Calcareous 2006 Red - Three Pack

Deal Chatter Gourmet
21

So, let’s see about this alcohol. Or is it just a Paso thing you have to put up with for a good wine. So, I got myself out that bottle of the Syrah (the best of the threee by common consent) which I did find in one of the boxen of wine at the foot of my bed, here at my temporary place in Venice, CA. So… Here is a Faux-ratting live, At 7am from Los Angeles!

First tranche to come right here, keep your F5 ready:

So, first I rush downstairs, bl;earily in me nice blue boxers… Damnit my houemate opened up my ohter housemate’s bottle of (ugh!) Oberon 07 Cab and so my nice shiny new Stuart Cellars huuuge decanter (pic to come) is used. to pour that blackcurrant bore-bomb back into its hole, sorry, bottle, and wash out the decanter with some nice filterd water. Aaaah, my mouth feels like the inside of a rhino’s arse. I need more water. Mmmmmm. That’s better. DAmn! My housemate’s scratched the brand new Stuart Cellars decanter by using it as a !!!water jug for his dinner party on Sunday. Grrr. And it is a lovely one… a single bottle hardly fills it at alll, it’ll carry at least three bottles, tho with less surface area than one. Best thing from Stuart Cellars. Found the rest of their stuff to be mightily disappointing!

I digress. Damn, I broke the cork with this crappy kitchen bottle opener, the sort that hurts your hand when yo use it as a corkscrew. Half a cork… and some bits. Carefully does it…, and no, don’t push down into the neck… slooowly… and ah, the screw’s at the edge of the cork… and… yes! success!

Aaaaah! I can smell it frpom here. the nose!! le nez or that being Paso Robles even [/il nezzo*. Hmm, I think I need to brush up on my Spanish. the nose is biiiiig in fruit. And yes, wow, alcohol. I must be drink and I haven’t even drunk anyting yet. This morning, that is.

Dark sweet fruits. Syrah-y, I suppose. Is that bacon, or smoke, or fat? no idea,. Never used to look for those on the nose. Traditionally preferred them in my mouth. Well, not the smoke. Huuuge fruit in thst meduim-dark. Tobacco, definitely too.

Right, I’m taking this back to bed! Decanter, check, empty bottle, check, water glass, check. Damn, forgot the glass… but I have a free Mount Palomar one here (their stuff’s ok too, BTW, though frankly trhe only amazing wines in Temecula I’ve tried are Bella Vista.

OK, so let’s sniff this now it’s 15 mintues later. ooooh lots more fat and tobacco on the nose. Alcohol has gone a little. Maybe I should try to drink some. Oh wait, dry teeth-clean (no toothpaste, that would be silly for orange-juice tasting, never midn wine tasting, but I need to clear the ugh fuzz).

Ok, done! so, to taste…

Can small the alcohol as I go in for the kill. Still, swow… spicy! Mmmm, smooth dark red fruits underneath. and wow, after the initial front taste of dark-red-blue tart-fruits (can’t name them definitely, but maybe Boysenberry-arena) this palate is just all Mineral . and I mean tastes of lovely wet stones… which is admittedly quite hard with porous limestone! but wow, that mineral cuts through the fruit after a few seconds on the palate.

wow! This is unique! High high alcohol, but it’s balanced. Very alanced. Tart, even in parts, though the fruit, leather and bacon-umami come through on the palate. Then the mineral kicks in and zings you.

Maybe I’m mistaking high alcohol for mineral? Well, it’s not tasting “hot”. It’s tasting of nice acid-on-stone. That’s the thing. I hated that hot Pedroncelli Zin we tried at the winery (and the 07 we had on woot was somewhat too hot too). This ain’t hot, though the nose has some of that before your nose cuts through it to smell the fruit-fat-bvacon and leeeeather.

So, it’s taken me 30 minutes to get to this. And I’m loving it! Mooore fruit ont he palate too, it’s opening up the redness in the fruit, like some loganberry adn nice tart redcurrants and cranberries! It ain’t a Grand Cru St Emilion like what I had last night (well there’s no Merlot for starters, and that was only an 03), but it’s a damn good drink. A lot more mineral and zing. It’s just a different experience. And, frankly, quite exciting. I might go in for some more… Great acid.

