wines particularly earlier in their life.

Paul

Very interesting to read the 13.5-14.5% alcohol across the board, and the observation that the higher quality areas (presumably = Grand Cru) are on the higher side. More interesting to read that many are unconcerned with this high alcohol %! What are the ramifications of this higher alcohol %? The ...

Hank

Could that cork have created a poor seal giving the wine a little more air?

Paul

Glad you liked the wine David (and Robert). I think this wine really benefited from maturing vines (around 13 years old in 2018 vintage) and long, moderate hang time. The fruit was picked November 1st! Paul Trying a Syrah tonight. Did you intentionally try to emulate Steve Edmunds? I am really digg...

Glad you liked the wine David (and Robert). I think this wine really benefited from maturing vines (around 13 years old in 2018 vintage) and long, moderate hang time. The fruit was picked November 1st!

Paul

Thanks for all the info. Based on this feedback I think we are going to wait until the spring. Hopefully the covid situation will be improving and the weather will be more compatible with outdoor dining.

Paul

We are thinking of heading to Willamette/Portland this Thanksgiving. Of course historically a weekend of winery open houses. Has anyone heard of plans (and restrictions) this year? Those in the biz?

Paul

Mourvedre actually has the chemical markers for brett naturally, rather like Syrah has a lot of Guaiacol (smoke taint chemical). I know because we had a fight bringing into a custom crush facility a few barrels of Mourvedre that had tested "positive" for brett. Paul *Fascinating* i know t...

Paul, One of the markers for Brett would be 4-EG which is a guaiacol.- is this marker not in wines that are showing smoke taint? Cheers. A smoke taint test gives both 4-EG and straight Guaiacol. If a wine/grapes show any 4-EG, usually along with a very high Guaiacol (10ppb+), it is considered highl...

A question for those who’ve had more wines with significant bottle age than I have: in your experience, how does the perceived brettiness of a wine change over time in bottle? I was drinking a 2016 Pibarnon (Bandol) over the weekend. I know, too young, but I wanted to track it over time. At first i...

I suspect the air exposure opened up the fruit. The brett was still there just more fruit to balance.

Paul

blarmston wrote: ↑October 5th, 2020, 11:02 pm Does anyone have an update on how contained the fires are now? Last I saw it was only about 15% or so, and that was 2-3 days ago.

I heard 30% this morning. 60-70% is basically "out".

Paul

Picked our first grapes on Friday (10/2) - our Roussanne came in at 19.5b and Marsanne just under 23b. Pressed to 1.4 bar and no signs of smoke issues. I have had an experience with smoke tainted whites back in 2014, so I (unfortunately) know what to look for. Acids a little on the low side mainly d...

Jim

Vines are tough. After fire damage they will often throw shoots from close to the ground. Worst case the rootstock can be salvaged and regrafted.

Paul

Craig G wrote: ↑October 3rd, 2020, 6:25 pm The purple air map for Napa and Sonoma looks really good right now. Is that real?

Sonoma clear this afternoon. Some smoke in Oakland/East Bay hills.

Paul

Jamie

I agree with you that stems reduce temps of a ferment but I would expect a higher temp to lead to a lower alc - more alc blown off.
There must be another factor.

Paul

Wow what a difference a day can make - we had a high of 69F yesterday (Sat), a low of 51F then a high of 90F today. Warm the next 3-4 days with highs in the upper 80s.

Paul

Casey

Why drop the fruit instead of just leaving for the birds/to rot on the vine?

Paul

I feel like Syrah can finally get past its reputation as a failed "California's next big thing" and go back to doing what it's always done best: appealing to those of us who want meat, and spice, and wildness in our wines just as much as we want fruit and tannin. That may not be a mainstr...

It’s been a rough harvest and we’ve still a long way to go. I’ve been hearing a lot of people say that they won’t be buying 2020 wines from Napa/Sonoma because of the fires. I’m wondering how people will react when tasting notes start coming out in 2021 and 2022 for these 2020 wines. Since the vast...

I think 2020 CA fire zone reds are going to be extremely tough sales to folks like us. 2017 was a much different situation in that quite a bit of the fruit was already harvested. With so much exposure to smoke taint, I myself will be very leery of purchasing 2020 in any sizeable quantity. This isn'...

And even if there is “smoke taint”, the wine can still be pretty compelling. The way people want their brisket to absorb as much smoke as possible to enhance the flavor, some “smoke taint” can be interesting to experience in wine. You may not want a case, but a bottle or two to explore can be inter...

Long ago the CT crew ran an analysis of Jeb's scores versus CT way before TWA. It's over in the CT forum but Jeb's points ran 2-4 higher than CT. Not being critical as he was very consistent in the range and that's all you really need, a reference. I think people critical of his TWA scores were not...

