And finally on to Coffaro, who was not officially in the program, but
was open and bustling. We tried early barrel samples of both Neighbors
and Estate Cuvee and the Neighbors and Estate Zin and the Aca Modot, all
of which were very much Coffaro wines. I prefered the Estate in both cases
and the Aca Modot was another cut above -- not easily done. 98 will not
be disappointing to Coffaro fans to my taste. We also got to sample the
current state of the great Pinot experiment. The carbonic maceration was
full of mid-mouth fruit and almost reminded me of a Premiere Cru Beajolais
... possibly for good reason. The cold ferment was more of a traditional
Pinot style, though richer than most (it is Dave, after all) and more forward.
And the hot fermentation was something else -- the fruit less bright, but
more immediately complex and with a longer finish, the somewhat more restained
fruit lasting from the first taste to the last. I actually liked this the
best, but I suppose it would horrify a Pinot traditionalist.
We then hung around for dinner with about 30 other people and at least
that many bottles of wine, many of which were not Daves, although there
was a 94 Estate Zin which I quite like and convinced me that I needn't
hurry to finish off my Coffaro wines, even though Dave likes them young...
wines, that is. I had long since stopped taking notes at this point, but
there were 5 very nice Aussie Shiraz including the Barossa Turkey Flat,
which was excellent, and a Hardys which was even better, although I think
I might still pick the Cimicky given the choice. An interesting group
of people, an interesting group of wines, all a bit like something from
a different time.
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Winter Wineland at Coffaro
Thomas Mercer-Hursh, January 27, 1999
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