Cayuse weekend wines

I know the nine wines poured but may not have the vintages exactly correct. I’m sure others will chime in to point out my drunken errors. The new facility and cave are really beautiful in a fashionable/industrial style. May the folks at Cayuse use these spaces in good health.

For the dissenters who somehow need to disparage Cayuse I consider thee flatearthers. The event remains a generous outpouring nearly unparalleled in terms of hospitality. Maybe somebody has the cheese/charcuterie details, I know there was Jamon!

2012 God Only Knows Grenache was the most down-the-fairway vintage of this wine I have yet tasted, and I really liked this wine a lot for the first time.

2013 Flying Pig was not like a barrel sample, seemed liked bottled wine. Best of the Cheval Blanc seem-alikes I tasted this weekend, by a significant margin.

2013 The Lovers seemed to show a fair amount of wood, maybe my least favorite of the nine wines poured. Mel also seemed to move past this quickly.

2013 Cailloux and now we are cooking with gas! First of five Syrahs served, yum-yum and elegant. We get this wine and it nearly always please us.

2013 En Cerise was my favorite wine of the tasting after being my second favorite last year. So why don’t I get this 3-pack? Because I am a dummy, that’s why.

2013 En Chamberlin was another wine that seemed ready-to-drink. Easy to like though 2 years ago it was our favorite of the event, this Saturday middle of the pack.

2013 Bionic Frog is going to be very strong, this was the most clearly a barrel-sample of the wines poured. No worries, it will be epic. Again.

2013 Armada was blocky and a bit hot really. This is rarely my favorite Cayuse Syrah and I’ve been told I need to try one properly aged one day.

2013 Impulsivo was just terrific, Mel’s favorite of the day. Not as dark or brooding as the 2012 was last year. This holiday season may cause us to open a 2012!

Great to see some old friends this weekend as well. Brasserie 4 Saturday evening as good as ever. Oh yeah, we did have a glass of 2012 HP Sur Echalas Syrah too…

Awesome, great notes!! What other wineries did you hit over the weekend?

Thanks for the notes Glenn. I recently popped my first bottle of '11 Armada and it was more austere than I expected. Some brett was showing that I think contributed to the austerity. Itching to pop a Cailloux as it’s been over a year since I’ve had one.

I think for most Cayuse, i like 8 years on them minimum before drinking…

Glenn,
Thanks for the notes.
I had a different take as En Chamberlin was my wine of the day, to me it showed the most personality of the bunch.
I thought the lovers was the best incarnation yet but the rest including the Frog just didn’t impress me, maybe it was my mood or the vintage but I found most of the wines just big and fruit driven with little funk that I come to like.
The most disappointing was the GOK, this has been my favorite new world Grenache but I just didn’t find the same character in it as I have seen in the past, your comment about middle of the fairway is spot on, I guess that’s why I didn’t like it.

Different stokes as they say.

Did anyone make it to the 202 gallery?

Definitely my experience with the Bordeaux grape wines, not always with the Syrah.

Awesome trip and notes! Look forward to making that trek one if these days…An area we have never visited!
See you soon!
Cheers!
Marshalk

Damn! Forgot how to spell my own name!

Marshall

We went to Sleight of Hand as I had mags there to pick up. Trey & co were exceedingly generous with tastings there as well. Two notes specific to SoH is their 2012 Cab Fr/Merlot, the Archimage, is also good and a bit less of a crowd-pleaser than I found Flying Pig to be. More bitterness and complexity maybe, the wine needs real time sideways IMO. The 2013 Psychedelic is what SoH used to call Funkadelic but this is now estate fruit from The Rocks District. This was Mel’s favorite wine of the weekend and maybe my second favorite, more like Cayuse from 5+ years ago.

We also had a quick visit to Flying Trout on the way out of town, really fun Malbec being the highlight of that house. When I open one or two I’ll post a serious note.

Glenn, great to see your notes. We were there last year and enjoyed tasting through the wines and meeting Christophe.

What I really want to know is how was the HP?

Jason - I appreciate your perspective. GOK never worked for me in the past as a Grenache, too much chemistry class. If anyone digs the prior vintages well then 2012 is definitely more domestic traditional. I went back twice for En Cerise and En Chamberlin, I’m a Cerise guy fo sho.

Did I get the vintages right?

What went on at 202 Gallery?

Best self realization quote ever!

Wow, that’s a short maturation curve!

Seriously, sorry I missed it (but not sorry I’m typing from Hawaii). Thanks for the TN’s. I’m looking forward to my next Cayuse shipment, and to seeing you and Mel sometime soon.

Cheers,
Warren

Christophe was generous enough to uncork a bottle for a group of us. Given a few years to calm down I don’t think I could separate the 2012 Sur Echalas Syrah from a line-up of Hermitage.

I’m pretty sure this was 2012, and all the rest of the vintages you listed were correct. GoK and Armada are always a year behind everything else, it seems.

This was the most impressed I’ve been with the tastings, they were the most open and giving of the previous 4-5 years we’ve been attending.

Nice. I have this wine but thought I would wait a while before digging into one.

Nice notes, Glenn. They put on a great event every release weekend. For the most part, I found the wines poured to be much more approachable than in past years.

David

This


Totally agree with En Chamberlin as my WOTD. Flying Pig also great and immediately drinkable. The CF and Merlot were easily identifiable components and completely in harmony. I also thought the BF was a disappointment. I would characterize the GOK as the tall rough on a rainy day.

In terms of new world Grenache, the newest (2013?) Rotie Cellars little g was awesome. If you haven’t tasted this jbray23, you may want to… The 2012 Kerloo Grenache Upland Vineyard also rocked - but the 2012 lineup of Ryan’s wines were easily amongst the best I tasted this weekend. Another highlight was the 2012 (maybe 2013) Metis Blanc from Masion Bleue. Great white Rhone blend of 60% Marsanne, 35% Grenache Blanc and 5% Roussanne.

We both enjoyed the Metis Blanc from Maison Bleue, terrific wine.

2012 Magnum Cayuse Syrah Special #4: