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Featured Wines
Latest News August 10th, 2010
Winemakers For Good Wood
 This month's Winemaker's for Good Wood features Jeff & JC Cellars. Check out how JC Cellars is putting the "Oak" in "Oakland". Visit the site for weekly video posts of Jeff discussing his oak barrel program, winemaking philosophy and more. Learn what "Good Wood" is all about! |
2007 Stagecoach Vineyard 'Isabel' Syrah
2007 Stagecoach Vineyard Syrah
Mr. Cohn has shown a clear predilection for wines of substance and size over the years, and this dramatic, mouthfilling effort is all that and more. There are bound to be those who find it too much of a good thing, and we would not argue with the notion that it is a very big wine, but its fruity concentration and depth are stunning, and its sheer opulence is guaranteed to make fans of the style swoon. It is a bit hot and coarse at the finish, but its flavors are remarkably long, and, whether drunk sooner or later as preference commends, it is a wine that must be matched up with appropriately full-flavors foods. 2007 Musci Vineyard Syrah
Deep, downright opulent and simply oozing with sweet berries, this outhfilling effort tempers its unabashed ripeness with lots of juicy, well-extracted fruit and a full dose of very rich oak. Its initial impressions of plushness are a bit misleading in that they might tempt early drinking, but the wine picks up an edge of slightly abrasive tannins later on. Its flamboyance aside, this is still a very young wine that will need at least a half-decade of patience before showing its best. 2007 Ventana Vineyard Syrah
Very much in the JC Cellars fold insofar as ripeness and richness are concerned, the Ventana bottling is a powerful, full-bodied Syrah whose generous blackberry fruit is infused with plenty of pepper and briary spice. It sports sufficient substance to buffer its noticeable heat, and, while it is fairly tough and a long way from being refined, it has all of the pieces to grow for five to ten years. 2007 Broken Compass
As deep, as rich and as generously fruited as any of winemaker Jeff Cohn’s new releases, this show-stopping bottling rewards by also being the best balanced of the bunch. Its broad, complex aromas of ripe berries, vanilla, violets and chocolate are echoed in kind by its layered, impressively complete flavors, and, if showing a youthful edge of grippy finishing tannins, it never loosens its hold on positively succulent fruit. Its juicy intensity is such that it almost invites drinking while young, but this is one that will pay handsome dividends over time, and it deserves to be set aside for six to ten years.
2008 The First Date
This very rich and full bodied white blatantly shows the family trait of enfettered ripeness, but it is wonderfully well-filled with sweet, slightly honeyed, peach and nectarine-like fruit. Its persistent suggestions of wet-stone complexity make it far more than just big and ripe, and, while it ends with a bit more finishing heat than might be ideal, it does not let up in richness. It demands service with boldly flavored foods such as garlicky chicken in sauce, and, even if just a touch viscous and fat in feel, it is sufficiently well-structured to keep handily for several years. $28.00 |
94 points Connisseurs' Guide - 2007 Stagecoach Vineyard 'Isabel' Syrah
90 points Connoisseurs' Guide - 2007 Ventana Vineyards Syrah - Arroyo Grande
96 Points Connoisseurs' Guide - 2007 Broken Compass Syrah