2020 “Colossus” Syrah, Hill of Graceland, Willow Creek District, Paso Robles
Tasting Notes
This is the eleventh vintage of this expression of enological extremity - except that it’s not really extreme - it’s what these particular grapes “want” to make. It’s not flabby, not sweet, and neither overly tannic nor stripped of texture. Not raisins, not prunes. I will confess to aging it in 100% new barrels, but I think the wine’s big enough to handle it.
90% Clone 877 Syrah, north block, Hill of Graceland, Willow Creek District, Paso Robles - with 6% Tannat and 4% Counoise/Viognier, and as those latter are all of a hundred feet away in the Adelaida District, well . . . European appellation lines and designations are often worse. (Insert ‘thrown down a well’ remark here.) Are “Brawny” and “Mysterious” in the Random Wine Adjective Generator Database? I thought I picked up a note of ripe tangelo in the nose - seriously. More importantly, if you prefer tangelo to cilantro, your palate might not be terribly dissimilar to mine, so: non sequitur? Exceptio probat regulam, I suppose, but I don’t bottle what I don’t like.
Specs
Alcohol: 16.8%
TA: 6.4 g/L
2020 “Black Zeppelin” Zinfandel, Paso Robles
Tasting Notes
Did you notice that I didn’t specify the grape variety I made the Placebo from? It was from the same variety and the same vineyard I made this wine from, one year earlier - but in 2020 it was picked fully ripe, at 27.8 Brix -not 20.3. Big, smooth, and dauntingly complex to describe (Fruita, Utah cherries in late July?) - maybe one of the rodents will spew out a few hundred words on the chat boards. Maybe six or seven of them will be good! But anything beats the Random Wine Adjective Generator that “professional” wine critics employed, when anyone paid attention to them. I give this wine 93.886 points.
Specs
Alcohol: 16.3%
TA: 7.8 g/L
2021 “Placebo” Pink Wine, Willow Creek District, Paso Robles
Tasting Notes
Bright, crisp, and enologically dry; plum/strawberryish aromatics reinforced in the palate by non-negligible acidity. But the finish! It has no business being that good! I said ‘crisp’ already, did I not? Well, it’s well short of ‘searing’ although some not well-done seared meat would be an excellent accompaniment, as the cries of the grower from the bottom of a well I had thrown him into would have been under other circumstances, for example, if he had demanded payment**. the grapes were from the Other Corner of the Willow Creek district, and when said grower delivered them to me on the day of his picking (he selected the date*** and picked them himself) he invited me to admire their appearance, which I did not. The pretty clusters, unblemished by mildew, were nowhere near the ripeness required for red wine. So I made this pink wine, which belies its name as it is in fact 1/8th alcohol, plus or minus an eighth of the eighth. I wanted to use those Chinese paper masks as labels, but they only had blue and I obviously wanted pink.
**I don’t pay him, but give him a fraction of the bottled wine I make. He thinks I’m good
***This is the exceptio probat regulam of my practice, but in his defense, it poured rain three days later, not that he knew it would. His excuse was that he was leaving for Portugal in two.
Specs
Alcohol: 12.5%
TA: 9.3 g/L
What’s Included
4-bottles:
1x 2020 “Colossus” Syrah, Hill of Graceland, Willow Creek District, Paso Robles
Please pardon the lack of lo-fidelity stereo-typical anodyne ad-copy adjectives. We**** don’t have a Hack (media massager) or a Cog (marketing manager) to decompose mind-numbing back label prose either, which is good: our wines don’t have back labels. There’s nobody here but a Bung - the winemaker - to fill that Hellhole where a salesperson goes.
****What do you mean by “we”, Kemosabe? In ancient times, long ago, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, the consulting winemaker, assistant cellar sock monkey, and rock band mismanager Stillman Brown of Red Zeppelin infamy, and his footloose and still insufficiently silent mouthpiece and de factoid attorney GD Lewis of Jory Winery, became Zeppelin Winery, and ever since then have wines that at least one of them believes are at least more than good enough to have pretty much anything on the label, though certainly not ghost pepper extract. Over the last decade, most of the wines have been from grapes grown by one of our crazier clients who is located in two concocted sub-appellations of west Paso Robles that split the hidden Hill of Graceland vineyard. Visitors are generally discouraged; if they find us they often become despondent. Sales are almost exclusively to our email list - there is no club to join or quit, just an invitation to a FREE party when the one who isn’t dead yet has a ‘major birthday’. swillyidle@gmail.com What quality can be put in the bottle by the efforts of the arrogant consultant, the absurdly overworked cellar monkey, and myself (making in all, one) is facilitated by a cluster of factors, but what we can put on the label is often constrained by artwork and by government mandates and forbiddances. That’s why these labels don’t say “30 PROOF” or “Alibi Value 15%” - invisible ink, anyway. Well, the Placebo does.
