WTN: Un-blind, therefore biased notes (Ridge, Turley etc)

[David M. Bueker]

Got together with a few folks from my tasting group last night to sample a particular wine. Of course you can never have just one, so we ended up with 4.

2000 Leasingham Bin 61 Shiraz (Clare Valley)
This was the only one served blind & it had me flummoxed. It was rather gamey, but also had a lot of candied fruit with zero acid or backbone. I was only able to muster a weak "new world" guess. It really seemed like a brett infection run amuk.

2002 Turley Charbono Tofanelli Vineyard (Napa Valley)
While there was enough acid in this wine to share with the Bin 61, it was not volatile (surprise). The aromatics were actually quite nice, with lots of fresh, crushed raspberries & some spice. Everybody liked this wine to some degree, though I did find the finish to be acidic and clipped.

2006 Rosenblum Heritage Clones Petite Sirah (San Francisco Bay)
I had no idea they could grow grapes in the bay. Anyway, this was quite fruity, but in a completely candied way, and the alcohol stuck out on the nose and palate. Petite Sirah is usually tannic as hell, but this was soft to the point of formless. Not very good at all.

2004 Ridge Petite Sirah Dynamite Hill (Spring Mountain, Napa Valley)
The star of the show both in intent and in execution. This is brooding, monolithic, tannic and dense as a dwarf star. The sheer amount of material buffers the tannins, making this surprisingly drinkable, but it still needs a lot of time to come into its own.

Thanks for the transparency; at least now I can be sure straight away of your bias and lack of objectivity.

Brett plus candy sweetness? Eww. Leasingham's higher end bottlings (the Classic Clare wines) are very nice, particularly the older ones - but the Bin 61 series I find a bit too syrupy sweet and at times almost goopy.
That Ridge sounds lovely, if about 30-some years too young. Surprising to read about acid in a Turley - is Charbono naturally a very high acid grape?

[David M. Bueker]

I think the Charbono was acidified. At least it tasted that way.

Got together with a few folks from my tasting group last night to sample a particular wine. Of course you can never have just one, so we ended up with 4.

2000 Leasingham Bin 61 Shiraz (Clare Valley)
This was the only one served blind & it had me flummoxed. It was rather gamey, but also had a lot of candied fruit with zero acid or backbone. I was only able to muster a weak "new world" guess. It really seemed like a brett infection run amuk.

2002 Turley Charbono Tofanelli Vineyard (Napa Valley)
While there was enough acid in this wine to share with the Bin 61, it was not volatile (surprise). The aromatics were actually quite nice, with lots of fresh, crushed raspberries & some spice. Everybody liked this wine to some degree, though I did find the finish to be acidic and clipped.

2006 Rosenblum Heritage Clones Petite Sirah (San Francisco Bay)
I had no idea they could grow grapes in the bay. Anyway, this was quite fruity, but in a completely candied way, and the alcohol stuck out on the nose and palate. Petite Sirah is usually tannic as hell, but this was soft to the point of formless. Not very good at all.

2004 Ridge Petite Sirah Dynamite Hill (Spring Mountain, Napa Valley)
The star of the show both in intent and in execution. This is brooding, monolithic, tannic and dense as a dwarf star. The sheer amount of material buffers the tannins, making this surprisingly drinkable, but it still needs a lot of time to come into its own.

Your Turley Charbono TN reminds me almost exactly of a lot of Inglenook Charbonos I used to drink in the 1970s and 1980s. I have no idea whether or not they were acidified.

[David M. Bueker]

Interesting comment CLint. One of the tasting group members said almost exactly the same thing (he used to buy the Inglenooks).