I picked this up based on a recommendation from a friend. The 2006 Ortman Cuvée Eddy is from San Luis Obispo in California (the beloved Paso Robles area). $21, 14.7% abv. 44% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 9% Mourvedre, 15% Petite Sirah, 2% Viognier. Which means that this is something like a GSM/CDR/CDP/Cote Rotie hybrid. Let's just say it combines the best of Southern France with the experimental enthusiasm of Southern California. On the nose it's a blackberry explosion, jammy and full-bodied. On the mouth there are firm tannins, a bit of a chocolate flavor, and great deep berries. Overall this is an excellent wine, and went down well with a ribeye and some green beans. The name comes from the eddies or swirls that form in a river, and are reflected in the spiral O in the name of the winery. Which leads me to...
Typography time at Benito's Wine Reviews! The winery logo is set in the font family Shelley, which uses the same lowercase letters among its three variants. Shelley is a notoriously popular wine label font and can be found on wines from all over the planet. The O in Ortman is set in Shelley Andante, while the F & V are set in Shelley Allegro. Tricky, but an acceptable design choice given the caps involved. Kudos to the bit of integration with the V and i in Vineyards. It's always nice to see that someone didn't just slap something together in Microsoft Word and send it off to the printer.
2 comments:
It is sad how many people take wine for granted and slug it down. We all know wine is a matured liquid so therefore needs to treated a such.
Chuck Ortman is a great winemaker. He took Meridian to great heights before it was sold and watered down and so on. I'm glad he has his own label now. The pinot noir is wonderful.
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