Varner, Neely, Foxglove

No more than twenty seconds after exiting my car, Ive got a glass in my hand. In it is a dense, sticky liquid straight from a rumbling crusher a few feet above my head, with a good number of uninvited floaters: bits of stems, skins, seeds, and perhaps a few dozen fruit flies. Theres also a fair amount of the sugary goop on my hand, which means its now on the pen Im using to take notes. Which means its also on my notebook. Which means the pages are getting a little sticky.

But theres nothing to be done about it now, so I shove my nose in the glass and take a lusty sniff. Freshly-crushed grapes, with a bit of a edge to them. I sip, ignoring the potentially complexing elements of bug protein and stem roughage. Dense fruit, very sweet, but vivacious. Its a wine in embryonic form, just waiting to be born. And its delicious.

continued here. Notes follow:

Varner 2007 Chardonnay Spring Ridge Home Block (barrel sample) (Santa Cruz Mountains) Still thick and lush. Peach, apple, lees. Opaque. (9/08)

Varner 2007 Pinot Noir Spring Ridge Home Block (barrel sample) (Santa Cruz Mountains) From a new Franois Frres barrel, 115 clone. Still wood-marked. Elegant. Spicy cherry (again, the wood influence). Seems lighter-styled. (9/08)

Varner 2007 Pinot Noir Spring Ridge Home Block (barrel sample) (Santa Cruz Mountains) From a three year old Franois Frres barrel, still the 115 clone. Balanced fruit with light tannin. A mix of black and red cherry, strawberry, and perhaps some more exotic berries that I cant quite put a name to. Very long. Grey soil. A persistent bit of wood influence lingers late on the finish, but its very minor in comparison to the new-wood sample of this cuve. (9/08)

Varner 2008 Pinot Noir Spring Ridge Hidden Block (barrel sample) (Santa Cruz Mountains) Actually, not even really a wine, as it was pressed just yesterday. Crisp apple with a touch of milk-soaked strawberry. Light. (9/08)

Neely 2006 Chardonnay Spring Ridge Hollys Cuve (Santa Cruz Mountains) Very restrained. Apple and apricot, but not just the fruitskins and other plant-parts as well. Theres good acidity and a lot of minerality. Medium-bodied, steady-state, pure, and fabulously balanced, but this needs more time to develop into what its becoming. (9/08)

Neely 2005 Pinot Noir Spring Ridge Hollys Cuve (Santa Cruz Mountains) A blend of clones 115 and 777. Intense cherryreally more like an explosion thereofwith just a hint of tar. Vivid. Beautiful texture and huge, deep-black minerality. Starts bright and blinding, then turns structured in the middle, and finishes with supple gentility. (9/08)

Neely 2005 Pinot Noir Spring Ridge Picnic Block (Santa Cruz Mountains) 777 clones on 5C rootstock in the poorest soil on the property. Dark blackberry, blueberry (both with seeds intact), and broodberry. No, thats not a word, but it applies here. Lush indeed, but very well-balanced, and frankly gorgeous. Is that a little tail of licorice? Long, vivid, and intense. Impressive. (9/08)

Neely 2007 Pinot Noir Spring Ridge Picnic Block (barrel sample) (Santa Cruz Mountains) Anise. Red fruit with black skins, or so it seems; definitely not the other way around. Beautiful acidity, long, silky, and supple. A fine particulate texture pairs with flawless structure. (9/08)

Foxglove 2007 Zinfandel (Paso Robles) 15% petite sirah, 14.6% alcohol. Big boysenberry fruit, with a nicely bitter espresso edge. A little short aromatically, but eminently drinkable. (9/08)

Your comments on the Varner barrel samples brings back a memory of a similar tasting for me at Kosta-Browne. Barrel after barrel of interesting wines in their infancy, too many marked by wood. But one that, if they would have bottled it without blending, I would have bought all I could afford (which at their prices, ain't much).
Showing me two things:
-that CA can make a great, elegant pinot,
-that most CA winemakers aren't interested in that model.
Best, Jim

The Varner pinots from bottle aren't especially marked by wood. They can be right up there with some of the Rhys crus. Kosta Browne on the other hand I think would taste like candy even without any wood!

originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
Kosta Browne on the other hand I think would taste like candy even without any wood!

