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Country Club Spring 2024 Library Release

Time in a Bottle

Click to find Original Winemaker Notes
 
It was Fall of 2007.  Sitting in the cabin in Adelaida, where we were living at the time, I drafted my first Country Club release letter.  Jacob wrote the notes after a group tasting.  In a living room no larger than 10x10, Ree and I packed them up. Our first shipment, three wines - we were so proud. Those wines were: 
‘04 Chardonnay
‘03 Tempranillo
‘04 Homestead Red
The lineup has changed a bit over the years.  Those wines now only exist in our memories or maybe a lucky someone’s wine cellar.  We no longer produce Chardonnay but have expanded our white program to include estate grown Viognier, our Rhone blend, Alexandrine, and Homestead White to name a few.  Homestead Red has become a staple for the everyday table.
 
At the time of that release, we were making wine at Starr Ranch.  The following year our winery would be completed next door.  In the meantime, we shared the Starr Ranch tasting room with other small producers and only poured for industry events. Once a taster commented that they were glad to see “someone making wines that were meant to age”.  I’ve always remembered that.
 
We often aged, and still do, some wine for years in barrel prior to bottling.  To be perfectly honest, sometimes it was a matter of economy - could we afford a bottling?  Sometimes it was just the juggling of time and season. But truly more than anything, it was a matter of style.  Time.  It was about time.  Time to grow it.  Time to make it.  Time to age it.
 
2024 is gearing up to be a year of reflection. Time to look back at the evolution of our wine, our winery,  our family of Club members and our own family.  Time to step back, take a breath and to take in what we have done in 17 years since that first pile of boxes sat on the living room floor going out to 65 members.  It has been a gift.
 
That customer’s comment about age-ability kept coming back to me.  When Zachary proposed a “Library” release for this spring it seemed right.  A chance to show what we already knew - our wines are friends of time.  We started a list of possible candidates from our cellar.  As we tasted through them we discovered again what we knew to be true.  Our final choices were as good, if not better than they were upon release.  It wasn’t just the red wines.  To taste an aged white and see how time can deepen its rich characteristics was exhilarating.  These wines, while sufficiently aged for “Drink Now” status when released, have stood the test of time.   
 
We hope you enjoy this carefully curated selection.  It is a vertical sampling from 2018, 2019, and 2020 vintages.  For us, it was a taste through time.   Whether you were with us on that very first release, and some of you were, or whether this is your first shipment from Dubost we are deeply grateful for your membership.   Wishing you a great "time" as you enjoy the results of our journey. 
 
Kate Dubost
 

 

Spring Release Wines - Original Winemaker Notes below!

Club Members, enjoy an addtional 10% off reorders of limited selection wines. 

Login for Club discounts apply. Plus use promo ...  at online checkout. 

 

2020 Grenache Blanc - $40

MIXED CLUB SELECTION

Paso Robles AVA * Adelaida District * 105 Cases

The Glenrose Vineyard represents some of the oldest plantings of Grenache Blanc on the West side of Paso Robles. Composed of some of the first cuttings of Tablas clones, it is one of the only terraced vineyards in the area and sits at an elevation of 1800 feet. Owner Don Rose bulldozed the hillside into terraces to expose the limestone and stress the vines which are planted on extremely chalky, high-pH soils. I was introduced to this varietal in 2006 while working at Adelaida Cellars. It was this vineyard that first grabbed my heart and nose. Always on a waiting list, most blocks are farmed in 5 year periods. I was forced to wait my turn, finally after 12 years I am working with this wonderful fruit again and couldn’t be more pleased. Gently pressed and fermented in stainless steel followed by aging for 7 months on its lees in 100% neutral French oak, the wine underwent partial malolactic and was gently filtered using crossflow filtration. Drink now or age up to 5 years.

 

2020 Sangiovese - $40

Paso Robles AVA *Adelaida District * 150 Cases 

Fruit farmed in-house at the old McGourty Ranch produces one of the unsung heroes of Paso, Sangiovese. Maybe the most under-appreciated varietal in Paso, it shines in the warm heat with its high acid content, much like Zinfandel. Once acids dropped enough it was picked in late September. Fermented in multiple lots, some whole cluster and some whole berry, the wine went an unprecedented 40 days on its skin resulting in equal amounts of tannin to that of perceived acid. In achieving this feat, we have here a wine that is both red fruit forward with touches of earth and spice but one that will also age gracefully for the next 5-10 years. Drink Now Through 2029.

 

2019 Petite Sirah - $65

Paso Robles AVA * Adelaida District * 110 Cases 

The 2019 Petite Sirah checks in from the Worth Hill Vineyard. Head trained and dry farmed, this younger block shows its vibrancy and vigor in this wine. Moderate temperatures allowed for picking in early October garnering complex flavors and sugar. In the cellar, much care is always taken to ensure that tannin levels stay in check and don’t get hit too hard with “smack you in your face” tannins. Ferments start with low revolution pump overs and lead to twice a day punch downs. Press fractions, the portion of the wine from pressing, tends to be higher in tannins and alcohol and were kept secluded, and only free run wine was used in this bottling. Aged in 25% new French oak, its complex nose of dark fruits and baking spices lead to big but smoothed out tannins. Also, a recent winner of a Double Gold Medal at the Orange County Wine Society competition, we are excited to have this wine back in our cellar after a nearly 8 year hiatus.

 

2018 Estate Syrah - $55

REDS ONLY CLUB SELECTION

Paso Robles AVA * Adelaida District * 105 Cases

Comprised of two estate blocks of Syrah woven with a kiss of Viognier vines, which were co-planted alongside vines of Syrah by accident, a happy accident. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, so we co-fermented the two together. Originally consisting of two lots from the cellar one of which was a project of Kate’s to make Kate’s Syrah Syrah (get it). That particular lot we picked together(with the help of a few others, Thanks Andrew and Sue!), fermented it together and worked it together. It however was just not enough to do as a stand-alone wine, so I blended our other more traditional block of Syrah to make a wine that is definitely different with huge aromatics, a little funk, and a big tasty finish. Just as Kate would like it(me too), it may not say it on the label but this is Kate’s Syrah Syrah, it is as unique as Kate herself.

2018 Carménère - $65

12 Bottle Membership Exclusive

Paso Robles AVA * Estrella District *105 Cases

The last of a dying breed. With no vintages of this rare varietal in our foreseeable future, it marks the last bottling of this light-bodied beauty for now. Signifying the end of a decade’s worth of vintages and some of the first wines crafted at Dubost. Grown on the modern Smart-Dyson system of shoot training it comes from the Colbert Vineyard, a little vineyard that Jacob himself helped to plant and maintain. Always wild and in some cases only pruned, it is always difficult and a pain in the ass, mainly due to its late ripening and propensity to push late into the vintage, it reaps its rewards for those willing to wait and work hard to unlock the potential of this varietal which I have deemed the Pinot of Bordeaux.

 

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