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TN: Cline 2003 Old Vine Mourvedre

I've been a QPR fan of Cline's Old Vine Zin in some years, so when I saw this on the shelf it seemed worth a try. And it was - OK, these folks are pretty mass-market, but I really like a lot of their wines.

Anyway: initially a slight sharpness (that's a good thing in this case) followed by a 'widening' in the mouth to give plenty of body; that combination of immediate palate-cleansing followed rapidly by mouth-filling (and I apologise for not having a better/more universal vocabulary here!) persisted over the next hour, and earth tones became more pronounced (the most of any wine I recall - this was really damp leaves and truffle/fungus, all in a pleasant way).

At $15, very good value and, for me, an experience-widening different taste vs. my usual Zins or meritage blends. I'm off to find some more this evening; maybe a B+.

Reply to
Ewan McNay
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Interesting comment, Ewan. Cline and Seghesio seem to be pushing for much greater market penetration, as evidenced by my seeing their wines on grocery shelves here in Indiana. (Still not on a par with seeing Ravenswood wines in Target, though) However, AFAIK neither winery is really mass-market in the sense of a Mondavi or Beringer. Fred Cline was almost bankrupted a decade ago by legacy cleanup issues for some of their land in the delta; unless they've been bought up by a mega-corp, I'm not sure where this massive expansion is coming from.

That sounds familiar. I have some bottles of the '99 Cline Small Berry Mourvedre that I purchased at the winery a few years ago. I remember it as having a sappy, intense berry quality that bore no resemblance to Bandol or Beaucastel, but which was still quite appealing. I'll have to open one up soon and see how it's doing.

Thanks for the notes, Ewan.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

Thanks for the TN's. I too have been a fan of the Cline offerings. I've had several tastings of older vintages of the OVM. With about 3-5 years, I've found that the edges "round off" a bit. I've not tasted any fresh. Because of the various varietals that Cline does, I try and find as many as I can. What a wonderful array. I probably need to try some upon release, just to have a control.

Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

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