Colossal. Very deep ripe red and black fruits, an almost bewildering if subtle array of spices, Carpathian oak (really) and a full to bursting palate impression. with moderate tannins and of course alcohol, glycerol, and non-fermentable sugars. Yes, it is quite drinkable now, though neither I nor the sommeliers on the label would suggest serving with goat. But of course, you can age it until lightning strikes.
Specs
Clone 877 picked at 29.5 from east-west rows, Western Paso Robles. Yield appx 2100 lbs/acre
One ton per acre
One bottle per vine
Alcohol: 17.1%
pH: 3.65
TA: 7.2g/l
RS: 0.18%
2017 Dynamite Hill Tempranillo/Tannat, Paso Robles
Food Pairing
First bottling of a blend of these varietals from this sometimes terrifying hill - the Tempranillo rows run up and down - and the result is powerful yet smooth, with cassis-ish black fruit, vanilla Caucasian oak (that was not ethnic humor, thank you) and to my mystification, something of the elegance of a swanky Bordeaux. I forgot to put my little joke on the bottom of this label, so here. “Okay, put eight cases of wine in the back of my truck, and use an eighth of a stick of dynamite to blow up that damn rock up on the Tempranillo hill. You got that straight?”
Specs
Grown on very steep SE facing slope, 1500-1750’ ASL, West Paso Robles. Yield appx 1400 lbs/acre.
Co-founded in 2009 by consulting winemaker and cellar monkey Stillman Brown of Red Zeppelin infamy and insufficiently silent partner Dan Lewis of Jory Winery, Zeppelin Winery is a risibly small producer (a parking garagiste, if you valet neologisms) of super-duper* premium wines, primarily from two recently concocted subappellations of west Paso Robles that split the hidden Hill of Graceland vineyard. Other vineyards -and such- are in Aptos, Sierra Foothills, Sedona, Roswell, and Baja Cayucos. Really.
Visitors are generally discouraged, especially if they are unlucky enough to find us. There is no tasting room. Sales are almost exclusively to our email list - there is no club to quit. And yet here we are on Casemates, as a new fan or forty is always good to have.
* Super wines that only a dupe would pass up. The term enjoyed some popularity amongst sommeliers, but was soon eclipsed by the Biodynamic lunacy, which was followed by the Natural Wine infection, which will shortly give way to a fad for - Fecal Fermentation.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Stillman Brown Zeppelin Winery Mixed Reds
3 bottles for $94.99 $31.66/bottle + $2.67/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $329.99 $27.50/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
I rewrote - well, edited and chopped and improved- the About The Winery description from last spring’s offer, but this looks like the same ol’ crap I wrote months ago! Boo hoo . . . and my podcast probably didn’t make it either. Ask me a silly question, then.
@ScottW58
Hmmm, only a bit less than I ever did.
Some of the most interesting conversations about wine I had, back in the days of past history, were with Kent Rosenblum, who is depicted on the Vinhalla label - as far as I’m concerned. He’s not one of the dark-haired sommeliers whose lives have seconds to go - like my Thanksgiving dinner before I had to go back to Barrel Cannon Canyon and hammer on some slacking Caucasians.
PANAMINT NEWS, edition of Nov. 28, 1874
A PALACE SALOON IN PANAMINT.-----The Oriental Saloon, soon to be opened in this place by D. Neagle, will be the finest on the coast outside of San Francisco. (Ed. The article continues ad nauseum to extoll the elegance of the Palace. At its apex, Panamint City had a total of 50 saloons).
PERSONALS-----Among the arrivals in Panamint since our last issue we note: John J. Spencer, from Bishop Creek, on a “buck-board” loaded with chickens, which he succeeded in selling, with very little trouble, at prices ranging from $1.25 to $2 apiece.
@rjquillin That’s an old commode, right? My posterior almost says so.
I need to post more pictures of the Miner’s Cabin, including the unsurprisingly unspacious bathroom.
@radiolysis ‘Death Valley and the Armagosa: A Land of Illusion’ - I first saw it, paid full price at the DVNP visitor’s center in 2000, I think, and it kept me awake that night, parked on - gotta look up that road again - Trail Canyon Rd off the West Side road - the two ten year old boys I was dragging to Vegas did not.
@ZeppelinWinery I’ll see if that’s in a local library. I did the first night in Ridgecrest and the second in Beatty. Trona blew my mind, and Rhyolite was amazing.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
Stillman Brown Zeppelin Winery Mixed Reds - $50 = 13.15%
@djvelospoke Calling it 34 Proof, as I’ve done when out of Prohibitional hangover jurisdiction, doesn’t help either. It shouldn’t be served at 80 degrees.
A 10% solution of ethanol and plain water shows too much alcohol, and I’ve had 70 proof firewaters distilled from grape must that seemed quite mild. Is the apparent strength of alcohol to other components relative, objective, subjective? Who you gonna check with?
