A very interesting small production wine from grapes sourced from around the State (the wine maker mentioned Santa Barbara=near the top of the mountain, and Lake County). Mouvedre, Syrah, Grenache, Tempranillo.
Not a wine for purists. Maybe not a lot of typicite, but boy I liked this-and $15 to boot! What a delicious "Old World" style wine. Quite a bit of funk on the nose, this wine is full of savory herbal notes, mushroom, earth, blackberry, raspberry. A touch of vanilla. I know "terroir" can be a cliche, but this wine is so different than the industrial plonk you can get for the same price! It's like a Prisoner with balls rather than oak! Solid 16.5 or 17/20. Yum!
From the website:
2005 Veritable Quandry Red Wine (205 cases produced)
Vineyards: We used four vineyard sources for this inaugural release of Veritable Quandry. The majority of the wine is a combination of Grenache (Garnacha) grapes grown in the Lewis Vineyard in the Eastern foothills of Lodi and from K Block at Barnwood Vineyards located in the Cuyama Valley in Eastern Santa Barbara County. This vineyard is at an elevation of 2900 feet. What attracted us to both vineyard sites was a combination of well-drained complex soils and extreme temperature swings – sometimes as much as 50 degrees between day and night. These conditions are outstanding for producing low yielding, late ripening and intense Grenache Grapes. Some of the Tempranillo in this bottling also comes from the 26-year-old vines at Lewis Vineyard in Lodi while the rest came from a young exciting, extremely steep, rocky vineyard in the Clear Lake appellation north of Mount St. Helena. These vines are also planted to Tempranillo clones originating in Spain’s Ribera del Duero region. The remainder of the grapes were harvested in late October from two sites at Barnwood in Santa Barbara County - L Block Mourvedre at 2900 feet and Syrah from a separate high mesa vineyard block at 3100 feet - yes that is very high!
Winemaking: The grapes came into the winery in mid-to-late October and were gently de-stemmed and put into small 1-ton open top bins for cold soak and whole berry fermentation with twice daily manual punch- downs. Primary fermentation took between two to three weeks and then the wine was pressed and transferred to neutral oak and some newer use French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and aging. During these months, we began to make our barrel selections for our current flagship wines as well as a new Rhone style wine you will see next year called The Wanderer. After making these selections, it became clear that we had some truly special lots with no home. The Quandry Begins? We began doing blending trials on the remaining lots that we really liked, not based on any pre-conceived notions on what the end wine should taste like, but based on what we thought was the best blend. After many trials and over five months of tasting, we settled in on our favorite blend, put the wine together and put it back in the barrels to harmonize for another four months; after nine months in barrel, the wines were racked and bottled.
The Wine: Displaying a deep purple color, aromas of red plums, blackberry preserve, ripe black cherries and floral notes and spices meet with harmonious, well balanced black fruit flavors, sweet oak and juicy acidity. Touches of cocoa, coffee and vanilla mingle with the concentrated core of ripe fruit and well-integrated tannins. Complex and generous the wine is approachable now through 2010.
) I enjoyed both, but they did not excite me as much as the red blend.
) that the little guy can still make interesting wine. It's a shame on the other hand that production can be so small at these little guys, which limits distribution. This particular wine was 200 cases, so....