TN: Some New Wines...(long/boring)

WINE TALK
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We tried this week (8/27/14) Some New Wines:

  1. Yalumba Viognier EdenVlly (13.0%) Angaston/SA 2013: Light gold color; quite attractive floral/pear/melon light
    spicy/nutmeg almost R-floral nose; bit soft/fat light pear/melony/Viog bit R/floral somewhat vapid flavor; short
    light melony/pear/Viog simple/vapid finish; quite a pleasant nose but almost no impact on the palate.
    $19.50 (SFW&S)
  1. Treana WW CentralCoast (14.5%; 50% Marsanne/Viognier; www.HopeFamilyWines.com) PasoRobles 2012: Med.light gold
    color; rather toasty/smokey/butterscotchy/oak some honeyed/honeysuckle/floral/appley nose; soft/fat very ripe
    powerful smokey/toasty/oak/butterscotchy some honeyed/porky/overripe/pineapply flavor; long very strong toasty/
    smokey/Fr.oak bit honeyed/overrippe/pineapply finish; the heavy-handed oak pretty much obliterates any fruit.
    $22.00 (SFW&S)
  1. Botani DryMuscat Dd’O: Sierras de Malaga (14%; very old vines in Almachar; JorgeOrdanez & Kracher families;
    www.Jorge-Ordonez.Es; L2905134) Malaga/Spain 2012    : Med.yellow color; very strong muscatty/flowery/Muscat bit
    earthy/chalky interesting nose; soft/fat pretty dry muscatty/floral/candied/cotton candy some earthy/chalky
    flavor; long muscatty/candied/Muscat/floral bit chalky/earthy slightly bitter finish; lots of Muscat character
    but not the acidity/brightness of Alsatian Muscat. $18.50 (SFW&S)
  1. LiquidFarm Chard WhiteHill/SRH (63% BentrockVnyd/16% Zotovich/8% Rita’sCrown/6% Huber/4% ClosPepe/3% Radian/
    1% Kessler-Haak; 988 cs; 13.8%; www.LiquidFarm.com) Lompoc 2012    : Med.light gold color; very attractive floral/
    melony/Chard light pencilly/oak/perfumed talc/smokey quite aromatic almost R/floral quite spicy nose; fairly
    tart very spicy/nutmeg light pencilly/oak perfumed/melony/floral balanced beautiful flavor; very long/lingering
    floral/perfumed/melony/Chard/lemony fairly tart/rich finish; a beautiful/balanced very perfumey Chard.
    $43.00 (AV)
  1. LiquidFarm Chard GoldenSlope SRH (40% Rita’sCrown/30% BentRock/16% ClosPepe10% Zotovich/4% Kessler-Haak;
    14.2%; 940 cs; “…our love affair w/ OldWorld Chard”) Buellton 2012    : Med.gold color; very intense melony/
    Chard/lemony/floral light pencilly/toasty/oak very perfumed/fragrant nose; fairly tart very intense melony/
    spicy/Chard/lemony light pencilly/toasty/oak almost essence of Chard flavor; very long/lingering very intense
    pure/melony/Chard/lemony/very spicy light pencilly/toasty/oak/nutmeg finish; almost an Essence of Chard.
    $54.00 (AV)
  1. LiquidFarm Chard Four SRH (40% ClosPepe/40% Rita’sCrown/12% BentRock/8% Zotovich; 4+4=8 brls; 14.3%) Buellton
    2012    : Light gold color; a bit shyer quite perfumed/melony/Chard/spicy/lemony very light pencilly/oak very spicy
    beautiful nose; fairly tart balanced very intense floral/melony/Chard almost R-like very light pencilly/oak
    very spicy flavor; very long/lingering bright/zippy/balanced/tart light pencilly/oak intense floral/lemony/
    melony/Chard finish; a purity of expression of Chard as you can find; not quite as intense/extracted as the
    GoldenSlope but a bit more balanced & pure; beautiful Chard and maybe worth the price. $83.00 (AV)
  1. Dom. LePive Gris IGP: Sable de Camargue (30% GrenacheGris/30% GrenacheNoir/30% Merlot/10% CabFranc;
    VinBiologique; 12%) LesVignobles JeanJean/Montcalm 2013    : Light copper/salmon bit onion skin color; rather
    attractive/fragrant strong earthy/mineral light strawberry/Grenache nose; tart/lean/austere rather earthy/stony
    bit spicy/strawberry/Grenache flavor w/ slight bitterness; med.long tart/austere/bit bitter stony/earthy finish;
    pretty nose & lots of stony/earthy character but lacking in Grenache fruit. $15.00 (AV)
  1. Idlewild GrenacheGris GibsonRanch/MendoCnty GrenacheRose (12.9%; www.IdlewildWines.com) 2013: Light bright
    red/strawberry/watermelon color; beautiful fragrant/strawberry/waternelon/Grenache very spicy slight dusty/OV
    very aromatic nose; quite tart very strong strawberry/watermelon/Grenache very dusty/OV quite perfumed/aromatic
    flavor w/ light tannins;very long/lingering very strong strawberry/Grenache/watermelon/cranberry quite dusty/OV
    very perfumed finish w/ light tannins; a really gorgeous GrenacheRose at a very good price. $26.00
  1. TrigPoint Zin TheRailyard AlexVlly/SonomaCnty (13.5%) NickGoldschmidt/FiveGoldHands/Geyserville 2012: Dark
    color; some dusty/earthy spicy/blackberry/Zin/raspberry some Am.oak/vanilla somewhat simple/attractive nose;
    bit tart some dusty/earthy/OV pleasant spicy/blackberry/raspberry/Zin strong vannila/Am.oak rather simple/
    rustic flavor; med. simple/spicy/blackberry/raspberry/Zin some earthy/dusty strong vanilla/Am.oak finish w/
    light tannins; a rather simple/rustic AlexVlly Zin in the style of the old Sausals. $20.50 (SFW&S)
  1. Kesner Blustone NorthCoast RW (70% Zin + Carignane/Cinsault/Grenache/AlicanteBouschet/PS + ?; 100 yr old vines
    field blend; 150 cs; 14.2%; www.KesnerWines.com) JasonKesner/SantaRosa 2011    : Dark color; rather dusty/OV very
    spicy/bit herbal strong blackberry/Zin light toasty/vanilla/oak very spicy lovely nose; tart some earthy/dusty/
    OV very spicy/blackberry/Zin light toasty/vanilla/oak flavor w/ light tannins; very long very spicy/blackberry/
    Zin somewhat earthy/dusty/OV light toasty/oak/vanilla finish w/ light/smooth tannins; reminds of a Bedrock
    Heritage Red; quite a lovely Zin, though a bit pricey for what it is. $39.75 (Enoteca)

