WTN: Massican Sauvignon '11...(short/boring)

Tried last night:
1. Massican Sauvignon JuilianaVnyd/PopeVlly/NapaVlly (100% SauvBlanc; 150 cs; 13.8%; Bttld: March 2012) 2011: Pale yellow color; some grapefruity/citric rather melony/SB slight herbal somewhat stoney/mineral/spicy/flinty very pleasant nose; quite tart/zingy stoney/minerally/flinty bit Chablis-like/chalky tangy/grapefruity/orangey bit Sancerre-like/lean/sinewy flavor; long tangy/grapefruity/orangey quite mineral/stoney/flinty some melony/SB/herbal bright/zingy finish; none of the herbal/cat pee/grassy character of most Calif SB; quite mineral/stoney/flinty; quite a nice food wine and atypical Calif SB. $31.00
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A wee BP:
1. This is the wine of DanPetroski, whose focus is on making wines in a Friulian style (and who, as we speak, is taking his belated honeymoon in Friuli). Across the board, I'm pretty impressed by the wines Dan is making. His day job is winemaker at Larkmead.
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2. Back in the early '80's, there was a move towards making "food wines", mostly driven by the wine journalists of that day whining about the rising alcohol levels in the Calif wines, particularly Zinfandel. Does this sound a bit familiar?
The simple solution to making "food wines" was simply harvest the grapes early, thereby resulting in lower alcohol levels in the wine. This movement was an utter failure; the wines tasted underripe/thin/vapid and were generally lacking in flavor. They tasted...doh...like they were made by grapes harvested at underripe levels.
Fast forward 30 yrs (one of the few advantages of being an elder statesman). We've been hearing the last year or so the same whining from wine journalists of this era of high alcohol levels in Calif wines. We need more lower-alcohol wines. And a few winemakers have been heading this same/old siren song and striving for wines that are lower in alcohol. Some do it by simply watering back or hitting the wine w/ RO. Most of my favorites (Pax/WindGap, Arnot-Roberts, Massican, ForlornHope, Matthiasson; to name a few) do this (to my best knowledge) w/o resorting to this winemaking trickery. Yet the wines do not taste like the thin/vapid/eviscerated "food wines" of old. They are packed w/ flavor and speak more of things other than ripe fruit...like...maybe....gasp...even that "terroir" thing that everyone is yammering about. Not sure how they do it...but they are not (by and large) simply revisiting those dreadful "food wines" of the '80's.
Tom

2. Back in the early '80's, there was a move towards making "food wines", mostly driven by the wine journalists of that day whining about the rising alcohol levels in the Calif wines, particularly Zinfandel. Does this sound a bit familiar?
The simple solution to making "food wines" was simply harvest the grapes early, thereby resulting in lower alcohol levels in the wine. This movement was an utter failure; the wines tasted underripe/thin/vapid and were generally lacking in flavor. They tasted...doh...like they were made by grapes harvested at underripe levels.
Fast forward 30 yrs (one of the few advantages of being an elder statesman). We've been hearing the last year or so the same whining from wine journalists of this era of high alcohol levels in Calif wines. We need more lower-alcohol wines. And a few winemakers have been heading this same/old siren song and striving for wines that are lower in alcohol. Some do it by simply watering back or hitting the wine w/ RO. Most of my favorites (Pax/WindGap, Arnot-Roberts, Massican, ForlornHope, Matthiasson; to name a few) do this (to my best knowledge) w/o resorting to this winemaking trickery. Yet the wines do not taste like the thin/vapid/eviscerated "food wines" of old. They are packed w/ flavor and speak more of things other than ripe fruit...like...maybe....gasp...even that "terroir" thing that everyone is yammering about. Not sure how they do it...but they are not (by and large) simply revisiting those dreadful "food wines" of the '80's.
Tom

Tom, If you have not done so already, although I expect you have at some point in your life you have, you should get out into the a vineyard and taste the grapes harvested at different spots. We often talk of vineyard differences or even block difference but the reallity is that there can be a noticable difference in grapes growing right next to each other based on soil, shade, wind, etc. My rows are only 40 feet long and the difference in growth habits of the vines and the resulting taste of the grapes from one end can be shocking. I don't really know if the guys you listed are farming the same sites as 30 years ago or not but am guessing that these wines are coming from new vineyards better suited to the desired wine style, instead of trying to make a low alcohol wine out of Napa floor fruit.