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And then a few dessert wines to celebrate/mourn the departure
for LasVegas of Mike & Debbie Payne:
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Foxen Late Harvest Viognier Vogelzang Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley 2002:
Med.gold color; beautiful/lush/ fragrant tons of fruit honeysuckle/floral/peachy
some honeyed/botrytis nose; tart very sweet very honeyed/botrytis lush
grapey/floral/honeysuckle/gardenia perfumed flavor; very long/ lingering
loads of ripe fruit & botrytis finish that goes on & on; a terrific
LH Viognier at a fair price. $30.00/hlf
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Santa Barbara Winery Lafond Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley Zinfandel Essence
(SaH: 43%; RS: 27.2%; 10%) 2002: Med.color; beautiful cranberry/raspberry/cherry/strawberry
chocolate-coverred cherries/ CherryMash very perfumed/aromatic nose; very
tart cranberry/Zinfandel/raspberry/chocolate very intense very spicy flavor;
very long/lingering cranberry/raspberry very spicy perfumed tons of fruit
finish; terrific Essence not at all Port-like; will age well I suspect
but a terrific dessert wine now; fairly priced at $30.00/hlf.
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Santa Barbara Winery Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc Lafond Vineyard Santa
Ynez Valley (SaH: 50%; RS: 33.8%; 8%) 1999: Very dark gold color; slight
volatile/fumey very intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty slight caramel/creme
brulee slight earthy complex nose; very sweet very intense loads of botrytis/peachy/apricotty
caramel/butterscotchy pudding tart slight buttery/oak flavor; very long/lingering
intense botrytis/apricotty/peachy slight earthy finish; a stunning botrytis
very Sauternes-like (despite the low alcohol level) wine at a fair price.
$45.00/hlf
And the usually nonsense from the Bloody Pulpit:
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Ridge 2001's: Of all the 2001 Ridge Zins we've had thus far, they've all
been extremely good. Looks like Ridge homered (as in "hit a home run",
not as in HomerSimpson) w/ the 2001 vintage.
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Castagna Sangiovese: A new producer for me. Julian Castagna (Italian for
chestnut) had seen my reviews on cold-climate Syrahs on the Web, tracked
me down, and oferred to send me some samples direct from Australia. I gather
they have no distribution in the USofA, but they should. Web site is: www.Castagna.com.Au
Sangiovese is a variety that I think has the potential to make world-class
wine. Some of the Tuscan examples can be pretty decent, but there also
a lot out there which show a lot of that nasty Italian character. In Calif,
it's much like Syrah was ca. 1978. You see glimpses of its potential, but
precious few deliver on that promise. They oftentimes display a mean/acidic/
tannic streak with only some of that bright cherry perfume that great Sangio
can deliver. I was mightly impressed with this Sangiovese; definitely a
world-class Sangio. It had that bright/vibrant/cherry frangrance of Sangio,
almost like a perfumed DryCreekVlly Zinfandel. But on the palate, it had
a roundness & lushness that Sangio doesn't often deliver. A stunning
wine I thought. Not great Chianti, but a stunning illustration of pure
Sangiovese character.
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Ethan: This be Ethan Lindquist, son of Bob Lindquist. After a number of
yrs helping Bob market the Qupe wines, Ethan has struck out on his own.
As he was living up in Northern Calif at the time, he made his wines there
in Sebastopol. He has since returned to LosOlivos and will be bringing
his wines down shortly. He also makes a Syrah from EdnaVlly grapes that's
quite good. I was expecting his wines to be Qupe-clones, but they're not.
They, in fact, remind me some of Bob's wines the way they were made back
in the mid '80's; which are not quite as polished and balanced as they
are now. His brother, Luke, is now the chef at the LosOlivos Grocery (out
on the hwy from Santa Barbara, just south of Main St) and doing some very
good things there. It's as close to Dean & Delucca or LazyAcres as
you can find in the Santa Ynez Valley. Lots of good things there, and a
small but very well-selected wine shop. Definitely worth the stop.
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RanchoArroyoGrande: A new operation way up in the SaucelitoCnyn are up
above Lake Lopez in the upper ArroyoGrandeVlly. They sell Syrah grapes
to Bob Lindquist, Mike Bonaccorsi, and others. This is the first of their
own wines I've had and I was mightly impressed. Not a big/extracted style
of Zinfandel, much different from the SaucelitoCanyon Zins, with lots of
bright/vibrant fruit. I;m looking forward to trying their Syrah in a few
weeks. A winery to keep your eye upon.
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SantaBarbaraWinery: This is a winery I've followed from the very start.
When I first started trying their wines, I was pretty underwhelmed. But,
over the last 3-4 yrs, winemaker Bruce McGuire, has been turning out an
impressive array of wines, both under the SantaBarbaraWinery label and
the Lafond label. These two Zins come from the Lafond Vineyard out on the
western extreme of the SantaRitaHills appellation, near the SeaSmoke and
LaRinconada Vineyards. Very cool growing area. It is totally insane that
anybody planted Zinfandel in this area; it's much too cool to ripen Zinfandel
in most yrs. But when they do....zowie!!! I first had this Zinfandel at
the SantaBarbara Vintners festival last October and was blown away by its
intense peppery character. It seems to be developing more rich/deep blackberry
character than it had last Fall. Terrific Zinfandel at a great price.
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Kekfrankos: This is a variety grown in Hungary that is also know as BlauFrankish.
In WashState it goes under the name of Lemberger. This was brought by a
German friend, Rudi Proske. He had just purchased property in that area
and the farm has a beautiful underground wine cellar in which he plans
to make his on wines using purchased grapes. The resemblance of this wine
to WashState Lemberger was there, but this Hungarian version showed a bit
of rustic winemaking in it.
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Calera Zinfandel: Early on in his winery, Josh used to make Zinfandel to
hone his winemaking skills. I would like to see him do it again as there
are some terrific old Zinfandel Vineyards in his neighborhood. In its youth,
this was a big/juicy/plummy/blackberry/jammy Zinfandel. I fully expected
it to be dead. But it had a screechingly high acidity (probably no M-L
on this wine) that has carried the wine out 20 yrs in a great fashion.
Not a great Zinfandel, but very interesting for a relic from the dim/distant
past.
TomHill
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