Orin Swift Abstract Red 2016 | Another Dave Phinney Gem
As soon as a glass is poured, aromatic notes of Luxardo cherries, ripe black plums and raspberries billow, with intricate hints of coffee, mocha, and caramel in the background. The entry is expansive with dark briar fruits, cola, and cocoa with tannins that are soft and dusty. Orin Swift Abstract Red 2016 finishes with a hint of wild cherry and a lingering sweet oak presence.
Red Wine Gems under $35
The Orin Swift Abstract Red 2016 is a blend of Grenache, Petite Sirah, and Syrah. In a vintage characterized by extreme drought and low yields, around 150 base wines were created and carefully tested. Only the very best were chosen to go into this blend. The label, a collage of over 230 images collected by Phinney over the years, is meant to represent how many individual pieces, though incomplete on their own, can come together to form a final blend of great complexity. The wine was matured for 10 months in French oak barrels, of which 35% was new.
Accolades for Abstract Red 2016
92WS | Plump and appealingly gamy, with black raspberry, smoky beef and cracked pepper flavors that take on depth toward big but polished tannins.
90WA | Medium garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Proprietary Red Abstract (composed of Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Grenache) leaps from the glass with notes of raspberry preserves, kirsch and potpourri with touches rose hips, cinnamon stick, and tar. Medium to full-bodied with a lovely plush texture and tons of spicy red fruit, it finishes with a peppery lift. (LPB)
Dave Phinney just makes great wine!
For those of you unfamiliar with all the critical acclaim heaped on Phinney, here are the highlights. With multiple Wine Spectator Top 100 placements, he’s been most lauded by Robert Parker. Parker gushed, “Readers looking for personality-filled wines of considerable character and complexity need to check out the Orin Swift offerings.
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Phinney remains entirely hands-on at Orin Swift, making these wines from beginning to end. In the words of the venerable Parker: “If you are like me and believe that wine is to be judged on just how delicious it is, you will be as impressed as I have been with the Orin Swift products.”
More about Orin Swift
The history of Orin Swift Cellars dates back to 1995. Then on a lark, David Swift Phinney took a friend up on an offer. Thus going to Florence, Italy to spend a semester “studying”. During that time, he was introduced to wine, how it was made, and got hooked. A few more years of university led to graduation and eventually a job at Robert Mondavi Winery in 1997 as a temporary harvest worker. Deciding that if he was going to work this hard, it would eventually have to be for himself. So in 1998, he founded Orin Swift Cellars. While Orin is his father’s middle name and Swift is his mother’s maiden name. With two tons of zinfandel and not much else, he spent the next decade making wine for others as well as himself and grew the brand to what it is today.
