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| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 92.2 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 67 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Odedis.Wine.reviews on 10/5/2021 & rated 93 points: Deep Inky in color with a short reddish rim. Not showing age at all.
Fruity nose of blackberries, sweet plums, cooked cherries, cedar, vanilla, spices, light earth, vinaigrette, espresso and peppercorn.
Full bodied and bold with medium plus acidity.
Dry and still very fruity on the palate with blackberries, black currants, plums, cooked cherries, oak, vanilla, licorice, cloves, herbs, spices, dark chocolates, coffee, peppercorn, earth and light citrus.
Long finish with fine-grained tannins and tangy cherries.
This is a wonderful Petite Sirah from Suisun Valley in California. Dense, rich and extracted.
Was probably better a few years ago, but I really enjoyed it regardless.
Tangy and spicy. Generous and fruit forward. Interesting stuff with a teeth staining color.
I really like these kind of big wines that show nice complexity and mouthfeel.
Good right out of the bottle and better after 30 minutes of airtime. A great sipping wine.
100% Petite Sirah grapes were aged in oak barrels (50% new) for 18 months. A small production of only 400 cases.
15.1% alcohol by volume.
93 points.
$90. (1216 views) | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 2/16/2020 & rated 90 points: Opened an hour before serving. An eccentric wine. Black and shockingly brooding with intense concentration and richness, showcasing so much black and blue berry character on nose and palate. The downsides are the overt tannins that haven't softened enough, plus the warmth on the long finish. (2566 views) | | | Tasted by jbaron on 12/1/2018: Here we are 12 years later. Kevin loves its fruit and structure and it’s sense of itself. I like it too but find it a bit... young and large.
Still, a good showing and perhaps better in... 2023! (2333 views) | | | Tasted by risaacs on 2/23/2018: Great wine with amazing balance. Wish I had more, this wine has a long life ahead. (2786 views) | | | Tasted by echya01 on 4/24/2017 & rated 93 points: We popped and poured... dark purple, almost black. It took a couple of hours for the nose to open: exotic and complex, blueberries with spices, maybe some rose petal - captivating. In the mouth, at first I thought that this wine was too tannic... long with good fruit, but the tannin was not well integrated. However, after 2 hours, the fruit won the battle.... long, with berries, soy sauce and chocolaty finish. Very rich and quite complex. The wine was a good match with food (salt/cayenne rubbed rib roast), but was also very enjoyable alone. I think this has a long way to go - I would decant for 1-2 hour(s) before consuming. (3714 views) | | | Tasted by Guy Des Rosiers on 12/17/2016 & rated 90 points: Still more purple than garnet, even after 12 years. Some volatility upon opening. Plum, soy sauce, star anise, vanilla and espresso bean on the nose. Full-bodied, still quite tannic, yet showing magnificently exuberant primary fruit (plum, blueberry, cassis). The length is long, and the tannins are soft enough to ensure a smooth finish. Showing hardly any age, except for a hint of tobacco and dried leaves on the back of the palate. This is very nice indeed. I wish the tannins were a bit more integrated, but this is just nitpicking. The wine can, and should, be enjoyed now and over the next few years. (3544 views) | | | Tasted by JKelly05 on 11/11/2016: Dark purple to black. Opaque.
Not a very lifted nose but traces of lead pencil shavings, graphite, black and blue fruits, some tobacco/leather/cigar box.
Massive attack, unapologetic, chewy, plush and round. Some chalkiness in the tannins. Unbelievable that this is an '04. Full of energy and force but beautifully integrated. 15.1% strong but integrated well. Acid, alcohol and rounded fruits all playing nice together. Smooth long finish.
Purple ink staining glass (and my teeth im sure).
I could see how this was probably clumsy and overpowering in its youth, but all beautifully balanced now and will evolve for much longer.
