2002 K Vintners "The Boy"

Region: Walla Walla, Washington, US

Composition: Tempranillo, Grenache, Syrah

Background: I have been away, drinking a lot of wine and not writing about it, so now I get to play catch-up. I am told that Charles Smith of K Vintners named this wine "The Boy" because he thought it was a funny and creepy name for a wine. You can say "Let's get "The Boy" out of the cellar" or "I thought "The Boy" was delightful in my mouth" or even "I feel like having "The Boy" tonight". Well, you can if you have the mind of a 12-year-old like I do.

Smith sources the fruit for this wine from some of the Cayuse vineyards, and puts it in a bottle with an amusingly blank label. The front is completely white with a small black hand lettered The Boy in the lower right side, and the back has a Serge Gainsbourg quote: "I'm the boy who can enjoy invisibility" (from the song "I'm the Boy", on Gainsbourg's 1984 album Love on the Beat).



Notes: This is almost jaw-droppingly perfect. It is ruby-black with pink edges, and has a Tempranillo nose full of hot dark strawberry, cherry and some tobacco leaf. As it opens up over the course of an hour or two, the slight rose undertones change to a more gravelly smell. In the mouth it has a lot of soft spice all over, along with more of the black and red fruit present in the nose, and a slight zip that leaves the tip of your tongue tingling. Well balanced acids hold up to the fruit but don't overwhelm, and the finish has some toasted oak and dried earth. There isn't much by the way of tannins but (especially as the wine sits out) there is a spicy minerality that is really goregous. Overall, it's a really fantastic wine, very round and lush but also restrained at the same time, and much more than I expected (and I was expecting something very interesting). And Smith proves that you can have fruit along with your structure when you do it right.

Cost: About $35-$40, but you probably can't find it any more. Try for the 2003 (which has some Mourvedre added to it).

Overall: A/A+

Comments

[Kieca]

Oh, such a card you are.

I just picked up four bottles of the 2003 Boy (as you well know, Matt) but I think I won't get them until the fall (I ordered some K futures, too, and they are going to ship them all at once, I think. Which is fine with me).

[Matthew Dingee]

And I thought I was the only boy you loved :( *sniff*

Don't sleep on this one folks! I also enjoyed the boy and I would have him again.