I’m hungry now. With Syrah it’ll have to be an anglo-German breakfast. Time to go and get some toast and get that nice TJ’s wine-salami from the fridge. THink I have some stilton and goat’s cheese too. mmmm. Breakfast!

22

I was worried about the alcohol content as well until I actually tried the wine. I was shocked at how good this wine tasted (all three). I would put it as one of the best QPRs that I’ve tried on woot.

Disclaimer: I like the Parker style of wine. I know this is blasphemy here.

23

now’t wrong wiht that. There are well-made wines in taht style with balance. And there are some which are not so much… There is variance in all styles of winemaking. Thank you for peaking up, and please do so some more, with notes and everything!.. ok, back tot he faux-ratting

24

Faux-rat part deux!

45 minutes in… haven’t gone down for breakfast yet… this is tooo fun!

Wow, the redness in these fruits are coming through the palate now more and more… starting to sing, like a good Harvey Barbera or Wellington Zin. Not as subtle or sweet or complex, but getting there. And more leather and bacon notes, since this is Syrah and it doesn’t taste of Zin or Barbera! But it’s starting to open up and make sing the fruits on the palate, not just the minerals on the front of the tongue (wow wow and wow again to those minerals)!

More body now… this isn’t a huge heavy Syrah, but it’s filling out eh mid-palate with these fruits.

Oh, and here come the tannins! Mmmm, small, subtle, and flavoured with loganberry! Starting to dry the mouth a little. Nice golden fresh-in-the-tin tobacco edge to them too. I can taste some alcohol now too. But it’s not killing anything. but heck I need some breakfast if today’s going to happen at all!

Mmm, aftertaste!!! After the aftertaste has goone… did I mention this has a long long medium finish (or maybe a long finish of medium proportions) of the mineral and acid end, and then now it’s been open for getting on for an hour, the tannins kick in after that and circulate the mouth, looking for openings to wash into. My mouth’s not coated in that sophomoric sugary-sickly way like those napa cabs, but I can feel the dry, tobacco, red and dark-red fruit-tinged tannins in my mouth, drying it out. More and more, as it aerates. And tart dark-red fruits, with a hint of sweetness. Like half-dried, maybe. as a residue flavour.

It’s funny. the fruits are on the nose, then in the initial kick and taste, and then the mineral comes in and overtakes them, though they fight it during the mid-palate, and then they come back ater on as drier, tart-sweet fruit nods later on in the finish and tannin post-ending. Fascinating. yum. This isn’t a wine I’ve tasted before. Unique. And though thte body ain’t huge like a lot of Cabs, it has so much going on for it.

Oops, I finished the glass!!! Time for some salami and cheese… and a refill.

25

Dude, not cool. Stop trying to get me to buy stuff.

26

How is anyone in GA able to buy this? I live here and had to grandfather myself on some wine lists in NorCal just to get wine shipped to me. Otherwise, I was told, I could not have wine shipped here. If that has changed, someone please tell me :slight_smile:

27

[QUOTE=rpm, post:11, topic:292389]
Soaring alcohol, soaring pH…

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy…
[/quote]

Are you from Michigan?

28

Faux rat part trois: why can’t all this offering be the Syrah. With this much Calcareousness in it… can the Zin and the Cab stand up to it? Maybe a Cab… Hmmmmm.

so, I’ll be wondering here also how long it wil last. But first to breakfast. I have lots to try with this wine: toast, goat’s cheese, Stilton, those little tomatoes, some pine-nut houmus, and that Trader Joe’s lovely chianti-dried salami. Oh, and some sunflower seeds I home-roasted yesterday in the frying pan.

Start with some of thhose sunflower seeds and see how it likes it. Ok, we’re more than an hour into decanting. More red and dark fruit flavours are coming out. Seems to love the toasty seeds.

Seedy-toast and houmus time: not oringially my bread, so a bit sweet (they put all kinds of crap into bread here, like corn syrup! I need to stay better than that, but I haven’t been tot he shop this week). this costco pine-nut houmus has a good acid edge to it too, and it plays nicely with the Calcareous. It really is a biting wine… but makes your tongue zing! Fruits tartly drying out again. Definitely cranberries in the wine there.

Little tomato time now. Yum! right this isn’t too tart of a tomato: a nice pingy one not to sweet either. ooh, makes the wine taste more zippy. more fruit. The wine’s zing ewasily overpowers anything from the tomato. It can hold its own with a medium-tart little cherry-tomato! It’s that zingy a wine! Less body on the wine with the tomato, but I’ve never liked wine with tomato before.

