2013 Orin Swift Abstract

A magnificent wine, and quite compelling, is Dave Phinney’s 2013 Proprietary Red Abstract, from Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Amador and El Dorado counties. It is largely a blend of Grenache, Petite Sirah and Syrah. Stunningly opaque to the rim, with notes of blackberry, black cherry, strawberry jam, spring flowers, camphor and incense, the wine is full-bodied, unctuously textured and beautifully put together, with no hint of heat or new oak. The wine spent ten months in a combination of 30% new French and the rest neutral oak. The finished alcohol is 15.7%, which is in the blockbuster category, but it’s not the least bit hot – proving again the fallacy of trying to create polemics on high-alcohol wines, when in fact they are quite well-balanced, as this one is. Drink it over the next 5-6 years.