Tasted at the winery. The bottle we tasted was hand disgorged and dosaged, as part of the dosage blending trials for the upcoming 2015 disgorgement. Neutral wood, around 13% ABV. Aromas of toast and some light lees. The core of this is about acidity, a brisk lemon. Green banana, orange/citrus and then closing with lime into a finish with good length. The texture here is round and just fuller in tone as compared to say the Mousse Les Varosses Anecdote I had this week from Cuisles, which was also Bdb. I am cognizant too of the risk here in trying to see a new project like this one from the context of Champagne. These are not the same wines, nor is CA=Champagne. With that context in front of me, what this first effort of Bearwallow shows is a wine that is brisker, with terrific acidity, expressing a CA feel. Exciting to see Rhys take on a project like this and work to find the inspiration of Champagne into the context of CA.

Tasted at the winery. 12.8 ABV, with 15-20% new wood. Spicy, yellow fruits and some flint, along with green apple that is lightly candied. Lemony citrus with an intense finish, along with some lime zest.

Tasted at the winery. 12.7% ABV, with 15-20% new wood. Lime, honeyed lightly, with bright green apple flavors. This seemed overall to me gentle and approachable (akin to the 2017 MP PN which we also tasted). Spicy, with a touch of caramel into the finish.

Tasted at the winery. 12.8% ABV, with 15-20% new wood. Yellow apple, generous and balanced. Spicy pear, and then my notes evolve to say lots of spicy apple in the finish that is wrapped in mineral and a honeyed quality. Tasted next to the 2017 Shoe Chard, and it has the same intensity of the Shoe, but it adds a richness that the Shoe doesn't show for me. Splitting hairs here, as both wines were excellent, but I just found the Shoe to be a little better, more lasered for me.

Tasted at the winery. 12.5% ABV, with 15-20% new wood. My notes are starred for the wine, and I liked this best of the 4 Chards, for sure. Lemon is the lead flavor with a persistent core of intense citrus that is married with a wet stone quality that is intense, long and in my notes the words 'painfully concentrated'. Take that for a positive, as this was lights out good. Thinking back, I have to say this vintage of Shoe Chard really struck me as one of the best I have ever tasted from Rhys. Outstanding.

Tasted at the winery. Peach, green apple, some tropicals, spicy honey, mineral. Chenin from SCM? This was terrific. Will want to get some when this finally comes out, but if I recall from Jeff's comments yesterday, there is not going to be a lot of it to go around.....150 cases?

Tasted at the winery from shiner. This is a little prickly, with intense acidity, structure and minerality/wet stone. This was good, kind of electric in quality with all of the stuff going on.

Tasted at the winery from shiner (bottled this past April). This to me tastes fuller in tone as compared to the 2015 Aeris Mt Etna that was alongside it. It's the 2017's palate, which seems broader, even oily/suave with honey? The 2017 version (which is grown here, on Centennial Mountain in Sonoma County) shows plenty of lemon rind, grapefruit yet has the same tight, intense finish as the 2015 from Italy.

Tasted at the winery. 12.7% ABV. 100% whole cluster, cask raised. Some dried purple flower, potpourri and cracked pepper. Cherry with a distinct blue note, which comes through with more air and tasting.

Tasted at the winery. 13.8% ABV, fully destemmed and no new wood. Aromas of pepper and spice, maraschino cherry (which might sound pretentious....my point is a sweeter, more luscious cherry but the specific reference is what came to mind when the wine hit my palate). My notes also show the word 'pure' underlined, and a reference to sexy, finishing with some tannin to give some structure. Overall, this was generous, juicy, and as we talked about around the table, the vintage in this year really giving Bear a flashier, pure tone. Very good....on retaste today from the leftover's from yesterday's bottle, the spicy quality is really present, along with a purple fruit sensation. Terrific.

Tasted at the winery. 13.8% AV, destemmed and no new wood. My notes have a star next to the Porkie, which was one of my wines of the day. I got a cool rose petal aroma, just a lovely floral tone. We tasted this next to the Bear (of which Porkie is a special section in Bear), so let me use the side by side for context. The Porkie is less sexy, more focused and intense as compared to the Bear. The cherry core of the Porkie is leaner, showing more acidity, along with cedar and loam. Terrific vintage for Porkie.

