An American in Spain
Dave Phinney is one of the rapidly rising stars in the American wine-making scene. From relatively humble beginnings as a harvest worker at Robert Mondavi in 1997 he started making wine for himself and others in 1998. He has also worked at Opus One and Whitehall Lane. He has since created his own highly successful label in Napa Valley called Orin Swift. The name is an homage to his parents; Orin being his father’s second name and Swift his mother’s maiden name. Orin Swift produces several wines, most notably a Zinfandel-based blend called The Prisoner. The Prisoner and its baby brother, Saldo (also a Zinfandel-based blend, sourced from vineyards across California, not just Napa) were sold in 2010 to Augustin Huneeus, owner of Napa’s Quintessa and Chile’s Veramonte.
We have drank several of Phiney’s wines. The Prisoner is a hedonist’s delight, and has that quintessential Napa quality of being ripe, extracted and plush. Saldo is quite similar, a “de-tuned” version of the Prisoner, if you will, similar styling but a little less horsepower. He also does a pre-dominately Cabernet Sauvignon–based wine called Mercury Head, also from Napa vineyards. The house style is very much in evidence here as well, but even more extracted. That style is overtly sexy, almost bawdy, in its upfront approachability and luscious texture. If you are a fan of the thin filigree of a traditional Rioja or Burgundy, these wines are not for you. These are the equivalent of a thick velvet curtain, one that lets no light in and is all about tactile sensations in the most obvious ways.
This style of ripe, extracted, plush hedonistic wines has certainly existed in Napa before Dave Phinney got in the business. Think of wines like Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. Caymus could have been Phinney’s role model. I think Phinney’s greatest contribution to the American wine scene is not creation of a style, but bringing that style to a broader audience by delivering it at a lower price-point. While these are certainly not value-wines (the Prisoner retails for $50 in BC Liquor Stores and Saldo for $45 at Everything Wine) they are also nothing like the Napa Cult Cab pricing. Mercury Head is well over $100 now and is quite limited in production.
Several years ago Phinney branched out from his Napa base and produced a Grenache-based wine from various vineyards in the region of Maury in Southern France which he called Shatter. The wine was a partnership with fellow California winemaker Joel Gott, and backed by Napa-based but now multi-national Trinchero Family Estates. Shatter is a big style of Grenache, somewhat along the lines of some of the Australian Grenache made by Clarendon Hills: big and brawny with an almost cough medicine, cherry liqueur flavor profile. The wine is immediately approachable, hedonistic, and, surprise, surprise, is ripe, extracted and plush.
E-2, the wine that is the subject of this blog, is part of Phinney’s most recent project he calls Locations. There are five Locations wines at the moment: one from each of France, California, Argentina, Italy and Spain. Each employ a similar philosophy, one that is very unique within the wine industry. These wines are all about blending. They blend grape varietals, they blend vineyards, and in a most unusual break from tradition, they blend vintages. Phinney says the goal is “to make the best possible wine from each location”. And in that pursuit he does not want to be bound by the limits of varietal, vineyard or even vintage. A country’s borders seem to be enough limit for him. The wine is actually just called “E” (presumably for Espana) and the 2 refers to the second release.
Robert Parker loves this wine, bestowing a lofty 93 points in his review and lauding the whole portfolio as “among the finest wine values one could hope to find”.
The E-2 is made from Ganacha, Tempranillo, Monastrell and Carignan sourced from low-yielding old vines found in Priorat, Jumilla, Rioja, Toro and Ribera del Duero. That pretty much covers the major wine-producing regions of Spain! The wine possesses a dark crimson colour with no fade at the rim. Red currants, cherries and raspberries come through in its moderately expressive bouquet. On the palate there is a warmth and richness that suggests late picking or warm vintages. Moderately extracted with mild tannins and quite low acid. You cannot help but notice how smooth and polished the wine is.We liked the wine. We did not love it, but liked it and had a second glass. I guess I have to tell you that we were a little let down by this wine, given past experiences with Phinney wines and given the Parker review.
We like Spanish wines and hedonistic wines (usually, not always). We love the wines from Toro, to us, the ultimate in Spanish hedonism. Given Phinney’s background, we should have really liked this wine. Where the let down came was by the sameness of this wine to all of his other wines we have tasted. E-2 is not quite as plush as some of his wines, but that house style was definitely present. Phinney’s wines, we now realize are winemakers’ wines and they definitely show the winemakers hand. What they don’t show is a sense of place. Frankly, all of his wines taste like they were from California. Which is not to say that is a bad thing. We love many wines from California. But if you are in the mood for a California wine, why not open a bottle from California? We certainly don’t want to come across as some sort of rabid terroiristes, the kind of wine-bores who tell you that the wine must reflect its geographical roots or anything like that. The wine needs to provide an overall satisfactory or better than satisfactory sensory experience. If it does that, or more (such as reflecting its own sense of terroir) then it is a good wine. E-2 is a good wine.
But E-2 is not an exciting wine. As we tasted the wine we kept trying to discern what was missing, what was keeping us from being more excited about this wine. This morning we realized what it was. The wine was formulaic. It was the Phinney formula, a classic Napa formula, and applied to Spanish grapes. Dave Phinney did not need to fly half way across the world to “track down the vineyards which are capable of delivering the quality of wine needed” as he has said of the Location wines. He could have just as easily made this wine at home in California. It tasted like he did.
Wine Rating: Good. $32 at Everything Wine
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