And the trip down Azirona wines continues… Picked up this baby at the TR in Cottonwood–clearly one of the better labels of the local offerings (Masi anyone?) but you KNOW I don’t buy wine for the labels. OK maybe this time just a lil bit…
Garnet to the core, running milky orange amber hard out to a wide clear edge. Very *warm* and *ripe* in the nose, well put together in that there is no awkwardness as some noses have had down here, but definitely chubby. Even sweet. Warm and toasty throughout the bouquet, a bit of spice and briar but gnarled down in viscous syrup.
Sweet cinnamon in the mouth, a spice-cake blend rich and full. Easily the most concentrated red I have had this week, and accompanied with the warm-weather taint of seared butter and browning fruit. The propensity for prune dangles hard. Great acid though, morphing seamlessly into a bit of something I am going to call more burn than tannin. Flabby and sweet in the finish, this is probably THE most commercially-themed wine I have had. I could sell END CAPS of this stuff. I’ve been harping all week on these beautiful thin AZ wines and wondering WHERE IS THE BIG WARM-CLIMATE CHUNKY STUFF??? Well I found it. This smacks of Paso and Temecula and *red blend California* and even Napa like nothing else visited this trip.
The thing about this wine though is that it’s actually interesting. That core of spice and acid has NOT gone un-noticed by me, and extra points are granted. An easy-drinking GSM with spine but def ripe.
2014 CARLSON CREEK ‘Rule of Three’ GSM Camp Verde Arizona 14.5
Stephen McConnell 