Winery - Claudia Springs
* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This classic big Zin, at 15.9% alcohol, is a softly tannic wine of complexity. The fruity flavors of blackberries, brambly forest-picked wild berries, cola, leather and licorice have a white pepper and tobacco finish.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This is the most intensely flavored and concentrated Viognier I’ve ever tasted from the U.S. It opens up fragrant and sensual, a soft, seductive blend of sweet fruits, blossoms, pollen and perfume. It explodes in the glass into a rich, vivid wine highlighted with polished fruit, concentrated aromas and lipsmacking acids. Ethereal. —P.G.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
From a top Mendocino vineyard that yields fruit so good it’s hard to mess up. It’s ripe and fancy, with loads of blackberry and cherry flavors and luscious, modulated tannins. Seems to have a touch of residual sugar in the finish.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Muted at first, this wine opens up nicely with time. Sweet, ripe and easy on the finish, its core is full of black pepper and clove. The grapes are sourced from several distinctive vineyards in Mendocino County. Drink it with a steak.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A juicy, jammy, alcoholic style, tannic and young. This is gutsy, high-toned wine, with fat, extracted fruit. Very dry tannins, good balance. This wine needs time; it’s a very different style from the other Claudia Springs Zins. But it shows the same attention to detail, intense fruit, and stylish, sensitive winemaking.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Zin with a Pinot sensibility; it’s bright, spicy and forward. Sweet, delicious fruit, with accents of cinnamon, cardamom and anise. This is an elegant and subtle wine, but unusually long and complex, with wonderful structure. Enticing, enchanting wine.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
An awkward interpretation of this up-and-coming varietal. Starts with eccentric aromas of white chocolate and rum, and actually drinks a little sweet. There are peach flavors that taste like they were drizzled with honey. Not a bad wine, but strange for Pinot Gris. —S.H.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Has a certain degree of sur-maturité to its aromas, which turned off one reviewer and turned on two others. The fruit is a bit wild and over the top with stone fruit (apricots?) and berrry flavors, but the mouthfeel is creamy and ripe, the finish long and supple.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
From Boonville vineyards. A big, precocious Pinot, this doesn’t offer subtlety, but hits the palate with extracted, jammy flavors, and feels a bit thick. Fortunately, good acidity provides structural balance. Other features include dryness and silky tannins. Judging by size, it may be a cellar candidate. —S.H.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
How do they get such a beautifully balanced, dry wine when the alcohol is—gasp—16%? The answer is, perfect balance between fruit, tannins, sugar and alcohol. The wine heats the palate, but not excessively. This is a lesson in how to control Zin when the sugar at harvest runs away. —S.H.
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