Coffaro 99 First Impressions
    Everett Bandman, November 22, 1999
I spent the afternoon wading through the myriad of components that Dave has this year with which to work his magic.  Overall the quality of the wines seems quite high, many components seemingly complete enough to make their own wine.  I was particularly impressed with the various Estate Zin barrels and the Bottom Cab which already shows its unique spicy cassis nose that IMO is the essence of the Estate Cuvee.  I was less enamored with the wines from purchased fruit, but that really doesn’t surprise me, as I felt the same last year about this time and wound up loving the Neighbor’s Cuvee.

WINES FROM ESTATE FRUIT

Sauvignon Blanc: Citrus nose, grapefruit rind flavors, very crisp and clean tasting

Zins (listed in order of preference)

Front wire:  the most typical Coffaro zin  lighter color, typical coffaro dark fruit nose but spicy bright fruit, nice round palate

Old vine zin: darker color less spicy nose, zinberry fruit, long finish very nice balance

Super zin:  medium light color, dark fruit nose, soft and round, softest finish of the zin stable

4th mix: dark purple color, dark flavors, chalky, more petite sirah like than zin like.

Cabs

Bottom Cab: deep purple color, spicy cassis fruit nose, medium body, spicy cassis and plum fruits, tastes like a finished wine, good acid finish, easily identifiable as the characteristic flavor in estate cuvee

Aca Cab: medium dark purple, chalky mouthfeel, dark plum flavors, not as aromatic right now as the
bottom cab

Petite Sirahs

P. Bot: medium dark purple, herbal and floral, medium tannin, good acid finish

Typical Petite Sirah: very dark purple, spicy lavendar aromatics, more chalky tannins than P. Bot, good acid finish

Carignan

Regular carignan: Only tasted out of new oak barrel and the toasty char, crème brulee and coffee aromatics masked the fruit, some raspberry

New vines: light color, simple light raspberry flavors

Barbera

Smoky lavendar, shoe leather, extremely tart fruity flavors

WINES FROM PURCHAED GRAPES

Pinot Noir: lite purple color, bing cherry fruit, medium body, lite tannins, good acidity

Simpson Syrah: dark purple color, barnyard, earthy, leafy, bacon fat, blueberry, fairly tannic, low acid soft finish

Jones Cab Franc: medium dark purple, herbal leafy aromatics, soft light midpalate, low tannins

Lane Zin/Teldeschi Cab: dark color, funky aromatics, spicy flavors, seems dominated by the Lane Zin, somewhat similar to last years version but with more body and color from the Cab

Raffanelli Petite Sirah: very dark hard and tannic, light fruit, lots of structure, “a typical petite sirah”

Jones Cab: medium dark color, green herbal aromatics, light body
 

Well that’s what Dave has to work with. Now the master blender goes to work!!
 

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