The Rhys mailer is coming out on Tuesday (I think), so I wanted to confirm that Rhys is an absolute “must buy” for me again this year. I decanted this wine last night, about an hour before dipping into it, and then followed the wine over the course of the evening. The wine is dark in the glass for a PN, and the nose is earthy, giving off black cherry and mineral scents. In the mouth the wine is explosive, showing attractive, loamy funk, rocks, a touch of spice, and terrific fruit. The wine features tart, bracing acidity, and a generous finish. Although still a baby the wine is approachable with a good decant, and the last third of the bottle (which just sat in the decanter overnight) is still full of action.
This morning, as I followed the thread about overripe, flabby, poor-aging California wines, it struck me that this wine is the opposite of that. I would also add that I last had the Alpine on July 10, 2009. At that time the wine was considerably more austere than on this occasion, but it began to reveal its charms with lots of air. Six months’ time seems to have been pretty kind to this wine, but I think it still needs two or three years before it really hits its stride.
Needless to say, my credit card is going to take a pretty good shot on Tuesday.
Thanks for the great note on this one, Brad. I opened my first bottle a little over a year ago and found it showing mostly a ton of fruit concentration and very clear influence of the whole cluster fermentation. Sounds like it’s opened up considerably since then, but I’ll still likely give it another few years before checking in again.
And yes, next week’s mailer is going to be an expensive proposition. I’m sure I won’t regret it though.
This is may not be the most appropriate place for the following content but I see a parallel in a wine tasting we did on Friday night to your post(s). I did a blind tasting for some friends to explore various wine varietals on Friday night. The following were served as a ‘Pinot’ flight:
Wine 1 - 2005 Keller Estate La Cruz (Costco)
Wine 2 - 2006 Alesia San Mateo
Wine 3 - 2007 August West Rosella’s
Wine 4 - 2006 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast
The results were astonishing if you have a Robert Parker-type palate! The KB came in dead last amongst the group. The August West was at the top, followed closely behind by the San Mateo.
Although the grouping might have been slightly skewed away from ‘big, over ripe’ fruit and the KB stood on its own in this respect, one would have expected better results for the bottling. For me, tasting these all side by side, I too realize that my money seems to be better spent going even longer on Rhys/Alesia (and of course picking up some of Ed Kurtzman’s wines!). I occasionally like a more ripe/more forward Pinot, but I definitely have a stronger affinity for the inverse.
Thanks for posting your thoughts on the tasting. I got the August West offering in my inbox a week or two ago and sort of forgot about it. I have never tried one of their wines, but based on some threads I have read I concluded that it was a riper, bigger style of wine than, say, Rhys. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as long as the wine doesn’t go overboard. How would you describe the house style? It sounds from your note as if you think the wines are on the more restrained end of things.
Brad - honestly, my experience is limited to 2 bottles of Ed’s Rosella’s wines. I had a bottle of the 2004 which I thought was AMAZING. It seems Ed does something a little different with the Rosella’s fruit for the August West bottlings versus that of many other producers. Whatever ‘it’ is, I find it wonderful. Following that bottle was the 2007 Rosella’s this past Friday night. To answer the question on whether its more restrained or the like - I am not sure I would state these wines fall in the same category there as Rhys, Anthill, etc. But I would say they are tremendous expressions of the vineyard fruit and thats what I dig about them. I’ve yet to sample a Graham but I’ll be seeking some out for sure (yes, I intentionally left out the Syrahs as A) I don’t drink a lot of Syrah, B) I’ve never sampled an August West Syrah).
