A strange bouquet flows off strongly on first pour. One I have not had the pleasure of smelling before. Pickle juice. Straight up like opening a bottle of Spanish olives. Within minutes, it was gone–the whole bottle: second pour showed nothing of it. Gone before I had the chance to decant. Strangest bottlefunk I have experienced. But nothing resides in the taste and subsequent pours show merely a slightly fatigued wine with plenty to offer. Dusty rose offers a tired and thin nose from the fiercely garnet body. Off-vegetal is all that is left of the initial oddness.
In the mouth, classic Bouchet beauty, a not-lusty collection of fruit and earth from transparent stuffing. Glorious over the middle and top, a slight burn of collected acid in the face of reatreating fruit. I might go down and look for siblings from this vintage, as this is for sure peak-to-fading. Comfortable cherry and raspberry cling terribly to charming brightness, tertiary neither overt or complimentary. One of the great bargains of Santa Barbara and an absolute joy to open every single one of them. Do they always have Syrah in them? I don’t remember that and am going to have to check. I remember them being true Clarets and not Proprietary Reds.
2008 THE BRANDER VINEYARD ‘Bouchet’ Cab/CF/SY Santa Ynez Valley Santa Barbara Co. 13.8
Stephen McConnell 