WTN: 2003 Chateau Filigenzy Tempranillo

2003 Chateau Filigenzi Amador Tempranillo

On Friday night, I rifled through my wine cellar to find something that would be a great match with the grilled lamb chops I was making for myself and my girlfriend. I came across a bottle of wine that had a “home-made” label reading “2003 Tempranillo Amador County”. I recalled that it was made by WLDG member and my long time friend Mike Filigenzy (he is way too modest to call it “Chateau Filigenzy” and that name is my designation, not Mike’s).

I decanted the wine for approximately 1 ½ hours before dinner while we ate some crab cakes for an appetizer. The lamb came off the grill and the wine was poured. My girlfriend and I swirled and sniffed and both said, “WOW”! There were incredibly complex aromas of black cherries, mediterranean herbs, currant, blackberries, under ripe plum, blueberries and the slightest hint of forest floor, kalamata olive and no noticeable oak. Visually it was very deep, dark garnet in the glass with long and thick legs. On the palate it was perfectly balanced. Excellent purity, very concentrated, perfectly ripe black fruits and enough acidity to make it pair well with food.

I would be happy drinking this kind of wine everyday for the rest of my life. If you ever have a chance to meet Mike, please do so. When he is not busy being a Chemist at a world renowned university or being a great Father/Husband, he is making some incredible wines.

I've also had the pleasure of enjoying Chateau Filigenzy. Here are two links:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12952&p=107379
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14163&p=118077
According to one of those posts, Mike sent me three bottles of wine about 2 years ago, but I only posted WTNs on two of them. Hmmmmm.... did I drink that 3rd bottle or is it hiding in my cellar? Time to do a search.

Thanks, guys!

Glad the stuff still tastes good, Dave.

Edit: Also wanted to mention that I do the winemaking thing with five friends of mine. We all contribute time, money, and opinions towards handling the wine. It's not always easy to make wine by committee, but it's a heck of a lot of fun!

After a thorough search of my cellar, no more bottles of Chateau Filigenzy could be found, so I must have enjoyed it. I did, however, find a bunch of bottles of wine I didn't even know I had, most of which are uncommon (I hesitate to use the word "rare").

Howie,

Thanks for posting the links to your reviews. I missed those comments when they were originally posted.

Mike, you must be a pretty determined guy to try and make Sangiovese in California.

It's more a matter of being stuck with what we get. OTOH, not knowing who's going to be willing to sell us what makes every vintage new and exciting!

If we end up with sangio again this year, I'm going to try to convince the other guys to make at least some rosè. To my taste, that's the best use for most Cal sangiovese.

Well, I opened a bottle of this tonight to see for myself and it is doing quite well. I couldn't do this without thinking about the guy who sold us the grapes. We bought them from Tim Spencer, who was the founder/owner/winemaker at St. Amant winery in Lodi. Tim had been around in Lodi for decades, well before they decided to turn the place into a wine "destination" (such as it is). We heard about him through the some other Lodi people who could only talk about what a great guy he was and about the quality of his wine. When we first visited the winery, it was Tim who was pouring in the tasting room and he was one of those people you just couldn't help but like. Once he found out that we were home winemakers, he pulled bottles out from the back of the place, pulled barrel samples for us, and offered up plenty of advice on how to handle grapes. We ended up spending the afternoon there and I think he had more fun than we did. He was more than happy to sell us a measly half-ton of his tempranillo, and when we went to pick it up we were treated just like the real wine people who were queued up with their semi-trailers to get their fruit. A couple of years passed and we decided to take a bottle of that tempranillo out to the tasting room to see what Tim thought of it. When we got there, it was clear that things were not great. Tim had an IV setup in his arm and he looked thinner and more drawn than before. He told us that he had been diagnosed with some sort of cancer and that he was on a mild regimen of therapy between major doses of chemo. Fortunately, he could still have wine, though, and the spark in his eyes was the same as ever. We opened our tempranillo and tasted it against his. We opened more bottles, we had barrel samples, and we talked and laughed a lot. By the time we left, our bottles were empty and it was clear from Tim's consumption of it (as well as his compliments) that he liked it a lot. It was a hell of an afternoon and one I will not forget.

You know the rest of the story. We went to a wine-related function down there a year or so later, and his daughter told us that he wasn't doing well. Tim died a few months after that. I can't open a bottle of this wine without thinking about him and I know the rest of the guys who made the stuff feel the same. The wine industry needs more people like him. Hell, every industry does.

A special wine with a great story. Thanks for sharing Mike.