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by Tom Hill

A self-admitted wine geek, Tom lives in Northern New Mexico and works as a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing numerical neutron transport & large scale code development. He has been tasting wines since 1971, participates locally with a couple of large tasting groups in his area, and is practically a fixture at most California wine festivals, such as the Hospice du Rhône, Rhône Rangers, and ZAP. Other interests: Tom is heavily into competitive sport fencing (foil & epee), biking, cooking, basketball, skiing, backpacking, mountain climbing.

Chronic Wines - October 11, 2009

We tasted last night (11/11/09) some Chronic Wines, plus a few others:

  1. Novy Viognier RRV (14.1%) 2008: Pale yellow color; lovely fresh/pear/Viog/peach/floral slight minerally nose; soft lush/floral/pear/Viog light peachy flavor; very long lush/pear/Viog/peach/floarl slight earthy finish; a lovely elegant non-DollyParton Viog. $18.00
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  2. ChronicCllrs LaMuneca PasoRobles (50% Viognier/Roussanne; 14.3%; www.ChronicCellars.com)
    JoshBeckett/JakeBeckett P&B by PeachyCanyonWnry 2007    : Light gold color; very attractive Roussanne/honeysuckle/floral bit spicy/nutmeg/perfumed light pencilly/oak nose; soft/fat/lush light earthy strong honeysuckle/floral/Roussanne light pencilly/oak flavor; med.long soft/fat rich light floral/
    honeysuckle bit candied finish; lovely floral nose but could use a bit more acid/structure on the
    palate; a pretty Rhone blanc at a very good price. $20.00
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  3. ChronicCllrs SofaKingBueno PasoRobles (50% Tempranillo/Zinfandel; 15.0%) 2007: Med.dark color; strong black cherry/berry/raspberry/Zin bit black cherry cough syrup slight pencilly/oak rather perfumed/ attractive nose; tart black cherry/raspberry/Zin rather pencilly/oak bit ripe/black cherry cough syrup slight charred flavor; med.long charred/toasty/oak black cherry/cough syrup/raspberry/Zin finish w/
    some tannins; needs a few yrs; quite an interesting red blend at a good price. $20.00
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  4. ChronicCllrs ElPerfecto PasoRobles (44% Tempranillo, 33% PetiteVerdot, 23% Malbec; 14.8%) 2006: Med.dark color; strong black cherry some herbal/Cab-like light toasty/oak pleasant bit simple nose; soft bit hot/ alcoholic black cherry/Temp bit herbal/Cab ripe light toasty/oak flavor; med.long bit tannic/hard black cherry/herbal/Cab-like some toasty/oak finish; speaks mostly of Cab-like character; interesting red blend. $26.00
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  5. ChronicCllrs PetiteSirah PasoRobles (15.0%) 2006: Black color; slight peppery/herbal/earthy strong
    blueberry/PS/spicy light toasty/oak quite interesting nose; soft rather hard/tannic peppery/blueberry/ PS
    light toasty/ oak slight earthy/dusty/clunky flavor; long soft strong toasty/oak strong blueberry/PS/
    peppery/spicy somewhat hard/tannic finish; needs 2-5 yrs; lots of PS fruit but shows some of the clunky
    side of PS. Easily my favorite of the Chronics; a first-rate PS. $30.00
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  6. Siduri PinotNoir SonomaCnty (14.1%) 2008: Med.light color; very attractive pencilly/oak/Siduri some
    black cherry/Pinot slight pungent pleasant nose; tart some pencilly/oak light black cherry/Pinot flavor
    light charred/smokey/rain on ashes rather unusual/interesting flavor; med.long light black cherry/Pinot
    some pencilly/oak/trademark Siduri light charred/smokey finish w/ light tannins; not quite as clean &
    bright as previous SC Pinots but nice wine for the price. $17.00
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  7. Novy NapaVlly Syrah (14.3%) 2006: Dark color; strong blackberry/Syrah some toasty oak bit spicy/earthy straightforward Syrah nose; tart strong/simple/blackberry/Syrah light toasty/oak slight tannic bit spicy flavor; med. tart simple/blackberry/Syrah light toasty/oak finish w/ bit of tannins; needs yr or two; a fairly simple/straightforward NapaVlly Syrah at a good price. $17.00
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  8. Novy Syrah Page-NordVnyd/NapaVlly (14.3%; 346 cs) 2006: Black color; strong blackberry/ boysenberry/Syrah very spicy slight peppery some toasty/Fr.oak lovely nose; soft slight tannic/hard very spicy/blackberry/ Syrah light toasty/oak flavor; med.short slight tannic/bitey rich/blackberry/Syrah quite spicy/peppery light toasty/oak finish; needs several yrs; finishes a bit short but very nice aromatics and speaks of Syrah; very well-priced at $21.75
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  9. Novy Syrah UntiVnyd/DryCreekVlly (14.3%; 72 cs) 2007: Very dark color; attractive blackberry/ raspberry/ Zin-like some spicy/earthy light oak almost RRV Zin attractive nose; tart rather hard/tannic/lean some blackberry/Zin-like/raspberry/spicy light vanilla/oak flavor; med.long tart/hard/tannic blackberry/ Zin-like bit spicy light oak finish; very attractive nose but hard/tannic on the palate; needs several yrs; speaks more of RRV Zin than Syrah; fairly priced at $21.50
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  10. SeaRidge SonomaCoast LateHrvst Zin MorelliVnyd (Century old vines; 16%; RS: 5.5%; SaH: 34 Brix) 1991: Light brown bit murky/cloudy color; tarrible mousey/oxidized raisened/pruney/treacle/fruit cake rather alcoholic nose; quite sweet raisened/pruney/chocolaty/peppery late harvesty very tart/acid flavor; med. long very tart/acid very raisened/pruney/treacle bit oxidized finish; unpleasant nose but not so bad on the palate; has a mean acidic streak; good w/ 30 yr old fruit cake doused in bourbon.
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  11. ChronicCllrs Tranquilo PasoRobles LateHrvst (18.5%; RS: 13%; SaH: 32 Brix) NV: Med.dark color; very strong raisened/pruney/late harvesty somewhat alcoholic rather chocolaty/very ripe/blackberry nose; very sweet soft/fat some alcoholic/hot strong chocolaty/blackberry/late harvest flavor w/ light tannins; very long bit alcoholic/soft very ripe/chocolaty/late harvesty/boysenberry light tannic finish; carries the 18.5% alcohol rather well and not raging volatile/fumey; not sure of the varieties but would guess mostly Zin; rather interesting late harvest. $26.00/hlf