Gobs of macerated black berrries, dark plums, scorched earth, dark chocolate, cola spice. Yum.... (3236 views) | | | Tasted by Jay Hack on 10/29/2016: Scholium retrospective with Abe. (2814 views) | | | Tasted by Guy Des Rosiers on 6/6/2016 & rated 90 points: Very happy to have a chance to taste this again. Very consistent with my last note in terms of appearance and taste. Soy sauce, menthol, and loads of tannin. Still, this continues to show beautifully pure fruit and will no doubt benefit from further aging. (2843 views) | | | Tasted by CamWheeler on 6/9/2015 & rated 91 points: Really bloody, meaty, dark chocolate, blackberry and coffee. More medium bodied on the palate, still has some kick and structure but age has rounded the edges a bit. Still good for 5+ years. (2881 views) | | | Tasted by Guy Des Rosiers on 3/28/2015 & rated 90 points: Nearly as dark and impenetrable as the last time I tasted this about 8 years ago. Very dark purple - almost black. There was surprisingly little sediment in the bottle, given the heft of the wine. Lots of plum, asian spice, black pepper and soy on the nose. A wall of teeth-staining tannins hits you upfront, but you can tell there is an awful lot of good primary fruit underneath. The wine is holding up extremely well after 11 years, and in fact seems barely more approachable now than 8 years ago! I am confident this will further develop if properly stored. I would give this a few more years. (2528 views) | | | Tasted by DaveF on 3/4/2015: This thing is still huge. Agree with the determination by the last review that this is a tannic mess. Have one more bottle, and I think I'm gonna hold on to it for a very long time just to see what happens. Hopefully the tannins fall out at some point. (2890 views) | | | Tasted by GrandeSerataFuori on 8/11/2014 & rated 87 points: On the first night I hated. A seriously bold, tannic mess IMO. Two nights later I enjoyed its power and could appreciate it's insanity. (3453 views) | | | Tasted by the godfather on 8/3/2014: Oak present but not offensive, big but went well with skirt ateak (3107 views) | | | Tasted by Wine_lvr on 6/6/2014 flawed bottle: Tasted blind: Dark in color. I expect a poorly stored bottle as the nose was oxydized. Interesting flavors of chocolate, vanillla. Quite sweet but at the same time dry tannins. (2804 views) | | | Tasted by cortoncharlie on 1/5/2014 & rated 88 points: think JROSB7777's tasting note summed it up quite well. blood red color, almost purple. confectionary high pitched nose. big fruit and full bodied with some blood and meatiness but also had really coarse tannins. unlike some others I thought this had enough acidity but overall lacked balance and finesse and thought a bit one dimensional. the tannins made it hard to drink unless u r having a large steak or casole. but to be fair on day two it calmed down a little but no significant improvement. (3110 views) | | | Tasted by drfloyd on 8/25/2013 & rated 88 points: Not a huge fan of this wine - perhaps his wines are best drunk young. Huge structure - dark back color with big tannins which I like but the I found the wine course and lacking finesse. I also found the wine to be lacking acidity as many CA wines do. Forgot what I paid for it but likely too much... (3395 views) | | | Tasted by Nanda on 6/9/2013 & rated 93 points: Pop and pour - enjoyed over ~3 hours. Initially shy nose with blueberry, blackberry and spice. Palate is really amazing -- at first richly fruited and powerful but yielding to an elegant and light-on-it's-feet mid palate. Very nicely done. This is big while not showing jammy or hot. There are nice gritty tannins melded to the fruit. All is in harmony with this bad boy. Great with spicy hamburgers. (2847 views) | | | Tasted by Johann Von Mastiff on 3/20/2013 & rated 92 points: A very controversial wines. Had too much VA for some at the table but I like a bit of VA if its in harmony with the wine and this was. The color was an incredible deep neon purple without really showing any of its almost ten years. Then nose screams VA but it also had a lot going on. Teeth staining wine. Big and powerful mouth feel. Love it. (3015 views) | | | Tasted by dsimmons on 9/4/2012 & rated 93 points: No detailed notes but this bottle was delicious with wild duck soup. (3313 views) | | | Tasted by dougie on 7/8/2012 & rated 92 points: Decanted for an hour. Still really big. A great earthy, chalky finish. Excellent depth. Should have waited a couple of more years. (2941 