TN: 2012 Paloma Merlot from the recent fire sale

[Dav3_Dyr0ff]

Those Palomas from the turn of the century were really great. They could impress a lot of other wise Right Bank enthusiasts. I think I finished my last bottle up maybe ten years ago?

Yea, 1997, 98, 99, 2001, 02 were apogee for me for Merlot. Never had Syrah.

I still have one 2001 cab, my oldest bottle left of any of their wines. I bought syrah every vintage until they grafted the estate vines over. Good stuff. Still have a couple of the '04, which I think was the last estate vintage.

[James_Cross]

Re: rattlesnake stories…Barbara told me a different one. She and a female friend were out in the vineyard pruning. Her friend had brought her small dog along. As they were working, they heard a commotion a few rows over. A mountain lion had the small dog and carried it off. No more Fido.

Down the hill a bit, Barnett Winery has a “Rattlesnake” vineyard. Wonder how it got its name. Isn’t the wine business romantic??

[H_N_o_w_b_a_r]

Could not resist and got a case from their latest sale, I mean who can resist Paloma at $35. Finally got the wine and had to open one. Well, there is a reason for this sale, the wine is maturing fast. It is still very good, and for those who appreciate mature notes of leather with no noticable tannins and somewhat muted fruit, this may be an ideal wine. And if I had the wine with a nice steak at a restaurant, it would show better.

But I had half last night, and half today as a siping wine. It is a good wine, but a bit overly acidic, and muted fruit for my taste.

Anyway, depends on your palate preferences.

Also, make sure you decant the wine through some filtering system.

+1 on the filtering. The 2012 has a lot of gelatinous residue that needs to be filtered out before drinking. I wrote to Sheldon to ask about it but never heard back. I did get a few cruise ship invitations instead. I miss Barbara and Jim. Sipping wine on their back porch while watching the humming birds is one of my fondest memories of the grounded side of Napa.

[H_N_o_w_b_a_r]

I’d check in soon, I still remember trying Paloma for first time at Queen City Grill in Belltown, and drinking a great bottle at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen…both places are now gone sadly, but Paloma links a memory.

Queen City Grill in Belltown used to have a great and approachable wine list. Thanks for the throwback memory Kris.
Cheers,
H

[GregP]

Yeah, I visited Jim and Barbara in 2001 and was going deep on the wines in the early years. The syrah was actually my favorite, but it created farming problems for them. They may have made some later with purchased fruit. This is one list I regret dropping off, but things seemed very uncertain after Barbara passed. Is the son making the wines??

Bob Foley was making the wines for a while, at Pride, until their son stepped in. I spent a lot of time with them back in the day and the day I met their son, after he moved back home to “make wine”, I kind of knew how it will all end up. He never seemed a “farmer” type. Sad.

Jim and Barbara loved their Syrah, but the vines required lots of manual labor to keep them in check, as Barbara put it one day we discussed it, “They grow like weeds, 15-18 feet in length”.

Have a bottle of 2001, made by Foley, need to open it in honor of their memory. Great people.

[GregP]

Re: rattlesnake stories…Barbara told me a different one. She and a female friend were out in the vineyard pruning. Her friend had brought her small dog along. As they were working, they heard a commotion a few rows over. A mountain lion had the small dog and carried it off. No more Fido.

Down the hill a bit, Barnett Winery has a “Rattlesnake” vineyard. Wonder how it got its name. Isn’t the wine business romantic??

Pretty much par for the course for any Napa mountain vineyard, really. Never understood why Les Behrens let his Jack Russell roam so freely on my visits. Most keep an eye on their dogs, especially small ones. Though know of many dogs bitten by snakes as well, and people.