Ironstone..Obsession Symphony..Anyone tried it?

[rain4st]

Hello, Just opened a wine bar in Florida and distributor suggested this wine as a special. Everyone seems to love it. It has a floral nose of lavender and a refreshing fruity taste. I seached the bottle for the type of wine,but only found the words Ironstone..Obsession...Symphony. So after tasting, my thoughts leaned toward the Fume'Blanc family. However, I am told (by the distributor) that the Symphony stands for a hybrid grape developed by Ironstone Vineyards. I had never heard of this, and was wondering if any of the board members had come across this wine and the "hybrid grape".

[Bucko]

I have indeed had the wine, in fact, I have the new release sample sitting in the rack to try. It is a nice, off beat wine. Symphony is also grown in Hawaii, which is where I first came across it, and is a hybrid of Grenache Gris and Muscat of Alexandria.

Bucko

[winoweenie]

Rainy, Symphony is indeed a varietal. Randall Graham made some several years ago. It is indeed a floral, appealing , and attractive wine that will probably make a lot of money selling to people who drink them SW. Ironstone is coming with a strong line-up of tasty bottles that are affordable. Drew , are you paying Attention? Winoweenie

[Wallace]

Symphony is a hybrid developed by U.C. Davis during the Amerine/Winkler years. The intent was to try getting the very unpleasant aftertaste away from the otherwise fruity and fun picnic wine, muscat alexandria. The first winery to have mild success with the varietal was Chateau de Baun but they've since become more serious in their production styles and varietals. The name "Symphony" came about at Davis when one of the developers exclaimed "it has a symphony of flavors".

Here I'm having problems with my RAM. I was a marketing consultant to Chateau de Baun in it's startup phase and their whole schtick was this varietal. I knew it quite well at one time and now can't remember the "rest of the story". I'll get back to it. It is definately one of those "S. Wines" as winoweenie would say.

[Drew]

Wha, What? Huh? did someone mutter Ironstone Cab Franc? Ahhhhhhhh!

Drew

[amw5g]

Had some of this last night in the form of the 2005 Ironstone Obsession.
Served perhaps a little too cold at first. Very floral nose. As it warmed up, floral became focused as rose. Tasted of a spice-less gewurtz. Off-dry running to sweet.
Would definitely get it again as a party or picnic wine. The kind of thing my mother would like, or perhaps someone you want to ween off of WZ/WM and onto drier white.
12% alcohol, which was well beyond how it drank. $6.49/btl. Sure, it'd be a "best buy" for those reasons above, in my book.

[wondersofwine]

I know I've reported on this wine before but a search didn't turn up my note. Maybe the archive only goes back so far. I looked up the background on the grapes (the hybrid business). My memory is fallible, but I'm thinking that I bought a bottle after having a glass at a wine dinner. Once I tried it at home, I thought it was not as attractive as I expected.

[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 01-09-2007).]

[Kcwhippet]

We first had this at Chateau de Baun about 12-14 years ago. They made it in everything from dry to dessert to sparkling. As I recall, it was quite pleasant, but not outstanding. We brought back a few bottles of the dessert version which are long since gone.