Never had a Temp from Martian before… Pretty much loved all their other stuff I tried. As one would eventually expect, these are popping up on clearance shelves around town for stupid prices–like, FIVE BUCKS. I’m guessing this signals the TR has finally closed… Must be nice to have so much money you can develop a beautiful ranch in a hidden valley, build a nice facility, staff the vineyard with great minds in organic farming, hire–and fire–some of the top names in wine-making to produce edgy, fairly low-intervention, reasonable-alcohol wines from interesting varieties and then just get bored and shit-can the whole thing. Is it even for sale? Everything else in SYV is. Meanwhile, Daou is buzzin Mammoth Village in a stunt-plane with his name plastered on the bottom. Strange business: this. But back to the WINE, since this isn’t a gossip column…
Dark black and smelling quite macerated. Round, dull cherry fills the nose, glycerin-y and thick, but a creamy Iberian barnyard tingling with spice lurks. Full and rich, it could easily be Napa or Sonoma or even Ballard or somewhere East of Los Olivos.
The mouth-feel packs a wallop: concentrated and a bit hot while not particularly complex. Dry abrasion eats at the sides of the tongue, while blackberry and peach cobbler attempt to sooth. Tannins on 11, it’s not ridiculously *compelling* wine going into 5YO, but you’d be a fool to call it “un-stuffed”. Nice vermouth-rouge tincture softens and brightens the otherwise chubby palate, and at these prices you’re a fool not to pick a few up for the long-run, as I PROMISE these will show brilliantly in another 5 years.
2016 MARTIAN RANCH & VINEYARD Tempranillo Santa Barbara Co. 14.8
Stephen McConnell 