WTN: Edmunds St. John Extravaganza (long, tons of wines)

[David M. Bueker]

Saturday afternoon & evening a group gathered to sample an incredibly wide array of Edmunds St. John wines. From whites through red blends and varietal syrahs, we traversed the range of what Steve Edmunds does with a whole range of grapes and vineyard sites.

We started with two white wines:

2008 Edmunds St John Heart of Gold (Paso Robles)
This was the second vintage of the HoG, and I found it a better wine than its 2007 predecessor. It’s quite fruity (pear, nectarine), and has a touch of back end creaminess that buffers the wine from being too austere on the finish.

2004 Edmunds St John Rousanne Tablas Creek Vineyard (Paso Robles)
This was minerally but overall quite austere compared to the HoG. I also found a bit of back end heat.

2009 Edmunds St John Bone-Jolly Gamay Noir Rose Witters Vineyard (El Dorado County)
Packed with berry fruit and just a heck of a lot of fun to drink.

2008 Edmunds St John Bone-Jolly Gamay Noir Witters Vineyard (El Dorado County)
Slightly spritzy and very linear with lots of bright raspberry fruit. The 2007 version of this was so delicious for me last week. Perhaps this needs time to settle down a bit more, but right now it’s showing rather simple.

2007 Edmunds St John Gamay Noir Porphyry Barsotti Ranch (El Dorado County)
Light spice, deep fruit and a touch of finishing minerality, with a finish that went on and on. Delicious! This was the most complete of the 3 Gamay wines we tried. Not coincidentally this was also the only one finished under cork (DIAM). I am an ardent defender of screw caps, but the clear fact that this bottling was so much more expressive, complete & longer on the finish put some serious doubt in my mind.

2008 Edmunds St John Gamay Noir Porphyry Barsotti Ranch (El Dorado County)
Candied berries and an obvious touch of reduction (burnt rubber). Disappointing after the prior wine. There was no real way to measure up though, as the 2007 was really good.

1999 Edmunds St John Sangiovese Matagrano Vineyard (Sierra Foothills)
I’m not sure what was going on here. There was some Sangiovese typicity in there, but it was obscured by a glue-like element that was unpleasant. The good elements came out more with air, but even 2 hours later (I re-tasted much to Rahsaan’s surprise) it was still somewhat obscured, though better than when first opened. Not sure what to do with this wine other than bury my last bottle & hope for the best.

So there had been a few gems so far (Rose, 2007 Porphyry), but things were about to really ramp up!

Of course we started the red blend portion of the evening with our only corked bottle, the 2005 Rocks and Gravel. This was a real shame as the wine is so good when it’s sound, but we did not lack for other wines.

It quickly got better!

2006 Edmunds St John Old Black Magic (Sonoma County)
Very ripe and fruity. There may have been a touch of heat on the back end, but it went away quickly, leaving a very silky, much too easy to drink blend of Syrah and Grenache. This was screw capped as well, but whether through decanting (most of the reds were decanted) or time in the glass it did not display the same character that the capped Gamays did. I liked this very much.

2003 Edmunds St John Shell & Bone Rozet Vineyard (Paso Robles)
Initially this was a bit stunted, but the more air it got the better it got. It was easy to see when John Gilman liked a wine as he would have to come back for a re-pour as he had finished his glass without finishing his note on the wine. It happened with all 3 of the red blends right in a row. There’s some development here, with earthy/leathery character merging with the still copious fruit. I like the balance here, but this needs more cellar time to totally blossom like the next wine.

2001 Edmunds St John Los Robles Viejos Rozet Vineyard (Paso Robles)
Los Robles Viejos was the old name for Shell & Bone, and this wine showed like gorgeous, old school Chateauneuf du Pape. Wow was this good. Earthy, slightly funky (a seasoning hit of brett perhaps?) & still full of fruit, this was the most complete wine of the evening so far, and ever so delicious. This was also the first (and perhaps only due to the huge amount of wine we had) decanter to be emptied. People kept going back to it. Sadly this was my last bottle, but the 2003 S&B showed similar promise. This was my personal favorite wine of the event.

Onward to Syrah!

2002 Edmunds St John Syrah The Shadow (California)
Still showing very well. It’s the lightest of the reds, but shows pepper and red fruit. It’s gentle and quite drinkable, and remains a great value for the $13 or so that was asked for it back in the day.

