Turley - what's the scoop?

WINE TALK
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A full report on the 2011 Turley Petite Syrah and Zinfandel appears in my current volume published today. It has only been within the last couple years of being around Tegan at HVS events that I began to appreciate what they are doing there. I didn’t experience anything ‘massive’, even though several of the wines are still 16+%, they don’t wear out the palate. I spent over 4 hours with Tegan and Christina tasting last month and we discussed a lot of the myths and preconceptions about the wines. They are a lot more than that.

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Also received this e-mail today. Expect there will be more as more of the large 2012 vintage becomes ready to release. I forwarded the e-mail to my husband with the subject line “uh oh”.

Love Bedrock, Carlisle, Ridge, also love Turley. Ueberroth is a favorite, have had several vintages of that. Will be glad to get some without paying the extra tariff on Winebid etc. But darn it, they are so hard to store. And will probably be pricey to ship. We are in NM, get at least 90% of our wine shipped from CA. Need to review the mailing lists etc we purchase from and weed out the $5 plus per bottle shipping fees. It’s getting out of hand.

The first high rated Turley Zin I see on CT is Atlas Peak. Haven’t seen a mention of it, is it a very limited one?

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I didn’t get the email. What the hell?! :frowning:

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+1

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Atlas Peak is Mead Ranch, Tegan told me the deflowering from Spring 2011 rains hit this site hard, resulting in .47T/a. the vineyard was originally planted in the early 20th C, but the Zin was predominantly put in in the 70s.

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I assume the email is adding people to the list - not the offering email.

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Ah!

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I’ll add… Tegan is committed to each wine being an expression of its vineyard, and Turley has been on a roll under his guidance. If you’re a zinfandel fan then you absolutely need to try some Turley.

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Perhaps not in the truest sense, but it is pretty easy to land in their doghouse, which is pretty much where I am now. Skip an offering, buy light on another, and you will see your allocations reduced dramatically. At least I did. Like “one bottle of this, and one bottle of that”. Naturally, there’s an opportunity at that point to wishlist for more, but the initial allocation comes across as slightly punitive.

As for the wines: of the Zins, I like most of them - Dogtown, Rattlesnake, Hayne, Ueberroth, etc. I’m on the fence with Old Vines, Juvenile and Cedarman, which generally strikes me as having less fruit depth than some of the others. More pepper, less brambles (Juvenile, Cedarman). Probably not enough data points on my part though to make a broad conclusion - though I have (rightly or wrongly) as relates to my own personal buying. I haven’t tried any of the PS yet, as most here have mentioned that they are bohemoths with years of life. I only get a couple allocated per year, so there might be a case or so of these in the cellar at this point.

I agree with John Morris’s point about aging of Turley Zins - I tend to find Turley’s sweet spot to be anywhere from 3-5 years from release. Often, much past that they are a different wine, and less alluring for me with noticeably diminished fruit. My Turleys invariably get opened up with BBQ, chili, or something similar so I like the full fruit and residual sweetness that shows through in their younger years. Earlier - they can be a touch tight. Later, there is a tendency for the alcohol coming a bit too far forward. However, some of the top bottlings (Hayne, Ueberroth) can last much, much longer. A caveat here - most of my experience is pre-2009, or whenever the “style change” suggested by others occured.

Others have weighed in saying that Turley is a different Zin than stuff like Carlisle and Bedrock. I generally agree, though I find more similarities with Bedrock than I do with Carlisle. For my palate, Bedrock seems to stake out a bit of a middle ground between Turley (full throttle) and Carlisle (“refined”). Having said that, I’ve had some really nice, fairly forward Carlisles from one of the more recent releases. The signature note for me in the best of Turley Zins is a sweet brambly note that is a killer pairing with bolder, spicy foods like BBQ or brats, and I’ve seen that same note in both Bedrock (more often) and Carlisle (less often). As a quick clarification - I like all 3 producers. A lot!

