Selling point at Ed Sellers

Paso Robles is at the moment one of the most interesting appellations in California. One thousand vines were planted already at the Mission San Miguel Arcangel by the legendary Franciscan monk father Junipero Serra in 1797. At that time, the Mission grape (a Spanish grape known as Listán Negra) was the only grape planted, today Paso Robles is known for its Zinfandels, and various southern French varieties. Zinfandel came with Italian immigrants already in the late 1800s, and you’ll still see some vines from that time.

During the 1920s, more Italian families moved to Paso Robles to grow wine. Most of those families, like Pesenti, Dusi, Bianchi and Martinelli, planted Zinfandel, and during the time of Prohibition (1920-1933) they sold their grapes to home wine makers all over the country, or to the very few wineries with a license to make wine for the church.
Paso Robles is a unique Californian wine region. Not only is it the region with highest fluctuation in temperatures day and night. It can fall from 40+ degrees Celsius daytime to just under 10 degrees during the night. That creates very special growing conditions, and full bodied wines with intense and ripe fruit flavors, great structure and fine natural acidity. Also, the geological aspects are unique – Paso Robles offers a wide selection of soil types and is one of the few in California where you will find limestone.

Since gaining it status as appellation, AVA, in 1983, Paso Robles has slowly developed into a highly interesting wine region with lots of personality. There’s now 10 560 hectares of vines planted, and from having only a few dozens of producers in the 1990s, there are today more than 120 wine producers.
One of the recent stars is Edward Seller, a pilot and sailor with passion for wine who founded his wine company in 2004. At the time, he didn’t have his own winery, so his custom crushed his grapes at Paso Robles Wine Exchange, and still do so, but now at Denner Vineyards.
From only buying grapes, Edward Sellers now owns 12.15 hectares of vines (1.60 hectares of that is planted to green Rhône varieties).
The wines from Edward Sellers are very fine examples of the Rhône varieties, they can easily be taken for being French if tasted blind – and that’s why Paso Robles has become the home of so many Rhône Rangers.
Today Edward Sellers makes around 5 000 cases annually, and for their price level, they are outstanding!

2008 Estate Blanc / 91 p
This is normally a blend of approximately 50-55 percent Grenache Blanc, around 25-30 percent Roussanne (from a block white snow white limestone soil) and 15-20 percent Marsanne from the estate vineyard in the cooler part of western Paso Robles. The juice is fully barrel fermented, but since Edward doesn’t use new barrels, there’s no toasted of vanilla sweet flavors in the wine. Just a small fraction of the wine went through malolactic fermentation, and in total, the wine spent just 6 months in the barrels.
Oh, what a lovely and elegant nose, rich and intense with notes of sweet lemons, white flower and honey. There’s a serious stuffing on the palate, white peaches, honey and an almost sweet lemon flavor that lingers for a while, and the aftertaste is just fantastic. The first sip may make you think you’ll find be some kind of sweetness on the palate, but there’s no sweetness at all, just a silkiness to make the aftertaste even more seductive. As in many wines from Paso Robles, this wine has a fine and refreshing acidity, which is very important for the overall balance. I’d love to see this wine with seared scallops, lobster of king crab. Serve it at 10-12 degrees Celsius.
Drink it 2011-2014.

2007 Vertigo / 92 p
A range of varietal wines is complemented by a few blends, and the Vertigo is a very fine blend of approximately 70 percent Grenache, 15-18 percent Mourvèdre and 13-15 percent Syrah. The wine has spent 18-19 months in French oak barrels, of which 40 percent were new. This is a quite rich and intense wine, reminiscent of those of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but with a more lively acidity.
It’s dark cherry red, high intensity. On the nose, it offers a range of dark barriers, but more of an earthiness that’s quite attractive and that adds complexity, and there are no traces of oak at all. Poured blind, it could easily been taken for being a blend from south of France, which is not so uncommon for fine red blends of Paso Robles. At Ed Sellers and some of his colleagues, this is even more common. On the palate, it offers a medium to full body without being overly ripe, rather intense and fruit driven, relatively high in alcohol (15 percent) but by no means out of balance, and with a fine tannic structure to hold everything together. In the finish, there’s a slight bitterness that will soften with one or two more years of bottle age, but already today you’ll find a very attractive fruitiness. Again, France would be a great guess if poured blind. Serve it at 18-20 degrees in large glasses.
Drink it 2012-2017.