views) | | | Tasted by jsebiri on 6/23/2012: nice deep purple color , deep blue fruit nose , very tasty , evolving well would think this keeps going for a long time to come would have improved with more air i think , but the people were thirsty....well done (2893 views) | | | Tasted by JOsgood on 6/18/2012: Big and broad shouldered. Some definite heat on the nose. It tastes like a well evolved wine despite its relative youth. (2714 views) | | | Tasted by mattsix on 6/18/2012: big meaty wine, alcohol still up front, deep long chocolate finish (2623 views) | | | Tasted by caeleric on 12/11/2011: pop n pour consumed over 2 days. this was graciously given to me as my ct forum secret santa gift from fingers. my first 100% petite sirah with any age on it, and it was absolutely smoking right out of the bottle. if the wife hadn't given me the disapproving evil eye as i sucked down glass after glass, i would have finished the whole thing on night one. massively fruited with the blackest of black fruits, some purple/blue fruits, and really nice vanillin oak nuance. this is a behemoth of a wine that continued to open beautifully in the glass. plush texture, with a good bit of tannic grip on it even with 7 years of age. a ridiculously long finish that swirled and unfurled ripe, unmistakeably napa fruit that was so juicy. day 2 was a little less exciting, with softer, plummier notes, and pretty one-dimensional. still very good, but not as amazing as day 1. this was a perfect gift, and makes me want to add more petite sirah to my cellar. THANK YOU FINGERS!!! if scoring, 93-95. drink over the next 3 years. (3417 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, May/June 2006, IWC Issue #126
(The Scholium Project Babylon Red Wine Tenbrink Vineyards Napa Valley) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Scholium Project Producer Website
THE AIM
The aim of my winemaking is an activity; or more properly, a set and series of activities. The first set of acitivites is the winemaking itself, from studying and attending to the vineyard, to imagining when to pick the grapes, to smelling the fermentation begin . . . and on to bringing the wine to bottle. The making of the wine is, in this sense, an end in itself.
But wine has the remarkable ability to preserve within itself not only the character of a vineyard, a growing season, a fermentation– but it does so in a way that is portable. You can put it in a bottle and give it to a friend, or set it adrift in the vast sea of the market, so that it finds itself eventually in the hands, on the table, of a perfect stranger.
This possibility raises a second set of activities– those that are separate and beyond the making of the wine iteself. These are the activities that the wine can inspire and engender in others who drink it.
Beyond the essential bacchic activities that almost any wine can inspire, I have three particular ones in mind: the wines should make one feel and think of complexity. Not the complexity of arguments or syllogisms, but this kind of complexity: imagine the flat asphalt of a new mall's parking lot. Imagine the same asphalt cracked and broken after years of weathering, traffic, ground shifting underneath it. The pointless complexity of these cracks can be a feast for the eyes, even if it means nothing. The wines should present a similar complexity for their consumer to feast on.
The wines should make one sense decay, decomposition, transformation. The wines should be so distinctly wine and not fruit that one can sense both the yeast and the bacteria, on the one hand, and the passage of time, on the other hand, that transformed the unspoiled fruit into a new substance. The wines must capture and preserve decay and age.
The wines should make you happy that you are drinking them.
THE PRINCIPLES
Specificity of vineyards: our fruit comes from the small vineyards of individual farmers. These vineyards offer sites or farming practices, or both, that cannot be duplicated. For this reason, each wine is a single-vineyard bottling and bears the name of its vineyard. We work very closely with each farmer as partner rather than client. The winemaking is inevitably guided by the fruit that the vineyard produces; but the winemaker may reciprocally influence the farming of the vineyards. But much more important than influencing, or much worse, shaping, the vineyard to the winemaker's needs– much more important is to discover excellence in the vineyard and then attend to and exalt it.