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, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Stillman Brown Zeppelin Winery Syrah & Zinfandel
4 bottles for $124.99 $31.25/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $299.99 $25/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
Howdy Ho! At this very ridiculous moment I am driving at 75 miles an hour approaching Flagstaff because I have been smacked with the responsibility of conducting my best friends memorial celebration Resurrection? That’s on Sunday… In Sedona… Goddamn that train has bright lights, Would you all mind if I hold off on answering questions until I get to where I am going?
@pmarin@pseudogourmet98 I had to leave it, it’s like giphy knew I was suddenly single after 9years and was being my wing person. Figured I’d let it slide this time, instead of playing giphy roulette.
@ZeppelinWinery I will say I am very happy to have this offering here, just had the lucky opportunity to split, order & receive your Dread Zeppelin with @zortapa who received your email list updates!
In preparation for this sale, the wine fairy sent me a lovely bottle of the 2020 Colossus Syrah.
Normally I take a picture of the back label, but in this case, there is no back label.
The color isn’t inky as some syrahs are, but a beautiful garnet reminiscent of a merlot. The legs are huge, as you might expect from a 17.2% ABV wine.
The nose is cherry and plummy. The middle is jammy with a variety of dark fruits that transitions to a finish that at first is savory with herbal notes, tobacco, and vanilla, but the fruit begins to last longer into the finish a bit as it takes on air. There are a lot of big flavors here. It’s really nicely balanced with muted but present acidity, tannins, and even at 17.2% the alcohol is nicely integrated and not shouty and obnoxious.
This is a big, bombastic wine that will appeal to someone looking for an expression that is a bit unusual.
Good Morning!
I had the opportunity to sample one of these offerings. I can say that I had two from a prior offer as well, I believe one was called Black Zepplin and the other was Colossus, which truly lived up to its namesake in my opinion. As that observation indicates, I got into them young. At that time, I dug up a possible legacy website: https://zeppelinwinery.weebly.com/
This time around I received the “Lost Mine” variation.
First observation… 16.8% it’s a bit of a barn burner! That’s fine with me, while I don’t appreciate isopropyl tincture, I’m good with a little extra brain tickle if the flavors are well balanced.
I was a little pressed for time, weekend travel conflicting with a big briefing on just prior, so which evenings to sample the vino? No time like… a couple hours after delivery I popped the cork.
I let it breath for about a half hour. I poured a small amount into a glass and on the nose- whew, hair singer! Poured half a glass and let it sit for another quarter hour. On return…No where near as much heat in the mouth as I would’ve expected. A little lingering zing at the back corners of the tongue, but not drying. Flavor was…dense. I noted prominent raising and perhaps prune or over-ripe plum. I pressed the cork back in and set the bottle in a shaded space overnight in deference to aforementioned obligations, and anticipating requests for day two assessment.
Day two, I poured another glass. On the nose- not much, really. A bit of heat. Presents beautifully in the glass, dark and rich:
I couldn’t quite place why the hue tugged at my soul…and then it came to me- reminiscent of the one that got away, my white whale/brass-ring 928!
On day two I found the flavors were a little more rounded, and noted some black cherry and what in New England we called ‘choke cherry’ to complement the former signature. Still, at this early date I don’t know that it’s fully settled, and it seems like a thick and dense composition likely intended to mask the high alcohol content. It largely succeeds, and it’s a wine whose broad descriptors would likely match my preferences. Still, I’m not all that smitten with it in its current state. I may pick up an allotment anyway, I appreciate the whimsy and the charting of a somewhat separate course from many others. It might hold the promise of a sharing a unique experience with someone else, and that is worth something in its own right.
@smtcapecod Interesting to visit the front page and see the notation that Colussus was not raisins and not prunes. I didn’t read that first, it wasn’t a subliminal resurgence! That said, your experience and vernacular may vary.
