Dinner with colleagues last night celebrating close of funding round. All of these got a 2 hr decant prior to start of dinner.
2017 Kobayashi Marsanne - Wow! everyone loved this wine, probably WOTN for most of the small table (and all bottles showed well). Melon, honeysuckle, spice, tropical fruit and beeswax on the nose. follows through on palate, “dense” (maybe not best word) mouth feel but acidity and minerality there to support and bring precision. Beautiful finish. Last glass by far the best so if you have these give them time to open up
2014 Piper Cabernet - Darker than 12 opened 6 months ago - maybe vineyard shift happened during this window (dont remember exactly when Moulds percentage increased). Nose tracks, darker fruits on the nose - blueberry at front. Lush mouthfeel. Structured but very easy drinking right now. fine effort from Roy
2016 Andremily #5 - Another very dark wine. Just a baby but wanted to pull a cork to check in before next release just around the corner. I really like Jim’s wines. This is a big wine no doubt but it isnt too heavy. Black and blue berry with a hint of coffee and chocolate. This wine will benefit from several more years in the cellar but everything is there
Appreciate the preview as I have both the Kobayashi Viognier and Andremily, but have yet to open either.
Had a tasting pour of the Kobayashi at the release party in December and recall the great acidity and minerality, but will be nice to sit with a bottle over a few hours to take it all in. Will be sure to give it some air time.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Kobayashi Marsanne! It gets a little skin contact during primary fermentation and the French Acacia hardwood barrel gives some wild tropical aromatics. There is no standard for Washington Marsanne, so I have the freedom to experiment. Roy Piper came to my home for dinner when he was up in Seattle not long ago, and we tasted his wine, Kobayashi Marsanne, and coincidentally someone brought a Andremily. Those guys both make fantastic wines!
Congrats on closing your funding round!
Care to share the chemistries on your Marsanne? It’s always ‘surprising’ to hear any marsanne described as having good acidity as this is certainly not something common with the grape. What I’ve found in working with the variety is that in order to get ‘decent’ acidity, one needs to pick relatively early - and then you give up some of the potential richness that is the tell tale sign of this variety.
Looking forward to hearing more - and to possibly grabbing a bottle or two of your wonderful sounding wine.
Saw this thread and ended up signing up for Kobayashi’s mailing list after looking further (i.e., checking out CellarTracker) into their wines. Coincidentally, I got my wish-list confirmation email from Andremily within about 24 hours of our last meeting.
Hi Larry,
I have no secrets, but there are a few reasons that make me hesitant to share chemistry and analytics on this board. Anything we can measure in wine only paints a small part of the picture, and I have seen how fixated some people can get on certain parameters. Easy example is alcohol. There are 12% alcohol wines that have the sensation of being ‘hot’ and >16% alcohol wines that are perfectly balanced with no heat. My highest Brix wine to date was Viognier last year @ 25 Brix - no adjustments made. I know there are people who would never buy that wine because of their bias against alcohol - yet many of those same people might actually enjoy it. The vines are north facing high density with a low fruit zone and the pH was 3.2 at harvest. As you know the relationship between total acidity and pH can be misleading because of the buffering capacity of wine. The last thing I want to contribute to is a new fixation such as “I only drink wines with TA above 6.5g/L or ___pH or whatever.” Hopefully we’ll meet someday to sip wine and talk shop. Cheers!
Thanks for the reply and for your thoughts on this. I understand your rationale to some extent, but would think that sharing stuff on a board like WB would not be looked upon the same way as with a different audience. I’m not sure folks are so ‘quick to judge’ here - but even so, this is a board where you have the opportunity to explain techniques, etc in a way that is somewhat unique.
I agree that some folks look at specific parameters and ‘jump to conclusions’ about other parameters from time to time. And you yourself are ‘implying’ certain things by saying ’ My highest Brix wine to date was Viognier last year @ 25 Brix - no adjustments made.’
I have a keen interest in learning and sharing information, especially about varieties such as Marsanne, that simply don’t much play here and elsewhere but should.
I hope to hear more about your wines and share some in the near future.
Larry, I kind of share Travis view on this subject. I’m like you, I want to share everything and have complete openness, it’s in my nature. But there seems to be a romantic view of winemaking, and when that illusion shatters with too much kitchen sink reality, it can turn people off. Or worse, make the winemaker out in a bad light.
We know most CA wineries acid correct. It’s almost inevitable here, especially for the bigger and jammier styles. But do people really want to hear that? Do they want to hear that their $100 Napa/Sonoma Cab/PN might contain Lodi fruit up to the legal limit before having to disclose (which I think is up to 25% if area only is used, or up to 15% if AVA is specified). Do they want to hear that some stick oak staves into neutral barrels, rather than buy a $1000 new oak each year to save money? I’m not so sure.
I think they want to cling to the romance of that Napa cab being so perfectly harvested and vinified that it needs no corrections whatsoever and only uses the best estate fruit.
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