Home | Wine Reviews | Wine Journals | Updates

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.

Some New Amador Wines - July 25, 2012

We tried last week (7/25/12) some New Amador Wines:

  1. SimoneGiustoCllrs Vermentino AmadorCnty (13.8%) LoneAcresWines/Fairplay/Eldorado 2010: Light yellow color; quite attractive apple/pear slight mineral/chalky rather spicy/perfumed nose; soft bit tangy/grapefruity/pear slight mineral/chalky flavor; long somewhat tangy/grapefruity/pear some stony/mineral/chalky finish; quite a nice Vermentino at a great price. $13.50 (CB)
    _____________
  2. St.Amant Verdelho MissIndependent AmadorCnty (www.StAmantWine.com; 14.1%) Woodbridge 2010: Light yellow color; rather ripe grapey/mango/pineapple/tropical fruit slight earthy nose; soft/fat ripe/grapey/pineapple/ mango bit metallic/steely/tangy quite ripe flavor; soft med.short mango/pineapple/grapey slight earthy/metallic finish; rather on the soft & ripe side; pleasant enough wine but just that. $15.00 (A360)
    _____________
  3. LegendreCllrs Viognier AmadorCnty (13.4%; www.LegendreCellars.com) Fiddletown 2011: Light yellow color; quite attractive Viog/peach/pear fragrant/spicy lovely nose; soft/fat rich/lush ripe/Viog/peach/pear dry very attractive Viog flavor; very long lush/ripe Viog/peachy/pear bit soft/fat slightly bitter finish; a very attractive varietally-correct Viog; on the ripe side but not straying into DollyParton territory. $24.00 (A360)
    _____________
  4. FiddletownCllrs Zin OldVine ZaniniVnyd/Fiddletown (15.5%; 1800 cs) 2009: Med.dark slightly murky color; strong ripe black cherry/blackberry/boysenberry/AmadorZin slight earthy/dusty bit herbal/leafy somewhat alcoholic nose; soft rather hot/alcoholic ripe/blackberry/boysenberry/Zin bit dusty/earthy lightly tannic flavor; med.long somewhat hot/alcoholic ripe/blackberry/Zin light spicy/briary finish w/ light tannins; a pleasant enough Zin but a bit too alcoholic/ripe. $19.00 (A360)
    _____________
  5. Yorba Zin ShakeRidgeVnyd/AmadorCnty (14.6%) 2007: Dark color w/ slight bricking; strong bright raspberry/ blackberry/Zin light toasty/oak very spicy nose; some tart rather tannic/structured quite spicy/raspberry/ blackberry/Zin slight smokey/charred/oak bright/vibrant flavor; very long very spicy/peppery bright/raspberry/ blackberry/Zin finish; very atypical of Amador Zin and more like a DryCreekVlly Zin; no signs of alcohol; very well-made and structured and should go another 5-8 yrs. $28.00 (A360)
    _____________
  6. Yorba Barbera ShakeRidgeVnyd/AmadorCnty (14.9%; www.YorbaWines.com) 2008: Med.dark color; strong very spicy/ spicy sausage/meaty/Barbera light earthy slight toasty/oak lovely Barbera nose; fairly tart sour cherry/spicy sausage/rosemary/Barbera light toasty/oak bit earthy/dusty flavor; long toasty/oak very spicy/spicy sausage/ fennel/rosemary finish w/ modest tannins; more like a Barbera d'Alba than anything; good/balanced acids and tannins. Should go another 3-8 yrs. $28.00 (A360)
    _____________
  7. Yorba Tempranillo ShakeRidgeVnyd/AmadorCnty (14.9%) 2007: Dark color; rather smokey/ vanilla/ charred/oak earthy/ dusty/black cherry/Temp slight licorice/pungent lovely nose; rather tart/tannic/ structured somewhat smokey/oak/ charred light earthy/dusty strong/bright/black cherry/Temp flavor; very long bright/black cherry/bing cherry/ Temp somewhat smokey/charred/oak finish w/ some tannins; speaks strongly of Tempranillo/black cherry w/ more oak than the other Yorbas. $38.00 (A360)
    _____________
  8. LegendreCllrs Arrastre AmadorCnty (38% Syrah/34% Grenache/20% Mourvedre/5% PS/3% Carignane; 14.5%) 2010: Med.dark color; attractive raspberry/strawberry/blackberry some earthy/Rhonish/garrigue/CdP light vanilla/oak quite pretty/fragrant nose; soft bright/strawberry/ blackberry/raspberry light earthy/Rhonish bit spicy/peppery light vanilla/oak flavor w/ light tannins; med.long light earthy/Rhonish strawberry/raspberry/blackberry finish w/ light tannins; quite an attractive/pretty Rhone blend; much like a nice CdR-like blend but a bit pricey. $28.00 (A360)
    _____________
  9. LegendreCllrs Syrah RyanOaksVnyd/AmadorCnty (14.5%) 2010: Very dark color; very attractive blackberry/boysenberry/ Syrah light licorice/pungent/chocolaty slight brambly/Amador light toasty/oak quite perfumed lovely nose; soft slight alcoholic/hot strong blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah/spicy light toasty/oak ripe/briary/bit Zin-like slight pungent/licorice flavor; med.long slight hot/alcoholic ripe/blackberry/boysenberry/chocolaty/Syrah light toasty/ oak finish w/ smooth/soft tannins; lots of Amador/briary almost Zin-like character yet still speaks loudly of Syrah; quite an attractive Amador Syrah at a good price. $26.00 (A360)
    _____________
  10. CoterieCllrs Syrah CasatierraVnyd/Fiddletown (14.7%; www.CoterieCellars.com) SanJose 2009: Med.dark color; quite peppery/spicy slight plastic/Nagahyde light blackberry/Syrah rather interesting/strange nose; soft somewhat alcoholic/hot bit peppery/cold-climate light blackberry/Syrah/spicy bit Nagahyde/herbal flavor w/ light tannins; med.long bit alcoholic some blackberry/Syrah/spicy/peppery bit plastic/Nagahyde finish w/ modest tannins; a bit on the hot/alcoholic side and somewhat strange/atypical Syrah but not unattractive. $28.00 (A360)
    _____________
  11. Yorba ShakeRidgeRed AmadorCnty (14.5%; 31% Syrah/28% Primitivo/18% PS/10% Mourvedre/7% Malbec/6% Merlot) 2007: Dark color; strong lovely peppery/blackberry/black cherry/Syrah very spicy light toasty/oak quite interesting perfumed nose; somewhat tannic/structured peppery/black cherry/blackberry/very spicy light toasty/ oak slightly tart light earthy flavor; very long quite spicy/peppery/black cherry/blackberry light toasty/oak rather tannic/structured interesting finish; quite a nicely done blend w/ no one variety dominating. $32.00 (A360)
    _____________
  12. Yorba Syrah ShakeRidgeVnyd/AmadorCnty (14.8%) 2007: Very dark color; lovely very strong blackberry/Syrah/black cherry light toasty/oak some pungent/licorice/DrPepper/peppery spicy/perfumed nose; fairly tart rather tannic/ hard/structured intense blackberry/black cherry/Syrah very spicy some peppery/pungent/DrPepper light toasty/oak flavor; very long/lingering intense blackberry/black cherry/Syrah/peppery slight pungent/licorice/DrPepper light toasty/oak fairly tannic finish; needs 5-10 yrs; one of the best Amador Syrahs I've tried in several yrs; my favorite of the Yorbas. $32.00 (A360)