I received the email from Alice the other day and I was very excited to be chosen as a lab rat again. Received the bottle on Wednesday and to my delight it was a Zeppelin. My wife and I are long time fans of Zeppelin and Stillman Brown wines from back in the woot cellars days. We have a 2019 Zeppelin Zinfandel aging in the cooler and had the “wine club” mixed red with dinner the other night that was very tasty.
On to the 2020 Zeppelin Zinfandel. Very dark red like a typical Zinfandel. Fruitful nose. Immediate taste after pouring was fruit forward but the youth of the wine was evident and a little disappointing. Thankfully after breathing a bit for 20-30 minutes, the flavor mellowed out and became very pleasant. I would imagine this has a higher alcohol percentage but pleasantly drinkable. It is a very good Zin and I am in for a case.
@CorTot@ZeppelinWinery it was very recently purchased by the NYT for “low 7 figures” (as was reported in the news). It was created by some private dude, it become an online sensation, and was purchased by the NYT.
What a unique experience it was to be a lab rat for this wine! We’ve never had a Stillman Brown wine before. We’ve never drank anything called “pink wine.”
Upon arrival, we stared at the bottle and weren’t even sure what to do with it. Is it a rose? Is it a red wine? Should it be refrigerated? Regardless, we decided that chilling the wine was the best bet.
Like always, to give the most diverse wine notes possible, we brought this wine over to our next-door neighbor’s (A&M) house. M is a surgeon and she immediately jumped on the name of the wine. “Placebo” is quite a head trip of a wine name to throw at a doctor. Maybe 10% of the bottles are alcohol-free grape juice? Who knows?
Check out the color to the wine. It’s a beautiful pink. None of has had ever seen such a vibrant color in wine before.
We paired this with Costco Pepperoni Pizza. And honestly it was a fantastic pairing.
I’m not even sure how to describe the wine. It doesn’t taste like a typical red, white or rose. It’s a unique experience. It tasted very low in alcohol (10% or less ABV), and we were surprised that it was 12.5%.
Adult Wine notes were all over the place:
“Very, very pink.”
“Smells like fruit juice.”
“Berry notes”
“Sour patch kids”
“Tart/Acidic”
“Citrusy”
“Great porch drinker for a hot summer day”
“If I’m ever invited to a bachelorette party again, I’m bringing this wine.”
Our neighbors two kids (6 and 8 years old) gave a smell as well and gave their notes:
“I smell grape” - 6-year-old
“I smell apples” - 8-year-old
But the wine pulled off a magic trick. I don’t know if it was the salt from the Pizza. Or something in the wine. But we looked up, and we have a full bottle being poured out. And then “poof,” all the wine was gone
@CorTot@stevenfarber527 I actually like rosé wines quite a bit and some unusual varieties like. Rosé of Cinsault bought here before. But I’ll agree I’ve never seen that color in a wine.
I decided to play with the Pantone app and wondered how it analyzed the color. (based on photo from review). It came up with 19-1557 TCX Chili Pepper.
@stevenfarber527 Well thank you! That is probably the most amusing rodent review I’ve received here at Clustermates, or on the bones of its ancestor… Of course I must confess that it’s a fake placebo: the ethanol is real - and what placebo is ever identified as such to the subjects before administration?
Etc. now… the Important question: where did you get the pizza? Costco???
@ZeppelinWinery $9.99 for Costco’s 18’ pepperoni pizza, can’t beat the price. Looking up that pizza size online also reminded me that it’s 4,230 calories (), can’t win 'em all
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2020-21 Stillman Brown Zeppelin Winery Syrah & Zinfandel - $75 = 19.99%
@kls_in_MD Thank you! They (the Clustermasters) may have just moved them over from the four-packs… I hope so because I don’t have any more than I told them I did last week!
@FritzCat So one of my wines turned out to be all right? Whew! I hope the rest don’t suck too badly… Seriously, I just conducted the memorial/celebration/resurrection for my best friend here in Sedona, and several people brought some of my wine from years ago. I was terrified because Sedona is not always a place to leave your wine underneath the couch when you go on vacation …fortunately everything was OK
@ZeppelinWinery So sorry that you had to see your friend off, and I hope that your friend’s next adventure is as interesting as past adventures must have been with you.
