Andrew Murray Rhone - 3 Pack

[mclonghorn]

@blairms

Yes, just go to their Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/tycatonvineyards

Thanks for the link - I really appreciate it but at the same time wish you wouldn’t have!!! I now have a case coming from Ty and 6 btls coming from Andrew - sometimes wish I liked beer!!

[blairms]

@mclonghorn

Thanks for the link - I really appreciate it but at the same time wish you wouldn’t have!!! I now have a case coming from Ty and 6 btls coming from Andrew - sometimes wish I liked beer!!

No problem. I’ve got six coming from Andrew and six coming from Ty. This is an expensive habit.

[richardhod]

@AndrewMurray

Thanks…I saw that they were on here. I only know of them…I will check out their thread as i am sure there is some good dialog there…I am a bit of a voyeur, and spend time looking at other woot offerings and peoples comments…there is always something to learn in the world of wine…but, alas, I have been crazy busy lately getting ready for a major tasting room POS and CRM software change…it has been quite challenging and not in a good way…really nothing to do with winemaking, which is why I am having a blast with talking about wine making instead of DNS entries and VPNs and iP address…

Thanks

Andrew

thank you for all the info!

Reckon you Paso guys would talk for hours about the weather… almost English, ha… And then of course, drink!

CRM? Ouch! Most CRM vendors are idiots and sell overpriced inflexible rubbish. I bet nothing has changed since i last worked in that market 10 years ago. At your size, as you’re a single vintner business rather than a multiple-office corporate, the best CRM software you can have is somethig very very simple… there’s still far too mucch BS jargon about. Hope you have good suppliers /good luck!

[bbombay]

I just received my golden ticket (2007 Syrah)! I will attempt to do it justice this evening!!

Thank you!

Now off to flaunt my ticket in the phase of my woot wine buying co-worker!!

[xiaodown]

[QUOTE=ekeavney, post:99, topic:286178]
Hi, I did this a while back. The Wine Woot gods will fix it. It just took them a little time to get back with me.
[/quote]

Yep; the woot gods got back to me in an extremely timely manner! Bravo woot! You just cost me more money (but with AM, it’s money well spent).

[gcdyersb]

@AndrewMurray

Syrah has been my biggest passion if only because it tastes different when grown in different places…but different good not always different bad (like Pinot Noir that tastes great from very few places, and mostly terribel from the rest of the places) So, Syrah is a bit of a chameleon grape…a quality that I think Mr. Asimov is refering to in his recent NY Times article (referred to in an earlier Woot post) as a negative feature. In the context of his article, he is right now, that Syrah has been plagued by over-planting, quite often in the wrong place, yet the wines still turn out OK…I would rather take my chances (for example) with an $5-$10 bottle of Syrah than a similarly priced Pinot Noir…The Syrah would have a chance of being ok, while the Pinot would most likely be really ordinary. So, yes Syrah has become a bit of a generic red, but it still can taste of location (even with higher alcohols)when it is grown in the right place. To that end, we have sought out many different sites for Syrah from Lompoc (Sta. Rita Hills, to as yet un-named appellations, to Los Alamos, to Santa Ynez, to Santa Maria, Happy Canyon ( a new one) to the East Side of Paso Robles to the West Side…even once dabbling (many many years ago, with fruit from Madera and Lodi…quite possibly the “wrong places” for the grape…) I love the differences and nuances of each place, of each vineyard, of each grower, and each clone, etc, etc, etc. Over the years, I have grown to love Grenache as much or more than Syrah…I have become a bit of a nut about it. Most who come over to my house for dinner get tired of me pulling out yet another obscure Garnache Tinta (Grenache Noir) from sun swept regions of Spain like Campo de Borja, or Priorat or Monstant. There they often blend Grenache with Cabernet or old vine Carignane or Monastrell (Mourvedre) and yes even Syrah. I have grown to love the tannic and big and sometimes backwards wines of Spain as long as it has Grenache. I have always been a fan of Gigondas and Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but really only loving those wines in their best and biggest years. I like Grenache to be as dark as possible and full-bodied…ours come close to my ideal, but I have been limited by clonal selection and vineyard site…then I found the Terra Bella Vineyad (actually they found me and asked me to make their own wines for them…small production) I reluctantly said yes, and then fell in love with their Syrah and their Grenache from their steep hillside, limestone laiden hills just down from Tablas Creek. The reason that the alcohols are so high is that that if we picked these wines any younger, there would be too much acidity. Usually later picking means no natural acidity and thus creates a need to add acid…not so with these wines, we actually have to wait for the acid levels to drop to “drinkable” levels before harvesting, resulting in big wines with balance. We have picked sections of the vineyard with lower potential alcohols for Rose production…yummy wine, very bracing acidity, lower alcohols, but less fruitiness…this site begs for a more fruit-forward profile.

