Tried these last week in KansasCity:
1. Illahe Viognier WillametteVlly/OR (13%) Dallas/OR 2018: Light yellow color; low-key pear/Viog some stony/mineral rather quiet pleasant nose; fairly tart/tangy light pear/Viog light stony/chalky flavor; very long pleasant pear/Viog bit mineral/stony fairly tart/tangy finish; a pleasant bit mineral rather quiet Viog far from DollyParton territory. $18.00 (UD)
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2. BrocCllrs Love White Madera (43% Marsanne/28% Roussanne/17% GrenacheBlanc/12% Picpoul; 12%) ChrisBrockway/Berkeley 2018: Light gold color; quite fragrant hineysuckle/honeyed/floral/apple blossom almost Viog-like slight stony lovely perfumed nose; lightly tart very floral/honeysuckle/honeyed/mostly Rouss light mineral/stony very attractive flavor; very long lightly tart very floral/honeysuckle slight tangy/metallic light stony/mineral finish; a very pretty white Rhone blend that reminds a lot of Sue Tipton's Acquiesence whites; very well priced at $18.00 (UD)
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3. BrocCllrs LoveRose SuisunVlly (80% Valdiguie/14% Zin/6% Trousseau; 11%) 2018: Very pale rose colr; lovely fragrant/strawberry/raspberry/bit toilet bowl cleaner light earthy very pretty nose; quite tart/tangy/bit lean bright/strawberry/raspberry light earthy bit metallic flavor; med.long pretty strawberry/raspberry/floral light earthy quite dry bit metallic finish; quite a pretty rose if a bit on the lean/austere side. $18.00 (UD)
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4. Edi Simcic Malvazija GoriskaBrda ZGP: Kakovostno Vino Suho (12.5%; www.EdiSimcic.Si) GoriskaBrda 2015: Med.dark gold color; light resiny/phenolic/skin-contact some muscatty/malvasia beautiful complex nose; very tart/acidic rather phenolic/resiny/skin-contact light floral/muscatty/malvasia rather austere/tannic quite dry flavor very long quite austere/tannic strong phenolic/skin-contact/resiny somewhat tannic light floral/malvasia finish; very nice balance between floral/phenolic on the nose but pretty austere/tannic/acidic on the palate; needs 10-15 yrs of age; needs food with it. $38.00 (UD)
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5. Rdlr TheMagician Lot 16 Calif RW (12.5%; www.RowEleven.com; Cabernet Dorsa/Maxime Rouge/Drunkenfelder/PetiteSirah/PetiteVerdot) B by RDLR The Magician/Napa NV: Dark color; strong blackcurranty/Cab light vanilla/oak rather earthy/loamy pleasant/simple red nose; fairly tart/tangy bit lean/hard/metallic grapey/blackcurranty/Cab earthy/loamy bit vanilla/oak some rustic/coarse flavor w/ light hard/angular tannins; med. tart/tangy/metallic lean/hard simple blackcurranty/Cab rather earthy/loamy light vanilla/oak finish w/ light hard/crunchy tannins; much like a CharlesShaw Cabernet but much more rough/coarse/rugged on the palate; the kind of commodity wine that would drive SweetAlice batty; no bargain at $15.00 (UD)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. I returned last week for my Argentine HS Class Reunion (#59). Many of my classmates know I'm a wine lover so I thought I'd take a few wines for them to try that I dredged up at RyanSciara's UnderDog Wine Co. Only about 4-5 of the 50 classmates tried the wines, most were drinking soda pop or Coors. So much for sophisticated Kansas palates.
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2. RowEleven: This is a wnry in SanRafael founded by reknowned winemaker Richard de Los Reyes (who he?) and Ken Conner. They appear to make commodity wines primarily for sale in grocery stores. The compare, with no shame whatsoever, this red blend w/ Ch.Latour and Ch.Margaux. They claim to source their grapes from SantaMaria/RussianRiver/Napa area but this sure tasted of Lodi to me.
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3. Some new grapes for me. Cabernet Dorsa is a Dornfelder X Cabernet cross developed in Wurttemberg in 1971. Maxime Rouge appears to be a synonym for Petit Rouge of the Val d'Aosta. Drunkenfelder appears to be a synonym for Dunkelfelder (a tenturier Farbertraube X Blauer Portugieser cross). I can find no other references to these latter two grape varieties, so they may just be made-up names by the 11Rows folks. Clearly, all three of these should be being planted all up&down the coast of Calif.
Tom
