#greglinnwines

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How's your St Patrick's day going? We're doing OK in here, thanks. @labyrinthwinery @bansheewines #greglinnwines @chateaudesantenay (at Morro Bay, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B92zz1Qn0gH/?igshid=1bx5a42ojpaog

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Seafood and red wine. DID I STUTTER? 2007 #GREGLINNWINES #syrah Rim Rock Vineyard Arroyo Grande Santa Maria Valley Central Coast 13.9 #cioppino (at Harbor Hut) https://www.instagram.com/p/B90pEPHH9rc/?igshid=8fpc73czwdvw

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A most impressive 13YO Syrah from one of my favorite vineyards in California. This thing is not the slightest bit sleepy, lock-stepping robust floral and spice with chocolatey fruit--gobs and gobs of dark fruit--and beautiful tertiary saddle-back and pie. The rosy glow follows seamlessly onto the tongue, capsizing your sceptical boat, and casting all occupants into a drowning mud-puddle of cherry surf and acidic whirlpools at the base of gurgling bloody falls. Sharp and vibrant mid-on, drying out and thinning the fruit, lightening the footprint, making sure no one goes home with flabby ideas. Actually crisp and delicate in the finish--I know the bling-bro crowd will cast odd looks at that scenario--wonderdully polished bell-pepper tannins motor-boat the handful-sized fruit in the white-pepper glow. This thing is so big--and yet, it's not. Which is the way I like my Syrahs. And so should you. 2006 #GREGLINNWINES #syrah Rim Rock Vineyard Arroyo Grande Valley Nipomo San Luis Obispo County California USA Earth 14-2 #pixel #sophienwaldglass (at Arroyo Grande, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1FyQm_HrTQ/?igshid=1inn9hqvw4ahk

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Creamier in the nose, dull fruit showing more cranberry and green apricot with a liqueur of briar latched alongside, but medium in intensity. Not much earth, barnyard OR pinot translates out. A little burnt rubber--extremely mild--dirty-baby-diaper and astro-turf in the sun. In the mouth, more blistering acidity, but once again it is the sort which overtakes the fruit at these sort of ages. This one is at least balanced on the palate, with cherry, black walnut and strawberry kefir flow steadily toward dark black cherry and a wall of tannins NOT over-reaching the concentration of fruit, but rather complementing it. This one works. Yes it needs to be dranken RIGHT NOW, but I've got no serious issues with it. It is a beautiful, moderately-nuanced, well-aged--and aging well (most importantly)--pinot. 2007 #GREGLINNWINES #pinotnoir #santamariavalley 13-3 #libbeyglass #pixel (at Avila Beach, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0FXe2wnGhL/?igshid=vye37zv8pgub

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OK last one tonight. This one actually has a nice pinot nose. Mascarpone and luxardo with a beautiful woody sprite. Balanced in the mouth, fruit clamoring for attention above perfect acidity and ripe cherry. Dried spit savoryness and gracefull accumulation of age create a tertiary lovliness on par with the fruit. Sweet and warm, mouth-filling with beautiful funk and stemminess, I have to give this one high nods to longevity. Still has years to go. 2008 #GREGLINNWINES #santamariavalley #ranchoontiveros 13-3 #libbeyglass #pixel (at Avila Beach, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0FjgnrnU3z/?igshid=vl54w4worlwt

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This wine smells quite good. Deep root-beer, peat, and black cherry headed into Garnetland, stopping abruptly mid-nose to turn eucalyptus and vegetal against you. In the mouth, things don't work out so well. Flaccid and burningly acidic, the dull pangs of 10 years swipe valiantly at your senses, TEMPTING YOU to rationalize YES WE'VE ALL DONE IT this is a wine with positive features but flat out it is not good. Shallow vapid midsection of Vit-C acid and some sort of decrepid husk-wrappings of plum, there literally is NO FRUIT WHATSOEVER. Thin burn and that light spectre of nothingness pinot gets. And it's just bitter and gone. Not oxidized, not corked, just gone. No fruit. Vamonos. On y va. 2008 #GREGLINNWINES #pinotnoir #santamariavalley 12-8 #libbeyglass #pixel (at Avila Beach, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0FUXy0H7dv/?igshid=1t1wm7eu1u7gm

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Smoky funky horse-barn goodness coming out of a package still deep ruby with nary a brick. What I am guessing was significant green stemmy has toned down into a woodsy briar still edged with the brashness of wet tobacco and raw beef. Mud puddles of ridiculous petrichor obfuscate almost completely the intent black cherry. In the mouth, one wonders immediately if there IS fruit in it as it appears for a fleeting moment in the entry before a wall of rocky bitter minerality and tannin cover everything in a hazy amber veil. There's definitely a fat glob of fruit in there, there's no doubt about it, as it coats the sides of your tongue in a sweet reprieve all through the middle but grows leaner towards the end. The finish is something I am forced to call *awkward* on, as desperately as I want to like this wine and as much as I actually do. There's an unrequited edge to the finish that doesn't play well with the well polished fruit, but it's just a fleeting oddity. Rimrock is a tiny little rocky clay vineyard about 10 miles from my house in somebody's backyard basically. If you follow my stories you've seen pictures of it and heard me talk about it. I don't know if technically it is in the Arroyo Grande Valley AVA or if it is in Nipomo which would make it San Luis Obispo County because it lies at the base of Los Berros Canyon, there are a couple little Foothills between it and Leticia, and it's in a part of town where you can be 93420 and your neighbor 93444. It doesn't matter: it's RimRock that's all that counts, and it's a gorgeous wine, from a label probably very few of you are familiar with, as it is kind of a local culty thing. Probably no social media whatsoever but I'll put a link to it in the blog at wine1er.com as I always do. 2007 #GREGLINNWINES #syrah #rimrock #arroyograndevalley #sloco 13.9 (at Nipomo, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxQxL8ghFBo/?igshid=d4iflqplul0l

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An 08 Pinot blend from Santa Maria Valley in Santa Barbara wine country holding up fairly well... Showing all the signs of past-prime without showing any of the signs of GONE. Which you know is a good thing. A bit milky, but was transported 72 hours ago. No sediment on bottle, so there could be your answer. Fairly closed in the nose, initially showing some lovely wet paper and green oak earthiness with a blood-orange tinge to the black cherry and chamomile. Sultry and round, a teensy nutty aroma complicates things in pecan praline ways--NOT toasted almond ways. A defunct label, discontinued in 2007? in favor of Greg Linn Wines. Or maybe it existed alongside, I'm not the history expert on this brand. Have enjoyed numerous Greg Linns over the years, and those in my inner circle know from recent events quite a few more will be popping up in my notes in the going forth. In the mouth, beautiful, clean fruit, polished understandably but NOT faded. Energetic and compelling, bright vibrant gooseberry and bitter-lemon--the former making up an abrupt-ending entry, the latter commanding the finish. This is a contending little wine with nary a flaw. Robust in the right areas and biting in proper places, this would be really fun in a mid-tier aged Burg line-up. 2008 #AMBULLNEOVINEYARDS #pinotnoir #santamariavalley #greglinnwines #santabarbarawinecountry 13-3 (at Santa Maria Valley) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxEWNm-hu14/?igshid=1c7p6n66y0wgk