WN: Longoria 2007 Blues Cuvée vs. Campo di Sasso 2007 Insoglio

This is a comparative tasting I've been hoping to do for some time. Both the Longoria 2007 Blues Cuvée and the Campo di Sasso 2007 Insoglio have similar blends roughly evenly split between Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. But the former is a "Super Barbara" sourced from a variety of terroirs in Santa Barbara County while the latter is a "Super Tuscan" indicating it consists of international varieties like Cab, Merlot and Syrah grown in Toscana. By most accounts 2007 was a strong vintage in both regions.

As of now, the Insoglio gets the edge. While it doesn't have much structure for the long run, the mix of varieties shows through and there's genuine earthy complexity. The Blues Cuvée in contrast is big, structured, fruity and oaky in a well-made New World style. It has better potential long-term, though it's hard to say whether the fruit and oak will eventually recede to reveal the intrinsic character. The smoke of the Syrah and tobacco of the Cab Franc and Merlot are deeply buried if they are there at all.

Both are around $20 to $25 depending on where you look and really illustrate why style and structure are so important. Both have plenty of fruit, but beyond that picking just one would come down to personal taste and intent. Do you want a fruit-driven wine to age? Blues it is! Do you want some earthy, funky complexity right now? Then there's the Insoglio. The Insoglio would be a re-buy for me personally, but it's not a question of it being better. The flavor profile just works for me.

• 2007 Campo di Sasso Insoglio del Cinghiale Toscana IGT - Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT
  
  
  
  35% Syrah, 30% CF, 30% Merlot, 5% PV. Aromas of tobacco, smoked meat/bacon, toast and cherries. Medium bodied, medium-low acid, light tannins. Light on oak, too. Nice cherry fruit upfront, then finishes heavy on olive tapenade. Mellow, earthy wine with a core of red fruit and a great herbaceous edge. Structured for near-term consumption.
  
  
• 2007 Longoria Blues Cuvée - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County
  
  
  
  31% CF (Alisos), 27% Merlot (Alisos), 24% Syrah (Clover Creek), 18% CS (Estelle). Aromas of plum, cedar, tar and vanilla. Definite new world Bdx blend aromas. Full bodied, creamy, but also fresh with med-high acidity. Tannic with a dose of new oak. Finishes dry. Big, ripe, balanced, dark fruited. Needs a few years to let tannins mellow in my opinion. A little one dimensional now, though the delicious factor is there big time.
  
  

TN: Longoria 2002 Blues Cuvée

One of the nice benefits to being in a local wine club is access to library wines at fair prices, often after having tasted the wine. Such was the case with the Longoria 2002 Blues Cuvée. This bottling was originally started by Rick Longoria as a means to foist Cabernet Franc upon unsuspecting consumers. Over the years he has shifted its purpose to blending, though Cab Franc has remained a large portion of the blend.

The 2002 vintage has an interesting near 50-50 split along two dimensions. First, it's 54% Cabernet Franc and 46% Merlot. But 30% of the Cab Franc and 26% of the Merlot Came from Westerly (now McGinley) Vineyard in the warmer eastern portion of Santa Ynez, while 24% of the Cab Franc and 20% of the Merlot came from the cooler Alisos Vineyard in Los Alamos. In other words, there are really four evenly divided blending components. The result is a fruit-driven, New World styled wine, but one with structure and complexity.

While this isn't Longoria's most expensive wine, it is the one I've enjoyed most with age on it. In fact, it seems it needs a few years to integrate. For around $25 as a new release, this is a really decent value in wine that hits its stride 5 to 10 years from vintage. I paid a bit more as this bottle came pre-aged, though.