Husbandry of microbes: once we have harvested the fruit, our prime task is husbanding the microbial population of our wines. We do this by interfering as little as possible in the spontaneous development of a natural (if invisible) ecology in our fermenting wine. We do not sterilize the must, we do not add commercial yeasts. If the developing system veers toward winemaking disaster, we intervene. If not, we add and take away nothing. We observe the developing system through the signs available to our senses: we taste, we smell, we measure temperature. We punch down, pumpover, and sometimes chill the must to delay or slow down a given activity–but outside of these activities, we do nothing to interfere in the development of a stable and complex living system in our wines.
Undisturbed maturation: in general, the flavors that we seek in our wines come from ripe fruit, long macerations, and long maturation in barrel. When one of our wines demands by its own nature a variation from these principles, we vary (see the 2004 Glos). Otherwise, we seek to transmute the fruit, not to preserve it. We seek not the primary aromas of the freshly-sliced apple or the just-bitten plum, but the secondary and tertiary aromas of rose petals, chocolate, roast coffee, dried fruits, hung game, old leather, dried mushrooms, a broken firecracker. These aromas depend most of all on the undisturbed elevation of the wine in barrel. No sulfur is added in barrel, the wines are topped seldom, and they remain in barrel until they develop a ripeness that is peculiar to wine, not fruit. During this period of maturation, the microbes reach equilibrium and the wine become used to air. The result are wines that are sturdy and prone neither to bacterial spoilage nor to oxidation. They are used to, and have overcome, these threats before they ever make it into bottle. The wines that did not survive this rigorous elevage never see a bottle. They disappear.
Vineyard designation: the foundation of these wines is the vineyard that produces each one. The winemaking is very much the same for each wine. The character of the vineyard and the microbiology of the barrels each dwarfs the range of possible characteristics suggested by various varietals. For this reason, varietal designation has seemed insignificant for this project. A given wine is not a "cab" or a "merlot" in this project; it is a Tenbrink or a Hudson. Typical designations of appelation are not useful here for similar reasons. One wine is not "Napa" in character, while another is "Monterey." The specificity of the vineyard is so much more significant than the appelation that we avoid such a general (and non-specific) designation. On the other hand, the realm in which all of the project's vineyards are found is the dream-world of California. For this reason, all of the wines bear the California appelation and a single vineyard designation.
2004 Scholium Project Babylon Tenbrink VineyardsWinemaker's Notes:
Babylon: this wine is now at home in many civilized dining rooms, but it is still fierce, nearly barbaric.
Its source is a remarkable vineyard, in Suisun Valley– far enough from Napa to represent the mysterious, distant East. People farm differently, vines have a different aspect, one does not feel at home on the way to this vineyard. But then one reaches it and its excellence announces itself immediately: the vines are perfectly balanced, restricted in their growth, with clusters that are few in number and small-berried. A natural cover-crop grows beneath them. The partnership between the growers– the scrupulous Tenbrink family– and the Project was so successful in 2003 that we agreed that they would grow as much as possible for the me in 2004. I harvested 7 tons– 7 times as much as in 2003. We farmed even more rigorously than we did in 2003, and with spectacular results. The grapes were so healthy that I could let them hang much longer than in 2003, and they did so without any raisining. I used a new, very large, vessel to ferment this vast quantity, and took advantage of the opportunity it allowed to macerate the grapes for a week before fermentation, and for ten days after fermentation was complete.
The wine went to barrel in 50% new oak and remained there for 18 months without topping and sulfur, undisturbed since its original passage into barrel. It is beautifully fragrant, clean and direct– hardly barbarian except for its fierce intensity. It is ready to drink now and will reward you with a gladiatorial contest in your mouth-- one without losers. The wine will be somewhat less fierce in a decade or so.
