2003 Petra 'Quercegobbe' Merlot - Toscana

Winery:	Petra
Location:	San Lorenzo Alto – Suvereto – LI -Italy
Wine :	2003 Quercegobbe Merlot, Toscana
Appellation :	Toscana (Indicazione Geografica Tipica)
Price :	~$38
Color :	Dried-Cherry Red/Black
Nose:	Pipe tobacco, polished antique wood, dried rose hips, plum
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Unmistakable aged cigar wrapper, coating tannins, deep black fruit that is evanescent – moving toward the spice box / cigar notes quickly. Vinous in a way that California often is not – fruit is secondary, this wine makes clear that it is, first, wine.
Style:	Not overdone, not over-oaked, not overripe. Clean and professionally made. Balanced at a big, but agile build. Feels to me like a wine with plenty of time to age well.
Analysis:	13.97% alc, 3.57 pH, 5.1 g/l TA, 0.6 VA, 0.00 ML, 0.24 RS
Comments:	Had to include a photo of our swank new tasting room, complete with an integrated basin in the middle of the table. All part of our new offices, which we just moved into this very week.

2007 Vina Robles 'Roseum' Paso Robles

Winery:	Vina Robles
Location:	Paso Robles, Central Coast, California
Wine :	2007 ‘Roseum’ Paso Robles (Huerhuero)
Appellation :	Paso Robles AVA
Price :	$13
Color :	Bright pink-red
Nose:	Watermelon, carnation, orange
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Not quite ripe raspberry, floral notes, and a touch of bitter orange zest / kumquat. Very refreshing style, tiny edge of tannin, I love the balance of sweet fruit with herbal floral and slight bitterness like citrus peel. Doesn’t have the heaviness associated with a lot of Paso dry rosé.
Style:	Tasty, fun, easy to drink lots of this! Like the price too.
Analysis:
Comments:	I really like Vina Robles’ touch with white wines, (reds are generally good too, just that they are SO good at the whites; usually there are a few bottles around our house) – emphasis on fruit, freshness and vibrancy. This is a nice example. (Sorry my photo is so crappy – iPhone does not like up close shots very well.)

2003 Petra 'Rosso' Toscana

Winery:	Petra
Location:	San Lorenzo Alto – Suvereto – LI -Italy
Wine :	2003 Petra ‘Rosso’ Toscana
Appellation :	Toscana (Indicazione Geografica Tipica)
Price :	~$60
Color :	Deep Violet - Black
Nose:	Freshly dug earth, coffee, concentrated blackberry and cassis
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Beautiful rich open palate, active acidity moves the palate through rich plums, currant, orange peel, and fennel
Style:	Thoroughly modern – lushness of tannin texture, ripeness of fruit, weighty build. Has vigor to age gracefully for many more years.
Analysis:	Too tasty, forgot to save any to run analysis.
Comments:

2006 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay, Napa Valley

Winery:	Pahlmeyer
Location:	Oakville (Napa Valley) California
Wine :	2006 Chardonnay, Napa Valley
Appellation :	Napa Valley AVA
Price :	$65 to $75
Color :	Green – gold.
Nose:	Smoky, burnt almond, orange peel, botrytis ‘marmalade’, fresh cut hay, burnt caramel. Butterscotch, cream Bruleé, browned apples, bananas, roasted pine-nuts.
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Mouth is rich and full, seems high in alcohol, moderate acidity. Buttered popcorn and smoked oak, a light continual astringency and light bitterness of oak tannin. Our guess is Napa Chardonnay
Style:	Style-driven. No faults in this wine at all, rich and oak based. Going for maximum richness and sweet / browned character over fruit. A triumph of winemaking over fruit character (maybe that’s too harsh, but definitely an example of a wine that was ‘made’ as opposed to ‘grown.’ I know that a lot of people really love this style of Chardonnay – I am a white burgundy guy at heart though…)
Analysis:	14.4% Alc, 3.67 pH, 5.5 TA, 0.0 ML, 1.0 g/l rs(FOSS winescan)
Comments:	95 pts Robert Parket (Wine Advocate,) 90 points Jim Laube (Wine Spectator,) 90 points Steven Tanzer – We tended to agree most with Robert Parker’s assessment that this is a baked and spice wine with astringency and smoke, but we aren’t sure about the score bit. 3,000 cases produced.

Brown Bag Fridays - 2004 Tenuta L'Illuminata "Colbertina" Barbera d'Alba

Winery:	Tenuta L’Illuminata
Location:	La Morra, Langhe (Piemonte) Italy
Wine :	2004 Tenuta L’Illuminata Colbertina - Barbera d’Alba
Appellation :	Barbera d’Alba DOCG
Price :	~$30 retail (Imported by Blavod / Sapphire Brands)
Color :	Deep Claret. Translucent ruby, to slight orange. Pleases the Eye, giant Legs, viscous.
Nose:	Crushed Currant, juniper, orange peel, pepper, salumi. Black-cherry. Musty, fresh-dug earth. Earthy – espresso & chocolate
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Unripe raspberries and cherries. Herbal, camphor, dried-fruit, citrus. Acidity higher, tannins lower than the balance we are used to in California. Cleansing acidity. Raspberry & plum. Long finish, slight back-palate bitterness. Cleansing acidity – would be an excellent wine with food. Paired with the right meat, something with a high fat content, this wine would show well, (Lamb, duck confit?)
Style:	This is definitely a wine that is balanced toward the herbal and earthy as opposed to overt fruit – it is lean, a bit racy, and moderate in tannin. Appropriately earthy for a wine from a region famous for wild truffles! The fruit character that is present seems like dried strawberry & slightly unripe raspberry. Definitely opens to more floral, rose-like aromas with some air. A well-made wine, it will shine at the table without overwhelming the food. It is nice to taste something that is so clearly not of the California mold. -NRC
Analysis:	13.76% alcohol, 3.24 pH, 7.3 TA, 0.00 g/l RS, 0.00 g/l ML, 0.073 g/100ml VA
Comments:	Barbera tends to be a fairly high-acid grape variety – there is not much of it here in California, but it does well in hot areas that tend to shed acid. Barbera a moderately deep-colored variety, but can be very aromatic and long-lived.

We started having ‘Brown Bag Fridays’ at work – this is a tradition that I am borrowing from Edna Valley Vineyards. The idea is to bring in a few wines, from anywhere in the world, stick them in a brown bag so that they are not visible to anyone, and leave them open so that members of the winery team can taste them throughout the day and offer notes on aroma and style of the wine, as well as venture guesses as to the origin of the wine. At the end of the day, the bottle is revealed to all, (I think that EVV used to give out a prize if anyone guessed the variety and region correctly, but we haven’t developed this that far yet.) The comments are a composite of all the tasters, (though style comment is my own.)