Winery - Royal Oaks
* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Opens with an engaging, complex nose of apple fruit, spice and earth. Tart apple flavors, but with a certain rustic edge. Not appealing to all tasters. The oak expands on the finish, shadowing the fruit, for an edgy close.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
From the warmest part of the appellation, this is a well-ripened, juicy wine whose cherry, berry and tobacco flavors are easy to like. Soft and silky on the palate, a gentle sipper with some spicy complexities.
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Royal Oaks Merlot - 2000
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This pale red wine is simple and clean. Cherry cola aromas, in the mouth, raspberry and cherry fruit explodes, sweetly ripe, although the wine is fundamentally dry. A silky texture and adequate acidity completes the picture. —S.H.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Rich and packed with spicy tropical fruit. New oak imparts smoke and vanilla notes. The texture is creamy and smooth, kind of custardy, with high acidity that makes it drink whistle-clean. A very nice wine.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A simple wine that straddles the balance between grassy, citrusy flavors and riper, more melony ones. It’s crisp and dry and offers pleasure without a great deal of complexity, although there are some oaky, leesy notes. From Santa Ynez and Santa Maria valleys.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
They aged this 100% varietal wine on the lees in French oak to make it layered and complex, but it’s still a pretty one-dimensional wine. Some citrus aromas and flavors, but they’re thin and watery. Very well made, but needs a bit more concentration.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A little more full-bodied than Royal Oaks’s regular bottling, it also has black-cherry notes, but it’s also earthier—and oakier, too—with currents of vanilla and dark chocolate. Still has a bite of acidity, which stings the palate, and demands food.
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Royal Oaks Merlot - 1998
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A pretty wine with aromas of black-cherry liqueur and a dash of espresso, or maybe it’s the other way around. Round, full and lushly flavored. The high acidity gives it real bite; in fact, the finish is somewhat bitter because of it. Food will soften it up nicely.
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Royal Oaks Merlot - 1998
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Crisp and clean; a bit leaner than you’d expect from South Coast grapes, veering into citrus fruits like grapefruit. New oak and lees aging adds complexity, but still, it’s an angular, structural wine. Food will wake it up.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Clean aromas of cola, meat and wild berries are simple, and so is the wine in the mouth. Big fruit, spicy and sugary ripe, is wrapped in soft acids and tannins and a round, silky texture. Doesn’t really drink like a California Syrah; more like a jammy, early drinking Aussie Shiraz. —S.H.
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Royal Oaks Syrah - 2000
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