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by Tom Hill

A self-admitted wine geek, Tom lives in Northern New Mexico and works as a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing numerical neutron transport & large scale code development. He has been tasting wines since 1971, participates locally with a couple of large tasting groups in his area, and is practically a fixture at most California wine festivals, such as the Hospice du Rhône, Rhône Rangers, and ZAP. Other interests: Tom is heavily into competitive sport fencing (foil & epee), biking, cooking, basketball, skiing, backpacking, mountain climbing.

Unti Vineyards - September 15, 2010

We tasted last night (9/15/2010) wines from Unti Vnyds:

  1. Unti CuveeBlanc DCV (47% GrenacheBlanc/44% Vermentino/9% Picpoul; 13.5%;
    TA: 0.59 gm/100 ml; pH: 3.49; StainlessSteel; 250 cs) 2009    : Light gold color; lovely perfumed/ aromatic very floral honeysuckle/peachy nose; soft very lush ripe/floral/honeysuckle/ peach/pear some minerally/spicy flavor; very long lush/ripe spicy/floral/honeysuckle/peach finish; speaks mostly of GrenacheBlanc and little of the stony/ mineral character of Vermentino; probably the best DCV RhoneBlanc I've had. $24.00
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  2. Unti Barbera DCV (14.7%; TA: 0.80; pH: 3.42; 13 mo. in FrenchOak; 280 cs) 2008: Dark color; attractive fragrant very spicy/Barbera/berry/Italian sausage light toasty/oak slightly volatile nose; very tart very spicy/Italian sausage/Barbera some toasty/oak slight earthy bit tannic flavor; long very tart/acidic spicy/Italian sausage/ Barbera slight earthy some tannic/bitey light toasty/oak finish; pretty classic Calif Barbera w/ lots of spice; greeeat pizza wine. $26.00
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  3. Terra DOC: ColliTortonesi Barbera VignetiMassa (14%; SummaVitis/MatthewFioretti) 2001: Med.dark color; strong very fecal/Kansas outhouse/unclean no fruit pretty unpleasant nose; soft quite fecal/unclean/Kansas outhouse no fruit flavor; med.long somewhat soft unclean/Kansas outhouse finish w/ some tannins; not any Barbera character and totally unclean; the Coturri of the night. $16.00
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  4. Unti Montepulciano DCV (14.5%; TA: 0.63; pH: 3.75; 14 mo. in FrenchOak; 145 cs) 2007: Very dark color; quite earthy/plummy slight reduced some toasty/oak bit plummy/blackberry/boysenberry slight licorice/pungent very interesting nose; soft ripe/plummy/licorice some earthy/boysenberry light toasty/oak rather rough/tannic flavor; long rather rough/tannic/hard strong plummy/licorice/loganberry light toasty/oak finish; needs some age; a very interesting wine some like a tannic Mourvedre. $30.00
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  5. Unti Sagromigno DCV (92% Sangiovese, 8% Montepulciano; 14.7%; RossoPiceno style; TA: 0.58;
    pH: 3.72; 11 mo. in FrenchOak; 640 cs) 2008    : Med.dark color; fairly strong bright cherry/Sangio/spicy light toasty/ oak rather interesting nose; bit tart/lean very spicy/bright/cherry/Sangio light earthy/ Italianate light toasty/ oak slight tannic flavor; med.long tart/lean spicy/Sangio/cherry light toasty/oak bit tannic finish; needs several yrs; lots of Sangio/cherry character w/o the hard acids & tannins many show; quite attractive and interesting wine. $24.00
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  6. TiuTiu Gofico DOC: Rosso Piceno Superiore (70% Montepulciano, 30% Sangiovese/Ascoli
    Picceno; 14%) 2002    : Dark color w/ slight bricking; somewhat bretty/barnyardy slight pencilly/ozone/pungent/ graphite/fireworks unclean no fruit nose; soft rather unclean/bretty/barnyardy bit oxidized/maderized no fruit slight plummy flavor; bit tannic/bitey rather bretty/unclean no fruit somewhat tired/aged finish; bit too unclean/bretty for my tastes. $17.00
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  7. Az.Vitivinicola CiuCiu DOC: Bacchus RossoPiceno (50% Sangiovese/Montepulciano; 13.5%) 2008: Dark color; very attractive very plummy/boysenberry/ripe almost Zin-like light oak nose; soft/lush/fleshy very plummy/boysenberry/ ripe light earthy/grapey attractive flavor; long lightly tannic ripe/plummy/ boysenberry/grapey slight bretty/ rustic finish; lots of ripe/lush/plummy fruit. $16.00
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  8. Longfellow Syrah DryCreekVlly (14.4%; UntiVnyds; www.LongFellowWines.com) CraigWhitney & MarkSmith 2003: Dark color; slight volatile strong blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry slightly Zin-like/bright  some spicy/perfumed slight smoky/peppery very attractive nose; tart very bright/spicy/blackberry/ Syrah/raspberry light oak light/perfumed/peppery flavor w/ light tannins; long bright/raspberry/bit Zin-like/blackberry/Syrah/spicy light oak finish w/ light tannins; a very pretty reeendition of DCV Syrah. $35.00
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  9. Longfellow Syrah DryCreekVlly (14.4%; UntiVnyds) CraigWhitney & MarkSmith 2004: Dark color; deeper more plummy/ blueberry/Syrah/boysenberry light toasty/oak some peppery almost RRV-like some rich/lush nose; tart/lush/rich strong balckberry/Syrah/plummy/blueberry light toasty/oak flavor; very long lush/ripe strong blueberry/blackberry/ Syrah/plummy slight licorice/pungent/peppery light toasty/oak light tannic finish; more like RRV Syrah and less DCV/Zin-like/raspberry character; much like the Novy RRV Syrahs; one of the better DCV Syrahs. $35.00
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  10. Unti Syrah DCV (14.8%; Durell budwood; 20% whole clusters; TA: 0.61; pH: 3.85; 690 cs; 13 mo. in FrenchOak) 2006: Very dark color; rather pungent/smoky slight herbal/cloves strong blackberry/Syrah/peppery/ boysenberry light toasty/oak rather perfumed quite spicy/bit Zin-like very attractive nose; tart very spicy slight Zin-like bright raspberry/blackberry/Syrah some tannic light toasty/oak bit peppery flavor; very long strong blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah/peppery slight raspberry/Zin-like/spicy light toasty/oak finish w/ modest tannins; needs several yrs yet; speaks loudly of Syrah w/ slight Zin-like spiciness; very fairly priced at $26.00
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  11. Unti Syrah Benchland DCV (14.8%; TA: 0.71; pH: 3.82; 17 mo. in FrenchOak; 675 cs) 2005: Very dark color; more ripe blackberry/Syrah/plummy slight peppery some toasty/charred/oak interesting nose; softer big/rich/lush plummy/ blackberry/Syrah/peppery bit licorice/pungent some toasty/charred/oak somewhat tannic flavor; very long fairly rich/lush strong blackberry/Syrah/plummy/peppery/licorice some charred/oak/smoky finish w/ some tannins; needs 2-5 yrs of age; one of the better DCV Syrahs I've had. $35.00
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  12. Carlisle DryCreekVlly Syrah (16.5%; 400 cs) 2001: Very dark color; very intense blackberry/ boysenberry/ Syrah very slight alcoholic/volatile light toasty/oak some licorice/plummy/spicy huge nose; soft slight hot/alcoholic huge/ blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah/licorice/pungent very spicy/bit peppery some toasty/oak rather tannic flavor; very long/ lingering somewhat tannic huge/blackberry/ Syrah/boysenberry/peppery/pungent/licorice finish; not showing a whole lot of development/complexity yet; a very slight alcoholic character but carries the 16.5% pretty well.