2008 Edmunds St John Syrah Cuvee Fairbairn (Mendocino County)
Wow is this young. After the few older wines this is a bit of a shock to the system. Slightly smoky, very meaty on the back end, but it needs to fill out a bit in the mid-palate. I love that smoky/meaty finish though. Put it away for a while.

2005 Edmunds St John Syrah Parmelee Hill (Sonoma County)
Time, time, time. This is very monolithic right now. Lots of promise with all that black fruit, but it’s a dark room right now. I will keep my hands off for a long time.

2001 Edmunds St John Syrah Wylie-Fenaughty (El Dorado County)
2003 Edmunds St John Syrah Wylie-Fenaughty (El Dorado County)
2005 Edmunds St John Syrah Wylie-Fenaughty (El Dorado County)
I group these wines together for a single “note” as they showed a clear vineyard and varietal signature that was so blatantly obvious that it has to be mentioned. Each was formed around a core of herbal/meaty/earthy elements that was right there for the smelling/tasting in all of the 3 wines. The 2001 was certainly the most developed, and I am going to be drinking more of that wine soon. It’s too good to miss now. The 2003 is still finding its way, and reminded us all of the 2003 Shell & Bone in that both seems to be grumpy adolescents that need coaxing or time. The 2005 was just a revelation with so much fruit allied to that herbal/meaty/earthy core that it would be hard to not suck down magnums of the stuff right now. The 2005 was my second favorite wine of the event, but these were all so good.

2001 Edmunds St. John Syrah Bassetti Vineyard (San Luis Obispo County)
2003 Edmunds St. John Syrah Bassetti Vineyard (San Luis Obispo County)
2005 Edmunds St. John Syrah Bassetti Vineyard (San Luis Obispo County)
Once again there was a clear resemblance with these 3 wines. They were all much more structured & brooding that their Wylie-Fenaughty counterparts, and they lacked that herbal/earthy element that made the W-F wines just so amazing. That said these were all very good if (with perhaps the exception of the 2001) in need of a good bit more cellar time. This is the black fruit and bramble end of the spectrum. I really liked the development of the 2001, as it had opened up more, with additional bottle age character, but it just did not sing to me the way the Wylie-Fenaughty wines did. The 2003 and 2005 were big, brooding, monolithic and in need of much time.

1994 Edmunds St. John Syrah Durell Vineyard (Sonoma County)
1997 Edmunds St. John Syrah Durell Vineyard (Sonoma County)
1999 Edmunds St. John Syrah Durell Vineyard (Sonoma County)
Can someone please get Steve some Syrah from Durell again! Along with the Wylie-Fenaughty wines, the Durell showed a distinctive site similarity and an expressiveness that was just captivating. I’m not sure any of these were really at peak yet, but the ’94 and ’97 were amazingly good, with plenty of dark fruit still there to accompany a rich, deep earth element. Again they did not have the herbal complexity of the Wylie-Fenaughty wines (now clearly my favorite Syrah site for Steve), but they were so well balanced, and showed so much Syrah meatiness to go along with the fruit that it was hard to slight them except for a somewhat acidic bite in the ’99.

There was also a bottle of 1988 Edmunds St. John Zinfandel ‘Amaronese, which I found to have a very raisined/volatile character that I did not much care for.

Overall this was an amazing success for Steve’s wines. There were perhaps only 5 or so “stunners”, but the overall quality level was extremely high, the wines so incredibly drinkable that I am only more convinced to buy the wines whenever and wherever they are available.

Thanks to John Gilman and his wife Marie-France for hosting us (and feeding us!), “The real” Jay Miller for organizing, Salil for spitting & driving and to all the other participants (Dale Williams, Jeff Grossman, Rahsaan Maxwell) for sharing their ESJ wines. This was a rare opportunity not to be missed.

Finally – bravo to Steve Edmunds! You are one heck of a winemaker.

I envy you the opportunity.
Best, Jim

I was just about to post. I'll do my writeup, and then fgure out where we disagree

The real Jay Miller organized a tasting of Edmunds St. John wines for yesterday evening. I joined Rahsaan on a train upcounty, met up with Jay and Jeff at station, and host John Gilman picked us up. We arrived to find Salil and David and Laura Bueker had already arrived. Nezi joined us as we finished the whites.

