TNs: 2014 Palisades Vineyard Petite Sirah - Mending Wall vs Once & Future

[Frank_Murray_III]

Rat, here is an update to your TN above. I agree with you about this drinking approachable. It is for me, too. This is third bottle I have had to date and they’ve all been terrific. I still keep wines like this in my cellar for time when I want to drink power, color and heft. This is that wine.

• 2014 Mending Wall Petite Sirah Palisades Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Calistoga (4/6/2019)
  Having Mr Campbell over for dinner tonight. asked him what he wanted to drink. He said open this one, so with the good fortune of about 4-5 hours of aeration time before we would drink this tonight, I pulled the cork to take advantage of it. I forgot how dark this wine is, and it may not be as dark as the 2013, but it’s close. The is squarely about getting the sun and soil of Calistoga into this wine–it drinks with heft and the same plushness I found in the bottle from July 2018. Some heat in the aromatic (tasting this with an hour of air at 70f). The ABV on the bottle says 14.7% but that cannot be a true #, as the aromatic suggests more. Yet, given the varietal and the location of where this comes from, candidly no one should take issue with the ABV. There is also some shaved metal/graphite in the aromatics, too. Dark chocolate, intense espresso, dark berry, iron, tar and some good finishing chalky light tannin. Finally, I love structure and my own palate seems to do quite well with what others might find more structured. Why this matters is that I don’t agree with those that have said this wine needs more time, or is structured to the point of needing more time as I find this vintage of MW PS as approachable. Sure, the wine may soften or smooth out some more but I caution those who read my note here, as well as the other TNs below mine, to keep things in context. For me, the present tannin fuels the wine and buffers the heft nicely, i.e. why not drink this now and enjoy the power that infuses the wine. In sum, this is a pure fruited, big flavor wine that is plain fun to drink.

Posted from CellarTracker

[Brian_Tuite]

Rat, here is an update to your TN above. I agree with you about this drinking approachable. It is for me, too. This is third bottle I have had to date and they’ve all been terrific. I still keep wines like this in my cellar for time when I want to drink power, color and heft. This is that wine.

• 2014 Mending Wall Petite Sirah Palisades Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Calistoga (4/6/2019)
  Having Mr Campbell over for dinner tonight. asked him what he wanted to drink. He said open this one, so with the good fortune of about 4-5 hours of aeration time before we would drink this tonight, I pulled the cork to take advantage of it. I forgot how dark this wine is, and it may not be as dark as the 2013, but it’s close. The is squarely about getting the sun and soil of Calistoga into this wine–it drinks with heft and the same plushness I found in the bottle from July 2018. Some heat in the aromatic (tasting this with an hour of air at 70f). The ABV on the bottle says 14.7% but that cannot be a true #, as the aromatic suggests more. Yet, given the varietal and the location of where this comes from, candidly no one should take issue with the ABV. There is also some shaved metal/graphite in the aromatics, too. Dark chocolate, intense espresso, dark berry, iron, tar and some good finishing chalky light tannin. Finally, I love structure and my own palate seems to do quite well with what others might find more structured. Why this matters is that I don’t agree with those that have said this wine needs more time, or is structured to the point of needing more time as I find this vintage of MW PS as approachable. Sure, the wine may soften or smooth out some more but I caution those who read my note here, as well as the other TNs below mine, to keep things in context. For me, the present tannin fuels the wine and buffers the heft nicely, i.e. why not drink this now and enjoy the power that infuses the wine. In sum, this is a pure fruited, big flavor wine that is plain fun to drink.

Posted from CellarTracker

Yes it is Frank. Maybe I need to
open another!

[Frank_Murray_III]

Pen ink, Rat. Not sure the stained glass will recover.

[brigcampbell]

My mom was passing through town on her way back to Oregon and FMIII and the good doctor invited us all over on her last night. Frank emailed “your call tonight, pick something from my cellar”

Mom is in her PS phase so I immediately emailed back “yank the cork on a mending wall”

Mom’s first comment as FMIII poured her glass. “looks like motor oil”. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!