September 9, 2015

The panel found two well-crafted wines in the 2013 Loomis Estate Vineyards' “Snow” and the 2012 Loomis Estate Vineyards' “Ember”. The former is 98% Grenache Blanc and 2% Viognier. It showed nice floral fruit well designed for sipping pre dinner, and was judged as a Silver medal.

The “Ember” was more of a conundrum, with the panel split at 2 Gold, 3 Silvers, and 3 Bronzes. Composed of Syrah, Grenache Noir, Mourvedre, and Counois, the evening’s tasters quite interestingly could not arrive at a conclusion on anything about this wine. Monty and Laura both thought it showed excellent aromatics, layers of fruit, and a nice finish.

A couple weeks after being bottled, Jeff Loomis sent "Air" samples to SF Chronicle's competition. Loomis Estate's Rose was well received, and made the top 20 of all wines tasted and critiqued.