WTN: Ragnarok

[David M. Bueker]

• 2000 Edmunds St. John Syrah Wylie-Fenaughty - USA, California, Sierra Foothills, El Dorado County (1/7/2025)
  From the collection of a friend who passed too soon, this was a flood of memories of all the ESJ wines we shared over the years. On its own it was a complex, slightly feral creature that showed no signs of decline after it stretched its creaky limbs and wok from a 24 year slumber. Wood smoke, mushroom, damp earth, it’s a riot of savory Syrah goodness. There’s a slight candied note, but that disappears quickly and the fruit turns darker and dried. Is it fading? I am not sure as ESJ wines have this habit of never being quite mature even when they seem ready for a decline. Glad I drank it now though, as it’s a better remembrance.

please explain the title; I'm so glad the wine was enjoyable!

[David M. Bueker]

This was one of Thor’s bottles.

He’s actually the person who introduced me to your wines. IIRC it was a bottle of Pink Freud.

oh, right, got it. Pinc Froid was a wine produced in very small batch (think there were all of 15 cases) It was Nebbiolo, and Chenin Blanc. I can't even remember where the grapes were from. Cornelia studied psychoanalysis at a school in SF, the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC, for short). For their yearly graduation party I was asked if I could make a wine for the occasion. Et, voila!

[David M. Bueker]

I wonder how Thor laid his hands on a bottle.

Think he might have been out here one time and I gave him one

I was introduced to ESJ wines by a work-mate who liked '95 Durrell and shared it with everybody he could.

I guess I can jump on the Ragnarok band-wagon.

As I was a 'working wineaux' at the memorial lunch, I received a case of his wine. Starting in:

Drank my first Thor bottle last Sunday: Tablas Creek "Panoplie", one of the GSM blends. Tasted just fine, mostly mourvedre so dark fruit, a little tanginess added by the GS components; good enough. (I was never too persuaded by Tablas Creek but he must have been as there were a lot of bottles there.)

Second Thor bottle over the past two days: Leoville-Barton '02. This time, I put half of it away before I started... that will make tomorrow morning better. Alive and well. Incredibly dark. Leather, a little funk, good old black fruit. Sturdy: not at all elegant. Good with lamb chops. Second half of the '02 Barton was even better than the first! More graphite, more gravel, more texture.

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks Jeff.

I will get back to this thread later this week or early next. Several more ESJ bottles to work through.

I was introduced to ESJ wines by a work-mate who liked '95 Durrell and shared it with everybody he could.

Nice! I'm pretty sure that I first learned of ESJ wines from Parker, who early on had written positively about Steve's wines. Alas, they were not easy to find in Indiana until Bill Paumen convinced the Indianapolis retailer he was part-timing for to bring in several cases of ESJ Syrahs. That was how I ended up with several bottles each of the '02 Shadow, '03 Wylie-Fenaughty and Parmalee-Hill and the '05 Wylie-Fenaughty, and the rest is history...

[David M. Bueker]

Oh The Shadow - the red wine at Joe Perry’s wedding reception.

I recall The Shadow -- 2002 vintage? -- as being pretty good when young but it did not make old bones (which is rather unlike Steve's usual way).

Thanks Jeff.

I will get back to this thread later this week or early next. Several more ESJ bottles to work through.

My box had '04 Rousanne and '04 Rocks & Gravel.

I recall The Shadow -- 2002 vintage? -- as being pretty good when young but it did not make old bones (which is rather unlike Steve's usual way).

Yes, it was '02, and it was pretty atypical for Steve. I didn't keep any, but it certainly seemed like a younger-drinking wine.

Planning to open an '05 Bassetti for a friend tomorrow. The precious few bottles are dwindling...

If it can wait until February or extends into it, I can add some ESJ notes as I have a number 20-25 years old I’ve been looking for a reason to open.

I should open some as well, the tendency to hold on to "my precious" is not the best way to enjoy.
But Ruby the Hound gets to decide when the BASSETtis are opened.
I have fond memories of the Shadow

New Latkes and Old WIne

Third Thor bottle: ESJ 2004 Roussanne, Tablas Creek Vineyard, Paso Robles - medium gold with greenish glints, a little bottle funk but that blows away soon; acidity still sturdy, some creaminess from all the alky (14.5%), medium-weight wine, and so beautiful: on first blush, it's like a sweet wine with no sugar, then yes I'm going with that: it's white peaches and green grapes and some resin (or licorice!) and some wax and a trace of sweet lime; at the table, this works like a good Chablis

"In late August of 2004 Tablas Creek offered me a few tons of Roussanne, and I jumped at the chance. There probably just isn't better farmed Roussanne anywhere in California. Given the nature of the vintage, what we've got here is a blossomy wine of impeccable structure, bracingly fresh and minerally, long on flavor and likely to improve for a decade or more, if you have the patience. Shell and bone strikes again!" -- Produced and Bottled by Intuition and Blind Luck

New Latkes and Old WIne

Oh, yeah. I made some latkes using a new recipe - kinda Ferran Adria like - starting with kettle chips....

ESJ 2004 Roussanne, Tablas Creek Vineyard, Paso Robles -... likely to improve for a decade or more ...

Looks like the wine more than did its part.

New Latkes and Old WIne

Oh, yeah. I made some latkes using a new recipe - kinda Ferran Adria like - starting with kettle chips....

Wait, what?

Crumbled chips then fried into a patty? Like tater tots?

[David M. Bueker]

Well potato chips are a great white wine pairing!

If something is worth frying once, it's worth frying twice, that's what I always say.

Wait, what?

Crumbled chips then fried into a patty? Like tater tots?

Crumble chips, soak in batter for an hour, then fry. It's not as ecstatic as he says, but they are good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOPB4Ixg64

And mine looked exactly like his in the video around 3:30.

[David M. Bueker]

Now I want to make those.