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The Desert Wine Guy

Cellar 433 "The Sun"

By The Desert Wine Guy Wine Reviews For The Average PersonPublished 7 years ago 5 min read
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Today's wine review comes from a wine that is grown and made in the state of Arizona. The state has been coming on in the last few years in the wine area and produces some really good wines. To start off with, the one thing I have noticed about red wines grown as well as made in Arizona is that they tend to have a fairly good amount of a Black Pepper note to them. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing (I love it actually) is that in reality, it can become sort of old after a while. It would be nice sometimes to review an Arizona wine that doesn't have that peppery note. With that being said, however, today's wine is actually a white wine. Today's wine is named "The Sun" and is a white wine from Bitter Creek Winery/Cellar 433 to be exact. Cellar 433 is located in Jerome Arizona and owned by John McLaughlin. Cellar 433 grows their grapes in Wilcox Arizona. Cellar 433 is also the largest Vineyard in Arizona with over 150 Acres of yielding vines and a production of 8,000 cases of wine a year. Is the trip from Las Vegas to Jerome a short trip? The straight answer is no, it is not. The trip from Las Vegas to Jerome Arizona is actually around 5.5 to 6 hours but I personally happen to find it enjoyable. Give some awesome tunes however and I am happy. There is actually a lot of the trip where there are actual trees and grass and that is certainly a nice change from the Las Vegas desert and Cactus where are trees and plants that don't grow flowers and therefore lack any color. With that being said, I would like to move on to the city of Jerome and this particular wine.

The city of Jerome is part of what is called the Verde Valley Wine Trail which is Arizona's version of the Napa Valley and actually runs through the cities of Sedona, Cottonwood as well as Jerome and the town of Page Springs which is just 10 minutes outside of Sedona. All of the three are within 20-30 minutes from one another and in my humble opinion definitely worth the trip. They can also be done in a day with a designated driver and that includes stopping for a short time in each town to enjoy the shopping (ladies) and the beautiful hiking (short time), as well as the weather. For the purpose of this article, however, we will focus on Cellar 433 but I am (slowly) working on an article about the whole Arizona wine industry which I will be releasing in the near future. Today's wine is a blend of three different varietals which are Chenin Blanc, Symphony, and Marsanne. Here is a little about the two lesser known grapes, the Symphony and the Marsanne varietals.

Let's begin with the varietal known as Symphony which is actually a blend of Muscat of Alexandria and the Grenache Gris varietals and was created by the late professor of Viticulture Dr. Harold Olmo at UC Davis in 1948, but was not commercially released until 1982. This varietal was designed to thrive in hot growing climates (Las Vegas) and is typically used for blending.

The varietal known as Marsanne is named after the town of Marsanne which is located in the Northern Rhone Valley. The wine is usually made into a very dry wine and usually has very little depth of perfume and flavor and therefore is used as a blending grape with its cousin, Roussanne. This varietal does NOT like a hot climate and if grown there will struggle to develop enough acidity to prevent its weight from muting its flavor. When grown properly, however, the wine can produce a slightly earthy minerality with subtle notes of honeysuckle and melon.

Now on to the heart of the review. "The Sun" has a fairly high amount of Alcohol at 14.32% but fear not because that alcohol is not tasted in the wine at all so there are no worries there. The wine is also using a cork closure which is unusual for a white wine today. There also is no vintage listed on the bottle for some reason. The label on the bottle shows a woman worshiping the Sun. By the way, that also seems to be a common element to wines of Arizona, they all seem to be prone to the celebration of Pagan type elements such as in this case, Sun worship; why this is I do not know. The bouquet on this wine was really wonderful and super bright, perfect for a spring or summer day such as those coming up here in America. A super great lemon and kiwi open up this bouquet. A really great honeydew melon note, as well as a light cantaloupe note, follow making this wine display an awesome bouquet and one that I truly enjoyed. In my glass, the wine seemed to have an awesome sparkle in the sunlight; it had a nice golden hue to it as well. This sparkling in the glass went perfect with the name of the wine and both seemed to be made for and compliment one another.

I couldn't wait to taste the wine itself. Tasting the wine was mostly a continuation of the bouquet, and that means the wine was really nice. The wine was definitely a lemony dominate wine but there was a background note of sweetness to it. Hints of the melon were noticeable as well and seemed to cut the Lemon and prevent it was being too harsh. A grapefruit note was certainly present and indeed stood out. There was a slight dryness here as well probably due to the lemon/grapefruit but not to the point where it took away the fruitiness of the wine (although close) and certainly nothing to complain about. With the lemon/grapefruit note, the melon and that slight sweetness and fruit forwardness, I think this is a perfect wine for the season upcoming. There was a bright finish on the front on the palette that continued through to the end. While certainly not a complex wine, it does serve the purpose rather nicely.

In this wine, we are talking about a wine that was made specifically for the spring and summer time. This is a perfect pool or picnic white and one that I wish I had gotten another bottle of. When the heat gets turned up head to the pool and break open a bottle of this wine and you will very happy.

On The Desert Wine Guy Rating Scale, I give this wine 89 points.

UPDATE: September 12, 2016, I have re-tasted this wine. I believe that my original notes for this wine still stand and the wine is as described. The original review of this wine was August 1st.

The Desert Wine Guy

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