WTN: EdmundsStJohn Port O'Call NewWorldRed '89..(short/borin

Cracked this open last night w/ my leftover pasta after fencing:
1. EdmundsStJohn Port O'Call Brand NewWorldRed Authentic Calif TW (12.8%; 50% Zin, 25% Mourvedre, 25% Charbono) 1989: Dark color w/ slight bricking; slightly funky/barnyardy/horsey/SouthernRhonish nose that cleared to slight spicy/blackberry/Zin some spicy/cardammon/Indian spices/exotic some earthy/dusty quite complex nose; soft/smooth very slight Rhonish/funky/gamey some spicy/blackberry exotic Indian spices/peppery very slight tannic/dried out complex flavor; long slight tannic/dried out old Zin/cigar box slight licorice/spicy/blackberry exotic Indian spices/cardammon complex finish; not a lot of fruit left and slightly dried out but in great condition and pleasurable drinking w/ the pasta and balsamic braised cippolline. $9.50
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. This was a cheap Vin de Table in its day, but it's only very slightly past its day now. My recollection was it was a bit rough-hewn sort of wine but pretty good drinking for the here & now. Here & now was quite awhile ago...but it's still pretty good drinking.
According to Steve, this was 2'nd crop Zin and 1'st crop Charbono from ChesterBrandlin's Ranch, and PatoVnyd Mourvedre.
It's very reassuring to read on the label that the wine is "Authentic". It's a whacky wine world out there and you just never know!!
The next morning, the glassful remaining in the decanter was pretty much gone; dried out and astringent and pretty woody/cedary on the nose.
I had pretty low expectations of this wine when I pulled it, but Steve assured me he had one last yr and it was still holding well. The btl was ullaged about 3" below the cork and the cork was pretty soft/moist and a ton of sediment/coating on the side of the btl. But the wine, though probably better several yrs ago, was holding up very well, a genuine pleasure to drink, and very exotic in character. Good job on this one.
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Some ?? for Steve:
1. Share with us your thoughts on 2'nd crop Zin. What are they like compared to 1'st crop Zin? I had a 2'nd crop Zin back in the late '70's and found it a rather strange wine; a rather plummy-like/licorice nose that only hinted of Zin; and kind of soft/soupy on the palate w/o a lot of structure. What was the Zin like by itself?
2. What in Gawd's green earth prompted you to make this wine? The grapes were available, at a good price, and you were just messin' around in the cellar? Very neat old-timey label... where'd that idea come from? There must be a story therein??
3. When you were making this, did you envision making a wine that'd go for almost 20 yrs? Don't suppose "intuition and blind luck" had anything to do with it??
4. This was the only vintage that you made?? Did you ever mess w/ 2'nd crop Zin again? Or Charbono? I assume Chester's Charbono is now gone?
5. Would it be fair to characterize this wine as a "low brow" NewWorldRed?? Ohhhhh...that was a cheap shot...I didn't say it!!
Tom

Tom; Glad the bottle showed reasonably well. We made New World Red every year from 87 through 93 (We made over 1,300 cases of it in '93); it was barrels of stuff that were left after our front-line wines were put together. In '89 Rich Brandlin called me in late October and said he had about a ton or so of second crop Zin, and was I interested? I'd never worked with second crop before, but I knew how good therir grapes were from having worked with them for the previous four years, and the price was cheap, so I said sure. They probably picked them a few days later than I would have; the pH was on the high side, so some of the flavors had lost a bit of focus. but there was some recognizable character there. One good thing about second crop Zin--no raisins! The New World Red that year was, by far the best we ever made, and it was definitely blind luck that gave us that particular set of material to work with. Parker liked the NWR better in '89 than he did the Les Cotes Sauvages, a good indicator of the difference in our palates, even then.
The label story: In early '88, I was visiting Wesley Tanner, who designed our ESJ label, and he'd been in Mexico and had found some old wood-cuts, one of which was the image of the ship in the harbor. I immediately thought of the name Port-O-Call, and of the typeface we used, similar to the lettering on the Camel cigarette labels. And I think it was the time of Bush the Elders' first use of the term "New World Order," and that was on my mind and so I also suggested, in that meeting with Wesley, calling it New World Red.
I think the Brandlin Charbono is still there; I'd imagine it goes into Franus's Zin from the Brandlin property.