The Gorman 2008 Albatross – around one third Petit Verdot blended into its Cabernet Sauvignon, which for this bottling comes from Red Mountain’s oldest vines (planted in 1975) – features stewed blackberry, bitter-edged huckleberry, and creme de cassis; black olive and prune; vanilla and wood smoke in a high-toned, intensely sappy and tannic performance. Powerfully persistent as well as gum-numbing, it doesn’t convince me (especially taken together with my experience of the 2007 tasted alongside) that it will merit more than a couple of years bottle age, but I am admittedly inexperienced when it comes to older reds from Gorman (who only became a full-time winemaker and inaugurated his Albatross bottling in 2007).
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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