10/25/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Beautiful tonight and much improved over my last bottle.

Lemon curd, mashed pear, white floral and loads of stone. Carries some weight but has the acidity to pull it off elegantly.

9/7/2020 - Tritioch wrote:

61% Syrah, 39% Mourvèdre. 15.1% Alc

Just starting to emerge from its shell. Roasted earth and grilled herbs. Deep jellied dark berry fruits.

Mammoth, yet still concealed by a bristling wall of tannins

Frustratingly like the last bottle: closed up with hints of potential hiding behind a wall of youthful tannins.

9/2/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Dark, with some seriously funky Asian spices, sandalwood, eucalyptus, blueberries, black cherries, and a distinct salinity.
Powerful. Syrup of blueberries and a bracing backbone of salinity. Loses the spice notes of the nose behind the dark fruit. Jaw popping intensity of flavor.
Powerful dark fruit notes echo through the finish with a smouldered earth and eucalyptus note.

Interesting and still incredibly primary. I can’t wait to see how this evolved into day two, and what if anything emerges from the depths.

8/30/2020 - Tritioch wrote:

Aggressively green on the nose with fresh sliced bell peppers, tar, fresh smashed raspberries with loads of seeds. Opens with some site to reveal a pretty if bizarrely delicate raspberry and soft rose petal nose.

Plums, bitter tea, wet granite stone, and with time some underpinnings of raspberry jam and red cherry compote evoke some semblance of Zinfandel character. Wet granite.

Mustard greens, granite. This never quite losses the bitter pith character that runs throughout and it shines clearly on the finish.

Reminiscent of something from Beaujolais more than Zinfandel. I wonder what draconian methods were used to keep this wine at a low 12.8% alc, and if a slightly less dogmatic approach might have yielded a far more compelling wine?

8/23/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Slithering salinity, damp stone, metallic minerals, lemon juice and lime zest, prominent fresh rosemary and sage. The palate is largely sheathed in a citrus-crystalline-salinity at the moment yet tantalizing hints of stonessence, white pineapple, and tree fruit notes peak through. launches into a prolific finish with salivating saline-citrus acidity.

Powerful.

8/17/2020 - Tritioch Does not like this wine:

Day 2: Absolutely disgusting

The booziness on the nose has only increased since yesterday making this unpleasantly on the nose. Corpulent syrupy fruit notes, confectionary sweet vanilla and a flooded lumberyard of woody funk.

Blind I would peg this as an innocuous $15 Paso Robles red. Quilceda Creek should be ashamed.

8/16/2020 - Tritioch wrote:

Decadent German chocolate cake and confectionary vanilla sugar on the nose. Hints at the the opaque depths to come. violets, creosote. Brutish (15.2% alc) black fruit compote yet still opaque behind a wall of tannins, charcoal and grilled meat and violets. What lurks in the depths is inscrutable at present. 4% Petit Verdot is overly dominant at the moment. Finishes with crushing tannins.

Pointless to drink today, needs easily another 5-10yrs in the cellar. Popping the cork back in this one and I’ll revisit tomorrow night.

8/1/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Brooding, smoked meat, enveloping dark fruit, creosote, and eucalyptus. Glowing eyes staring out ominously from the darkness.
Powerful pomegranate and black raspberry compote fruit with potent notes of tar and smoked meats.
Grippy tannins clamp down on the finish, indicating that this wine will benefit immensely from additional cellaring.

Insane value!

7/29/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Smoky, lemon curd, golden apple slices, honey and fennel on the brash & ripe nose. Smoky lemon curd notes repeat with musk melon, bushels of golden apple slices. Starting to show some oxidative mushroom/umami notes adding complexity. Has a notable creamy heft but carries it well with crackling metallic stone mineral and saline acidity. Falls a bit short on the finish.

6/7/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Smashed fresh red & black cherries, slightly oxidative hints of soy sauce, crushed seashells, wet forest earth and sous bois. Strawberry jellies, watermelon candies, smashed cherries, oxidative sous bois. Loads of stone mineral. LONG finish. Strawberry jellies, smashed cherries

Reminiscent of Rose champagne in a way.

6/1/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Day 2 for this bottle: Much Better, 88+

As I had hoped last night, this has emerged from its shrouded state overnight. Dark liqueur of black raspberry and blueberry, subtle vanilla, hints of apricot jam and a whisp of alcoholic heat. Jaw popping gushing juicy black raspberry, black plum, , pomegranate, and vanilla liqueur with some tannins still hanging in towards the late palate. Still too primary to tell if any appreciable spice notes are lurking under the ocean of baby fat on this, but the positive development from day 1 - 2 gives hope for further development. Lengthy finish is somewhat clipped by remaining tannins but hints of considerable length and fruit notes show through.

Positive development from day 1-2, bountiful fruit and remaining tannins leave plenty of hope for this to continue positive development in the cellar. The question is whether the improvement will push this past what earlier developing bottlings from Powell & Son or Torbreck offer. Unlikely that I will approach bottles of this again before the 10yr past vintage mark to shed any further light on the matter.

