Tried these two dessert wines w/ Stacey & David this afternoon:
1. StonyHill Semillon de Soleil LateHrvst Semillon NapaVlly (13%; Bttld Exclusively for CortiBros) St.Helena 1978: Deep golden/burnished bronze color; intense creme brulee/apricotty/caramel/butterscotchy light earthy bit butterscotchy/oak slight smokey/pencilly very complex beautiful nose; quite tart/tangy slight metallic intense grapey/caramel/creme brulee slight smokey/tobaccoy lightly sweet bit earth not at all raisened/pruney no signs of oxidation very complex flavor; very long/lingering finish that goes on&on & mimics flavor; a beautiful example of a LateHrvst Semillon that will go on&on for another 10-20 ys.
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2. Santino Zin AmadorCnty DryBerrySelect WhiteHrvst TBA (7.1%; TotallyBotrytisAffected; Hrvstd: 10-15-85 at 50.0 Brix; TA: 1.8 gm/100 ml; pH: 3.4; RS: 31.5%) ScottHarvey 1985: Very dark brown/blax/PX color very intense botrytis/peachy/apricoyyu some raisened/pruney some earthy/dusty fairly complex lovely nose; very screechy acidity very intense botrytis/apricotty/peachy somewhat raisened/prune quite sweet light earthy very complex flavor; very long/lingeringscreechingly acid intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty quite raisened/pruney complex quite sweet finish; the high acidity gives it a bit of a soy sauce/sweet-sour character; totally dominated by the botrytis & nothing to suggest it is Zin; not the complexity you would like in a TBA; a sorta Quasimodo of a wine but nonetheless quite interesting.
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More diskerbritt from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. StonyHill: This was simply a LateHrvst Semillon in that the grapes were simply left on the vine to raisen. It is not a straw wine. There was little to none botrytis. It was fermented, sterile filtered, then put to barrel. It has no resemblance to a Sauternes. This wine is aging beautifully.
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2. Santino: This TBA is sort of a bizarre wine. The total dominance by the botrytis makes this sort of a Johnny-One-Note wine & it is not showing much complexity or evolution. On the palate, the raging acidity makes it not much of a pleasure to drink. Sort of a grotesque wine that is probably never going to be a pleasure to drink. A Frankenstein wine that you sort of find endearing. The only thing going for it is its sweetness.
Tom