We happy that Bernard, who has sampled so many wines, has shared his notes with us. We do have, or have had for sale a few of the wines Bernard writes about, and we include a link to our stock page whenever it is a producer we carry (but since the stock page is kept up-to-date and the wines are sold, don't expect any but the newest of wines to show up in our stock!). Mostly though, since we specialize in County of Santa Barbara Wine and Central Coast Wine, we don't carry a lot of the wines Bernard writes about. But we think it is important that you be able to have an idea what they're like in case you are planning to buy some somewhere, or have them in your own collection. Enjoy.

Here are Bernard's notes from November 18, 2000:

98 Peachy Canyon West Side—Light medium color. Closed aromatically. Cherry, perky acid, nice zing. Lacks complexity. 87

98 Bridlewood Paso Robles—Dark. Deep liqueur-like framboise nose. Black fruit, good acid, lacking concentration. Bitter, stemmy finish. Thin. 82

96 Hartford Court RRV—Medium dark. Cherry syrup, liqueur nose. Bit tannic, dark fruit, decent acid. Bitter finish. Black raspberry, minerals, tar. Dark flavors. Needs 2-3 years. 88+

98 Folie a Deux Fiddletown Eschen Amador—Medium color. Black raspberry, talcky bouquet. Sweet fruit. Complex, good acid, very long. Cherry. Yummy. Seems to have a bit of age. 92

96 Nichols Pinot Noir Paragon Vineyard Edna Valley—Medium light. Sweet berry, floral, some gaminess. Luscious, Joe Swan-like structure. High acid, cherry, spicy. Bit thin mid-palate. 87

97 York Mountain San Luis Obispo—Dark. Zinberry, dark fruit, anise bouquet. Very complex. Dark fruit flavors, integrated tannins. Classy, elegant, polished. Bit light in mid-palate. Needs 2-3 years. 91

99 A Mano Primitivo (Italy)—Very dark. Light perfume, zinberry aromatics. Dark fruit flavors. Juicy, fruity, but simple. Some oak, lacking structure. Tarry. 88

98 Stephen Ross Monte Rosso Vineyard Sonoma—Dark. Black raspberry nose. Luscious, rich, suave, classy oak treatment. Very classy, deep flavor. Black fruit, long, smooth tannins. Tastes like a blend with petite sirah, maybe carignan. A Geyserville? 94

94 Jed Steele Du Pratt Vineyard Mendocino—Medium color. Funky, bretty, horse blanket, stinky. Very rich black fruit, deep. Some tar. Bit thin mid-palate, long tarry finish. Needs 2-3 years still. 91+

98 BV Coastal—Medium color. Spicy, cherry-vanilla, cocoa. Black cherry, polished mouthfeel, toasty oak. Yummy. Classy, structured. Very long, very fine tannins. 92+

98 Schutz-Oles SO Zin (California)—Medium color. Bit gamy, bretty, liqueur-like aromatics. Smooth, sweet cherry fruit. Bit chalky. Very long, tannic finish. Lot of toasty oak. Classy. Yummy. 93

98 Galleron Aves Vineyard Napa—Medium color. Spicy zinberry, cherry, alcoholic. Lush, sweet, ripe. Modest tannins. Balanced. Cherry, chalky, talc. Delish. 93

98 Tobin James James Gang Paso Robles—Dark. Dark-toned, toasty oak, vanilla nose. Incredible, syrupy, late-harvest style. Very deep, rich, dense fruit. Framboise liqueur. Superb. Very Turley-esque. 95

The top finishers as voted by the group were:

1. York Mountain, 2. (tie) Stephen Ross and Tobin James, 4. Folie a Deux, 5. Schutz-Oles

For dessert, we had two differently styled late-harvest zins. This is from memory:

95 J. Fritz Late Harvest (RS 6 brix)—Rather port-like. Dark, deeply tannic, black fruit. Only a touch of sweetness. Needs many years still to soften. NR

93 Santa Barbara Winery Zin Essence (45 brix harvest, RS 31 brix)—Whole other side of the spectrum. Lots of botrytis, black raspberry aromatics. Very creamy smooth, low tannin, syrupy, but very good balancing acidity. Impeccable harmony. Very long. Could stand a touch more complexity, but no complaints from around the table. 94-95.

And of course, a bloody pulpit to all the zinners out there…

This was a very fun group of wines. No one picked out the ringers (the PN and the primitivo). There seemed to be no correlation between price and quality. After the wines were revealed, I had a chance to revisit some of my top choices and I have to say that my scoring seemed to hold up even after I knew what the wines were. Except for the PN. (Tom: Obvious opening!) It seemed more thin on second taste.

I wasn’t surprised by the number of 98 zins in the mix, since this is the current vintage. There were some extremely good wines from 98, so I think rumors of this being a bad zin vintage are faulty. We had a number of Central Coast representatives, and it seems like quality is somewhat uneven in 98, but it is dangerous to generalize on such a small sample.

Let’s wrap this up with a bonus mini-TN. Earlier in the day, I stopped by SB Winery to taste the new vintage of Beaujour, their Beaujolais-Nouveau style zinfandel. The 2000 Beaujour was bottled Tuesday this past week. It is very dense and very alcoholic (14.6%) for a nouveau-style wine. These qualities indicate super-ripeness at harvest, and there seemed to be still a touch of R.S. Previous vintages of Beaujour have aged well. (The 96 was very nice 3 years after release.) It seems to be the trend with this wine over the past few vintages to get bigger each year. I don’t really like the progression away from the traditional lighter style. I find that the carbonic fizz that remains is anathema to heavier, more extracted wines, even though the wine seems to age. Despite this complaint, the Beaujour is head and shoulders better than its more famous competitor, Beringer’s Gamay Nouveau. The Beaujour is a good bottle of wine for $12, less with Wine Club discount. And it is a perfect match to the Thanksgiving foods that often defy wine matching.