The usual nonsense from TheBloodyPulpit:

  1. Idlewild: Every time I taste another of SamBilbro’s wines, I’m blown away. One of my favorites.
  1. LiquidFarm: This is the small wnry of Nikki&Jeff Nelson. JamesSparks is their winemaker. I’d had their Chard
    once before, in a casual setting, and liked it a lot. So the LF Chards showed up here in NM & I thought I’d
    show them to my group. Despite their slightly elevated alcohol levels, these would be poster children for the
    IPoB movement. Don’t know if they’re involved w/IPoB or not, though.
    They were an impressive trio of Chardonnay. A bit on the pricey side, but these are the kinds of wines that
    keeps bringing me back to Calif Chard. The GoldenSlope reminded me a lot of MikeBernstein’s MtVeederVnyds
    LongVnyd Chard '73; one of the most legendary of Calif Chards ever made…a wine that was Essence of Chard.
    Tom
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Glad you found your way to the Liquid Farms wines, Tom. My notes on the White Hill from this past weekend.

"2012 Liquid Farms White Hill Chardonnay

I brought this as I was pretty sure most of the crowd wanted to try. Arresting floral aromatics jump out at you, along with pear and some citrus. This has fulfilled its promise from back in January—very fine balance, plenty of flavor, edges of pineapple, lots of tangerine and citrus, but all very fresh and clean and solid. Fine, fine stuff."

I am a big fan of this wine from the 2 tastes I’ve had…I have one more bottle in stock at the moment. The Golden Slope, which I liked a little less in January (but still liked) seemed to have lost some of its authority when tasted at the beginning of August. That one too, I have another bottle left.

I have yet to have a Viognier from Oz (other than Yalumba’s botrytis version) that has done anything for me.

Salud,

Mike

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Thanks for the notes… curious - why/ all/ the/ forward/ slashes/ ?

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They take fewer keystrokes than …

P Hickner

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Haven’t been following Tom from the very start have you Mark [wink.gif]

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Had the opportunity to taste the '13 White Hill with Nikki and Jeff this past weekend and was blown away. Jeff said he thought it was the best WH yet, and I’m in full agreement. Brought home 5 bottles plus a mag.

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Please do elaborate? [wow.gif]

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Well, Mark…it’s just sort of a TN style that I have evolved over the yrs and one I’m used to.
It can be a little difficult to read if you’re not used to it.
I put up my first TN two days after AlGore invented the InterNet and have just sorta stuck w/ that style.
I would have to say it probably evolved from my early days of writing FORTRAN code. It always bugged me to look at
someone else’s code and see all the blank spaces in there, supposedly to improve its “readability”. I took great pride
in writing my code as densely as I possibly could, w/ little blank spaces in there. It saved punched cards that way.
If you have any idea what punched cards are.
I could also tell you why my posts are (long/boring) or (short/boring), but that’s a whole nuther story.
Tom

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For some reason/ TomHill/ this makes total sense to me. Really enjoy your TN’s/impressions!