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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89.4 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 87 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by bdhanna on 3/24/2023 & rated 90 points: Still tasting good !! Truly a great CA expression of Châteauneuf-du-Pape !!
Screw top, easily removed. Dark burgundy color with modest oxidation, clarity medium. Consumed this mature wine over two days, lively fruit and acid on day one, softened, more brooding, and deep on day two. Aromas of blackberry, cherry, and Garrique. Flavors of rhubarb, black cherry, and rose hips with a hint of licorice with a long finish. A very balanced flavorful blend of 38% Grenache, 35% Syrah, 12% Mourvèdre, 8% Carignane, and 7% Cinsault. This is an age worthy wine is at or just past peak, unfortunately this was my last bottle of this vintage in my cellar. Great fruit and a excellent winemaking effort by Randell Graham. (265 views) | | | Tasted by Trekntravel on 10/18/2020: Definitely past its prime but still drinkable. Needs to be decanted. Still some fruit. Starting to mellow as it opens. (802 views) | | | Tasted by 27greywolf on 8/13/2016 & rated 90 points: Aged surprisingly well, but 2016 is definitely the limit for this 2004 bottle. Big red fruit, big tannins, stood up very well to BBQ rib steak. Need to stock up! (3968 views) | | | Tasted by worbx on 11/25/2015: On opening the bottle, the aroma has dark fruit, and a good, kind of funky note. The flavor starts off a little sharp, with a bright spot of berry fruit. The berries come out in the aroma as it opens up, and start to find a place alongside some darker red fruit in the flavor.
By the second day, the fruit in the flavor seems a little sweeter, a little redder. Oak seems to have come out more. Good, but at this point the 2003 is significantly better. (4916 views) | | | Tasted by tomlbs on 12/7/2014 & rated 91 points: Cigar notes, ripe cherries, and some earth. This is followed by a delicious mouthful of ripe dark fruit, minerals, tobacco, and fine tannins with a long finish. Excellent with grilled grass-fed steaks. This was better than the bottle we drank last year, much to our surprise! (6067 views) | | | Tasted by tomlbs on 11/23/2013 & rated 90 points: The wine is dark red with brick colored edges. It has a complex bouquet of Cherry, Black currant (cassis), Cinnamon, and Minerals. It is a smooth mouthful of Mineral, Black Pepper, Tobacco, and summer fruit. Overall, this is a medium bodied wine with fine tannins and a smooth texture that has a pleasing medium finish. It definitely should be drunk over the next few months. (7162 views) | | | Tasted by Zoomin Z on 9/14/2013 & rated 88 points: Cinnamon and cigar on the generous nose (subliminal suggestion?), medium body, medium length, some pepper, some tannin persists. Good fruit, but maybe slightly past it's prime. (7105 views) | | | Tasted by petec-s on 9/1/2013 & rated 93 points: Fantastic open bouquet, intense ripe summer fruits, underlying almost cassis, hinting at mineral freshness, smooth full flavoured mid palate, perfect ripe tannin and dry on the finish. Really excellent. (4124 views) | | | Tasted by looiwt on 7/12/2013: I liked the structure and spice on this. There's some fruit but not enough to make a strong impression. Tannins were fine and nice. The wine is good but is not distinctive nor special enough to be outstanding. 6.5/10 (4127 views) | | | Tasted by Zoomin Z on 3/31/2013 & rated 90 points: A good, medium (not to say average!) wine. Medium fruit on the nose, medium body, medium finish. Surprisingly no pepper. Nice balance and acidity. Doesn't wow with any particular feature. Half way between lively as opposed to powerful. Not the heaviest or spiciest Bonny Doon wine (try the Pousser Syrah). Definitely food friendly. (2797 views) | | | Tasted by hkm520240 on 10/23/2012 & rated 86 points: Drink from a half bottle. Blend of 38% Grenache, 35% Syrah, 12% Mourvèdre, 8% carignane & 7% Cinsault.
Dark garnet with crimson hue, it has aromas of dark cherry, raspberry, mocha and hints of smokey oak. Medium bodied, smoky fruits, dark cherry, raspberry and some earthy note. Soft drying tannins and a bit of bitterness on a fairy decent Finish. Tasted quite close to a Rhone wine but not impressive overall. (2636 views) | | | Tasted by mplsbruin on 7/10/2012 & rated 87 points: Well short of 2005 St Joseph that we had with Steve and Ann in Evanston (2643 views) | | | Tasted by jblack323 on 7/4/2012 & rated 91 points: Pepper, tobacco, cherry, and strawberry nose. Blood orange, meat, dark fruits, pepper mouth. Very dynamic - evolves rapidly. 1 hr decant minimum. Nice game pairing. (2877 views) | | | Tasted by waywardwine on 11/15/2011 & rated 95 points: View my video review here:
http://waywardwine.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/grenache-blend-bonny-doon-vineyard-le-cigare-volant-santa-cruz-ca-usa-earth-2004/ (4048 views) | | | Tasted by gdykema on 7/15/2011 & rated 91 points: Opened a bottle tonight for dinner, decanted about an hour before tasting.
