2008 Ambyth Maiestas red blend (93 Poins)

DATE CONSUMED

Friday, September 07, 2012

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Ambyth Estate

WINE NAME

Maiestas

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

61% Syrah, 18% Mourvedre, 15% Grenache, 6% Counoise

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Mark’s & StoneCross Vineyards

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

12.5%

PRICE PAID

$45

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

Bought at the winery in June, 2011.

BOUQUET

This wine has a gorgeous, floral nose!  The very first thing that leaps out of the glass is a bouquet of flowers (hence the term), along with suggestions of red fruit, earth, spices, and oak.

TASTING NOTES

Upfront disclosure: we visited Ambyth’s tasting room/home and it was EASILY the best wine tasting experience of our lives!

We bought tickets to Paso Robles’ “Pinot and Paella Festival” and decided to take my parents with us and to do a little wine tasting before the festival.  I made an appointment with Ambyth and arrived at the winery on a cold, blustery day.  The moment we parked my parent’s SUV and started to head towards the tasting room, Phillip (Ambyth’s owner and winemaker) came out of his beautiful house and said that it was too cold to do a wine tasting in their tasting room and that we should join them in their home for the tasting.  We went up the hill to their beautiful home and were treated to a FANTASTIC tasting of their estate-grown wines, olives, and olive oil.  Needless to say, the experience was unforgettable; the wines, olives, and olive oil were extraordinary.  Phillip and Mary’s hospitality was beyond belief and the entire experience was something that I will always remember until the day I die!

Ambyth’s wines/vineyards are biodynamic, dry farmed, head trained, unfined and unfiltered, utilizing native yeasts.  Their wines are purposely low in alcohol (when was the last time you had a California red blend at only 12.5% alcohol?!?!) and reveal a purity of essence that few California wines could ever hope to accomplish.

Thanks (at least partially) to a low alcohol level and being Demeter certified, the wine’s terrior shines through like few wines dare.  The first, most-noticeable trait of this fantastic blend is bright, pure red and black fruits like strawberries, cherries, raspberries, and blackberries.  There’s an unbelievably wonderful balance of fruit, spices like rosemary and black pepper, earthiness, and the PERFECT amount of oak.  This wine is absolutely, perfectly well-balanced; this blend exhibits fantastic acidity, the previously-mentioned low alcohol level, and a depth of flavor that most California Rhone blends would envy.

This wine is labeled “Maiestas,” which, in Latin, means “Majestic Dignity.”  Ambyth is a Welsh term for “forever.”  Based on both terms, I would imagine this wine would still be “Forever Majestically Dignified” a million years from now.  I will assume that I won’t live to be a million years old, but if a bottle of Ambyth’s 2008 Maiestas were to get lost in somebody’s cellar for a million years, I would assume it would probably taste “majestically dignified” even after all those years!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We drank this beauty with lamb chops spiced with Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence.  The wine and lamb chops could not have gone better together!  This wine would also pair well with just about any other red beef dish, along with prime rib, grilled steak, and/or rack/chop/shank of lamb.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking gorgeously right now, and although Ambyth doesn’t use sulfites (which most wineries add to their wines as a preservative), based on its structure (alcohol (or lack-thereof), acidity, sugar, etc.), this wine will probably continue to age beautifully and mature gracefully for another 15+ years.  Although still young and vibrant for a Southern Rhone-style blend, this wine will only get better (much better?) over the next five to ten years.  If I had the patience and willpower of a saint (believe me, I don’t), in a beautiful/perfect world we should have saved this bottle for another three to five years.  But it’s a beauty right now!

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

93

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.ambythestate.com/