Tasted at the winery. 13.3% ABV. 100% whole cluster, 20-25% new wood. Plenty of structure here, with a darker cherry quality, alongside a elegant frame. For me, this showed a rocky quality, along with blueberry, giving the cherry the darker edge. The acidity too is bright, along with some earth.

Tasted at the winery. This is the first release of MP as a single vineyard wine (in 2016, it all went into the Alesia SCM PN). 13.6% ABV, virtually destemmed with 20-25% new wood. Floral nose, I really dug just smelling it in the glass. Red fruited, spicy with a zesty/zingy quality. Medium wight, moderate complexity and approachable, yet enough spicy cherry to liven it all up. Drinking well for me.

Tasted at the winery. 12.9% ABV, 100% whole cluster, 25% new wood. Gorgeous aromas of spice, lifting out of the glass much like the 2017 Porkie did for me, too. Plush, juicy, yet with density with a lot of lovely red/blue under all the density. Some herb comes into the finish, along with the same cherry, added by red apple and even a little meaty/savory thing. This has structure, length, density and really everything Skyline can be.

Tasted at the winery. Like the 2017 Porkie from earlier in the tasting, I have the Alpine starred in my notes too, as one of my wines of the day. 12.9% ABV fully destemmed and 30% new wood. When first poured, this had a distinct pinot funk to it, which blew off with swirling. While the aromatics seemed shy, with some light spice, what is banging on this wine is the palate impressions. As with the 2017 Bear, this also came across to me as extremely pure in tone. My notes say 'immediate sensation of purity'. The balance here is exquisite, which isn't a word I use all that often in my normal vocabulary but this is what flashed for me when I tasted the wine. Blue and red fruits, even a little red apple too on retaste, with a bit of vanilla. Juicy, balanced by the terrific acidity. Excellent vintage for Alpine (and if you see my other note for the 2017 Horseshoe, that wine too kicked ass, and these plots are not very far apart--both wines excelled for me in 2017).

Tasted at the winery. 12.5% ABV, 100% whole cluster, 25% new wood. Like with many of the 2017 Rhys PNs we tasted during the visit, there is a floral aroma to the wine. In this vintage of Swan, my sense is the stems are doing some work and imparting their presence. The wine has a density and darkness (not color but the sensation it creates for me), with the structure of the wine evident--coiled with what my notes say 'some heft'. Herb, savory, intense meaty thing in the finish. I liked this but I have to say at this point in the curve, I prefer the 2017 Alpine more (for those who may not know, Swan Terrace is part of Alpine, a different section and exposure of the vineyard that is made separately).....as a follow-up, I had the leftover wine in bottle from our visit yesterday and so I poured the last 2 ounces this morning for retaste. The color here is dark, a ruby with light maroon. There is so much stuffing and texture here, and it doesn't yet feel married with the fruit. What I believe would be accurate to say is power and raw material--wood, stems and fruit--all present but not harmonized. I suspect this wine is going to live a while, and knowing the community here, I don't think people are going to rush off and open bottles of this in the first few years anyway.

Tasted at the winery. 12.7% ABV, fully destemmed, 35% new wood. Has a little bit of the pinot funk nose that was also present in the 2017 Alpine, which too blew off with swirling. This Shoe is terrific. Juicy with plenty of red fruit that is zesty, possessing also the same fantastic purity of the Alpine. Spice with a rocky note. Alan Rath was seated next to me and he called the red fruit 'strawberry', which I thought was an excellent descriptor. Ultimately, this is in a tie for me with the Alpine for the purity, and for my PN wine of the day, with this Shoe showing a zestier, strawberry fruit. Excellent stuff....on retaste this morning from last night's leftover bottle, there is some added cranberry here. Dig it.

Tasted blind. 100% whole cluster, 25% new wood. Immediate impression was some stemmy notes, giving it a lift of herbal along with some brewed coffee. Some blackberry fruit quality in the core of the wine along with some red fruit. Raspberry in the finish. I kept guessing riper vintage with some stems.

This seemed rich on first taste, but also had a savory quality. Herbals and plenty of tannin, along with some dried cocoa. Decadence is where I landed with my impression. My notes then close with the word 'seductive' underlined. Another comment around the table was orange peel. This is a wine that is aging slowly and has plenty of runway to lead it into the future.