Log in or create an account now and be a part of the world's largest wine site Research, rate and review wines; buy online; receive personalized recommendations.
Rudius Grenache(2005)
- Winery:
- Varietal:
- Grenache
- Region:
- USA > California > Sonoma > Russian River Valley
- Type:
- Color:
- Red
- User Tags:
- red grape, grenache, berry, bramble fruits, stone fruits, acidic, fruit, yeasty, microbiological, russian river valley
Rudius is the ancient Roman word for a wooden sword that was used by soldiers and gladiators during their training. Traditionally, a rudius was given to gladiators when they had won their freedom from the arena. Winemaker Jeff Ames views his own project as freedom to pursue his style of winemaking, after working on other labels over the past years. Ames focuses on Grenache and Syrah from Russian River. Production is under 200 cases each.
- Doug Wilder
- Vinfolio
- Issue 135
- 93/100
-
January 2008
- Rudius selects their Grenache and Syrah from the same vineyard located about 600 feet up the slope of Fitch Mountain outside of Healdsburg in the Northern Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. The Grenache block is 8 yrs of age and is on a bi-lateral cordon training system. Jeff thins the block back to 1 cluster per shoot before veraison. The blend is a 50/50 mix of the Tablas Creek selection and the Alban selection. Both selections are fermented together using only wild yeast for both primary/alcoholic and secondary/malo-lactic fermentations. The Grenache is never exposed to any new oak. All read more...the barrels are at least 3 years old or on their 3rd use. The fruit was all de-stemmed so no whole cluster fermentation was used. The wine was never racked until about a month before bottling so it remained on its lees for the entire 15 months that it was in barrel better allowing the naturally high acidity of Grenache to be a component of the wine while allowing the fruit to still shine through. It was bottled both un-fined and un-filtered and is 100% Grenache. A ripe nose of licorice, kirsch, lychee, clove and blackberry. The palate is lush and vibrantly focused with violet pastille and meaty black plum and cherry. The wine was left open for 45 hours and showed no signs of oxidation. (hide)
-
February 2008
- Rudius selects their Grenache and Syrah from the same vineyard located about 600 feet up the slope of Fitch Mountain outside of Healdsburg in the Northern Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. The Grenache block is 8 yrs of age and is on a bi-lateral cordon training system. Jeff thins the block back to 1 cluster per shoot before veraison. The blend is a 50/50 mix of the Tablas Creek selection and the Alban selection. Both selections are fermented together using only wild yeast for both primary/alcoholic and secondary/malo-lactic fermentations. The Grenache is never exposed to any new oak. All read more...the barrels are at least 3 years old or on their 3rd use. The fruit was all de-stemmed so no whole cluster fermentation was used. The wine was never racked until about a month before bottling so it remained on its lees for the entire 15 months that it was in barrel better allowing the naturally high acidity of Grenache to be a component of the wine while allowing the fruit to still shine through. It was bottled both un-fined and un-filtered and is 100% Grenache. A ripe nose of licorice, kirsch, lychee, clove and blackberry. The palate is lush and vibrantly focused with violet pastille and meaty black plum and cherry. The wine was left open for 45 hours and showed no signs of oxidation. (hide)
