WTN: Five With Friends...(short/boring)

A few friends dropped by last night, so we had to try something:
1. Cedarville Viognier ElDorado (EB; 14.3%) 2009: Pale yellow near colorless; very perfumed ripe pear/Viog slight earthy/ElDorado clean/floral/cotten candy very attractive nose; fairly tart light/ripe/pear/Viog slight citrusy/grapefruity/candied lemon peel slight earthy very bright/zippy flavor; med.short light ripe/pear/Viog lighht mineral/earthy tart/grapefruity/lemony finish; quite a pretty/elegant/restrained/non-DollyParton Viog w/ lots of bright fruit; maybe best Cedarville Viog yet.
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2. OjaiVnyd Viognier BienNacidoVnyd/SantaMariaVlly (14.5%) 2004: Med.gold color; light toasty/butterscotchy/oak slight peach/Viog bit grassy/herbal/earthy almost melony/Chard nose; soft rather toasty/butterscotchy/oak light peachy/melony/almost Chard-like slight earthy/herbal flavor; med.long rather toasty/butterscotchy/oak light ripe/peach/melony very little Viog finish; not a lot of Viog character and more like an oaked Chard than anything; not a bad wine but lost the Viog character.
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3. OlsenEstates Blanc des Coteaux YakimaVlly (500cs; 70% Roussanne/23% Viognier/7% Marsanne; www.OlsenEstates.com) 2008: Med.gold color; very attractive floral/peachy/honeysuckle/Rouss/spicy/nutmeg slight earthy/mineral lovely nose; fairly tart rather rich lovely floral/honeysuckle/spicy light vanilla/oak flavor; very long tart/lush strong floral/honeysuckle/Rouss light earthy very light oak finish; a really lovely Rhone blend much like the TablasCreek Esprit; screamin' deal at $15.00
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4. Renwood Barbera Reserve AmadorCnty Select (14.5%; #2934 of 491 cs) 1993: Med.color w/ rather murky brown tones; very tired/cedary/pencilly/oak/old Zin no fruit nose; totally dead and gone w/ no remaining signs of its former glory. Sad.
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5. failla Jordan Syrah QueSyrahVnyd/SonomaCoast (13.6%) 2000: Med.color w/ no bricking; beautiful smokey/pungent/roasted/Rhonish/peppery very complex some blackberry/cranberry/Syrah beautiful perfumed nose; tart beautiful/Rhonish/roasted/smokey/pungent/cracked pepper/bacon fat some cranberry/blackberry/Syrah complex flavor w/ modest tannins; very long/lingering spicy/cracked pepper/roasted/Rhonish/pungent some blackberry/Syrah finish w/ smooth tannins; a simply stunning fully mature Syrah that shows no signs of drying out.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Cedarville: I was rather impressed by this new Cedarville Viognier. In the past, I've found some of them a bit fat and plodding rendition of Viognier. This was not at all; very bright/understated style of Viognier w/ lots of bright/zippy/pretty fruit.
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2. Olsen: This was a wine Steve brought to share. Never heard of Olsen Estate before. This was one of the best WashState Rhone/Blanc blends I've had in a long time. A very impressive wine; I need to try some of their other ones.
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3. failla: This is a btl I stumbled across a month ago as I was searching for empty shippers in my garage (think Fibber MacGee's closet...for those who remember). It was in a stack of empties I had, but seemed a bit unbalanced. I opened it up and there was this one/lonely/sad btl of Syrah. It had undoubtedly sat there since I got it around 2002; uncontrolled temperature, up into the 90's in the summer. I was expecting it to be totally shot. It was not, it was magnificant, with no signs of being cooked. Amazing.
Tom

[Jenise]

Interesting on the Cedarville: change of direction for the winery, or just the vintage? You remind me that I have two bottles of I don't know what vintage--I've owned these for two-three years--I should get around to. I recall liking and buying them because, like your 09's, I thought them less plump and more attractive than what I remembered from previous visits.

Interesting on the Cedarville: change of direction for the winery, or just the vintage? You remind me that I have two bottles of I don't know what vintage--I've owned these for two-three years--I should get around to. I recall liking and buying them because, like your 09's, I thought them less plump and more attractive than what I remembered from previous visits.

Don't know if it represents a change in style of the Viognier, or just the vintage.
I've never considered the Cedarville Viogniers to be of a DollyParton-style, as some are. It's just that this one seemed much more racy/sleek than some in the
past, w/o seeming emaciated.
Tom

[Jenise]

Tom, spurred by your note I pulled one of my Cedarville Viogniers. They're 06. The two words that first come to mind recalling it are strong and fat: dense, weighed down with heavy butterscotch and alcohol flavors and the bitterest finish I've ever encountered on a white wine. Liqueur-like and frankly, not enjoyable. Makes me wonder if I tasted the wine before buying, because I can't imagine myself liking this.

Tom, spurred by your note I pulled one of my Cedarville Viogniers. They're 06. The two words that first come to mind recalling it are strong and fat: dense, weighed down with heavy butterscotch and alcohol flavors and the bitterest finish I've ever encountered on a white wine. Liqueur-like and frankly, not enjoyable. Makes me wonder if I tasted the wine before buying, because I can't imagine myself liking this.

Sorry to have led you down the primrose path, Jenise. Some of them in the past have been somewhat ripe/fat/porky and would not age well I think.I don't recall the '06, but it may have been one of those.
Tom

[Jenise]

Oh Tom, you didn't lead me down any paths. I took them myself--I'd visited Cedarville a few years before and though I'm not a fan of viognier in general I actually liked theirs. Which is why I'm not sure if I tasted this one before buying, I could have just bought it based on that one past experience.