Alban Wines

[jeffperez62]

Over the past few weeks I've had a couple of wines from Alban. I think they were a 2000 Reva Syrah and a 2000 Grenache. They both recieved high marks from WS. I found them both undrinkable. I mean...I like a little gamey/earthy flavor in some wine but this was the predominate taste of both wines. The grenache tasted like barnyard/earth and very funky. The syrah tasted almost the same. Could I have had 2 tainted bottles/ Is this the style of Alban wines? I drink at least 4-5 bottles of wine a week (with my wife) and I drink all types/styles of wine. I have never tasted anything as funky as this.

[jrufusj]

I've not had an Alban wine since the early-mid 90's or thereabouts. However, I used to like their viogner. This was in the early stage of Rhone ranger explosion and when viogner was being proclaimed as the next great white wine grape. I found (and continue to find) most non-Condrieu viogner to be disappointing, but recall liking the Alban version in the vintage or two from which I tried it.

May have tried an Alban syrah at some point, but it did not leave enough of a positive or negative impression for me to recall it.

Jim

[Brad Ballinger]

A common knock on Alban has been their liberal use of oak. I've not had any of their wines post-1995 so I can't really comment on what you experienced.

But if you don't like wine with that kind of funk, you might also wish to avoid many Rhone wines and opt for other California wines made from Rhone grape varieties.