Very interesting wines

Florida Jim

Florida Jim

Florida Jim
1999 Alzinger, Riesling Loibenberg:
13% alcohol; after many years of being a light yellow and having enough structure and acidity to make me think this would never come around, it has. Deep golden now with hints of red in the highlights; potent and penetrating nose of honeycomb, resin, minerals and Alpine flowers; rich but not cloying, deep and pure, the structure now supports remarkable concentration, the balance is excellent but outsized and the finish as very long. Twelve years in bottle has served this wine and it needed them all.
With Caesar salad and grilled chicken, superb.

2010 Folk Machine, Jeanne D'Arc:
100% chenin blanc from Mendocino picked at 24 brix and fermented with naturally occurring yeasts for about a month, on the skins, until dry, without sulphur additions. Got a small shot of sulphur at bottling.
Has an apricot, chenin, resinous note that still is identifiable as chenin; not so in the mouth, where it is creamy but tart, strongly flavored and still a bit angular, stuffed with concentration and already displaying intensity and some complexity; quite long.
This actually reminds me of the skin-fermented sauvignon that I do, although this is true to its variety. Based on the intensity and structure, this is just beginning its development and can take years in the cellar. If it develops like my sauvignon, which I do anticipate, it will soften, flesh out and deepen in color.
A pretty remarkable wine at a bargain basement price of $18, full retail.
As near as I can tell, available only at a small tasting room in Healdsburg, CA, and at Hobo wines.com.

Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
You mean that tastes like Vouvray?
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When you think of Vouvray in the generic sense, perhaps.
What I meant was, when you taste chenin there are certain similarities regardless of where it is produced, such that, you would say, "I think that is chenin."
I'm not sure what Steve meant, other than, I have had some pretty miserable renditions of the grape grown domestically.
Best, Jim
 
I understand. I was giving in to pendantism a bit, but also thinking about the perennial discussion about varietally-correct flavors versus terroir-driven flavors.

Long ago I used to think the inexpensive Dry Creek Chenin was a decent quaffer, but I haven't had it in years, and don't recall the flavors distinctly enough to say whether they fit with my present expectations of a Chenin-based wine.

Do you have any plans to work with Chenin?
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Do you have any plans to work with Chenin?
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It hadn't occured to me prior to tasting this wine; now it has.
As yet no source, but we shall see.
Best, Jim
 
Just imagining, I wonder if farther north on the Atlantic coast wouldn't have general weather conditions more amenable. But you know the on-the-ground climates in your area and I can only guess.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Just imagining, I wonder if farther north on the Atlantic coast wouldn't have general weather conditions more amenable. But you know the on-the-ground climates in your area and I can only guess.
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In general, you're probably right.

But the myriad of micro-climates here is astounding and one never knows.
Just as an example, there is a very steep hilltop vineyard in Bennett Valley that was originally planted to cabernet because the owner liked cab. It could not get cab. ripe in even the hottest of years and has since been grafted over to cooler climate varieties - and even occasionally, gets them ripe.
Not 1,000 yards away is Matanzas Creek Winery and they get merlot ripe every year.
Go figure.

Best, Jim
 
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