2018 Le P’tit Paysan Chardonnay Jack’s Hill Vineyard- USA, California, Central Coast, Monterey County(6/21/2020)
Bright yellow and clear in the glass. The nose starts with seashells, white fruit, and some melon. Nice acidity along with lemon and white fruits hit the front of the palate. I get some melon on the mid-palate that leads into a medium-long finish. Creamy mouthfeel but not over-oaked. Bright acidity front to back. Best CA Chardonnay QPR I’ve had. Punches way about its weight, and it stands toe to toe my favorite QPR champions from Oregon. Excellent wine.
2018 I. Brand & Family Chardonnay Escolle Vineyard- USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands(6/21/2020)
Lovely nose of white and tropical fruits, hints of caramel. A little less chiseled than the Jacks. Nice ripe fruit with bracing acidity and plenty of barrel notes. The oak is more noticeable but not too offensive. Drinking well now, This should age nicely and be something interesting in 5-10 years. Tasty wine. Good QPR
2017 Goodfellow Family Cellars Chardonnay Ribbon Ridge Cuvée- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge(6/23/2020)
The latest bottle matches what I and other here have written previously. Such an outstanding wine for so few $. Had to buy another case before it was gone.
2018 Walter Scott Chardonnay The Rock Salt- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills(6/21/2020)
2nd bottle of the Rock Salt. As good as the first. Tight and reductive upon PNP. Opens up after a few hours. Dirty and Delicous is a really good way. (This wine was not fined nor filtered and you can tell). Lemon, hint of line, and melon, great acidity, minerality and length.
Erica did confirm on the Zoom that this is the library stash of 2018 Cuvee Viticole. Nice Juice.
2018 Harrington Corvina Siletto Vineyard- USA, California, Central Coast, San Benito County(6/20/2020)
Wonderful light and bright wine. cherry with herbs. Tastes like corvina. Served lightly chilled.
BTW: Tasted through a whole pile of Ian Brand on Saturday Afternooon in Carmel Valley with Heather and Mellisa. I missed the last few open houses and hadn’t tasted with them in about 1 year so everything was new. Overall, Impressed as usual. Ian makes such diverse offering of wines and always has top notch people working at his tasting room.
Viticole is Master Somm Brian McClintic’s Online Wine Club. Cuvee Viticole Chardonnay is Brian’s collaboration with Walter Scott. The previous Cuvee Viticole Chardonnay was from Bunker Hill. I’m not sure about the 2018 Cuvee Viticole.
Interesting info, James. I’ve never heard of Brian McClintic before, but just checked out the Viticole website.
So in this case, does that mean the wine was “undersubscribed” by the Viticole wine club, which resulted in it being available for us? Not that I’m complaining, as I loved the wine when I tried it, but you would think if Viticole was making these kind of arrangements with producers, they would be required to purchase a certain volume in order to make it worth the winemaker’s time.
Brian was most famous for starring in a couple of Somm movies. They did agree and purchased a bunch of wine and sold it to his wine club. I imagine there were several+ barrels of this made and what was offered to Wine Berserkers according to Erica was the 7 cases left over for Walter Scott’s Library. Instead of going to the library they decided to sell it off to Berserkers.
The 12 east 12 bottling was left over after the Restaurant went Belly up for covid so they needed to find a home for that bottling as well.
The chards get well deserved praise but The ESJ Bone Jolly and Harrington Corvina would be perfect on the deck today. 90 in Sonoma County. Had the 2016 version of the Corvina last year and it was fantastic.
Yes, the Corvina is so distinct and delicious as is the Bone Jolly. Unfortunately, I am out of both and need to re-stock. Casey from CB cellars who used to make his wine at Harrington (now is over at Ed Kurtzmans place) picked up Corvina from the same source and is continuing to make it. His 2018 “Here be Monsters” Corvina is really good and will resonate with Harrington Fans…
Thank you for sharing, Sean, and for coming by the tasting room. I can’t take credit for all the fine people we have working for us. They find us, mostly handle themselves, and are a joy to have on staff.
Best,
Ian
Ian, what can you tell us about the 2018 P’tit Paysan “Old Vine” San Benito Cabernet? It looks like this may be the first time for this bottling? Is this a new fruit source or just one you decided to bottle separately for the first time? Any other backstory?
They only had the 2017 Paysan Cab I believe when I was there last weekend. I have some of that in the cellar. I did also taste the I. Brand & Family Cabernet Sauvignon, Brigantino Vnyd, San Benito
2018 last weekend and it tasted like cabernet. Seem very approachable young softer and rounder. Richer and more extracted than the Paysan. So I too would love to know about the 2018 P’tit Paysan “Old Vine” San Benito Cabernet?
Montebello is sold out at the moment. Glad I bought those on release. Was going to pick up a few more but no dice.
Dave and Sean,
The 2018 is the current release and has been since the new year. It’s not a new source, but we edited down our sources to our favorite vineyards and upped the quantity we take from those blocks. Our initial motivation for producing Cabernet was to figure out a way to keep the old vineyards in the ground. We’ve exceeded our expectations for the wine. It’s a rare beast, sub 13% sub $30 california Cabernet that’s not tank fermented, oak chipped and otherwise unrecognizable.
The Brigantino is a 45 case lot from our oldest source of Cabernet, planted in the late 50s based on our research. It is a very cool climate, river stone bluff. We wanted to see what the vineyard did with a little more aging and a little oak influence, so we held a couple barrels back. It might be my favorite cab we have right now, light on its feet and limber, but with a subtle structure. The Brigantinos are an old San Benito County ranching and orchard family. Wonderful to work with, and we’re proud to help them keep this little piece of history going.
Our more structured cabs we have for Fall release. There’s the Fellom Ranch, contiguous to Ridge and planted in the early 80s, which is a star every year, and this year we added a Massa Estate, which is the current name for the old Durney place up in Cachagua (Carmel Valley). If anyone isn’t familiar with Durney, the vineyard will be a star. It’s every bit what a great Santa Cruz Mountain Cab can be, with a little different terroir. We pick from the '71 blocks, which are the heart of the vineyard. Jaimee Motley, Ryme, Riley Hubbard, and the estate (which I started consulting for in 2018) are also making wine from these blocks. They’re incredible.
So now, with four individual cab sauv wines, I guess I’ve gone to the dark side. Even if we don’t take a single cab block that was planted later than 1982. I hear some people grow cab on VSP.
Best,
Ian
Thanks for the response. I will pick some up. I have not previously tried any of the LPP wines. From CT, it looks like the '16 Cab was labeled Central Coast, the '17 was labeled San Benito County, and the '18 is labeled “old vines” San Benito County. Your explanation that this is from narrowing your fruit sources over time, and buying more from those top sources, makes sense. I’m looking forward to it.
