Smoking Loon Current Releases

I was recently sent the new releases of Smoking Loon, another project of Don Sebastiani and Sons, to review. You may recall previous blog features on the Don Sebastiani wines that I posted, in 2011, where I explored the brands "Project Paso" and "The Crusher". In this lineup, the wines are each at a suggested retail price of $9, though often can be found for a few dollars less. The bottles are all labelled California, meaning that the grapes can come from all over the state. Similar to the other brands, the Smoking Loon wines are made with grapes purchased by the company.

According to the press materials I got, the name derives from Don's love of cigars and his father's (August Sebastiani) love of waterfowl. Interesting amalgamation to say the least. The PR stuff also says this is the largest and most popular brand in the portfolio. When I worked for Trader Joe's, we sold the syrah and I think the pinot noir. Both were popular wines priced around $6.

2009 Smoking Loon Pinot Noir:
Nose: Cherry, strawberry, candied fruit, touches of spice and pepper. Fairly one dimensional though. A bit of heat on the nose distracts from what could be a rather complete bouquet.
Palate: Soft initially with ripe red fruits appearing first. Spices come through in the mid palate, some nice acidity too. Tastes light, clean. Hint of dusty earth on the mid palate that disappears on the finish. Solid wine, not overly complex but a very drinkable wine. Lacks soul and any expression of terroir but for $10 what do you expect? 13.8% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Merlot:
Nose: Blackberry, black cherry preserve, red licorice. Touch of earth and oak.Very simple nose, even more one dimensional than the pinot noir.
Palate: Soft tannin, light body. Red candied fruit, earth, strawberry licorice. Light bodied, not hard to drink, but not exciting. Rather unappealing to me but I can't detect any flaws. Seems like an attempt to add a bit of dimension to merlot through the addition of tannin and oak chips. This will please people who just want something red in their glasses. 13.5% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Cabernet Sauvignon:
Nose: Very ripe dark fruit, blackberry, blueberry, candied cherry. Slight green note lurks in the background. A little more complex than the merlot, and one that perhaps could stand to age a year or so. Yes, I realize I'm recommending aging a $9 wine.
Palate: Firm tannin, dries the mouth out. Medium bodied. Darker fruit flavors and acid combine for a nice texture. The finish is nice and clean, a pleasant surprise. Biggest disappointment was the hollow mid-palate, I felt like the wine evaporated. Flavors came back on the finish, dark chocolate predominantly. 13.5% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Old Vine Zinfandel:
Nose: Juicy plum, hint of raisin, cherries. Lots of ripeness, no zin spice or pepper that I could detect. Was really hoping for more, especially if this truly an "old vine" zinfandel.
Palate: Full bodied ripeness, hints of vanilla and a fine grained tannin are the first to appear. Plenty of fruit, like a mixed bag of summer berries. A touch of cracked pepper meanders through the mid palate along with a touch of dusty soil. Pleasant, but not exactly expected for an "old vine" designation. Finish evaporates quickly, leaving a bitter tannic note. I had the highest hopes for this wine but it just failed to elicit any excitement. 13.5% abv.

The pinot noir and cabernet were the two here I could see having a glass of, if the only other option was Kendall-Jackson chardonnay. None of these wines were unique expressions of their component grapes and they each tasted like they'd been designed to fit a certain profile. Therein lies the secret to the success this brand enjoys though. For the people desiring a bottle of wine that drinks easily and is very non-threatening, the pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon are just fine. Taking any of the Smoking Loon wines to a casual party won't make you look like a buffoon. Just don't bring any of these to a gathering of wine geeks. Don Sebastiani and Sons has created a brand that doesn't necessarily open up the world of wine to anyone, but it does quench their thirst.

I'll give a lot of credit to the winemaker, Greg Kitchens, for keeping the alcohol levels reasonable in each of these wines. While I cannot tell if that's from using spinning cones or just naturally using less-ripe grapes, it's encouraging when a big producer puts the brakes on the runaway booze levels in California wines.

These wines were media samples from Balzac Communications & Marketing.

Beau Carufel

Don Sebastiani's Latest Project: The Crusher!

After selling the Sebastiani winery, Don Sebastiani couldn't stay out of the wine business so he started a négociant firm with his sons Donny and August. In 2001 they decided to start a company that produces inexpensive but accessible red and white wines from areas all over California. The company likes to highlight relationships it has with growers and winemakers, in an effort to personalize the respective lines they produce. From a marketing standpoint this is a great idea for a brand aimed at Millennials, who have shown a desire to be more connected with the wines they're drinking.

What, you might ask, is a négociant? Their role is huge in France, specifically places like Burgundy and the Rhone, where they take the grapes and/or wines from numerous smaller growers and winemakers, then bottle and sell it under their own label. The négociant model isn't seen much here in the United States but perhaps our most famous person would be Cameron Hughes. If you've ever had Louis Jadot, Joseph Drouhin, or Jaboulet wines from France, you've had négociant wine.

Don Sebastiani started Don Sebastiani & Sons to produce négociant wines here in California, among their projects are The Crusher and Project Paso. You may already know the Smoking Loon and Pepperwood Grove brands, also produced by the Sebastiani company. I recently participated in a Twitter Taste Live event for The Crusher wines and am tasting my way through his Project Paso selections too. Each brand is slotted at a different price point, The Crusher being priced at a suggested retail of $18. I'm not sure how firm that price is though, because often a "suggested retail" is not what you pay at your local supermarket or wine store.

