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WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

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Jenise

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WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by Jenise » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:46 pm

2001 Siduri pinot noir, Clos Pepe Vineyard
Youthful wine with almost no secondary development. Sweet black, blue and candied red fruit across the palate broken only by an odd decaf coffee note in the finish. A very good, well made wine, but after a month of drinking pinot almost daily, we have concluded that the Santa Rita Hills appellation is not our cup of tea--there's a warmth that we love about pinot noir, that every Oregon pinot we drank had, that these wines don't.

2005 El Felino Malbec, Argentina
Opaque purple-black. Chalky, indistinct black fruit with unsweetened black licorice and toasted barrel flavors. Make that the bottom of the barrel. Thick and heavy--like getting a big cup of espresso when all you ordered--and hoped for--was a cup of straight brewed coffee. No varietal character, no joy. Got through a first glass to be polite, couldn't drink a second. $20 locally.

2005 Paul Kubler Pinot Gris "K", Alsace
Perfumed canned pear and a slight oxidative note (Bob said, "Do I smell sherry?"). Full-bodied from undoubtedly ripe fruit, with the low acid and midpalate residual sugar that typifies the heaviness of most Alsatian wines to me. Went very well with a layered salad of tomatoes chevre cheese and dried thyme, but I couldn't drink a second glass by itself. $26 locally.

Then, some impressions from an annual Halloween party last Saturday night wherein everybody but us brings under $10 wines:

2002 Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon, California
Very ripe, heavy, low tannins, residual sugar. Couldn't drink.

2005 Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon, California
This isn't great wine, but it was downright stylish compared to Mr. Shaw. Nice flavor, balanced.

1999 Nice Legs Merlot
Best wine on the table, and one we brought. This Washington state wine, which I'm sure is made by some bigger name winery but I don't know who, had some earthy red fruit and interesting secondary development.

2004 Coppola Merlot, California
Heavily tarred, unrecognizable as merlot. Nasty.

2004 Kirkland Shiraz
That's right, Costco wine. A savory style medium bodied shiraz with earthy red fruit and herbs. For our tastes, it was the 2nd best wine there but it was full of little chunks of something that looks-wise could have been crumbled cork, but weren't. They were floating throughout the bottle so almost every sip got you some of these solids, they weren't just an accumulation in the bottom of the glass. Offensive.

And there were others I can't remember. Good thing about a party like this is there's absolutely no temptation to drink too much.
Last edited by Jenise on Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Bob Parsons Alberta

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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by Bob Parsons Alberta » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:54 pm

Kirkland/Costco! I was wondering about that, saw some empties and wondered where from!

The malbec probably needs some time Jenise, LOL. I was warned about that one, can you believe from the rep!
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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by Jenise » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:59 pm

Bob, time won't help what was wrong with that wine!
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Dale Williams

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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by Dale Williams » Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:37 pm

Nice notes, rough week!

I'm coming to same conclusion re SRH PN.

I know the Rex Goliath stuff is negociant, but I've also been pleasantly surprised a few times.

Hope rest of week is better!
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Brian K Miller

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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by Brian K Miller » Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:54 pm

I'll keep this tasting note in mind the next time the owner of Chuckie pontificates in the media how all Napa wines need to be cheap and industrial like his plonk. :lol:
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David M. Bueker

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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by David M. Bueker » Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:59 pm

I went through a large number of 2001 Siduri Pinots and there were very few I really liked. I've had other vintages & liked them a lot more, so I'm thinking that the vintage was just not a good one for Adam. I found most of the 2001s overly acidic and somewhat hot with no real body. The 2002s and 2003s I've had were much better.

Granted I prefer Oregon Pinot as well, but there have been some vintages (especially 2005) where I liked Central Coast Pinot Noir a lot more than in other vintages.
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Jenise

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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by Jenise » Tue Oct 30, 2007 3:09 pm

Dale Williams wrote:
I'm coming to same conclusion re SRH PN.


You know what, I hadn't really put it together before. I don't try that many pinots from that area for one, but too I was trying too hard perhaps to appreciate the wines for what they were that I didn't understand what they lacked that I want. It's been an illuminating month in several ways.
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Jay Labrador

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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by Jay Labrador » Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:08 am

Is the El Felino one of the Paul Hobbs wines from Argentina? Tried a couple of them from about a year back: El Felino, Cocodrilo and one other I can't recall. I had the same reaction as you. Very hard to finish a glass.
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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by Jenise » Wed Oct 31, 2007 11:09 am

Jay Labrador wrote:Is the El Felino one of the Paul Hobbs wines from Argentina? Tried a couple of them from about a year back: El Felino, Cocodrilo and one other I can't recall. I had the same reaction as you. Very hard to finish a glass.


It is, Jay, so you'd expect some serious extraction, but you could pave a road with this stuff. It's not good.
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JC (NC)

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Re: WTN: Siduri, Kubler, El Felino, and a bunch of cheap crap

by JC (NC) » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:31 pm

Jenise,
Nice writing with the comparison to espresso. It makes your point very clearly.

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