And the usual BloodyPulpit:

1. When I was up in Amador for the NEB#3, I stopped in to A360 WineShipping in Plymouth and ordered a mixed case of Amador wines with which I was not familiar. These are those wines. They are the tasting room for the YorbaWines and a few other small wineries. That next day, I was going to be walking ShakeRidgeVnyd w/ Ann Kraemer down by SutterCreek. So this was a good opportunity to try a full selection of her Yorba wines.

I had not visited up in AmadorCnty for almost 10 yrs. There were a fair number of new wineries I was not familiar with. I think that BillEaston/TerreRouge and AnnKraemer/Yorba are easily the star winemakers for AmadorCnty. I also liked DawnMartella's wines at Karmere quite a lot. The new SouthAmerican owners of Renwood are dumping a fair amount of $$'s into that winery, but it's not clear that a turn-around for Renwood is going to happem immediately. DaveCrippen remains as the hands-on winemaker, with a number of consulting winemakers. It will be interesting to see what changes will transpire in the ShenandoahVlly with the arrival of Tegan/Turley on the scene.
_____________
2. Yorba: These are AnnKraemer's wine from her ShakeRidgeVnyd. The winemaker is KenBernards over in the NapaVlly; where Ann does a lot of vnyd consulting work. I had the opportunity to walk (well..ride) ShakeRidge w/ Ann two months ago. It's a complicated vnyd puncuated w/ lots of dips and ridges and planted to a number of different varieties. It's located on ShakeRidge Rd about 4-5 miles SE of the ShenandoahVlly in a beautiful setting surrounded by forest. I would suspect that, because of air drainage, it is somewhat cooler than in the ShenandoahVlly. Not sure exactly how she decides which varieties go where. Total area is almost 50 acres to grapes. All the rows have a small tag w/ the names of the recipients of those grapes on it.

Since the production level of Yorba is not that large, Ann shares her crop w/ a number of different highly-regarded winemakers who seem to think highly of those grapes. I had tried the Yorba Syrah at a number of Rhone events, but this was the first time to try all the others together. I was mightly impressed. They are quite different from other Amador/ ShenandoahVlly wines, where the ShenandoahVlly terroir tends to sublimate the varietal character to some extent. The Yorbas speak strongly of their varietal character. They are well-made and very structured. Though the alcohols were in the upper 14's%, they all carried the alcohol well and none of them showed any heat. They did not show any of that ripe/overripe/jammy character that many Amador wines show. And I thought the wines were very fairly priced given their quality. They had a distinct spiciness (that terroir thing?) and more fragrant aromatics than most Amador wines seem to show (Amador wines made by a Pinot producer?). Definitely a wnry to keep your eyes upon.
_____________
3. Legendre: This was a new wnry for me. I was attracted to try it because I've worked w/ Legendre polynomials (named after the famed French mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre) and Legendre transforms. It is, in fact, named after AugustLegendre, a Frenchman who made wine in Fiddletown during the GoldRush days. Founded in 2009 by Scott&Megan Mahon and Jerry&Sally Macy. I've no idea (from their WebSite) what their background is (I find it a bit frustrating when a winery's website give virtually no information on the people behind the operation), but they obviously know what they're doing.
_____________
4. It's amazing what Google knows about me. When I first entered "Legendre" into Google, LegendreCllrs was the first entry to pop up on the list...not Legendre polynomials. It seems to know that I'm more interested in wine than I am in mathematics. A bit scarey, it is.

TomHill

[Additional Wine Reviews from Tom Hill]

 

Home | Wine Reviews | Wine Journals | Updates

Copyright © 1993 - 2012, Tom Hill- All rights reserved
No original material may be reproduced without written consent
Mail & Comments - Grape-Nutz
Updated 4.01.12