Great Grenache from Unti Vineyards

Thinking about all winemakers with a passion for southern French and Rhône varietals, and taking into consideration that Châteauneuf-du-Pape almost has gained a kind of “holy grail” status over the last decade, one can easily end up believing Grenache would be a very popular grape variety. Well, it is, but not that popular, at least not if one looks at the figures. In 2007, there were 2 818 hectares of Grenache planted all over California, just slightly more than Ruby Cabernet, but less than the not so popular Barbera. One reason for that may be that very few wines are labeled as Grenache, and therefore that few consumers are familiar with Grenache and what to expect from it. It’s mainly used in blends. Since the 90s, some more Grenache have been planted, and its acreage will most likely increase over the coming decade.
Unti Vineyards is a small family owned winery with 24.30 hectares of vines in two vineyards in Dry Creek Valley in northern Sonoma. Of that, only 1.18 hectares in planted to Grenache. The vineyards were purchased in 1990 by George Unti, son of an Italian immigrant, but it wasn’t until 1997 that his son Mick made the first wines under the Unti Vineyards label.
The winery has one small fermentation room with small stainless steel tanks for fermentation and blending, and an adjacent room for the barrels. It’s not big at all, but enough for the annual production of approximately 7 000 cases.
Overall, the wines are predominately made of southern French and a few Italian varieties, they are elegant, quite classic and often more European than typical Californian.

2007 Grenache / 90-92 p
Owner Mick Unti and his winemaker produce some very interesting wines of great value, and this grenache is normally one of their very best wines, if not the best. It’s made of 80 percent Grenache and ten percent each of Syrah and Mourvèdre from vines planted in 1998, and around 20 percent of the Grenache clusters were added in the fermentation tank without being destemmed. After a few days of cold soak, some of the pink grape juice is bled off to make the wine more dense and structures. Fermentation is carried out with the indigenous yeast, and pigeage is utilized as extraction method. Wisely enough, the wine is then (since 2005 vintage) transferred into larger foudres rather than smaller barrels, to undergo malolactic fermentation and maturation over a year. Although the alcohol touch 15 percent (or just under that), the wine is not ripe, overly sweet and fiery. On the contrary, it’s very elegant and – to be very honest – very French! As expected, it shows a lovely raspberry fruit aroma, with some deeper notes of plums, also a lovely spiciness of licorice, white pepper and violet, but it will take at least 10-15 minutes before the wines opens of and shows all that. Therefore, decanting is recommended if poured young. Tannins are young, but not aggressive, and not to firm. Still it is recommended to keep this wine for a year more or two. Since the wines isn’t filtered or fines, it may be slightly hazy.
Drink it 2010-2017.

Atlantis wines from Sine-Qua-Non

Having tasted the wines from Sine-Qua-Non on a regular basis over the last ten to twelve years, I have noticed that the grenaches have improved significantly. From early 2000s, there’s more finesse to be found in the all of the wines from Sine-Qua-Non, and from 2007, I would say the syrahs and the grenaches are at the same level (until just a few years ago, Syrah var superior).

Manfred Krankl utilizes the same techniques for both Grenache and Syrah. In both cases, a great amount of whole clusters are used, and vinification is carried out in small open top fermenters with, depending of grape variety, vineyard source and vintage, a cuvaison that stretches from ten to 18 days. During that time, both pigeage and remontage are done for extraction. After alcoholic fermentation, the wines are moved into oak barrels, normally 50 percent to two thirds brand new and the rest are one to three years old. To some 90 percent, the barrels are made of French oak, but Manfred uses up to ten percent of American oak to add some flavor to the wines. Malolactic fermentation always takes place in oak, and during the almost two years long ageing, the wines are only racked twice. Before bottling, Manfred uses to egg whites per barrel to clarify the wine, but there is no filtration.
Even though the concentration is massive, over the years more finesse have been captured in these wines. It’s not easy to understand how a dens wine like a syrah from Sine-Qua-Non can be described as transparent, because they are not if you compare them with a red burgundy, but still they have what normally is described as terroir – a sense of place! One explanation is how Manfred sources the grapes, the vineyard sites he works with today are cooler than in the 90s. Another may be the age of the vines. The dedication of Manfred – to every single detail from vine to bottle – is still the same. And I guess that’s the overall most important factor.

