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Some thoughts from the BloodyPulpit:
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SierraVista: Followed these wines from the very start, afore he started
making Syrah. John MacCready's original passion was Cabernet and even named
his street that the winery's on Cabernet Way. I think he planted Syrah
sort of as an afterthought, since there wasn't much of a track record in
Calif yet for great Syrah. Fortunately, John done did see the light that
Rhone was where it was at in Calif and is one of Calif's pioneers in promoting
Rhone varietals. Daughter Michelle is taking more&more responsibility
for the winery operations I gather and the wines seem to bee getting better&better.
Though I find their recent offerings to sometimes have a bit of a screechy
acidity to them, they seem to be showing more&more varietal character
and more brightness and less of the Eldorado/funkiness they sometimes had.
The ElDorado terroir gives those wines an interesting character, almost
SouthernRhone character, that makes the SierraVista (and Steve Edmund's
wines from that area) rather unique in Calif. Their Viognier has always
been one of my favorite wines; more leaner than most in Calif, more Julia
Roberts than DollyParton in style. Good wines.
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McCreaWnry: I've followed Doug's wines from the very start, when he first
started showing up at HdR. Probably the first WashState producer there
I think. However, since I don't do much business out of WashState, I've
been pretty hit or miss in trying Doug's wines, mostly trying them at HdR
and RhoneRangers. They've always shown well and impressed me in those venues,
though. So when the new Fall offering came out and I saw the Counoise and
Mourvedre on them, never having tried those varieties from WashState; I
jumped at the chance to go thru the entire lineup w/ my group. And glad
that I did. In the more quiet venue of my tasting group (at least some
of the time it's quiet); they wines were even more impressive than I recalled.
We tasting some of these at the last HdR Seminar on WashState Syrah and
I recall also being impressed. All these were terrific to killer wines.
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WashStateWines: Been following these wines from the very start as well
with an Associated Vintners GWT many a year ago, given to me by one of
its investors. That operation morphed into Columbia Wnry/David Lake some
yrs ago. Of course, the Cabs and the Merlots were their first really great
wines I thought. They always showed less fruit and much more terroir than
similar wines from anywhere else. Alas, I often found those early ones
pretty heavily bludgeoned by burnt/charred/French oak and then quit following
them with the same excitement. However, when I tasted RobertGoodfriend's
recent versions, I was pretty impressed with them. Time for a revisit methinks.
The overpowering oak seems not to be a problem w/ their rendition of the
Rhone varietals. It's oftentimes noticible, but the power of the Syrah
fruit seems to stand up to the oak. And that terroir thing makes them often
show much the same smoky/roasted/espresso character, in many cases, to
their NorthernRhone brethern, though seldom to they show the elegance &
finesse of the French versions. But my impression is that some of the greatest
Syrahs in the world are coming out of WashState. A force to be reckoned
with.
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Jaffurs PetiteSirah: This btl was a gift from Craig Jaffurs for us to try.
We had first seen this wine last Spring when DaveYates tasted w/ our group
and showed us a barrel sample. We were so impressed w/ it our group ordered
5 cases worth. This is a wine I've labeled the Archibald Cuvee. I've joked
about how Larry would strut about and preen afore my group about his winemaking
experience with Craig last year. In point of fact, his responsibility was
plucking out all the earwigs from the Thompson grapes the day the came
into the winery. But I can't argue that this is a wine Larry has followed
from the very start...but even BEFORE the very start. That's a claim I
cannot make. I plan to have an "Archibald Cuvee" stamp made up and stamp
that on the labels of the wines when they arrive next Spring. That should
make them especially valuable on the auction market I suspect.
TomHill
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