orginally posted on winodepot.com
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This is a chronicle of visits dating back to March 6, 2005.
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Date: March 6, 2005
Winery: School House Vineyard
Winemaker: Bob Foley
Tasting: Appointments Only
Contact: Nancy Walker - 707.963.4240
Just when you thought Spring Mountain is Cabernet country and figured Bob only makes uber new-world styled wines, here comes an entry with old world charms.
The winery is located on Spring Mountain just off Langtry Road. Micro-production estate grown fruits produce three bottling totaling 12 barrels for the current release.
2002 Chardonnay
Spicy oak with mineral quality. 100% malo but without the typical heavy handed Califonia Chard flavors. Lively fruit with good acidity and white floral notes, more Burgundian in style. Would be a wonderful food wine.
2001 Pinot Noir
Wow, I can just smell this wine for days. Spring floral field with a touch of oak spice. Gorgeous lady dressed in black gown, elegant and seductive.
Soft red fruits mainly rapsberries and cranberries. Spice and tannin adds to the complexity and structure of this wine. This is not a typical Pinot I go for such as Siduri or Melville. I can actually see through this wine.
2001 Mescolanza
I didn't take down any notes on this, as I was too distracted by the Pinot.
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April 22, 2006
Went for a visit while Mr. & Mrs. FreeTheGrapes were in town. Sorry, been lagging on these notes...
2003 Chardonnay
Nose of sweet lemon grass, young peach, apricot and touch of cotton candy. More fruit forward than the 2002 release, abundance of pineapple on the palate. As the wine opened up, the mineral streak started to come through, gave a better balance to the fruit. As time went on, the pineapple gave way to pink pomelo.
Buy!
2002 Pinot Noir
Fresh vibrant strawberries and cherries rises from the glass. Citrus essence on the palate with soft spice and good acidity. As the wine sat in the glass, sauteed mushrooms takes shape. Meaty, mushroom and earth. Strong mid-palate. This is also more fruit forward than the previous vintage.
Nancy and John had to fight Bob on when to pick the grape. Naturally, Bob wanted to pick the grapes riper than what Nancy and John had in mind, in this case, Bob should of gone with what the proprietor wanted. With the riper fruit, it takes away a bit of the mineral I enjoy from this property, still there, just a bit harder to find at present time. Should still be fine down the road.
If there is ever a must buy Pinot for me, this is about as close as it's going to get.
Buy!
2002 Mescolanza
Mixture of black fruits and brown spices. This is showing a lot of tannin, a very rustic wine. This juice used to go into the Ridge Langtry Road Claret.
Can do better.
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November 15, 2007
Went for a visit with CHICO yesterday. The only wine currently available for purchase is the 2003 Mescolanza, which I picked up a couple.
Nancy and John were kind enough to give us a preview of the 2004 Pinot and 2004 Mescolanza. Any of you fans out there better mark the February 2008 release date, both of those wine is going to disappear in no time. If I recall correctly, there is only 140 cases of the 2004 Pinot and 200 cases of the 2004 Mescolanza available.
The 2004 Pinot Noir was actually opened two days ago for a trade tasting. Nancy put away half bottle and left it in the fridge hoping that the wine would still show fine for our Thursday visit. Boy, did this wine show well! The bottle was left in the sun while we sip the 2003 Mescolanza. On the first pour, the nose is just wonderful, the temp was still a bit cool and the wine showed a bit tight on the palate, but it certainly had the fruit, weight and depth. After a few minutes of warming up the wine in my hands, this Pinot is simply wonderful, thought you would never see me type this huh...
John got excited, decided to go down stairs to open a bottle of 2004 Mescolanza as well. This is by far the best Mescolanza I've tried. Nancy and John also believes this is the best Mescolanza they've made.
No formal notes taken, but believe me, you don't want to miss out on these two next February. read more