5/31/2020 - Tritioch wrote:

Dark smashed berries (blueberry and black raspberry), vanilla, black pepper, and a feint roasted meaty character. Loads of blueberry skins in the mouth with a distinctly shrouded overall character. Finishes with tight tannins reinforcing the perception on the palate that this needs to sit in the cellar for several more years before it will give up any secrets it may be hiding.

Definitely a poor showing today compared to other 2016’s (specifically Powell & Son and Torbreck). I’ve had other Shiraz similarly shrouded by youth and tannins that really came alive with extended cellaring, and for now I’m going to hope this goes the same way.

5/29/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Fresh white peach slices with all the fuzz on the skins, tart kiwi fruit slices drizzled with honey. White flowers, wet stone and feint petrol. Hints of sulphuric gas that need to age out or blow off.
Surprisingly full bodied and initially quite compact, showing predominately tart white peach notes and tart green kiwi. Unpacks to add some snappy electric metallic minerality that cuts and splays the palate right open. Waves of undulating mineral and citrus expanding to include lime and kiwi notes continued white flowers and white peaches.
This flies through the finish with bracing metallic mineral and acidity.

Starts off slow, but ultimately handles it’s weight better than the 2015 in a way reminiscent of Mosel Grosses Gewachs for a fraction of the price. While I’m not sure that this will age as well or ultimately display the complexities of great GG’s, at this price I’m certainly going to enjoy this while other wines age in the cellar.

5/24/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Candied lemon peel, freshly cut Granny Smith apple slices, honey baked apple sauce, sea spray. Lemon custard, surprising depths still largely concealing a lot of nuance. Funky stone mineral. Loads of jellied tree fruits. Hints of lime pop in the background. Great acidity keeps the medium+ weight moving right along.
Calm waters running deep at the moment keeping the large profile from ever fully becoming evident. Nicely balanced.

5/20/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Immersive perfume of rose petals, smashed raspberries and cherries. Time in the glass reveals licorice, bark spice, and underbrush notes. Dark and inviting. Mild woodsy tannins still holding on clip a bit of the front palate. Loads of berry fruit but not cloying explode into a profusion of dark rose petal, licorice, tar, sous bois notes, and mocha notes. Mocha kicks off the finish with butter cocoa notes lingering throughout a berry compote.

Always my favorite bottling from Turley. 93pts today, but it might eke out another point with additional cellaring time for other bottles.

5/15/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Disconcerting level of wine penetration on the cork for a wine only 7yrs past vintage, an increasingly common problem I’ve noted in Turley bottlings both mailing list and from retail. (This bottle purchased via Turley mailing list and stored in cellar since).

Dark lush brambleberry fruit, cherry compote, hints of eucalyptus and sage. Freshly opened this still showed tightness which softened after two+ hours of air. Dense and rich but it carries its weight well. Compote of cherries and vanilla with smashed berries and a continued whisp of eucalyptus. Desperately tries to sweep itself through the finish with its considerable weight marginally overwhelming the acidity and leaving a feint sweetness along with its considerable rich fruit character.

Consistently one of Paso’s better Zinfandel bottlings but perhaps a tad on the overripe side this year. Nevertheless, this handles its considerable bounty with some charm.

5/13/2020 - Tritioch wrote:

Forward floral and black raspberry notes mingle with prominent wet stone characteristics and worrisome vegetal aromas. Vegetal aromas clarify with some air to include charred herbal notes and eucalyptus, yet fail to integrate with the fruit aromas yielding a disjointed nose of aromas at odds with each other. Surprisingly light in the mouth with a similar profile of dueling high toned red fruit and black raspberry alongside wet stone, potting soil and charred herbs. The word “neutered” comes to mind. Pleasant on the finish with a reminiscence of freshly picked blackberry finally managing to gain the upper hand over feint grilled herb notes.

A pleasant wine, but hardly compelling and showing no reason to think that this will improve with additional cellaring. I imagine that any number of Crozes-Hermitage of St. Joseph wines would offer better value. Not what I was expecting after the praise heaped upon this wine by critics or the many other Pax/Wind Gap wines I’ve had.

5/3/2020 - Tritioch Likes this wine:

Bottle Nr. 061/778

Smokey rocks, sea spray, fresh lychee fruit, pine nuts, Anjou pears, with an underlying sense of crisp crystalline minerals. Elegantly fluid crystalline notes of white grapefruit/pineapple, lychee flesh and white floral character. Very typical of wines from Roxheimer Hollenpfad with a smoky rock mineral character emerging with added aeration. Finishes cleanly with ethereal notes of macerated pears, dried pineapple, and lychee fruit. A beautiful wine of crystalline grace. I wouldn’t hesitate to open another bottle now, but I get the feeling that this could continue to develop for another 2-3yrs.

It’s is a shame that Donnhoff replanted the Gewürztraminer vines from this site over to Riesling as this wine is truly world class and stylistically different from Gewürztraminer made elsewhere in the world. I would have loved to have been able to taste a rendition of this wine with extended lees aging similar to Loosen’s GG reserves that could have added just a touch more body and complexity.