Another great article from Antonio on Vinous on Undiscovered Gems in California .
Sandlands, the new project from Tegan Passalacqua, gets a very nice write up and very good tasting notes/scores, especially for wines in this price ranges ($24-$30).
A small quote below:
“Some people just have ‘it.’ Like a world-class athlete or musician, Tegan Passalacqua is one of those people who is endowed with a combination of superb natural skills, passion and an indominable work ethic.”
In my estimation these are the most exciting wines new wines to be released from California in a while. It is worth noting that these wines are cast in a very different mold from the Turley wines- pretty much entirely whole-cluster, little to no new oak, lower alcohol levels. Like the Turley wines they are impeccably made.
The Sandlands you are referring to was 2010 and it is from the same general area as Tegan’s vineyard and other sources. Tegan and Abe are very good friends and the name Sandlands has meaning to both.
2010 SANDLANDS TOM DELBARBA VINEYARD
Old-vine Carignane from the sandy soils of the San Joaquin River Delta. The wine is iron-bloody, and for all its ripeness, nearly severe. It is a wine of structure and reticence, not fruit and richness.
Also
The first Scholium Sandlands was from the first vineyard that Tegan found for Abe
2004 SANDLANDS DUARTE VINEYARDS
This was the first of many wines that Tegan Passilaqua has led us-- literally led us-- to produce. He knows the old vine vineyards of California better than anybody that I know. He introduced me to Joe Duarte late in the summer of 2004 and so brought us to Joe’s amazing old Carignane and Mourvedre vines that have been growing for a hundred years in the deep sand of Contra Costa county.
We harvested the grapes at the same time, bled them pretty thoroughly at the instigation of Christopher Vandendreissche, co-fermented them in punchdown, and put the resulting wine in barrel for 18 months. We hoped for the onset of brettanomyces, but never found it; allowd the wines to mature without topping or sulfur, and finally bottled a very flavorful wine that only began showing its virtues years after bottling.
I will hopefully will be trying the whole line up next weekend!
Yeah. AG sampled a bunch and has both effusive and nicely detailed reviews on Vinous. There is a Trousseau that sounds fantastic. I can’t wait to try these.
Response below after I signed up on the email list. Looks like some great wines:
Thank you for your interest in Sandlands.
Sandlands is the personal project of Tegan and Olivia Passalacqua.
We plan to release our first wines in the Spring of 2014,
Our first release will consist of these 5 wines-
2010 California Mataro -107 cases produced
2010 Contra Costa County Carignane -28 cases produced
2011 Amador County Chenin blanc -44 cases produced
2011 Contra Costa County Carignane -46 cases produced
2011 Santa Lucia Highlands Syrah -52 cases produced
I tasted through leftovers of 6 wines last week. All were stunning and had such elegance and finesse.
For me, the 11 Chenin and 11 Carignane raise the bar to ridiculous levels.
After six days open, I just retasted remnants (ungassed and only about 3-4ish oz in the bottle) of 11 Syrah, 10 Mataro, and 11 Carignane. All still delicious.
It would be crazy not to buy everything / anything.