Tag Archives: Paso Robles

Mourvèdre Monday #26 – Esprit de Beaucastel

I tasted this wine back in the summer, but never got around to blogging my notes. So I decided to dust them off for today’s Mourvèdre Monday post.

Tablas Creek 2008 Esprit de Beaucastel Rouge

Complex nose of cherry/raspberry fruit with a hit of coffee/mocha and mint. On the palate, it is mouth-filling without being overwhelming. It delivers earthy dark fruit and lightly grippy tannins and finishes with a bit of a mineral/minty lift. Fruit-forward, but balanced.
VINEgeek Verdict: Damn good.

38% Mourvèdre
30% Grenache
26% Syrah
6% Counoise

Coolio bona fides:

  • grapes from organic estate vineyard
  • fermented with native yeasts
  • aged in 1200-gallon French oak foudres

Price: $40-45

Mourvèdre Blind Tasting

I haven’t been doing a great job of keeping up with #MourvèdreMonday posts and tweets lately. But mon amie du vin, Lisa Dinsmore (@DailyWine) is a Mourvèdre-lover extraordinare and often picks up the slack via Twitter. Since I don’t have a new Mourvèdre post for you (yet again) today, check out her awesome recent post at Daily Wine Dispatch on a blind tasting of 2007 Paso Robles Mourvèdre from 11 different producers. Wish I could have been there!

Her overall winner was the Anglim ‘Hastings Ranch’, which I reviewed very favorably in this post last year. I also posted about one other wine in her lineup: the Calcareous Estate Reserve.

Drink More Mourvèdre!

Mourvèdre Monday #15 (for WBW #69) – Anglim

This is a special Wednesday edition of my yearlong Mourvèdre Monday series. I was very excited to see that this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday #69 theme was the Mourvèdre grape, chosen and hosted by The Passionate Foodie (click through to learn why the sub-title is “Animal Cruelty”). So I decided to delay my regularly scheduled post to coincide. I can’t wait to read all the other posts that come in for WBW #69. It should give me plenty of wines to add to my Mourvèdre Monday to-do list.

The wine I’ve chosen has been on that to-do list for a while. Twitter pal Lisa Dinsmore of @DailyWine, who is a great source of info on Paso Robles and other Central Coast wines, recommended it to me when I first launched the Mourvèdre Monday series. I couldn’t find it locally, so I was very happy when the winery offered to send me a sample.

As I’ve noted here before, Paso Robles is a hot-spot for Rhône varietals and blends. I’ve featured a couple already in this series, including last week’s Calcareous. Our WBW host, The Passionate Foodie, had a nice post about Paso a couple months ago, in which he talks about it’s relationship with the Rhône varieties. I commented there, and repeat here, that rather than try to find a “signature grape”, it’d be much more interesting to me if they became “Paso Rhone-bles” (I still haven’t trademarked that) and developed around all the Rhône varieties. However, it does seem like the big recent wine region success stories involve a single variety, e.g., New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Argentine Malbec, etc. So I understand why they might want to focus. Well, Paso, if you must focus on one grape, how about Mourvèdre?

Back to Anglim – They’re one of those hobbyist-turned-pro stories and while they don’t own any vineyards, they are very vineyard-centric, seeking out quality growers and releasing several vineyard-designate wines. While they produce Cab, Zin and Pinot Noir, their focus is on Rhône varietals and blends, including Syrah, Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Roussanne and this Mourvèdre. Let’s check this one out.

Producer: Anglim Winery

Grapes: 100% Mourvèdre

Appellation: Paso Robles (AVA, California)

Vineyards: Hastings Ranch Vineyard, in the Adelaida region of Paso Robles. At 1800 feet, it is one of the area’s highest elevation vineyards. They have 3.3 acres planted to Mourvèdre.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: Primary fermentation was done with the juice on top of Viognier lees. The wine spent 17 months in French oak, 20% new. Unfined and unfiltered.

Alcohol: 14.9%

Price: $34

My tasting notes: The wine starts off with a big snootful of spicy, black-pepperiness (the winery says white pepper) and a hint of green olives accenting the somewhat secondary dark fruit aromas. There is also a note of woodsmoke. On the palate, I’m first struck by a very polished mouthfeel delivering the juicy blackberry and plum fruit. But there is a nice savory herbal quality as well. The oak is present, but nicely restrained. The wine has a dry, grippy finish that I enjoy, even if it’s a tad hot at 14.9%.

