Archive for February, 2018

My first encounter with one of Andrew Jones’ Field Recordings was back in January of 2016. My buddy Putnam Weekley gave me a taste of the 2014 Old Potrero Zinfandel as an aside during a Ridge tasting at Mudgies Deli & Wine Shop, and I liked it quite well. I had never heard of Andrew Jones before trying that particular wine, but, according to his website, he’s a “vine nursery fieldman planning and planting vineyards for farmers all over California.” His work allows him to find interesting, often “unknown or under-appreciated” sites, and he is sometimes offered small lots of the best fruit from them to make wine under his own labels. (Jones’ secondary labels include Wonderwall, Alloy Wine Works and FICTION.)

Field Recordings is a clever repurposing of the old term that describes “recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds.” Perhaps the most famous field recordings in the US are those made by musicologist/folklorist John Lomax in the 1930s and ‘40s, including legendary tracks performed by Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly. When you think about it, it doesn’t take much of a stretch to consider wine as a kind of “field recording,” especially wine that expresses a “sense of place” of its vineyard source. In that sense, this Old Potrero Zinfandel is certainly successful.

2015 Field Recordings Zinfandel Aroyo Grande Old Potrero Vineyard, 92% Zinfandel, 5% Mourvedre, 3% Syrah, 14.9% alc., $19.99: Clean and dark in color, and effusively aromatic, all earthy dark “zinberry” and toasty oak. Young, tight and intense, but not unapproachable; full bodied and built for several years in the cellar, but you can give it some air now, say, an hour or so in a decanter, and enjoy it with BBQ, grilled red meats or pasta with a red sauce. The marriage of the deep, dark fruit and toasty oak sets the tone for the wine’s personality, but I’d love to see what happens to this over the next five years and beyond, because it certainly has the stuffing to age and evolve nicely. Find this wine

I found this one, where else, at Ferndale’s Western Market. Putnam is head of the wine department these days, and he has this placed in a stacked display, at a friendly price. I’ll be picking up more this week.

Reporting from Day-twah,

Bastardo

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In what now seems almost like a previous life, I managed the wine department in a high-end food market here in Greater Day-twah some years ago. Distributor reps would regularly stop in with winemakers, winery owners and other in-the-biz types who were on the road selling their wares. On one such occasion, I had the opportunity to meet and taste with Lori Felten, who, with her husband Steve, owns Klinker Brick Winery in Lodi, California. I remember Mrs. Felton as being a refreshing change from some of my other visitors; rather than being one of the glamourous Sonapanoma-types who start or buy a winery and hire others to work and manage their business or the corporate career suits who would often spout their pitch by rote in a somewhat disinterested manner, she was quite obviously a farmer, and I mean that in the kindest possible way. The Felten family has been farming their property for 5 generations, and she was down-to-earth and completely without pretense of any kind.

I enjoyed tasting with Mrs. Felton that day, and I enjoyed the wines we tasted. In the following several years, I sold more than a little of their Old Vine Zinfandel, which garnered a devoted flock of admirers. I’ve been out of retail for a while now, so I hadn’t had the opportunity to try one again until just a few weeks ago. I was strolling through my friendly neighborhood Costco, and I noticed a bin-full of the current vintage at a price that was too good to pass up. Here’s what I found in the bottle.

2014 Klinker Brick Old Vine Zinfandel Lodi, 15.8% alc., $13.99: Clean and dark in color; the “zinberry” nose is a little stingy at first, but this is tons more generous on the palate, with big, rich, ripe and earthy black raspberry and black cherry flavors. Full bodied, but not too heavy, with very good structure (the acids are as prominent as the tannins) for at least 3-5 years in the cellar and nice length on the finish. We’ve drifted away from ripe wine styles for the most part, but we like the way this one offsets the fruit forward character with those earthier elements. It’s an excellent BBQ wine, but we don’t do much of that around here, so we’ll opt for things like burgers (either lamb or beef), pizza or even some moderately spicy Asian fusion. We’ve had 4 or 5 of these already; we have 3 more in the cellar, and with such great QPR (quality-price-ratio; this costs $19.99 at the winery), you can bet that we’ll be picking up more so that we don’t run out when Chef Kerr aka Canadian Zinfan pays another visit. At this price, we can really stock up. Find this wine

Reporting from Day-twah,

Bastardo

There are some things in this world it seems like you can always count on. For instance, who can argue with the fact that the sun always rises in the east? (Even those purveyors of “alternative facts” can’t dispute this, can they?!) Another is what we were all taught in American grade schools, that literally anyone can grow up to be President of the United States. And one of the most obvious to us is this: you can always count on Tablas Creek Vineyard to make brilliant wines, right across the board.

