Enobytes Wine Blog

Having recently judged the Oregon Wine Competition, I had an opportunity to survey the Oregon landscape. As it turned out, we had many good Pinot noirs and Rieslings for the ’08 and ’09 vintage. Some of the standouts , which I sometimes refer to as ‘diamonds in the rough’, include a handful of gems.

Zerba Cellars for example, kicked it with their ’08 white blend & ’07 red blend. The ’06 Merlot & Syrah was tasty as was their ’07 Mourvedre.  As for Chardonnay, the ’08 Phelps Creek Vineyards and the’09 Stoller Vineyards rocked it.

There were many great Pinot’s but the most impressionable were the  Read the rest of this entry »

Exciting stuff from a great winery that dares to be different while keeping some of the old time nostalgia some of us dinosaur zinfandel heads long for. The fruit for this one contains a pedigree of several vineyard locations all of which have been known to produce some of the best Zinfandel wines ever made.

With sources like Amador County, Lodi, Mendocino and last but not least Paso Robles there is good reason this wine carries the character of Zinfandel flavor profiles of the past. It exhibits the usual berryliciousness with licorice notes on the nose and pulls those smells into the flavors but on the way manages to pick-up the spiciness of grilled plums mixed with macerated blackberries.

A big smooth finish makes this package work; you will be hard pressed to find a cuisine that would overshadow this wine. This bottle will be a welcoming find at my dinner table anytime. ~Marc Hinton

Rating: 91 | $12 | 14.6% ABV

Find this wine to buy: Vinquire | WineZap.com

The fruit from this AVA just keeps getting better especially the Pinot Noir. I remember driving back and forth from hwy 101 and Pacific Coast One looking at property in this area in 1998 and back then, there were very few grape growers in this remote location.  It has of late become a source for high quality grapes that will rival Northern California fruit at reasonable prices. David Rossi the maker of this wine seems to be a pioneer in sourcing excellent quality grapes from vineyards who are still flying under the radar.

This wine is another solid bottling from winemaker at Fulcrum; more proof that commercial level wines can be made at Crushpad. This is not always the case as we have tasted a few dogs made at that facility, but the fault does not manifest itself in the winemaking techniques used. The fault according to my palate has been fruit choice and as much as I have tried to teach my palate to lie, it seems I have yet to be successful no matter how much I abuse that particular tactile sense. As I meander I will try to stay On Point, no pun intended (well maybe just a little).

Just as in culinary, a really great chef can take some so-so ingredients and make them taste OK maybe even great, but a relative newcomer will struggle to achieve palatable results without using the best base products (in this case grapes) and this winemaker has a couple of vintages under his belt and has not faltered because he chooses to source the best fruit available for the style of wine within a particular varietal he plans to make. Read the rest of this entry »

I selfishly admit I enjoy competitions. Why? Because I can use the information to gauge a region, a year, a variety – information that’s useful to update our vintage charts. That, and it gives me the opportunity to tell you about some of the new diamonds in the rough before anyone knows about them, and believe me, they are out there. Judging is sort of like an exploration; you never know what you’ll stumble upon through your travels.

So do medals mean anything? Read the rest of this entry »

The story goes like this: Once upon a time, in the northwest corner of Ventura County, California in a town called Ojai, wine grapes thrived. As early as 1889, people began planting vineyards and extracting from them velvety, premium wines. The hot days and cool nights with enough cold in the wintertime to allow for occasional dormancy were the perfect environment. It was here that winemaking legend Adam Tolmach settled in 1993 after starting and working in Santa Barbara County with Jim Clendenen at Au Bon Climat.

Image courtesy of englewoodwinemerchants.com

Tolmach’s wines have themselves become storied works of art, highly sought after bottles for whom Robert Parker could find no match in those heady days. So it was that in the early and mid- 90’s, Parker scored a number of Tolmach’s Ojai Vineyard wines in the 90’s too and brought to the winemaker a kind of fame reserved mostly for Robert Mondavi and eventually, Jim Clendenen.

But Central Coast varietals, particularly Rhones, began an annoying habit of being too hot according to many in the wine world. Alcohol levels were as high as 16 percent in some cases and Tolmach didn’t want to play that game. He believed balance was the key to a good wine and he meant to produce exactly those kinds of wines.

All of this was against the backdrop of Ojai losing its vineyards to Pierce’s disease, which decimated the crop. Tolmach didn’t let it Read the rest of this entry »

A big winner right out of the gate. Like a race horse this wine takes off and shows concentration and balance while still remaining exciting. From what I saw at the winery there was enough of this wine in their cellar for it to be around for a while. Things going the way they are in Spain right now it will probably be released soon to excited buyers looking to scoop up on vintage wine being sold at less than the usual price.

Spending 24 months in barrel aging and another 12 months in bottle, this selection from the La Mancha district was quite a revelation from this Ribera Del Duero producer known for concentrated, well-crafted reds that do not disappoint and this one was a fine example of all the aforementioned traits. Read the rest of this entry »

Nice enclosure — that’s usually a good sign.  This one is a plastic peel away with a reusable cork; a very efficient way of sealing a bottle. The official jury is still out on whether these actually work better than real cork that fails more than 10% of the time. What does it really matter. Stelvin has proven time and time again in aged wines, fresh wines, good and bad wines their enclosure works better than cork, but let’s get back to writing about this wine. Read the rest of this entry »

The ’08 Adelsheim Elizabeth’s reserve exudes the classic northern Willamette Valley style. I was lucky to have been introduced to Adelsheim back in the early nineties by a guy who was integral in challenging my quest for wine knowledge and I have to say Chris Choate knew a good thing when he tasted it. We worked together at Abiquiu, John Sedlar’s venture with the Kimpton Group.

