Before Covid-19 stopped our ability to do tastings for the season, we were fortunate enough to visit Tantara and Labyrinth to participate in a barrel tasting of the following 2018 and 2019 offerings:<\/p>\n
Tantara<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n 2018 Zotovich Vineyard Chardonnay<\/strong>.\u00a0 Coming from a sandy terroir, the Zotovich Chardonnay is focused and stony, with notes of melon, zesty lime and flowers.\u00a0 It is medium-bodied, not at all heavy and finishes with reasonable length.\u00a0 A very nice Chardonnay that will probably drink well on release. Tasted from 1 year-old barrel.\u00a0WB 90-92.<\/strong><\/p>\n 2018 Bentock Vineyard Pinot Noir<\/strong>.\u00a0 From Santa Rita Hills fruit, the 2018 Big Rock displays aromas of flowers, fresh herbs and ripe plums.\u00a0 Medium-bodied in the mouth, with a delightful red-fruited character and a lovely mineral streak that is apparent all the way through the long and gently tannic finish.\u00a0 The fruit here (100% 115 clone) was cropped at < 2 tons\/acre and aged in 50% new barrels.\u00a0 Needs several years, but outstanding potential here! WB 93-95<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 2018 Radian Vineyard Pinot Noir.<\/strong>\u00a0 Also hailing from Santa Rita Hills, the 2018 Radian Pinot Noir exudes a darker personality, with violets, black raspberries and hints of smoke dominating the aromatics.\u00a0 In the mouth, there is good density and length, as well as a lingering spice note on the finish.\u00a0 This could also use a couple of years to come together, but the potential is evident.\u00a0 WB 91-93+<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 2018 Hilliard Bruce Vineyard Pinot Noir.<\/strong>\u00a0 Very pale in color, the aromatics here consist of cranberries, rosemary and a whiff of red rose.\u00a0 Light- to medium-bodied on the palate, with a somewhat pinched, four-square character at the moment to go along with ample acidity.\u00a0 Perhaps barrel aging will bring additional mid-palate density and better balance.\u00a0 WB 88-90<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 2018 Los Alamos Pinot Noir.<\/strong>\u00a0 Aromatically funky and slightly reduced, this is difficult to assess at the moment.\u00a0 There is some red fruit on the palate, but it could use more substance and better definition.\u00a0 Finishes somewhat short.\u00a0 A decent wine that should be ready upon release.\u00a0 WB 86-88.<\/strong><\/p>\n The 2019’s were way to young to rate effectively, however they showed to be a very precocious and\u00a0 approachable at a very early part of their ageing process. Somewhat unusual at this early stage in its development. Our suggestion is that they will be early drinking wines with less needed bottle aging with scores of +1 or +2 above their 2018 counterparts.<\/p>\n \u00a02019 Dierberg Vineyard Pinot Noir<\/strong>.\u00a0 Embryonic, grapey and somewhat difficult to evaluate at this early stage.\u00a0 Nevertheless, there is good density here, and a promising future.<\/p>\n \u00a02019 Lindsay\u2019s Vineyard Pinot Noir<\/strong>.\u00a0 This is very dark, with masses of fruit but solid counterbalancing acidity.\u00a0 Slightly fizzy due to fermentation, but already shows great refinement and promise.\u00a0 Should be great in time!<\/p>\n \u00a02019 La Encantada Pinot Noir<\/strong>.\u00a0 Juicy, with predominantly black fruit at this stage, along with a nice floral character and good density.\u00a0 A promising Santa Rita Hills Pinot.<\/p>\n 2019 Santa Ynez Valley Syrah<\/strong>.\u00a0 Very dark color, and equally dark fruit on the palate.\u00a0 However, there isn\u2019t much Syrah character here, at least at the moment.\u00a0 Needs plenty of time, and could turn out pretty well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Labyrinth<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon<\/strong>.\u00a0 Hailing from the Happy Canyon area, this dark and brooding Cabernet has plenty of cassis, grilled herbs, bittersweet chocolate and minerals.\u00a0 There is also serious tannic grip all the way to long finish.\u00a0 Very promising. Because of its serious tannins, the score is more difficult to pinpoint, WB 91-93+<\/strong><\/p>\n Again , the 2019’s were way to young to rate effectively, however they showed to be a very precocious and\u00a0 approachable at a very early part of their ageing process. Somewhat unusual at this early stage in its development. Our suggestion is that they will be early drinking wines with less needed bottle aging with scores of +1 or +2 above their 2018 counterparts.<\/p>\n 2019 Petite Syrah.<\/strong>\u00a0 This juicy concoction is loaded with toast, charcoal, pepper and spiced plum notes.\u00a0 Very powerful in the mouth, with massive tannin. Promising.<\/p>\n 2019 Zinfandel.<\/strong>\u00a0 From Arroyo Grande, this has some of the tell-tale sweetness normally found in Zinfandel, but thankfully it is somewhat subdued.\u00a0 On the palate there is ripe plum, minerals and a dark character.\u00a0 Good.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before Covid-19 stopped our ability to do tastings for the season, we were fortunate enough to visit Tantara and Labyrinth to participate in a barrel tasting of the following 2018 and 2019 offerings: Tantara 2018 Zotovich Vineyard Chardonnay.\u00a0 Coming from a sandy terroir, the Zotovich Chardonnay is focused and stony, with notes of melon, zesty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[47,46,45],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wine-reviews","tag-central-coast-wine-tasting","tag-labyrinth","tag-tantara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wineandbeertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}