meet me at howlin rays- i’ll treat you to some chicken. You can share with me the bottle so i can do a review ;D
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Ha, you’re on! And they have beer there, when we we need to cleanse our palates…
I have not . . .
Formal education here with a Diploma from WSET and I was the one who called out the green notes. Mostly that I felt like it didn’t taste like any Ultramarine I’ve had. I made no assumptions on the winemaking, just a comment on the finished wine
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Thank you for the reply. It just seems that lots of folks have lots of ideas of what might’ve happened with regards to Wine making and we simply don’t know - AND there seems to be some inconsistencies in the descriptions people are giving. This certainly leads me to believe that there is a good amount of either bottle variation or this hammer’s the point that we all receive things quite differently.
Cheers
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There clearly was something wrong with the wine or at least the wine that was in front of me. I’ve only done 1 harvest so I can’t nor will I make big calls as to what caused the issue with the wine.
What I do know is that it didn’t taste like Ultramarine or a Cruse wine. Given that the fruit comes from a very high source and there is no way that he especially would get bad fruit from Hirsch, I do have to wonder what may have caused this issue as it was reminiscent of some 2011 Red Burgs in the green side.
I’ll bring one next time I visit.
That would be awesome since I don’t think I’ll be sourcing one 
Cheers
Thanks for the reply - and what makes winemaking so much fun . . . and so frustrating . . . is that sometimes things happen that are totally unexpected - sometimes of our own doing and sometimes just ‘because’.
Have i ever had a wine that ‘went sideways’ on me? Yep - bottled over 100 cases of it - and never released it - and actually ended up dumping it ALL down the drain. It sucked - but it’s better to do that then to put out a product I can’t stand behind . . .
And this is NOT to say that the winery ‘knowingly’ put out a faulty product, but the way things have been handled seems simply ‘strange’ from my consumer perspective.
Cheers
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Gotta agree. Just PnP’d the 19 Heintz BdN. It’s fine. Actually drinking quite well. Let it sit for maybe 30 in the glass after not seeing anything egregious and it’s only gotten better. Nothing green nor vegetal.
Pairing well with pumpkin spice cookies for what it’s worth.
Edit approaching being one of the better bottles of this year. It’s really good. Might be the pairing.
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Yeah, but over multiple bottlings and vintages?
Nope - unless your eye may be ‘off the ball’ and you’re just ‘going through the motions’ and not regularly checking the results . . .
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Didnt see link to this thread in the article
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Why I have a feeling this is a PR post.
Interesting timing - anyone want to reach out to VinePair to let them know about ‘other issues’ they did not mention?
Cheers
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I opened my first from the '20 vintage Sonoma Coast Rose tonight to kick off an offline which included some Berserkers (including @Charles_Perry and @Patrick_Taylor ).
It was a chance to taste and get others’ opinions.
My experience was of a dry wine with light bubbles, pretty strawberry fruit, brambly tannins, vegetal notes, simple minerality. I definitely picked up on the “asparagus water” and “jalapeños” that have been described, but had zero impression that it was a flawed wine.
Others expressed concern (some strongly) that there was smoke taint. I admit that there was a component on the nose especially that may have reflected that.
No one would have poured it down the drain.
I enjoy my glass for what it was and, while didn’t find it a qpr gem, was reassured that the wine was not going to cause me to go blind.
Will hold my other bottle for a minute and see if the elements of concern were in fact taint or just stemminess that integrates.
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I’d agree with Franklin, though I didn’t get any jalapeño. What was most interesting to me was it drank like a thick rose’ not a sparkling rose’.
I made it onto the active list for the 2017 vintage. Bought that and then the 2018 vintage.
Once I started drinking them in 2022 and beyond, I realized that the BdB and BdN were just too austere and lean for my taste. Zero dosage will do that I suppose.
(I do love the Cruse version of Rose’ even more than the UM version).
Stopped buying once my FOMO dissipated and after so many disappointing experiences with the BdB and BdN.
Thought it was just me, but this thread makes me wonder if things have gone awry with them trying too hard to be “unique”.
I’ve opened three bottles from the recent releases and they have been 1) jalepeno is the only note 2) very slight vegetal note, but otherwise pleasant 3) great, but quite young sparkler
Based on my experience and those posting here, I find it hard to believe the vegetal notes are anything other than bottle variation flaws.