Yesterday I ventured out it a monsoon to visit Byron Dooley at Seven of Hearts/Luminous Hills (yes, again) and stopped on the way at Patton Valley. It’s been a few years and I wanted to see what they were up to. They were pouring 2008s.
Well, what they’re up to is $35, $48 and $70 and for those prices I was underwhelmed. While PV seems to have dialed its oak program back somewhat, the three wines (Patton Valley, 10 Acre and Lorna-Marie) are big, brawny wines with coarse tannins that I fear will outlive the fruit. The noses are beautiful but to my palate these wines are out of balance. Perhaps they’re shut down, but I wouldn’t buy any for myself, especially with the number of prettier wines available in the $18-27 range as competition for their basic bottling.
Please understand that I didn’t find them flawed. Harvey Steiman, Jay Miller and Josh Raynolds all gave them similar scores in the low nineties so someone likes them, but the style leaves me in the dust. Your mileage will probably vary.