Shared this at BacchusBadBoys last night:
- MartinBros Primitivo Appassito Zin Port PasoRobles (Harvested in the Italian fashion after the first freeze of 1990; 18%; “Some Sack, Francis”) P&B by MartinBros/PasoRobles 1990: Dark rather brown very cloudy/murky/suspended sediment color; rather alcoholic/not quite Portish rather late harvesty/raisined/pruney bit oxidized ratherr Amarone-like very overripe slight boysenberry/jammy fairly complex nose; quite sweet rather raisined/pruney/overripe/late harvsty fairly alcoholic some Amarone-like flavor w/ light gritty tannins; very long/lingering overripe/raisened/pruney/boysenberry jammy bit oxidized fairly alcoholic bit oxidized bit complex finish w/ light chewy tannins; dominated by alcohol & raisined character but a somewhat interesting Amarone-like wine that went well w/ the chocolate. $12.00
A wee BloodyPulpit:
- MartinBros: This was a wnry founded in 1982 in PasoRobles by Dominic/Nick Martin and his older brother. Their parents made a ton of money in the outdoor advertising/billboard business in SoCal, which funded the wnry. Nic was one of the very first proponents of Nebbiolo in Calif. Their first wine was a 1982 Nebb made from an old vnyd in Lodi, probably Nebbiolo Rose. Nic was the first to plant the Lampia clone of Nebb in Calif and made his first Estate/Lampia Nebb in 1986. Tiny amounts. They also made Cabernet/Sangio/and OV Zin. The wines were pretty decent, I thought, but never seemed to catch on. They built an elaborate Tuscan-style wnry right there on Hwy 46E, then had a falling out and the wnry was sold. Not sure what wnry is in there now.
Not exactly sure how this wine was made. I don’t think there was any fortification w/ alcohol. It was just Zin left on the vine until it was very raisined and the fermentation stuck naturally.
- “Some sack, Francis”: This quote comes from Shakespeare’s Falstaff. Sack is an old English term referring to a fortified white wine from Spain or the CanaryIslands.
Tom