SEPTEMBER 2022 FEATURED PREMIUM WINES
WINE ONE: TESTALONGA THE DARK SIDE
About: Craig gets his Syrah from a 0.75ha vineyard planted in 2001. The higher proportion of clay in the soils here helps with dry farming, and they intentionally leave lots of leaves and shoots on the vines to keep ripeness in check. Whole clusters were fermented in open top tank for eight days before being pressed off into neutral puncheons. A small amount of SO2 was added a month before bottling. One hundred twenty-five cases were produced. 4.74 TA, 3.65 pH, tSO2 12ppm
Taste: This wine is a vivid purple in the glass. The nose is poised yet wild like a stealthy jaguar, ready to pounce, adorable and deadly all at once. You’ll discover aromas of violet, blackberry, plum skins, graphite, charcoal, wild blueberry, tarragon, dried mint, coriander, and black truffle. The palate is electric, alive, and buzzing. This hum contains a saline acidity, modest weight, silty tannins, and luxurious length. This wine has an opalescent, crystalized, shimmering, mesmerizing quality, like seeing stars in a black gemstone. On the finish, you’ll find flavours of niçoise olive, sweet licorice, jerky, black currant, white pepper, ginseng, and iris. Drink one now, cellar one for later.
Pairing: Nothing goes with Syrah quite like lamb. Similar qualities in the meat somehow cancel out the peppery, gamey attributes of the wine. Syrah in this style has enough acid to cut through the fat and umami without getting dominated. For sides, we’d suggest lentils and mushrooms to play off the earthiness.
WINE TWO: URSA MAJOR YO, I THINK THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT YOU
About: This wine is made from a blend of Syrah (85%) and Viognier (15%). The thirty-year-old organically farmed vines are deeply rooted in the Black Sage Bench’s sandy loam soils. After their earliest pick on record, the Viognier was direct pressed over destemmed Syrah berries. After a six-day co-ferment, the wine is gently basket-pressed into barriques to finish primary fermentation. The wine spent nine months on lees before being racked and bottled without fining or filtration, and only 25ppm of SO2.
Taste: This wine is bright purple in the glass. The nose is wide-eyed, attentive, awake, and alert, with zingy flavours of strawberry, peach pit, saskatoon berry, charred maple, rhododendron, ripe watermelon, sweet sage, and cubeb. The palate is vibrant and juicy with tangy acidity, gentle plum-skin tannins, and a savoury edge. It reminds me of a black lab, menacing from a distance but docile up close. You’ll find further flavours of blackberry, rosemary, sarsaparilla, warm lilac flowers, Ethiopian coffee, cocoa nibs, and cranberry jam.
Pairing: I’m currently in Germany helping with the harvest at Brand Bros. In the beginning, they needed some help in the kitchen, cooking for a team of thirty pickers. Luckily, the scheduled dish was Shepherd’s Pie, something I make for myself often when I desperately need leftovers. The combination of spiced beef (I usually add lamb or some sort of game meat as well), mirepoix, creamed corn (it’s my family’s tradition), and buttery mashed potatoes would be ideal with this wine. Let us know what your version looks like. (We also made a vegetarian version with sauteed chard stems; it was superb)
WINE THREE: MALOOF WAX ON, WAX SOIF
About: This site was planted by Herb Quady, Applegate Valley’s legendary organic farmer. At over 1400 feet above sea level, the juvenile vines sit in granitic soils. The wine is made from Grenache Blanc (30%), Marsanne (30%), and Viognier (40%). The grapes were direct pressed into neutral barrel for both fermentation and élevage. The wine is racked and bottled, unfined and unfiltered with 30ppm of SO2. Only 103 cases were produced.
Taste: This wine is pale lemon-green in the glass. The nose is crisp and taught like a cool spring morning. There are aromas of fresh cotton sheets, mountain meadows, blown-out candles, white grapes, meyer lemon peel, nectarine, green plums, fennel seed, and pine nuts. The palate is crunchy and breezy with an angular minerality, powdery tannins, perky acidity, and a luminous finish. You’ll find further flavours of dewy grass, pomelo, lanolin, apricot pit, green apple flesh, plantain, and winter wheat.
Pairing: Last week, I got a reservation at Golden Inn before the owners retired forever. My friends ordered an off-menu steamed clam dish I think would pair perfectly with this wine. The earthy, meaty quality of the clams would be easily chopped by this wine’s freshness and drive.