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De: Jerry Luper
Para: gangofpour@yahoo.com
Enviado: Terça-feira, 5 de Março de 2002 0:26
Assunto: Pettie Sarah, Oh so close but oh so far
Dear Gang of Pour,
Please feel free to pass this around to your members.
Received the announcement of the York Creek tasting . . .
God, would I love to be there. Fritz Maytag and Paul Draper are two wine people whom I count as folks I most like in the world for their dedication to naturalness and quality, quality, in the true sense, as explained in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" , which defines existence.
This is real apropos, because Jason, ran into a guy on the winelovers chat site who was wondering if anybody had tasted or had notes on FMA 1971 YC PS.
Have to tell you all a story. When I first got to Freemark in Jan 1970, I found this inky stuff in barrel called Pettie Sarah by the locals (of which, sadly, there are very few these days in Napa Valley), The vintage was 1969. Laurie Wood, being the then caretaker of Fritz' vineyard, brought in a few tons at Brad Webb's behest to try blending with the Valley Floor Peanut Noyer which was pretty weak stuff. We blended 5% into the PN and you could smell more PS than PN. I mean this stuff was peppery. You talk about Syrah/Shiraz being peppery, but there ain't nothin as peppery as YC PS from Devils Hill.
Abandon putting the PS in the PN. One day Darrel Corti dropped by and we showed the YC PS. WOW, hot stuff, bottle it, I'll buy it all. Wellll he didn't buy it all but a lot of folks liked it. We had passed on 1970 vintage, but since we had this little item of 1969, Chuck Carpy told Laurie to ask Fritz if we could get some more in 1971. Ok, no prob. I decided to go full bore and extract everything possible the grape had. It was the custom for Chuck, Laurie, Brad and I to taste all the new wines from the vintage around mid November. So, we stood around tasting the 14% Riesling, the 14% Chard, the weak PN, various Cabs, an odd Merlot and then....last but not least, 1971 YC PS....Real Inky stuff....Everyone took a healthy sip....pause....and no one spoke. Why?, because their tongues and upper palates were fused together by the immense tannins of the YC PS. Boy were they pissed at me! I never before or after tasted a wine so tannic....so when you taste, beware!!!!
Fate is against me, I will be in the States, May 16 to 20 for my daughters graduation from Smith in Mass. But, I want to send a bottle of my wine, Quinta da Carolina 1999, as a stand-in, if someone in your group has a friend who is an importer and does not mind going to the trouble. This way, Jason will get to taste a wine he has been touting and also, helping us immeasurably with sales advice.
Long live YC PS from Devils Hill,
Jerry Luper
Introduction
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Epilogue Extra
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