Hip Tastes Blog

A Long Winded Wine
filed under: Regional Spotlight, Winning Wines

As an English major in college I was prone to long windedness. Fortunately, they looked fondly on that so long as you got your message across at the same time. Detailed descriptions, colorful but precise verbs and well chosen metaphors were preferred to, say, just saying something. Although a simple phrase like "The woman wept" may have been completely true, penning it as such would never get you Latin Honors at graduation. Instead, you might say something like "having cast off her youthful naivete and accepted that her love would never be requited, the lonely woman wept; in doing so she demonstrated both her vulnerability and her transition to the hard but all-comprehending world of adulthood."

Ok, so maybe that's a little overkill, but you get the point. Along these lines, one of my favorite things about wine is that it, too, can provoke long windedness. And I don't mean the kind that'll annoy your lit professor and provoke widespread eye rolling amongst your companions.

I'm talking about 'GOOD WINE long windedness', a special kind of verboseness that is - and I know I'm taking a risk in saying this - a good thing for everyone involved. Because, you see, wines that lead to much discussion and description are by nature damn good wines. I know because I'm someone who fights a constant urge to over-explicate everything I come across, and, fantastically, folks don't seem to mind when I go on and on about wine. Which means I'm either in the right profession or everyone I know is humoring me.

Assuming the former is the case, I hope you'll listen as I rhapsodize a bit about the absolutely fabulous wine that's in my glass right now. I'm currently enjoying an unreleased wine simply called "Red Wine" from one of my favorite new wineries, Medlock Ames. Here are the dets:

Name: Bell Mountain Ranch Red
Producer: Medlock Ames
Variety: 75% Merlot, 25% Cab
Vintage: 2002
Region: Sonoma's Alexander Valley
Release date: Aug-Sept 2006

The wine ispired me to jot down this entry about long windedness because there is simply a TON going on in the glass - especially on the nose - and the whole is so harmoniously integrated and smooth and appealing that I wanted to share. Before I go too long down the road of describing the wine, however, I want to note that this wine is ORGANIC - meaning it's both been farmed by organic methods and "raised" in the winery by similar methods.

Medlock Ames is an exciting pioneer in very cool "green" methods including the use of birds of prey and sheep in the vineyard instead of pesticides to ward off pests. They also use gravity flow winemaking - a process by which the wine flows continuously downward in the winery during the winemaking process rather than being artificially "pumped" around, which can damage the wine - and native yeast fermentation in the winery. All of which is time-consuming, expensive, and...totally worth it!

The glass in my hand is proof of that. It's got an incredibly complex nose as multidimensional as some of the best old-world wines I've tasted. I'm convinced this results from the hands-off way the grapes are grown and the wine is made. I'm tasting the WINE, not what's been DONE to it. Wine is a highly volatile substance - which is why we smell so many things coming off of it. Most of the time, I believe, much of that complexity is masked by sub-par farming practices and interventionist winemaking.

And so cheers to Medlock for unlocking this wine's potential. Maybe it's time everyone went green?

Check back soon for a photo-filled account of my visit to the winery, where I'm headed next week.

Here are the Tasting notes:
color: lovely deep ruby color
nose: aromas of very ripe red-black fruits including plum, dark cherry and blackberry. Also dehydrated fruits including fig, prune and date. Then, cocoa bean, licorice, and coconut. Toast and some butterscotch; a little stone and flint. Finally: smoke.
palate: dry, moderate acid and tannin; youthful flavors of ripe red and black fruits including cherry, cassis and plum. Some baking spices. Also cocoa and toffee. Length is really impressive and finishes with ripe fruits and a hint of fig.

www.medlockames.com

Posted by Courtney on July 8, 2006 04:57 PM

Comments

Holy Mother of God! I just got my wine club shipment of the M-A Red yesterday. I opened up one bottle tonight..... WOW. WOW. WOOOOOOOOOOW.
I am heaven! (and I'm not amateur...)

Posted by: Linda on October 12, 2006 06:27 PM
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Linda,

I'm SO PSYCHED that you got it and you love it! It's only released to MA club members right now, so consider yourself way ahead of the enjoyment curve as very few other people have their hands on it yet! It's incredible, I agree, and thank you so much for writing in to tell everyone about it. Not sure if you're in San Fran or not, but the guys will be at my Green Tasting here in the city on Oct 27 - more info @ hiptastes.com if you'd like to try to make it.

Just so glad you like it. What a fantastic winery and philosophy - not to mention product!

Courtney

Posted by: Courtney on October 12, 2006 06:32 PM
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