This is amazing!

Damn you, I’m in for 3 more. this wine is worth more like $40: it’s unique. Not a huge body, but it mas more than you think because it’s so minerally it’s almost balanced the wrong way. Flabby this ain’t! If the other two wines are just ok, and worth $15-ish then you have a deal just on the quality of this wine alone. look at the reviews for them… I suspect they’re better than that and I seem to remember you can lay down the York Mountain Cab.

I suspect you can keep this Syrah for 5 years too. Maybe 10, I’m not good at that kind of thing. It has balance, and maybe that means it’ll go for 20. Wellington’s 1994 Syrah was still good for at least ten years more when we drank it at the end of July. But then that was Peter Wellington’s Syrah…

29

Breakfast Syrrat Part le quatre.
Right then, time for the TJ’s salami.

Gosh and golly wow yum yum it’s scrumptious. Well, you’d guess it would pair well. Moar MOar M0ar! It’s damn good umami salami and only about $4 for a standard phallus of it.
I could eat and drink this all day with the Syrah. Indeed I might just do that. with a break for a (rather wobbbly) bike ride along Venice Beach up to Pacific Palisades and chat up some … “I have this amazing wine back at my place”

Yes, I think I’m going to enjoy today.

Damn, I finished the glass. But now it’s Stilton time!

Mmmmm, this likes stilton like Charlie Chaplin liked teenagers. wow! it’s effervescent, exuberant and rather astonishing! I don’t have thast much stilton left, and it’s a little over the hill (23 perhaps, in Chaplin terms), but it works! This amazing mineralliness WITH body (but not too much, as the mineral hides the depth of the wine) means it goes with wines that usually hide the flavours of wine.
Wait, can I taste the fruit in the wine still? Yes, even with the stilton, though of course they’re less distinct, ans it’s "purple and dark-red fruits and zingy loganberry-cranberry, rather than a more subtle fruit-appreciation.

1h 30 mins since decanting.

I’m going back to the salami. Yum, yes that’s good… though the wine’s almost toooo zingy for the round umamisalami! Let’s try the goat’s cheese. Probably costco’s best, from my housemate. I’ve guven up on the (too-sweet) toast. I’ll eat that wiht the houmous later. Or retoast it and put some boysenberry jam (you say preserves… it’s full of amazing yumfruit) from the Sonoma market on it for elevenses. For now it’s ALL about the meat and dairy. And those seeds.

Goat’s cheese. check! mmmm. yes. And I can taste the fruits again more with this. they sing a little louder against the white goat bleating!

Incidentally in England it’s 1 am, so this is late night drinking. Really.

30

I happy to read about your enthusiasm - when i first drank the syrah, I was shocked at how good it was. I felt the exact same way - if the other varietals were just ok - this was a good buy. After i tried the Zin - I was kicking myself for only buying one. I will let the Cabs rest for a good long while.

31

[QUOTE=richardhod, post:29, topic:292389]
Breakfast Syrrat Part le quatre.
Right then, time for the TJ’s salami.

Gosh and golly wow yum yum it’s scrumptious. Well, you’d guess it would pair well. Moar MOar M0ar! It’s damn good umami salami and only about $4 for a standard phallus of it.
I could eat and drink this all day with the Syrah. Indeed I might just do that. with a break for a (rather wobbbly) bike ride along Venice Beach up to Pacific Palisades and chat up some … “I have this amazing wine back at my place”

Yes, I think I’m going to enjoy today.

Damn, I finished the glass. But now it’s Stilton time!

Mmmmm, this likes stilton like Charlie Chaplin liked teenagers. wow! it’s effervescent, exuberant and rather astonishing! I don’t have thast much stilton left, and it’s a little over the hill (23 perhaps, in Chaplin terms), but it works! This amazing mineralliness WITH body (but not too much, as the mineral hides the depth of the wine) means it goes with wines that usually hide the flavours of wine.
Wait, can I taste the fruit in the wine still? Yes, even with the stilton, though of course they’re less distinct, ans it’s "purple and dark-red fruits and zingy loganberry-cranberry, rather than a more subtle fruit-appreciation.

1h 30 mins since decanting.

