A few that I tried over the weekend. Not a good showing until I hit the Odisea last night.
1. Morgan PinotGris R&D FranscioniVnyd/SantaLuciaHighlands (14.1%; www.MorganWinery.com) 2008: Light yellow color w/ a slight grey tint; attractive floral/PG slight valve oil/earthy/minerally nose; soft bit metallic light floral/PG slight earthy/minerally pleasant bit simple flavor; med.short slight minerally/earthy/metallic light floral/PG finish; a pleasant if a bit somple PG at a good price. $13.50
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2, CaretakerWines PinotNoir CentralCoast/Calif (14%; SustainablyFarmed/Crafted By Hand; PN Clones: 2a,23,115,22,vcr18,375,459,&777; Soils: shale, limestone, & sandy loam; OakTreatment: French & Hungarian; Winemaking: Small Lot Fermentation; GrowingSeason: mid-March thru early Oct) P&B by CentralCoastWineWarehouse/SantaMaria 2007: Med.light slightly garnet/bricked color; earthy/loamy light toasty/oak slight menthol nose w/ little fruit or varietal character; soft dilute/washed out vaguely grapey light oak flavor; very short/almost none light vaguely grapey soft light oak finish w/ no tannins; an utterly vapid wine w/ no Pinot character whatsoever. No bargin at $10.00
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3. MartinAlfaro PinotNoir GimelliVnyd/CienegaVlly (14.5%; www.MartinAlfaro.com) 2007: Med.color; strong bretty/barnyardy/horsecollar/funky almost no Pinot some toasty/tanky nose; soft/sour rather funky/bretty/horsecollar/unclean slight Pinot rather tanky/oaked flavor; med. unclean/bretty/horsecollar tanky/oaked finish w/ little tannins; way overpriced at $24.00
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4. Domaine Terlato & Chapoutier Shiraz-Viognier/5% Victoria (14.0%) 2007: Med.dark color; strong blackberry/Syrah some toasty/oak slight earthy nose; pleasant/attractive blackberry/Syrah light toasty/smokey/oak fairly tart flavor; long toasty/oak tart/blackberry/Syrah finish w/ light tannins; a straightforward rather quotidian Oz Shiraz; fairly priced at $13.50
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5. Odisea Cochon Syrah MassaRanch/Yountville/NapaVlly (130 cs; 3% Viognier; 14.5%; www.OdiseaWineCo.com) 2007: Very dark color; very attractive very berry/blackberry/Syrah slight boysenberry/licorice slight pepper very light pungent/toasty/oak nose; fairly tart very spicy/berry/blackberry/Syrah some tannic/hard very light toasty/oak/smokey lovely flavor; rather long bit hard/tannic very spicy/berry/blackberry/Syrah bit licorice/pungent light toasty/oak finish; needs a few months to come together and should go 3-6 yrs; very good acid & structure; some like a leaner Lagier-Meredith; fairly priced at $32.00
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Caretaker: Stumbled upon this at TraderJoe's on Sat. The label seemed a bit contrived and overly-pedigreed...but what the heck. The wine sucked big-time. Not a TJ's bargin at any price. JasonHaas' blog also trashed this wine, though the 2008 vintage. Presumably this was made at the Miller's CentralCoastWineCoop but don't know by whom. Presume the grapes mostly came from the SanLucas area of Monterey.
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2. MartinAlfaro: This wine is made by JoeMartin & RichardAlfaro in Corralitos, near SantaCruz. They take grapes from some very good vnyds. I was interested in this because I am interested in CienegaVlly vnyds & their wines. Don't know what their other wines are like but this one was way to bretty & unclean for my taste.
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3. Odisea: My Odisea boat docked last Thurs, it had been a long weekend on the (fencing) strip and some pretty unthrilling wines, though some great company...and I was ready for something good. Since I had an xtra btl of this MassaRanch Syrah, out came the cork. Good choice. I'm not a big fan of many up-Valley NapaVlly Syrahs. This (and the Lagier-Meredith) is a different breed of cat. Would not say that MassaVnyd yields a profound Syrah, but I liked this one quite a lot. And it should develop well.
Odisea is located in lower Napa, in a ratherr industrial park, in the Falcor facility. But AdamWenn and MikeKreutz are crafting some very interesting wines. Many of them come from the Eastern AVA's of Lodi and force you to rethink what Lodi can produce. Good folks...good wines.
Tom