2016 Tercero Roussanne Zaca Mesa Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Ynez Valley (10/16/2025)
Three things...GORGEOUS color - brilliant gold and green tinge...GORGEOUS nose - apricot marmalade, honeycomb, slight Chenin petrol wool, antique wax...and GORGEOUS mouthfeel - WAX, rich honey butter creaminess, seamless! WOW...lots going on here. A richer Roussanne than I've ever had from them(last one was 2013)...plenty of tropical citrus cut and lift...even a little spicy with some white pepper...and just LOVE this chalky crushed rocks note in this! Cold cellar temp is key...everything peacocks. Kind of blown away here...this is wonderful! (95 points)
Thank you so much for the kind words about this Wine. I truly honestly dig it and I’m looking forward to seeing how it ages as it doesn’t seem to be losing any of its complexity and still continues to be building in texture.
And thanks to the others who comment here as well. Truly, and honestly appreciate it.
Larry, what is the reason this Roussanne isn’t labeled as a vineyard designate? Noticed it with this and the Marsanne when adding them to my CT inventory.
Thanks for the question. I don’t vineyard designate many wines as a general practice because I truly love the SBC region as a whole.
I do some designates - Larner, White Hawk, Watch Hill, Kessler-Haak, Spear and Zaca Mesa occasionally - when I believe folks may know the sites. But many times, I just don’t feel it’s important or necessary from my perspective.
Love the picture and thanks for sharing, @B_Buzzini. This wine seems kinda ‘caught in time’ right now - now a bad place to be as I’m simply loving how it’s developing but where it’s at right now.
You’ll have to dig in on some Marsanne next time - the 2016 is in an equally good spot, showing the same texture as this wine with some different aromatics.
