Tasted these w/ Susan on Fri night.
1. Cline Viognier MorthCoast Calif (14.5%; www.ClineCellars.com) Sonoma 2020: Med.light gold color; very strong pear/peach/Viog/perfumed talc floral/pineapple very perfumed lovely nose; lightly tart/tangy fairly rich/lush very perfumed/Viog/peach/pear/pineapple/perfumed talc lightly spicy flavor; very long/lingering rather floral/pineapple/perfumed talc very rich/lush finish; like that wonderful experience of patting perfumed talc on you baby's butt after the diaper change; very rich/lush but the acidity keeps it out of DollyParton territory; a steal at $13.00 (KK)
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2. TiVitti Inzolia Menfi Dd'OC: Menfi (12.5%; www.CantineBarbera.It; T.Edwards Wines) Az.Agr. Barbera di Marilena Barbera/Menfi/Sicily 2020: Med.gold color w/ loads of frothy bubbles that dissapate rapidly; some light phenolic/resiny/VM bit earthy/herbal/pungent little fruit interesting nose; bit spritzy/frizzante rather resiny/phenolic/VM/cidery some earthy/herbal/pingent somewhat saline/savory bit grapefruity/citric/tangy fairly tart/acidic flavor; very long quite tart/tangy/citric/grapefruity some resiny/phenolic/VM bu pungent/herbal/earthy finish; not strongly VM/phenolic but not a lot of fruit either. $19.00 (KK)
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3. Terra d'Oro Zin DeaverVnyd/AmadorCnty (130 yr old vines; Plntd: 1881; 14.5%; www.TerraDOroWines.com) Plymouth 2015: Med.dark color w/ slight bricking; fairly strong blackberry/Amador briary/boysenberry/ripe/spicy bit alcoholic rather grapey light pencilly/Am.oak bit simple/quotidian nose; soft very ripe/grapey some Amador/ShenandoahVlly/briary/blackberry/Zin/ripe/boysenberry some pencilly/Am.oak rather simple/grapey flavor w/ light tannins; long some blackberry/briary/Zin/lightly spicy some pencilly/Am.oak flavor w/ light tannins; a pleasant enough ShenandoahVlly Zin but an utter waste of great/profound grapes; shows no dusty/OV character at all. $$19.00 (KK)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. DeaverZin: The story of the discovery of Amador Zin is well-known. In the early '60's, CharlieMeyers (late of Harbor Wnry) was an English professor at SacStateCollege & a home winemaker. Because Charlie was a real pinchpenny, I was on the lookout for cheap Zin grapes & found them at the DeaverVnyd up in the ShenandoahVlly. Afore that, D'Agostini was about the only winery making commercial AmadorZin & they were pretty boring wines. Charlie tasted his '63 Zin on DarrellCorti, who was mightly impressed. When BobTrinchere (another pinchpenny) was whining to Darrell about the cost of NapaVlly Zin grapes, Darrell suggest he look up in Amador at the DeaverVnyd. Until that time, KenDeaver (Sr.), sold a few grapes to home winemakers and fed the rest/overripe grapes to his pigs. The Deaver pork was very highly regarded in NorCal.
So, in 1968, Trinchero made his first SutterHome Amador Zin at the rest is history. From '68 thru about '76, the SutterHome Amador Zins were legendary. Then the quality started to decline as the Trinchero kiss-of-death came into play. Now, Trinchero Estates bought the old Montevina Wnry, eventually renamed it Terro d'Oro & is the only one making wines (mostly) from DeaverVnyd. Ken Deaver (Jr.) makes some under the DeaverVnyds label. The wines are pretty quotidian.
I id a visit in the mid-'70's with KennyDeaver. He was a tall/rangy/raw-boned grape farmer that I took an instant liking to. He even walked me down to his pig pen there in the hollow to introduce me to his pigs. I took an instant liking to them as well and got down into the muddy pen and rooted around with them. Had a nice smell of brett to me when I departed.
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2. This is the first Cline Viog post retirement of Charlie Tsegelotos. And a very fine one it is. It comes from their grapes on their Carneros Estate & the nearby colder vnyd over in the PetalumaGap.
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3. The Inzolia was being sold as an orange wine at Kokomans. But according to the Barbera WebSite, it only had a few hrs of pre-fermentation skin contact. But the color suggested more than that.
Tom