2008 Carlisle Barrel Tasting

We had the opportunity to taste about 15 different 2008 wines from the barrel with Mike Officer during a recent trip to Sonoma/Napa. Many of the wines had just finished or were finishing malolactic fermentation and were obviously very young. Unfortunately I didn't take notes (i was too busy asking questions) and can not remember many of the details of each wine. From memory we tasted the Montafi, Carlisle, Rossi, Teldeschi, Papera (formerly Carlos ranch), Rosellas syrah, Papas Block syrah, (i believe another syrah) three different barrels of grenache (all were awesome), a petite syrah (palisades?) and several other barrels that may be used for blending. One had a smokey quality as a result of nearby fires during the growing season, and one was a massive zin from grapes that were picked at 38 brix. Other than that one, the zins were more elegantly styled then previous vintages. As usual, all the wines were all delicious. I can't wait to taste them in a year or so when they are released.