DuNah Montre Red Blend (4)

DuNah Montre Red Blend 4-Pack
Sold by: DuNah Vineyard & Winery
$64.99 $155.00 58% off List Price
2005 DuNah Vineyard & Winery Red Wine Montre Syrah / Sangiovese Mendocino
2006 DuNah Vineyard & Winery Red Wine Montre Syrah / Sangiovese Mendocino
CT links above

Winery website

** Potential Tourists **

Time, unfortunately, isn’t our friend. Expect the list to be frozen mid week, absolutely by Friday.

Those that were above the cutoff we’ve not heard from to reconfirm and arrange for a deposit date have been moved below the cutoff number of 42.

It is now first deposit received and you fill the empty numbers.
It is with regret I’ve been asked to do this, but confirmed numbers are needed to progress with tour planning.

For the winery, what was the thought behind creating this blend. Can you give us a percentage by varietal in each blend. Also, some technical numbers please. PH, TA etc…

The wine looks interesting and I would love to hear more please.

DuNah Montre red wine 2006

This wine comes in a lovely heavy burgundy bottle that says absolutely nothing about the blend in it. The cork was of good quality but damn tough to pull from the bottle for some unknown reason.

Tasting notes at an hour open by my fiancé and I.

Color: A bright cherry red that is very slightly orangish. The wine is beautifully clear with medium to light color saturation for a red. Looks like a dark Pinot Noir.

Nose:
Him - Fairly complex starting with cherry/strawberry, overtones of green olives and butterscotch and hints of eucalyptus and straw.
Her - Raspberry with a note of honey, hints of black pepper, vanilla, and smoked cedar, and a whiff of window cleaner.

Palate:
Him- Bright acidity out of the gate bringing flavors of tart strawberries and cherries. There is the barest hint of green note that quickly fades into a creamy, very slightly buttery finish that then resolves into oak. Light to medium bodied. Asks you to sip more.
Her - Cherry, slightly carmely oxidized note (slightly sherry like), some straight up oak that leaves a slight bit of tannin

I liked it better than she did, but regardless I find it to be a good value for a very nice food wine. The acidity makes you want another sip, the nose was quite interesting, and the creaminess on the back end lends an elegance.

Recommended if you like a bright Sangiovesse style.

2005 Du Nah Montre Red Wine; Mendocino clocking in at 14.0% abv
Bottle states unfined and unfiltered. Cork intact, although very difficult to remove. Had to switch the the ah-so mid removal. Despite no fining or filtering, there was no sediment to speak of on the cork or in the bottle.
PnP. Color is a pale red with light bricking. Nose is really nice with a bit of bottle bouquet going giving it an intensity of aroma that you can nearly taste. Caught a tiny bit of heat initially but that passed. Nose is giving up red cherry and earth with a layer of bramble coming through. No perceptible oak. If I was forced to pick this blind I would have said RRV or sonoma coast pinot.
On the front palate the wine is soft light and carries a good punch of acid. Fruit is tart cherry with a medium to light tannin on the finish. The finish lingers nicely with good acid, drawing you back in and asking for food.

This went well with homemade crab cakes and grilled potatoes. Perhaps not the finest pairing, but still enjoyable. At the time of tasting, we had no details on the wine or the varietals comprising the blend. We were certain it was Pinot Noir, and couldn’t figure out why someone wouldn’t have just labeled it that way.

Now that we see the Syrah/sangio details it comes as a bit of a shock. I didn’t pick up much meat or flesh at all. I can understand the sangio based on the tart cherry/red fruit elements and the lingering acidic finish. It would be interesting to see the percentage of each in this blend.

I thought this was a darn tasty wine (even if we did think it was Pinot). I’m definitely considering this one.

A little background on the wine here by winemaker Greg LaFollette and owner Rick DuNah. It’s a marketing thing but still informational. They discuss this and taste the '06 at the 54 minute mark.

[youtube=XZBxMfQhBxE][/youtube]

Was giving this some thought, but no way without summer shipping.

This wine is significantly better than it is currently selling. It’s ready to drink and is built for food.

I hope that a winery rep or ideally the winemaker can pop in and talk about it. What’s the impetus for the blend? Why add Gewurtztraminer on the 2005 and not the 2006?

Hey Wooters, Rick DuNah Here!
Both years are similar composition: 44% Syrah, 40% Sangiovese, 12% Carignane, 4% Gewurztraminer
Typical chem is pH 3.55, TA 7.15,
ML 0.05, RS 0.72, Acetic 0.64.

Blending thoughts! In 2003 our Pinot Noir crop quantity was low and we were still selling 50% of it to Flowers Winery. So we didn’t have much for ourselves. Outside available Pinot quality wasn’t to our standards so we looked for some other red varietals. The Mendocino vineyard offerings of the Syrah etc. were very much to our liking so we did it.
Re the Gurwurz adder, the three red blend was in the barrel for 2 1/2 years because every time the Mrs. & I tasted it, it was too big for us. Thus, Greg
La Follete our winemaker said “do something”. Civilize it a bit with either Viognier or Gewurz. The Gewurz one! We loved the results and have made the wine with the same composition every year 2003-06.
Please enjoy it!

This is a really interesting blend from a pretty esteemed winemaker… very pleased that Rick has made his wines available here…

Agreed. His creds are pretty impressive.

I was really impressed with the elegance of this wine. I typically don’t favor sangiovese, but I really liked this one. Encourage others to give this a shot.

Missed out on the chards last week. Hoping DuNah becomes a regular appearance here.

Thanks for the description, it sounds like a fantastic food wine.

Summer shipping is in effect, just taking a little longer to charge you for it…

Damn, if I had known that yesterday, I would have bought the R Merlo PN.

Take your time!

PM for you.

Any SoCal split interest?

Info post:
All tasting notes for this wine have been cross posted into CT under user name wine.woot_taster. User names have been removed to protect the guilty. PM me if you want your tasting note removed or user name added back.

Thanks and back to the wineing.