Heavy and brawny blackberry and dark earthy plum notes carry just enough cut to hold the thickset core together. At times, overly lush on the front end and blocky on the back, the profile here tips a…
Round, plush, and full of gooey vanillin oak that almost completely washes over the ripe lemon curd and tropical fruit flavors. Saccharine-driven and cloying. Zero cut or frame.
Black and red cherry, muddled overripe strawberry, pomegranate juice, peat smoke, tobacco leaf, sea foam, and hints of citrus rind. Nicely focused, with a cut that is deliberate but somewhat subtle…
Continuing on its path to increasingly elevated performance, this bottling of the Hartford Far Coast has inched-up a couple of notches since I had it last summer. The focus and flavor are really…
Ripe lemon citrus, bruised lemon and orange rind, olive oil, golden raisin, and some salted caramel. A ripe, somewhat oxidized style, with an overtly aged profile that fakes you into thinking this…
Severely oxidized. Lamp oil and burnt butterscotch. Astringent, bone dry, and lacking any and all freshness. Two of two bottles performed similarly. Not a happy camper...
Same as my notes from July. More concentrated red fruit this time around, with the same intriguing saline and earthy notes complimenting the predominantly black cherry core. Smoke, wood, unsmoked…
Previous notes apply, though this wine started to make more sense to me tonight. Decanted and put back in the refrigerator to keep cool (but not overly cold). Probably served at around 50 degrees…
Try as I might, I just can't bring myself to find enjoyment in these Zinfandels. It's like a Pinot Noir and a jug of Welch's grape juice birthed an Ocean Spray Cran-Grape baby and then fed it Vodka…
Dark black cherry, forest floor, pepper, earth, and spice. The darkest profile of the Pinots tasted. Medium bodied, with some booze on the back end that pulls you away from the core fruit just a bit.…
The most flavor-driven of the Pinots served, the Velvet Sisters was kicking out ripe and sweet red cherry, red raspberry, orange rind, and evergreen notes. The alcohol lingered in the finish. The…
An intriguing Pinot Noir, medium in weight, with a "light on its feet" delivery, but with a beguiling complexity of flavors that really elevated it to the next level. Normally I prefer a little more…
This was served as a PnP directly out of the refrigerator, so my first impression was a little lost on the otherwise muted flavors. My initial sips showed some chalky rock and pithy yellow/white…
Ripe yellow core fruit, with a wonderful citrus marmalade flavor that really shaped the profile of this wine. Some olive oil, lemon curd, lemon zest, and tropical fruit notes emerged as well.
A mild mannered, easy going Chardonnay that appears ready for immediate consumption. Yellow citrus core fruit, with some slight spice and minerality. A bit more of a straightforward profile when…
Pretty weak showing overall. Thin, light, and certainly nowhere near worth the $30 price tag. This wine was unfortunately a sad foreshadowing into what Hartford Family Winery was all about for me. A…
A Welch's grape juice kind of Zinfandel, but with a deadening of the core fruit that left it muddled and lost. The attack was flat and awkward. Some wood on the back end pretended to add interest,…
The best of the three Pinots (which unfortunately isn't saying too much), the Jennifer's was lauded as their biggest and boldest Pinot. This maybe so, but if that is the case, it's still an…
Sonoma County · Green Valley of Russian River Valley
Unfortunately the best I can say about this wine is that it was better than the Sevens Bench. However, it too was thin and light-bodied to the point that identifying the core fruit became a bit of a…
Incredibly thin and watery. Some extremely light strawberry, rhubarb, cigar box, and earth notes surfaced, but you had to really struggle to find the flavors. Nearly no depth or concentration. So…
This was a beautiful bottle of domestic Chardonnay, fashioned with focus and balance in mind. Somewhat more Burgundian in style in that it had a crispness and acidic frame that held the core lemon…