I need to run, I forgot where I wanted to go with this…but, bottom line is that I love Grenaceh and Syrah from the West Side of Paso…I have been growing or buying Grenache from the warmer reaches of Santa Ynez for more than a decade, but I prefer what i can accomplish from the vines from the west side of Paso…

What an awesome and thoroughly informative post. So much info there, everyone should just be buying based on winemaker participation.

The whole pick on flavor/balance picture comes into focus here. You most certainly can have big wines with balance. But (just my two cents) it’s important to point out this is a very different balance than in a lower alcohol wine. Alcohol needs to be balanced with lots of flavor, acidity, tannin and extract. It works, you just need to know what you’re getting.

It does make me wonder, maybe over time as vines get older and different growing ideas come into use, if the sugar levels will end up lower. Maybe other stylistic choices will come into play with regions like West Paso/Templeton Gap.

[AndrewMurray]

@bbombay

I just received my golden ticket (2007 Syrah)! I will attempt to do it justice this evening!!

Thank you!

Now off to flaunt my ticket in the phase of my woot wine buying co-worker!!

We all look forward to your comments…

Lucky you!

Andrew

[kylemittskus]

[QUOTE=gcdyersb, post:106, topic:286178]
What an awesome and thoroughly informative post. So much info there, everyone should just be buying based on winemaker participation.
[/quote]

I’m so tempted, but my SIWBM is back in effect after my case of Albino Rhino. That being said, I sincerely appreciate all of your thorough, informative, and honest posts Mr Murray. I will be in Paso in August and we just may have to make your winery one of our stops (not sure what our plans are yet). Mucho appreciated brother!

[yellowroe]

@AndrewMurray

Great question, with no easy answer…I am sure to make somebody mad no matter what. At least I do have years of travels and drinking memories and a cellar full…to give my opinions (not facts for sure) some weight here…So, in general the French counterparts are “lighter”, but this term needs to be clarified, I think. By lighter I do not mean color, but rather I mean overall extract…they tend to be lower in alcohol (yeah!), higher in acidity, and higher in tannins (except of course the insanely rare and expensive bottles and or those bottles from great vintages, which tend to be the driest and the hotest of years) In short, the wines are less fruit driven and more savory driven and thus benefit greatly from a few years of cellaring to decades of cellaring…I usually tell folks to drink their new world stuff while they wait for their old world wines to age…(obviously a hugely oversimplified statement and generalization as it pre-supposes that new world wines are not meant to age…but, I might argue that there are fewer and fewer new world wines that are truly meant to age or will benefit greatly from age) In extraordinary hot years in the Rhone, like 2003 or most recently in 2007, the wines tend to get higher in alcohol, and extract and tend to taste more like their New World counterparts. Now, there is a huge and wine-geeky debate going on across the globe right now about the homogenization of style…many winos out there are dissappointed with the hype surrounding the 2007 vintage and argue that the wines are simpler in structure and that too many wineries are beginning to chase the holy grail of high scores and that wines from different regions are losing their regionalism…I am not here to debate that one way or the other, as that is best discussed over many open bottles of wine…

So, back to your question, are Rhone wines lighter…in a side by side, double blind tasting, most off the shelf available Rhone wines would be perceived as “lighter” in body. I have tasted this phenomenon too many times to not believe it. That is why I try not to taste new and old world wines blind and together…Rather I enjoy them in their own frame of reference…too often today, greatness is confused with bigness, and most Rhone wines can not really be accused of being too big…think of what is happening to new world Pinot Noir vs. Burgundy…most of my friends are making Pinot Noir that looks like Syrah from the Rhone Valley…these are strange times…

Thanks for the seemingly simple yet thought provoking question…and remember, that I do not profess to be spewing facts here, just observations based upon my experiences…you will find a world out there and many in here at Woot who may disagree whole-heartedly…which makes every day in the wine business engaging, interesting, and fun!!!