• 2002 Longoria Blues Cuvée - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County
  
  Drinking really nicely. Has the texture of velvet being rubbed against the grain. Creamy, with softness of aged tannins, but still pretty darn tannic and drying. Seems to have both fruit and structure to support further aging. Chocolate, blackberry, cedar, tobacco, anise and coffee on the nose. Fruit showing some advancement, but nothing to worry about. Full bodied, creamy, with nice freshness. A lot of spicy anise flavor on the finish. No rough edges here. Finishes very well. Balanced New World wine with bones for aging I'd reckon.
  
  

A Franc Vertical Sings the Blues

Since we were picking up our quarterly shipment from Longoria Wines, we had a chance to taste a handful of wines during the afternoon in Santa Ynez last weekend. As is usually the case, Longoria had a little shindig going on at their tasting room complete with music, appetizers, and library wines. Since they were releasing the 2007 Blues Cuvée, the 1998, 2001 and 2002 vintages of the Blues Cuvée were being poured along side the current vintage. The Blues Cuvée started as a Cabernet Franc varietal wine delivered in stealth under the guise of a proprietary blend. Gradually it came to include larger portions of other Bordeaux varietals, especially Merlot. In the past several vintages, Syrah has been added to the blend, while the sources of Cabernet Franc and Merlot have shifted from the warmer parts of Santa Ynez to the cooler climes of Alisos Vineyard in Los Alamos.

Although the 2007 Blues Cuvée (31% Cab Franc, 27% Merlot, 24% Syrah, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon) was poured last in the vertical, I'll start by saying that it's very young and barrel aromas are still noticeable. Tasted blind, I would be disappointed with this flavor profile. But knowing the aging capacity of Longoria's wines, it's clear this wine needs a few years in a dark, cool spot to come together. The pieces are all there: ripe fruit, complex aromas, refreshing acidity, concentration, depth and moderate tannins.

The 1998 Blues Cuvée was the most evolved of the quartet. While it wasn't exactly tired, the red fruit was starting to lose a bit of its verve, and tobacco and herbal notes were becoming fairly prominent. This was a blend of 88% Cabernet Franc and 12% Merlot from the period where Longoria was blending it as a varietal Franc.

The 2001 Blues Cuvée, in contrast, was quite vivacious and fresh. The cherry and raspberry aromas were very lively, though they had almost pie filling character. Maybe this was due to the age of the wine, or perhaps it's due to the fruit sourced from the warmer portions of the valley. Nonetheless, the flavors has a good freshness and the finish showed a layer of pleasant bitterness not present in the 1998. Could it be the 6.5% Malbec added to the 63% Cab Franc and 30.5% Merlot? Other features I liked included a seam of tobacco percolating underneath the fruit and copious yet mature tannins. This was my personal favorite.

The 2002 Blues Cuvée (54% Cabernet Franc, 46% Merlot) provided a similar profile, but seemingly was the most tannic of the four wines. The fruit sources are split almost evenly between cooler Alisos Vineyard and warmer Westerly Vineyard, and I'm tempted to attribute the structure to the cooler climate fruit. But who knows, it could also be the vintage character.

Seeing how the older vintages have aged, I'll be excited to try the 2006 and 2007 versions again in a few years. The addition of Syrah and different fruit sources begs many questions that can only be answered with time and the contents of a bottle.

One other Franc blend we tasted elsewhere was the Rusack 2006 Anacapa (75% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot, 5% Petite Verdot). I have to say, this is a very nice wine, but at $40 (vs. $28 for the Blues Cuvée) it's not an especially good value. Rusack's estate vineyards are in the warmer zone of Ballard Canyon, and the Anacapa has the same sort of profile as the '01 and '02 Blues Cuvées. There's plummy red fruit and a nice herbal note as well as a layer of coffee-like bitterness on the finish. However, most of the fruit was sourced from Lucas Vineyard, and I'm not certain where this vineyard lies as Lucas & Lewellen have a lot of land under vine throughout Santa Barbara County. It's a refined wine and I wouldn't be surprised if it held up well (the pH is 3.49), yet it does seem to have a very 'drink now' profile.

