2013 Scholium Project Golgotha Reserve Hudson Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 88 points

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  1/20/2022 - talbot61 Does not like this wine:

  Undrinkable. There is a strong aroma of band-aids (characteristic of brettanomyces), followed by a scorching acidity. There were points at which the bretty character seemed to be resolving, with a strong cherry aroma struggling to emerge, but the band-aid smell and the acidity never disappeared. Sometimes, this suggestion of brettiness (the band-aid smell) can be acceptable, like small doses of reduction or bitterness, but this was inescapably more than a suggestion.
  
  Given that brettanomyces is nearly ubiquitous in wines and wineries, that any attempts by winemakers to eliminate the yeast may require a high degree of intervention with other deleterious effects, and that this yeast may be responsible for other characteristics that we associate favorably with Syrah -- the gaminess, the 'sauvage' character, some degree of barnyard aromas -- it is hard to say whether this specific wine is flawed or bad. It is also hard to say whether this undrinkable bottle has developed differently from others in the same batch, which would help to decide the flawed vs. bad question. (Typically, high levels of brett are a winery issue, unlike TCA, but there are also suggestions that wines can become brettier with a secondary fermentation after bottling.) I am inclined to guess that Scholium made two decisions that led to my current displeasure: first, not to insist on a high level of cleanliness in the winery, and, second, to emphasize the wild side of Syrah. I buy wines from Scholium because I am interested in winemakers taking risks. In this case, the risky behavior had a bad outcome.

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