Oddly, I have several of your wines, and the labels are so fantastic that I had never opened a bottle. As I said, your wine needed significant decanting before it came around…fabulously. My understanding is that this means that your wine(s) will have great longevity. So, I can cellar your wines and admire them pretty much as long as I want. However…I’ll be drinking them.
Looks like I took the last case? Never tried these wines and it’s usually too hot out to put an order in. Since wifey only drinks one glass of wine, maybe these will do the trick.
@losthighwayz I have a couple cases of his wine now ranging from 2017 to 2019 and have only opened one, a 2019 Alicante that showed well but needed a lot of air to open up. I suspect that the 2020s are approachable enough to drink now but will really need a decant or long slow ox to show themselves off.
@CorTot I’m tempted to write a short story on it. The adventure’s Stillman Brown’s missing pallet.
It’d be a page turner. We were one- two days away from refunding half of the buyers. The company that shipped it had no clue as to its ware abouts.
“May have mishipped to San Quentin federal prison… “
Mark my head of OPS was banging the drums to no avail. That’s where Stillman jumped in.
Stillman literally traveled to multiple hubs up and down calif in search. Imagine Stillman walking into an LTL truck terminal demanding a warehouse floor check.
He found it in Manteca. A heroic effort.
Don’t mess with Stillman brown when his livelihood is on the line!
We didn’t receive our shipment on the East Coast. UPS had it turn around mid flight saying we weren’t able to sign. Total UPS BS! Casemates refunded us so all is well. Sure wish the wine was in the cellar though.
@foxrunner I am on East Coast and also was wondering what happened. So I checked on this forum and see all the updates… Manteca! I do want to hear more about that story (if the wine could only talk – unfortunately the only stories are contained within the bottle).
So just as I was reading this, I figured I’d look for UPS updates, and for me, I see:
Your package is arriving tomorrow.
From WINE COUNTRY CONNECT
To that would be Monday 3/21. I will let y’all know what I get!
EDIT: and please re-assure me the wine is not sourced from Manteca.
@foxrunner The update on my delivery is that it did arrive on Monday 3/21 as UPS said it would. The UPS tracking only showed its journey through UPS in the last week – no mention of that youthful escapade (a young wine, you know) partying in Manteca.
Thank you David, but I only made five stops on my mercenary mission. Not that I was disappointed to have located the wine a mere 100 miles from where it should’ve been delivered 12 days earlier, but my next stop was not at one of the logistics company’s hubs. It was their HQ - in the reserved parking spot for the CEO, which I would have been occupying with the invisible boatmobile when he arrived for work the next morning.
No I ain’t kidding.
Before I went on the Great Swill Hunt, I talked to nine different people over the course of 10 telephone calls made to this company. Mark at WCC made more or fewer calls, and obviously none of said calls got results. Only my second stop at the first hub I visited produced the required information. I really wish I could give that story some justice because it was funny as crap but I have to go into Home Depot right now!
Just describing the body language of Roger who provided the essential clue would require a minimum of 62 words of which <44 could be relied upon to be transcribed properly by Tim Cock.
That’s my little joke - if anything whatsoever goes awry while using an Apple product, it’s his fault.
Shit - I could give you my phone number and it would be a lot more fun. You could even record it and then put it on the board - if anybody else gives a rats decanter. Text first so I actually pick up 805-550-6492
@ZeppelinWinery While I am not one to refuse a dare, I am not technically savvy enough record a telephone conversation, nor do I take shorthand. I’m sure others on board are interested in the saga and I will gladly delegate the dare to someone who can do it justice.
@losthighwayz Honestly I bought this primarily because I HAD TO try the Placebo! Not that I won’t save and enjoy the others, I’m sure. So when the case (finally) arrived, yes, indeed, I HAD TO open the Placebo right away. And I did not regret it.
2020 “Colossus” Syrah, Hill of Graceland, Willow Creek District, Paso Robles
Tasting Notes
Specs
2020 “Lost Mine” Syrah, Estate Bottled, Paso Robles
Tasting Notes
Specs
2020 “Black Zeppelin” Zinfandel, Paso Robles
Tasting Notes
Specs
2021 “Placebo” Pink Wine, Willow Creek District, Paso Robles
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale online, $624/case MSRP
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, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Mar 21 - Thursday, Mar 24
Stillman Brown Zeppelin Winery Syrah & Zinfandel
4 bottles for $124.99 $31.25/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $299.99 $25/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2020 Colossus Syrah
2020 Lost Mine Syrah
2020 Black Zeppelin Zinfandel
2021 Placebo Pink Wine
17.2%…. Va-voom!
