2016 Oveja

Owner/winemaker Neil Collins (who has also been winemaker at Tablas Creek since the beginning) was away when I made my annual visit in July so I tasted through his new releases with his son, Jordan. The younger Collins has been devoting more time at the family winery while also overseeing the family’s excellent Bristols Cider House in nearby Atascadero. As Jordan Collins was born and raised in Paso Robles, he has deep roots in the wine industry. The Collins’ now bottle all of their wines under screwcap, incidentally, which Jordan says “takes away the biggest variable in putting out a consistent wine”. The Collins also now work exclusively with dry-farmed vineyards, across the board. As I’ve mentioned before, the wines here have taken on a more polished character in recent vintages and I’ve found a greater degree of consistency to them as well. While most of the Lone Madrone wines show a somewhat brawnier character than the ones that Neil makes at Tablas Creek they are still well on the elegant side of the Paso Robles spectrum. That’s even true for the 2015s, which Jordan says “are some of the most concentrated” wines yet released here. They deserve some time to unfold, he thinks, “because right now they’re mostly bound-up potential and kind of tough to read.”