1. Harrington Freisa SkowVnyd/SanBenitoCnty (13.2%; www.HarringtonWines.com) 2017: Med.dark color; strong very floral/perfumed/lilacs/violets/Nebb-like light alpine strawberry rather spicy slight earthy/dusty lovely aromatic nose; quite tart/tangy slight metallic strong floral/lilacs/violets/Nebb-like slight strawberry somewhat rich flavor w/ some hard/brittle tannins; very long quite tart/tang/bit metallic strong floral/Nebb/lilacs/violets bit earthy/dusty rather hard/bitey finish w/ some hard/chewey tannins; lovely aromatics but rather hard on the palate. $25.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Tried this wine about 3 months ago:
Tom wrote:Med.color; very strong
bright/strawberry/Freisa/spicy some earthy much more perfumey more complex nose; lightly tart some earthy
strong Freisa/strawberry/spicy bit Italianate/Nebb/lilacs flavor w/ some hard/bitey tannins; very long
strong spicy/strawberry/Freisa light earthy/dusty some Nebb/lilacs w/ modest crunchy/brittle tannins; dry
and no frizzante; very Italianate in style rather than a Calif tutti-frutti version of Freisa; some like a
good Langhe Nebb but more aromatics; needs several yrs; quite an interesting Freisa at a great price.
Doesn't seemed to have budged much in the intervening time.
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2. Freisa: Italian name for "strawberry", which describes the usual aromatics of the wines. It is related to
Viognier and the Reze grape of the Swiss Valais. From DNA, Nebbiolo X ?? ---> Freisa. Oftentimes in the
Piemonte, it is made off-dry and frizzante.
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3. SkowVnyd: Here's what Bryan has to say about this vnyd:
"As for Skow Vineyard, it is located on the southern floodplain of the Tres Pinos Creek, just about .5 miles
southeast of the town of Tres Pinos. The soil is a mix of limestone and granite river stone and sand. The Freisa
block rises up slowly to the east to a steep cliff and has many exposed large rounded limestone rocks. Nebbiolo
is growing next to the Freisa. Also grown in this vineyard is Montepulciano, Aglianico and Greco di Tufo.
It's in a kind of box canyon so a little warmer than my other San Benito sites. I am making the Nebbiolo from the
vineyard also but it is going to one of my custom crush clients. As for the Freisa, fifteen year old
Cabernet Sauvignon vines were T-budded over to Freisa two years ago. 2016 was the first Freisa harvest.
Seems to be a great site for the grape".
Tom
