Calluna

Florida Jim

Florida Jim

Florida Jim
I have spoken about this producer occasionally. It was nice to see John Gilman write about his wine:

"2010 Calluna Estate (Chalk Hill)
The Calluna Estate bottling is the flagship wine from Calluna Vineyards, with the 2010 version made up of a blend of fifty-three percent cabernet sauvignon, twenty percent merlot, seventeen percent cabernet franc, eight percent petit verdot and two percent malbec. It was raised in a bit more new wood than the Calluna Vineyard Cuvée in this vintage, with sixty percent of the barrels new and the wine is just a touch riper at 14.3 percent alcohol. The 2010 Calluna Estate delivers and excellent nose of cassis, black cherries, cigar smoke, a fine base of dark soil tones, espresso, a bit of lead pencil and a judicious framing of cedary new wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and seamless, with a young and very classy personality, a fine core of fruit, firm, well integrated tannins and excellent length and grip on the bright and still very primary finish. I love the sense of inherent balance and restraint on this young, elegant and very complex wine, and it should be a cellar treasure in the fullness of time. This is a very high class bottle of Bordeaux-inspired Sonoma red wine that will need at least another decade to really start to come into its own, but which should firmly cement the reputation of Calluna Estate as one of the brightest new producers in the firmament of California wine.
Fine, fine juice! 2023-2050+. 94."

Best, Jim
 
I keep grabbing these (08 and 09 too) and the sliding them back into the wine fridge. I want to drink them but they wil benefit from many years of cellar time.
Very good wines.

Jim, in about 10 or so years lets throw a leg of lamb on the grill.
 
originally posted by VLM:
I think I posted about the 2010 Merlot that I had. Very good.
Click to expand...
I had that one recently also and liked it.
FWIW, Gilman reviewed other wines from Calluna and thought highly of all of them, including the 2010 merlot.

David Jeffrey, winemaker for Calluna, is a friend and we shall sit down soon and review each other's wines, as we do most years. Always enlightening as we shed diplomacy to the benefit of critical analysis.

And we eat well.
Best, Jim
 
John has given his blessing to the full quote as fair use, for those First Amendment nervous nellies among you.
 
Speaking of Gilman, one of the things I like about his Burgundy reports (at least what I've seen, not being a subscriber) is the attention paid to chaptalization (which may not be the most comfortable topic to question growers on). In contrast to Meadows, who seems basically indifferent (again, in what I've seen). Does anyone know whether Gilman has ever written a 'position paper' on the matter?
 
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