MariettaCllrs Christo (Lot#1; 69% Syrah/18% Grenache/12% OPS/1% Viog; 70% SonomaCnty/30% MendoCnty; 15.3%) Geyserville NV: Very dark color; very strong blackberry/boysenberry/ripe/Syrah/licorice bit alcoholic slight peppery/spicy light toasty/oak/vanilla slightly Paso-like/jammy huge fruit nose; soft/rich/ripe/lush huge fruit/blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah/licorice/spicy bit peppery light vanilla/oak slight earthy/rustic/PS flavor w/ light tannic bite; very long lush/ripe/rich very strong blackberry/Syrah/spicy/boysenberry slight vanilla/oak bit peppery/earthy finish w/ light tannic bite; this is to Syrah what OldVineRed is to Zin; terrific drinking at a great price; will go out another 2-5 yrs I’d suspect. $21.00 (SFW&S)
And a wee BloodyPulpit:
Scot & Jake released this Rhone blend & a Cab blend a bit over a month ago. I tasted Christo (named after their Dad, Chris) the same day it hit the shelf at Susan’s. I loved the Cab but was rather underwhelmed by Christo. It seemed rather clunky & rustic & rough and spoke more of PS than anything. Jake & Scot were a bit puzzled by my take on this wine.
I tried it again a week ago at the winemaker dinner at LoyalHound and couldn’t believe it was the same wine. It had so much more lush fruit and shouted of Syrah. So I tried it again last night amid the continual ringing of the doorbell from trick-or-treaters (I was passing out grape Gummies and, keeping the theme, miniatures of Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine) and it reconfirmed my later impression that this is a splendid Rhone blend even better than the OVR.
Marietta sold thru the entirety of Lot#1 Christo and is now preparing to release Lot#2. There must be other folks out there who are equally enamored of this wine.
Tom
Ha. Yeah, me too. I suppose the only rational reason is that you have a better idea of what may be in there, but I’m not sure how much that has an intrinsic value…
I understand the reaction to a non vintage wine. But the NV Marietta Lots have been so good for so many years, and are always of interest and the tariff is just unbeatable.
My understanding was that Marietta is dropping all their vintage designate bottlings for the MV wines. Conflicted as I thought the Petit Sirah was among the best deals going for the varietal. But I did like the Christo better of the two offered.
As per ScotBilbro two weeks ago, they’ll will be dropping all their vintage-dated varietal wines. At the present, the AngeliCuvee
continues to be vintage-dated…but that may change in the future. .
But you are right, Matthew. That PS (which you can still find on the shelf here&there) was a great bargain.
Tom
Kyle, I historically have developed a similar gut reaction based on the experiences I’ve had with NV/MV wines. I’m with you. Often seems like a lot of wine that didn’t make any higher grade all thrown together. Not the case here. We’re using varietal quality wines and blending them in order to achieve maximum quality/complexity/consistency.
Our petite Sirah, for example, is a strong component in Christo…
Jake Bilbro
Marietta Cellars/Limerick Lane Cellars
The Petite is a strong component in Christo. Felt right to us to evolve from Petite to something that was more complex as well as something that we could make more consistently. (And slightly more affordable!)
Tom, you’re info from my brother is correct. NV/MV is our future at least with OVR, Christo, and Arme. We’ll see with Angeli. Honestly, if we moved in that direction, it would really only mean we’d be making an even better and more consistent product with a lot designation as opposed to a vintage -nothing more.
Jake Bilbro
Marietta Cellars/Limerick Lane Cellars
Two thoughts came to my mind when reading this thread and thinking about Non-vintage wines:
The economy’s rather fragile state has made it easier to have higher quality NV wines. Sometimes a winery can only sell so much of an upper-end wine and thus chooses to declassify truly top end wines to keep production levels reasonable That benefits the consumer, but sometimes leads to different blends and higher quality blends, including in the NV arena.
To make NV wines work in the minds of the consumer, you have to have a solid reputation as winery. Perhaps your NV Lot xx sells out quickly, you can’t just throw together a bunch of crap and label it Lot xxx without that eventually catching up to you. Marietta has been producing a superb NV Old Vine Red forever (seemingly). That would give me confidence that they wouldn’t just throw something together to have wine in the market.
As an aside, I have told Jake and Scot that I am especially looking forward to the Old Vine Red Lot 69 and am requesting the labels on my case be applied upside down.
