Tried these three w/ Susan over the weekend:
1. Calera Viognier MtHarlan (35'thAnnivVintage; 2.69 tons/acre; 1012 cs; www.CaleraWine.com; 13.6%) 2010: Light gold color; very attractive/perfumed pear/Viog slight peach/spicy/nutmeg slight mineral/Condrieu-like lovely nose; fairly tart/lean slight earthy/mineral strong pear/peach/Viog balanced/racy/zippy flavor; long bit mineral/mmetallic/steely bright/zippy pear/peach/Viog finish; quite a lovely Viog some like ClareVlly Viog. $34.00 (SFW&S)
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2. Jongieux AC: Vin de Savoie (11.5%; 100% Jacquere) EugeneCarrel et Fils 2012: Light gold color; some bannana/apple/floral strong stony/mineral rather interesting nose; quite tart/lean/eviscerated bit bannana/apple some stony/mineral rather light/lean light body flavor; med.short apple/bannana/floral bit metallic/stony/mineral rather lean/eviscerated/austere bit thin finish; a somewhat pinched/eviscerated stony/mineral white; not really bad but not a lot there; fairly priced at $11.00 (CB)
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3. Marjan Simcic Ribolla (13%; www.GuilianaImports.com) GoriskaBrda/Slovenia 2011: Md.gold color; rather earthy/stony/bit root cellar some peppery/ripe apple/bit apple cider slight phenolic complex nose; fairly tart light peppery/apple bit stony/earthy light phenolic/tannic/apple cider bit hard little fruit flavor; long some phenolic/cidery/tannic light pepper/RG/apple/pear some stony/earthy finish; definitly a skin-contact white with some phenolic/cidery character. $20.00 (AV)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. CaleraViog: Back in the mid-'80's, at the Taste of Vail wine festival, about the time the ViognierGuild was just getting off the ground, they held the first public (to my knowledge) seminar on Viognier. The panel featured many of those pioneer Viognier producers: BobLindquist/Qupe, JohnAlban/AlbanVnyds; BillSmith/LaJota; BruceMcGrath/VillaHelena, and JoshJensen/Calera. The seminar was somewhat sparse in attendance...who knew what Viognier was??
As we tasted thru their respective Viogniers, I was quite struch by JoshJensen's Viog...big/ripe/intense floral/bit alcoholic/soft...a real floozy of a Viognier. In the Q&A session after tasting the wines, this doofus in the audience stood up and asked:"Josh...how do you go about making this DollyParton Viognier"...with the appropriate hand-gestures afront his chest. It brought down the audience. And that, dear friends (channeling CharlieOlken), is how "DollyParton Viognier" entered the vernacular as a descriptor.
Josh's early Viogniers were the epitome of DollyPartonViognier...usually very ripe and well North of 14%. Since those early days, Josh has dialed back his Viogniers considerably...more along the lines of BobLindquist's. They now show a bright acidity and more minerality...yet speak loud & clear of Vionier. DollyPartons they ain't.
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2. Simcic: This is MarjanSimcic, not EdiSimcic. Both make skin-contact whites ("orange" wines...though not very orangey in color). He makes a PinotGrigio that is quite a pretty white, w/ no apparent skin-contact. I had this wine 3 weeks ago when it first showed up and thought it much like the PG, though less interesting and not as strong. This btl was considerably different...showing some obvious skin-contact in its making...yet not nearly as phenolic as his Chard and SauvBlanc (both priced around $64/btl). Quite a nice wine w/ a light touch of skin-contact character...an orange wine-Lite if you will. A bit like JimCowan's Isa SauvBlanc in character.
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3. Jongieux: This is a wine that DarrellCorti recently featured in his SummerNewsletter (www.CortiBros.biz). It was pretty much as Darrell touted it. Maybe a bit Oakland-ish..no there there. The Jongieux Mondeuse is much more interesting.
Tom