Marriage Party Part 2: Orin Swift’s Experiment in Maury

Orin Swift Others 2009
Vin de Pays
Cötes du Catálanes

As a gift to my Brother Dave and his new wife Ari, I decided to bust out a bottle of Orin Swift “Others”. It is the second bottling of winemaker Dave Phinney’s Maury property in the south of France (the top bottling, D-66 is about $40). He sold his Prisoner label to finance his purchase of vineyards in Maury simply because he believes so fiercely in its potential. Prisoner is a huge seller, and at $35+ a bottle in undoubtedly making a fortune for its new owners.

The wines of Orin Swift are very fruit driven, but contain an opulence and complexity that hints at something more subtle and refined. Generally full bodied, these wines benefit greatly from patience, and command it at such prices. Perhaps Others is exceptional among Swift wines in that it is less than $20, this particular bottle was $17, and sadly is generally sold out within days of arrival. Keep your eyes peeled.

Also sadly within 30 minutes of opening, this bottle was dry and all its powerful contents hurtling through the blood streams of my friends and family.

Later I read that it demands a 5 hour decanting process before really showing its colors. Curses! I should be more patient but alas it was still delicious.

The fruit was a bit closed. Showing dark blackberry and cooked black cherry flavors. A savory, toasted midpalate evoked bacon fat and led into a velvety tannic finish. The wine is delightful, but perhaps more serious than Phinney’s pop-and-pour California creations. I highly recommend a long decant with the Maury wines, and perhaps a re evaluation of the Prisoner, Saldo, Palermo, and Abstract.

Composed principally of Grenache.

88-90 points. A great wine.

Value Wines: Sub $10 California
DnA Vineyards Babble ‘08 Red Blend
$7 Right Now Trader Joe’s

A wine with this many varietals is bound to be an odd duck.

Perfect for my friend Joel, the maestro of epicurean madness. His Mediterranean style cooking, demonstrating authentic flavors from the hotter regions of Spain, Italy, and Greece calls for a hot wine.

This wine delivers heat with an urgency. The higher the alcohol, the fuller the body of a wine. This is very fruity, lots of red raspberry and ripe red cherry up front. It tastes hotter than it should, with a hint of structure mid-palate. Hot fruit is what this wine is about right away, but after giving it some time to burn off, certain subtle pepper and oak notes emerged. Not an altogether complex wine, but more than suitable for the price. Get it while it’s hot.

The Grapes: 36% Petite Sirah, 26% Syrah, 17% Merlot, 10% Carignan, 10% Grenache, 1% Malbec.

A quick rundown:
Petite Sirah (also sometimes inaccurately Syrah) is actually a grape called Durif. A “non-noble” variety. On its own this grape produces powerful wine. Black-fruited and inky complexion, plummy flavors with peppery and herbal notes often present. Tannic.

Syrah, a classic Rhone variety expressing a highly variable nature depending on where it’s grown (Mostly France, USA, and Australia where it is often called Shiraz) Also black-fruited and powerful, creates wines of great intensity, often with distinctive notes of Black Pepper. Tannic.

Merlot, balanced plums or blackberry fruit. Generally not very structured. Common in blends. Best examples are amazing, don’t get your opinion from Paul Giamatti.

Carignan, southern Rhone varietal, though it is more prevalent in the Languedoc. Produces very powerful and astringent, tannic wine on its own. Mostly used for blending to add structure and depth.

Grenache, one of the world’s most widely planted wine grapes. Produces a very fruity wine, high in alcohol. A great blending wine, hence its popularity in the southern Rhone. Spain makes some killer Grenache.

Malbec, the forgotten noble grape of Bordeaux. Mostly falling out of favor in France, Malbec has found its calling in South America, mostly in Argentina, where it produces amazing, floral and fruit-driven wines that at their best rival Napa cab for power and structure. However 1%? Beneath all those other hot grapes it will be indistinguishable as a component.

Grape list concluded, get out there and try some new stuff. Great wines come from every region, it’s always a good year somewhere.

Library Wines: Part 3 The Old Rhone

An ongoing series.

Chateau Des Tours Vacqueyras Reserve ‘98. $9! What?!

So in the Southern Rhone they make wine out of something like 13 different grape varieties. Many of which most people never heard of. Thankfully there are a few workhorse grapes that are used mostly and are supplemented by those lesser known varieties. The big ones are Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Carignan, and Mourvedre. Having clarified that, let me say that these wines can run the gamut of quality and price and can be powerful and/or elegant. The best arguably arise from a high level quality regional appellation called Chateauneuf du Pape.

This wine however is another animal altogether.
Vacqueyras is a lesser appellation than CNP and somewhat similar to nearby Gigondas. The best wines come from the uplands and higher altitude vineyard spots. Those from the lowlands are generally powerful and inelegant. This wine comes from somewhere in between. The label is bubbling terribly with some discoloration which is troubling and perhaps evidence of improper storage. However when I pull the cork it is still robust and flexible. The wine is not spoiled.
It appears to have lost much of its power but retains a good amount of fruit.
Showing a candied red berry complexion, this wine is jammy and time has utterly integrated the tannins. Smooth as silk the finish has some toasty oak and some past-peak pungency giving this wine just enough character to stand up to Joel’s dinner of Italian cheese flatbread and tomato pasta with spinach and basil.

Even though the wine was evidently past peak it still had enough stuff to make it suitable for lighter fare. The lesson was that given enough time, overtly powerful wines can become incredibly soft and subtle. So if you are going to take a chance with an elderly bottle, it helps if it was gigantic and/or crude to begin with.