1. Flaccianello: This was one of the first SuperTuscans. Made of 100% Sangiovese, hence the VdT label. I was expecting more..a lot more...from these two wines. Alas, they were pretty much dead & gone w/ no redeeming features.
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2. SeaRidge: This is the wine of legends in LosAlamos. I tried this under the regular SeaRidge label in the early-mid '90's and was blown away by it. Very intense/extracted fruit and a screamingly high acidity that I knew would make it a long ager. It reminded me a lot of the Ridge Occidental Zin '70 in its youth, another wine of legends.
The SeaRidgeWnry was started in the late '70's by TimSchmidt & DanWickham, two marine bioligists. It's a name that should be better known. They made some of the first great Pinots from the extreme SonomaCoast from BohanRanch fruit. Story here: http://www.princeofpinot.com/article/1398/ Those Pinots were quite remarkable and I remember when I tasted them that these were something different in Calif Pinot and very/very special. The two partners had a falling out in 1988 and Dan took the SeaRidge stocks and moved down onto an old wnry on MorelliLane NE of Occidental, which had a very old pre-Prohibition Zin vnyd. The source of this wine. A stone's throw from Robert vonWeidlich's old Zin vnyd (the source of the old Ridge Occidentals).
Eventually, Dan couldn't make it financially and the label was sold to FredFranzia/BroncoWines, who has trashed its once-great reputation on the shelves of TraderJoe's. Probably when going under, Dan put up this Zin under special "private selection" labels such as this one. No clue who the Conrads are. We bought several cases of this wine for a song w/ a bunch of different names on them. The MorelliLane property then eventually went on to become the Eric Ross Wnry, who also made some wonderful Zins from those same grapes. Eric then moved on over into the SonomaVlly and no longer gets those wonderful old-vine Zins. For awhile, they went to Dutton-Goldfield. These old SeaRidge Zins have become legends in LosAlamos. Because of its very high acidity, I was convinced they would be real agers. Others who were more acid-adverse thought I was nuts and thought the wine was crap. In the end, I was, of course, correct.
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3. Ceretto: Not much left of this wine. I was expecting the ethereal/perfumey nose of an old Barolo. It was not there. A tired/wizened old Nebb that only whispered of its past glories.
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4. Montclair: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it...does it make a sound? If you Google a wnry and it yields no hits...does/did it exist? This was a small winery in Oakland that started about 1975 by RickDove. Made Zin/Cab/PS. About 1,500 cs/yr. Made in a facility down near the Oakland Coliseum. Rick lived up in Montclair. They were mightly impressive wines. And then they just sort of vanished. Too bad.
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5. Tulocay: This is a wnry located out on CoombsvilleRd on the east side of Napa I fell in love with back in the late '70's when I had an AmadorZin that blew me away. Run by BillCadman, who used to be a tour guide at RobertMondavi and fell in love w/ wine. Made wine at his home (at the top of a very steep driveway) in an adjacent garage in used dairy tanks. Made a PinotBlanc & Chard that I thought were terrific. He also made some stunning PinotNoirs from the HaynesVnyd. From their WebSite (http://www.tulocay.com/), they still appear to be in business...but keeping a pretty low profile. Never see anything of their wines.
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6. Topolos: This was a wnry started in the late '70's by MichaelTopolos. They made, in their day, some pretty amazing Zinfandels. And AlicanteBouschets. Much of it was from RossiRanch as I seem to recall. Their top Zinfandel was called "Ultimo", and it was stunning. Then something happened. The wines became more & more afflicted by high levels of VA/EA. So much so that the last time I stopped at the tasting room, all the reds were pretty much undrinkable. The wines were a joke. I think Michael eventually sold the wnry. There is a Topolos label wine sold by the GoldMedalWineClub, which is
not a good sign. I seem to recall that Michael was farming the RossiRanch from something from MikeOfficer, but couldn't seem to track that down. This '82 was back in Michael's hey-day before the VA/EA became such a problem. In amazingly good shape...and not just for a 30 yr old Zin.
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7. Jaboulet: Both of these '76's were in amazingly good shape. The C-R was a classic NR w/ loads of complexity. The Hermitage was still quite youthful and will probably still go out another 10 yrs. Both were a real treat.
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8. BonnyDoon: I have, of course, followed RandallGrahm from the very start. Back when his passion was to make great PinotNoir up in the SantaCruzMtns at BonnyDoon. In '82, the first of the truly good Calif Syrahs were produced. The Ojai/Qupe/BonnyDoon were from GaryEberle's EstrellaRiver Syrah grapes; and JohnMacCready's SierraVista Syrah up in ElDorado. Although these wines were not profound Syrahs in the sense of NorthernRhone, they at least were good enough to indicate that Syrah had the potential to make great wines in Calif. I think the evidence bears that out thirty yrs later.
I was not expecting a lot from this Syrah. It was far/far better than my expectations. Estrella clone Syrah typically gives, to me, a bright/pretty strawberry character; what I first found in Gary's '76 Syrah. There was still plenty of pretty strawberry fruit in this wine. One more btl left.
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9. JadeMtn: This was one of the very first Syrahs to come off LeeHudson's vnyd in the Carneros. The winemaker was DougDanilek, made at the WhiteRockWnry. The JadeMtn label was eventually sold and now makes just ordinary stuff. JimParas planted his Viognier/Syrah/Nebbiolo vnyd up on MtVeeder and Doug is now the winemaker of the ParasVnyd wines..
TomHill
