Virtual Tasting Series For Charity Week 2 - Russian River Youth Center - Shipping Season Wines! (Dec 4 - Dec 11)

I’ll give you a few days to pull some wines. If you would like to match at any denomination either post or PM me. Thanks for participating!

Welcome to Week 2 of the Virtual Tasting for Charity 2024

Theme: Shipping Season Wines - Tis the season when those wines you purchased during the Spring/Summer get shipped. We all have our favorites that we continue to buy each year and we tend to have a lot of back vintages piling up as well. Choose a producer who shipped you wine this year and surprise us with a selection of a current or past vintage. Could be Sparkling, White, Pink, Orange, Red… lot’s of choices. Pop those corks, grab your camera and let’s help change some lives.

Charity: Russian River Youth Center
Most of you are aware that I own a tool business in Sonoma County. One of my longtime accounts has been an Auto Repair business called Noel’s Automotive. They were originally located in Guerneville. When Noel retired 20yrs ago one of his employees took the business over and moved it to the small town of Monte Rio. During that time the new owner, Charlie, hired a couple kids to work for him. Chris and Josh came from broken homes and basically raised themselves from their teen years through adulthood. When Charlie was ready to retire he sold the business to Chris and Josh. In the decade since the sale the two have grown the business, branched off a Tire Business and also a Construction Company that brings affordable home repairs/construction to their underserved community. On the idea of giving back to the community, They also started a youth center in Guerneville, where they grew up, serving the youth who are in similar situations to when they were young and homeless. Josh rented a warehouse space, painted the floors, added a basketball hoop and it grew from there. Ping pong, weight training, boxing, wrestling, nutrition, education and just a safe place to hang out.

“Some of the youth we serve are at high risk. They range in age from 10 to 21, and many are from low-income households. Many share unique challenges accompanied by growing up in the rural river area of west Sonoma County. Reliable, stable adult role models are critical in helping them to develop their sense of self and community-wide involvement helps them to discover their place in the world. Being in a remote area with limited public transportation and often overextended parents; R.R.Y.C. provides a trusted safe haven, a reliable home away from home. Here our youth can challenge themselves and dare to dream, while at the same time, experience a break from screen time. In other words, R.R.Y.C matters, because it’s a place where kids can be kids - a critical aspect of their healthy development.”

Donation - I’ll donate $5 for each tasting note, another $5 if you post a photo of yourself with the wine and an additional $5 if you leave a small blurb about why this is a wine/producer you continue to purchase/purchase from year in and year out. Up to $15 per note to the Russian River Youth Center. Help me help Chris and Josh provide this valuable service to the youth of West Sonoma County. I encourage matching or singular donations as well. Any amount helps make a difference. Leave them a note and let them know that the Wineberserkers appreciate their dedication to the next generation of Community Leaders.

Cheers! :clinking_glasses::wine_glass:

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Rat, this is a cool idea and an even better, a charity that I know you believe in. I’l pull some bottles. We have a small Champagne dinner this week and a few small non-geek parties to attend in the coming 10 days. I’ll help.

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Remind me to pin this starting Dec 4

No tastings notes yet, but I will get to work on them. $25 donation sent directly through the Russian River Youth Center website. If @Brian_Tuite supports it, they must do good work and it is something I can support! Cheers.

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Thanks @Ed_Steinway :pray:t2:, every dollar matters!

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In for $25 as well, and will have wines later in the week.

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Excellent theme!

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Thanks David!

Bump, start pulling those bottles!

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I just received my first allocation delivery of 2024! I’m aiming to pull a bottle tonight or tomorrow. :+1:

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Here was today’s delivery:

I love Guffens-Heynen and I love the fact that I can still get back vintages from the domaine. The bottle I was most looking forward to was:


Why was I looking forward to this one? Because I never had a G-H 2014, that’s why. And what better reason then to add a TN to this great initiative from @Brian_Tuite!


Diam 30. The nose is a little grumpy initially: button mushroom, damp basement, slight vanilla, ripe citrus and a little tropical “je ne sais quoi”. It needed a good 20 minutes in the glass for the fruit to get more expressive on the nose. A slight turpentine note remained present. I was expecting my wife to recoil at that nose but she just went: “This is gonna be good”. Love you Honey! The palate is joy. Chewy and textured with that assertive, but not overbearing, acidity to brace it all up. Plentiful and beautiful. This can last a long time but I dare you to open one and keep the others. Great wine.

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@Phil_T_r_o_t_t_e_r thanks for kicking this one off with a great selection!

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I have really enjoyed the 2014 White Burgs!..Great vintage for my palate

This thread needs to be pinned @brigcampbell

Only appropriate, for me, that my first post on this particular virtual tasting series thread involves a Patricia Green Cellars 2021 or 2022 Pinot Noir, as this year I had shipped from PGC right around a dozen cases of Jim’s Pinot Noir. So, for this one I opened a 2022 La Belle Promenade Vineyard, Ghost Barn Block. Although obviously quite young, it’s plenty open for business, and is just a beautiful wine. Decanted for just over two hours, and enjoying my second glass as I type. Nice perfumed nose and just so much to unpack in the mouth - fun to let this one just roll around in the mouth. Thank you, Jim and all the good folks at PGC!! :wine_glass:


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So I picked up on Desire Lines not long after their first offering. The Bedrock connection definitely helped get me started.

While there is a Bedrock connection (the textures of the Desire Lines wines are similar IMO) there’s a clear distinction between what @Cody_Rasmussen contributes to Bedrock, and what he does with his own wines. Cody’s wines emphasize the savory aspect of Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Carignan.

The 2019 Winds of Change (a blend focused on Syrah, with substantial adds of Mourvèdre and Carignan, as well as dashes of Grenache and Petite Sirah) brings the savory now the same way it did in 2021. That’s what I love so much about it. Subsequent vintages have been more Syrah-focused, and while still savory, are more direct/linear. I honestly wish I had cases of the 2019, which for $25 or so would not have been a tough purchase!

Anyway, in retirement I may be buying less, but I will always make space for Desire Lines, especially Winds of Change (and forgiving Cody for reminding me of that horrid Scorpions song).

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My dad’s a member and this came off the truck last week. Left at my pad from Thanksgiving dinner.

I am usually not a fan of vio as it usually comes off as soapy for my palate. The Epoch vio is usually an over-oaked mess. This isn’t quite that bad, but I am just not a fan of this wine (or vio, generally).

Sweet oak and vanilla on the nose. Almost smells like a chard from the early 2010s. Palate is more clearly vio, but just sweet oak dominates the palate.

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Oddly enough both Todd and I believe unpinned topics actually get more views. Seems counter intuitive.

It’s been a discussion point for the Virtual Tasting Series as well as Berserkerday offerings.

No real science around it other than casual viewers are more likely to see it float. Regulars know to look at the top posts.

We’ll do whatever and still bump or promote as needed.

@ToddFrench

Interesting. Guess we’ll have to keep bumping this up with more TNs then!

2022 Thomas Pinot Noir Dundee Hills

I’ll follow up with a better note after having this over a couple days. Though John said this vintage is worth cracking open a bottle early to try it is certainly cranky. A little astringent at first on the nose and palate, with faint aromas and flavors of loamy soil and red florals. After nearly 4 hours of air the wine starts to open up more with flavors of red cherries, blood orange, chamomile with a nice core of graphite minerality that persists until the next sip. Seamless on the palate with supple texture and refreshing acidity. Excellent stuff with plenty of potential.

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