A Few Recent Tastes VIII

Stuff of late…

2009 Quivira Syrah Wine Creek Ranch Dry Creek Valley. Somewhat dulled purple core surrounded by wide rust red to crimson rims. The nose takes awhile to open, rawhide, burnt bacon, earth with a rubbery note, sour red fruits of no particular nature. Medium-bodied, acidic and puckering with sour oak residue, like pickle brine and dill. The fruit clearly diminished as well, red currant, blackberry, angular if not angry. Metallic and earthy, tree leaves and bark, close to no length. Nothing about it suggests mistreatment, just simply over the hill.

2016 Bedrock Grenache Gambrels of The Sky. Flat ruby to rust red, doesn’t darken much at the core. Sappy Grenache red berry filled nose, dustier texture, more like sand or charcoal than earth or stone, interesting in some ways but ultimately comes off flat. Does a good job of filling the mouth with a clean release at the end. Overall feels more bitter than sour, blueberry and blackberry mixed into the more strawberry base. Woolly, the more you sip it the drier your mouth becomes, albeit it doesn’t evince a real tannic bite. Brief waft of citrus. Really not sure what to make of this one, maybe too backward for my palate. 80% Grenache (Gibson Ranch), remainder Cinsault (Bechthold Ranch), Mataro (Oakley Road).

2017 Drew Pinot Noir Anderson Valley The Fog-Eater. More garnet than purple, clear and consistent core through rims. When first opened the nose is a caramel fest, slowly shifts into menthol, lavender, pulped lemons, has this muddy earth component that won’t go away, the sharp edged raspberry, blackberry fruit compact and incapable of guile. The palate weight shifts a lot, initially stained by a metallic, stewed tomato aspect. The darker berry fruit savory and long, the centerpiece for sure. Supplemented by sour white citrus to create buoyancy. Touch more tannic than expected but it’s the acidity which gets you salivating. That caramel echoes through the finish, not overly oaked and reasonable to expect that a few more years will absorb it all. Deserves 3-4 more years in bottle to perform at its best. (Synthetic Cork)

2014 Fogline Zinfandel Mattei Road Vineyard Sonoma. Dark purple core, clean, broad maroon red rims. The nose layers on the molasses, brown sugar, honey, waft of grill smoke before tangerine zest and dense cassis, plum fruit scents. Full-bodied and close to monolithic in scale, pushes down against the palate. Sappy and sugary, it’s all about the blueberry to raspberry syrup, plum unto prune, and currant jam. More honey and molasses here, the citrus caught between orange and lemon. There’s an unsettling plastic like note that appears now and then. Kind of tannic as well, not sure about the phenolics. Eucalyptus lift at the end. In many ways reminds me of the Martinelli Zinfandels of the late 90’s.

2012 Maxime Magnon Languedoc Vin de Pays de la Vallée du Paradis La Démarrante. Clear to mildly translucent ruby red to rust red. Just a touch of earthiness to the nose, on the main you get strawberry, rhubarb fruit scents and a little lemon citrus and spice. Light-bodied, decent fluidity with enough tannic grittiness to keep it present to you. Here the incense, Indian spices, mukhwas grow some in stature. Still, the centerpiece remains that strawberry, raspberry, rhubarb fruit, sweet if not especially long. Lemony finish with tea leaf accompaniment. Interesting mostly for its balance between visceral pleasure and its ability to dart between familiarity and unfamiliarity. 50% Carignan, 30% Grenache, 20% Syrah.

2017 Orchis Mondeuse Vin de Savoie Quintessence de Mondeuse. Hazy and luminescent plum purple to cranberry, super-saturated. Stinky nose at first, needs significant aeration, then black fruits, wet leather and moderate sous bois notes. Medium-bodied, savage attack with the acidity starring in its own slasher flick. Wonderful white grapefruit zest, contributes to a huge puckering sensation. Leather and stone, kind of impenetrable but in the right way, it penetrates you not the other way around. Sour cherry, red currant fruit. Vibrates through the finish. Unyielding clarity of purpose.

2017 ai Valloni Colline Novaresi Sass Russ. Crystal clear, completely transparent brick red to orange, great shine. The expected earthy, forest floor funk at first in the nose before tea leaf, maraschino cherry take hold, some anise, leaves an impression of slight underripeness. Light-bodied, has sufficient sappy grip to saturate the palate with whatever it has. The raspberry cornerstone pulled in either direction by strawberry and cherry fruit. Woodsy, stony, not earthy. Reluctant to call it a country style wine but has the tannic structure to get some votes. If one were to revisit, best to wait three or so years. 50% Nebbiolo, 50% Uva Rara.

One of the most damning comments one can make about a wine: “In many ways reminds me of the Martinelli Zinfandels of the late 90’s.”

Happy New Years, Marc.

Yep, I’ve gotta agree. That Fogline zin does not sound good!

And bummer on the Bedrock. Havent tried one yet but your note gives me pause on ordering any of the 18 vintage that Morgan was teasing on IM, even though he indicated it was pretty special.

You know you can always ask the berserker winemaker before buying. Not sure buying a 16+% ABV wine and NOT expecting 90’s Martinelli makes sense. If you are a fan of Selby Bobcat, Turley Juvenile or Green and Red Chiles, or Martinelli G&L, this would be more your style. FWIW it was one of the best selling wines we have ever made. Not our typical style but a clear favorite of people that visited our tasting room.

Hi Evan, actually I liked the old Martinelli Zins I brought up as a reference point. I didn’t have much issue with this wine per se besides that plastic-y thing. Others seem to have woven their interpretations into my words but, hey, that is the essence of communication. To me, there’s definitely a place for wines like this and I don’t shy away from them (in many ways I wish Turley made wines more like they did in the 90’s but am quite sure I am in the minority there). This particular bottling probably deserved to be consumed sooner rather than later, not sure if today is later enough or not.

In any event, I have lots more Fogline wines to consume in the near term and down the road. Tell Brent I hope to see him at swim team reunion in a few weeks!

I’ve really liked the Fogline zins that I’ve tried, and none were in the Martinelli range of styles. I especially liked the Grist zin from a few years ago. But I haven’t had that Mattei one.

Marc and Chris,

I was not so much defending as to say that the Martinelli hate is silly. Drink what you like but to say “damning” [rofl.gif]. I appreciate that you take the time to review our wines, Marc. Like I said, this is a more unusual wine for us. In fact since we had so many club member sign up based on the love of this wine I had to adjust out Grist Zin for 2017(for one year) to make another off-dry zin as the Mattei Road vineyard up by Pride Mountain vineyard had been sold and we would not have a SKU for those that like that style. But as you know we make wines throughout the spectrum (12.9% Floodgate for instance), mother nature dictates. Each to his/her own, right?

Cheers,
Evan

Also if you like this style, sorry that shit is loooooonnnngggg gone, 15 sold out immediately. I do have a fucking excellent Rocky Ridge Rockpile Zin though. Chris Mauritson has to truck water up there every year to make sure it is right and and it is a special place for Zin, you’d know if you tried Bella, Mauritson or Hall Rocky Ridge.