Anyone ever tried this? Tasting room in Sedona AZ. Grapes from CA. Sycamore Canyon. Winery, Cornville, AZ. Tannic Cab with uber-Pepper notes. Not bad.
Jory used to make a nice one…
Yep. Still have a bottle from of this in my cellar…1997 Pfenix Cabernet Pfeffer Gimelli Vineyard (USA, California, Central Coast, Cienega Valley). I suspect it’s far past its prime, but had understood the vines had been pulled-up, and no more existed in the US. Apparently that was bad info, or more has been planted since. My recollection was of a slightly lighter and fruitier wine, but it’s been a while and the different growing climate might be a factor.
CabernetPfeffer was thought at one time to be a CabSauv X Trosseau made by WilliamPfeffer
in the late 1800’s. Apparently recent DNA testing by KennyVolk indicates it to be (by his samples) to be
an obscure variety, GrosVerdot. When Almaden was making their big expansions down South near Hollister in the
CienegaVlly, they got people to plant CabernetPfeffer for them. So apparently the largest surviving plantings are
in CienegaVlly. StillmanBrown/Jory and DeRose make ones, in addition to KenVolk, and then down in AZ as well…
for some odd reason. Back when, EdFriedrichs/Almaden made a few, under their CharlesLeFranc label, that
I thought were rather nice…as were most of the CharlesLeFranc wines…much better than you’d expect from Almaden.
Tom
I’ve had the DeRose one and it’s pretty good. If I recall, their “Continental Cabernet” from their car series is/was also mostly or all Pfeffer.
Not bad, but more of a curiosity, was one I got from the David Bruce tasting room over a decade ago. Think that was a club wine. Quite peppery.
I worked there in '06. Interesting wine.