2019 Dog & Pony Barbera, Wheeler Vineyard, San Benito County
Tasting Notes
San Benito County has an excellent climate for this high-acid, deep-colored Old World Italian varietal. Its juicy bright cherry notes are combined with raspberry, clove, and ginger. With its pleasant mouthfeel, it’s perfect on its own or to enjoy with your favorite Italian meal.
Specs
Aging: 27 months in 10% new French oak
Harvest Date: 10/9/19
Bottle Date: 1/15/22
Case production: 99
Alcohol: 13.5%
2019 Dog & Pony Carignane, Graziano Vineyard, Redwood Valley
Tasting Notes
This Old World Spanish varietal is a special treat. With its garnet color in the glass, this unique wine starts with a wave of spice, thyme, and cranberry on the nose. Medium-bodied with pleasing acidity, this elegant wine makes for food pairing perfection, especially when served oh-so-slightly chilled.
Specs
Aging: 31 months in 25% new French Oak & 10% new American oak
Harvest Date: 10/20/19
Bottle Date: 05/10/22
Case production: 150
Alcohol: 13.3%
2019 Dog & Pony Grenache, Ness Vineyard, San Benito County
Tasting Notes
With a tantalizing spiced nose, this Grenache offers a mouthful of cranberry, Meyer lemon peel, and baking spice flavors. It was aged in neutral oak creating a lovely expression of the fruit with a light and long, juicy finish.
Specs
Aging: 28 months in 35% new French oak
Harvest Date: 9/23/19
Bottle Date: 1/15/22
Case production: 49
Alcohol: 14.1%
What’s Included
3-bottles:
1x 2019 Dog & Pony Barbera, Wheeler Vineyard, San Benito County
1x 2019 Dog & Pony Carignane, Graziano Vineyard, Redwood Valley
1x 2019 Dog & Pony Grenache, Ness Vineyard, San Benito County
Case:
4x 2019 Dog & Pony Barbera, Wheeler Vineyard, San Benito County
4x 2019 Dog & Pony Carignane, Graziano Vineyard, Redwood Valley
4x 2019 Dog & Pony Grenache, Ness Vineyard, San Benito County
My name is Michael Simons, and what started as a love affair with wine has turned into a passion for producing small lots of very handcrafted wines from neighboring vineyards. Our tiny (1,800 cases) winery is named after Comanche, my horse when I was ten years old. He was an important part of a young life, and I use his name as a loving tribute to this old friend. These days, I ride a bicycle, and since this love affair with wine turned into a full-blown obsession, finding time for riding anything can be tough. But I still think of Comanche often and am proud that his name and shoes are on every bottle of my wine. Maybe those horseshoes will bring you some good luck!
Comanche Cellars is on California’s Monterey Peninsula, where we take advantage of the incredible wealth of vineyards that can be found in almost every direction. All throughout the Santa Lucia Highlands, Arroyo Seco, San Antonio Valley, and Santa Cruz Mountains AVA’s, there are winegrowers and winemakers producing incredibly beautiful wines that, we think, can and will rival the best the world has to offer. We’re happy to be in the sweet spot right now, as Wine Enthusiast recently named Monterey as one of the Top 5 winegrowing regions worldwide!
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
We had some bad timing. My wife and I are going out of town in the wee hours of Saturday. Our LabRat package did not show up Thursday as expected, but instead Friday evening! We drank as fast as we could, but are very busy. This will be our slackest lab rat report. Sorry!
We were sent the Dog & Pony Carignane, Graziano Vineyard, and also the Dog & Pony Barbera.
We had no time to set up a good pairing. We were sitting down to dinner with grilled cheese, which is not a good pairing for any red wine we have found.
I have a feeling these bottles were a little off. I don’t know how that would happen, since the weather has not been bad. I did not enjoy them very much for them. They tasted like maybe going down hill soon. Since I’ve never gotten ‘old’ wine from casemates, this makes me think something was wrong with these bottles.
My wife liked them more, and especially liked the Carignane.
We decanted as fast as we could! We had some just a few minutes out of the bottle, while some of each we aerated and swished around a decanter. To me, both seemed like they were going down hill, especially after a few hours. For this reason, I think we got some bum bottles.
On Sunday we may be able to provide better info, with a better pairing. But that will be a little late in the game. Sorry!
@wardad Follow-up: just got back out of town. Crazy times with daughter’s wedding in 2 weeks, and no time to do this justice. But, we’ve re-tasted these as we rushed around. They’re certainly better with better pairings. With hamburgers, and now sausages and cheese, much better. My wife in particular liked the Carignane, as she did the other day. More than I did. I don’t think it got better because of 34 hours of air, but because of pairing. (She likes Syrah, Grenache, but not Bordeaux/Meritages)
Good morning my lovely Casemates friends. I received an email earlier this week letting me know that I would be receiving a rat bottle and thankfully it came right in between two sets of travel. It’s been hot this week in Houston and the two bottles received rode around in the big brown truck all day (delivered about 7pm) but didn’t seem greatly heat affected.
I received a bottle of the Barbera and Grenache. I recall seeing a Dog & Pony offer earlier in the summer that had good reception but looking back that offer did not include these bottles, so I was very interested in how they would turn out.
For reference on my notes, I enjoy GSM varieties quite a lot but generally lean towards the more brooding expressions of Grenache. Barbera often comes across too thin to me and I use Scott Harvey as a benchmark for good Barbera.