Off the wine club free agent market

My girlfriend and I settled on a new wine club and went the direction we had always anticipated, joining the Longoria Wine Club. We already have several of their wines in our cellar and have been impressed by the vast majority of their wines we've tasted. Although their wines aren't cheap by any means, the yearly allotment via wine club shipments is 8 bottles per year (most wineries aim to send at least 12 if not 16 or 24 bottles yearly). This might not be enough wine for a trophy hunting collector, but it's just about right for an eclectic drinker who wants to sample a cross-section of a winery's new releases.

There are quite a few aspects of Longoria Wines that are positive from the perspective of an informed consumer. Their business is small and family-run, for one. In terms of their winemaking, Rick Longoria has been making wine in Santa Barbara County, quite literally, since before I was born. While his portfolio has expanded to about a dozen different bottlings, he initially started with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc. There's almost always a positive correlation between winemaking skill sensitive to varietal and regional characteristics and the production of Cabernet Franc; it's not a varietal one can harvest super ripe, heavily oak, then sell it based on varietal name recognition. It's also a positive in my mind that Rick Longoria started producing Pinot Noir well before Sideways made Santa Rita Hills en vogue. Although he may have been able to raise his prices due to growth in demand, he is not beholden solely to current trends and can make wine based on his personal aesthetic and experience.

One final note of interest come from Longoria's promotional material. Promotional material is often little more than propaganda and is not all that trustworthy, but the following statement resonates given the Longoria wines I've tasted: "My goal has always been to discover the 'grand cru' vineyards in our region and to work with their owners to grow the best possible grapes every year." Implicit in this statement is an appreciation of the French model where certain vineyards are designated as Great Growth, First Growth, Second Growth, First Great Growth, et cetera based on their established reputation over decades if not centuries. There's a certain anti-democratic sentiment to a system that legislates greatness via legal designation, but there's also an undeniable truth that certain sites are better than others. In this sense, Longoria's wines combine the best qualities of Old World and New World wines. There's a respect for the terroir and for specific vineyards, yet because Santa Barbara County is still very young as a wine region, an ambitious winemaker by nature must constantly be evaluating his sources. Longoria does have an top-notch estate vineyard, Fe Ciega, where he grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Santa Rita Hills, but otherwise sources from others' vineyards. He purchases Cabernet Franc, for example, from Alisos Vineyard in Los Alamos, and based on my experience with several other producers' Alisos Cab Franc, as well as the Los Alamos region in general, this may well be a 'grand cru' vineyard for Cabernet Franc. Moreover, the reputations of the vineyards from which Rick Longoria sources his Pinot Noir speak for themselves.

I suppose that exposition is a bit longwinded, and what really matters is in the bottle. But this synthesis of Old and New World does extend to the finished wines. Perhaps what I've enjoyed most in Longoria's wines is the combination of classical, Old World structure with the layers of rich flavors typical in California wines. He's not trying to produce one-dimensional blockbusters, nor is he trying to duplicate a French model that likely does not apply in a vastly different climate. His wines are substantial, yet not exaggerated, and have sufficient acidity and tannin to hold up over the long run. This style simply seems right, and what better way to vote as a consumer than to patronize a business whose approach you appreciate.

Franc News and Holiday Wrap Up

I came across a couple of recent Cab Franc articles that are worth sharing. The first is simply some nice PR for Cab Franc including a few reviews of French and domestic wines. In another article that hits closer to home, Karen Steinwachs, Buttonwood Farm's winemaker, is quoted in an article about Franc Fest as stating that Cabernet Franc is the "the Pinot Noir of the Bordeaux world." I'm definitely not the first person to make this link, even though I love to repeat it as much as possible, but it's all the better to see it in print from the winemaker at my favorite local winery. It is interesting in reading this article to see different winemakers' perceptions of Cabernet Franc. In France it is perceived as an early ripening grape, and this may well be true for the regions where's its grown. But in Santa Ynez Cab Franc seems to have its share of struggles, though winemakers here are more focused on eliminating herbaceousness from the wine than French vignerons.

