Tried these two Mon night:
- Forlorn-Hope Sihaya RibollaGialla VareVnyd/NapaVlly (12.94%) 2014: Deep golden/burnished bronze color; lightly phenolic/resiny rather honeyed/honey comb/graham cracker slight fruity/RG/white pepper fairly strong/aromatic fairly complex nose; lightly tart/tangy/metallic rather rich/lush graham cracker honeyed/honeycomb slight phenolic/Vino Macerati fairly smooth complex flavor w/ light tannic bite; very long/lingering some phenolic/VM rather honeycomb/graham cracker/honeyed/vanilla wafer smooth/rich complex finish w/ slight tannic bite; really getting interesting & smoothing out & lost the austere character & going in the direction of a mature Radikon; will improve for another 4-8 yrs I would guess; a beautiful VM.
- Harrington Grenache SilettoVnyd/SanBenitoCnty (13.8%) 2015: Med.light color; light pencilly/toasty/oak bit SanBenito/jammy/juicy lovely fragrant/strawberry/Grenache/framboise bit complex nose; lightly tart some pencilly/toasty/Fr.oak strong framboise/strawberry/Grenache/spicy light jammy/juicy bit earthy/dusty bit complex flavor w/ light gentle tannins; very long bright/strawberry/framboise/Grenache some pencilly/oak bit earthy/dusty some complex finish w/ light smooth tannins; in a really good place right now & a lovely mature Grenache.
A wee BloodyPulpit:
- Ron Siletto died a few months ago at 86 yrs of age. Still farming on a daily basis. That silver-tongued devil, Bryan Harrington, was able to talk Ron into planting some pretty weird stuff for him. The Siletto vnyd is now being run by his son, John, and is in good hands & will continue to make great wines…just not by Bryan, though. So I raised a toast to Ron Mon night. He’s provided me w/ a lot of pleasure.
Tom