With that said:
The Grenache pours a nice dark garnet. Not a super expressive nose but gives dried cranberries, herbs, and pepper. On taste it starts out with a pretty tight and tannic entry, not yielding much. After some time in the glass it fades and reveals cranberry, plum, oregano with a medium length finish. I found it quite pleasant and would be a good “anyday” type of wine and would go well with or without food. I wouldn’t peg it as breathtaking but assumed at a $15 price point would be a good buy.
The Barbera also pours fairly dark in the glass. Also not much on the nose but the fruit is obviously brighter and trending more towards cherry. There’s also a petrol/tire element in the background that I generally don’t like but is nuanced enough to not bother me here. On taste it’s obvious this is a pretty typical Cali Barbera with bright red fruit, no tannin to speak of, and mostly pared down acid. Very one dimensional with the cherry that fades to a jolly rancher like finish that is short to medium. For those who like a lighter style and fruit biased version of Barbera, they’ll probably find this to be decent juice.
As always I appreciate the opportunity to rat and if there are any questions I’ll answer them as they come up. I still have these and will give them a whirl tonight but I assume the Barbera will fade quite a bit and the grenache may give some secondary notes up.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
2019 Dog & Pony Mixed Reds - $65 = 27.07%
2019 Dog & Pony Barbera, Wheeler Vineyard, San Benito County
Tasting Notes
Specs
2019 Dog & Pony Carignane, Graziano Vineyard, Redwood Valley
Tasting Notes
Specs
2019 Dog & Pony Grenache, Ness Vineyard, San Benito County
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
3-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
$392.00/Case for 4x 2019 Dog & Pony Barbera, Wheeler Vineyard, San Benito County + 4x 2019 Dog & Pony Carignane, Graziano Vineyard, Redwood Valley + 4x 2019 Dog & Pony Grenache, Ness Vineyard, San Benito County at Comanche Cellars
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Oct 17 - Thursday, Oct 20
Dog & Pony Mixed Reds
3 bottles for $59.99 $20/bottle + $2.67/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $174.99 $14.58/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2019 Dog & Pony Barbera
2019 Dog & Pony Carignane
2019 Dog & Pony Grenache
Nice case discount!
Great vineyards and varieties, too!
Grenache? 49 cases? This will last about 4 hrs.
We had some bad timing. My wife and I are going out of town in the wee hours of Saturday. Our LabRat package did not show up Thursday as expected, but instead Friday evening! We drank as fast as we could, but are very busy. This will be our slackest lab rat report. Sorry!
We were sent the Dog & Pony Carignane, Graziano Vineyard, and also the Dog & Pony Barbera.
We had no time to set up a good pairing. We were sitting down to dinner with grilled cheese, which is not a good pairing for any red wine we have found.
I have a feeling these bottles were a little off. I don’t know how that would happen, since the weather has not been bad. I did not enjoy them very much for them. They tasted like maybe going down hill soon. Since I’ve never gotten ‘old’ wine from casemates, this makes me think something was wrong with these bottles.
My wife liked them more, and especially liked the Carignane.
We decanted as fast as we could! We had some just a few minutes out of the bottle, while some of each we aerated and swished around a decanter. To me, both seemed like they were going down hill, especially after a few hours. For this reason, I think we got some bum bottles.
On Sunday we may be able to provide better info, with a better pairing. But that will be a little late in the game. Sorry!
@wardad Follow-up: just got back out of town. Crazy times with daughter’s wedding in 2 weeks, and no time to do this justice. But, we’ve re-tasted these as we rushed around. They’re certainly better with better pairings. With hamburgers, and now sausages and cheese, much better. My wife in particular liked the Carignane, as she did the other day. More than I did. I don’t think it got better because of 34 hours of air, but because of pairing. (She likes Syrah, Grenache, but not Bordeaux/Meritages)
Good morning my lovely Casemates friends. I received an email earlier this week letting me know that I would be receiving a rat bottle and thankfully it came right in between two sets of travel. It’s been hot this week in Houston and the two bottles received rode around in the big brown truck all day (delivered about 7pm) but didn’t seem greatly heat affected.
I received a bottle of the Barbera and Grenache. I recall seeing a Dog & Pony offer earlier in the summer that had good reception but looking back that offer did not include these bottles, so I was very interested in how they would turn out.
For reference on my notes, I enjoy GSM varieties quite a lot but generally lean towards the more brooding expressions of Grenache. Barbera often comes across too thin to me and I use Scott Harvey as a benchmark for good Barbera.
With that said:
The Grenache pours a nice dark garnet. Not a super expressive nose but gives dried cranberries, herbs, and pepper. On taste it starts out with a pretty tight and tannic entry, not yielding much. After some time in the glass it fades and reveals cranberry, plum, oregano with a medium length finish. I found it quite pleasant and would be a good “anyday” type of wine and would go well with or without food. I wouldn’t peg it as breathtaking but assumed at a $15 price point would be a good buy.
The Barbera also pours fairly dark in the glass. Also not much on the nose but the fruit is obviously brighter and trending more towards cherry. There’s also a petrol/tire element in the background that I generally don’t like but is nuanced enough to not bother me here. On taste it’s obvious this is a pretty typical Cali Barbera with bright red fruit, no tannin to speak of, and mostly pared down acid. Very one dimensional with the cherry that fades to a jolly rancher like finish that is short to medium. For those who like a lighter style and fruit biased version of Barbera, they’ll probably find this to be decent juice.
As always I appreciate the opportunity to rat and if there are any questions I’ll answer them as they come up. I still have these and will give them a whirl tonight but I assume the Barbera will fade quite a bit and the grenache may give some secondary notes up.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
2019 Dog & Pony Mixed Reds - $65 = 27.07%
Interesting. Shipping to Alabama?