By: AJ McClellan
Last night we had the winemaker and owner of Scholium Project, Abe Schoener, in to taste us through a lineup of his newly released wines. Abe was once a College professor at St. John’s and he shows it well with a great ability to eloquently talk about his wines and the processes they have gone through allowing them to reveal such great quality. Abe’s wines are all very small production with some labels having as little as 45 cases produced. There has been a lot of talk going around about these wines and for good reason, we tasted 5 of his 11 labels and they were all great.
Winemaker Abe Schoene (Left) and member Scott Ryan (Right)
I love that these wines are all labeled as either white or red, none of them have the actual varietals on the label. While you might be thinking “that’s crazy, how will I know what I am getting if I don’t know the grapes that went into the bottle??” Well, I can tell you this – even if you did know what grapes went into the bottling you would still have no idea what to expect as you go from bottle to bottle. Abe has done something with Sauvignon Blanc and Petite Sirah that I have never seen out of California. My advice to you is to buy them all and just taste through them; the beautiful thing is they are all so good you will be hard pressed to pick a favorite.
2009 Naucratic – This was a brilliantly crisp bottle of wine with subtle white summer flowers and a big Asian pear note. The palate was weighty and round but with a great acidity that made it very lively. Notes of warm peach, pear and a slight mineral backing made this wine a pleasure to drink.
2008 La Severita di Bruto – A brilliant expression of Sauvignon Blanc. The wine was tropical on the nose with pineapple, green apple peal, schist, straw, and a dollop of caramel. The palate had a surprising fullness to it for the grape varietal. Full and plump with white peaches, honeydew, tropical fruits, and a great mineral backing and long finish. This was a killer bottle of wine for the price point.
2008 Gardens of Babylon – This is a kitchen blend of several grape varietals that would make most people scratch their head, wondering why… However, Abe has done a wonderful job constructing a fresh, powerful bottling with rich dark fruits and a great silky tannin structure. This is more of a ‘drink now’ wine.
2008 Babylon – I thought this was a great wine. The complexities came in wave after wave with dark brooding plums and black cherries, forest floor, truffles, notes of soy sauce, saddle leather, barnyard, and wild game. I know that you are thinking that sounds much more like a Cote Rotie than a Cali Petite Sirah, but this is a serious wine that has a wonderful potential to age and will be a stunner in years to come.
2007 Androckteinos – I was also very impressed with this wine. Jammy on the nose and palate with amazing complexity and a soft tannin structure that made the wine melt in your mouth. Rich in flavor and big in body this is a great wine to age for 5-10 years.
