WTN: Topolos Alicante Bouchet '98....(short/boring)

Linda brought this to our tasting last night to try:
1. Topolos AlicanteBouschet OldVines SonomaCnty (12.1%; Bttld: Aug 27/1999; 491 cs) Michael Topolos/Topolos @ RRV/Forestville 1998: Very dark/near black color; rather earthy/rustic/coarse slight blackberry/AB slightly herbal rather toasty/smokey/oak spicy rather complex fairly fragrant nose; bit soft slightly aged/tired/metallic bit coarse/rustic some blackberry/AB/boysenberry/herbal rather earthy/dusty/OV smokey rather complex flavor w/ bit tired/dried out tannins; very long slightly tired/dried out/metallic some blackberry/AB/earthy/rustic/coarse/herbal fairly dusty/OV light toasty/oak finish w/ light drying tannins; this is a wine that should be totally dead....it is not; has not matured into anything really profound, but in much better shape than it has any right to be; interesting and still has some life in it. $nc (LD)
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More skeezerfrut from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. This was a fascinating trip down memory lane for me. TopolosVnyds was founded in 1972 by Michael & Jerry Topolos, who put in a vnyd then. Their first wine was a Cab in 1978, from their Estate grapes. I started trying their wines early-on & rather liked them for rustic character. My favorite was the Topolos Ultimo Zin, a near-late hrvst Zin that was quite big.
In the late '80's, I did a visit with Michael at TopolosVnyds. Walked the vnyds a bit & then tasted in their rustic tasting room. The wines were pretty bad; marred by huge brett & a very high volatile acidity...clearly very inattentive winemaking. I don't think I ever bothered w/ their wines again.
They had a small house there on the property in front of the wnry that housed a restaurant. Sorta French bistro food. It was very good, in a time when dining options in Forestville were pretty grim.
AlicanteBouschet is a teinturier grape, which means there is anthocyanins in the juice. Which explains the black color of young AB. When JohnBalagna made his AB, his hands would be stained black for more than a week. But the color in AB is pretty unstable and it tends to go brown pretty rapidly. This wine, though containing a ton of sediment, showed very scant evidence of browning. Though showing a bit of age, it was much more healthy & youthful than it had any right to be.
This was the next to last btl from Linda Deck's first case purchase. The wine was pretty inexpensive she relates.
Tom

[Jenise]

Gosh, I remember that winery and wine. Many of us sought it out because who'd ever had a single variety AB before--very few.

Gosh, I remember that winery and wine. Many of us sought it out because who'd ever had a single variety AB before--very few.

Well, Jenise... Angelo Papagni used to make one regularly over in Lodi. Wasn't very good.
Tom

I remember Topolos from the late 1980s.

I only ever tasted one varietal alicante bouchet--part of a shipment from what I would call a "junk wine club" that I briefly subscribed to. AB's main role is in France as a blending companion to aramon, the prolific producer of insipid French plonk. AB is added to make the aramon look like real red wine. As Tom pointed out, the color goes brown rapidly, but that doesn't matter for plonk. My opinion of the varietal AB I tasted is best expressed by the famous line from The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "Mostly harmless."

-Paul W.