Franc Fest, by the way, is a yearly tasting of Cabernet Franc from local producers which was hosted at Buttonwood this year. I was lucky enough to be introduced this year to Longoria Winery (Rick Longoria is quoted as well in the above article), whose representatives were pouring their Blues Cuvee. The backstory of the Blues Cuvee is rather telling. In short, Rick Longoria produced some killer Cab Franc back when I was far too young to be sipping wine. But, since it was Franc instead of Sauvignon, no one wanted it. He rebranded it as as proprietary blend named Blues Cuvee, and suddenly it sold like hotcakes. Apparently it's better to make a terrible wine from a well-known appellation or with a famous varietal than to make an excellent wine without name recognition. That is unless you use some clever sleight of hand to slip your no-name varietal in under the radar.

I'd love to write more about the oenological greatness that is Longoria Wines, but that's a post for another day. Instead I'll wrap up a few post-New Year's tastings.

First up was Alma Rosa Winery. Alma Rosa is run by Richard Sanford, who was the first vintner to plant Pinot Noir in the now-famous Santa Rita Hills appellation. He's since sold his original Sanford brand to his partners due to "philosophical differences," and Alma Rosa is his current endeavor. This is a must-visit if you appreciate wines that express the grapes and their growing environment. Their Chardonnay, for example, has outstanding acidity and actually smells like citrus fruit instead of vanilla because they don't inoculate with malolactic bacteria and use oak lightly. The Pinot Noirs are similarly elegant and balanced. A lot of Santa Barbara wineries look to pump their wines up on steroids with high Brix at harvest, which leads to high alcohol, residual sugar, or both. Alma Rosa achieves a great balance between the California and French styles of wine.

Star Lane and Dierberg Vineyards unapologetically take the purely California approach to winemaking. The pourers made this clear when they announced their winemaker likes to let the grapes hang and harvest late. I can't quantitatively define where the line between enjoyably decadent and over the top is, but most of the wines I tasted here crossed this line. Their Chardonnay smelled like someone had blasted almonds out of a cannon into the barrel where the wine was aging. I actually liked this bouquet, but found the richness of the taste to be overbearing. The Pinot Noir, while similarly styled, was excellent. Dark and rich, but with a great nose of cloves and red fruit without being excessively jammy. It's quite different in style than Alma Rosa, yet well structured enough to support the riper style. Their Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet, though, did come across as very jammy and somewhat lacking in acidic structure. The stats on the Cab back up my subjective perception: 3.85 pH and 15.1% alcohol. The 2005 Syrah and 2006 Merlot also are 15.1% ABV with 3.98 and 3.81 pH, respectively. The flavor profile is soft and pleasant, for sure. But the focus on big, big fruit at the detriment of other qualities is a style that works for me only in smaller doses. [Edit: I should also add here that this style works for me at smaller prices since I can find enjoyable fruit bomb type wines in the $20 range; in the $30+ range I'd hope that there's more to the wine than just a gregarious fruit profile.] They do pour big which will please the limo and bus crowd that's looking for a buzz.

Our last stop was at Beckmen Vineyards. For whatever reason, all of the wines had a very sweet taste. White wines and red wines both were very saccharine. That suggests perhaps my palate was off because it seems unlikely that every wine would have residual sugar after fermentation. Despite what I perceived to be cloying sweetness across the board, the Estate Syrah did have a great nose of smoked meat and nuts. It sounds weird, of course, but the weirdest wines are often the most rewarding. Definite thumbs up on the Estate Syrah though the overall style differed from my personal tastes.

Note: Dierberg 2005 Syrah and Star Lane 2006 Merlot pH and ABV are cited directly from Dierberg and Star Lane's website. The Star Lane 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon stats are from a 3rd party PDF.