I've had the chance to try quite a few California wines so I'll do some quick impressions....
Porter Creek - Sonoma
Well made wines...a pretty good estate Chardonnay...a good range of CA Pinot with some being just a bit too ripe and others fitting quite nicely between a big pinot and a more medium bodied, high acid Pinot. They also had a pretty good Carignane and a very peppery Syrah. Overall - Worth a visit...Their wines are pretty reasonably priced and they're very well made.
Unti Wines - Sonoma
Specializing in Italian varieties...The guy at Porter creek actually suggested I come here because their wines tend to be high acid..
Very good Barbera...one of the better non Piedmont ones I've tried...and the rest of their line was all good and exhibited very good value as well. One thing that really threw me off though was their stated acidity and what I picked up on the palate were NOT consistent. At some point I thought maybe they were doing the EU type of acidity calculation but if so, these would have been impossibly high for the grapes that were there..so that couldn't be it....This place is definitely worth a visit if you like Italian varieties or you want higher acid wines...very good overall value.
Macphail wines.
Pretty good but very typical CA Pinot...Not sure what to say here but they did have a number of different pinots and they were all interesting to try...but a bit of a stretch price wise and it doesn't help that their tasting fee is 20 dollars and you need to buy 3 bottles to offset it....Is it worth trying? I'd probably say NO...they were very nice, very helpful and the overall experience was pretty good...but their pricing structure is terrible and how they approach their tasting fee is not good at all.
Pride Mountain
Wonderful estate on top of the mountain that straddles both Napa and Sonoma county. We were able to take their wine tour and check out their wine cave as well as get to try barrel samples and do our own little blending of sorts....I've had their wines before and they've all been very good. Their reds are a great balance between very fruit forward but still maintaining really good structure...especially when it comes to acidity. Their Chardonnay was also quite nicely done...CA Chardonnay bright fruit, some new oak, partial malo and really nice acidity. I'd highly recommend coming here.
Heitz
Old school Napa Cabs...one of the few places where the tasting fee is still free as well...Compared to most of the modern Napa Cabs, these are quite light...some might even call them thin. To me they were very nice, nice texture and mouthfeel..proper acidity..but yes, by modern standards they do not have the body of oomph of a lot of CA Cabs....I actually really enjoyed the wines though...
Friday, November 28, 2014
Saturday, November 1, 2014
CRFT
CRFT Wines
CRFT wines is the brainchild of two winemakers, Candice Helbig and Frewin Ries. They currently only produce single vineyard wines from several different sources around South Australia.
I've read a few things about them but they only started in 2012 so a very new up and comer and their wine is very difficult to source. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to try their wines and I'm really glad I did..
CRFT Gruner Vetliner K1 2014
CRFT Gewurztraminer K1 2013
Both of these wines are fantastic atypical representations of each of these grape varieties and I was especially impressed with the Gewurztraminer which had very nice acidity which I think showed a bit better because the RS was so low (under 2g). Both of these are great food wines and I wouldn't hesitate to drink either one of these...
CRFT Pinot Noir Arranmore 2013
CRFT Pinot Noir Budenberg 2013
CRFT Pinot Noir Chapel Valley 2013
Fruit was sourced from single vineyards across Adelaide Hills. All of the them used French oak varying between 35-40% new.
Each of their Pinots were different from each other but one thing was fairly consistent...Great acidity, great texture, a very medium bodied Pinot that I think a lot of locals will scoff at..but honestly, a really great example of what CAN be done in Australia and I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. If you like a lighter Pinot that is more like a village level or 1er level burg in color/viscosity, you will probably like all three of these...
CRFT Little Hill Shiraz 2013
CRFT Cemetery Shiraz 2013
CRFT Fechner Shiraz 2013
All Barossa sourced single vineyard Shiraz. All had great acidity. Out of the three, the Cemetery was probably the biggest of the three and the most full body but all of them were great. The Little Hill was a very good everyday wine with food..and the Fechner, which was from the Eden Valley, had fantastic acidity to go with very nice fruit..I was actually really impressed by these wines....
One thing I noticed with all of their reds was that even though they did use a good amount of new oak, none of the wines felt overly oaky....which I thought was great considering how young the wines were....They all had great texture and mouthfeel....Actually that applies across every single one of their wines...Not a dud in the bunch...
I see them having great success and I see them(along with others) filling a great gap in the Australian wine scene... there are a good number of new winemakers now that are moving away from the old Australian wine scene...they're doing what they want, how they want and what they think rather than trying to follow some trend....
CRFT wines is the brainchild of two winemakers, Candice Helbig and Frewin Ries. They currently only produce single vineyard wines from several different sources around South Australia.
I've read a few things about them but they only started in 2012 so a very new up and comer and their wine is very difficult to source. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to try their wines and I'm really glad I did..
CRFT Gruner Vetliner K1 2014
CRFT Gewurztraminer K1 2013
Both of these wines are fantastic atypical representations of each of these grape varieties and I was especially impressed with the Gewurztraminer which had very nice acidity which I think showed a bit better because the RS was so low (under 2g). Both of these are great food wines and I wouldn't hesitate to drink either one of these...
CRFT Pinot Noir Arranmore 2013
CRFT Pinot Noir Budenberg 2013
CRFT Pinot Noir Chapel Valley 2013
Fruit was sourced from single vineyards across Adelaide Hills. All of the them used French oak varying between 35-40% new.
Each of their Pinots were different from each other but one thing was fairly consistent...Great acidity, great texture, a very medium bodied Pinot that I think a lot of locals will scoff at..but honestly, a really great example of what CAN be done in Australia and I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. If you like a lighter Pinot that is more like a village level or 1er level burg in color/viscosity, you will probably like all three of these...
CRFT Little Hill Shiraz 2013
CRFT Cemetery Shiraz 2013
CRFT Fechner Shiraz 2013
All Barossa sourced single vineyard Shiraz. All had great acidity. Out of the three, the Cemetery was probably the biggest of the three and the most full body but all of them were great. The Little Hill was a very good everyday wine with food..and the Fechner, which was from the Eden Valley, had fantastic acidity to go with very nice fruit..I was actually really impressed by these wines....
One thing I noticed with all of their reds was that even though they did use a good amount of new oak, none of the wines felt overly oaky....which I thought was great considering how young the wines were....They all had great texture and mouthfeel....Actually that applies across every single one of their wines...Not a dud in the bunch...
I see them having great success and I see them(along with others) filling a great gap in the Australian wine scene... there are a good number of new winemakers now that are moving away from the old Australian wine scene...they're doing what they want, how they want and what they think rather than trying to follow some trend....
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