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And the usual banalities found in the ol' bloody pulpit:
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Howard & Rhoda Sherry recently returned from the Marche Aux Vin in
Ampuis w/ some of the particular wines they liked. Howard offered them
up against some of the Calif Syrahs. Being of a competitive nature, I advertised
the tasting as Howard's Syrahs vs. Tom's Syrahs. Howard, being very vertically
challenged, I knew was no competition on the basketball court. And Howard,
never having handled an epee, would be easy target on the fencing strip.
But I should have known better than to take on Howard, competitive-wise,
in a wine-tasting venue!! His Rhones blew away my Calif stuff. Easily!!
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The Gourt: This is the third time I've had the '98 Gourt. Liked it best
of all this time because it showed some roasted/Rhonish character. It's
a huge/mouthfilling/very extracted wine, yet doesn't show a whole lot of
fruit. I would guess a fair amount of juice was saignee'd away. It may
be one of those wines whose tannins outlive everything else and never comes
around. It'll be fun to watch the thing evolve. Certainly the biggest and
the mose expensive Rasteau ever made. But sure don't get the Grenache in
it.
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The prices on Howard & Rhoda's Rhones are what they recently paid over
there in France. Any resemblance between them & reality is purely coincidental.
Besides, when Rhoda turns on the charm.... any winemaker will give them
a good discount!!
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I was quite chagrined to open up that bottle of Livingston Moffet and find
a very good, very tasty, delicious RED wine. Because of the striking similarity
between the bottle and the label/packaging; I thought SURE I was getting
a bottle of Livingston Cream Sherry when I bought it. This kind of nonsense
makes it very confusing in the marketplace for us simple-minded consumers.
This is exactly the kind of stuff that I think the Gallo lawyers should
pursue like vicious bulldogs. I NEED protection from these Livingston Moffet
charlatans!! Syrah.... indeed!!
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Jasmin wines: I used to really like the jasmin C-R back in the '70's. In
the late '80's and into the '90's; I've been very disappointed by them;
finding them rather on the light/ anemic/thin side; pretty wines but just
that. This '98 was, by far, the best Jasmin C-R I've ever had; loads of
Syrah fruit. I hope this is a sign of things to come.
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The Calif Syrahs: I must confess that I handicapped myself a bit in my
choice of the Calif Syrahs. I did not intentionally pick the best Calif
Syrahs I could find since I was so certain of my triumph over Howard. Except
for the Orion; I expected the Calif Syrahs to be over-priced and overblown.
They were not from producers who had a reputation w/ Syrah. They were,
in fact, good & interesting Syrahs... but over-priced & overblown.
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The French Syrahs: I was blown away by the Rhone Syrahs Howard & Rhoda
provided. Two things particularly struck me: the wines had great intensity
and extraction and lushness.... but yet at modest alcohol levels; levels
that would be considered anemic in Calif. Secondly, these had much more
lushness & richness & extraction & structure & intensity
than most of the French Syrahs I've had in the last 10 yrs or so that I've
purchased in the USofA. It makes me wonder if, perhaps, they're keeping
the best stuff for themselves and shipping all the lesser stuff/barrels/lots
to those gullible American customers. Maybe more experienced Rhonophiles
could comment on this suspicion.
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Calif & French Syrahs: From time to time, I find sort of a green olive
character in (mostly) Cote-Rotie Syrahs, from yrs when the grapes seem
to be a bit underripe. It was most noticible in these C-R's in the Jamet.
It's the very same green olive character that I sometimes find in the Qupe
Hillside Syrah. In that wine, it seems to come and go as the wine evolves
in the bottle. Interesting. Now if only the Calif Syrahs could get that
authentic roasted/ espresso character that C-Rs & Hermitages have;
rather than that ersatz character that comes from charred/toasty Fr.oak.
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A Tragedy: Howard & Rhoda's trump card, the wine that would insure
his victory over Calif Syrahs, was the Chapoutier Ermitage LePavillon '89.
Alas it was not to be. Howard decanted it at home, put it into a box, and
headed up to SantaFe to pick up Larry Archibald. When they arrived at Larry's,
Rhoda picked up the box to move it & felt something wet. It was NOT
LBD's drool!! The decanter had cracked in transit and leaked all the Ermitage
onto the box and the floor of the car. What a perfumey ride up to LosAlamos
THAT must have been. Howard, however, didn't need the wine to insure his
victory.
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The Orion: Sean Thackery's "winery" (it's a bunch of tin roofed shanties,
with canvas tarps as walls) is located in the huge grove of huge eucalyptus
trees looking over the back bay in Bolinas. That HAS to be where the strong-to-intense
eucalyptus character in nearly all his red wines (he makes no whites to
my knowledge) comes from. The wines, particularly the Orion, which is supposedly
mostly Syrah, are unique, bizarre,eccentric; not to everyone's taste. The
eucalyptus CAN be a bit overpowering; it's roughly the same intensity as
the American oak in the St.Francis Zins. But it's also backed up by huge/intense/extracted
fruit. I had this '97 first time at Brad's ZAP off-line in January and
thought it was a weaker Orion. Maybe at too warm a temperature. This one
seemed to have not quite as much intense blackberry fruit as previous ones
but it certainly has the stuffing for the long haul. Very amazing wine.
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Dessert Viogniers: Oy..... DumbDumbDumbDumb..... I should have known better
than to try to best Howard in the dessert wine arena. The BonnyDoon was
widely disliked by the group. I thought it was sort of interesting wine.
Lots of applesauce character; like apples that had fallen to the ground
last Fall and rotted there under the snow & leaves until you step on
them in the spring and all that brown/rotted fruit oozes up between your
toes.... that kind of applesauce (it's a Kansas thing... you had to have
been there). But taken like a VinSanto or an Oloroso sherry, it wasn't
bad stuff. Just suffered by compaison. The Cuilleron was pretty terrific
German BA-dessert wine. Perhaps a waste of perfectly good grapes as I thought
the Viognier and Condrieu character had been obliterated by the botrytis.
Reminded me a lot of the Novarro ClusterSelect Rieslings. But stunning
stunning dessert wine.
TomHill (suitably humbled after being taken to the woodshed by Howard)
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