July 29, 2023 - Nose: [59°] Scents of white flowers, lightly ripe black fruits, prickly brambles and tree bark. Notes of river stones get elevated from the strong boozy-ness, making the mineral scents quite sharp.
Palate: [64°] Pure flavors of deep earth, black lightly ripe fruits, dark oak with a firm spice, and a finish of dark graphite with some savoriness. Stubborn heat on the mid to end palate.
Attributes: Dark medium ruby. Dry with medium-plus amounts of grippy, chewy tannin. Medium to medium-plus body with medium to medium-plus acidity. Good finish of at least 18-20 seconds.
Thoughts: Overflowing with unrestrained power, this thing still needs time to resolve, and a lot of it. Like our sun in the heavens, this thing is emitting solar flares uncontrollably. I was hoping this would maybe be a bit more resolved by now but this is still acting like an immature juvenile. And like some of those degenerates, you can't tell what kind of future it has but can only hope they have a better one. Gonna hope for the best and keep telling myself, "It's just a phase.."
Serving notes: Bordeaux glass. Served one glass and emptied bottle into a decanter at cellar temp ~54° and consumed over 9.5 hours. Recommend serving ~56°-58° and decant as needed. As of this date, don't open yet, just cellar away for another 4-5 years (yes, a reset of the waiting game from my last post two years ago).
August 4, 2022 - Small Tusk tasting with the proprietor (Napa Grill (Zurich)): Small Tusk tasting with co-founder Tim Martin. The L’Orange is around 60% Cab with the rest split into Franc and PV. Only around 120 cases made.
Tasting note:
Dark cherry, black currant, vanilla, baking spice, barnyard, herbs, iodine and elements of mint. Incredibly versatile, constantly evolving and changing in the glass. Compared to the Tusks Estates, this added a more Bordeaux-like, earthy character. The palate is youthful and fresh, in good balance even if still a bit wild. A very present mid-palate structure. This was fantastic and toe to toe with Tusk 2012 for the wine of the night. Add another few years of bottle age and the L’Orange would probably surpass the Estate wine.
June 13, 2022 - Likely didn’t give this enough time open (2 hours decant). Like the notes below mention there is a considerable amount of heat on the palate here. Structurally it’s dense and chewy with thick tannins. Ripe dark fruited and a good wine but just lacking lift for the price (especially the secondary market).
February 9, 2022 - PnP, which was a mistake. A good amount of heat right out of the gate. This bottle was reluctant to let the fruit loose from its youthfully angular frame. A lot of power here that currently overrides a sense of flow or nuance. Giving this bad boy air is a much needed undertaking if attempting to approach it anytime soon. Otherwise, hold another 4-5 years.
Remainder of juice left in the bottle for a next day revisit. We shall see how day two goes...
Day 2: Waaaaaaay more resolved and sans the big booze blockade from the first pull on Day 1, this revisit on the second day was a personal sigh of relief for the future of this wine. Definitely one to hold for now.
December 9, 2021 - Epic Napa Trip - Day 5: Tasted at Tusk with Augie - This was a very nice wine, and certainly offers a nice QPR. It did suffer slightly being next to its big brother, which stole the show, IMO. I had heard of Tusk wines but had never tasted one, so this was indeed a treat! Nose showed red and dark fruit, with some perfumed notes coming through, as well as hints of spice and cedar. The palate was equally nice with layers of red and dark fruit, some chocolate notes and some earthy woodsy notes. A very nice wine that is showing well now, and should continue to improve. 94+ today, but should go higher with some additional age.
December 9, 2021 - Napa trip day 5: Drank a small glass at the winery's tasting house over an hour. Tannins are more evident. This wine is less impressive than the cab but more enjoyable due to a bit more balance. Chocolate, cherries, rich and ripe, modern for sure.
