2008 The Prisoner

Gladly Taken Prisoner

Orin Swift Cellars is new.

I don’t mean “new” like they were just formed yesterday, or this is their first vintage, or even that you probably haven’t heard of them. They weren’t, the first release of The Prisoner was the 2003 vintage, and it’s entirely likely that you have.

What I mean is that they’re nouveau. They’re young, and vibrant, and current, and modern. Exciting and interesting, doing things and saying things.

Winery honcho/winemaker/jefe Dave Phinney likes him some zinfandel. The first wine he released under the Orin Swift Cellars name was the 2003 Prisoner, a zinfandel-based blend of some incredible Napa juice. The latest vintage is no different.

The 2008 Prisoner is 46% zinfandel, 26% cabernet sauvignon, 15% syrah, 10% petite sirah, 2% charbono, and 1% grenache. The main players, in my opinion, are the first three, and before you read on you should probably try to think, for a second, what a zinfandel/cab sauv/syrah blend might be like.

Ready?

If your first thought was “big,” you get a gold friggin’ star.

Luckily for me, and everyone else who’s had the fortune of drinking the 2008 Prisoner, “big” is not the only appropriate descriptor here. Fruit-forward, balanced, acidic, earthy all work as well. So, the notes, then?

The wine is dark as night in the core of the glass, and lightens to a bright ruby red at the edges. The nose is lush with sweet cherries and darker, richer blackberries, plus a hint of tobacco or cigar box aromas. It smells rich. It smells like it’s not about to fuck around.

The Prisoner is a full-bodied wine that really coats your mouth. Here is an actual note I wrote in my notebook:

Tannin structure out the ass

This, I assure you, should be translated as “lots of structure.” The tannins aren’t rough or overpowering, though. Raspberry and cherry do a little dance, make a little love, and get down with a nicely-balanced earthiness and acidity that just makes itself known on the mid-palate. The lingering finish of cherries keeps you coming back for more.

I say god damn, this is some tasty wine.

The Prisoner has gained a cult following, and it is deserved. This latest vintage is a great example of California red blends done well, and for around $30 a bottle it won’t take your pocketbook captive.

Verdict: 95/100

2008 The Prisoner

2008 The Prisoner

2008 Gamble Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc

Hot Days, Cool Wine

The days have been hot here in Northern California. We’ve been joking that 2010 is the first year on record in the East Bay with no spring. One day it was raining and cold, the next day it was 95 degrees.

Hot days call for crisp, chilled white wine (or rosé, of course). This Yountville single-vineyard sauv blanc is just what the global warming ordered.

I have something of a love affair with sauvignon blanc. I was one of those guys who wouldn’t drink white wine. It wasn’t even that I necessarily didn’t like white wine, it was that I thought if I drank it, it made me some kind of wuss. Now, at 6’3″ and what my mother would lovingly refer to as a “husky” build, I don’t think too many people would have made an issue of pointing out my wussiness in carrying a glass of white wine around a party, but peer pressure’s a bitch.

So when I started drinking white wine, and started liking it, sauvignon blanc was a big part of that. Possibly just because it wasn’t chardonnay. Now that I’m a big proponent of drinking white wine (I cringe when people say “well, I really only drink red wine” like they’ve had all the whites on the planet), I’ve found reasons to like most of them.

I usually like a stinky sauv blanc. This isn’t that. The 2008 Gamble is very light in the glass, almost clear. Sauvignon blancish to begin with, for certain. The nose features notes of green apple and wet grass—some of the “stinkiness” I like.

On the palate, however, no stink/stank/funk/whatever. The wine is light bodied, dry and crisp, featuring notes of fuji and green apples, and some underripe tart honeydew melon. The finish lingers, featuring mostly the less-tart fuji apple on the back end.

Nice. Real nice, crisp and “refreshing” (I still struggle with using that to describe any wine, really). Perfect for hot days. Not a ton of acidity, and a hint of barrel-aging might make this a little more of an acquired taste for hardcore sauv blanc fans, but I can easily recommend it.

Verdict: B+

2008 L’Ecole No 41 Columbia Valley Semillon

School’s In Session

Semillon grapes

On the first full day of the Wine Bloggers’ Conference, the assembled wine blog whateverspherites were—well, treated, I suppose—to a white wine “speed-tasting” round. 12 white wines in the course of 1 hour is a marathon that I’m not sure I’d want to do again. It was a huge crowded room, 30-or-so tables of 6-8 bloggers each, and the winery representatives had five minutes to give us their spiel.

One wine—and I think the fact that it was the first that I tasted cannot go unmentioned—truly stood out for me. In fact, this classic Bordeaux-style blend of 89% semillon and 11% sauvignon blanc was among the best Washingtonian whites that I tasted over the long weekend.

L’Ecole No 41 is a winery located in Frenchtown, WA, just outside of Walla Walla, named after the schoolhouse the winery now occupies (“l’ecole” is French for “the school”) and the Washington school district number that the schoolhouse once belonged to.

Founded in 1983, L’Ecole No 41 is one of the original wineries in the Walla Walla area, having opened for business before the Walla Walla Valley AVA was even officially codified.

But enough of the winery; what of the wine? The winery’s historical place in the Walla Walla Valley AVA notwithstanding, this particular wine is made from grapes grown in the Columbia Valley AVA.

The wine is a very light straw yellow in the glass, and the nose features notes of melon and of a light—faint, even—honey sweetness. The wine is medium-bodied and tastes fresh and bright. Melon and pair dance on the palate, and a pleasant minerality keeps everything in check.

The wine would be an A-, but there is one problem: it’s hot. The 2008 L’Ecole No 41 Semillon clocks in at 14.2% ABV, very high for a white wine in general, and not balanced very well. It drinks hot, and while I would love to recommend it with food like seafood pasta, the alcohol level makes that difficult.

Still, it’s a very good wine on its own merits. Well recommended.

Verdict: B+