Last weekend, we tried the following wines:
1.CongressSprings Viognier Lodi (13.8%; Est: 1976) DanielGehrs 2008: Med.yellow color; quite attractive peach/pear/Viog lush slight earthy nose; tart bit lean fairly rich/lush/peachy/Viog bit thin flavor; med.long rather tart/thin ripe/peachy/Viog finish; varietally correct Viog at a fair price; fairly ripe but seems acidified and RO'd. $7.00 (CB)
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2.ConressSprings PinotNoir Lodi (13.8%) 2008: Med.light red color; strong earthy/mushroomy/Lodi terroir slight licorice/black cherry/blackberry/Zin-like slight oaky nose; tart light mushroomy/earthy/Lodi low fruit/blackberry light oak flavor; med.short tart rather earthy/mushroomy bit tangy finish w/ little tannins; speaks strongly of Lodi and almost not of Pinot; a rather earthy/clumsey rendition of Pinot; Lodi probably not a good place to grow Pinot. $7.00 (CB)
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3.Maysie Rosato MasutVnyd/MendocinoCnty (200 cs; Sangiovese; 14%; www.MaysieCellars.com) Growers: Jacob&Ben Fetzer; Proprietors: Carter&OrianaEdsall/Healdsburg 2010: Light red color; pretty earthy/cherry/watermelon/juicy rather spicy nose; tart/lean rather tannic/hard quite juicy/cherry/cranberry rather spicy slight metallic flavor; med.long tart/lean/angular/metallic juicy/cherry/watermelon/spicy finish; a crisp/bracing/lean/tannic rose. $14.00 (CB)
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4.Uvaggio RossoVecchio Sangiovese Calif (14.5%; CoastalVllys; www.Uvaggio.com) NV: Med.dark color; strong earthy/black cherry/licorice light toasty/oak some spicy/rosemary nose;rather tart/lean/angular rather tannic strong toasty/oak slight cherry/Sangio flavor; med.short hard/tannic/angular/lean rather toasty/oak light cherry finish; this kind of wine is what gives Calif Sangio a bad reputation. $13.00 (CB)
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5.TablasCreek Patelin de TablasBlanc PasoRobles (50% GrenacheBlanc/33% Viognier/10% Roussanne/7% Marsanne; 13.5%; 30% EdwardSellers/29% Chequera/16% TablasCreek/13% Catherine's/12% DawsonCreek vnyds) 2010: Med.yellow color; attractive floral/pear/apple/GB/spicy bright/fragrant nose; fairly tart/crisp spicy/floral/GB/pear clean/brighht flavor; long floral/pear/apple/GB/spicy finish; a very attractive clean/bright/spicy GB at a good price. $20.00 (LCSWS)
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6.Sattler Zweigelt Rose Burgenland (12%) Qualitatswein trocken 2010: Med.salmon color; lovely very perfumed watermelon/spicy/cranberry very perfumed/cinammon/juicy nose; tart/lean very juicy/cranberry/spicy/cinammon bit metallic/earthy Provence-like/zesty/zippy flavor; med. juicy/cranberry/watermelon/cinammon/spicy some metallic/citric/earthy finish; a nice easy-drinking/zesty rose. $17.00 (LCSWS)
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. CongressSprings: I followed CongressSprings from the very start in 1976 when Vic?? teamed up w/ DanGehrs up in the SantaCruzMtns above Saratoga. They had an old Zin vnyd there and made some pretty good examples of SCM Zin. Dan also made some impressive Pinots and CabFrancs. They had a parting of the ways and Dan went off and did his own thing under his D.Gehrs label. The CongressSprings label disappeared. Lo & behold, it has now resurfaced w/ DanGehrs making the wine using cheap Lodi fruit. Though probably fairly priced, I'll not revisit them.
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2. Patelin: This is a new wine from TablasCreek. Their first wine made from purchased grapes in order to supply more product. Quite a nice/pleasant wine.
Tom