TURLEY RECOMMENDATIONS

First time on the Turley Mailing list this January and need recommendations as to where to start, what not to miss, what hidden gems should be checked out, etc. We have only very limited experience with Turley, but very extensive experience with Bucklin, Bedrock, Carlisle, Ridge, Seghesio, Hartford. Our interest is in zin and old vine field blends (fairly obvious from the list I guess), but we have avoided Turley simply because it’s just so massive. We know this first offering will be limited as we have not purchased previously, but we’re thinking beyond this offering also. On CT it seems everyone love just about every Turley, so that has proven less helpful than usual, so we’re just hoping that the collective personal experience here could serve as a guide. Many thanks in advance

There are many threads on here about it you could search. For me, Ueberroth and pesenti are my favorites over time. And then the Juvi and OV are great QPRs and good ones to bring to BBQs, give as gifts etc. Hayne is the most refined, elegant and age worthy one.

But there are many different styles within their portfolio. By not overoaking, Tegan lets site variations express themselves. So you might experiment a bit and see what clicks with you. None of it is bad (if you like the house style generally), so it’s not risky to look around.

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Not sure what’s coming but we usually buy Pesenti, Old Vine, Juvenile, Cerdarman, and White Coat. Then anything else that has interesting tasting notes.

Of what we buy Pesenti Zin and Petite are favorites. The price of Old Vine makes it a steal.

I don’t buy Turley anymore mainly due to too much Bedrock and Carlisle in my cellar, but when I did I liked Uberroth and Pesenti on the high end and Juvenile and Old Vine on the QPR end.

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I was a Turley wine club member for a few years. I think they are more balanced now. I’m particularly impressed with the Cedarman these days, very refined and not overripe/overextracted. Dragon, Dusi and Pesenti Zin are also favorites.

The Dragon, Rattlesnake Ridge and Ueberroth are my favorites. And, as others have mentioned, the Cederman, Old Vines and Juvenile are really good for the price. Those are the one’s that I always look to buy.

Ed








Edited for grammar.

this is exactly what I was hoping for, seeing a lot of the same names in each reply (and names that have come up in my previous research), but also outliers that I will feel more confident now in checking out - many thanks to all for sharing your knowledge and experience [cheers.gif]

I’ll give you my top 5:

  1. Hayne Petit Sirah
  2. Hayne Zin
  3. Ueberroth Zin
  4. Dragon Zin
  5. Presenti Zin

Of course, not all of these will be available with this upcoming release.

Ueberroth is superb. Old Vines and Juvenile are great for everyday and gifts.

I am narrowing my buys with Turley to the following: Ueberroth (usually isn’t allocated the first year on the list, wish list may be possible), Pesenti, Dusi, Old Vines, Turley Estate, and maybe Dogtown. These are my personal favorites.

Turley is no longer massive over extracted fruit bombs as they were in the 90’s. Tegan has kept the fruit that Larry enjoys, but the wines are now more in balance (fruit, acid, oak, structure). They are all delicious. I’d try at least 2 of each and pop some open in the coming months so you have an understanding of what your palate gravitates towards. Can’t go wrong.

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Have also been more selective the last few years. With so many zins and a little year to year variation it is a challenge to pick the best ones but the following are on my short-ish list.

Hayne
Casa Nuestra
Dragon
Ueberroth
Turley Estate
Rattlesnake
Mead
Heminway
Cedarman

That’s the approach I usually follow - try everything, figure out what you like best and go from there - but having done that with so many wineries – particularly Bedrock and
Carlisle, I’m out of room and though it’s going to be difficult, I’ve got to narrow my focus with Turley from the start. Thankfully, this thread has been instrumental in helping me to do that. But I like your approach much better [cheers.gif]

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Being a huge fan of black field blends, Casa Nuestra is particularly intriguing to me - nice to see it on this list! Would love to hear your take on the wine if
you would have time to give it. Thanks!

I think all of the wines are pretty good. Good value and hard to go wrong. I would recommend letting them sit for 3-5 years.


…Maybe buy a few aged bottles elsewhere to hold you over?

B

I always liked Ueberroth and Pesenti and all of their mountain fruit bottlings. Granted, it’s been a solid 10+ years since I’ve tasted them, so my opinion, perhaps, should be heavily discounted.

Unfortunately I’ve already got a bad case of “waiting on the Bedrock” syndrome, which is one of the reasons I need to tread lightly with Turley.
Buying some older vintages is an excellent idea, but I’ll have to wait until I see how deep I go with this week’s Carlise offering (probably quite
heavy) and the Turley offer the week after. I recently came across some older Hartford and Booker vintages and buying those has wreaked havoc
with this Spring’s wine budget [cry.gif]

I don’t think that’s what the OP meant. I think he was talking about the size of the portfolio which in his case isn’t going to matter much because he’ll only have Access to maybe 1/3 if this offering being it his first time.

With that said I buy a case Old Vines and then do a mixture of some other wines but mainly the Old Vines which is a great value.

The Casa Nuestra is fairly new to the Turley line up but it is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I like the darker fruit profile, its more complex. Tasting the first release of the 2016 I was surprised that there was a touch of tannin on the finish. Not a lot but unmistakable. More than I recall from other Turley zin/blends. Could this age longer if you want to do so?

Also a big fan of the three zins from Howell Mt.

Echo all the names mentioned, but also enjoy the Cobb and Kirschenmann bottlings.

There might be more to go around due to COVID and so many restaurants closed. My allocation in the fall was something like 18 cases.