Lost Highway Project
Bodega Lanzaga
Lanzaga Rioja Garnacha Tempranillo 2017
Scholium Project
Gemella Lost Slough Vineyard Verdelho 2013
For being as weighty and thick in body as it is, this is actually fairly lean in palate. Lemon, lychee and vanilla. Finish is more on lemon and lemon balm with a hint of acidity, which becomes more pronounced the longer you let it sit on the palate. — 7 years ago
Stony Hill
Napa Valley Syrah 2005
Day 1: Peppercorn, olive, and forest floor drove the wine. Plenty of spice on the palate and mod acid/no oak/agreeable tannin made for an excellent partner to winter squash and chicken vindaloo. Fruit almost brambly, just ripe across the bored. Day 2: fading quick, showed marked oxidation over night, lost a lot of hillside syrah character for more fruit, beginning to move towards compote. Juicy and still appealing, but makes me wonder about future evolution of the wine. Anyway, I’m always stoked to have these soulful wines and find their Syrah project to capture a more St. Joseph style, delicious, aromatic, and approachable early. Happy we didn’t cellar this any longer — 6 years ago
Scholium Project
Delta Soup California White Blend 2014
Unusual for Abe not to have notes for a wine on his site, but this one has always been blank. I assumed from the name that it was a potpourri of Sacramento River Delta wines and that proved to be correct. A retail site notes that this is a cofermentation of Albariño, Chardonnay, Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Grigio and Verdelho from the Lost Slough Vineyard, then blended with 14% Whole cluster Riesling. Complex nose with a little funk, and acid for days. Interesting wine. — 8 years ago
Scholium Project
Riquewihr Lost Slough Vineyards Gewürztraminer 2015
The 2015, the other half of the night's comparison. Less subtle, more floral. Jasmine, rose petal, honey. All powerful, but all a bit separate and distinct. I think this could lie down for a good while. Will be pleased to try another bottle in a few years. — 7 years ago
Scholium Project
Riq SF Lost Slough Vineyard Gewürztraminer 2009
This caused a Keanu Reeves "Whoa." moment on first taste. Orange blossom, sour orange peel, vanilla bean, high acid. — 8 years ago
Will Stanley
Lanzaga, the entry-level offering from Spanish cult winemaker Telmo Rodríguez, is drawn from several of his high-altitude vineyards in Lanciego, Rioja. Rodríguez describes his Lanzaga project as a harking back to the 18th century, before Phylloxera, and before Rioja lost its way pleasing Bordeaux (Rodríguez’s wines are now sold via the Place de Bordeaux). I like his vineyard-oriented approach to winemaking, something that’s growing in fashion in Rioja and, for me, that’s no bad thing. But this wine feels a little lacking in typicity, either regional or varietal, and I’d certainly struggle to pick it out in a blind tasting. It’s really fresh, crunchy, clean and quite reminiscent of Cabernet – this could be a modest left bank Bordeaux blend. The finish is a little short and, though it’s objectively a very nicely crafted wine, I had higher hopes. — a month ago