Mollydooker The Scooter Merlot

Producer: Mollydooker

Wine: Merlot "The Scooter"

Vintage: 2010

Region: South Australia

Rating: 88KB

Coin: 25USD

Buy: Here

Notes: This is NOT your mother's Merlot! It's Big, Bold, and Brazen. I wasn't sure how to feel about this newbie, but one thing for certain, this isn't a back porch sipper, this is serious food wine. Blackberry jam, fresh blueberry pie, baked earth, spice rack, bright acidity, medium tannin, toasted cedar, and, of course, ample vanilla.

I watched "Blood into Wine", while enjoying "The Scooter", Merlot and one thing was very clear, James Maynard Keenan is just as passionate about the winemaking at Caduceus Cellars, as he is about his musical acts, Tool, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle. Now, I don't want to liken Maynard's Arizona wines to Merlot from South Australia, however, I really think the personalities of "The Scooter" and Mr. Keenan have many similarities.

I like the direction Sarah & Sparky Marquis have taken Mollydooker. Fun but serious wines from Australia. Hopefully the days of heavily extracted fruit bombs are in the rearview mirror of the entire (I'm generalizing, sorry) Australian wine industry, but I won't hold my breath. KB

Justin Vineyards & Winery

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

'10 Justin, Sauvignon Blanc $135.00cs

'10 Justin, Chardonnay $156.00cs

'08 Justin, Cabernet Sauvignon $198.00cs

'08 Justin, Isosceles $252.00cs

'08 Justin, Justification $405.00cs

'08 Justin, Savant $405.00cs

MilbrandtMerlot2008Columbia ValleyWashington

Winemaker: Gordon Hill

Overview:
In 1997, we planted our first vines in the Eastern Washington AVAs of Columbia Valley and Wahluke Slope. At first glance, Eastern Washington is not your typical wine country. It’s a remote, windswept, high desert dotted with sagebrush and tumbleweeds. But our family had been farming here since the mid-1950s and we believed the region’s moderate temperatures, low rainfall and sandy soils were ideal for grapes. To help with the planting and farming, we hired well-respected viticulturist, James McFerran. Eight years later, after selling our fruit to many of Washington’s preeminent wineries, we hired veteran winemaker Gordon Hill to produce wines from the best blocks. Today, we farm 13 distinct estate vineyard sites totaling nearly 1800 acres.

Vineyard:
Our 2008 Traditions Merlot features grapes from a number of our estate
vineyards in Eastern Washington’s Wahluke Slope. Established in 2006, the Wahluke Slope is a sub-region within the Columbia Valley appellation. Located midway between Seattle and Spokane it is bordered by the Columbia River to the southwest and Hanford Reach National Monument to the east. The climate here is warm enough during the day to fully ripen grapes, yet cool enough at night to ensure bright acids and firm tannins.

Tasting Notes:
Our 2008 Traditions Merlot is elegant, balanced and approachable. The nose is bright and forward with cherries, berries and plums wrapped in crème brulée and brown sugar. The flavors are a seamless blend of fruit, oak and acidity. Serve with beef Wellington, pork ribs, sirloin, roast lamb, salmon, “beer can” chicken, pizza and cheese.

Words from our Winemaker:
“When grown in the proper places, Merlot produces some of the world’s
greatest wines. Eastern Washington just happens to be a proper place.
Our Traditions Merlot is deep and lush with cassis, blueberries, toast
and vanilla.”

Wine Statistics:
Composition: 78% Merlot / 16% Cabernet Sauvignon / 5% Malbec / 1% Barbera
AVA: Columbia Valley
Alcohol: 13.8%
pH: 3.68
Harvest Date: 9/15/08
Yeast: Premier Cuvee
Cases: 9,079
Oak: French and Hungarian / 50% new oak

Bethel HeightsPinot Noir2009Willamette ValleyOregon

Harvest dates: October 1 - 20, 2009

Fruit source: 32% Bethel Heights Vineyard, 28% Justice Vineyard, 13% Jessie James Vineyard, 10% Lewman Vineyard, 8% Elton Vineyard, 7% Zena Crown Vineyard, 2% Carter Vineyard
Finished wine: Alcohol: 13.2%, pH: 3.59, TA: 5.4
5116 cases produced.
Bottled July 28, 2010
Suggested retail $28

THE 2009 VINTAGE got off to a slow start, but a warm May and June gave us a very successful fruit set. Perhaps the vines were compensating for the poor flowering in 2008, but in any case 2009 delivered the most generous crop of the decade. The summer was warm and sometimes hot, with a couple of extraordinary heat spikes, bringing on a relatively
early harvest. September was sunny and warm, and continued dry in October but cool enough to extend hang time. The grapes were quite ripe, with great acidity and flavor development.

VINIFICATION:

The fruit was destemmed into 1.5-ton fermentation bins and kept cold for five days before fermentation began. Following ten to fourteen-day
fermentations, the new wine went into French oak barrels (10% new) for nine months. It was bottled with a Stelvin closure.

TASTING NOTES:

Aromas of ripe raspberry and strawberry with underlying notes of stonefruit, cedar, and rose petals. The palate is pure raspberries and Royal Anne cherries with orange zest and just a flicker of oak
spice in the background. This wine is balanced by a bright and balancing core of acidity and fine grain tannins that will help this wine age gracefully over the next decade.

