My latest shipment of EdStJ wines arrived Friday. Even clear back in KansasCity, I could hear these little squeaky voices emanating from my garage.."Open Me...No, Open Me". So I succumbed last night:
1. EdmundsStJohn Shell&Bone PasoRobles RW (13.8%; RozetVnyd; 36% Mourvedre, 35% Grenache,
19% Syrah, 10% Counoise) 2003: Med.color w/ strange slight brown cast; attractive jammy/spicy/plummy/blueberry rather perfumed/aromatic slight earthy/minerally quite aromatic/perfumed nose; softer earthy/jammy/strawberry/cherry some dusty/earthy plummy rather drinkable/forward flavor; med. bright/plummy/jammy/strawberry/cherry lighht earthy/dusty finish w/ light tannins; seems a bit simple now but should get better. $25.00
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2. EdmundsStJohn RedNeck 101 EaglePointRanch/MendocinoCnty RW (14.6%; http://www.EdmundsStJohn.com;
50% cofermented Syrah/Grenache; 100 cs) P&B by ThirstyPagans with BigIdeas 2005: Black color; strong juicy/blackberry/boysenberry/strawberry light pungent/smokey/roasted slight ozone/carbon arc/minerally/earthy very interesting nose; tight/hard/tannic rather spicy/blackberry/earthy/minerally some alpine strawberry fragrant/bright flavor; long hard/tannic very spicy/blackberry/blueberry some earthy/minerally finish; a very interesting wine that needs 2-8 yrs; will be a good one. $26.00
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. The S&B seemed a bit simple, but Steve's wines have a way of fooling you. When I had his Rocks&Gravel '01 in KansasCity at BlueStem a month ago, I was amazed at how much complexity and weight the wine had put on since I'd last had it two yrs ago. My suspicion is that this S&B will evolve into a much more interesting wine with several yrs of age. Sometimes you just gotta believe...that BlindLuck and Intuition will carry the day.
The RedNeck 101 I was very impressed with. Lots of depth and structure and color; it's a pretty tight wine that I think will be a terrific wine down the road a few yrs and probably will go out 10-15 yrs is my hunch. You can sense that there must be some pretty good farming behind this wine. In fact, if you close your eyes, you can see some redneck farmer careening about this vnyd on his tractor, a Gin&Tonic in one hand, a pistol in the other blazing away at the gophers and skunks and other varmits that wander onto his Ranch, screaming cuss-words at the top of his voice. Yup..that'd be our Casey!!
Tom