September 25, 2021 - My greatest day of wine (over)consumption. Ever. (Aaron and Tiffany's pad): Ok, so here we are, hours into my greatest wine drinking day/evening ever, and I turn my attention back to the table, and that rascally csimm has popped this Tusk! I mean, he told us there might be an unannounced guest or 2, but I thought that was just going to be the 18th growth Margaux, which he forewarned should only be used to sanitize glasses, or the Chablis for contrast purposes to the extraordinary CdC (a comparison arranged by Luc to show the vast superiority of CA? More of a fair fight with a Batard!), neither of which I tried. Anyway, Tusk is a bucket list wine, even if I didn't know that this particular one existed (tempted to comment, so I will, "the cheap Tusk", as I once commented to msu, "the cheap Screagle", cheap here, if you're not in front of the velvet rope, still knocking a wine spend like mine to Kingdom Come), behind the '12 Harlan and the '16 MacDonald, but well within sniffing distance of them for sure. I'll ibid many of my comments to the VV csimm brought about darkness, although some of that may be just because it was so far into the tasting and my taste buds had been so blown away that they'd be nearly the same for any cab or Bordeaux blend, but there was added interest, at least for me, with notes of chicory coffee (perhaps WBW's bitterness comment?) and tentacles of red mixed red fruits giving more lovely contrast than the more monochromatic, at least to me, double V. Long, dark, and full bodied, if not handsome, pushed onward by terrific structure, which is moderately integrated at this point. Even with the dark elements, this wine is anything but my definition of closed, it's also anything but my definition of open knit. I'm not sure of Messr. Melka's intentions, but if it was to create anything like the slightly shopworn V 29's in my backpages, this has an ultramarathon to run, but if it's to create something profound that's not quite Modern Napa but certainly not Bordeaux either, this is off to a grand start, although, a la my note about the VV, I'm not sure what that finish looks like, or when it gets there. If you have multiple bottles, let this rip, presumably with the prescribed VV aeration, but if not, feel confident you can hold it for the better part of the half life of radium. By the time I noticed this, I was so over the bouef, not quite to the dessert, but I think that this would be a stone cold winner with the usual CS suspects as well as on its own. Stellar now, but if we, harkening the redo of the Judgment of Paris, reconvened this homage to Dionysus with the same bottlings in 5 years, or 10 for that matter, this could climb the podium next to the CdC. Huge thanks, my catty sniveling above aside, to csimm, for this delight. 96+++
June 21, 2021 - Too much hype in these Napa cult wines. Blind tasted and I thought it was eventually a young and fleshy $200 napa cab ...But...the aftermarket price goes insane. I am getting cautious.
May 28, 2021 - Nose: [58°] Initially very perfumed with lots of fresh wild white and purple flowers, fresh red fruits, prickly brambles, damp tree bark, grass and wet earth. [64°] It doesn't take long for the fruit to somehow turn dark and almost black. There's also a bit of shiny dark chocolate and something like an empty cigar box.
Palate: [58°-64°] Firmly spiced oak, deep black earth, gentle rush of dark red and black fruits, slightly bright bitter minerals like graphite and a bit of ash. Spice and savory bitter minerals linger long on the finish.
Attributes: Dark medium ruby. Dry with medium-plus amounts of grippy, chewy tannin. Medium to medium-plus body with medium to medium-plus acidity. Great finish of at least 22-24 seconds.
Thoughts: Got really unlucky with my timing here, might be going through a phase. Really tight and coiled. This thing would not open up even after being in a decanter for over 8 hours and lots of swirling in the glass. Structure is there for the long haul. On the 5th sip of the 4th glass and last sips of last glass were the best (oddly specific, right?), and even then it just teased a bit of what this could be. Cellar at least 2-3 years, probably safer with 4-5.
Other notes: Bordeaux glass. Poured one glass, emptied rest of bottle into a decanter at cellar temp ~55° for the duration of consumption of 8.25 hours. Give this 3-5 years.
May 3, 2021 - A beautiful wine that is performing somewhat surprisingly well given its familial linkage to its brawny Tusk Estate brethren. At home following this now-bottled L’Orange (since my last trying it in 2019) from Coravin over the course of a couple of weeks, to ultimately popping the cork last night and giving it a bit of air, I found a full-bodied yet voluptuously accessible beast that carries both brawn and velvety silkiness. Signature Tusk/Melka texture is off-the-charts smooth, with extremely fine grained tannins framing the luscious core fruit.
Black cherry, black and red licorice, black asphalt, and dark spice notes encompass the entire mouth. Mid-palate is full and enveloping, finishing rich, but with perfectly balanced acidity and radiance to keep the cadence on-point. Decadence without heaviness.
I am extremely happy that the perception of overt alcohol here is held at bay. I had recently sampled the 2016 Tusk Estate and it was all about power and booze. It was ‘good’ tasting power and booze, but unresolved power and booze still the same. The flex on L’Orange is much more comparatively measured and judicious at the moment. Of the two 2016 Tusks, the L’Orange is in a much better drinking mood than its Gold’s Gym brother.
If drinking now, I suggest decanting for an hour or so. Otherwise hold for another year or two to see how it continues to develop. 96-98+ points.