(Insert ‘For A Few Dollars More’ scene as clue to laboratory name.)
Okay, it’s coffee time…then Loading Up the Car time…I’d like to be able to post a pic of us in the itty bitty car in front (or out back of) the Miners Cabin, but Trona is the end of the line for cell service and all that!
I love casemates, but sometimes offers like this set me back in reality. Haven’t been able to transition to the $30/bottle range and been on the cusp of wondering what I am missing vs. what I think is economically feasible. Anyone willing to give some insight to what justifies such a purchase? Are people saving these wines for special occasions or am I simply currently in a different wine budget category? Maybe I just need to make some new friends to appreciate higher quality wines.
@cs85b03 In my neck of the woods local wine shops have regular tastings for FREE. Especially around the Holidays they bring out the good stuff. See below for an example.
Table 5
Joseph Drouhin Vaudon Chablis
$35.99 on sale for $27.99
Joseph Drouhin Gevery Chambertin
$71.99 on sale for $56.99
En Route Pinot Noir
$44.99 on sale for $39.99
Leonetti Merlot
$109.99 on sale for $87.99
Castello di Ama Chianti Classico
$49.99 on sale for $39.99
Silver Oak Cabernet
$89.99 on sale for $71.99
Nickel & Nickel Sullenger Cabernet
$109.99 on sale for $87.99
Knights Bridge Napa Cabernet
$124.99 on sale for $99.99
YES 5 tables just like you see above for NADA. The Leonetti Merlot was the show stopper IMHO.
Help out your local store and get on their email list. Try wine at all price points and decide for yourself were you are comfortable. Lots of great wine is NOT $30 or more.
2017 Vinhalla Syrah, Hill of Graceland
Food Pairing
Colossal. Very deep ripe red and black fruits, an almost bewildering if subtle array of spices, Carpathian oak (really) and a full to bursting palate impression. with moderate tannins and of course alcohol, glycerol, and non-fermentable sugars. Yes, it is quite drinkable now, though neither I nor the sommeliers on the label would suggest serving with goat. But of course, you can age it until lightning strikes.
Specs
2017 Dynamite Hill Tempranillo/Tannat, Paso Robles
Food Pairing
First bottling of a blend of these varietals from this sometimes terrifying hill - the Tempranillo rows run up and down - and the result is powerful yet smooth, with cassis-ish black fruit, vanilla Caucasian oak (that was not ethnic humor, thank you) and to my mystification, something of the elegance of a swanky Bordeaux. I forgot to put my little joke on the bottom of this label, so here. “Okay, put eight cases of wine in the back of my truck, and use an eighth of a stick of dynamite to blow up that damn rock up on the Tempranillo hill. You got that straight?”
Specs
Included in the Box
Price Comparison
Not available for sale online, $588/case MSRP
About The Winery
Co-founded in 2009 by consulting winemaker and cellar monkey Stillman Brown of Red Zeppelin infamy and insufficiently silent partner Dan Lewis of Jory Winery, Zeppelin Winery is a risibly small producer (a parking garagiste, if you valet neologisms) of super-duper* premium wines, primarily from two recently concocted subappellations of west Paso Robles that split the hidden Hill of Graceland vineyard. Other vineyards -and such- are in Aptos, Sierra Foothills, Sedona, Roswell, and Baja Cayucos. Really.
Visitors are generally discouraged, especially if they are unlucky enough to find us. There is no tasting room. Sales are almost exclusively to our email list - there is no club to quit. And yet here we are on Casemates, as a new fan or forty is always good to have.
* Super wines that only a dupe would pass up. The term enjoyed some popularity amongst sommeliers, but was soon eclipsed by the Biodynamic lunacy, which was followed by the Natural Wine infection, which will shortly give way to a fad for - Fecal Fermentation.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, January 7th - Wednesday, January 9th
Stillman Brown Zeppelin Winery Mixed Reds
3 bottles for $94.99 $31.66/bottle + $2.67/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $329.99 $27.50/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
I rewrote - well, edited and chopped and improved- the About The Winery description from last spring’s offer, but this looks like the same ol’ crap I wrote months ago! Boo hoo . . . and my podcast probably didn’t make it either. Ask me a silly question, then.
Yes, going to the desert. I can’t remember its name
@ZeppelinWinery Does your horse have a name?
And staying here. No phone, no pool, no internets.
Not kidding. Indoor plumbing, yes. Curtains, no.
The Swamp Siren keeps calling it ‘Death Valley’. Its not. It’s nearby, but . . . I’ve got Gold Fever.
Great stuff! But I gotta ask with your past history with Randall Graham do you still talk to him about wine?
@ScottW58
Hmmm, only a bit less than I ever did.
