2013 Rock Wall Wine Company The Palindrome (Tannat)
California (Retail $30)
Winemaker – Shauna Rosenblum
Few people know what a Tannat wine grape is and when they do the first response is “better have a steak to go with that”. The reason why is Tannat wines typically have a high amount of tannins. Well, Rock Wall winemaker Shauna Rosenblum produces a Tannat that is both a “cocktail” wine and a “food” wine. Due to the when this wine is harvested and then fermented there are no heavy tannins in the wine. This wine is good by itself and wonderful with a steak. We had the wine before dinner and it was easy to drink. We then served lemon roasted lamb with it and the two paired wonderfully together. I am fortunate when I first tasted this wine that I bought two bottles!
Tannat is a red wine grape historically grown in the Madiran area of southwest France and has become the most prominent grape grown in Uruguay, where they call it their “national grape.” Rockwall grows their Tannat in two different climate vineyards in Northern California and blends the two Tannat grape sources. One of them is a warm weather vineyard from Gene Gleaser in Solano County and the other is cool weather vineyard from England Shaw located in the Russian River area. Shauna Rosenfield handles the two different Tannat sources differently to blend them seamlessly into a memorable wine.
In particular, the Glaeser Tannat was picked 18 days before the England Shaw Tannat. The Glaeser grapes were split into two lots to ferment where both received a 5 day cold soak, and were then inoculated with AMH yeast to one lot and BM 45 yeast to the other lot on the same day. After a 13-day fermentation, the lots were pressed together and taken down to 10% new French oak, and the rest neutral barrels.
The England Shaw Tannat after being picked was fermented as one lot using the D254 yeast strain. This lot of wine had a two-week fermentation then we pressed and 10% placed in new French oak and the rest in neutral barrels. As Tannat can have a lot of tannins, the winemaker choose to not expose the wine to much new oak wood barrels. When asked about why two different yeasts for fermenting, Shauna said she was looking for a "more delicate floral and fruit flavors because I know it will have structure and color inherently".
According the Winemaker this is the best Tannat she ever made. Shauna wants you to smell the aromas of graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate, blueberry and herbs followed by flavors of black cherry, plum, rose petal, cappuccino, pipe tobacco and a raspberry finish. Personally, we smelled butterscotch and cherry. The Palidrome is a full mouth feel wine and has great fruit notes with earthly tones. This wine can be cellared properly until 2020.
1200 cases. 15.4% alcohol. Released December 2014. www.rockwallwines.com
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