John and Marie-France were great hosts, and the food was delicious- a nice spread of cheeses and mousse, followed by an extraordinary mushroom strudel, with lamb and couscous as the main course.

Fun evening, with lots of ..um....debate about screwcaps. A couple of whites, a pink, and then a horde of reds.

White Flight

2008 Edmunds St. John Heart of Gold
Peaches, floral, slightly oily, round. B/B-

2004 Edmunds St John Roussanne
Floral, big, soft, edging towards hot. B-

A lone Pinky

2009 Edmunds St. John Bone Jolly Gamay Rose
Bright strawberries, spring flowers, good acids. Very good. I'll buy. B+

Gamay Flight

2008 Edmunds St. John Porphyry Gamay Noir
OK, I'm a screwcap fan, but this definitely reduced (as well as closed). It does open and show some red fruit, and some of the reductive aromas blow off with air, but my least favorite C+

2007 Edmunds St. John Porphyry Gamay Noir
Bright, fresh flowers, cherries, nice length and goof Gamay typicity. B+

2008 Edmunds St. John Bone Jolly Gamay Noir
Cherries, a bit of a kirsch edge though not hot or heavy, I think I liked more than table. B/B+

A lone Cali Sangiovese
1999 Edmunds St. John Matagrano Sangiovese
This might have been good at one point, but well past it for my tastes. VA, prunes, ashtray. C/C-

The Blends

2005 Edmunds St. John Rocks & Gravel
Corked, just slightly, but it's there. Too bad because a good wine lurks underneath

2006 Edmunds St. John That Old Black Magic
Ripe, forward, fleshy and friendly. Herbs and red fruits. B+/B

2003 Edmunds St. John Shell and Bone[/b]
A little tight at first, but good. Ripe red fruits, herbs, mineral. A nice CdP from California! B+

2001 Edmunds St. John Los Robles Viejos
As much as I like the Shell and Bones, I like this even more. Complete, complex, deep. A-

A few lone Syrahs

2002 The Shadow Syrah
Smoke, dense fruit, I liked more than some others. B+

2008 Edmunds St. John Fairbairn Syrah
Primary, young, but I think with lots of potential (someone found it hot, I didn't). B for now

2005 Edmunds St. John Parmelee Hill Syrah
Good ripeness, excellent length, clean Syrah aromas. B+

The Wylie Fenaughty Flight

2001 Edmunds St. John Wylie-Fenaughty Syrah
Lovely, nice length, medium bodied with good concentration. Black berry fruits, olives, spice. A-

2003 Edmunds St. John Wylie-Fenaughty Syrah
A bit muted, seems to be good stuff underneath, but hidden. I think this might be corked, just below my level of perception?

2005 Edmunds St. John Wylie-Fenaughty Syrah
Medium bodied but really long, ripe dark fruits, good acids, elegant. Earth, flowers, berries. My WOTN. A/A-

The Bassetti Flight

2001 Edmunds St. John Bassetti Syrah
Some light brett notes, but within my tolerance level. A bit heftier, still needs time. Someone says the Bassetti is the Hermitage to the W-F's Cote Rotie, I think it's more Bassetti is to Cornas as WF is to CR. B+

2003 Edmunds St. John Bassetti Syrah
Black fruit, spice, meaty, chewy. B+

2005 Edmunds St. John Bassetti Syrah
Earth, dark fruits, some herbs. Lots fo structure, this needs time. B+/A-

The Durrell Flight

1999 Edmunds St. John Durell Syrah
Some lifted notes, mature, pleasant. B

1997 Edmunds St. John Durell Syrah
Drinking well, black fruits and smoked meat, some light tannins remaining. good acidity. B+/A-

1994 Edmunds St. John Durell Syrah
Mature but not the least bit tired, bacon and olives, blackberries. A-/B+

A lone Zin
1988 Edmunds St. John Amaronese Zinfandel
Complex nose of toffee, spice, and blackberry liquer, but a bit disjointed on palate, probably better 10 years ago. B (I liked more than some others)

Quite an event -special thanks to Jay and John. I liked or loved the vast majority of the reds. If anything this strengthened my resolve to buy ESJ. Wish I could make it to some of the NYC events this week.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.  

2008 Edmunds St John Syrah Cuvee Fairbairn (Mendocino County)
Wow is this young. After the few older wines this is a bit of a shock to the system. Slightly smoky, very meaty on the back end, but it needs to fill out a bit in the mid-palate. I love that smoky/meaty finish though. Put it away for a while.

This was Steve's first effort w/ BioDynamic grapes and I believe he's not gone back for them again. I tasted it first time at the Syrah of Balance seminar in Sebastapol afore RhoneRangers.
I was pretty underwhelmed by it...an Oakland wine.."There's no there there". However, I have a sneakin' suspicion that this'll turn into a pretty interesting wine w/ time.

Can someone please get Steve some Syrah from Durell again!

Nope...notta gonna happen. I think the grapes go to K-J these days. Steve doesn't think it's farmed as well as it once was and that SteveHill's Parmalee-Hill vnyd
produces Syrah as good as the Durrell used to be.

There was also a bottle of 1988 Edmunds St. John Zinfandel ‘Amaronese, which I found to have a very raisined/volatile character that I did not much care for.

This as always be sort of a clunker for Steve. I pretty much gave up on it doing anything interesting.

Finally – bravo to Steve Edmunds! You are one heck of a winemaker.

The evidence I've seen is that he knows a thing or two about the subject. Nice notes, David. Lots of old friends there.
Tom

Even more impressive is the fact that you two already posted notes!

I pretty much agree with your take on the wines although am not sure I would put the Robles Viejos or 05 W-F as my top wines, although maybe in the top trio with the 94 Durell. For personal reasons, I probably enjoyed the 94 Durell the most, if only because I have the least experience with the Durell wines and in that sense they are the 'newest'/most intriguing to taste.

I'm not sure I would say the W-F is more 'complex' than Durell, although maybe because it had all those meaty/herbal notes going on. But the texture of the Durell was so silky and lovely and I don't know if the W-F will get to that same place with age? Regardless, I'm sure it will get someplace delicious.

Also, am not sure I would call the Parmelee 'monolithic' but that may just a semantic issue. It was clearly young but much friendlier than the 08 syrah and texture-wise even friendlier than the 05 W-F (although the nose/flavors on the 05 W-F were AMAZING and speak of great future development). If I had more bottles I would be drinking that Parmelee now to get my ESJ syrah fix while waiting for the other stuff to age.

But, am happy to have 05 W-F and Bassetti and I only hope I can save them long enough to let them blossom!

[David M. Bueker]

Most importantly we seem to agree that there were a lot of fantastic wines last night. I can only imagine how a few of the wines that were not our top 3/top 5/etc would have been received as a focus wine over a meal rather than as part of a slew of bottles. Lots of wines worth owning.

Not much I can add to Dale and David's notes. I'll just say that even though I was trying to spit a lot, I found it very hard with some of Steve's wines - particularly the '01 Los Robles Viejos and the '05 Wylie Fenaughty Syrah, and was really impressed with most of the reds. The Syrahs/Rhone blends were very, very good across the board with the best being really stunning. I'll definitely have to start looking for some of these wines soon. Great seeing old friends again, thanks to all for their generosity, and to John and Marie-France for being so hospitable and accommodating.

ETA: A few photos from the evening:

Thanks everyone for the ESJ notes. I just checked the cellar and was disappointed to learn only 3 of the 2001 LRV remain. I will probably consume one per year...does that sound about right?
Also, 10 btls of the 2001 WF remain, so I need to re-visit this wine soon. My last remembrance of this was maybe 12-18 months ago, and even with a couple of hours in the decanter, it had a ways to go. Sounds like it may be finally easing into maturity, but should maintain for another 5 years or so. Comments on this conjecture?
Thanks.
Bill

[David M. Bueker]

I think you are pretty much spot on with both ideas.

Thanks everyone for the ESJ notes. I just checked the cellar and was disappointed to learn only 3 of the 2001 LRV remain. I will probably consume one per year...does that sound about right?
Also, 10 btls of the 2001 WF remain, so I need to re-visit this wine soon. My last remembrance of this was maybe 12-18 months ago, and even with a couple of hours in the decanter, it had a ways to go. Sounds like it may be finally easing into maturity, but should maintain for another 5 years or so. Comments on this conjecture?
Thanks.
Bill

Just want to add that based on my experience of 2 years ago I decanted the '01 and '05 WFs for the same amount of time (2 hours? maybe more?). While the '05 definitely benefited from that I think it was too much for the 2001 as the nose was much more expressive when I first decanted.

[David M. Bueker]

Interesting Jay. Decanting certainly did not hurt the '01 Bassetti, but then those were bigger wines.

[David M. Bueker]

An additional comment. I just opened the '07 Old Black Magic, and it is fully up to the standard of the other top Rhone variety blends from yesterday. It's also under a DIAM cork by the way. Make of that what you will.

I agree that even the wines I didn't put at top would have been welcome on my table (with the exception of the 08 Porphyr and corked R&G). Would have been interesting to trace evolutions over dinner, but too many wines for revisiting.

Thanks for note on the 07 OBM

The Bassetti Flight

2001 Edmunds St. John Bassetti Syrah
Some light brett notes, but within my tolerance level. A bit heftier, still needs time. Someone says the Bassetti is the Hermitage to the W-F's Cote Rotie, I think it's more Bassetti is to Cornas as WF is to CR. B+

Cornas, you say! I'll have to think about that.

I think a separate, additional word of thanks should be offered to our gracious host for owning so many decanters!

[David M. Bueker]

I've been thinking a lot about the Northern Rhone comparisons since yesterday, and I think that none of the wines really hit that Cote Rotie note for me. Cornas and/or Hermitage seem closer comparisons in retrospect.

I certainly don't think that any of these is a "ringer" for any Northern Rhone appellation.
But I do think that one could say that that as a matter of comparing the various ESJs to each other that one could use those comparisons.
To me (and this might not be universal) Cote Rotie is more medium bodied and elegant compared to the sleek brawn of Hermitage, or the slightly more rustic muscularity of Cornas (obviously producer within those categories can make a difference). I'd say the WFs were a bit less bulky and more refined than the Bassettis, YMMV.

For me it has always been that intoxicatingly floral olive bacon nose on the W-Fs that makes me think of Cote Rotie, but now that you mention it, given the texture Cornas might be a better comparison.

Either way, damned delicious wines and that's all that matters.

[James Roscoe]

I guess the rest of us didn't get the invite.

Great write-ups and a great theme!

Interesting note.

I bought a number of the ESJs in the 90s, including several vintages of the Durell which was my favorite. I appear to have finished the last of the 1994s in 2005. My clear recollection of this wine is of a very strong dark fruit core with relatively little of the bacon and tar that one commonly finds in Rhone syrahs of a similar age. So I typically went for the ESJ when I wanted/needed something that was silky, complex but somewhat more fruit-driven than a Cote-Rotie. As I remember, I consistently rated the 94 Durell as Excellent.

About 10 years ago, I think they stopped being imported into the UK so I stopped buying. Anyway, it is nice to revisit (vicariously) an old friend.

Regards,

Robert

[David M. Bueker]

Robert - when I looked on Wine Searcher I noticed there were some UK retailers showing ESJ wines.

David,

The only retailer listed (at least when I looked) was Fine & Rare and they had a 2001 Rocks and Gravel and that was all. The price (£184) looked pretty good, but both suggest that this is a brokered wine that they are re-selling for somebody and not a direct import.

Regards,

Robert

I've been thinking a lot about the Northern Rhone comparisons since yesterday, and I think that none of the wines really hit that Cote Rotie note for me. Cornas and/or Hermitage seem closer comparisons in retrospect.

David,
Would agree on your comparison to Cornas or Hermitage. Steve's Syrahs sorta play around the edges of C-R, I'll sometimes find the bacon fat or
floral/violets notes, but I think they're closer to Cornas or Hermitage of anything.
Tom

Robert; for what it's worth, the '01 Rocks And Gravel is really lovely stuff. I wish I still had some.

[David M. Bueker]

Robert; for what it's worth, the '01 Rocks And Gravel is really lovely stuff. I wish I still had some.

That makes two of us. 2001 is my favorite ESJ vintage. The 2005s I had Saturday tell me that it will be my new favorite ESJ vintage.