With that in mind, here are The Crusher wines from Don Sebastiani and Sons:

2009 The Crusher Chardonnay - If you like California chardonnay, this one is for you. Think Sonoma-Cutrer, Gary Farrell, and Robert Mondavi examples. Creamy, buttery oak with hints of tropical fruit and red apple lending a touch of acidity. The 2009 Crusher sees 65% malolactic fermentation and 80% new French oak barrels, lending that rich, almost voluptuous mouthfeel so many people love. At 13.5% alcohol, I only felt the increased weight on my palate and didn't detect any burn on the finish. The consensus in the tasting was that this is a very accessible, crowd pleasing style. My only concern is the $18 suggested retail, which is too high for what you get. That being said, this chardonnay is more readily available for around $14, placing it squarely in the right category. B-.

2010 The Crusher Pinot Noir Rosé - Made with 97.5% pinot noir and 2.5% viognier, this was a highlight of the tasting for me. In addition to the gorgeous pink color, the viognier added wonderful white flower and peach aromas to the lip-smacking summer berry notes I picked up. All the fruit here is from the Clarksburg area, soon to be it's own AVA. I liked the balance between acidity and the residual sugar, so this isn't a "fully dry" rosé, rather it's got a touch of fruity sweetness that adds a bit of body. I think almost everyone in the tasting liked the ruby grapefruit, melon, strawberry, and swish of cranberry we tasted. At $18, it bests many rosé's in that category, but the real-world price of closer to $13 makes this an incredible deal. B+ and STRONG BUY.

2009 The Crusher Pinot Noir - A true, single varietal pinot noir for a change, with all fruit sourced from the Wilson Vineyard in Clarksburg. Although a touch high on the alcohol at 13.9%, it's almost undetecable. I smelled baking spice, black cherry and a hitn of toasted oak. What struck me as most interesting wast he way the spice and oak aromas framed the cherry, I may have swirled and smelled this wine longer than anyone else during the tasting. Really good acidity lightened the wine's mouthfeel, spice and sweet cherry lent interesting textural components and the dusty earth mixed with campfire reminded me that this is pinot noir, after all. Winemaker Greg Kitchens did a nice job balancing ripe fruit with the restraining acidity. Just wish that alcohol was closer to 13.3-13.5%. B, BUY recommendation. At around $20, this is solid wine and an honest purchase but when you shop around and find it for $13, it becomes a great bottle to crack open with your friends.

2009 The Crusher Petite Sirah - The best wine of the night for me, and the recent winner of a Double Gold/Best in Class award from the California State Fair Wine Competition. For once those giant competitions get something right! There's 97% petite sirah and 3% alicante bouchet in here, but what that alicante does is lost on me. My palate just isn't sensitive enough I suppose. What the '09 The Crusher petite sirah does though is to wow my palate. It's big, dark chocolate notes, earth and berries and smoke on the nose. I even got some fascinating aromas of candied orange peel and mixed berry pie, this was the most complex nose of the entire lineup. I think everyone or almost everyone absolutely loved this petite sirah for it's silky smooth tannin, ripe berry flavors and the awesome hit of savory beef jerky that carried through to the finish. Across the country this is between $10 and $14 a bottle. What are you waiting for? A-, STRONG BUY recommendation from yours truly.

2009 The Crusher Cabernet Sauvignon - Surprisingly, a 100% cabernet sauvignon, cabernet sauvignon. It seems like most cabernets these days have small bits of merlot, cabernet franc, even syrah or zinfandel in them. I think that in this 2009 The Crusher cabernet, Greg Kitchens was going for a more restrained style, to showcase the Clarksburg AVA. The result is a cabernet with earth and herb notes framing black currants on the nose, what I termed "very nice, straightforward bouquet" in my notes. I enjoyed the initial mouthfeel with ripe black fruit but then things went a bit awry. The tannins haven't integrated yet and create a chunky, somewhat disjointed mouthfeel which carries over into an uninspiring finish. I prefer terroir-driven cabernets but with that comes the expectation of an elegant, integrated structure. I did however enjoy the earthy flavors that carried through, they kept the finish from being a complete disaster. Since this is an '09, I have a hunch that in the next few years it'll get a lot better and is just going through a "dumb" phase right now. At it's suggested retail, a definite PASS right now because you can buy a bottle of 2007 Franciscan cabernet for $17 that blows most sub-$20 cabernets out of the water. At $12 like I've seen the Crusher go for on wine-searcher.com, it's something to buy and hold because it's got potential. C+, at this point.

Don Sebastiani & Sons is making some good wines, that much is clear. They're leveraging contacts within the industry to source high quality grapes and using talented winemakers while keeping the prices low. I've been tasting through another series, their Project Paso lineup and hope to have that up for you next week. It'll come in at a lower suggested retail, $14, and so far has been fairly good. With two more wines to taste, I'm hoping they really knock the proverbial ball out of the park.

Another fun tasting hosted by Mike Wangbickler of Balzac, I love how they're reaching out to bloggers all over the country to spread the word about these wines. Coming up soon is a tasting of wines from Navarra, Spain, also hosted by Balzac. I can't wait for that one so stay tuned!

The wines listed here were media samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel