We tried these two ystrday at our Cabernet tasting at Pig+Fig:
1. Bedrock Cab Pfeffer EnzVnyd/LimeKilnVlly (13.0%; Mourtaou grape; Last Vintage from Enz; Plntd: 1923 own roots) 2020: Med.light color; quite fragrant strawberry/plummy light earthy some herbal/Cab-like/bit peppery nose; fairly tart/tangy light strawberry/spicy/plummy light earthy/peppery some herbal/Cab-like flavor w/ light bitey tannins; very long some herbal/strawberry/spicy/peppery finish w/ light bitey tannins; a bit lean/tight/hard/angular character & needs some age to resolve the bitey tannins; quite an interesting red. $48.00
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2. Stirm CabernetPfeffer SanBenitoCnty (12.9%) Watsonville 2020: Med.light color; very bright/pretty strawberry/ripe/plummy SanBenito/earthy slight volatile rather perfumed nose a bit like Grenache; rather tart/tangy bit angular/bitey bright strawberry/Grenache-like slight volatile/fumey flavor w/ light bitey tannins; very long bright/strawberry/spicy/bit peppery/Grenache-like light earthy finish; quite a pretty strawberry perfumed wine; more of a Vin de Soif. $31.00 (AV)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. CabernetPfeffer: Almost exclusively planted in SanBenitoCnty, with most of the plantings in the Enz Vnyd. Some in the deRose Vnyd as well.Thought to have been bred in the LosAltosHills with a cross of CabernetSauvignon and (perhaps) Trousseau. DNA typing has confirmed (only) some of the CabPfeffer plantings are identical to the French grape Mourtaou.
The grape was (re-) discovered by Kenny Volk when he was winemaker at WildHorse in PasoRobles. He liked to poke around the old Almaden-planted vnyds up in the CienegaVlly and found this CabPfeffer planted in WirzVnyd & started making a wine from it.
Stirm is the wine made by Ryan Stirm. He is a natural winemaker but one who gets it right & I never find any natty character in his wines.
Both of these wines were very pretty reds, more of a Vin de Soif than a serious red.
Tom