Some of the most interesting conversations about wine I had, back in the days of past history, were with Kent Rosenblum, who is depicted on the Vinhalla label - as far as I’m concerned. He’s not one of the dark-haired sommeliers whose lives have seconds to go - like my Thanksgiving dinner before I had to go back to Barrel Cannon Canyon and hammer on some slacking Caucasians.
PANAMINT NEWS, edition of Nov. 28, 1874
A PALACE SALOON IN PANAMINT.-----The Oriental Saloon, soon to be opened in this place by D. Neagle, will be the finest on the coast outside of San Francisco. (Ed. The article continues ad nauseum to extoll the elegance of the Palace. At its apex, Panamint City had a total of 50 saloons).
PERSONALS-----Among the arrivals in Panamint since our last issue we note: John J. Spencer, from Bishop Creek, on a “buck-board” loaded with chickens, which he succeeded in selling, with very little trouble, at prices ranging from $1.25 to $2 apiece.
I’ve almost got to get this, if only to paste the notes on the bottle for posterity.
@rjquillin That’s an old commode, right? My posterior almost says so.
I need to post more pictures of the Miner’s Cabin, including the unsurprisingly unspacious bathroom.
One of my best vacations was spending a long weekend alone in Death Valley.
@radiolysis Amen, not with eight men with eight banjos. Have you read Lingenfelter?
@radiolysis ‘Death Valley and the Armagosa: A Land of Illusion’ - I first saw it, paid full price at the DVNP visitor’s center in 2000, I think, and it kept me awake that night, parked on - gotta look up that road again - Trail Canyon Rd off the West Side road - the two ten year old boys I was dragging to Vegas did not.
@ZeppelinWinery I’ll see if that’s in a local library. I did the first night in Ridgecrest and the second in Beatty. Trona blew my mind, and Rhyolite was amazing.
@ZeppelinWinery Found it as an e-book. This is gonna be a huge time sink…
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
Stillman Brown Zeppelin Winery Mixed Reds - $50 = 13.15%
@chipgreen That clearly is not an AbV from @ZeppelinWinery
Checking to see if the Syrah is correctly noted as having 17% alcohol. Seems more than a little hot.
@djvelospoke Calling it 34 Proof, as I’ve done when out of Prohibitional hangover jurisdiction, doesn’t help either. It shouldn’t be served at 80 degrees.
A 10% solution of ethanol and plain water shows too much alcohol, and I’ve had 70 proof firewaters distilled from grape must that seemed quite mild. Is the apparent strength of alcohol to other components relative, objective, subjective? Who you gonna check with?
(Insert ‘For A Few Dollars More’ scene as clue to laboratory name.)
Always in for Zeppelin. Thanks, Stillman!
/giphy stylish-lethargic-competition
@sndg thanks! who da guy in - HEY! THAT’S MY NOSE!
Okay, it’s coffee time…then Loading Up the Car time…I’d like to be able to post a pic of us in the itty bitty car in front (or out back of) the Miners Cabin, but Trona is the end of the line for cell service and all that!
What’s with all the $30+ wine? C’mon Casemates I need some daily drinkers with solid QPR!
I have no idea what is happening in this discussion.
It’s almost like I’ve been drinking 34 proof wine all morning and lost my ability to comprehend the written word.
HI SWILLY.
I have both of these already, but I might buy more because you’re the best.
I’d like a set of 3 if we are doing a socal split on a case.
@CorTot I suppose I could help out as well for a mixed three.
15.1 and 17.1. Giddyup!
As soon as I saw Stillman, I knew this would be an entertaining thread! The juice is auto
Any interest in a split PDX?
I love casemates, but sometimes offers like this set me back in reality. Haven’t been able to transition to the $30/bottle range and been on the cusp of wondering what I am missing vs. what I think is economically feasible. Anyone willing to give some insight to what justifies such a purchase? Are people saving these wines for special occasions or am I simply currently in a different wine budget category? Maybe I just need to make some new friends to appreciate higher quality wines.
@cs85b03 In my neck of the woods local wine shops have regular tastings for FREE. Especially around the Holidays they bring out the good stuff. See below for an example.
Table 5
Joseph Drouhin Vaudon Chablis
$35.99 on sale for $27.99
Joseph Drouhin Gevery Chambertin
$71.99 on sale for $56.99
En Route Pinot Noir
$44.99 on sale for $39.99
Leonetti Merlot
$109.99 on sale for $87.99
Castello di Ama Chianti Classico
$49.99 on sale for $39.99
Silver Oak Cabernet
$89.99 on sale for $71.99
Nickel & Nickel Sullenger Cabernet
$109.99 on sale for $87.99
Knights Bridge Napa Cabernet
$124.99 on sale for $99.99
YES 5 tables just like you see above for NADA. The Leonetti Merlot was the show stopper IMHO.
Help out your local store and get on their email list. Try wine at all price points and decide for yourself were you are comfortable. Lots of great wine is NOT $30 or more.