Thursday, May 19, 2011

Part 3 of 3 of The Barrel Tour with Neil

So here we are at the third and final post for my barrel tour with Neil Collins, the winemaker at Tablas Creek. I know this sounds strange, but I'm pretty sad this is ending! This three part series has been a lot of fun for me, and actually means a lot to me as I love the Tablas wines, as well as the folks at Tablas. It was a huge treat for me to be able to spend time with Neil, being able to talk to him about his experiences in the wine industry - wow. That is such a gift for someone like me who is interested in learning as much as I can about wine. But alas, all good things have to come to an end. It is funny though: when I got the invite to come do the barrel tour, I assumed I'd just do one blog post on it - cover the basics on the varietals and then be done. But Neil was so kind and spent so much time with us, talking about so many things, I quickly realized this blog was going to turn into much more - hence the ongoing three part series! :) What will I do with my time when I'm done with this post?

For this final blog post, we're going to cover the "obscure" single varietals of red Rhone wines. What I'm focused on here is Grenache Noir, Counoise, Mourvedre, Tannat & Cinsault.

But before we start, I have to recognize another big player who helped me with this blog post, and that's the fabulous John Morris, Tasting Room Manager at Tablas Creek. So when we were doing the tour with Neil, many of the reds really weren't ready to taste - that's just the way it goes when the wines are aging. So to make sure that I got all of the info right, I met with John at the tasting room a few days after my barrel tour to go through the "perfected" wines so that I would have a better idea of the varietals.

John actually started out in Seattle, working in the coffee industry. After things turned corporate in the company he worked for, he started to look around as he was itching to leave the rain behind and find some sunshine. San Luis Obispo caught his eye as it was a small town, yet a cool college town with plenty of California sunshine.

Slowly though he worked his way up to the Paso area and caught the "wine bug" of the Central Coast Wine Industry. He landed the job at Tablas Creek, and the rest is history!

So here we go! The final tasting notes on obscure red rhone varietals:

GRENACHE NOIR. One of my favorite reds of all time. Literally, the first time I tasted the 2007 Tablas Grenache, it tasted like pure cherries to me. We left with a bottle then, and we left with a bottle of the 2008 for this trip too!  Grenache Noir is typically light, though grown in the Limestone soil at Tablas Creek, it has beautiful, almost chalky tannins. You definitely taste red fruit, cherry and even red licorice on this wine. If you want to, this wine could lay down for 10 years, but God knows I don't have the patience for that! In fact, I almost cracked it open as I was writing this blog post. Just trying to be true to form: writing about Grenache while drinking Grenache - that's the only professional way to do it :)

COUNOISE. Probably THE favorite red wine of mine of all time! Oh counoise, how shall I describe thee? I always call it a lighter version of Grenache. To me, it has the same characteristics - beautiful cherry & strawberry flavors - but is lighter by a couple notches. Fewer tannins, in fact I'd say that I didn't pick up on any tannins at all. A gorgeous varietal that in my opinion, complements Grenache by being similar yet filling in a few holes (just the way Semillon helps to complement Sauvingnon Blanc.) It's rare to find Counoise as a single varietal wine, but if you look hard enough, you can find it. For example, Derby did 90 cases of it for their wine club folks. And Tablas Creek itself did a counoise single varietal for the years of 2002 & 2005. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that for the 2010 year, they may have enough counoise to do it again. The folks at Tablas know that little old me is pushing for it! :)

I love this shot of Neil with his barrels.
MOURVEDRE. Mourvedre ("more-ved-ra" or you can say "more-ved") is the new hot sexy single varietal that everyone wants to take a stab at. There was an informative article on mourvedre recently in the L.A Times. I've tasted quite a few Mourvedres in the Paso area that I would classify as earthy, flat tasting wines, which makes me understand why it can typically be a blending grape. But when you find Mourvedre done "right," you understand what all the hype is about!

Tablas Creek's 2008 Mourvedre is brighter & lighter in style than usual, and is a totally elegant wine. It's a pretty wine with notes of blueberry, cherry and spice. Typically Mourvedre has more of a darkened fruit, provencal herbs, tobacco quality about it but the 2008 year captures more of the quality of the lighter "pop" of the wine/fruit on your palate. It still has the other qualities but more subtle than usual. That's the style of Mourvedre that I enjoy - way to go, Neil!

