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WTN: CowanCllrs Isa SauvBlanc '10..(short/boring)

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TomHill

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WTN: CowanCllrs Isa SauvBlanc '10..(short/boring)

by TomHill » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:43 pm

On my last meal in the BayArea Mon night, I went to A16 and tried:
1. CowanCllrs Isa SauvBlanc LakeCnty (Skin frmtd; "We make wines naturally to reflect their place and varietal character": FloridaJim; www.CowanCellars.com; 13.1%) SantaRosa 2010: Deep golden/burnished bronze/bit orange color; quite strong phenolic/orangey/resiny/savory light smokey/honeyed/mead rather complex nose; fairly tart/tanget quite phenolic/resiny/savory/cidery/mead some earthy/orangey lightly tannic/astringent flavor; very long quite phenolic/resiny/cidery/savory earthy/orangey/honeyed finish w/ some hard/astringent tannins; rather hard/phenolic but seems to be dropping a bit of tannin since I last had it; quite an interesting/complex skin-contact white. $43.00 (A16)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. On my last night of my RibollaFest trip, I decided I'd try the new Rockridge outpost of A16, saving myself a trip down to the Marina. As I expected, the food was outstanding...though I was just eating light snacks.
A16 has an outstanding wine list, focusing on SouthernItaly from LeMarche southwards; plus a few relevant wines from Calif. I ordered a BtG sample of a Fiano, an offida pecorino, and a Massican SauvBlanc. I had them served blind. Was 0-3 on identifying them blind. Shows how much I know!!
As I was trying the wines and browsing thru the extensive wine list, I spied the Cowan Isa '10. How often do you see FloridaJim's wine on a wine list?? Almost never. So I knew I had to order a btl to try.
The wine was served too cold...at normal white wine temperature. It made the wine, tasted on its own, seem very hard/austere/tannic and quite phenolic. I immediately snuggled the btl into my crotch (hey...that's why the GoodLord gave us crotches) to warm it up a bit, which drew a puzzled look from my waitress. I told her I just had a special place in my world for FloridaJim's wines. I don't think she understood.
Like most skin-contact whites, this is a wine that badly needs food to accompany it. With the burrata & grape tomatoes, the wine still was on the tannic/phenolic side and not much pleasure. But w/ the fried olives and the spicy almonds, it took the hard edges off the wine and made it much more pleasurable. When I added a small dribble of the ferocious A16 chile oil to the olives and almonds, the wine was really tamed and was a real pleasure to drink. Thank you, FloridaJim.
I was quite amused by Jim's above quote on the back label. The wine spoke neither of LakeCnty (which is a good thing) nor of SauvBlanc (another good thing). My experience is that w/ skin-contact whites, the varietal character is pretty much obliterated. At least as I recognize varietal character of SauvBlanc.
I hadn't had the '10 Isa in probably 2 yrs. It seemed to have more of a phenolic character than I recall, maybe with a slightly reduced level of tannins. Maybe developing more of an orangey/honeyed character than I recall.
Anyway, quite a delicious/interesting wine once I got the food pairing right.
Tom

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