I have never been so excited about a label in quite some time. Especially from Edna Valley… something I rarely get excited about. But these wines show excellence throughout in ways difficult to explain–or comprehend. First the pinot… then the chard… finally into the Grenache, and BAM! they did it again. But I have to be honest: this is one of those wines you cram your nose into and ask yourself, Would I have blinded this as grenache? The amount of cheery, cherry fruit: vivacious and glowing, positively EXPLODING from the glass in high-note fruitiness and candied propensities. Plum and peach and earthy barnyard–all clean and magnificent–a woody green clairvoyance so hi-note and exemplary; so ridiculously fruity and fresh; so complex and masterfully rendered with qualms of musty deliciousness and perfect berry.
Tasting it sparkles receptors in nearly-intangible ways. It’s glorious, gobstoppingly yummy, a spritely edge of acid tingling the tongue while serious fruit pounds away at every pore. The amount of dankness rendered into the brightness of berry is ponderous to comprehend: a perfect mash of *darling* and *dangerous*. Lifting Jolly Rancher goes tête-à-tête with oil-bruised texture and complication: a drrrrrty mechanism controlling light strawberry and pie-spice in near pornographic ways. I’m gonna shut up now, but you NEED these wines.
2019 LA LOMITA Garnacha Islay Hill Estate Edna Valley SLO Coast AVA 13.8
Stephen McConnell 