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You might be surprised.
Of course, I'm only talking about a single barrel (used at that) so your comment is mostly right.
Best, Jim

I should clarify, then: the Varner/Neely wines are gently wooded and handle it very well. I very much liked the wines. That one woody barrel was going in a < 1/3 new assemblage, if I understood Bob Varner correctly.

For me (as well as Keith, I guess), the Kosta Browne wines' primary faults precede wood's influence, but that's just me. No, I have not tasted them from barrel, but I've never objected to them -- which I do most strongly -- because of their wood, but because they taste like jam with grappa.

Yup, "jam with grappa" sums it up pretty well!

Sounds like a great taating.
Just to correct something on the blog, they don't own the vineyard. Neely does and that's why they put his name on one of the bottlings.
I tasted several of them at a K&L tasting last month and liked them quite a bit. For a single vineyard wine they're more than reasonably priced.
I think the 2005 pinot is going to be killer in a year or so.

Thanks for the correction.

I did ask them directly if they owned all their own vineyards, and they said yes; I presume "they" meant "all the partners" to them, and just "the Varners" to me. So a simple misunderstanding on my part.

originally posted by SteveTimko:
I think the 2005 pinot is going to be killer in a year or so.

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I think these are much longer-term wines than that. We'll see. I've had both the '04 and '05 recently and neither is nearly as good as they were on release, which is as it should be - I expect a more Old World aging curve.

I bought some 05 chards from Varner because I needed some wines that are liked by some of our friends that I don't mind drinking also. I don't think the oak is excessive

originally posted by SteveTimko:
I think the 2005 pinot is going to be killer in a year or so.

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Careful, Steve. You're sailing awfully close to the sandbar of "killer juice." (insert emoticon of choice here)

Mark Lipton

originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
Yup, "jam with grappa" sums it up pretty well!

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Agreed, I always have trouble with those fancy descriptors so it's nice to have some help. Not that I've had a lot of Kosta Browne.

It's worth pointing out, for anyone who didn't click over to the full narrative, that Varner uses natural yeasts, massale selection (since their initial plantings), doesn't water back (doesn't need to), and so forth. Good practices behind good wines.

You won't meet two nicer guys than Bob and Jim. I'll be tasting the 2007s from bottle and 2008s from barrel this Wednesday. No one has commented, but one interesting aspect of the domaine is that their three Chards, from adjoining plots, all have recognizable character vintage over vintage. One might even dare call it terroir. The Amphitheater is the most minerally and restrained. The Bee the most exuberant, tropical, and Californian. The Home the most structured, pure, and ageable. Remarkable to see three Chards so different (all excellent) from adjoining blocks in California. I'm not fully on board with the Pinot, but realize that might just be a palate quirk for me.

I can say also that the Chards age. I've had them as old as 8, and they develop nice secondary character without tiring out at all.

No one has commented

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Except, you know, the original poster. (proscribed emoticon goes here)

originally posted by Thor:

No one has commented

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Except, you know, the original poster. (proscribed emoticon goes here)

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You only posted a note for one of the three Chards. The Nelly Chard is a blend of the three blocks. I looked back and still don't see anything in your post about the diverse Chard terroir. Sorry though, didn't mean to steal your thunder.

"The tactile, sun-made-manifest fluid in my glass is chardonnay from the Bee Block, already nearing the end of its journey from grape to barrel, and from this site the Varners look for 'peaches up front, lemon curd on the finish, and a sensation of chopped-up apples,' whereas the Amphitheater Block showcases its minerality in a package of less overt lushness."

(Not comprehensive, no, but I did make mention of it.)

Don't worry about it. Had the disallowed emoticon been present, you would have understood that I was kidding. I appreciate the amplification.

You know, I just went back and read the FAQ, and I don't see where emoticons are proscribed. Did I miss a bulletin from the Powers that Be?

Q: Where are the cute little cartoon smiley faces and winky-winky embedded icon things?

A: Where? On EVERY OTHER SITE ON THE INTERNET. We hate that cutesy animated cartoon shit. What are you, seven? If so, beat it. Come back when you're legal, you want to get us in trouble?

Yes, I also read it as applying to graphic emoticons, not text, but...one of the more reactionary members of the Politburo got upset at me in the early days of Disorder when I used one. More importantly, Loesberg doesn't like them. So I eschew.

Oh, okay, I gotcha. Yeah, I took that to mean animated GIFs and shit like that, not text. But I would never want to undermine Professor Loesberg.