2005 Atlantis Fe2O3 Grenache / 96-97 p
At first, before I tasted the wine, just put my nose in the glass, I thought I was on a very high level at a more modernly influenced estate in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This wine is loaded with ripe, sweet cherries, blackberries and raspberries and there is also delicious spicy notes, very typical Grenache, but also found in other local grapes in the south parts of France, and even Spain. But I didn’t stay in either Châteauneuf-du-Pape or Languedoc, or even Spain, too long, for three specific reasons, 1) this wine didn’t have the mineral notes so often found in wines from soils rich in limestone, in France. for instance, and 2) it didn’t have the young, often very marked tannic structure found in the wines from Priorat, and 3) it was too great and powerful to be any of the finest Grenache based wines I have tasted so many times in other parts of Spain. Therefore it was California, and if so, only one producer to make this kind of wine is Sine-Qua-Non.
Although the tannins are firm and youthful, they are covered with the ripe lush fruit and glycerol, therefore the texture is smoth and silky. At this young stage, oak is of course present, but more with some sweetness on the nose and just a slight bitterness in the lingering aftertaste. It’s still very young and needs a lot of air – as with the syrahs, I’d recommend at least one hour in a decanter.
This vintage, the wine consists of 93 percent Grenache from Eleven Confession in Santa Rita Hills (which gives the most elegant fraction of the wine) and Alban Vineyards in Edna Valley, and just seven percent Syrah from the estate vineyard Eleven Confession. This year, Grenache wasn’t harvested until November 7, and approximately 50 percent of the clusters were not destemmed. The wine was kept in French oak barrels, 54 percent new, during 22 months.
Drink it 2010-2020.

2005 Atlantis Fe2O3 Syrah / 100 p
This vintage, the blend was 93 percent Syrah, five percent Grenache (only from the estate vineyard Eleven Confession in Santa Rita Hills) and two percent Viognier. Most of the grapes came from Eleven Confession, which explains the cool scented fruitiness, slightly more than a quarter came from ungrafted vines in the excellent White Hawk Vineyard, and there is still some 20 percent coming from Alban Vineyard in Edna Valley, as well as a small fraction from Bien Nacido Vineyard. What might be surprising, knowing that 75 percent of the clusters were not destemmed, is that there is just a slight fragrance of the stems on the nose. Today, that note adds to the complexity, and it will of course fade away over the coming years and be replaced with more seductive secondary aromas. So will the slightly sweetish oak flavor, which is easy to detect today but still amazingly well absorbed and integrated.
This is of course still a very young wine, dark and dense and as always with the Sine-Qua-Non wine with that almost magical balance between pure power and great finesse. Even if it’s so young, there are layers of dark fruit, some earthy qualities and a delicious touch of licorice, fennel and white pepper, which reflects both the personality of the grapes, and their birthplace. There are not very many wines on this planet that taste like the syrahs from Sine-Qua-Non (the wines from John Alban are close, as of the three premium selections of Côte-Rôtie from Guigal, particularly La Mouline, but in riper years such as 2003, even La Landonne and La Turque). A month ago, the 2005 Atlantis Syrah outclassed the 2003 Côte-Rôtie La Turque in a blind tasting among a dozen wine collectors and connoisseurs – and this was not the first time.
I’ve had this wine on several occasions, blind of course, and one thing that always amazes me, is the length of the aftertaste, and the silky texture. And even though the alcohol touched 15.7 percent, I have never written anything about it – other than a slight touch of warmth in the aftertaste. This is truly a world class wine!
Drink it 2010-2025.

Grenache 2007 from Denner Vineyards

Paso Robles is one of the most exciting wine regions in California. Over the last decade, the number of wine producers has more than doubled. There are now 180+ producers in Paso Robles, and more operations are expected to open up in the coming years. Most interesting is the Paso Robles West, the cooler and rolling landscape west of Highway 101, where Zinfandel and Rhône varietals thrive on the hillsides. In this region, you’ll find abundant of limestone or mudstone (a soil type rich in calcium) which is very rare in California. The soils and the cooler climate definitely add structure and personality to the wines. They are normally rich, ripe och huge, still with a good portion of tannins and a lively natural acidity.
Still the “old timers” (well, they’re not really that old) such as Justin Vineyards and Tablas Creek Vineyards, co-owned by Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, make wines of qualities that are anywhere from recommended to outstanding, and both of them make wines that are able to evolve well in the bottle.
Denner Vineyards is a new winery, founded by the business man Ron Denner, who spared no cost in the development of his fabulous vineyard and winery. It perfectly planned into the smallest detail. It’s really a hit! Denner sells most of the grapes from his 63 hectare vineyard and among the lucky winemakers who are on that list you’ll find Matt Trevisan of Linne Calodo, another great Paso Robles producer (Matt focus on Zinfandel). They also sell grapes to Justin for their top wine Isosceles and to the highly recommended winery Villa Creek.
The wines of Denner are rich and intense, pure and very elegant, and with a lot of personality. I like to their lovely balance, their length, and (with some air on most of their wines) the almost French flavor profile. Production reaches around 4 500 to 5 000 cases annually, but the capacity stretches more towards 10 000 to 12 000 cases per year.

