 |
And another bloody pulpit:
-
Marsanne & Age: I'd not seen much to get excited about in the Qupe
Marsannes I had tasted upon their release. They reminded me a bit of a
rather lean appely sort of green wine, a Chardonnay wannabe. At Raisin'Rhones
last summer, I had a revelation when Bob Lindquist poured his '89 and '92
Marsannes. They had developed into beautiful complex lovely slight nutty/
oxidized wines, much like some of the older Chave Hermitage Blancs I'd
had. This '88 was much in the same vein... very interesting/complex/mature
white. In '88, Bob was making his wine at three different facilities whilst
the Millers were building the winery at BienNacido. This wine was made
at Byron winery; shoehorning his use of their equiptment around the Byron
production schedule. He had only the overnight use of one stainless steel
tank to settle the Marsanne juice off the gross lees before a barrel fermentation.
According to Bob, a complete settling is very important for Marsanne. Otherwise,
it picks up a canned corn character from the gross lees. Though some of
that was present, I didn't find it at all unattractive and thought
this '88 was a wonderful wine on the palate. Who woulda thought?
-
Viognier & Age: The folklore is that Viogniers don't age. To that I
say nonsense. Viognier seems to lose that intense/floral/fragrant/perfumy
character it has when young fairly rapidly in the bottle. If great Viognier/Condrieu
is defined as that intense/floral wine; then the answer is yes. But I find
they evolve into lovely/mature/complex/elegant/delicate kind of white wine.
They don't seem to develop that hard/bitter character that old Chards aquire.
Old Viognier/Condrieu is fine by me.
-
As most people know; Bob Lindquist, in addition to being his own winemaker
at Qupe; is also the winemaker at Chateau Routas. His wife, Louisa Sawyer,
is US Marketing Director for Routas. Hence the joint appearance here. It
must make for a pretty hectic Fall for Bob; not to mention the long-distance
phone bill!! In the Coteaux de Varois (location of Routas) in Provence;
the weather conditions are not very good & they have a struggle to
ripen the grapes up to the 12%-13% alcohol level. Thus the wines
have this lean & hard character. Bob's desire is to get more lushness
& fruit in the wines; hard task given the growing conditions. Although
they (Routas) certainly don't have the lushness of Bob's Qupes; the
wines, I think, have improved a great deal since Bob's been making them.
Like many Italian wines; they're rather hard to taste, but they make great
food wines. Definitely a work in progress; if'n he can survive all the
travelling.
-
Central Coast Syrah: The Qupe Central Coast Syrah has always been one of
my favorite Calif Syrahs, and a real bargin to boot. When the '97 CC Syrah
came out last Fall, I was rather disappointed in in & thought it lacked
the bright blackberry/Syrah fruit the previous ones did. Bob confirmed
my suspicion that it had less SantaBarbara Syrah in it than previous ones.
It has more Paso Robles Syrah since the French Camp Syrah plantings are
coming on line. In addition, it has a small amount of Lodi Old Vine
Carignane and Zin in it. Bob said there has been a pretty big jump in Syrah
grape prices and using less of the expensive SantaBarbara Syrah fruit is
necessary to maintain the low price. So I expect the '97 CC Syrah
represents a stylistic change in that wine from the last 4-6 yrs.
Actually, as I've retasted that wine some 7-10 times since last Fall,
I'm starting to like it more and more as I change my expectations (always
a sensible thing to do). It actually reminds me more and more of his first
Syrahs that he made in the early/mid-'80's, when he was using mostly PasoRobles/EstrellaRiver
fruit. Ya live & learn (one hopes).
TomHill (heading off to ZAP)
Return to the Tom Hill Archive Index |
