Scholium Project Wines??

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve heard anything on WB about Abe Schoener and ScholiumProject.
From his WebSite, it looks like he’s still up to his usual eccentric stuff.
Anybody tried any of his wines of late? Or is Abe just another one of those hot/new winemakers
who enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity w/ the wine geeks and then just as quickly dropped
when the next new hot-$hit winemaker comes along?
FWIW…I’ve always found his wine quite “interesting” (that in a good sense) and sometimes
even great.
Tom

I had one of his French projects a few weeks back. TN below is reposted from another thread

We’ve been nursing a 2007 Clos Thales ‘Llibre Obert’ [Cotes de Catalanes] the last few days. I was interested in trying this, since the producers seem to have an interesting backstory. I think its old vine carignan, extremely dark and syrupy. 14.9% abv according to the label. Its distinctive and seems more noble than what its grape is. On the first night I got ancho pepper and cigar ash on the bouquet, in a strong way. Those mellow out by the 2nd night, but its still very distinctive / unusual. The SO had a couple of sips and decided it wasn’t for her. There is also some fennel and licorice here too. Pretty good finish - 30 seconds at least. Medium amounts of sediment, for 10 year old country wine. Reading Rosemary George’s book has given me a little more confidence to try these vin de pays, but I’ll readily grant that these are atypical efforts. For their debut vintage, it has developed well. I guess the project has been shut down now; I doubt there was consumer appetite for humble VdP at tete du cuvee pricing. Still I’m glad they tried this, and I’m glad to have tasted this smoky, peaty, furry wine. I’m not going to grade it, but hope others might chime in with comments or TNs.

Hey Tom - As you probably know Abe is a friend. His first vintage at Scholium Project was 1999 and he is still going strong. He is making less big red wine these days and more lighter reds and whites. If you ask me Abe was way ahead of his time and really paved the way for so many winemakers working in California today. For example, I can’t think of another winemaker before him that did a skin fermented orange wine? If anyone could it would be you Tom. And of course he has always championed old vineyards, unusual grapes, experimental winemaking etc. I think you would like a lot of his current wines.

I have some of his wines put away … have to start drinking them! His Gardens of Babylon made me a fan and I was sorry to miss his Chicago tasting recently - that would have been fun I bet.

Hi Tom,

Abe and I also go way back. (He taught at the “other St. John’s College,” before his life as a winemaker.) For once, I can say that I followed him from the start, not as avidly as some. Have to say, I did not always love his early efforts, though found them intriguing. As time went on, I thought his winemaking became more focused, walked the tightrope between interesting and gorgeous, especially the whites, where for some reason I get most excited generally about wine from California these days. This applies more to his stable of wines, Prince in the Caves and the other SB, than his one-offs. He is always travelling, experimenting, so I don’t know the full breadth of what he does. It seems always to be interesting, but sometimes, not on every occasion also, profoundly pleasurable, indeed great wine!

We had a 09 Androkteinos in 750 ml recently that was just a creamy, Syrah wonder! Must have been WC wine as there was an awful lot happening in this bottle.

I know Abe is done with this vineyard but we continue to enjoy the bottles we own.

We attended one of Abe’s tastings recently and all the but the Blowout sparkling were really good. More refined and less funky than some of his earlier wines. He still surprises, though. You would be very hard pressed to identify the grapes many of the wines are made from.

The only reason I backed off Abe’s wines were the set, mixed case requirements. Since then, I’ve only picked up his wines in restaurants. I’ve always been a huge fan of his whites, and now that he’s opened up his ordering, I’m sure that I’ll resume my orders

Thanks, all. I’ve known Abe for quite awhile (didn’t follow him from the very start, though…but close) and regard him as a friend.
But I’d not heard anything about his wines here for awhile, so was curious.
Sounds like I should try some of them again.
Tom

I followed him from the very start - Les Tenebres and a bottle of Maldonado that he made. I opened a 2009 Michael Faraday last weekend. Delicious wine. the creamyness of youth mellowed and the wine took on breadth. It was meaty and complex with white fruit, acidity to balance the roundness, and some lemon curd.

I would buy more Scholium except that I just own too much wine so I am cutting back on everything. I have not bought in a while and I am due.

We had an '06 Margit’s Master Blend a week or so ago and it was quite good, still lots of freshness and intensity without being overwhelming. It was our first SP wine, we have some more kicking around of more recent vintages that I’m interested in trying soon.

I was one of the original “56” or whatever that number was. Never actually bought much, but either loved or absolutely hated the wines and I felt they were too pricey to take those chances.

I have a few of the early bottles sowed somewhere. I’ll have to go rummaging and see what’s what.

Been away for a while…Opened a 2005 Satrapies of the East tonight
Much better bottle than the older reviews on Cellartracker.
I get the sense there are a lot of Bottle Variation on his wines.
Anyway, really “Good” Acidity on this bottle, starts out Tart but not too much. It improved at 1 hour was a nice mix of Rhone styled new world Grenache and some Earthy Pinot notes. Quite Brambly but worked well with Chicken, Rice and Haricot Verts…More fruit showed toward the end. Reminded me of a Dirty & Rowdy Mouvedre at times. Know it has Cabernet but it was hiding. Good showing…

  1. Me, too.

Seems like a lot of us have quite a few bottles. Anyone up for a virtual tasting thread?

Since Abe once came to a Jets tailgate with me and their home opener is this Sunday, AND we are having a big tailgate in which we will have mahi mahi (formerly known as dolphin fish) fish tacos to eat the heart of our enemy before battle, I’m in for a virtual tasting thread starting any time between now and Sunday. I am a bit short on whites because my wife always grabs those, but I could go with a 2008 Choêphoroi Los Olivos Vineyard Chardonnay and maybe I will bring a Riquewihr just because it’s so weird.

I’m game. I have a bottle of 2010 “The Courier” Shake Ridge Syrah queued up.

So what’s the currently lay of the land on pricing, bundling and availability for these wines if someone were to start buying from Abe?

Good time to mention. I have a lone bottle of St Harry’s Chapel and I believe this is Abe’s inaugural bottling
2001. I think they were prone to secondary fermentation but you never know.

I have been meaning to give it to Abe if our paths cross again. Anyone have info on it?

Chris, I believe he they no longer have the compulsory “bundling” thing for buyers. I would check the website, as it seems to have a pretty current lineup of what’s available. Also, you can just email Abe and I’m sure he would put together an order of whatever you would like.