White Crane Winery

This wine is pretty darned nice, and it had better be. When Nick Nardolillo of White Crane took over this property, the previous owners and managers of the property (Steven Mirassou of Steven Kent Winery, along with Wente as vineyard managers) had established a solid regime for care and feeding of the vines in this really gorgeous location off Crane Ridge road. Some righteous Cabs have been made from Folkendt fruit. Could this be another?

For those of you who’ve had the 2002 version of this wine, you’ll be pleasantly reminded of the previous vintage that Nick made as well. They are both enormously aromatically endowed with warm, earthy bricks in the nose. I immediately thought of the line from the disco-era Commodore’s tune “Brick House,”, “She’s a brick---- house, she’s mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out…”

The 2003 is an earthy blackberry-plum pie, with flavors of baked plums, chocolate, Australian licorice, and smooth espresso. There’s almost a Tia Maria liqueur nature to the long, lingering finish. This is a very smooth, ripe wine that still manages to have firm, but pleasant tannins. At the very end, your palate may well pick up cocoa and chocolate covered cherries with just a hint of mint.

Nick says the grapes for this wine were picked at 25.8 Brix, cold-soaked at 45 degrees for about 10 days and fermented til very near dry. At 14.6%, it’s no lightweight, but if you pair this with a rib eye steak smothered with blue cheese and onions, you will find this a worthy companion.

(Alc: 14.6%, Retail: $41.50)

Reviewed February 8, 2007 by Laura Ness.