Murky amber pink, I don’t know ANYTHING about this wine other than it’s red, it smells carbonic, and it’s from Tehama County–one of my favorite childhood stomping grounds and a beautiful wine-producing region. And yes, it’s teh-HAY-ma. If you hear people saying teh-HAH-ma, you’re either talking to morons or at Clint Eastwood’s club in Carmel. And in that case, probably both. Juicy but pithy in the nose, it’s rather closed-in, showing shy fruit cloaked behind what is almost completely a news-print savory bouquet. Tiny little bits of plum poke through with each fresh swirl, bringing forward also chunks of vegetal.
In the mouth EVERYTHING CHANGES. It is a sweet, beautiful monster, juicy and juicy and juicy and raining plump pie-cherry, peach and apricot down from being jammed up in the rafters. Thin and spritely, almost saccharin-y in its August-BMX-evening-Converse-Gatorade quenchableness. And then it’s a memory.
2021 DE LA SOIF ‘La Soif’ Red Wine Tehama Co. California 11.3
Stephen McConnell 