Willamette Valley Hillsides:
Oregon’s wine pioneers came to the Willamette Valley looking for the perfect place to grow Pinot noir – a place where longer hours of daylight and cooler growing conditions allow wine grapes to ripen slowly,
with a long period of flavor development at the end of the growing season, and harvest in late September or early October. Ninety
percent of the Pinot noir grown in Oregon is grown in the Willamette Valley. But once that most fundamental choice has
been made, it must be said that most of the acres in the Willamette Valley are not really suitable for growing fine wine. Indeed, most
of the acres of the Willamette Valley are deep, rich valley-floor soils brought to us all the way from Montana by the Missoula
Floods at the end of the last ice age. These valley floor soils are paradise for a great diversity of crops, but they can spell trouble
for Pinot noir. Pinot noir at low elevations is subject to frost damage in the spring, and in such deep soils it can become overly
vigorous, and unable to ripen its fruit properly.
In almost all cases, the great Pinots of the Willamette Valley are grown on hillside sites well above the valley floor. That is the
common denominator of the Willamette Valley appellation, regardless of a significant diversity of soil types and weather patterns
in the various sub-AVA’s of the Valley. The fruit for our 2009 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir came from a number of different
vineyards within our own sub-AVA, the Eola-Amity Hills. Our own estate vineyards (Bethel Heights and Justice) provide the
core of this blend, which is rounded out with fruit from several well-established nearby vineyards that we have come to
appreciate.

A to ZPinot Gris2009Oregon

Winemaker: Sam Tannahill

The Wine:

The 2009 A to Z Oregon Pinot Gris shimmers in the glass with pear, ginger, almond and vanilla aromas. Juicy, bright and succulent on the attack, this wine showcases flavors of tangerine, melon, pineapple and wet stone. The wine is framed by ripe acidity giving classic Oregon Pinot Gris proportions and lift to the richness. The long finish slides effortlessly from the mid-palate with lingering impressions of tantalizing, pure, intense fruit.

The 2009 A to Z Oregon Pinot Gris is blended from over 16 different lots of wine. Malolactic fermentation was blocked. Fermented and aged in stainless steel for four months and bottles in March 2010. 35,600-750ml cases were made.

The Vintage:

Each growing season has a personality and individuality shaped by weather, terroir and farming. The 2009 Oregon vintage started with hotter than usual spring temperatures boosting the vines into early bud break. This was the first glimpse of the unusual Oregon weather that was in store. Temperatures fluctuated between record highs and lows, long stretches of dry days and rain at the end of the season followed by more sun but, when all was said and done, the fruit quality was there. In most vineyards we were able to achieve almost record hang time. On average, thanks to all of our hard work and many green thinning passes, our yields averaged 2.5 tons to the acre. The sugars were high, but the acidity held. It was a long harvest with picking starting on September 18th and ending on November 5th.

StuhlmullerChardonnay2009Alexander ValleyCalifornia

Proprietor: Fritz Stuhlmuller
Winemaker: Leo Hansen

Vineyards:

Stuhlmuller Vineyards is located at the southern edge of the Alexander Valley, where it converges with two other highly regarded Sonoma County appellations, Chalk Hill and the Russian River Valley. On its eastern edge, the 150-acre vineyard borders the Russian River. Situated in a unique location that is part river benchlands and part hillside, the vineyard benefits from its alluvial gravel soils and the more rocky soils that comprise the hillside sections of the vineyard.

The Clones:

Five blocks of Chardonnay are planted in the well-drained, benchland soils. The famous Gauer Upper Barn clone, one of California’s most sought-after Chardonnay selections, comprises 80 percent of these vines. The 2009 Alexander Valley Chardonnay is crafted from a mix of Gauer and clone 4 fruit from our estate. From the Gauer clone, the Chardonnay derives flavors of Asian pear, spice and a natural nuttiness, while the clone 4 grapes contribute mild tropical flavors.

The Vintage:

Despite rain in early February, 2009 began with a warm, dry winter. The winter heat led to an early bud break. Rains in May and June were followed by heat spikes in June and July and a fairly mild August, before a hot finish to the season. The crop was abundant, and to ensure quality, we dropped fruit and picked over a long period in multiple passes to give us a more complex palette of fruit to work with. This approach also helped maintain acidity and to achieve lower alcohols. We also focused on extremely careful sorting.

Winemaking:

To accentuate the signature fruit and natural nuttiness of our estate grapes, we fermented this wine with 100% indigenous yeasts. Aging occurred in both barrels (94%) and larger casks (6%), all of which were French oak (8% new). The wine was fermented sure lie for 8 months and underwent 85% indigenous malolactic fermentation.

The Wine:

From its beautiful bright lemon color to its inviting aromas of citrus fruit, lemon blossom, ginger, white nectarine, wet stone and spice, this is a vibrant and refreshing wine. On the palate, perfectly balanced oak and alcohol support lovely notes of green pear and apple, white flowers and citrus oil.

Technical Alcohol: 14.1%
Notes pH: 3.52
Total Acidity: 0.54 g/100ml
Production: 8,400 cases
Release Date: Fall 2010
Bottled: June 2010
Suggested Retail: $24.00

Pisco Sour

2 ounces Pisco Capel Premium
3/4 ounce simple syrup
1 ounce lime juice
1 fresh egg white
Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients except bitters in cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously until the egg white is foamy (10 seconds). Add ice to shaker, and shake again until well chilled (10 seconds). Strain into cocktail glass. Dash a couple drops of Angostura bitters on top.