Tried this last night w/ pasta:
1. AuBonClimat RanchoVinedoVnyd/SantaMariaVlly PinotNoir (TW) Clendenen-Tolmach Vintners/SantaMaria 1989: Med.light rather murky color w/ significant browning; lovely classic aged Burg/dried rose petal/dried herbs slight tomatoey/earthy some toasty/smokey/oak rather fragrant/complex nose; soft/smooth smokey/toasty/pungent/pencilly beautiful aged Burg/dried flowers very Burgundian complex flavor; very long/lingering classic aged Burg/dried floral some toasty/cigar box//pencillt/smokey bit mushroomy/tomatoey finish w/ a slight astringency on the backpalate; a beautiful/complex lovely old lady w/ very strong Burgundian character. $14.00
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. I pulled this out of my stash last night as a throw-away wine. It was ullaged almost 4" below the bottom of the cork; the cork was loose in the neck and started to twist when I ran the corkscrew in. The cork was very crumbly and pretty much disinitigrated when I tried to remove it, so had to decant it thru my filter funnel. I had tried the ABC '88 BenedictVnyd/SantaYnezVlly a few weeks earlier and it was totally DOA and went down the drain. So I had pretty low expectations for this wine, especially given the murky/brown color on decanting.
What a huge surprise when I took my first sniff. It had all the earmarks of a lovely/old/mature RedBurg. But I suspected it was going to be dried-out/astringent on the palate, like many older wines. It was not. It had this wonderful smooth texture of a mature RedBurg; still loads of flavor, and a total pleasure to drink. I expect any Burgundyphiles would not be able to identify it as Calif. When you gamble w/ old wines...sometimes you connect and outta the park it goes.
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2. JimClendenen, Adam Tolmach, and BobLindquist, all striking out on their own from low-level jobs at ZacaMesa, first made their wines in a retired dairy barn on SamHale's property up in LosAlamos (the lesser one). MaryVigarossa, then pushing 90, was Sam's winemaker there, a lovely vigorous (goes w/ the name) sprightly lady. The Ojai, AuBonClimat, and Qupe labels were housed there. I first visited there in the mid-'80's on one of my early trips to SantaBarbaraCnty. First met BobLindquist and JimClendenen there on that visit. Adam, ever the stealth partner (Bob refers to him as the anti-marketing guy), was not there. Although I had ben sending Adam my tasting notes on his Syrahs with high/florid praise; he (of course) never responded to my missives. This unrequited love went on for years (followed Adam from the very start, I did) until I finally met this elusive winemaker at a WineCask futures tasting around '89 or '90 (also met BernieRoth for the first time then...but that's a whole nuther story...no unrequited love there!!). Sorta reminds you of Jacques Reynaud a bit.
I had forgot that Adam & Jim were a partnership on these early ABC wines. I don't know if this wine was made in the dairy barn (no merde therein) or they might have moved to the Miller's CentralCoastWineCoop in SantaMaria. Shortly thereafter, they disolved the partnership, Jim & Bob went to their wnry on the BienNacido property, and Adam went to his wnry down in Ojai, to which I was eventually allowed to actually visit..the first of many subsequent visits.
Anyway...it was a lovely trip down memory lane last night.
Tom
Next morning: Pretty much dead & gone. Dried-out, astringent, nothing but charred oak on the nose.