Law Estate Wines
I give all props to my wife Karen on introducing me to Law Estate Wines
We were attending the Ojai Wine Festival in 2013 and Karen had just come back from the VIP Tent. “You have to try Law”, she said. “They’re wines are really good.” She was right. They were definitely our [well her] find of the festival that day.
We visited general manager Oliver Esperham sometime after that at the still-under-construction winery in Paso Robles and tasted through the whole lineup of the winery’s first 2010 vintage releases. We found extremely high quality across the board.
The winery and tasting room are now open and we paid Law a return visit recently. Everything is state of the art, the winery itself is practically a work of art, and rockstar winemaker Scott Hawley and his team make the wines. Clearly, no expense has been spared by owners Don and Susie Law. And while I have reported on Law before, my expectations that with all the resources that were committed to this effort, the results had to be good.
But I didn’t expect this…
When we sat down and tasted the 2011 releases at the winery, I realized these wines were not just really good. I am always loathe to toss out superlatives like “best ever” or to try to assign numerical scores to a subjective topic. I can, however, say that without question that I cannot recall tasting another winery’s lineup where the wines were better than these.
We tasted the following from the 2011 vintage:
Beguiling – 85% Grenache, 15% Syrah
Sagacious – 38% Syrah, 34% Mourvedre, 28% Grenache
Intrepid – 100% Syrah
Audacious – 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Syrah, 18% Grenache, 8% Petite Sirah
As I said, the last time I tasted the Law wines was the 2010 vintage. At the time, I compared them [favorably] to some of the very well made Australian Syrah and Rhone blends that I have had. I would say the same of the 2011s, except more so. The fruit was consistently incredible, but to me the acidity has been really nailed on these, so that after every taste your palate just cried out for more.
Law also made a fifth wine from the 2011 vintage. Called The Nines, it is 100% Grenache from two blocks of the Law Vineyard, block 9A and 9B. We did not get to taste this wine, unfortunately. It is the first of their black label series, reserved for a select few top of the line bottlings. I’m really curious how much better the wine could actually be compared to their outstanding “standard” lineup, and I am hoping one day soon to rectify that.
As if as this wasn’t enough, we then visited the barrel room to taste some of the 2013 wines in barrel. [2012 wines are already resting in bottles.] Tasting through the Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, it is clear that the high quality we experienced tasting the 2011s was going to continue. And with additional varietals being planted in the Law vineyard [Tempranillo, Clairette Blanche, Marsanne, Roussanne as well as a field blend of Syrah, Viognier and Roussanne] it is clear that Law Estate Wines has a great future ahead of it.
Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 25 years. He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who encourages him and shares his interest. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, he had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. Michael is also Vice President of Eve Bushman Consulting (fka Eve’s Wine 101 Consulting) http://evebushmanconsulting.com/ and President of MCP Financial. Michael can be contacted at michaelthezinfan@aol.com or michael@evebushmanconsulting.com.