@hscottk to high proof for me! (Or not high enough like a proper distilled beverage.)
@hscottk @klezman Giddyup! I could give up my martini if I bought these!
Howdy Ho! At this very ridiculous moment I am driving at 75 miles an hour approaching Flagstaff because I have been smacked with the responsibility of conducting my best friends memorial celebration Resurrection? That’s on Sunday… In Sedona… Goddamn that train has bright lights, Would you all mind if I hold off on answering questions until I get to where I am going?
/giphy utopian-aware-parsley
@bunnymasseuse
That guppy is a bit much for 6:00 am.
@bunnymasseuse
Guppy was autocorrected from giphy. I giggled when I saw it so decided to leave it.
@bunnymasseuse @pseudogourmet98 Is that a guppy in your pants are you just happy to see me?
@pmarin @pseudogourmet98 I had to leave it, it’s like giphy knew I was suddenly single after 9years and was being my wing person. Figured I’d let it slide this time, instead of playing giphy roulette.
“From the ravings posed as tasting notes” etc …
Doth “ravings” MDMA effects imply?
Not written under, nor will ever try.
And while some wonder at my ABV
I fling my syntax in all sobriety.
@ZeppelinWinery I will say I am very happy to have this offering here, just had the lucky opportunity to split, order & receive your Dread Zeppelin with @zortapa who received your email list updates!
We getting labels?
@msten This time, I put them in the -inside- of the bottle!
@msten @ZeppelinWinery
it will make for interesting development as it ages!
@knlprez @msten @ZeppelinWinery I’m getting notes of cellulose and glue?
@klezman @knlprez @msten @ZeppelinWinery First for everything I suppose… we would not be the first rats to test out new material….
/giphy incandescent-bipedal-feast
I told myself I would never pass on a full case of stillman again, despite whatever this “pink drank” is
In preparation for this sale, the wine fairy sent me a lovely bottle of the 2020 Colossus Syrah.
Normally I take a picture of the back label, but in this case, there is no back label.
The color isn’t inky as some syrahs are, but a beautiful garnet reminiscent of a merlot. The legs are huge, as you might expect from a 17.2% ABV wine.
The nose is cherry and plummy. The middle is jammy with a variety of dark fruits that transitions to a finish that at first is savory with herbal notes, tobacco, and vanilla, but the fruit begins to last longer into the finish a bit as it takes on air. There are a lot of big flavors here. It’s really nicely balanced with muted but present acidity, tannins, and even at 17.2% the alcohol is nicely integrated and not shouty and obnoxious.
This is a big, bombastic wine that will appeal to someone looking for an expression that is a bit unusual.
Good Morning!
I had the opportunity to sample one of these offerings. I can say that I had two from a prior offer as well, I believe one was called Black Zepplin and the other was Colossus, which truly lived up to its namesake in my opinion. As that observation indicates, I got into them young. At that time, I dug up a possible legacy website:
https://zeppelinwinery.weebly.com/
This time around I received the “Lost Mine” variation.
First observation… 16.8% it’s a bit of a barn burner! That’s fine with me, while I don’t appreciate isopropyl tincture, I’m good with a little extra brain tickle if the flavors are well balanced.
I was a little pressed for time, weekend travel conflicting with a big briefing on just prior, so which evenings to sample the vino? No time like… a couple hours after delivery I popped the cork.
I let it breath for about a half hour. I poured a small amount into a glass and on the nose- whew, hair singer! Poured half a glass and let it sit for another quarter hour. On return…No where near as much heat in the mouth as I would’ve expected. A little lingering zing at the back corners of the tongue, but not drying. Flavor was…dense. I noted prominent raising and perhaps prune or over-ripe plum. I pressed the cork back in and set the bottle in a shaded space overnight in deference to aforementioned obligations, and anticipating requests for day two assessment.
Day two, I poured another glass. On the nose- not much, really. A bit of heat. Presents beautifully in the glass, dark and rich:
I couldn’t quite place why the hue tugged at my soul…and then it came to me- reminiscent of the one that got away, my white whale/brass-ring 928!
On day two I found the flavors were a little more rounded, and noted some black cherry and what in New England we called ‘choke cherry’ to complement the former signature. Still, at this early date I don’t know that it’s fully settled, and it seems like a thick and dense composition likely intended to mask the high alcohol content. It largely succeeds, and it’s a wine whose broad descriptors would likely match my preferences. Still, I’m not all that smitten with it in its current state. I may pick up an allotment anyway, I appreciate the whimsy and the charting of a somewhat separate course from many others. It might hold the promise of a sharing a unique experience with someone else, and that is worth something in its own right.
@smtcapecod Interesting to visit the front page and see the notation that Colussus was not raisins and not prunes. I didn’t read that first, it wasn’t a subliminal resurgence!
That said, your experience and vernacular may vary.
@smtcapecod Nice 928 color!
I received the email from Alice the other day and I was very excited to be chosen as a lab rat again. Received the bottle on Wednesday and to my delight it was a Zeppelin. My wife and I are long time fans of Zeppelin and Stillman Brown wines from back in the woot cellars days. We have a 2019 Zeppelin Zinfandel aging in the cooler and had the “wine club” mixed red with dinner the other night that was very tasty.
On to the 2020 Zeppelin Zinfandel. Very dark red like a typical Zinfandel. Fruitful nose. Immediate taste after pouring was fruit forward but the youth of the wine was evident and a little disappointing. Thankfully after breathing a bit for 20-30 minutes, the flavor mellowed out and became very pleasant. I would imagine this has a higher alcohol percentage but pleasantly drinkable. It is a very good Zin and I am in for a case.
/giphy laboring-loopy-flame
Always happy to see Stillman here.
Any future releases of the pink Zep coming? That was a house favorite for a few years.
@CorTot Well, that’s what the Placebo is!
@ZeppelinWinery I didn’t realize that when I posted. Most folks use clear glass for their rose
OK my arm was twisted. Looking forward to these!
/giphy equivocal-absorbing-tarantula
Is todays Wordle a coincidence???
@CorTot I had the same thought!
@CorTot Somebody emailed that to me… I never knew it existed. Is it a NYT exclusive? I mean, there must be some reason to get that paper…
@ZeppelinWinery it’s an internet based daily word puzzle.
@CorTot @ZeppelinWinery it was very recently purchased by the NYT for “low 7 figures” (as was reported in the news). It was created by some private dude, it become an online sensation, and was purchased by the NYT.
What a unique experience it was to be a lab rat for this wine! We’ve never had a Stillman Brown wine before. We’ve never drank anything called “pink wine.”
Upon arrival, we stared at the bottle and weren’t even sure what to do with it. Is it a rose? Is it a red wine? Should it be refrigerated? Regardless, we decided that chilling the wine was the best bet.
Like always, to give the most diverse wine notes possible, we brought this wine over to our next-door neighbor’s (A&M) house. M is a surgeon and she immediately jumped on the name of the wine. “Placebo” is quite a head trip of a wine name to throw at a doctor. Maybe 10% of the bottles are alcohol-free grape juice? Who knows?
Check out the color to the wine. It’s a beautiful pink. None of has had ever seen such a vibrant color in wine before.
We paired this with Costco Pepperoni Pizza. And honestly it was a fantastic pairing.
I’m not even sure how to describe the wine. It doesn’t taste like a typical red, white or rose. It’s a unique experience. It tasted very low in alcohol (10% or less ABV), and we were surprised that it was 12.5%.
Adult Wine notes were all over the place:
“Very, very pink.”
“Smells like fruit juice.”
“Berry notes”
“Sour patch kids”
“Tart/Acidic”
“Citrusy”
“Great porch drinker for a hot summer day”
“If I’m ever invited to a bachelorette party again, I’m bringing this wine.”
Our neighbors two kids (6 and 8 years old) gave a smell as well and gave their notes:
“I smell grape” - 6-year-old
“I smell apples” - 8-year-old
But the wine pulled off a magic trick. I don’t know if it was the salt from the Pizza. Or something in the wine. But we looked up, and we have a full bottle being poured out. And then “poof,” all the wine was gone
@stevenfarber527 My five year old says all wines smell like peach.
@stevenfarber527 that color is nuts!
@CorTot @stevenfarber527 I actually like rosé wines quite a bit and some unusual varieties like. Rosé of Cinsault bought here before. But I’ll agree I’ve never seen that color in a wine.
I decided to play with the Pantone app and wondered how it analyzed the color. (based on photo from review). It came up with 19-1557 TCX Chili Pepper.
@stevenfarber527 Well thank you! That is probably the most amusing rodent review I’ve received here at Clustermates, or on the bones of its ancestor… Of course I must confess that it’s a fake placebo: the ethanol is real - and what placebo is ever identified as such to the subjects before administration?
Etc. now… the Important question: where did you get the pizza? Costco???
@ZeppelinWinery $9.99 for Costco’s 18’ pepperoni pizza, can’t beat the price. Looking up that pizza size online also reminded me that it’s 4,230 calories (
), can’t win 'em all
@stevenfarber527 Damn I’m sorry I didn’t make magnums!
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2020-21 Stillman Brown Zeppelin Winery Syrah & Zinfandel - $75 = 19.99%
Instant buy
/giphy persuasive-toothy-motion
Too slow to act. Cases are sold out. Oh well.
@ElKabong Cases are back, for now.
@catcoland Thanks, Cancelled the 4 pack and in for a case. Wifey really liked the 2019 Colossus last night!
More cases posted, just grabbed one.
@kls_in_MD Thank you! They (the Clustermasters) may have just moved them over from the four-packs… I hope so because I don’t have any more than I told them I did last week!
Thanks Swilly
@PLSemenza No thank you! I’m sorry I wasn’t here to answer any questions or respond to insults - I had dead serious social obligations…
/giphy runny-misguided-ornament
Yeah, I was seriously going to skip this offer, 'til
our bottle of Le Cadeaux Du Roi got some air.
Thanks Casemate Gods for adding some cases!
@FritzCat So one of my wines turned out to be all right? Whew! I hope the rest don’t suck too badly… Seriously, I just conducted the memorial/celebration/resurrection for my best friend here in Sedona, and several people brought some of my wine from years ago. I was terrified because Sedona is not always a place to leave your wine underneath the couch when you go on vacation …fortunately everything was OK
@ZeppelinWinery sorry to hear of your friend
Thanks for putting up some of your wines on Cratemasters!
@ZeppelinWinery So sorry that you had to see your friend off, and I hope that your friend’s next adventure is as interesting as past adventures must have been with you.
Oddly, I have several of your wines, and the labels are so fantastic that I had never opened a bottle. As I said, your wine needed significant decanting before it came around…fabulously. My understanding is that this means that your wine(s) will have great longevity. So, I can cellar your wines and admire them pretty much as long as I want. However…I’ll be drinking them.
Finally decided to try Stillman after such raving over past offerings. In for a case?!?!
Looks like I took the last case? Never tried these wines and it’s usually too hot out to put an order in. Since wifey only drinks one glass of wine, maybe these will do the trick.
Stillman, I think that I can speak for the Casemates community in saying that we’ll welcome you back with open arms…and wallets.
@FritzCat found a few cases!
I convinced myself to purchase a case earlier today as follows:
Messenger case on Friday was $100
Stillman case is $300
Total for two cases of great wine $400
Per bottle price around $16.50 with FS
I’m my own enabler.
@cocacola08 Stillman takes his sweet time getting it to WCC usually, but it’s worth the wait.
@deadlyapp I know we’re not even in the expected delivery window, just sayin’… I want it NOW!
@cocacola08 Shoot - it’s the drinking window that hurts me. I have a few 2017 that I still don’t want to drink for being too young!
@cocacola08 @deadlyapp
Well sometimes I have to label it! As for this occasion all I can say is I’m glad I put labels on the outside of the boxes.
@cocacola08 @deadlyapp @ZeppelinWinery SB, you funny guy. Thanks!
Got my box today. Tempted to open one but seem too young.
@losthighwayz I have a couple cases of his wine now ranging from 2017 to 2019 and have only opened one, a 2019 Alicante that showed well but needed a lot of air to open up. I suspect that the 2020s are approachable enough to drink now but will really need a decant or long slow ox to show themselves off.
OMG, quite a back story to the logistics of this event. it was anything but typical.
@Winedavid49 please tell me he shipped it north on amtrak or something similarly comical
@deadlyapp @Winedavid49 yeah north via the trains that were getting ravaged, and the wine wasn’t a “fast mover”…
@Winedavid49 is it ever truly typical with Stillman?!?!?!
@CorTot I’m tempted to write a short story on it. The adventure’s Stillman Brown’s missing pallet.
