I use a lot of different words to describe youthfulness in wine, but here I’m just gonna go with “youthful”. The freshness and vibrancy just jumps out at you from the glass, bright purple-blue-pink beauty, a raw, fresh, green joie de vivre, petrichor cellar-floor reality, and fruit mired firmly between dark meditation and bubbly baby expressiveness. Gorgeous and ALIVE, the sort of red berry and sharp mineral you smell SCREAM for tasting–and deeply. I don’t know what’s in it… imma gonna go with cab and syrah, *maybe* cab and zin, a touch of grenache? something keeps whispering “malbec” in my ear, but I’m not committing to that one. I’m going to stick with my first guess, because it just really doesn’t feel like Zinfandel. Oh well… who cares. It’s a beautiful wine.
In the mouth, a somewhat dense sanctity of fruit is edged on all sides by laughing bobble-heads of acid and rash rawness of cherry and bitter berry. It heads seriously into Sonoma Coast ‘New California Wine’ Syrah territory, and my cab guesses fail on the palate. Maybe an Italian variety? Corvina is that you? Aglianico? The perfection of the fruit is fairly stunning, un-molested by oak or heavy-handedness or even AGE at this point. The middle goes deep and dark, pouting about the perky nubile dancing and laughing. It IS ripe–I don’t think it is particularly low alcohol–solid 13-5. This wine WANTS to be serious, but can’t keep a straight face. Shrill and taut, perfectly balanced, never cloying or flatulent, never bowing to the 99% and their fascination with thick, stew-pot conflagrations. If you drink supermarket-darlings, over-macerated, bled-off jet-fuel, enzymes and malo-leveling pumping up the spice and glycerin, 10 g/l to assure addiction, YOU WILL HATE THIS WINE. This is raw, brilliant, real fuckin wine.
One of those rare California wines (thankfully not so rare anymore) pulling you between quiet solo contemplation in the glass and raucous calisthenics with ALL KINDS of food and conversation. This is a brilliant red blend you have to try.
2018 WINES THAT DELIVER ‘Regular Fellows’ Red Wine Montepulciano/cab/Primitivo 85/10/5 Marin Co. 13.5
Stephen McConnell 