Pleasant nose of cranberry, dried cherry, and earth. The fruit carries through into the body, adding dried orange and baking spice, with dry tannins and cocoa powder in the finish. Refined and well knit. (4859 views) | | | Tasted by petec-s on 6/24/2011 & rated 91 points: Such a lovely wine, offering a open funky, forest floor nose with fruit peeking out/ velvet mouthfeel, again red fruits, nice acidity, pure concentrated and with good length/ 13.5% genuine, well made interesting and very much a personal favourite. (3728 views) | | | Tasted by SonomaWilliam on 6/13/2011 & rated 93 points: Drunk last night with friends... Wish had taken detailed notes but we were too in love with this wine to stop oooing over it. Great nose, amazing fruit in harmony. 38% Grenache, 35 Syrah, 12 Mourvedre, 8 carigagne, 7 Cinsault.. Showing once again the best of Rhones are a blend. Will hoard my other bottle ! (4392 views) | | | Tasted by rjsmall on 5/20/2011: Red colour with slight tawniness on edge. Gamey, spicy, concentrated fruit on nose with cracked black pepper. A bit of earth and mushroom along with sweet spice. Similar flavours on palette with vanilla from the oak. Opened more after an hour with more raspberry coming through. Good body and length - nice balance. (3871 views) | | | Tasted by fullpour on 5/19/2011: This is drinking really well right now: bright cherry grenache, gamey syrah, and a meaty mataro undertow backed by OMG serious tannin. Lots of fun, even if there seem to be some weird MOx shenanigans going on here too. (3859 views) | | | Tasted by chefpete on 2/17/2011 & rated 87 points: nothing special (4342 views) | | | Tasted by mwkoehler on 2/8/2011 & rated 90 points: I was tempted to say 89 point something but decided I was picking to picky, so 90 it is. (4356 views) | | | Tasted by Barolo Raymond on 1/18/2011 & rated 88 points: Dark garnet, looks good in the glass. Immediate upon opening noticed small red fruits, berries,cocoa. After about 60-90 minutes a bit of a barnyard odour developed and the fruit notes was gone. Somewhat sweet fruit-driven attack, strawberries, blackberries, medium-bodied, nice crunchy feel and well structured; old world style. Remarkably the finish had a slightly acid twist combined with the spicy tannins making this a food wine par excellence. A bit rustic, pleasant but not great. Drink NOW.
Price/value = 8 (in Dubai) (4672 views) | | | Tasted by Nohedes on 1/7/2011 & rated 87 points: Decent GSM blend but not as good (for my palate) as similarly priced CNdP. Smooth, fairly light, very drinkable but no extra edge of earth or meat and lacked the richness of the best GSM blends. Still a nice drop though! (4609 views) | | | Tasted by tigerpaw75 on 12/25/2010 & rated 86 points: Good, not great. Earthy, not a fruit bomb. Drink now, don't see these gettting any better (4484 views) | | | Tasted by chefpete on 12/9/2010 & rated 91 points: Openned up nicely after an hour (4897 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Bonny Doon Vineyard Producer website
Bonny Doon was sold in early 2020 to "WarRoom", a wine production and marketing entity formed in 2018. Per a January 2020 Decanter article - https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/californias-bonny-doon-sold-430550/ - "Graham will retain creative control of Bonny Doon’s wines, but production will change from 35,000 cases of 15 different wines annually to just four wines: the flagship red Rhône blend Le Cigare Volant; Le Cigare Blanc (based on Vermentino); Vin Gris de Cigare (a Rhône varietal rosé); and a 100% Picpoul."2004 Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Cigare VolantThe 2004 is an aleph of light and dark notes; vibrant, fruity and floral notes contrasted against a denser, darker core rarely seen in preceding Cigares. The first wafting aromas suggest freshly warmed black raspberry conserve, rose petals, black licorice and garrigue. The grenache is hinted at by way of the bright puffs of raspberriocity and cherry liqueur, with the syrah and mourvèdre showing their tendency towards dominant density - laying down thick, recumbent panes of flavor vaguely suggesting spice, meatiness, and a strong expression of the minerality we have been working so hard to mine, as it were, in our high-flying flagship.
This cuvée, the 21st edition of Le Cigare Volant, is dominated by the chief red in residence - grenache. Our traditional grenache source in Gilroy was this year supplemented principally by fruit from an ancient vineyard planted in a dry creek bed in the Paicines section of San Benito County. For those with particular sensitivity, a smidge of our own Biodynamic® Estate grenache adds a discreet spicy compound attraction. The syrah issues from two exceptional Central Coast vineyards - Bien Nacido and Chequera. Chequera Syrah is very fragrant and elegant, not quite classically New World or Old. Bien Nacido produces the closest analogue we have found to a Northern Rhône wine - tannic and meaty in the lower registers; peppery, fruitful and delicately floral in the top, all the while showing great balance and harmony. A small group of non-irrigated, centenarian Contra Costa vineyards has provided mourvèdre for Cigare for many years and finally, a small dollop of cinsault provides a very particular fragrance of flowers and aromatic herbs.
* Varietal Blend: 38% grenache, 35% syrah, 12% mourvèdre, 8% carignane, 7% cinsault
* Alcohol by Volume: 13.5%
* TA: 6.3 g/L
* pH: 3.6
* Production: 6,140 cases
Red Rhone Blend Read about the different grapes used to produce red and white Rhone wines
On CellarTracker, Red Rhone Blend is the term for a wine consisting of two or more of the traditional 13 Southern Rhone grape varieties. Typically it's the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre or Cinsault grapes, but can also contain the Muscardin, Counoise, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Picpoul, Roussanne, Terret Noir, Picardan or Vaccarese grapes.
A 'food' wine. Lacking pretension and intended for local consumption with local cuisine. Lacks the 'high' notes on a Bordeaux, more earthy and sharper so often a better partner to meat dishes with a sauce. USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Central Coasthttp://www.ccwinegrowers.org/links.html
http://www.discovercaliforniawines.com/regional-wine-organizations/
http://beveragetradenetwork.com/en/btn-academy/list-of-winegrowers-association-in-central-coast-california-274.htm
Central Coast AVA Wikipedia |
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