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And the usual pompous pontifications from the bloody pulpit:
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The David Coffaros: Another stellar lineup from David. He sells on futures
so don't think your neighborhood wine merchant is ripping you off
at his $22-$24/btl price. The David Coffaro style comes thru load &
clear on all these wines: lots of lush/plush fruit w/ a nice touch of Fr.oak,
fairly forward and drinkable, not a lot of tannins for long aging but I
see no reason these won't all be delicious wines 5 yrs down the road. These
'97's seemed a bit more tart & acid than his previous ones; some tasters
thought they were over- acidified but I though the tartness gave them more
of a bright character. And the pencilly/oak seemed a bit more restrained
than previous releases. And they all seemed a bit more strongly varietal,
despite the rather creative blending David does with his wines. The Aca
Modot: This is the name of an indigenous Indian tribe. The grapes come
from the knoll in his Cabernet block where their village was located long
ago. When we walked the vnyd last June, David poked around in the dirt
& turned up pot shards & blackened rocks from their campfires.
This Cab is probably the biggest & most serious wine David has yet
made. And it's a good one; lots of strong Cabernet character w/ that classic
Coffaro polish to it. All in all, another terrific release from David Coffaro.
At the futures price, these are a great deal. He will be offering his '99
futures along about February. Check for this at www.coffaro.com around
then.
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This was my first exposure to Sagrantino grape. If you looked thru the
funky/ unclean Italian winemaking, you could find some rather interesting
black/bing cherry character in there. It reminded me some of Carignane
w/ its rough/tannic backbone, some of WashState Lemberger w/o all the oak.
It's a variety that they oughta be looking at in Calif. And they could,
of course, make it better than them Italian folks.... just give it a strong
shot of new French oak and there it is.... world-class Sagrantino!!!
:-)
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Jaffurs wines: I've followed Craig Jaffurs wines from the very start and
always liked them a lot. They seemed to be a bit on the lean & hard
side but had lots of wonderful fragance & perfume to them. This new
release from Craig is.... in a word.... absolutely stunning!! These Syrahs
are as fine a Syrahs that I have had all this year. These Syrahs put Craig
Jaffurs definitely in the first tier of Calif Syrah producers... along
w/ Bob Lindquist, John Alban, Steve Edmunds, Sean Thackery, Marco Capelli,
Kevin Hamel, a few others, in my list. Ooops, how could I forget Adam Tolmach
& Manfred Krankl. And John MacCready. These prices are pre-release
prices. They will run some $4-$6 more on the shelf of your retailer when
they it them soon. As was quite taken by the Mourvedre. I've become sorta
accustomed to the ContraCosta Mourvedre w/ it's soft fat rather clunky/goofy
character. This Mourvedre was far far better; good acidity, lots of interesting
spicy character, more fruit than they tend to show.... a really fine interesting
red. A variety I think will be making world-class wine in Calif afore long.
And the Syrahs..... all three incredible. They have a lot of that intense
blackberry/Syrah character that you find in the Qupe/Alban/Ojai Syrahs.
Plus a lot of that pungent/toasty character you find in the EdmundsSt.Johns.
But they also have some of that roasted/espresso coffee character that
you find in Northern Rhone. These are, I feel, world class Syrahs. Craig
showed both the Bien Nacido and Thompson Syrahs at the WineCask futures
tasting last March. Everyone else was showing their '96's, mostly already
bottled and finished wines. Craig's were barrel samples of his '97's, definitely
very unfinished wines. I thought that took a lot of guts. Both wines were
rather reduced & stinky, particularly the Thompson. People were coming
away from Craig's table shaking their heads. But the wines were clearly
packed w/ flavor and something special. And, just as Craig assured me at
that tasting, they came out to be pretty special wines. Sometimes, you
just gotta take that leap of faith. No regrets that I did on these. So,
keep your eyes on Jaffurs wines; another great SantaBarbara producer. The
entire line is worth checking out when they show up at your retailer. Has
he gets more and better and more mature vnyds, I think Craig's wines will
only be getting better. Now if we can just get him to work on his bowling
skills!! :-) And for those of you w/ kids: Craig's wife is Lee Wardlaw,
an author of children's books. These are very well-written, entertaining,
well-illustrated books. Heck.... I even enjoy reading them... always a
good sign in children's book. I recommend them highly.
TomHill (389-1)
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