Last of Thomas Coyne Wines on K&L

I stumbled upon the Thomas Coyne Winery Mourvedre Contra Costa County 2012 on K&L yesterday while surfing around.

Inventory was >100 btls.
Usually K&L lists high volume of inventory as something like >66btls, so I emailed the site to confirm inventory.

The online shop has several 2010 or 2012 vintages of Thomas Coyne red wines at $9.99/btl or $14.99/btl, when “regular” pricing would be closer to $30, according to them.

Thomas Coyne passed away last year, I believe, and the Winery closed its doors.

The available wines are Merlot, Zin, “Confluence” Bdx-blend, Syrah, Early Burgundy (Arbouriou), and Mourvedre. I might have forgotten one.

Has anyone had any of the Thomas Coyne Wines? I am primarily curious about the CoCoCo Mourvedre (duh) and the Early Burgundy.

The staff tasting notes on a few of those look promising. Obviously bought out their inventory on the cheap. Sounds like a winery Mr Hill has followed from the start.

Uhhhhh…Drew…does a bear…in the woods??
I might mention that I followed ThomasCoyne from (before) the very start…when he was asst winemaker at KentRosenblumCllrs.

Thomas was a very good/competent winemaker. The only problem was…he wasn’t willing to pay good prices for decent grapes. He was, like JoeSwan, a real pinch-penny. That said, he did make some pretty decent wines. The Zin/Mourvedre/Syrah were typically my favorites. I didn’t have the '10/'12 vintages because I quit buying his wines several yrs earlier because of rude treatment I got in his tasting room.
At those K&L prices, you have little to lose. I would try them & then go back for the good stuff.
Tom

It’s been awhile, Drew, but here’s something that may be helpful:
Visit to Thomas Coyne Winery, April 2008

I used to go tasting around Livermore every couple of years but haven’t been there at all lately. Thomas Coyne always struck me as the most consistent of the Livermore producers I visited. Seldom anything great but nothing bad either, and usually good value.

Thanks for the tip on their wines at K&L - I’ll have to check that out.

Haven’t been there in a while, but TC was our go-to Livermore stop for picnicking. Wines were always decent, if not memorable. I can’t say I’d figure any of them had a lot of potential for development, though certainly 5 years or so wouldn’t hurt them.

I always felt like Coyne was one of the better Livermore wineries. He always had a pretty wide range of wines he made and nothing was over the top although some had more oak than I prefer. I’ve had the earlier versions of the Early Burgundy, I don’t have any notes but remember it being along the lines of a Petite Sirah. His Rhone wines, the Syrah and Mouvedre were my favorite. The Detjens farms Syrah were his Estate grapes and I’ve had a few older versions that had aged nicely. Pretty tough to go wrong at 10 bucks.

I agree with the comments above, the wines were generally solid but not exceptional, and sold at very fair prices. The wines also tend to have some American oak in the mix which works better with some varieties than others. They were a sentimental favorite of mine because I liked Tom.

I dropped by their tasting room about a year ago. They haven’t been at the Detjen’s ranch site for a while, moved to an industrial park on the east side of town off Vasco Road south of East Avenue. I don’t think I tasted any of the specific wines K&L is currently selling (I didn’t take notes). To be honest, based on memory and also from some bottles I bought and drank later at home, I think they were maybe half a notch below previous experiences. Again, these were mostly different wines than K&L is currently selling which I think are worth checking out.

They used to taste different wines on alternate weekends (mostly Rhone varieties vs mostly Bordeaux varieties). I found out Tom had passed away when I was planning to stop by to taste again last summer. Below is a link to a tribute to him that was published in the local newspaper.

-Al

Thanks to everyone for your help!

Ken, I did a preliminary search on Wine Berserkers forum and Google prior to my post. As you reported (along with others here and on Trip Advisor), the weekly switch from Bordeaux-style bottles to Rhone-style in the tasting room hurt my research efforts.

Everybody seems to have tasted the Bdx wines, and CT is sparse on tasting notes on the Mourvedre and Early Burgundy (Arbouriou).

The biggest lesson I learned was that the old tasting room was phenomenal, and the new one sucked.

The fact that Coyne even made a CoCoCo Mourvedre is a good sign, however. Thomas Coyne’s beginning at Rosenblum, an original member of the Contra Costa Wine Group home winemaking club, also helps me anticipate the style.

That’s Abouriou https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abouriou and note that that is one of two varieties that went by the name Early Burgundy in CA. The other is Blauer Portugieser.

K&L has released a few more Thomas Coyne Winery reds. The prices are $10-15, but no Mourvedre, alas.

Based on my only tasting, the 2012 CoCo Mourvedre, I am betting that there are some gems in the current line-up: Merlot, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Syrah. Different regional bottlings, different vintages.

Just sayin’.

The Detjens syrah and Livermore petite sirah were always solid. Great price.

Last of the wines direct from the Winery: https://www.thomascoynewines.com/online-store.html
Have to pick them up tomorrow though.

I just found this forum because I randomly bought a bottle of 1989 Mourvedre for ten bucks and opened it last night. Being a complete novice, I hadn’t realized that at 32 years it was well beyond any hope of still being any good…except it’s actually excellent, really enjoyable to drink, good color and not a trace of vinegar. In fact, it still has a pleasantly fresh “fizzy” acidity, red fruits (cherry in particular), good color and noticeable tannins.

What a great story I found when I started googling the winery. Makes the wine even more enjoyable knowing who made it. Cheers!

That’s cool, Mark. Most wines, particularly full bodied reds, if well made, and stored reasonably well, will hold up fine for many years.

Being a novice with some background in science, I was very struck by the condition of the cork. Seems like my good fortune with this particular bottle had a lot to do with the way the cork deteriorated evenly but didn’t fail. The wine had stained the cork almost halfway but the top half still held perfectly. What a brilliant technology.

Cheers indeed!!!

Thirty-two-year-old Contra Costa County Mourvedre is nothing to sneeze at and, if anything, speaks to the potential longevity of wines sourced from Oakley’s old-growth vineyards.

Thomas Coyne played a large role in developing Livermore Valley’s wine scene. I have one remaining bottle of the 2012 Thomas Coyne Contra Costa Mourvedre, as well as one bottle of 2012 Lodi “Early Burgundy”.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did, Drew. I’ll admit, some of my enjoyment was surely influenced by my amazement at the fact it showed little sign of being any the worse for its advanced age. I’ll also admit to being a fan of bargain Spanish and Portugese wines and a total novice at identifying wine notes, but I know what I like and I liked it a lot.