TN: Ojai White NV...(short/boring)

WINE TALK
1

Looking for a white wine last night, I dredged up this:

  1. OjaiVnyd Ojai White Calif TW (14.0%; C1 301 10:17 31) NV: Med.gold color; rather nutty/toasted hazelnuts/slight oxidative some butterscotchy/toasty/oak rather honeyed/melony/lemony slight herbal (SB?) old Chard/earthy complex nose; fairly rich bit soft nutty/hazelnutty/old Chard/bit oxidative some melony/lemony/herbal/earthy rather butterscotchy/oak flavor; med.long rich/lush rather nutty/hazelnutty/bit oxidative slight melony/herbal/lemony strong toasty/butterscotch/oak finish w/ some bitterness; seems mostly like an aged Chard w/ ample oak; a bit on the aged side but still offers up some pleasure. $11.40

A wee BloodyPulpit:

  1. OjaiWhite: Adam produces at irregular intervals both an Ojai White an an Ojai Red. When they are pumping from barrel to make their final blend, they take the dregs from the bottom of the barrel, filter out the lees, and blend it all together, then move it out the door for a song. I’ve found that they are often very good values and can actually age for awhile.
    From the other Ojai reds mixed in that same box, I’m guessing this is about an '04. My guess is that it’s a blend of Chard (predominately), SauvBlanc (because of the herbal character), and RollRanch Viog (because of the Calif appellation). They used to not identify on the label any bttlg info, so you could never know exactly which one it was. They have since taken to laser-etching on the btl, in very faint/tiny print, some sort of btlg info, but in code. As indicated above…undecipherable by me. As ForrestGump once said: “Ojai White is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get”.
    The wine was on the faded side, but hit the spot w/ my salad & pasta.
    Tom
2

According to Fabien…the code I saw was related to the btl…not the wine. They didn’t start the laser etching of the date until 2010.
He relates the wine (if a 2004) would have little oak and they were using particularly low SO2 doses. He thinks what I was picking up was the leesy and oxidative character in the wine.
Tom