Dave Phinney, founder of Orin Swift Cellars, has taken an unusual approach to his "Locations" wine series. Instead of creating wines that reflect a specific appellation or vineyard, he decided to blend the best grapes across appellations to produce a wine that represents a country or state of origin. This often results in an unconventional blending of grapes such as found in Locations CA.
Locations CA is blended from Tempranillo, Barbera, Petit Sirah and Grenache grapes from Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties and from the Sierra Foothills of California. Surprisingly, the most common California red grapes- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel are not in this wine but after you taste this, you will agree that Mr. Phinney knew what he was doing. The wine has 15% alcohol and was aged 10 months in French Oak.
On the first night, I tasted blackberry, blue berry, dark cherry, oak and the wine finished with flavors of spice, herbs and cedar. I was enthusiastic about the initial flavors but less satisfied with the spice, herbs and cedar. As I write this review a day later, I am finishing the bottle and now taste some chocolate I did not notice last night and the spice, herbs and cedar are greatly diminished. I liked the wine last night but I like it even more today. I am sorry the bottle is now empty!
I bought this wine at an excellent new wine shop in my neighborhood, "Wine Xpress", for $16.99. I just checked the Total Wines website and they are selling this for $27.99. Surely, Total Wines can do better than such a ripoff price.
SC Wine Joe rating = 90 points.
Locations CA is blended from Tempranillo, Barbera, Petit Sirah and Grenache grapes from Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties and from the Sierra Foothills of California. Surprisingly, the most common California red grapes- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel are not in this wine but after you taste this, you will agree that Mr. Phinney knew what he was doing. The wine has 15% alcohol and was aged 10 months in French Oak.
On the first night, I tasted blackberry, blue berry, dark cherry, oak and the wine finished with flavors of spice, herbs and cedar. I was enthusiastic about the initial flavors but less satisfied with the spice, herbs and cedar. As I write this review a day later, I am finishing the bottle and now taste some chocolate I did not notice last night and the spice, herbs and cedar are greatly diminished. I liked the wine last night but I like it even more today. I am sorry the bottle is now empty!
I bought this wine at an excellent new wine shop in my neighborhood, "Wine Xpress", for $16.99. I just checked the Total Wines website and they are selling this for $27.99. Surely, Total Wines can do better than such a ripoff price.
SC Wine Joe rating = 90 points.
Comments
Post a Comment