Dirty & Rowdy Winter Release

WINE TALK
1

Won’t lie pretty excited for this one, the chard is very exciting! January really hurts the pocket book!

2

I have no doubt that I will likely get only wish list allocation, which is cool. Below is the details of release date etc.

I’d love to get some tasting notes on these prior to release. Especially on the Chard. Not all Chards are to my tasting, if this one isn’t, I don’t want to wish list bottles that someone else might appreciate more than I.


“On January 15th we will be releasing our Winter 2015 wines to the mailing list. This includes three single vineyard Mourvèdre wines along with the inaugural release of our Alder Springs Chardonnay. Allocations will last from 1/15 until 1/22.”


2013 Skinner White Oaks Flats Vineyard Mourvèdre
El Dorado County, Sierra Foothills CA
22 750ML cases to be released
$37 per bottle

2013 Shake Ridge Ranch Mourvèdre
Amador County, Sierra Foothills CA
70 750ml cases to be released
$40 per bottle

2013 Antle Vineyard Mourvèdre
Chalone AVA, Monterey CA
75 750ML cases to be released
$45 per bottle

2014 Alder Springs Vineyard Chardonnay
Mendocino County CA
40 750ML cases to be released
$50 per bottle

3

FWIW, I tasted that chard out of barrel twice recently.
It is showing quite young and has not fully integrated its component parts. However, the components are strong and the overall impression of the wine is reminiscent of Chablis. And the aromatics are effusive.
Barrel samples are always moving targets so take this with a grain of salt - but I have never had a barrel sample of chard that impressed me as much. Not from anywhere.
Best, Jim

4

Wish listed last time and was shut out. Hope to at least get a bottle or two this time.

5

Wow. hefty praise, Jim.
I was buying anyway, but thanks for the input. [cheers.gif]

6

Thanks for the notes everyone. We hope to get as much around as we can.

I’ll have detailed notes on the wines next week, but here are a few high level notes

The Chard has high acid but also serious texture. We do not block malo. The wine fermented in concrete and spent 7 months in concrete egg before being racked to neutral French barrels were it spent an additional 8 months. It is medium bodied and it will enjoy /need more time sideways. We are really happy with wine. I love the vineyard.

For the Mourvèdre wines- On the palate, they are about as broad a spectrum as we have in our 7 Mourvèdre vineyards.

Skinner is very light- For those familiar with our regular Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard (not the Especial), it is slightly lighter in body and has more dark fruit and elegance vs the wild potpourri of SBH. IF SBH is more Gamay like, this is more like Spatburgunder. It is lean, pretty, and has melting acidity. 11.7% ABV (El Dorado County- clay loam and decomposed granite)

Shake Ridge Ranch has always been our most powerful, stony, and darkest of our Mourvèdre wines. It is rigid. It tastes like rocks and brambly fruit. It is a little lighter in body than the ‘12. Pop n’ Pour, it is slightly mean right now, but lovely. Shake Ridge is our spiritual home and Ann Kraemer is a helluva a farmer. 13.4% (Amador County- Volcanic, granite, quartz)

Antle Vineyard is our Mourvèdre with the most stuffing. It is one of the rockiest sites we work with. The fruit is generous (for a DnR wine), but the structure shines through and the finish is all rocks. It leans perhaps more classic vs the esoteric tendencies of our other wines. We think this vineyard and this wine is very special for Mourvèdre. It sits in a slightly different universe. (Chalone AVA, Limestone, decomposed granite) 13.3%

All the Mourvèdre are 100% Mourvèdre and 100% whole cluster (as is normal for us). Please take any of my notes as relative- We make / drink lighter styled wines.

7

this will be my first offer – keeping my fingers crossed that i can at least get an opportunity to try one of these!

8

Color me excited…again.

9

One note- The 2014 is a typo on the Chard. It is 2013. I am useless if Kate is not around to proof our emails. Sorry!

10

Looking forward to this as I too like lighter styled wines. As others here I will most likely be at the whims of the wish list :slight_smile:

11

hey hardy - above you mention that the chard was racked to neutral french barrels. we had a debate recently about at what age do barrels become neutral? any thoughts on this?

looking forward to all the wine!

12

Hardy,
Is that the one I tasted out of barrel?
BTW, did you get my e-mail about disorderly things?
Best, Jim

13

Matt,
Not Hardy but I have opinions . . .
That debate happens a lot in our winery and with 30 different labels in the place, there are a lot of differing opinions.
But one thing that may throw a wrinkle into experiences past is that, these days, we steam all our barrels before harvest. The main reason is to kill Brett but one of the side effects is that steaming removes some tartrate build-up and opens the pores/grain of the wood - hence, incoming wine gets a fresher surface because of steaming and, I think, greater oak influence because of it. Even if a barrel is ten or more years old.
How much influence is also subject to debate.
Best, Jim

14

Thanks Matt-
Good question. I think a lot of us use “neutral” for barrels >3yrs old. These were racked into 5yr old barrels.
Disclaimer: Deep down, I don’t think any barrel is every “neutral”. They do stop tasting like new oak but they still have varying degrees of input. I think some 10yr old barrels I own have some noticeable “barrel” flavors.

Yessir. Same wine. I did get your email. Thank you!

15

thanks for the responses guys!

16

I ordered last allocation but didn’t get an email this go around?

17

Hardy,

Dude! Help a Mourvedre brother out for once, eh?!?!? PLEASE?!?!?!?

Cheers!

18

For me, this is one of the many cases where the WineBerserkers saved an offer letter from my spam folder.

19

Can’t wait! (again).

20

Hardy sent me a message and low and behold it was in my spam.