2007 Grenache / 91-92 p
This is a cuvée of approximately 85 per cent Grenache, 10 per cent Syrah and a splash of Couniose, and a fraction of the Grenache is fermented in whole bunches, which add a slightly herbacious quality to the wine. It’s so aromatic that the wild raspberry and sweet cherry fruit almost jump in your face, but still it is lovely and elegant and very true to its varietal character. Notes of black pepper as well as just a hint of licorice is also present, but the oak is extremely well integrated. On the palate, it’s as intense as on the nose, lush and ripe with silky tannins, good acidity (which is needed in a Grenache wine to make is elegant) and the taste lingers for a minute. Boy, this is a textbook Grenache, and it’s just delicious. I’ve tasted it a few times, and my recommendation is to not decant in too much in advance – the finest aromatic notes may then disappear. Pour it directly from the bottle, and enjoy how it develop in the glass.
Drink it 2010-2015.

Le Cigare Volant from Bonny Doon Vineyards

Few vintners in the world, are so funny and interesting to interview as Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyards. When I met Randall the first time a decade ago, his company Bonny Doon Vineyards was still growing, and by 2004 it was the 28ht largest wine company in United States. Since then, a lot of things has happened, and when Randall Grahm sold the brands Cardinal Zin and Big House, and moved the Riesling project into a separate company in washington State, production is now at moderate 30 000 cases per years.
Today Randall Grahm has returned to his initial ambitions and intentions, wines of terroir rather than big brands and wines of a winemaker. “I have a more European taste, and I want my wines to express a sense of place, with elegance, fine tannins and structure, and notes of minerals”, he says. When we met last time just before Christmas, he told me there are too many Testosterhône Rangers out there, and for him, greatness in a wine, never equals to high impact and intensity. To me, his wines are better and more honest than ever.
This tasting consists of four vintages of his interpretation of the wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Depending on the vintage, it is a blend based on Grenache, some vines as old as 100 years, with the balance of Syrah (most of it is bought from the Bien Nacido Vineyard in Santa Maria Valley) and most often just small portions of Mourvèdre, Cinsaut and Viognier.
Normally, 20 per cent of the juice is bled off the skins to increase the body and structure, and the upbringing will take place in a combination of 225 and 600 liter big oak barrels, and traditional oak foudres for 15-18 months. Alcohol level is normally at 13.5 per cent, or slightly higher. Today the wine is sealed under screw cap (thank God for that!), as all of his wines are. Total production of this wine reaches 3 000 cases per year.

2007 Le Cigare Volant / 91 p
With its 60 per cent of Grenache, which really shows great here in its high red fruity perfumes, and 32 per cent of the more spicy Syrah (the rest of the blend is Mourvèdre and Cinsaut), this wine is just lovely! Again, as for the 2005 vintage, you’ll find all elements of Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines on the nose and the palate. There is sweet ripe fruit, a warm sensation of alcohol (in this vintage, high 14.4 per cent), a complex note of garrigue, firm and youthful tannins, and a very long and intense aftertaste. I really like this wine, and I would love to see it in a blind tasting with some of the 2007 French counterparts. Perhaps it will turn out to be more Californian in a tasting like that, but tasted with the other vintages of Le Cigare Volant, I find it to be very French! As with the rest of the wines, it need some time in a decanter – this is always recommended for young vintages of reds under screw cap.
Drink it 2011-2018.

2006 Le Cigare Volant / 89 p
This is a quite unusual blend, 44 percent each of Grenache and Syrah, the rest Cinsaut and just a dash of Mourvèdre and Carignane. The wine is a bit more fruit driven than the 2005 or 2007 vintages, both slightly superior, yet fine but not as expressive. Still it has that great classical (or French) structure, with firm tannins and also a slightly greenish bitterness which I suspect comes from the stems. As the other young vintages, I recommend another year or so of bottle age.
Drink it 2011-2018.

