WTN: Carlisle Alicante Bouschet '04...(short/boring)

Also tried this one last night:
1. Carlisle AlicanteBouschet SonomaCnty (MontafiRanch/1926 + RossiRanch/1910; 1 brl; 15.6%) SantaRosa 2004: Very dark/near black color w/ some bricking; strong earthy/loamy bir rustic/violetshollyhocks/floral rather dusty/OV bit coarse/clunky nose w/ little fruit; soft bit tangy/metallic rather earthy/dusty/OV slight floral/violets rather coarse little fruit light toasty/oak flavor w/ some hard/coarse tannins; med.long rather coarse/clunky/rough slight floral/hollyhocks/musky rather dusty/OV/loamy very light toasty/oak finish w/ ample coarse/rough tannins; a rather rough/coarse/clunky earthy RW that's hard to find anythink likable.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. AlicanteBouschet: A grape variety that is known as a tenturier, which has color in the juice, unlike most red grape varieties. Lots & lots of color. I seen JohnBalagna's hands after he has worked w/ AB and they are stained black for weeks. The use of AB is to bring dark color to blends. However, the anthocyanins in AB are somewhat unstable and drops out after some aging in btl. The only attraction of AB is that it is impressive when young because of its inky/black color. It's seldom made as a varietal wine, is not very interesting, and doesn't mature into anything interesting. Simply put, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Kudos to Mike for trying, though.
Tom

[David M. Bueker]

Was it better in its youth?

Was it better in its youth?

Uhhhh, David.....we were all better in our youth!!

Yeah...much better in its youth. Had some fruit then.

Tasted in Dec '06:

13. Carlisle SonomaCnty Alicante Bouschet (15.6%; 50%/50% MontalfiRanch planted in 1926,
RossiRanch planted in 1910; one barrel) 2004: Blacker than black color, very strong dusty/earthy
bit plummy/boysenberry slight funky bit shy nose; big hard/tannic earthy/dusty old vines some
boysenberry/blueberry/plummy fruit some toasty/pungent/oak flavor; med.long huge/extracted/tannic
some boysenberry/blueberry/plummy some pungent/oak finish; a huge black extracted wine; needs age
hard to tell where it'll go; not a whole lot of bright fruit but very good rendition of Alicante.
$31.00
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BP:
8. Carlisle Alicante: The number of outstanding Alicante Bouschets I've had can be counted on one
finger; some of the Ridges from Pagani Ranch. Now w/ Mike's version, I gotta go up to two fingers.
Alicante's most redeeming feature is it's color; coming from the juice as it's a tenturier
variety. Supposedly the anthocynanins in Alicante are not that stable and the wines tend to lose
their black color fairly rapidly.
The Alicante wines tend to have a paucity of fruit and tend to be very coarse and clumsey.
Although Mike's Alicante didn't have nearly the fruit of the Syrahs, it was not nearly as fruit-
dumb as most I've had. It was a very interesting wine and it'll be interesting to see how it
(my only btl) ages. But just because it's black as the ace of spades, doesn't mean it'll live
forever.

So you finally found a grape that shouldn't be planted up and down the length of California!
The Almansa region in Spain (near Valencia) specializes in wines from Alicante Bouchet (where it is known as Garnacha Tintorera) and some of the best wines from Alentejo in Portugal are made from this grape (e.g. Mouchao Tonel 3-4).