Tried these last night w/ dinner:
1. FeudoMaccari Grillo IGT: Sicilia (13%) Noto 2011: Med.dark gold color; rather earthy/stony/wet pavement light mango/fruity slight caramel simple/pleasant nose; soft/fat some stony/metallic/tangy/resinous light mango/fruity lush/ripe rather dull/plodding flavor; med.short soft/fat some tangy/metallic/stony/earthy very light mango/fruity/ripe finish; just sort of a simple/dull/ripe white that plods across the pallet in combat boots. $16.00 (AV)
_________________
2. JadeMtn Syrah HudsonVnyd/Carneros/NapaVlly (14.5%; "will reward long term aging": DougDanialak) 1997: Very dark/near black color w/ no bricking; intense blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry some black pepper/cold-climate/black olive tapenade bit smokey/toasty/oak light espresso/Rhonish quite complex nose; rather tart bit tannic/hard/drying out very strong blackberry/Syrah/spicy slight black pepper/cold-climate slight Rhonish/roasted/espresso some smokey/oak beautiful/complex flavor w/ some hard tannins still; very long intense blackberry/Syrah/blueberry/spicy some peppery/cold-climate bit Rhonish/espresso some smokey/toasty/oak finish w/ modest bit hard tannins; a beautiful Syrah straddling the Calif & Rhone paradigm; still in wonderful shape and will go a few more yrs.
________________________________
A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. JadeMtn: Made some wonderful Rhones in their day. Their day has come & gone. It was owned as a label by JimParas. Winemaker was the very talented DougDanialak. He was one of the first to take Syrah from LeeHudson's Carneros vnyd. They also made Cabernet/Chard under the WhiteRockVnyds label, the original property. Jim planted a vnyd up on MtVeeder to Syrah/Viognier/Nebbiolo and made wine from that vnyd as well. He eventually sold the wnry/property/label and now Doug makes Jim's wines under the Paras label. They seem to be sort of a stealth wnry as I can find no contact info for them. Strange. But Doug certainly knows how to make wine.
Tom