There were several Oregon Pinot Noir’s on our wine list and they were all good but it might come as no surprise that the restaurant did not do so well.  A Pinot Noir heavy wine list at a modern southwestern cuisine concept might be a deterrent to wine sales.  Well, that and nothing on the menu looked like what it was called. No really, this guy wrote a menu just to mess with peoples heads.

Lamb enchiladas were not a tortilla wrapped nor was there any cheese involved. Huevos Rancheros had egg but no rice or beans and it was served on a pewter statute. But that was then and back then Dave Adelsheim was ahead of his time when it came to Oregon winemakers. Today he is still on top of the game.

This ‘08 has snappy cherry and spice aromas mingled with the earthy Chehalem Mountain forest fauna. The flavors bring red berry fruit deep to the core balancing the forward acidity and making this a wine that screams for food. The mouth filling smooth texture is pleasant delivering a finish that hangs around long enough for you to appreciate the soft lush texture.  Duck would be a good match, as would a bacon cherry tomato and baby romaine lettuce salad. This Adelsheim Pinot Noir is worth looking for. ~Marc Hinton

Rating: 90 | $40 | 13.5% ABV

Find this wine to buy: Vinquire | WineZap.com

Our website Enobytes has been on the web now for almost four years and in our wildest dreams we never thought we would garner the loyal following that we have. In the beginning we thought we would just build a site people could come and gather information about new wines and marketing trends that are usually only disseminated among wine industry professionals and for us the most important objective was that the information would be accurate and free.

Those goals and standards are still in place and despite the fact we disagree and anger some of the other wine media outlets our numbers show people keep coming back. Reviewing the wines we consume and passing that information along to anyone who will read it seems to be what most of our readers are looking for.

This year we were nominated and became a finalist in the category of “Best Wine Reviews” for the 2010 American Wine Blog Awards.  That was quite an accomplishment but the milestone I am talking about now is the privilege of receiving wine before it has been released, and not just any wine but an awesome Zinfandel from Lodi – the ‘08  Harney Lane Lizzy James Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel.

This wine is drinkable now but will hold well into the next decade. There is limited distribution so I suggest contacting the winery if you live in a state where wine can be shipped. If you do not, first I suggest contacting your legislature to remedy that shipping problem. Second, plan a trip to Lodi. It’s a fun place and when you get there you can go try all the great wines at Harney Lane.  Thanks Kyle and the entire Mettler and Lerner families. A special thanks goes out to the crew at Harney Lane for giving us such fantastic wines and the opportunity to let folks know about them.

The ’08 Harney Lane Old Vine Zinfandel has concentrated deep smells of a freshly baked blackberry pie cooling next to some fresh made fudge; add to that fresh coffee brewing and you almost have described the aromas of this wine. The aromas I describe are not from a current mental inventory of aromas I call upon to describe wine, but derived from tactile events that took place during some of the most memorable times of my youth.

The berrylicious assault on the palate is pleasing beyond what a mere glass of wine should be able to obtain and this one gives the love and keeps it coming until  the final drop of the tantalizing fruity finish drops off the edge of your tongue.  As the finish lingers you glance at the bottle to see how much of this is still left. You might share these flavors and aromas the first time you drink this wine but if you are opening this one after trying it among friends then you are a very generous person worthy of being called a true Hospitalitarian. Many wine connoisseurs would horde this one for themselves or offer it in hope of furthering a love interest or serve it to anyone who loves Zinfandel that they may want to impress.

Harney Lane is poised to become the shooting star of California wineries that under promise and over deliver and the success could not happen to better folks. Please join me in supporting this family run winery that keeps bringing standout wines to the market at fair prices. ~Marc Hinton

Rating: 91 | $32 | 14.9% ABV

Find this wine to buy: Vinquire | WineZap.com

Once in a while, you find a wine that actually tastes like the description on the bottle and these are very rare. In fact, I thought non-existent anymore.  But as I say frequently, (mostly to myself) “I would like to be wrong more often” and this is exactly one of those times.

I was introduced to the ’07 Gilbert Cellars Syrah, Doc Stewart Estate Vineyard, Wahluke Slope under extreme circumstances for a wine reviewer.  It was the third night of the recent wine bloggers conference in Walla Walla, there were over three hundred attendees, and more wine shoved in my face than I have seen in a long time.

By comparison, it was almost like attending the Boston Wine Expo for three days, sixteen hours a day with probably just as much wine.  So on the third night of the WBC 2010 we attended a great dinner sponsored by the Washington Wine Commission. Every table had two producers’ wines on it and this winery was not at my table.

This wine was being poured at the table behind me where my friend Andrew Lazorchak, developer of the Soiree was sitting and of course he was demonstrating the Soiree.  As he was pouring at a distance of probably four feet from me, I could smell the depth and complexity of this wine. When something stands out like that, the “MacDaddy” is reaching out with an empty glass looking for some love. Read the rest of this entry »