So, anyway - I’d give it a shot and jump in if you got an offer. The first offer probably won’t be that big or deep - a decent size for experimenting. Anything that you like, except for a few lower production Zins and some of the PS, can be replaced or augmented relatively easily via secondary market at fair prices via Wine-Searcher. Or WineBid for experimentation with older vintages.

Cheers,
Jim

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A lot of different bottles each mailing. Low allocations. Never seemed to gain enough traction to get to the “better” bottles.

I’d source them, rather than join the mailing list. The bottle shape also is a real pain.

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I have to disagree a bit with the “just buy them at retail or auction” approach. I’ve found that they mostly only drop in price to release levels or lower as they get substantially older (8+ years from vintage).

For example, if you want a 2010 or 2011 Ueberroth, which I think is around $43 from the winery, current retail using WSPro is $85 on up, with only a few places having it to sell.

Nobody has the 2010 or 2011 Rattlesnake to sell, but the cheapest 2009 is $60. I think it’s low $40s from Turley.

The Pesenti is better, but still, the low available online retail is $45 (and most others sell it for more), and I think it’s mid to high $30s from the winery.

Plus, you’d be cobbling bottles together from here, there and everywhere.

I’m lucky, in that I pass through there at least once or twice a year, and it’s easy to pop in, taste, and buy wines at (I think) their Turley release price. But if you don’t have that opportunity, I’m not sure you’re better off just sitting back for retail or auction. There are good prices at auction, but mostly if you want to buy 2005 and earlier vintages.

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not a problem if you open them in the car on the way home

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I hear you Chris, and its not the way to go if you have to have what you have to have. On the other hand, there’s 4 uncontested btls of 2011 Dogtown on Winebid right now for $30, which I think is less than release. Ditto 2 bottles of 2011 Fredericks for $40 (release $42??). 2011 Hayne for $50, uncontested (release $75?). 2011 Rattlesnake via Wine-Searcher at $44 (release $40)

Granted its Monday, and some of these auction prices will go up between now and Sunday auction close. And yes, it’s cobbling together a collection. And there’s the WB vig the buyer has to pay. Not the case I guess with the one retail example above.

But… a first year guy on Turley’s list is going to be subject to “cobbling” one way or the other given low initial allocations. Or for that matter, no allocations of the most desirable stuff, at least initially. The good news is that some/most are available, over time, with a bit of attention and opportunistic purchasing. 4-5 years ago, Turley wines only came to the secondary market with highly elevated pricing. I haven’t seen that in the last couple of years. Or said differently, I’ve seen it recently - but often side-by-side with an offer that’s priced at or near release cost.

In any event, if I was new on the list, I would seek out these sources, try the stuff I wasn’t able to get through allocation, and test drive it before throwing in a couple rounds down the road when the serious allocations hit my inbox. Or, in my situation, for the stuff I no longer get a significant allocation of (because I’m a cheapskate I guess, or perhaps just inattentive to offerings), it’s an approach that’s worked for me.

Or more recently, I just allocate the budget to Bedrock champagne.gif

I am sure I would have a different perspective if I was able to do the semi-annual onsite tasting / drive by;)

Cheers,
JVP

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This was my experience in the past. I stayed on the list to get the PS only as long as my friends were willing to take most of the other wines. I would specifically request PS and get offered one bottles along with 30 bottles of zin. Now I often find the PS at retail for the same price as the mailing list without their high shipping costs.

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Received my letter welcoming me to the club today as well. Was going to post the same question, so glad to see it was done already and I appreciate all of the advice!

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I knew I was missing something! Where were you Scott, when I picked them up!? [welldone.gif]

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Turley. That is some good ass zins.

That’s the scoop

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Chris, I’ll definitely do that once I receive the offer. Thanks again for all of your feedback.

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Scott, that description bears repeating! [cheers.gif]

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We visited the tasting room in Paso.
While their wines are good I thought maybe overpriced.
Dover Canyon has some great Zins for half the price.