2014 QUPE ROUSSANNE BIEN NACIDO MAGNUM
The 2014 Roussanne in Magnum format is a rare treat. The wine has aged more slowly and it is just reaching a peak drinking window. It is a perfect holiday gift while also being a treat for your holiday table.
The 2014 Roussanne Bien Nacido Hillside Estate spent 18 months in in once-used barrels before being racked to neutral oak for 6 months. Pear and orchard fruits, hints of marzipan and brioche, medium to full body, excellent purity, and a lively acidity all make for a charming, beautifully balanced Roussanne that's drinking nicely today.
92 Points Jeb Dunnuck - He recommends aging this beauty until 2026!
The 2014 Roussanne Bien Nacido Vineyard Hillside Estate, from a block planted in 1997 with the Tablas Creek clone, offers up an expressive bouquet of white truffle, beeswax, preserved lemon, smoke and quince. On the palate, the wine is texturally glossy and full-bodied, with lovely cut, energy and concentration and impressive reserves of depth and energy. While this is a rich wine, it remains bright and succulent and I'd expect it to develop beautifully in bottle.
93 Points Robert Parker
The 2014 Roussanne Bien Nacido Hillside Estate is dense, rich and inviting, with terrific interplay of floral aromatics, layered fruit and structural underpinnings that give the wine its shape and overall feel. Bright floral notes, orchard fruit and mint all develop in the glass. Most surprisingly of all, the Roussanne retains terrific freshness in a warm year with drought conditions. The 2014 spent a total of 18 months in barrel.
92 Vinous
This wine is 100% Roussanne from the Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley. This comes from a "custom block" that was planted exclusively for Qupe in 1997 using the Tablas Creek clone that came originally from Chateau de Beaucastel. It is a steep, west facing Hillside bench ... a cool climate site, but with lots of sun.
The grapes were whole cluster pressed, the juice chilled overnight, and then pumped directly to barrel the next day. With Roussanne we go into the barrel "dirty", or with lots of the juice lees. We like the texture and complexity that lees add to the wine. For fermentation and aging we use exclusively one year old Francois Freres Burgundy barrels, barrels that were used once for Chardonnay. One year old barrels still have a nice but subtle level of oakiness, perfect we think for Roussanne.
The wine went through complete malolactic in the barrel, aged on the lees, in the one year old barrels for the first 12 months. It was then racked and clarified through fining and returned to neutral barrels for another 6 months (so total time in barrel was 18 months). It was bottled without filtration in May 2016.