Last month I wrote about the new Dirty & Rowdy Family Wines project, and profiled the 2011 Yountville Semillon. As a follow up I’d
like to give a couple of impressions on their 2010 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Mourvedré.
The mourvedré is grown at high altitudes in the arid eastern
mountains of Santa Barbara
County
The result is a wine that runs contrary to how one might
think of mourvedré. It’s dark in color, but with clarity that brings levity to
the appearance. Think elegance rather than concentration – with aromas of
lavender & herb, blue fruit and spice melding through into the palate. Vibrant
floral fruit flavors accompany subtle underbrush and spice. With a silky and
fine structure – it’s very pinot noir-like in feel; finishing with lingering
peppery fruit. The acid is good and the wine has plenty of ripeness given a
very modest ABV of 12.8%.
Not only is it an excellent wine, it’s interesting. Like the
Semillon, it’s a definitely something different. I served it with baked salmon –
the elegance, good acidity, and pure fragrant fruit flavors made it a great
match.
It’s too late to buy this wine from the winery, so you might
have to do some digging around for it. The retail is around $36.
Another winner is the 2011 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling (Kamptal , Austria
This dry riesling is grown in Kamptal’s sandstone, slate and
gravel soils. It’s light gold in the glass; with an expressive slate, citrus
zest and lilac nose. It has vibrancy on the palate with appealing front-palate
acid. There’s ripe citrus with mineral and spice depth, along with hints of
black pepper. The palate presence is there throughout with good weight. The finish
is tangy and juicy - very enjoyable. The price is nice as well at around $18.
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