By Mari Stull*,
The Vino Vixen
A KILLER VINO VIXEN VALUE!  I LOVED IT.
2007 Rumpus Cellars
Red Blend (84% Syrah, 16% Cabernet Franc)
Sonoma Coast, CA
93 Rating
Rumpus is a terrifically food-friendly wine.  Nicely acidic with juicy cassis and top notes of bright berry fruit.  Winemaker Scott Peterson crafts a daring blend that produces a harmonious and elegant wine.  Syrah contributes a palate of clove, intensely deep red berries, and a bit of cocoa.  The Cabernet Franc nicely rounds off Rumpus with notes of violet and raspberry.  Pleasingly lingering finish.  Ever so lightly oaked, which allows for the pronounced fruit.  This wine simply begs to be sipped with a meal.  Ready and perfect to drink right now. 
 

By Rumpus Cellars
THE STORY: Rumpus Cellars is the creation of Scott Peterson, proprietor/winemaker, of S.P. Drummer Wines. Rumpus Cellars is focused on the production of red wines sourced from vineyards near the Sonoma Coast. As such, the wines characteristically display the flavor and tastes of cool climate red wines that are darkly colored with vibrant aromatics, richly textured and full in the mouth. The wines are typically blended wines utilizing small lot wine making, crafted from several select vineyards. In this case, the summation of various vineyard lots, separately crafted, and blended just prior to bottling, serves to exploit the special features of each component in a harmonious composite, or blend.

THE WINE: The 2007 Rumpus wine is mainly sourced from cool climate Sonoma Coastal Syrah vineyards in Sonoma Carneros that, for this vintage, are blended with ripe Napa Valley Cabernet Franc. These lots were crafted separately in small stainless steel tanks, pressed off the skins at dryness, and immediately moved to barrels to finish fermentation and aging. The wine expresses aromatic characteristics of lavender and wild flowers, crushed white peppercorns, and bright vine fruits. The palate flavors are reminiscent of fleshy blueberries and blackberries, pepper spices, and ripe black fruits. Employing one and two year old French oak barrels, with several creative rackings in eighteen months, allows soft oak tannic extraction and mocha flavors on the palate.

Alcohol: 14.10%
TA: 5.6 g/L
pH: 3.75
Sugar: Bone dry
337 Cases produced

THE WINEMAKER: Scott Peterson is a seasoned winemaker and consultant with twenty years of winemaking in California, South America, and Europe. Scott graduated with a degree in Enology from the University of California, Davis, and has been a winemaker at Villa Mt. Eden, Conn Creek and Kendall-Jackson wineries. In the last ten years, he has worked as a consulting winemaker with an international clientele producing wines in California for several projects in both Napa and Sonoma counties, while at the same time working in Argentina as winemaking consultant for Nicolas Catena and in Chile under a joint venture in Colchagua Valley. In the same period, he has been active producing his own wines from select Napa and Sonoma Valley sites under the S.P. Drummer and Rumpus labels.
 

 

 

 

 

* A Wine Writer. A Wine Lover. A Wine-OH!
Mari Stull is The Vino Vixen™; A wine journalist and columnist whose musings appear in over 25 newspapers, magazines, and online outlets monthly. The Vixen de-mystifies wine one sip and wine-oh at a time with her down to earth and humorous approach to vino.
After a successful career in international trade representing the US and international food and beverage industry, Stull began her professional wine career as Vice President of Supermarketing Promotions, founders of the Virtual Wine Selector. Her wine program at DC's The Carlyle Club, has earned happy accolades and swell press.
The Vino Vixen is serious about wine education (with a dash of frivolity).  Her irreverent and enjoyable approach to wine education has earned her hundreds of speaking engagements, corporate & private wine tastings, and media contributions.  Additionally, The Vino Vixen routinely serves as wine judge and panelist to dozens of national and international wine competitions where she enjoys the thrill of speed tasting hundreds of wines in mere hours - all while recording semi-coherent notes and scores.