There`s a new kid on my (California) block!!

Here is a new winery to me, Four Vines, and they appear to be collecting plenty of coverage. I have seen a couple of Zins, two Syrahs and have tasted a very good unoaked Chardonnay at a local tasting bar. Any further notes welcome, maybe from Brian??

New one for me, Bob. I'll look around

[Jenise]

Bob, I bought the Four Vines zin for our neighborhood wine tasting on Friday because I needed a 6th wine and it was the only 04 Amador zin in our state's wine pipeline. I'd ordered all the rest from California, and the Four Vines was a last minute substitution when one of my two suppliers failed to send one of the promised wines. I relate all this to simply make the point that the FV wasn't chosen for any of the usual qualitative reasons. In background, I learned that the winery is actually headquartered in Paso Robles, and they make a variety of wines with contract grapes. IIRC, their zin comes, in part, from the famed Grandpere vineyard and includes 5% syrah. The alcohol's right up there, and the winemaker called it a "jam bomb".

I ended up having to miss the tasting due to jet lag (I'd come back from Europe the night before), but here's are my friend Jim's comments--the first column was the group vote (the group favors fruit forward wines) followed by Jim's vote, where he gave 2nd place to the Four Vines and 1st place to the wine I'd have also given first place to as well, I'm sure.

1 3 Joel Gott "Dillian"

2 4 J Runquist "Z"

3 6 Sobon Estate ReZerve

4 5 Scott Harvey Old Vines

5 2 Four Vines

6 1 Karly Warrior Fires

Jim added "It looks like I am about the reverse of the group. I think we were splitting hairs because they were all so good."

We are big fans of the Naked Chardonnay, and have been enjoying it for about three years. We keep telling people that it is not that we don't like Chardonnay, it's that we don't like trees in the bottle.