We attended the first of hopefully many Limerick Lane Vineyard Designate Tastings last night at the Healdsburg Shed. Jake and Scot Bilbro hosted the event which gathered all the winemakers who produce wine from the Limerick Lane fruit. Steve Matthiasson, Adam Lee, Morgan Twain-Peterson, Scot Bilbro, Mike Officer and Tres Goetting were assembled in a panel for a discussion moderated by Tegan Passalacqua.
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The discussion started with Jake presenting an overview of Limerick Lane, how they acquired the property, what is planted and their vision for preserving the history of the site. Limerick Lane is in a unique spot at what is essentially the confluence of three AVAs (Russian River Valley, Dry Creek. Valley and Chalk Hill) where the different properties have distinct soil types from the three AVAs. The Limerick Lane Vineyards have some of all 3 of those soils and it helps produce a distinctive vineyard footprint on all the wines produced from it’s fruit. The balanced acidity, fruit and tannin profile makes it an easy site to make wine from meaning it requires little to no intervention. Winemaker styles differ by extraction techniques, oak treatment, picking times but there is no need for water adds due to over-ripe fruit or acid adds due to high pH. This allows the vineyard to shine through and shine is what it did on this night.
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2013 Matthiasson Zinfandel RRV Limerick Lane - Nose of restrained spice, Zinberry. Tart dark red berry, long tart finish. Picked @ 22.5 Very food friendly.
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2013 Novy Family Wines Zinfandel Limerick Lane - Extracted blackberry aromas. Deep, dense and chewy. Medium tannins on the finish. Biggest wine of the flight.
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2013 Bedrock Wine Co. Zinfandel Limerick Lane - Med red fruit, bramble and French oak. Elegant red fruit, creamy texture, nice balance. Spice comes on late.
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2013 Limerick Lane 1910 Block Zinfandel - Nose of black olive and earth unique to the flight. Beautiful crunchy dark berry fruit and tart acidity. Good grip on the finish. Lay it down for a spell.
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2013 Carlisle Zinfandel Limerick Lane - Expressive nose of ripe fruit and licorice. Fresh red berry with creamy texture. Easy drinking, blackberry cream, dusty tannins. Wonderful balance. Mike said this required no intervention. 15.2%
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2013 Biale Zinfandel Limerick Lane - An initial dose of sulphur on the nose followed by blackberry and menthol. Very spicy, great acidity lots of tannic grip. Another ager.
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2013 Limerick Lane RRV Estate Grown Zinfandel - Most ready of the bunch. Drink me now, expressive sweet fruit, richness and crunchy brightness balanced out by moderate tannins.
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What really showed in all the wines was the crunchy red fruit and great balance. Tegan spoke of how 2013, in his opinion, is a vintage of a lifetime. What I have seen from 2013 Northern California wines so far has been tremendous structure. Seems like a great vintage for age-able wines. Afterwards was a reception where the winemakers poured some of their other bottlings and chatted with the guests. (The 2013 Two Acres is sooo good.) Thanks to all involved, especially the Bilbro brothers, for putting on a really an enjoyable event which I hope is repeated next year.