I will say I really like our 2018s (as do the critics) but our 2019s are even better. The two years had very similar conditions but a slightly lower crop in 2019 upped the intensity a touch, while still keeping excellent balance.

Paul

I've heard that high elevation vineyards in your area are considered much more likely to be smoked than valley floor. Just what I've heard. That has not been my experience Casey. The smoke generally settles low. A number of days we have had a light haze at our altitude and can see much more dense s...

I did some sampling yesterday. Our Syrah is in a tight range of 21-21.5b. The Roussanne and Marsanne around 18.5b. Some amazingly small berries this year. Many Syrah clusters are all chicks and no hens. It will really suck if we lose this year to smoke taint. Clearly our best balanced year ever in ...

I did some sampling yesterday. Our Syrah is in a tight range of 21-21.5b. The Roussanne and Marsanne around 18.5b. Some amazingly small berries this year. Many Syrah clusters are all chicks and no hens. It will really suck if we lose this year to smoke taint. Clearly our best balanced year ever in t...

Right now the only thing is to pick and test post-fermentation. The grapes are shriveling on the vines, and have been subjected in some way to smoke this month, most likely. I picked on the 8th before neighboring Cabs, and am just hoping for the best. I think the smoke at ground level (I am on the ...

What seasonal cues do grapevines pick up on? All these days of no sun. Temps are down because of it, but not near late season temps. Wes From my observation, vines react to the nighttime lows. When we get a cold late September storm front, the associated temps go down to around 40F and that tends t...

Smoke is particularly bad today in Napa. The sky looks like a Blade Runner hellscape. I heard it’s from the August Complex fire up in Mendocino. At this point I think the central valley is full of smoke from the August Complex (mainly Glenn county not Mendo), the fire near Fresno and all the previo...

We are not picking fruit at Family Farm, Skyline, Alpine, Horseshoe or Centennial Mtn. Very painful but I guess it could be worse. I hope other wineries are faring better. This is pretty devastating for everyone. Shit, sorry to hear that Kevin. Just hope we are getting a decade's worth of WTF over ...

Had to sign two different smoke taint amendments this week. Clients are in CYA mode. I still think our fruit will be some of the cleanest in the north coast region considering what has happened. I was telling a buddy today that we haven't had a real difficult harvest since 2011 so mathematically we...

Eric Lundblad wrote: ↑September 7th, 2020, 3:54 pm Re Smoke, everything I see for smoke (PM2.5) has sonoma/napa in the green and yellow range for the last 3 days.

Smoke was bad around Petaluma and Marin today. Less dense further north in Sonoma. Our place was clear.

Paul

I am late posting my monthly report - just back from a few days of pre-harvest R&R in Lassen National Park. A beautiful, fascinating place and without cell coverage. Glad to see August 2020 in the rearview mirror. We were fortunate to never see the extremes of heat that others experienced furthe...

Are homes in these fire-prone areas insurable? Are the rates subsidized? They have to astronomical Over the last few years many insurers have back out of the risker areas and insurance has been hard to find/expensive. Just this week we heard that some areas on the Silicon Valley side of the Santa C...

The commercial labs are all set up to test for smoke taint. Results come back fast. You can easily send out samples and get the results right before deciding if you want the grapes the grower swears up and down are just fine. 4 days turnaround, as of Monday when I spoke with ETS. And I suspect they...

A few useful things to remember based on some conversations I’ve been having on the ground here: 1. Just because someone is testing for smoke taint, doesn’t mean the berries are tainted. 2. Just because someone gets a negative result for free volatile smoke markers in berries, doesn’t mean the berr...

If the fire map can be believed, there is no (detectable) fire activity in the Santa Cruz mountains. Hope that is true. Btw the Sonoma fire only shows a little activity on the easterly edge close to Healdsburg. Does feel like we are over the hump. Paul Recent report I saw said something about still...

If the fire map can be believed, there is no (detectable) fire activity in the Santa Cruz mountains. Hope that is true.
Btw the Sonoma fire only shows a little activity on the easterly edge close to Healdsburg. Does feel like we are over the hump.

Paul

Looking at the fire map, the southern section of the Santa Cruz blaze seems to be under control. I hope that is the case.

Paul

Thankfully the weather front last night was a bust. No lightning and minor winds.
According to the fire map, activity has reduced significantly in the northern section around Lake Sonoma. Only really active sector is west of Windsor. What are you hearing/seeing on the ground Brian?

Paul

There is concern about wind today when the next potential storm blows in. May be more lightning, but also concern about wind (although nothing like a few years ago, gusts up to 20 mph in my area). -Al At this point the front seems to be dying off the Sonoma/Southern Mendo coast. No lightning strike...

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