Overall impression: Regular readers of this series will probably have figured out my palate at this point and know what I like about, and what I look for in, Mourvèdre-based wines: dark, delicious fruit strongly accented by interesting savory characteristics. And this wine delivers in spades. Really good stuff. If you want to check out what this grape can do in Paso, this is a great wine to try. A-/B+

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mouser-nerdbot/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

More info:

This bottle was provided as a sample from the winery.

Production: 233 cases

Big publication scores: 90 points from Josh Raynolds of Tanzer’s IWC and 88 points from James Laube in Wine Spectator.

Other blogger reviews at The Passionate Foodie (our WBW #69 host – I didn’t realize he had reviewed this wine on his site.), DailyWine and The Vino File.

Anglim also uses Mourvèdre in a GSM blend they call Cerise and in their 09 Rosé.

Mourvèdre Monday #14: Calcareous Estate Reserve 2007

This wine was shared with me by Mike Castleman, whom I met via Twitter. He heard about my Mourvèdre Monday series and recommended this wine to me. When we realized we were both in Austin, we planned to meet up and taste it together. Thanks, Mike!  I’ll have to return the favor soon. (Mike makes wine, too. Check him out at Castleman Cellars.)

For those of you who read my comment-reply in the last post and are expecting a bad wine review here this week, this ain’t it. I’ve lost my notes on the wine I had planned to post this week, so I substituted this one. As for the wolf dog wine, I’ll keep my trap mouth shut on that for now in case I find my notes.

Calcareous Estate Reserve Mourvèdre 2007

Producer: Calcareous Vineyard

Grapes: 100% Mourvèdre

Appellation: Paso Robles (AVA, California)

Vineyards: The winery has a single block of Mourvèdre amongst its estate vineyards on a limestone outcropping in Paso Robles’ Westside hills.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: French oak (time and % new not specified)

Alcohol: 15.9%

Price: $42 from the winery

My tasting notes: Juicy, sweet blackberry/blueberry aromas, with a big dose of oaky-vanilla and cinnamon. On the palate, the blackberry fruit is very intense and extracted, but smoothed out by the creamy mouthfeel. It’s like a blackberry cobbler with whipped cream. But there is also a wet earth and crushed rock sort of minerality at the back end that adds interest. Despite the 15.9% a.b.v., I don’t really notice any heat.

Overall impression:  A very confected style of Mourvèdre, but very seductive and fun to drink. This one will appeal to a lot of people, I think. B/B+

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/margolove/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

More info:

185 cases produced

Mourvèdre Monday #5: Edward Sellers Cognito 2006

It’s back to California for today’s Mourvèdre Monday post, specifically Paso Robles. Though I first fell in love with Mourvèdre via the old vines examples from Contra Costa County, Paso Robles is a hotbed of Rhône grape-growing in California. Edward Sellers is a Rhône-style specialist in Paso, with a focus on blends vs. varietal bottlings (though not exclusively). This bottle, which they call Cognito, is a CdP-style blend of Mourvèdre, Syrah and Grenache with some Zin added for a California flair. Let’s check it out.

Producer: Edward Sellers

Grapes: 45% Mourvèdre, 20% Syrah, 20% Zinfandel, 15% Grenache

Appellation: Paso Robles (AVA, California)

Vineyards: no info

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: 100% neutral French oak.

Alcohol: 14.9%

Price: I paid $29 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes: The nose is throws a punch of raspberry fruitiness and cherry cola, with a bit of creamy vanilla and a touch of mocha. On the palate, it’s fat and fruity, mostly red fruit again. A hint of minerality if you’re really searching for it, and a peppery note at the finish. Despite Mourvèdre being the largest share of the blend, I don’t get much of what I really enjoy from Mourvèdre-based wines: structure, meatiness, earthy/savory qualities.

Overall impression: This is another one where I was not digging the first glass, but it evened itself out by the second glass into something closer to my liking. In the end, though, it’s not something I’d buy again, not at nearly $30. C+

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/warmnfuzzy/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

More info:

576 cases produced.

