We tried this as a mystery wine last night:
1. ColoradoCllrs Grand Game American RTW (12.5%; Lemberger/Blaufrankisch?) JimSewald/Palisades 1988: Med.dark color w/ some browning; rather smoky/pungent some earthy/dusty strong cedary/pencilly/oak bit metallic/burning metal/overheated brake shoe complex/interesting nose; tart rather earthy/dusty/Lemberger/loamy some cedary/pencilly/oak bit pungent/brake shoe flavor w/ slight dried out/astringent tannins; rather long cedary/pencilly/oak/charred rather earthy/dusty/loamy/Lemberger bit astringent/dried-out tannic complex finish; clearly on the old side but speaks still of Lemberger, though very little fruit left.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Discovered in the deepest recesses of the archive. The Grand Game (accent a grave over e)does not refer to a grape name but (presumably) is a proprietary name. The side label refers to an obscure Austrian variety in this wine and I'm pretty sure it is (to my recollect) Lemberger/Blaufrankisch. I was expecting the wine to be totally shot. It was not. Though clearly on the downside, it still offered up some interesting things.
Jim Sewald was one of the pioneers in the Colorado wine industry. He ran (as I recall) a wine shop in Denver and was a home winemaker. He convinced people to plant grapes over on the West Slope near GrandJunction and made his ColoradoCllrs wine in Denver until moving it over to Palisades. Don't recall that I ever met Jim. Pretty sure he's dead now. Lemberger was a grape that had some (snall) popularity in WashState and Jim felt the growing conditions on the WestSlope was similar to WashState..hence Lemberger. Austrian Lemberger often has a rather earthy/dusty/loamy character and that certainly came thru on this wine. Don't know if they still grow much Lemberger there on the WestSlope or not anymore (Kyle??). Sorta regret not saving this wine to share w/ Kyle, but I was expecting a totally dead wine. A nice bit of history here.
Tom