Blended with a manifestly potent 10-15% of Petit Verdot (the stats he handed me differed from those on his web site), Gorman’s Red Mountain 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon The Bully was, like most of his reds, aged for 21 months in 100% new barriques, and you certainly can’t claim that there is too little vinous stuff here to have stood up to that regimen! Stewed and confitured black fruits are mingled with roasted beet, toasted walnut, vanilla, and pencil lead. Massive and tannic even as it is extremely sweetly fruited, this finishes with a lick of mouthwatering salinity and a Washington-typical twang to its amped-up guitar. There being no wine-sensing equivalent of ear plugs, some tasters are forewarned and others – I trust you’ll know who you are – will be more profoundly moved than this one. I really hope I can revisit this in a few years but I’m not able to predict the direction it’s headed.
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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