Twisted Oak Tempranillo 2004

After the novelty of the rubber chicken came the novelty of opening the wine and instantly smelling the herbal muskiness of cat pee.

Cat pee is good, mind you, as long as you’re smelling it in something you’re about to drink and not hosing it off your patio. Fortunately, this aromatic aspect of the 2004 Tempranillo from Twisted Oak Winery of Calaveras County, California, is fleeting, and the wine that follows is worthy of tasting.

Upon my first swirl and sip, I chose to decant the entire bottle into my glass duck, the most pungent "kitty fragrance" of this wine plus read more...the tannic notes characteristic of the Tempranillo grape dictating my decision. I returned in a little over an hour to a fruity sweetness on the nose and a balanced acidity on the palate.

The tannins are not low in this wine, but are not so high as to be a turn-off; astringency is lower than I expected. With a moderate mouthfeel (medium body), moderately powerful cherry flavors and a medium-long finish — about a minute — I feel this wine is a well-balanced accompaniment to food.

In fact, after my initial sips, I savored this wine with a hot plate of liver and onions with potatoes and gravy, and found the combination fabulous. But even without food, quite possibly this wine is light enough on body and heat (13.9%) for warm-weather slurping.    (hide)

July 2007

Jeff & Mary Stai moved to this bucolic spot just outside Murphys in the Sierra Foothills from southern California, bringing their “surfer dude” mentality to the program (check out their wacky website -- www.twistedoak.com).
The estate, named after a majestic 300 year old California Blue Oak, is 120 acres, at 2000 feet elevation, and has 10 acres planted to Grenache, Graciano, and Tempranillo. They also produce Albarino, Verdelho, Viognier and Petite Sirah as well as a few blends from purchased fruit. Winemaker Scott Klan, a Murphys native, oversees production in the new four read more...level gravity flow winery, completed in 2004.
This Tempranillo is harvested from Twisted Oak's Rolleri Vineyard. Bright and fairly opaque purple with violet highlights, this wine has intriguing notes of dark berry, earth, cantaloupe, black olive, cedar, molasses, bacon, and mint. High in alcohol and very viscous on the palate, it has plenty of briar patch, brambly fruit along with sweet, grainy oak and juicy acids. This big boned wine has a blueberry/mint/vanilla finish and would be delicious with earthy, game dishes such as wild boar or venison or some Fra Mani salami.    (hide)

Young tempranillo with lots of potential that needs some time to settle down. Right now there is a pronounced spiciness to the wine, with good tannic structure and cherry fruit. Will enjoy seeing how this one drinks in another year or two. Best with food.

March 2007

Gorgeous mouth feel on this wine. Earthy with a lot of spice and chocolate. Decanted for about an hour but really opened up nicely after waiting a second hour to drink. It didn't last long!

June 2008

A hint of clove, along with aromas and flavors of cherry and raspberry. (Not to mention great structure and acidity!)

Goergous color on this wine rich and deep burgundy. The nose is dense and layered in the glass w/smoky chocolate, cherry jumping out. With time this opens up to raspberry notes and some toasted oak. I wonder how this will develop. High acidity with some firm but soft tannins, while on the palate the acid shows like a sour cherry that give way to oak, bright acidity and raspberry notes. Not overly complex at this point. Still a young wine with some life left before it fully develops. It does taste like Tempranillo, and shows some of the classic flavors and textures of Spain. On the other hand to me it seems read more...too pure in someways to not have come from California, I would love to do a blind tasting with a few wines of Ribera del Duero or even LaMancha to see where this would fall. Great effort and I look forward to trying others. Defiantly pair this wine with some lamb chops. 4/5 [NR]    (hide)

December 2006