Winery - Betz Family Winery
* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
The Boushey Vineyard is the source for this Syrah, which once again delivers complex aromas and flavors whose ebullient mix includes wild herb, citrus, spiced plum, posh cherry and luscious vanilla cream. It’s killer juice, thick with tar, smoke and bacon fat; but its vivid citrus peel acidity lifts it until it soars. This is seamless, sensuous and thrilling Syrah.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This is the second vintage for this very limited (165 cases) Grenache-based red wine. In 2004 the blend includes 19% Mourvèdre and 12% Syrah. Though winemaker Bob Betz says he is “still struggling between size and elegance,” this is not a wine you must struggle to enjoy. Bright and spicy, it attacks the palate with the Grenache’s powerfully concentrated raspberry fruit. Added weight and mass come from the other two grapes; all beautifully proportioned and blended. Notes of pepper, sweet cinnamon and even a whiff of toast come into play in the creamy finish.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This Côte Rousse has really pulled itself together. It’s a subtle wine but offers perfectly ripened, silky, beautifully proportioned flavors of mixed fruits, highlighted with Rhône-like notes of mineral, forest floor, truffle and smoke. This is the good funk—the exotic nuances that come only from the most sensitive winemaking. A vin de garde, this should evolve over the next decade or more.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Though it gets the same care as the winery’s Cab, the Clos de Betz features considerably more Merlot in the blend (59% compared with 13%). This is intensely fragrant, beautifully integrated, toasty and lush. The mouthfeel is incredible, offering layers of caramel, butterscotch and creamy oak around black cherry and plum. There is even a hint of camphor and five spice for still more sensory overload.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Offered exclusively to mailing list customers, this 93-case wine is intensely built and loaded with dark, smoky, charred scents and flavors. Dense and compact, it seems built much like a Cabernet—on a base of sharp acids and dry tannins. Currently the layers that are so compact it’s difficult to dissect them. Coffee liqueur, baking chocolate, smoke and even a whiff of eucalyptus are all in the mix.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This 100% Syrah, all from the Boushey vineyard, sends up fragrances of sweet fruit, moist earth, leaf and smoked meat. Nuanced and evocative, this changes minute to minute in the glass. The mouthfeel can only be called voluptuous, wrapping the generous blue and purple fruit flavors in sweet, toasty oak. The alcohol is just under 15%, but the fruit carries it without losing some of the detail that this outstanding vineyard can offer. Flashes of pepper and rock continue to light up the smooth, seductive finish.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
An elegant and tart, cool-climate style of Syrah. Betz wines are always carefully structured and beautifully proportioned, and the winery has not over-reached in this somewhat difficult vintage. Extra hang time ripened the fruit while retaining good acids and flavors of boysenberry, sour cherry and raspberry. Hints of coffee and gravel add complexity. Best for relatively near-term enjoyment.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Bob Betz calls this his first-ever “reserve style” wine from Bordeaux varieties. It started with a single barrel of Red Willow Cabernet Franc and evolved into this six-barrel blend. Le Parrain opens with whiffs of smoke, gun metal and rock weaving through the dense red fruits. Pipe tobacco and licorice flavors come into play from the barrel aging. As the wine slowly opens, the flavors expand and blend, and the textural quality that Betz refers to expresses itself in a graceful, three-dimensional finish.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
The fragrance is almost otherworldly; sweet, dense and lightly lifted. This is a sinewy wine, that begins with compact power and focused, tart red fruits—predominantly raspberry and currant. At first juicy and tart, with hours of breathing time the wine broadens out into a wider spectrum of Cabernet fruits; cassis, blackberry and black cherry.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
The 2005 Clos de Betz explodes from the glass with profound scents of pipe tobacco, violets, cherries and clove. Immediately supple and silky, this delicious blend of 56% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Malbec and 9% Cabernet Franc offers more complexity than any Clos de Betz to date. Silky, tightly packed fruit flavors are seamlessly blended, with berries, currants and cherries galore. The tannins have been buffed to a fine lustre.
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