Touchy-Feely
Touchy-Feely is about sensations. Touchy-Feely is graceful and dances with joy. It’s a wine lighter than air; it elevates. At the same time, it’s a wine that has an extraordinary length both in palate and in the nose. As all good memories, Touchy-Feely endures.
Touchy-Feely is entirely Rhône. Its Grenache side gives it femininity, elegance. Its minor Rhône brother adds a tad of weight, just enough to keep it grounded, of body & structure.
Touchy-Feely is a different Rhône, our take of dancing in summer. Its colors are almost claret. It’s a wine that works at an angle, in a different realm, a different dimension. It’s a wine which requires choices. It does not allow indifference. It is non-commercial and follows no beaten path. It is what some vineyards achieve when they dare to be themselves.
Vintage 2019 winemaker's notes
144 cases produced. 69% Grenache and 31% Syrah.
Our Grenache and Syrah vines are highest vineyard elevation in Paso Robles. The Syrah component (bigger than other years, from a “normal” of 20%) has moved the always present feminine Grenache tones towards assertive athleticism. The 2018 took a step in this direction and the this 2019 builds on it. What strikes me of the 2019 is the depth of fruit perception. Bigger than other years. It pushes the minerality slightly back towards the choir line and wants to sing solo. In the nose, the beautiful integration of almost two years of bottle aging. Notes of freshness, of red and bright. A bold nose, sure of itself. Attractive, it calls: “come to me”.
In the palate warm fruit fills the mouth, coating it in light. There’s tension of acidity keeping the fruit vibrant. There are also small notes of mineral, helping to frame the dominant brightness of fruit. 2019 Touchy Feely feels like a wine from a bit warmer vintage. It is drinking fantastically well. It will continue to grow and evolve for many years. But those that want a joyful moment can count on it right now. Pair 2019 Touchy-Feely with hors d’oeuvre both cold and warm, and with cheeses, all the way to ripe, redolent ones.
Vintage 2019 reviews
It has bright scents of red berries, citrus peel and dusty earth. The medium-bodied palate is softly framed and vibrant with a concentrated core of juicy fruit and a long, spicy finish. Drink 2025 - 2035
93 points; Wine Advocate January 2024
Mix of dark cherries, chocolate, dark licorice and bark on the nose. Medium-bodied, sleek and silky with delicious fruit and a chocolatey texture. Juicy and flavorful. Well made. Drink or hold.
93 points; James Suckling September 2023
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Vintage 2018 winemaker's notes
192 cases produced. 75% Grenache and 25% Syrah.
The Syrah component darkens the Grenache. Not only visually, and also structurally and emotionally. Touchy-Feely is still very much a Grenache-based wine. But more complex, more profound. It keeps all the femininity of Grenache, but leaves youth and gains adulthood. Across both nose and palate, a common theme of multidimensional space of silky fruit wrapped by mineral notes. Subtle tannin provides backbone without intruding into the duet of those front line singers: fruit and minerality.
2018 Touchy-Feely feels like a wine from a cool vintage. Where 2017 needed bottle time to tame down the power of the fruit and bring it into balance, vintage 2018 is balanced from the go. It will grow in complexity and harmony with aging, and it probably will age longer and better due to the higher acidity profile.
Pair Touchy-Feely with any food that calls for white wine. Also a salad with goat cheese. Grilled veggies! Empanadas!
Vintage 2018 reviews
Adding a bit of Syrah to Grenache results in a wine with darker fruit, a bit more depth, firm acidity, and better balance, in our opinion. The aromas and flavors evoke dark red berries; delicious on the palate with good grip and very good length.
94 points; international Wine Review July 2022
Bright ruby-red. Highly fragrant raspberry and cherry aromas are complicated by lavender and baking spice nuances and a smoky mineral flourish. Juicy and appealingly sweet, displaying energetic red and blue fruit and spicecake flavors that smoothly blend depth and liveliness. Finishes long and spicy, with well-knit tannins and resonating floraity. Aged for two years in neutral French oak barrels. Drink 2023 through 2031.
93 points; Vinous November 2021
Vintage 2017 winemaker's notes
139 cases produced. 75% Grenache and 25% Syrah.
We farm both grapes at Terra Bella Vineyard, which at 1800 feet, is the highest Grenache and Syrah in the Paso Robles Adelaida District.
Touchy-Feely has always been dominated by Grenache. By its silky texture and its bright red flavors. And Syrah has always been there to temper it with its spice and its restraint and its blue flavors. The '17 keeps up that tradition with twist of added intensity. True to the character of the vintage, its fruit side is more overt and overpowers the mineral aspects with its youth. They will come out with age for those who can wait. Can I? Should I? Difficult questions! Why wait when the call of fruit is so powerful?
But good things do come for those with patience. We know that by opening our older Touchy-Feely's . And we marvel at the balance and wisdom they achieve with some years of bottle aging.
2017 Touchy-Feely’s power gives it more range when pairing with food. It was always great on its own and with appetizers. Fish and chicken were a given. But now it can take on duck, rabbit and even lamb! I can’t vouch for what happens next year. Every vintage is a mystery into itself. Let’s run with 2017 while it lasts!
Vintage 2017 reviews
Racy yet refined, with bold aromas of fresh violet and garrigue that take on cherry, pepper and smoky meat accents, which lead to fine-grained tannins. Grenache and Syrah. Drink 2022 through 2029.
93 points; Wine Spectator December 2021
Limpid ruby. