Four wines we tried (among others) over the weekend:
1, Tallulah Syrah SonomaCoast (14.5%) 2003: Dark color w/ no bricking; very strong blackberry/Syrah/licorice/pungent light charred/toasty/oak some peppery/spicy/rosemary lovely nose becoming smoky/mineral/ozone/meaty with an hour of breathing; fairly tart bit tannic strong blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry some peppery/licorice/pungent somewhat charred/toasty/oak flavor; long rather tannic/hard strong blackberry/Syrah peppery/licorice/pungent charred/oak quite interesting finish; showing a rather strong/hard/tannic streak and either needs several yrs of age or is starting to dry out; does not seem to be developing as well as I'd hoped.
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2. BlackMesaWnry Viognier NewMexico (12.4%; "this Italian varietal grape is popular in Italy/France/Spain"; www.BlackMesaWinery.com) Velarde/NewMexico 2008: Med.dark gold color; pleasant floral/vaguely Muscat-like slight earthy/herbal rather low-key nose; very soft/fat slight earthy/herbal almost watery/dilute very slight floral/Muscat-like flavor; short slight earthy/metallic/herbal very soft/fat bit watery/dilute very light floral/Muscat-like finish; a vaguely Muscat-like nose w/ virtually no Viognier character and rather soft/dull/dilute on the the palate; badly needs acidity. $16.50
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3. BlackMesaWnry Syrah RalAbbottVnyd/Velarde/NM (13%; 450 vines) 2007: Med.light color; quite attractive blackberry/Syrah rather peppery/cracked black pepper/cold-climate fairly spicy/grapey light vanilla/oak some earthy/dusty rather interesting nose; soft/fat rather peppery/cracked black pepper some blackberry/Syrah bit dilute/washed out light vanilla/oak somewhat earthy/dusty slight tannic/metallic flavor; med.short peppery/cracked black pepper light blackberry/Syrah/licorice light vanilla/sage/musky/oak finish w/ light tannins; quite an interesting cracked black pepper nose that speaks strongly of cold-climate Syrah but rather dilute/weak on the palate and lacks structure & grip; an interesting rendition of Syrah and one of the better NM Syrahs I've had in the nose; needs to be served a bit chilled. $24.50
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4. LaChiripada Dolcetto MimbresVlly/NewMexico RTW (13%) 2008: Med.light color; fairly strong earthy/black cherry/bing cherry/Dolcetto/licorice somewhat earthy/dusty some toasty/vanilla/oak bit chocolaty/ripe nose; very soft/fat/porky rather earthy/dusty/Kansas root cellar some black cherry/Dolcetto/chocolaty/licorice/floral slight tannic flavor' short rather earthy/dusty some floral/Dolcetto/black cherry/licorice underacid/flabby rather vanilla/oak/toasty slight tannic/bitey finish; a rather attractive/varietally-correct Dolcetto nose but fails to deliver on the palate; pretty pricey at $34.00
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. MimbresVlly: The Viognier and Dolcetto both came from NewMexicoVnyds down in southern NewMexico, operated by Paolo d'Andrea. It's one of the largest vnyd operations in NM and sells a lot of grapes to other wineries in NM/Texas/Arizona; particularly in Northern NewMexico where many of those grapes have problems growing because of the hard Winters. Paolo, a native of Friuli, makes/sells wine under his LunaRosso label.
He grows a very interesting tableau of grape varieties, including Barbera, Syrah, Viognier, PinotGrigio, Nebbiolo, Refosco, Sangiovese, and Dolcetto.
That said, I'm not impressed by the grapes nor the wines that come out of the MimbresVlly. It's a desert down their, very sandy soils, irrigation is a necessity. I've no idea what kind of a crop load they carry, but most of the wines seem a bit on the dilute side, badly lacking in acidity, and little structure or grip. Plus the wines typically have an earthy expression of the MimbresVlly terroir (I guess) that reminds me a lot of Lodi wines w/o the fruit. The wines seem varietally correct on the nose, but just don't deliver that much on the palate. Easily the best MimbresVlly wine I've had is the Vivac Refosco, which I felt to be the equivalent to any of the pretty decent Refoscos we had in that tasting of a dozen or so Refoscos.
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2. Tallulah: This wine was the very first Tallulah that was made by Ben&Diana Davis and I was so impressed with when they showed it at HdR. They have since sold the label, returned to Florida, had a little kid, and got their real lives back.
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3. Velarde: This town, the home of BlackMesaWnry, is about 50 miles North of SantaFe. Tough area to grow (vinifera) grapes because of the problem of winter kill when it can get very cold sometimes; though French hybrids seem to do just fine. And the late Spring frosts can be a severe problem every few yrs.
I was particularly impressed by the nose on this Syrah, classic cold-climate cracked black pepper Syrah very much like that of Peay/ QueSyrah, or TresViti, though not quite the pungent/bass notes those noses show. Alas, my guess is that (assuming the 13% is accurate) although the grapes were ripe, sugar-wise, they didn't reach physiological maturity to deliver the flavors on the palate what those wines do, and rather underacid as well. So maybe not cold-climate Syrah in that sense.
Tom