It’d be a page turner. We were one- two days away from refunding half of the buyers. The company that shipped it had no clue as to its ware abouts.
“May have mishipped to San Quentin federal prison… “
Mark my head of OPS was banging the drums to no avail. That’s where Stillman jumped in.
Stillman literally traveled to multiple hubs up and down calif in search. Imagine Stillman walking into an LTL truck terminal demanding a warehouse floor check.
He found it in Manteca. A heroic effort.
Don’t mess with Stillman brown when his livelihood is on the line!
@Winedavid49
however did it get all the way up there, and get lost? What LTL carrier?
@Winedavid49 you wouldn’t want the San Quentin inmates mistaking it for their own home brew!!!
Nice saga.
I’m glad it got worked out everyone gets to enjoy Stillman’s labor.
@CorTot his texts during the episode were classic. There was no stopping him.
@CorTot @Winedavid49 I have a camping saga that also featured Manteca. Less crazy than anything involving Stillman, though.
We didn’t receive our shipment on the East Coast. UPS had it turn around mid flight saying we weren’t able to sign. Total UPS BS! Casemates refunded us so all is well. Sure wish the wine was in the cellar though.
@foxrunner I am on East Coast and also was wondering what happened. So I checked on this forum and see all the updates… Manteca! I do want to hear more about that story (if the wine could only talk – unfortunately the only stories are contained within the bottle).
So just as I was reading this, I figured I’d look for UPS updates, and for me, I see:
Your package is arriving tomorrow.
From WINE COUNTRY CONNECT
To that would be Monday 3/21. I will let y’all know what I get!
EDIT: and please re-assure me the wine is not sourced from Manteca.
@foxrunner The update on my delivery is that it did arrive on Monday 3/21 as UPS said it would. The UPS tracking only showed its journey through UPS in the last week – no mention of that youthful escapade (a young wine, you know) partying in Manteca.
@pmarin Well I can only hope those kids had some fun. Maybe mine will mysteriously show up. Hoist one for us East Coasters!
@pmarin Update! The Swilly Gods shined on me and like pulling a rabbit out of a hat the case appeared! Thanks @Winedavid49,@ZepplinWinery
Quite the story! We just split ours this past weekend.
Thanks to all.
Thank you David, but I only made five stops on my mercenary mission. Not that I was disappointed to have located the wine a mere 100 miles from where it should’ve been delivered 12 days earlier, but my next stop was not at one of the logistics company’s hubs. It was their HQ - in the reserved parking spot for the CEO, which I would have been occupying with the invisible boatmobile when he arrived for work the next morning.
No I ain’t kidding.
@ZeppelinWinery this is the Kinda unlimited assertiveness and “see it to finish” that I adore, cause I do it too!
Before I went on the Great Swill Hunt, I talked to nine different people over the course of 10 telephone calls made to this company. Mark at WCC made more or fewer calls, and obviously none of said calls got results. Only my second stop at the first hub I visited produced the required information. I really wish I could give that story some justice because it was funny as crap but I have to go into Home Depot right now!
@ZeppelinWinery When you get the chance. . .
@davirom I will have to get on a real keyboard… My Iphone screen isn’t big enough and Tim cock has poor speech to text skills!
@davirom See my other recent comments you should’ve been tagged in them. There is sort of a dare involved… I mean talking to me on the phone!
Just describing the body language of Roger who provided the essential clue would require a minimum of 62 words of which <44 could be relied upon to be transcribed properly by Tim Cock.
That’s my little joke - if anything whatsoever goes awry while using an Apple product, it’s his fault.
Shit - I could give you my phone number and it would be a lot more fun. You could even record it and then put it on the board - if anybody else gives a rats decanter. Text first so I actually pick up 805-550-6492
@ZeppelinWinery While I am not one to refuse a dare, I am not technically savvy enough record a telephone conversation, nor do I take shorthand. I’m sure others on board are interested in the saga and I will gladly delegate the dare to someone who can do it justice.
@ZeppelinWinery Wife and I had the Placebo yesterday while playing cornhole and Mastermind with our two not so little anymore boys.
We both loved it! How do we go about purchasing a case?
@losthighwayz Honestly I bought this primarily because I HAD TO try the Placebo! Not that I won’t save and enjoy the others, I’m sure. So when the case (finally) arrived, yes, indeed, I HAD TO open the Placebo right away. And I did not regret it.
@pmarin have you tried ordering directly?