Hi everyone,
Disclaimer: I’ve bought Six Cloves wines the past two Berserker Days and have never been disappointed. I’ve posted tasting notes describing how much I enjoyed them. Winemaker Sonoe Hirabayashi has, for the second year, sent me a few of her wines free of charge for me to preview and post my impressions prior to Berserker Day. Whether it’s because of my gigantic readership and massive influence on the wine world, or for some other reason altogether, I’d never say to no free Six Cloves wine and fully plan on buying again this year. Here are my TNs for these three 2023 wines:
Chardonnay, Linda Lista Vineyard, Napa
Pours light yellow with a touch of sediment in the bottle.
On the nose: lemon zest, preserved lemons, sea breeze, clotted cream, chalk, a touch of cantaloupe. Smells like Chablis!
Chablis on the nose but not in the mouth! A bit fuller than I would have expected. Rather than salty zingy chalk, this has sweet lemon candy notes (lemon heads?), lemon pie filling, green apple, and a gentle roundness/creaminess- feels like it might have been aged on the lees, though I’m not sure about that. Acid is still quite high, which keeps it fresh, but it feels gentle and surprisingly suave given the lean mineral nose. I expected an enamel-melter, but that’s not what this is. With air and a bit of warmth that fresh cantaloupe emerges in the mouth. Some clean chalkiness on the medium length finish.
I love the dichotomy here between how the wine smells vs how it tastes. This is not big or heavy by any means, but it does have more oomph in the mouth than I first expected just smelling the wine. This would be super fun to pair with a variety of foods. I also would love to see where this goes in the next few years. Gorgeous stuff, truly.
Pinot Noir, Buf-Wehr Ranch, Russian River Valley
Clear, vibrant, translucent ruby in the glass.
The fruits here are fresh and juicy- peak summer raspberries and dark cherries. The fruits smell ripe and sweet, but not cloying at all. A subtle spiciness in the background (clove? Star anise?) lend some depth and a bit of darkness to an otherwise bright fruit driven nose.
So nice in the mouth- quite light in body, medium high acid and fine grained powdery tannins. Delicious ripe red fruits are front and center, but again, there is some real depth here, a bit of darkness to the character, as well as some dried herbal notes (sage or oregano maybe). The finish is surprisingly long here, nicely fruity.
I first fell in love with wine on a trip to the Russian River Valley (which is where this wine hails from). I have such a strong affinity for those flavors, but unfortunately many of those wines are made in an overblown high alcohol blockbuster style that I just don’t enjoy that much. While this is a light and primarily red fruited wine, that darker character I associate with the Russian River (is this right? Who knows…but it makes sense to me). This is such a nice wine because it shows some of those notes made with a light deft hand. Lovely.
Zinfandel, Castanon Vineyard, Redwood Valley, Mendocino
Light, clear, bright, much redder than your typical inky purple Zin. Label says 13.1%!
The nose is a fruit salad of red and purple fruit aromas framed by brambles, cinnamon, and a few black peppercorns. I love the fruit forward character and wildness of a good Zinfandel and that is certainly on display here. I rarely describe the nose of a Zinfandel as “pretty”, but that applies here.
The structure is that of a feather-weight Pinot Noir- light body, medium acid, fine tannins. But the fruit flavors themselves are decidedly darker- black cherries, blackberries, fresh blueberries, mulberries, figs, cinnamon, and surprise, surprise, a slight pine-resiny character on the finish. At least, I taste that. A resin may not sound appealing, but it’s subtle and I find it quite refreshing actually (not the cloying perfume harshness of cheap Retsina…nothing like that at all).
My God I love Zinfandel made like this. It’s rare to find such a light restrained example of the variety, but these are some of my favorite types of wine coming out of California. I tried the 2022 version last year, and while good, I thought it needed more time. The winemaker commented on my note that perhaps the bottle had a bit of bottle-shock- I think she’s right. This 2023 sat for a couple weeks after I received it before I popping the cork, and this one is wide open for business.
I opened these wines on my own in order to write the tasting notes above. But there was plenty left over, which I brought to a gathering of five friends. All are wine-interested people though of varying levels of knowledge/experience. The host had prepared a high end baked potato bar to accompany the wines (pictured below), and they paired very nicely. Given the variety of flavors, this wasn’t an easy task- but the light body, high acidity, and for lack of a better word, agreeability (no harsh elbows here) lent all three wines well to food. The wines were all a hit, enjoyed by everyone, with the Pinot just edging out the other two as the group’s favorite.
