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And the traditional bloody pulpit:
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As in most tasting of older/mature/over-mature wines; it is an interesting
intelluctual experience, but seldom a great sensual experience. Don't think
I would have enjoyed any of these wines at a meal. The wines were opened
immediately, decanted, and poured. In many cases, after 10-15 minutes in
the glass or decanter, whatever was there interesting initially had disappated
and nothing was left but a tired hollow empty shell of a wine.
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What was really ironic was the (easily) best wine of the collection was
the wine I expected to be totally dead.... the white wine!! The Estate
White Riesling is a stunning/complex/beautiful mature old white. It reminded
me very much of some 30-40-50 old German BA/TBA Rheingaus that I've
had; also much like some old Y-Grecs (the dry Ch. d'Yquem) and a bit like
some very old Aussie Semillons. It is probably only because of my experience
w/ these other old wines that I liked this David Bruce so much; most other
drinkers would dismiss it as an old/tired/oxidized white wine. In
its youth, this Estate White Riesling was rather strange (to say the least)
stuff w/ a fair amount of the traditional David Bruce oak. Thank Blair
for the forsight of sticking this thing away for 20 yrs. One wonders how
many other Calif Rieslings out there will age into something so interesting
as this??
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The Grenache was, to me, a major disappointment; I was expecting it to
still have a bit of life in it. It's a wine that brings back fond memories.
Back around 1974, Blair & I had gone up to visit David (for the first
time) for one of his weekend tastings out on his deck overlooking the SanLorenzoVlly.
A quintessential SantaCruzMtn experience. David poured this Grenache. It
was, then, a very reduced wine; stinky, sewer-gas, H2S; but man was it
packed with flavor. Same story the Carignan and Black Muscat. As David
went out to cut some bread; all the tasters started looking at each
other, raising their eyebrows, & immediately dumping the stuff. The
conversation hushed immediately when David returned and he moved on to
the Zins, which showed much better. Despite the stench in the Grenache,
I liked what it tasted like and bought some bottles to stick away. At somewhere
around 8-12 yrs of age, it had lost all that stink & had this incredibly
perfumey/strawberry/aromatic aroma. It was my first glimpse at what
Grenache could potentially do in Calif in terms of great red wine (and
it's been one long wait, I must say). I last had this wine about 6-8 yrs
ago, and it was barely holding on.
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Back in the '70-'71 vintage, David made all these Late Harvest wines at
15%- 16%-17%-18% alcohol levels; pushing the envelope as far as he could.
I was just learning Calif wines/Zinfandel then and just KNEW that these
wines would age forever!! The late John Brennan predicted, in his tasting
notes book published down in SanDiego (btw: if you're still out there,
John, you still owe me $15 for the preorder edition that you never brought
out!! Still got the receipt!); that these wines would PEAK about the years
2010-2020!! So much for "expert" opinions (including the ones expressed
here!!). In their youth, the wines were incredibly intense in fruit,
loads of toasty Fr.oak, loads of tannins.... everything you need for a
red wine to age forever!! Maybe there really is something to be said for
"balance" after all! The wines were bottled by David directly from the
barrel, and showed a lot of variability amongst bottles and over the yrs.
The grapes came from the old Mary Carter vnyd down south of San Jose towards
Gilroy and, to get the Zin, David also had to take the Black Muscat, Grenache,
and Carignane. Those, too, he made in this style. They, too, were pretty
interesting. The opponents of alcohol in Zins (you KNOW who you are out
there!!) will, of course, cite these note as clear examples of the generalization
that high- alcohol, big, extracted wines don't age (read Turley here!!).
Such a generalization is like most generalizations.... don't fit
specific cases. At 8-10-15 yrs, these wines were pretty interesting wines;
though still pretty big & extracted. But they just didn't make it to
30 yrs of age. Yet I have had some alcoholic, late harvest Zins at 20 yrs
that were pretty wonderful wines. You pays your money (to Larry Turley)
and takes your chances! When I bought these wines back in '73-'74; I planned
to stash them away and do a tasting of them all at 10-20-and 30- yrs. I
did the 10-yr one & wrote an article for (the late but not lamented)
Vintage magazine. At the 20-yr tasting, the wines were getting pretty shakey.
So I, afterall, outlived those wines (I still do have a pulse, last time
I checked); not what I expected. So...... this represents the passing of
an era for me. I'll probably never again taste a collection of these wines
again such as this bunch. Whot a pity..... the afternoon w/ David brought
back some very fond memories. 5. These wines have no relation to what David
is doing nowadays. They represent a period when he (and others) were just
pushing the winemaking to the limits to see what they could do. In the
mid-'80's, I sorta lost interest in David's wines and didn't think them
particularly interesting. He, of course, lost all of his Estate vnyd to
Pierce's disease and has had to replant. But the last two times I've visited
w/ David, it's been clear that he still has his passion here for wines,
certainly for the elusive GREAT Calif Pinot Noir. The David Bruce wines
I've had from the '94-'96 vintages I have been very impressed with. His
'96 Estate Syrah was as fine a Syrah that has ever been made in Calif.
I intend to keep much closer track of his wines in the future. And
it WOULD be OK for him to make one of these old-style Zinfandels again.
I'd buy it..... though probably wouldn't plan to be following its evolution
over a 30-yr period again (not that I won't be around... I will!)
TomHill
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