2005 Le Cigare Volant / 91-92 p
In this vintage, 50 per cent of the blend was Grenache, 24 per cent Mourvèdre and 22 per cent Syrah. It’s one of the most Châteauneuf-du-Pape like wines I’ve tasted from California for a very long time, and if poured blind to me, I would most likely go for La Reine de la Bois from Domaine de la Mordorée! Thanks to its lighter body, and lower alcohol (13.5 per cent), it’s much more elegant than its counterparts from Rhône, but the flavor profile is more or less the same, and there is just a note of garrigue. The taste is dry, yet it has that lovely ripe and almost sweet cherry and raspberry fruitiness, and because of the youthful tannic structure, I would give the wine some more bottle age.
Drink it 2010-2019.

2001 Le Cigare Volant / 90 p
To get perspective and to see the evolution, Randall opened up a more mature vintage of Le Cigare Volant. This one, a blend of 34 per cent Grenache, 33 per cent Syrah, 27 per cent Mourvèdre and as splash of Viognier, showed both a maturity and a great complexity thereof. Still, it has a firm structure, but not enough to make me think of another ten years of so in the cellar. What I like in this wine, is the combination of ripe and still vital fruitiness, and the more secondary earthy aromas. “Back then, I worked with a longer maceration, which gave the wines a grander structure”, Randall said. I like this wine a lot, but the younger vintages are more impressive. Not because the are younger, only because they were better made.
Drink it over the next few years.

Seduced by 2001 Sine-Qua-Non

Manfred Krankl is a magician. Few winemakers in the world are able to stuff as much flavors in a bottle of wine, and still make it taste delicious and even elegant. His preference is cooler sites in foremost Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo (Alban Vineyard in Edna Valley has always been an important source of grapes), but today his wines are almost all estate grown. Selection of grapes is a crucial key, and I actually believe Manfred when he tells me that he looks at every single grape before throwing them in the fermentation bin.
A few days of cold soak, small fermentation vessels, all natural yeast, manual pigeage and high fermentation temperatures are part of the practices, but Manfred claims there is no such thing as a recipe. Every single batch is a specific wine, and every single barrel live its own life until the very crucial blending session, almost two years after harvest. “I don’t want to be too intellectual about my winemaking”, he says, but still he is one of the most intellectual and philosophical winemakers on this planet.
Today Sine-Qua-Non is predominantly a Grenache and Syrah winery (small amounts of whites, and a few barrels of sweets wines are made every year), and production hits around 3 000 cases per year.

2001 Ventriloquist / 95 p
The 2001 vintage of the Sine-Qua-Non grenache bottling consists of 95 per cent Grenache and five per cent Syrah. As always, the two grapes are vinified separately, and both the grapes and each vineyard lot are kept apart in French oak barrels (50 per cent brand new) until time for final blend. At first, the nose was a bit closed, and it took almost 30-40 minutes before anything happened. As expected, the fruit is rich and dense with sweet and ripe flavors of baked plums, cherries and raspberries, and also the signature licorice notes of Grenache comes forward on the palate, especially in the long, silky and great aftertaste. Since Grenache doesn’t give long lasting wines, you can expect this wine to show some secondary flavors, but the wine is still surprisingly youthful and even fresh. The sweetness and tannins from the oak, seems to have disappeared, but the silky texture of the oak treatment is still there. It is a wonderful wine with a seductive and lingering aftertaste, and I do recommend a good half hour in a decanter before enjoying it. Drink it 2010-2016.

2001 Midnight Oil / 96 p
Over the years, I have enjoyed many bottles of this great syrah, and it keeps on evolving in an amazing way. It’s a pure Syrah from the great, relatively cool Bien Nacido Vineyard in Santa Maria Valley, and it has been stored in French oak barrels, two thirds brand new, for 24 months, and as with all wines from Sine-Qua-Non, the wine was bottled unfiled and unfiltered. Today the wine still shows a wide range of its primary aromas, dark berries such as blackberries, but also with some spiciness (primarily black pepper, but also some licorice and tar), and a slightly toasty note from the barrels. It’s young and quite firm, and really need some time in the decanter before opening up, and this is also the way do handle the wine to get all the quality flavors out of the wine. Tannins are still firm, but as expected from the to the smallest details concept Manfred Krankl follows, the tannins are ripe and offers a great structure that is needed in a wine with this concentration. Drink it 2010-2021.