And the usual stuff from TheBloodyPulpit:


1. NovyViog: I think the fruit for this comes from SaraLee's vnyd; a vnyd that I find makes a pretty Viog, but just that. This '08 Novy is easily the best Viog that Adam as yet made. The first few were rather on the overripe and porky side. The first weighed in at 16+% as I recall. This '08 version is much more restrained and to my liking.
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2. SiduriPinot: I believe this SC Pinot was one that contained a fair amount of smoke-afflicted Hirsch and VanDerKamp Pinot. I noticed a bit of smokey/charred character on the palate but sorta just enough to give it an interesting character.
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3. Novy Syrah: The Novy Syrahs tend to be fairly rich/lush/soft on the palate. I was rather surprised how hard/lean/tannic the Unti was on the palate. Like many of the DryCreekVlly Syrah, it seemed to resemble Zin more than Syrah. I'm not a big fan of many (up-valley) NapaVlly Syrahs. They don't seem to reflect much terroir, just seem to be rather simple/blackberry sort of Syrahs; unless they're made like a NapaVlly Cab, which I like even less. I've always considered the Novy NV Syrahs the least interesting that Adam makes. This NapaVlly Syrah seemed to fit that mold. However, this '06 Page-Nord was one that I liked quite a bit, much more interesting than they've been in the past, and mabey Adam's best P-N yet.
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4. SeaRidge: This was a long-ago wnry located up on MorelliLane, near vonWeidlichVnyd. The property eventually became to old Eric-Ross property (they're no longer there).  The (regular) SeaRidge Zin '91 was a legendary wine in my group. Highly reviled by most of the group. But I thought it was very much made in the old-timey style of the Ridge Occidental Zins (from vonWeidlich grapes) and would do well with age because of its very high acidity. The jury is still out on whether it's done well or not. I still have hopes that I will be vindicated....but they're starting to fade. This LateHrvst was much more attractive than the regular '91 in its youth. That said, this btl doesn't seem to have stood the test of time.
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5. ChronicCllrs: When I'd heard about these wines of Josh & Jake Beckett, I immediately took an interest and ordered a mixed half case. If the name sounds familar, then it's because of their father, DougBeckett, who has been a fixture/character on the Paso scene for many a year. I'd followed his PeachyCanyon wines from the very start, back when TobinJames was involved in the winemaking. The wines were pretty incredible back then, some of the best Zins and such coming out of Paso. I've only tasted them sporadically over the last 10 yrs, so don't really know how they're doing these days. I should go back and revisit PeachyCanyon wines, probably.

I liked these Chronic wines across the board. The PetiteSirah was one of the best I've had from Paso in some time. Also liked the SofaKingBueno quite a bit. Most of my people didn't pick up on the name, though...the're mostly straight-laced LosAlamos scientific types. SofaKingBueno....SofaKingGood (in English)...say it fast. Their labels are pretty weird/neat as well as their wicked humor.

TomHill

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