Tasted along with its two immediate successors, I found Gorman’s inaugural 2007 Albatross – which contained 34% Petit Verdot –charmless and absolutely gum-numbing, if to be sure palate-saturating and persistent, its bitter stewed black fruits wood smoke- and alkali-tinged and its still prominent notes of barrel stave taking on a worrisomely rancid note. I can’t make mental comparison with the way it would have struck me if I’d tasted it young, but I hope and trust that this bottle did not give an indication of how wines from this address generally take to aging.
With a background in sales and marketing, there’s little question that Chris Gorman’s high profile and reputation in the Washington wine community are partly due to his talents in those areas (his web site, for example, is a think to behold), but it’s obvious in conversation with this decade-long winemaker (since 2007 full-time) that the fewer than 3,000 cases he turns out each year reflect imagination, innovation, and determination. The results, though, simply don’t impress me to the extent they have so many of my and his colleagues. Gorman’s frequent rock ‘n roll points of reference are certainly apt (and I harbor no prejudice against that musical genre) but there is an abundance of tannic fuzz and feedback to nearly all of the eight reds I tasted with him that I thought tended to muddle or muddy their themes, and that left my palate rather ragged and numb. No doubt some will suggest it was that way beforehand By reading attentively and perhaps even between the lines of my tasting notes, hopefully those who will be more enthusiastic than I was about these powerful, tannic wines will recognize that fact.
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