Best

Andrew

Thanks for your response - you have me sold!

[yellowroe]

@mclonghorn

Thanks for the link - I really appreciate it but at the same time wish you wouldn’t have!!! I now have a case coming from Ty and 6 btls coming from Andrew - sometimes wish I liked beer!!

Any chance we can reap some of the beneifits of the Ty Caton sale tomorrow???

[kylemittskus]

@yellowroe

Any chance we can reap some of the beneifits of the Ty Caton sale tomorrow???

Buy buy buy!!!

[tuttlecharles]

I’d like to see some Roses on this site

[kylemittskus]

@tuttlecharles

I’d like to see some Roses on this site

We have had them offered at least twice within the past 2 years.

[k1avg]

These look awesome.

Andrew, any chance you could convince my girlfriend to let me buy another half-case of wine, or at least have it somehow shipped in under her nose? Oh, and find somewhere in my apartment for me to put it?

Seriously, though…

@AndrewMurray

Oh, the Grenache is the focus point of our GSM…great plum, stawberry, and white pepper all qualities from the Grenache. We use the other varieties to lift up the Grenache, not to over-shadow the Grenache…

I guess it’s pretty safe to say that your GSM is much more lighter and nuanced than the Ortman Cuvee Eddy, which was plurality Syrah and 9% Petite Sirah (which I liked, don’t get me wrong, but it was very big and dark).

[yellclimber]

After reading the posts I was ready to buy, but discovered no shipping to WY. I’ve bought lots of wine through wine.woot and this is the first time that I’ve wanted to buy, but couldn’t. Really disappointing given all the positive comments. Living vicariously through those of you in the favored states.

[PhilSandifer]

[QUOTE=kylemittskus, post:113, topic:286178]
We have had them offered at least twice within the past 2 years.
[/quote]

Including a six pack in a woot-off that damn near killed the thing for four hours.

[merbill]

[LABRAT]

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Happy Father’s Day+2 to ME!!! I got a Golden Ticket and a big, beautiful bottle of Andrew Murray Grenache 2006.

I normally let my new babies rest quietly at least a month before I open one, in order to let them get over any travel anxieties they may have picked up. But tonight I will make an exception for my fellow woot community members. And for those who worry about the weather, it was a very nice day today all the way between Los Olivos and here in the OC. The bottle was cool to the touch, and of course the cork wasn’t pushed or leaking, because, well, its a screwcap.

First off, I lurve grenache (how did WD know?). My recent favorites have included Campo de Borja Tres Picos (Spain), d’Arenberg Custodian, and woot-favorite Twisted Oak.

Now for my first impression of the wine. Color is a slightly curious combination of magenta and garnet, fairly dark at the core yet highlights shine through. First sniff and I get - unmistakably - meat. An overlay of raspberry, stems, spices, and a bit of leather gives the nose a very old world ambience. Interesting and unexpected.

Another surprise - its lighter-bodied than I expected. Strawberries, cherries, cedar, good acid, elegant tannins, and a fruity, medium-to-long finish. Right at the end, the 15.1% alcohol makes an appearance, then disappears. This is not at all the extracted, mouth-filling fruit bomb I thought it might be. Its much better, and potentially more food-friendly than I would have thought.

Now I have to go out for dinner. I will report again later after the wine has had a chance to breath a while, and will see how it changes.

[jaykid007]

@AndrewMurray

Thanks for the kudos…Andrew Murray jumping in here…bit of a late start this morning for me…but truly thanks for writing and for wooting!

Andrew

Your welcome. Just tellin like it is…also, just a note that the “Day’s Off” wine I got in the tasting room was pretty darn good.

[jaykid007]

@dherbie

Can’t believe I missed the rat time on this one. I’m headed out to LA in two weeks and am making a trip in to Los Olivos specifically because of Andrew Murray. On that note… anyone have suggestions on where to grab some food in Los Olivos (or, more appropriately, a redirect to a thread/website)?

Try Hitching post…seems overrated but I loved the pinots and the generation red along with the steak. The added bonus is that we were seated directly next to Jackson Browne (at the bar)!

[joeman123]

Absoutely the easiest decision I’ve made all year.

IN FOR 3!!