2011 Booker Vineyard Grenache The Ripper

Community Tasting Notes (34) Avg Score: 92.7 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View timewithwine's profile
  • Report Issue

  10/21/2023 - timewithwine Likes this wine:

  How fortuitous that I didn’t like the first bottle of this wine and simply continued to skip over this bottle whenever I came across it in the cellar. But with “only sausages” on the menu, I opted to let the real Rhones sleep and pull something Rhone-ish but not one of my favored California Rhone Rangers. Ripper got the call. The 2011 vintage brought challenges with fruit set and frost induced losses. Rain challenged harvest. And while Grenache can produce some beguiling wines, California Grenaches, particularly 100% Grenache wines can be syrupy messes.
  The Durland cracked through the wax capsule. The cork came out clean and easy followed by the wine decanting a bit. With the initial inhale of the wine’s bouquet and pouring less than a half ounce, I thought, “It’s an alcoholic mess.” Later, just before dinner the brooding darkness smelled of strawberries and dried cherries. With the first pour for dinner, strawberries dominated the attack while cracked black pepper carried the finish. The mid-palate was a bit hollow. With the second pour, the strawberries sang as if macerated in balsamic vinegar, while dried cherries held their own. The mid-palate had filled in with leather, tobo leaf, cigar smoke and carried over with the black pepper finish. The alcohol on the nose (and decidedly present on the palate) never smooths out, but it does dissipate. This is a beautiful wine that is a step out of balance. Surprisingly, not a speck of sediment. 14.8% alc. With grilled sausages from Yellow Umbrella and grilled radicchio under balsamic vinegar which worked rather well with the wine itself. 10.21.23. Recommended, and but for the alcohol being out of balance, would likely have been Highly Recommended.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Backdoctor's profile
  • Report Issue

  8/14/2022 - Backdoctor wrote: 93 Points

  Medium body grenache, lots of fruit still showing at 11 yrs old

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Backdoctor's profile
  • Report Issue

  9/12/2021 - Backdoctor wrote: 94 Points

  Another great Booker wine. Big fruit on palate. Easy drinking, went well with dinner.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • View ddsolomon2000's profile
  • Report Issue

  10/24/2020 - ddsolomon2000 wrote: 97 Points

  Still going strong.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View JRockEsq's profile
  • Report Issue

  7/18/2020 - JRockEsq Does not like this wine: 80 Points

  Method: tasted blind; decanted for a few hours; about 63 degrees; Cab glass; this bottle was purchased recently, so no one knows how it was stored
  
  Nose: potpourri, clean linen, dried cranberry, light grape Jolly Rancher, black cherry, milk chocolate
  
  Palate: dried cranberry, dried cherry, dried tart cherry; medium+ finish of leather, black pepper, slight dried herbs; dry; medium- body; high tannin; medium+ acidity
  
  Slightly declined on day two where it was somewhat similar but tasted more of dirt.
  
  Overall: Shocked this was from Paso and Grenache. I guessed old world. To me, the palate was simple with only dry, almost dirty fruit, and a lighter body, but still a lot of stuffing. For my palate, it was quite out of balance and lacking both "umph" and finesse or elegance. I thought this was just mediocre and right on the edge of being pretty bad/lacking. Booker has yet to really impress me, especially for the price, but this was surprisingly disappointing for me.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 34 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.