Cracked this early in the week:
1. Ryme Vermentino LasBrisasVnyd/Carneros/SonomaCnty (His; 10.9%)Geyserville 2014: Deep golden/burnished bronze color; beautiful honeyed/graham cracker/Cinammon Crisp/orangey/orange muscat-like slight floral some phenolic/resiny slight earthy/musky no oxidative very complex nose; quite tart/tangy lightly tannic rather dry/austere fairly honeyed/graham cracker/orangey light resiny/phenolic quite complex beautiful flavor w/ light tannic bite; very long/lingering quite honeyed/orangey/graham cracker light earthy/herbal light phenolic/resiny quite complex tart/tangy/bit austere finish w/ light tannic bite; a beautiful very complex skin-contact white w/ no evident Vermentino character; very much like an older Radikon or Gravner Ribolla but not the oxidative character of a Gravner; showing lots of evolution and the phenolic character is fading into the background.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Monday was the 14'th Wedding Anniv for Ryan & Magan Glaab, so thought I go back into my archives to pull out a Ryme. They make two Vermentinos from FrankMahoney's LasBrisasVnyd. The Hers is made by standard direct-to-press fermentation. The His is made with some skin-contact. Upon release, I generally prefer the Hers to the His because of the fragrant Vermentino fruit. But w/ some age on it, the His really develops into an interesting/complex wine. This is one of the best His I've had and see no reason it won't go another 4-8 yrs. This wine really needs to be served at a cool room temperature to beat down the tannins on the palate. With a balsamic saba grilled chicken breast, the wine was really toned down in intensity. Like most skin-contact whites, needs to be served w/ food.
Tom