Haka Tempranillo 2007 Paso Robles

I was turned on to this wine by Sam Scarpari, an Aussie winemaker (Seraphim Wines), wine vlogger and Twitter-friend (@SeraphimWines). One night, I had just tasted a not-so-good Tempranillo from California and tweeted something to that effect, asking the Twitterverse if anyone had had a good example of the grape from the Golden State. Sam pointed me to this bottle, the Haka Tempranillo 2007 Paso Robles. I hadn’t heard of it before and I sort of assumed it would be hard to find and wasn’t sure if I would make the effort of trying to order it online. But as luck would have it, within a week or two I saw it on the shelves at Spec’s here in Austin.

HakaTempranillo07_snapshotProducer: Haka, by Labyrinth. Rick Hill is a Kiwi winemaker who makes Pinot Noir in both Australia and California under the Labyrinth label. Haka is his second label.

Grapes: Tempranillo

Appellation: Paso Robles (AVA, California)

Vineyards: no info

Winemaking: no info

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: $18-20

My tasting notes: On the nose I get Pepsi fizz, coffee grounds, red fruit and a bit of fig. On the palate, this wine has good density with strawberry and mixed berry jam flavors. The oak is sweet, but there is a high-toned minerality keeping everything in check. It finishes long and cool, with grippy tannins.

Overall assessment: Very nice wine. I don’t know that I’ve had a better Tempranillo from California (though I haven’t had many). It has New World fruit intensity that gets a tad overripe for me, but the overall tightness and complexity of this wine impressed me. B+

Free association:

More info:

Sam Scarpari’s Wine Passion TV episode reviewing this wine. It’s funny to me that I called out the Pepsi/cola notes… In Sam’s review of the wine, which I watched once a couple of days before opening the bottle, he mentions “cola” a few times, but I didn’t know that’s what he was saying due to the Aussie accent. It wasn’t until I rewatched after tasting the wine, that I understood him (or at least I think that’s what he said – correct me if I’m wrong, Sam!).

An article on the winemaker and the Labyrinth brand (from City Beat/Cincinnati, of all places).

Info on the haka genre of Māori dance at Wikipedia.

Vina Robles RED4 2007 Paso Robles

VinaRoblesRed4_labelThis wine had a lot of “shelf appeal” for me. First off it’s from Paso Robles and it’s got the vineyard named on the label. Yippee! Then I see that it’s a blend of Petite Sirah, Syrah, Tannat and Touriga Nacional. Geek-tastic!

Producer: Vina Robles

Grapes: 51% Petite Sirah, 43% Syrah, 4% Tannat, 2% Touriga Nacional

Appellation: Paso Robles

Vineyard: Huerhuero – an estate vineyard (cool map here)

[from the winery] Huerhuero Vineyard occupies a rolling terrain on the southeast border of Paso Robles, with largely south-facing slopes that reach a maximum elevation of 1,200 feet. This location is a crossroads for marine air entering the region from both the Templeton Gap and Salinas Valley. The soils are shallow, shifting from clay loam to sandy loam, with rocky calcareous subsoils—a well-drained composition that naturally tames vine vigor. The main soil types are the Nacimiento – Los Osos and the Arbuckle – Positas complex. A tight vine spacing of 6 by 4 feet in several blocks creates root competition and also controls vigor. The result is smaller vines, with balanced canopies and small, intensely flavored grapes.

Winemaking/aging: “up to” 14 months in 1-2 year old French oak

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: $14

My tasting notes: This wine leads with bright red and blue fruit on nose, with some meaty/gamey aromas. On the palate, the fruit gets deeper and darker (blackberries, black cherries) with a steely/mineral quality that makes me think “old world” momentarily. Some oak and drying tannins on the back, but smooth overall considering the grapes involved.

Overall impression: This is definitely a wine I would buy again. Plenty here for everybody. It’s got gobs of fruit, but plenty of natural structure as well. Very solid. Plus it’s got fun grapes. B

Free association: I don’t know why but… Darth Tater (dark, but cheery?)

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More info:

Winery’s tech sheet (all their wines are in one pdf so you have to scroll down to find this wine)

Other blogger viewpoints at: Wine Peeps (score only: 2.5 stars), Young Winos of LA (scroll down), Wine and Cheese and Wherever You Are.