To mention, Cypher Winery's Mourvedre (for wine club only) is done by carbonic maceration, which is the way Beaujolais is done. But that will be a whole other blog post when the new Cypher wines are released. They are bottling today so the post will be soon!

TANNAT. Oh the elusive Tannat. I had been told that you were only a blending grape, but no, you are far from that. I am sorry that anyone ever called you a "blending only grape." How wrong they are! You are one of the most sexy single varietals I have come upon so far, all because you have a taste that I have never encountered before. Some may call you "a beast, " but I call you the love of my life.

Tablas Creek's 2008 Tannat again is lighter in style than usual. It has blueberry, blackberry & black plum notes - even a bit of cherry - along with a clove, cola carmel quality. I think though what I love most about Tannat is that fact that it is such a different taste to what we're typically exposed to with red wines. Plus, hardly anyone does it as a single varietal. So being able to drink a "totally random" wine is what makes the hunt for great wines so appealing to me. (To mention, Tannat isn't a Rhone Varietal but rather from the Basque region. That said, Tannat has basically become an honorary Rhone Varietal as well as the national grape in Uruguay.)

Funny story to tell though: The first Tannat I purchased was the 2007 Tannat that Neil Collins produced for Lone Madrone. Now this Tannat is different than the one at Tablas because it is grown in an entirely different microclimate. Lone Madrone's Tannat truly was a beast. A 16.6% alcohol beast. (Tannat: Apologies for calling you a beast, but the truth is the truth!) It was pure blueberry with cigar notes to it - again a smell I has never smelled before and a taste I had never tasted before. Boyfriend and I had to have it, and we ran home to drink it right away.

We paired it with balsamic glazed portabella mushrooms over seasoned rice. You typically need earthy, gamey food to go with Tannat, and since we're mainly vegetarian, mushrooms fit the bill.

We savored every sip. In fact, we've never gone so slowly through a bottle of wine. But be prepared: if you drink Tannat, your teeth will totally turn blueberry! Neil's Tannat was the chewy, blueberry Tannat that will truly stick with you :)

As we were drinking Tannat, I was hell bent to make sure I got the full 50% of the bottle, that Boyfriend wouldn't drink it all up on me. He kept claiming that he has more body weight than I and that he should get at least 70%. No way was that going to go down. So every pour we poured was closely monitored to hit the 50/50 mark. At one point during this drinking competition, Boyfriend had to go outside to help put our chickens to bed. Before he left, he took a black marker and marked off exactly where the Tannat was in the bottle, to ensure I didn't steal any when he was gone. Can I say I was mad about that? Heck no. I was just annoyed that I didn't think of it first!

CINSAULT. Tablas Creek didn't have any Cinsault for me to taste, but that's Ok by me as I had other hook-ups. I also work for Robert Hall Winery and realized that Don Brady, the winemaker there, had plenty of Cinsault sitting in barrels down in the caves. So yesterday, Kevin (the assistant winemaker at Robert Hall) gave me a mini-barrel tour so that I could try the Cinsault.

Though the wine was young, it was delicious. It reminded me of Counoise in the way that it is also so light, low, low tannins with a cherry/strawberry taste. But what surprised me with Robert Hall's Cinsault was that if this had been a blind tasting, I would have totally pegged it for Pinot Noir. The Cinsault, though light and fruity still has a bit of an earthy quality that is just like a typical Pinot. Wow. How neat to be able to try that.

Cinsault is quite hard to find as a single varietal, but Turley did make one this year. Small production, mainly for restaurants, and it sold out quite quickly. Thankfully it was such a success, they are planing to do it again. I will be waiting with bated breath for the new release, and will definitely highlight it on this blog when it comes out.

My goodness, that brings me to the end of this post. A big thanks to everyone who helped make this three part blog post possible. Though this hunt for obscure single varietals has come to an end, the search for the perfect Rose' is just beginning. Coming soon!

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