Corrupt Review: Talley Vineyards
It's Great! Which Is an Amazing Review Since They Only Sent Me Two Free Bottles
How delicious is Talley? I once bought a bottle of it with my own money.
It was not my idea. My lovely wife Cassandra and I were eating charcuterie in Talley’s tasting room in San Luis Obispo, a wine region between L.A. and San Francisco that some have called “the ultimate wine destination” because they got a free trip there. We were staring out the windows at the huge, gorgeous vineyard, which is attached to a vegetable farm that Talley has strategically dotted with cows. Cassandra said that she would like to capture this moment. I was hoping she meant with a photograph, but she meant with a bottle. And I agreed. Only partly because I knew Talley would give me a discount.
Talley is so successful that they apparently have two publicists. And neither of them seems aware of the other’s existence, at least when it comes to me.” A few months after the first publicist set up that free tasting for me at the Talley vineyard, the second publicist mailed me two bottles of Talley. And it is the policy of this blog not just to review each shipment of wine sent to me, but to review it positively.
Talley wines are not cheap. They range from $38 for their cheapest chardonnay up to $150 for a pinot noir called The Adobe.
The pinot noir I tasted – which was definitely not The Adobe – was lean and mellow, and seemed like it might show more complexity if you cellared it for five years. I don’t know if that’s actually true, but when I said to the woman pouring our wine she agreed, though I’m sure she was humoring me.
They also make a light grenache that they serve chilled and might be the best answer I’ve ever tasted to “What wine should we serve with Thanksgiving dinner?”
Could Talley be better? Yes, because they could have sent me their $150 pinot noir, The Adobe. They did not send me the Adobe, so I can only guess that The Adobe is definitely not worth the money. Though it’s very possible I’ll change my mind about that if they do send it to me.
Until then, I’m going to drink the Talley I have, letting it conjure up an older, less crowded, less bougie California, where cows walked near vineyards and wine wasn’t so desperate to impress. The kind of California where it was acceptable to send someone only two bottles of wine.