Don Sebastiani & Sons - Used Automobile Parts 2002

The folks at Don Sebastiani & Sons, never seem to be at a loss for cute names for wine. And the company's business units, Three loose Screws (the Don sr., and his two sons) and The Other Guys, echo this carefree playful attitude as well.The wines include, Plungerhead, Smoking Loon, Mia's Playground, Hey Mambo, and about six other names, all names I suppose, derived from the world these guys live in. I should have it so good!

Used Automobile Parts is their high end product. Sold in three pack boxes, each bottle comes with a different closure to highlight their feeling that good wine does not need a cork. The three closures in the box are screw cap, the Zork from Australia and the Vino-Seal. (You can view them all here.) The bottle I am opening tonight uses a Zork. This is an interesting plastic closure with a peel-off surround. Easy to open and re-close without tools of any kind.

I'm guessing here, but I suspect the reason three bottles and closures are packaged together is to get feedback for future bottlings.

The Used Automobile Parts wine is a blend by winemaker Richard Bruno of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. At 14.5% alcohol it's no slouch but not nearly high enough to put in the super wines coming from Napa and Sonoma today.

So how is it? Dark plum colored, unfiltered and unfined, Mr. Bruno must have taken great pains to keep this wine clear and sediment free. I suspect that racking five times is the reason. It has moderate viscosity, yet is viscous enough to cover the glass without getting leggy. A good sign of body. All fruit was sourced in the Napa Valley so I have high hopes. The nose has the thick heady Cab and Merlot highlights one expects to find in a Napa Valley wine. On the mouth it is a young wine, tannic but full of cherries and plums I like in Cabernet, with the long finish I I would always expect in a wine of this caliber.

Heeding the advice of Molly Lippit, a Marketing Assistant with Don Sebastiani & Sons, I decanted for an hour before tasting. I think that another hour would not be unreasonable, and since dinner will be in about that long, we are in business!

This wine is charming and elegant now, but will most likely be even better in five years. If you have it, hold it. We will see what these closures promise for long term storage. What I have found in the past was a lack of aging in non-cork wines. But who knows?

At $50 a bottle it is a Napa value and goes head to head with wines at a much higher price. Of course you have to buy all three bottles so it's gonna cost ya' $150 to get in. And I have to say that breaking a box up always breaks my heart. What are you going to do?

Check your local wine monger or contact the winery for info on obtaining Used Automobile Parts...

Lemelson Vineyards Thea's Selection Pinot Noir 2000

Lemelson Vineyards is the offspring of Eric Lemelson, who is also a trustee of the Lemelson Foundation, and a lawyer. We'll just have to ignore the foundation and allow for lapses, and just say that making Pinot is probably the best for everyone.

Lemelson Vineyards is one of the older (I'm guessing here, but based on the time I have had this cellared...) in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Located southwest of Portland (map) Carlson, Oregon is a small town in a valley that is becoming ever more popular for the wine elite, due primarily for the increasing quality we have seen in the last five or six years of the Pinot Noir.

The Thea's Selection (named after Eric's mother) is what they like to call a "reserve-level" wine. Hmmm. Ok. But why not call it reserve? These are supposedly select barrels from several vineyards, so while not a vineyard specific wine, still a reserve. Since they have no info dating to the 2000 vintage, let's just say this is more in the Burgundian style, (they claim "Burgundian barrels". I have no idea what they are...) That is to say it is not a sweet or as full bodied as something that is from the better California areas, or as we like to say "fruit forward". It is slightly more tart, dark in color, but in lighter density that we see these days.

The wine has good viscosity as evidenced by the wide long legs in the glass, and has a nose that is classic Pinot fruit, more toward.. well, Burgundy wines. (I just had a bee land on my arm, in the house, in winter... Not a good sign, nor good for writing!)

The taste is slightly faded as one would expect in a wine of this age. I suspect that fuller flavor would be had several years earlier. Considering that this was probably released in 2002 or 2003, I'd venture to guess that 2004 or 2005 would have left this a prime wine.

On a side note, at least one of the Thea's releases is stated as "unfiltered", but the 2000 show absolutely no sedimentation in the bottle which is surprising for a wine almost seven years old. Not a problem, but I wonder. This bottle comes in at 13.5% alcohol, a low number for recent Californian wines, but more along the line of the Burgundian style. The use of indigenous yeasts and most likely the lower temperatures compared to California, as well as higher precipitation, would mean lower sugar levels when picked; and lower alcohol as well. This is part of what makes this wine expressive of the local terroir in Oregon.

If you haven't tried a Pinot from outside of California or France,, try some now. The Lemelson Vineyard is a good place to start. Somewhere around $30. And visit Oregon!

Ojai Vineyard - Ojai Red NV

Ok, I'm giving up one of my secret wines. Don't tell anyone, ok? Adam and Helen Tolmach are an undiscovered California treasure. Working from their winery in Oak View, California, they currently produce about 6000 cases of Pinot Noir and Syrah in 15 different bottlings. They range in price from (currently) $13.00 to $56.00.

But here is the secret; the non-vintage (NV) Ojai Red (a local region) is the gem of the Tolmach's. Thirteen dollars gets you a yearly wonder comprised of primarily Pinot Noir and Syrah, ostensibly from barrels that don't make the vineyard cut. But this wine, if you can get past the unknown vintage (a melange of several) and the unknown grapes, (easy for me!) then at a price that is less than a quarter of their premium wines you get a bottle of juice that is head and shoulders above anything (yes, anything) in the range. Viscous, glass coating, and with more on the nose and palate than most wines sold today, the Ojai Red is simply, amazing! You do have to be "on the list" to get access this wine as well as the rest of their product, but it is worth it. Once a year, do yourself a favor and get a case. At $13.00 you would be foolish not to.