Of course, hard on the heels of yesterday's post on interspersing interesting commentary in my reviews of wines, I am here today reviewing a group of wines. Or perhaps I am peppering my interesting commentary with wine reviews...
Chronicle was started in 2006 and released its first vintage in 2008. The winery is a boutique winery, which is understood to mean that the winery does not make any more than 500 cases of each wine. The proprietor of the winery says that the next vintage will be release in the Spring of 2010. I received four of these wines to taste and my reviews are below:
Chronicle Pinot Noir 2006, Sonoma Coast, California - There is something really interesting about this wine, reminds me of smoked bacon. There is rich raspberry there as well, but the overwhelming sensation is heat. The taste hits me with dark cherry flavors, lots of upfront fruit that has just a wall of heat sitting on it. It is a good wine and might cool off with more age, but the heat really bugs me.Chronicle Cerise Vineyards Pinot Noir 2006, Anderson Valley, California - A nose of caramel, cherry, and toast. In my mouth the fruit is HOT, streaked with pepper and toast in a blackberry jam. The heat is intense and becomes the only thing I can focus on.
Chronicle Old Vines Zinfandel 2006, Russian River Valley, California - Here is a good wine. There was a great balance of black currant, toast and black pepper. I tasted blackberry, black cherry with a nice balance and good structure.Chronicle Bacigalupi Vineyards Zinfandel 2006, Russian River Valley, California - I found blackberry, rosemary, and pepper in the glass of this wine. In my mouth I found black pepper, caramel, toast, with blackberry fruit, but not enough to handle the mouth drying structure and the overwhelming heat.
Maybe I am just not used to California wines, but I thought that the alcohol ruled these wines. There is a lot of potential in these wines. I hope I get to taste next year's vintage to see how the evolution progresses.
