Carol Shelton Coquille Blanc 2021
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Enticing nose of spicy pears and white peaches, almond paste/marzipan, a touch of honeysuckle perfume. Multi-dimensional (many layers), a hard-to-describe range of aromatics, intriguing, almost mysterious. In the mouth, it is crisply dry yet creamy and round and full-bodied, with nice almond paste on crisp-yet-juicy pear fruit.
Blend: 30% Grenache Blanc, 30% Roussanne, 30% Viognier, 10% Marsanne
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
. This blend of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier, handled by veteran vintner Carol Shelton, mixes a steely minerality with opulent stonefruit, coconut and white flower aromas on the nose. The palate is ripe with peach and more coconut, but the texture is stony, driving into an earthy finish
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Carol Shelton Coquille Blanc is perfect for the consummate food lover. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows aromas and flavors of chalk, peach fuzz, and other exotic fruits. Pair it with a lightly-spiced chicken pot pie. (Tasted: May 8, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Fragrant and detailed, with pretty orange blossom, peach and candied ginger flavors that race along a snappy, refreshing finish. Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Viognier and Marsanne.
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Guide
Connoisseurs'
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In 2000 Carol and her husband Mitch Mackenzie, a former software engineer, launched their own brand – Carol Shelton Wines. Faced with the opportunity to create her own identity and focus on whatever varietals she wanted, Carol chose Zinfandel.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
Paso Robles has made a name for itself as a source of supple, powerful, fruit-driven Central Coast wines. But with eleven smaller sub-AVAs, there is actually quite a bit of diversity to be found in this inland portion of California’s Central Coast.
Just east over the Santa Lucia Mountains from the chilly Pacific Ocean, lie the coolest in the region: Adelaida, Templeton Gap and (Paso Robles) Willow Creek Districts, as well as York Mountain AVA and Santa Margarita Ranch. These all experience more ocean fog, wind and precipitation compared to the rest of the Paso sub-appellations. The San Miguel, (Paso Robles) Estrella, (Paso Robles) Geneso, (Paso Robles) Highlands, El Pomar and Creston Districts, along with San Juan Creek, are the hotter, more western appellations of the greater Paso Robles AVA.
This is mostly red wine country, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel standing out as the star performers. Other popular varieties include Merlot, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Grenache and Rhône blends, both red and white. There is a fairly uniform tendency here towards wines that are unapologetically bold and opulently fruit-driven, albeit with a surprising amount of acidity thanks to the region’s chilly nighttime temperatures.