Our second vintage from the superb Tenbrink vineyard in Suisun Valley. This is the most extreme version of the Babylon so far. It is Amarone-like in its super-ripe intensity. As always, the fruit flavors were driven to a higher plane. Now the wine, though rich, ripe, and even charming in its barbarian way, is an edifice built on tannin and blanketed in new leather. About 300 cases were produced.
this wine has huge tannins and exquisite fruit. Tannins are rich and completely ripe, but their scale and density might make the wine off-putting. The fruit is very intense and supported by fine acidity and minerality. For this reason, I think that the beauty of the fruit will be preserved as the wine matures and softens. The wine will probably offer a little softness beginning in the summer of 2007 and might reach an acme of precise fruit and complex tannins around 2011. It should maintain high quality for another decade after this.
I enjoy drinking the wine now and prefer to do so from a bottle that has been opened, sampled, and re-corked for 2 or 3 days.
Producer Notes
The Scholium Project, made by Abe Schoener, pushes the envelope of expectation in wines, producing esoteric varieties from somewhat obscure vineyards througout northern California. Schoener, who completed his graduate work in Ancient Greek Philosophy, concentrated on Homer. His label's name translates to "school, schooling" from Greek, and signifies an undertaking for the sake of learning, paralleling his winemaking journey. Schoener took a sabbatical from teaching in 1998 to work as an intern at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in Napa Valley before moving on to work in the cellars of Luna. He then began the Scholium Project in 2004, entitling wines using proprietary names rather than varieties. In the cellar, Schoener allows his wines to take their own natural course by leaving them undisturbed in the barrel, not sulfuring or topping off - instead he allows the fermentation to develop a ripeness particular to wine, not fruit. Scholium Project wines are extremely limited in production. Petite Sirah Varietal character (Appellation America) | P.S. I Love You: A Petite Sirah Advocacy Organization
Petite Sirah is a variety of red wine grape grown in France, California, Israel and Australia. Recently, wineries located in Washington State's Yakima Valley, Maryland, Arizona, West Virginia, Mexico, Chile's Colchagua Valley and Maipo Valley, and Ontario's Niagara Peninsula have also produced wines from Petite Sirah grapes. Though developed in France, it is nearly extinct there as of 2002, hanging on in limited plantings in the Isère and Ardêche regions of the Rhône Valley and in Palette, a tiny appellation in Provence. It is the main grape known in the US and Israel as Petite Sirah with over 90% of the California plantings labeled "Petite Sirah" being Durif grapes; the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms recognizes "Durif" and "Petite Sirah" as interchangeable synonyms referring to the same grape. The grape originated as a cross of Syrah pollen germinating a Peloursin plant. On some occasions, Peloursin and Syrah vines may be called Petite Sirah, usually because the varieties are extremely difficult to distinguish in old age.
The 'petite' in the name of this grape refers to the size of its berries and not the vine, which is particularly vigorous. The leaves are large with a bright green upper surface and paler green lower surface. The grape forms tightly packed clusters that can be susceptible to rotting in rainy environments. The small berries creates a high skin to juice ratio which can produce very tannic wines if the juice goes through an extended maceration period. In the presence of new oak barrels the wine can develop an aroma of melted chocolate.
Petite Sirah produces dark, inky colored wines that are relatively acidic with firm texture and mouth feel. The bouquet has herbal and black pepper overtones, with plum and blackberry flavors on the palate. Compared to Syrah, the wine is noticeably more dark and purplish in color. The wines are very tannic with aging ability that can eclipse 20 years in the bottle.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 CaliforniaNapa Valley.http://www.stagecoachvineyard.com/vineyards/our_vineyards.php
Santa Ynez.http://www.everyvine.com/org/Camp_Four/vineyard/Camp_Four/ |
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