Clos Tita

Clos Tita winemaker Dave Estrada has a deep appreciation for Old World style wines, and tends to take a “fruit backward” approach, for lack of a better way to describe them. The fruit is always there, but it is like taking a bite of toast where the jam has not been spread to the edges. With Dave’s wines, you get the yeasty, substantively earthy flavors first, and then the fruit unfolds. This tighter, more restrained style is not meant to please the lazy “California palate,” but will appeal to connoisseurs of well-structured wine intended to be consumed with serious food, as is the case with his 2003 “Gironde” Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot.

This blend spent 2 years in 50% new French oak. It is certainly in its youth, but displays stout Bordeaux character, from the leathery and cedary nose to the dark cherry, chewy, peppery palate, framed by very firm tannins. Good balance, high pepper quotient (in the good sense).

This is a very solid example of the remarkable Bordeaux blends coming out of the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation. Perfect for a prime rib roast with horseradish and Yorkshire pudding.

Reviewed May 5, 2006 by Laura Ness.