Tried the from the archives the other night:
1. Eberle Barbera NormanVnyd/PasoRobles (13.6%) 1993: Dark color w/ some browning; rather vanilla/pencilly/Am.oak light spicy/fennrl/Italian sausage/Barbera/old Zin some earthy/mushroomy fairly complex/Italianate nose; bit tart pencilly/Am.oak smooth light spicy/Italian sausage/fennel seed light earthy complex flavor; long rather vanilla/Am.oak/pencilly light earthy/spicy/Italian sausage/Barbera finish w/ smooth/light tannins; some attractive old Barbera character w/ lots of pencilly/oak and rather interesting but starting to slip into doddering senility, unlike some of us.
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A wee BP:
1. I made my first visit to meet GaryEberle about '77 when he was winemaker/owner w/ Vic at EstrellaRiverVnyd (now Meridian). He had been winning a bunch of awards (rare for PasoRobles in them thar days) for his Chards and Cabs (Gary's real passion). He introduced himself, we exchanged pleasantries, talked a bit about PennState (Gary was an All-American linebaker there in Paterno's early days), and then proceeded to taste thru some new releases.
I acknowledged that they were really good wines, but then revealed "what I'm really interested in is your Syrah and Barbera that I heard you were making" (none had yet been released). Gary gave me this cock-eyed look of "what kind of nut-case do I have here"?? Nobody was interested in Barbera or, gawd-forbid, Syrah. But he quickly warmed to the task when he realized I was serious and we adjourned to taste from barrel. I really liked the Barbera and thought it one of the best from Caalif I'd yet had. And the Syrah...a bit too oaky, but a very pretty strawberry/Syrah fragrance to it. After the first Phelps Syrah disaster, this made me realize that Syrah really did have some potential to make great wine in Calif. "Followed it from the very start", I did/I did.
But I always liked the Barbera he made from the NormanVnyd up on WestSide PasoRobles. Lots of spicy/Italian sausage character to it. But it was always a tough sell for Gary....never did move well. In fact, I think it was his 2'nd Barbera, probably the '78, that my group bought something like 20% of his entire production.
On that same meeting w/ Gary, he took me up to the top of the tower that was there at EstrellaRiver to give mme a lay of the land on EastSide Paso. Could easily see all the way into town. A spectacular view. Alas, one of Meridian's first act was to pull down that beautiful bell tower.
Tom
