2019 Halcon Vineyards Esquisto- USA, California, North Coast, Yorkville Highlands (4/7/2021)
My first bottle from the Berserkerday purchase and my first Halcon. I decided to get the grenache out of the way early on so I could focus on the more interesting wines (this is 80% grenache, 20% syrah).
Remarkably fresh dark cherry fruit on the nose. Long earthy dark raspberries on the palate. I struggle to hate this wine and thereby confirm my grape variety prejudices but enjoy it too much and eventually abandon the effort. The 11.2% alcohol prevents the intensity of flavor from becoming tiring until well into a third glass. A bit magnificent in its way.
If this is what they do with a grape I actively dislike I’m a little scared to try their 100% syrahs.
Thanks for the note Jay. I’m also not a huge grenache fan, but almost opened this yesterday too. Instead chose to try a Schiavenza 2016 Barolo which I enjoyed considerably less than you did the Esquisto since it felt too overripe to me in a Canonica type of way.
Hi Jay, I had popped this a couple months back for the exact same reason - get it “out of the way”. I followed it over 4 days and loved it - exotically un-grenache in many ways. One note - the alc is 14.2%, not 11.2% – which is probably why you still still got fatigue by glass 3. I checked the bottle - the type is tiny and I had to squint hard to confirm!