Since I first met and tasted with Tablas Creek General Manager Jason Haas back in 2006, not only have we not had a bad wine from this Paso Robles producer of red and white Rhône varieties, pretty much everything we’ve tried from them is really, really good. Such is the case with the six latest samples we got our hands on recently, all of which carry on with the established pattern of very high quality fruit and winemaking. (Click on images to enlarge.)

2016 Tablas Creek Vineyard Patelin de Tablas Blanc Paso Robles, 52% Grenache Blanc, 24% Viognier, 12% Roussanne, 9% Marsanne, 3% Clairette Blanche, 13.0% Alc., $25.00: Showing clean, medium color, with typically characteristic lanolin, mineral and white peach flavors and aromas. Full bodied, with excellent acids and very good length, this is very much what we’ve come to expect from this bottling over the past several vintages. We’ve just recently finished the last bottle of our not-inconsiderable stash of ‘14s and ‘15s, so it’s high time for us to stock up on the current vintage. Drink now or hold for a few years. 3000 cases produced, incorporating fruit from nine top Rhone vineyards in Paso Robles, each selected for its quality. Find this wine

2016 Tablas Creek Vineyard Cotes de Tablas Blanc Adelaida District Paso Robles, 43% Viognier, 40% Grenache Blanc, 14% Marsanne, 3% Roussanne, 13.0% Alc., $30.00: Clean, medium color with a tinge of lemon, and a stingy nose at first; classic Cotes de Tablas Blanc flavors in the “house style” that we’ve come to know and love so well, rich, ripe and so damned tasty. All white peach all the time, with a delicious dose of citrus and undertones of minerality. Full bodied, but not at all heavy; balanced, zippy and good to go now, or in five years and beyond. An absolutely dee-lish white Rhône blend that will pair well with a wide variety of fish and bird. 1790 cases produced. Find this wine  

  2016 Tablas Creek Vineyard Grenache Blanc Adelaida District Paso Robles, 100% Grenache Blanc, 13.9% Alc., $30.00: Clean pale golden color; rich and intense in the mouth, offering peachy flavors and aromas accented with some lime, with a bit of mineral lurking. Full bodied, with balanced acids and good length, and more lime/citrus emerges with air. A really tasty white, with depth and substance, and like the Cotes de Tablas Blanc, it’s well-matched with a variety of seafood and fowl, and is sure to evolve and improve over the next five years and beyond. 700 cases produced. Find this wine

2015 Tablas Creek Vineyard Mourvedre Adelaida District Paso Robles, 100% Mourvedre, 13.7% Alc., $40.00: Lighter in color than one might expect, almost Pinot Noir-like; a pretty dark berry and cherry nose leads into rich, fairly ripe red and black plum, berry and cherry flavors with nice, earthy undertones. Full bodied, but not as weighty as these can sometimes be, and while it’s structured for several years of aging and development, it’s already gorgeous with a medium rare steak, spuds and broccoli. Every sip is a pleasure. 360 cases produced. Find this wine

And then, there are the two flagship bottlings…

2015 Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Tablas Blanc Adelaida District Paso Robles, 55% Roussanne, 28% Grenache Blanc, 17% Picpoul Blanc, 13.0% Alc., $45.00: Clean, rich color, almost golden; the rich, intense flavors have an earthy, almost tannic quality, very much in the white peach and mineral spectrum. Very good now with a plate of roasted turkey and gratin, but this will be even better in 3-5 years. It opens up with some air, so it might not be a bad idea to decant if you want some now. 2000 cases produced. Find this wine

2015 Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Tablas Adelaida District Paso Robles, 49% Mourvedre, 25% Grenache, 21% Syrah, 5% Counoise, 14.5% Alc., $55.00: Clean and dark in color, with a red and black fruit nose leading to plenty more of the same on the palate in the guise of moderately earthy red and black plum and berry with just the faintest note of oak. Full bodied, with ample structure for 10 years and more in the cellar and good length, it is less in the voluptuous house style than many TC wines display, but it’s seriously good stuff nevertheless. It does become richer and more tasty with air, so, again, decant if you want to drink some now. A solid, no-frills California red Rhône blend that, as always, is much to our liking. 2850 cases produced. Find this wine

Reporting from Day-twah,

Bastardo

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