2020 base. 50%/42%/8% Chardonnay/Pinot Noir/Pinot Meunier. 4g/L dosage. "Perpetual reserve" (NV) from a project that started in 2018. Vineyards from "Northern California. Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino,…
Grapefruit and grass dominate here. Medium bodied, with squirts of lime and lemon juice, crunchy white melon, and white rock. Finishes relatively smooth, with a vanillin hint that rounds out the…
Relatively thin and diluted red currant, cedar, earth, and macerated red cherry flavors make for a seemingly tired wine that is trying to hold it all together but seems to be fraying with every…
Pizza dough and lemontini. Bready and cloying. Appeals to those looking for something yellow with bubbles. I know a decent amount about the 2020 vintage in general 'round these parts, but I don't…
An easy rider production of a Cabernet, with the softer contours of the 2012 vintage marrying with the now-ten-years-from-vintage maturity and resolution this wine brings to the table. A total food…
Someone forgot to tell the Viognier that there was supposed to be Syrah in here, with the floral components masking the overly delicate "berry" fruit desperately struggling to show some Syrah…
Lean and a bit mean, with the stem inclusion piercing the cranberry and pomegranate-water core. A prickly showing, and one that is slightly more complex than the Fog Eater, but much more…
Cranberry water, twigs, green peppercorns, and faint citrus rind. Fairly diluted and also a bit bitter. Lacks depth and complexity. Wait for a few years if you are holding bottles in hopes it fattens…
Yellow and green apple notes are complimented with lemon water and faint unripe white peach notes. Medium intensity, with a straightforward band of flavoring. Misses in the depth and complexity…
Funk-keeee funkalicious front-end funkified fruit (like a BDX that got caught in a bayou). This has fruit like a domestic red but is overpowered by wet tobacco and almost muddy fruit to where I…
From magnum. A deep core of black cherry, dark plum, bark, and burnt citrus rind set off a slightly rustic push of moderately intense flavors on the fruit-forward attack that drops deeply into a nice…
Two words: Barely tolerable. Watery black and red cherry with that scraggy cedary oak-laced periphery that does everything it can to advertise the lack of forethought put into crafting this wine.…
Earthy and little more cool climate in its profile than the Gap's Crown served beside it. Anderson Valley vs. Sonoma Coast. The River Turn showed off restrained but focused notes of black cherry,…
Light-to-medium bodied, with the initial attack displaying red and black cherry, strawberry, and some earth notes. The mid-palate drop is where this almost completely falls apart, with an…
Much like the 2016 Rivers Marie Joy Road I had the other day, this Bearwallow serves up healthy doses of vanilla oak and glycol before you get any sense of the lemon curd and lemon oil trying its…
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…
PnP with a slap of dried apricot, buttered popcorn, lamp oil, butterscotch, wood, and bruised lemon rind. Fairly abrasive in the front and somewhat angular though the mid-palate. Finish was flat and…
Previous note applies. A good first-start-sipper kind of sparkler. Simple but flavorful and balanced enough to hold interest and offer pleasure. An "easy does it" beverage.
Easy-going notes of frothy watermelon, pink grapefruit, orange rind, and dough. A little yeasty and overly carbonated, but a decent enough conversation sipper nonetheless. Short and somewhat clipped…
Red cherry, crunchy cranberry, pomegranate, light orange rind, and subtle spice. A bit alcohol-ridden and thin. Some ok flavors, but not enough to keep me from moving on to the next victim. Pass for…
Buttered popcorn, creamy vanilla, lemon curd, and some subtle nutmeg. A little chubby around the edges. A bit of dad-bod going on with this wine. The flavors were decent and the purity of fruit…
Same as my previous notes on this wine. Unctuous and filling without ever being heavy or overly cloying. Candied lemon and orange peel, crystalized honey, dried apricot, and orange marmalade. This…
