Nice to hear that many were excellent. I think I’ve only ever had two, some years ago, and they were microbial disasters. “A little uneven” would be an understatement.
Which I think answers the question why you don’t hear a lot of enthusiasm here. Bravo, if they’ve cleaned up the wines. But their reputation was not good, as you can tell from the other posts.
I drank hundreds of Tony’s wines (again, mostly Zins, but also plenty of cases of his Cab and Cab/Merlot bottlings, a case or two of Alicante Bouschet from Ubaldi Vineyard for a vintage or two, a vintage of two of an Albarello bottling Tony did). With one of my cases of his Chauvet Zin, there was a volatile acidity problem. I had a similar experience with a case of Chardonnay I purchased mostly out of curiosity (as I am not a white wine drinker) but otherwise it was the very rare instance I felt a bottle was tainted somehow. And, my friends and I loved his unique wines. Again, my experience with Tony’s wines spanned around 1988 through probably 10+ years (we stopped buying Tony’s wines after he got a wholesaler to serve as middleman for his wines sold in Colorado, Wyoming and I think perhaps Utah). It’s unfortunate some of you have had such different experiences with Tony’s wines.
If it had only been VA…
Looked back at my records. I bought 41 bottles of Coutrri - 37 through distribution, and 4 when I visited in 1998. 33 were fatally flawed, including 2 of the 4 I bought direct. The 8 that were good (and they were really good!) were all drank within 6 months of acquisition.
Time bombs!
Maybe if I’d enjoyed the first two… almost unidentifiable as a product derived from grapes. No idea where the quality control completely collapsed, but I can’t imagine the producer didn’t have some inkling of the wine’s “fragility”. A forgivable sin, except it happened again the next time. Terry, even if you post 100+ positive Coturri tasting notes, I doubt I’ll buy another one. I’d taste again if offered…as long as it passed the smell test.
RT
Nothing like some statistical evidence to make the point! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I purchased a case or two, in Memphis, around 2002. Some of the best zins we ever drank, but at least 50% were flawed. I had another bottle at a restaurant in Charleston around 2010 that was spectacular.
I have not had them with any age, but the one I had was magical young. Feels like if he just followed a slight SO2 regimen, he would be basically be Sean Thackrey… ![[highfive.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/db21b9263a9105e51f6f8b11e61dd4de095611f9.gif "highfive"){kind=small}
Only tried young ones and not in 30 years. I’d love to try them again, but while the good ones are really good, the bad ones still stand out in my mind.
I had no idea that anyone else had bottled an Alicante Bouschet from the “Uboldi Vineyard” besides Turley Cellars (which made one vintage).
I wish I had been born a little earlier, so I could have tasted more Sonoma Valley Alicante Bouschet!
Caleb has helped a lot with cleaning up the winemaking and also on the business side of things if I remember correctly.
I used to sell his wines for a distributor years ago and he was always on the precipice of being dropped from the portfolio. When half the wines sold get returned, despite caveat emptor… but at the end of the day, being a true pioneer in American natty wine won out, also being a pretty cool dude. Nothing like sales ride alongs with him in jean shorts and Birkenstocks.
The sandocino (red field blend) was one I enjoyed at the time.
Weirdly coincidental : I was listening to a Q&A about hybrids from RAW wine. There is a vineyard in Texas that Tony was consulting on to make wine from Blanche Dubois and Black Spanish. He had the guy toast the stems of Black Spanish in the sun before adding them back in to give some softer tannins. I was, like, whoa! That is cool.
I know this isn’t about Tony’s wine being good or bad but I’m trying to learn whether the new fermenters Tony showed me were installed before or after Caleb Leisure began there. I found some pics on my phone and they’re dated 10/3/17. No where near as long ago as I thought, but I’m still curious if Caleb was involved at that time.
I think Caleb started working with Tony sometime in 2015. Are you talking about the Georgian Qveri?
Years ago, I attended a local tasting with Tony Coturri in the Boston area with a mix of red, white, and rosé wines. Tony seems like a nice guy, and I appreciate his passion for organic winemaking, but the overall quality of the wines was inconsistent at best (a 2007 Camphorfields Syrah was a notable exception). Granted, other people at the event seemed to like the wines more than I did.
IMHO, there are enough other organic/biodynamic/natural wines out there that are more consistently enjoyable.
Was he speaking with Jim Kamas from Texas A&M Agrilife (Fredericksberg)? Or was it a winemaker for one of the Hill Country wineries, like Dry Comal Creek?
Dry Comal Creek. The winemaker was talking about Tony’s advice on viticulture as well. It was really interesting.
I only know that we were there in October 2017 and Tony showed us the “terra cotta” (I think that’s what he said, though possibly “earthenware”) fermenters he’d just put in the ground inside the wood building where he had many barrels aging. He didn’t provide any more detail than that. If they were Georgian qvevri that’s not a term I remember him using. I was just curious as to whether anyone here knew more specifics.
I thought Caleb bought and installed those. In any case, using amphorae buried in the ground is not, by itself, a prescription for making clean wines (pretty much the contrary unless you know what you’re doing).
-Al
