8/17/23, 7:34 AM - Thanks for the tip! Will seek out wines from Kirschenmann Vineyard :)
8/17/23, 7:24 AM - Agreed! That's spot-on analysis... I've long held many California wines tend toward 'bigger is better' profiles. Along with high prices and sought-after locales, the marketing legends these wineries generate about themselves become highly detached from the product they put in bottle. Thus my preference for Old World wines. With 2000 years of winemaking experience, tradition drives craft and quality, and provides a far more consistent product.
12/31/22, 8:31 PM - So how do you discern by date? Which dates are good/bad?
6/2/22, 3:36 PM - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trixie_(slang)
6/24/21, 12:52 PM - Agreed - my last bottle was so closed, I wondered if it would ever wake up! But clearly you can tell the stuffing is there... thanks for the review :)
1/25/21, 7:16 AM - I totally agree... I see other tasters pan this wine, and it doesn't make sense. Glad to see I'm not alone in praise of this excellent Champagne!
12/19/20, 8:12 AM - Hahaha - thanks Neecies... I'm happy to know I'm not alone in my skepticism of Paso Robles wines. To be sure, there are some quality producers. But generally speaking, I too find that 'hot & ripe' is the primary characteristic attributed to many of the wines coming from that region. My preferences are toward cool climate regions, and that's why I was so surprised by the 15.3% ABV of this particular Syrah - again, it came from Washington! So, what the heck do I know?!? Ripe, high sugar level grapes make wines way over my preferred limits of 13-14%. It's no wonder I buy mostly Old World wines. The traditional production methods (mostly - they too have been 'Parkerized' to some degree), and the import tariffs levied against wines exceeding 14% help keep ABV levels to a reasonable amount. Oh to find a New World Syrah that had the good sense to restrain itself!
12/23/20, 6:35 AM - "The insider POV on high alcohol in Paso? Tablas Creek is and will remain the outlier. The others are largely content with the high abv as part of the Paso 'brand'.""I will add this: when alcohol ramps up, acidity often ramps down. With age, those wines can taste quite port-y.""Do a 15 year vertical of, say, Vieux Donjon, and the high alcohol years pop out at you just as a 15% wine in a horizontal of young 13.5 percenters will..."These quotes from your comments above make it clear I am not alone... Over the last 25 years, the wine press began to celebrate and award high alcohol fruit bombs. American wines were quick to adapt so they could reap high scores (meaningless indicators imo) and boost sales. This trend unfortunately also made it's impact in Europe and began to affect established chateau's & domaine's. Witness tward's comment about CdP's, and neecies comment about Vieux Donjon verticals showing ABV creep from 13.5% to 15%! These are not circumstantial outcomes - I fervently believe the wine press negligently advocated for and accentuated all the undesirable characteristics of what constitutes a 'fine wine'. Clos De Papes & Vieux Donjon were two of my favorite CdP's - the 90's and early 2000's were some of their best vintages. They were all hitting the 13-14% mark. I stopped buying them in the mid-2000's as they began to get way too hot for my sensitive & persnickety palate. Further, I totally agree with the notion that as ABV levels increase, acid levels decrease and wines become too fat, flabby and non-descript. In a word, BORING. I gravitate to European wines, French in particular, because Julius Caesar & the Roman Legions planted vines in Gaul over 2000 years ago. Over millennia, the French figured out which grapes grow best in specific soils and climates - thus the establishment of 'Terrior' as a concept. Balance, elegance, refinement & expression of place are the predominate characteristics that emanate from adherence to Terrior. Despite the adverse effects of climate change on winemaking world wide, I feel that high alcohol fruit bombs are an unwelcome trend attributed more to the negative influence of Robert Parker et. al., and less so to actual growing conditions on the ground. Pointing out that Paso Robles winemakers are largely content with the high abv as part of the Paso 'brand" says it all... OK - rant over... sorry for blathering on. But JFC I'm sick of American consumers getting led by the nose down the wrong path, and winemakers abandoning their better instincts to produce nondescript boring wines to cater to the misled masses!
12/23/20, 7:28 AM - Thanks neecies - glad to know I have allies here in the CT community!
7/9/20, 6:49 PM - You're not crazy...
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