And the usual blatherings from TheBloodyPulpit:


1. UntiVnyd: It had been quite a long while since I'd tried any Unti wines, and then only the Zin. I noticed they has some interesting Italian varieties, so thought I should revisit Unti. The Rhone Blanc was particularly good; maybe the best white Rhone from the DCV I've yet had. I also liked what they were doing w/ their Italian varietals particularly the Montepulciano. And their two Syrahs were some of the best I've had from the DCV. I was impressed by what they're doing at Unti.
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2. Longfellow: CraigWhitney & MarkSmith and childhood schoolmates. The Longfellow refers to the area in Baltimore where they grew up together. I'd not had any Longfellow since my days long ago in old lady Wilhite's poetry class. I was very favorably impressed with both these Syrahs.
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3. DryCreekVlly Syrah: I've had somewhat of an interest in Calif Syrah over the yrs and have tried more than a few. Syrah is a very interesting grape that seems to do amazingly well in a broad variety of growing conditions. That said, I've long been underwhelmed by the Syrahs that come from the DCV. I find that many of them are rather pretty wines, but they seem to resemble Zin more than other Calif Syrahs. The Ridges are, of course, a whole nuther beast; speaking mostly of Ridge winemaking and little of the DCV. And, of course, the Carlisles are in a whole nuther class; easily the best I've had from the DCV. That said, I was very favorably impressed by these DCV Syrahs from Unti and Longfellow. Instead of being simple/ pretty/Zin-like Syrahs; they were more nuanced and spoke strongly of Syrah. I'll have to rethink DCV as a home for Syrah I guess.

TomHill

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