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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.
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Wines from Coastview Vnyd -
February 23, 2011 |
We tasted last week Some CoastviewVnyds wines:
- Le P'Tit Paysan Chard MontereyCnty (14.1%) C&B by ChualarCanyonWines/Soledad 2009: Light gold color; light appley/Chard/celery/tropical fruit/melony no oak nose; tart/lean/tangy/citric some appley/Chard/ celery/ melony/tropical fruit slight mineral flavor; med. appley/celery/Chard/tropical fruit finish; shows good Monterey celery character and no obvious oak; a pleasant Chard at a more than fair price. $15.00
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- CoastviewVnyd Chard MontereyCnty (14.1%; 145 cs) Soledad 2009: Med.light gold color; fairly lush melony/Chard/ fragrant slight chalky/mineral/earthy slight spicy/nutmeg no oak nose; tart fairly rich ripe/ melony/Chard/lemony light smokey/oak rather racy/spicy/zippy flavor; long rather spicy/melony/ Chard/lemony bit spicy/nutmeg fairly tart/lush zippy/bright perfumed finish; a very attractive bright Chard at a fair price.$24.00
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- CoastviewVnyd Terraces Chard MontereyCnty (14%; 120 cs) SantaCruz 2008: Med.gold slight cloudy color; strong tobaccoy/smokey/oak/pungent very strong melony/Chard/spicy slight earthy/minerally slight perfumed talc very attractive/perfumed nose; tart some toasty/smokey/tobaccoy/oak fairly rich/lush ripe/melony/Chard flavor; very long some tobaccoy/pungent/ oak tart/lush ripe/melony/Chard/spicy/perfumed talc slight earthy finish; noticible oak but in balance w/ the strong fruit; a bit like some of the old Chalones but w/ less oak and more acid. $35.00
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- Le P'Tit Paysan Meritage RW CoastviewVnyd/MontereyCnty (14.5%) SantaCruz 2006: Dark color; strong herbal/Cab/blackcurranty/tea bit green strong toasty/Fr.oak bit minty/menthol somewhat earthy/gout de terroir/Bdx-like nose; fairly tart rather hard/tannic strong pencilly/toasty/oak herbal/Cab/blackcurranty earthy/Bdx-like/peppery/cloves rather interesting flavor; long pretty hard/tannic toasty/charred/oak rather herbal/Cab/blackcurranty earthy/peppery/cloves finish; needs some age yet; rather earthy/Bdx-like interesting Cab at a fair price. $24.00
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- Le P'Tit Paysan PetiteSirah MontereyCnty (14.5%) Soledad 2008: Very dark color; strong herbal/spicy/ cloves bit peppery/ PS/pungent/earthy some toasty/oak slight chocolaty/DrPepper quite interesting nose; quite tart rather hard/tannic/rough somewhat toasty/oak some herbal/peppery/cloves/earthy flavor; long pretty hard/tannic/rough some peppery/cloves/DrPepper/earthy some toasty/oak earthy finish; needs much age; a bit like the early Ventana PS's, more like a Savoie Mondeuse than anything; quite an interesting wine that'll be interesting to see where it goes; great price if you want to gamble on its manifest destiny. $18.00
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- CoastviewVnyd NorthBlock Syrah MontereyCnty (14.5%; 120 cs) SantaCruz 2007: Dark color; very strong plummy/blackberry/black cherry/Syrah slight spicy/herbal/rosemary light toasty/oak slight earthy quite interesting nose; fairly tart plummy/blackberry/black cherry cola/Syrah light toasty/oak slight herbal/spicy/ rosemary/earthy some tannic/rough flavor; pretty long fairly tart some tannic/structured strong plummy/ blackberry/black cherry cola somewhat earthy/rustic slight herbal light toasty/oak finish; not the herbal/citric qualities of SantaLuciaHighlands Syrah; more like Cabot's HumboltCnty Syrah, some like the AlderSprings/ MendoCnty Syrah, w/ a bit of sauvage/rustic Cornas character; a pretty big interesting Syrah; will be interesting to see how this ages; fairly priced at $29.00.
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1. Several weeks ago, we had tried the wines from ThacherWnry down in Paso. One of them was a Syrah from CoastviewVnyd in MontereyCnty, that I liked quite a bit. Never having heard of this vnyd, I assumed it was in the SanAntonioVlly/SanLucas area of southern MontereyCnty; an area I've been pretty underwhelmed by their Syrahs. If so, this would have been the first Syrah from this area that made an impression on me.
But I was totally wrong. This is a fairly new vnyd due east of Chualar, up in the Gavilen Mtns
above the SalinasVlly, not too far north of the Chalone/Brosseay vnyds and south of JoshJensen's CaleraVnyd in the MtHarlin area. The winemaker for the operation is IanBrand, a person I'd met
on WineBerserkers. RichardJennings has a very nice blog on his visit w/ Ian at Coastview vnyd
last Aug: http://rjonwine.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/visit-to-coastview-vineyards-with-winemaker-ian-brand/ So I ordered up a case of the current releases to try with my group.
The LeP'TitPaysan wines are Ian's wines from purchased grapes. Very reasonably priced I thought. Fun label. In the CoastviewVnyd wines, I was looking to identify any of their terroir. Failed completely. Because of their altitude, I thought they might resemble the SantaLuciaHighlands. They did show much similarity that I could find. Nor much similarity to the Chalone wines...back when they were one of Calif's best labels.
Of the wines, I thought the Syrah was the best and the most interesting. Worth laying down a few to see where they go. Clearly, this is a winery worth following I think.
TomHill
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Updated 3.12.11
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