I’m going back to the salami.
[/quote]

Buy on bread, sell on cheese…

I’ll take your word that the wine’s interesting, but I’ll wait until someone opens one for me, and save my pennies for more sure things this month.

32

[QUOTE=joshaw, post:22, topic:292389]
I was worried about the alcohol content as well until I actually tried the wine. I was shocked at how good this wine tasted (all three). I would put it as one of the best QPRs that I’ve tried on woot.

Disclaimer: I like the Parker style of wine. I know this is blasphemy here.
[/quote]

this ain’t even Parker. It’s better than that. It’s not old-school either! There is more to wine than just old v international styles. I haven’t worked out how to put these new flavours into any system yet but that’s ok. It’ll never perfectly encompass everything. We want wines and creators who break down boundaries. this is one!

RPM would like it too. unless he’s THAT ancient, and I have it on good authority he’s only 627. Indeed, Rob, try this wine. I think you’ll appreciate it. Pedroncelli’s normal years are hotter than this!

33

[QUOTE=rpm, post:31, topic:292389]
Buy on bread, sell on cheese…

I’ll take your word that the wine’s interesting, but I’ll wait until someone opens one for me, and save my pennies for more sure things this month.
[/quote]

Fair enough. Like that Corison, yum! It’s such a pity you couldn’t buy a couple of cases of things on tour.. I knwo how much you loved those things, and how much the SWHBO matters! :smiley: I hope someone opens you one of these.

Mmmmm, cheese.
Good bread’s hard to come by, but it’s Wednesday and I know of at least one Farmer’s market in Santa Monica. And maybe the Culver City one’s today.

tomato AND salami.. hmmm, just makes the wine hot and spicy.. Oh yes spicy.. let me see. I forgot.. Mmm, spicy too on the front of the palate.

34

[QUOTE=Mrpopcorn, post:30, topic:292389]
I happy to read about your enthusiasm - when i first drank the syrah, I was shocked at how good it was. I felt the exact same way - if the other varietals were just ok - this was a good buy. After i tried the Zin - I was kicking myself for only buying one. I will let the Cabs rest for a good long while.
[/quote]

That’s good to hear that I’m not just one happy loon in a sea of grey normality!

If a wine’s crap or just boring (God, that Oberon wasn’t even mediocre) I’ll certainly say so. Pedroncelli’s resting on their laurels, definitely. But then they’re cheap, so maybe I’m unfair.

I’m definitely buzzing at this point, and I’ve hardly got far through the bottle. I’ll have to repour into the bottle and recork it for later!

wait let’s have a 1h 45min recap.

nose is softer (or my senses are dulled). Fruits still there at the beginning of the palate. Minerals still present. Ithink it’s mellowed. As have I. this is strong stuff. time to eat bread and Houmous I think.

w o w

35

[QUOTE=richardhod, post:32, topic:292389]
this ain’t even Parker. It’s better than that. It’s not old-school either! There is more to wine than just old v international styles. I haven’t worked out how to put these new flavours into any system yet but that’s ok. It’ll never perfectly encompass everything. We want wines and creators who break down boundaries. this is one!

RPM would like it too. unless he’s THAT ancient, and I have it on good authority he’s only 627. Indeed, Rob, try this wine. I think you’ll appreciate it. Pedroncelli’s normal years are hotter than this!
[/quote]

Yeah, I agree that it’s more than a just a big bomb Parker wine. It has some complexity/minerality that I’ve never tasted in a wine. I’ve only been drinking wine for 10 years so I’m a relative newbie, but this blew my palate away when I tried it. I didn’t really take notes with this wine but here’s what I wrote when I went back to the old forum (for the cab).

36

Pretty excited to see Calcareous on the woof.off. I didn’t buy, mainly because I’m heading to Paso this weekend for some tastings. Going to hit this winery up for sure!

37

Thank you for the Cab notes! And always love a good conversation :smiley: You still think the Cab is less unique than this, or does it have some of these qyalities.

Louis martini has grades? and is he a classic fruit bomb, or more balanced?

38

11 days since my order and I’ve not received my wine, nor a shipping notification.

has anyone else gotten either?

39

I’ve also not yet received any notification.

40

I got my notification a few hours ago. I suspect all of my Woot-Off orders are being held, though, as it’s back up in the mid-90s again this week.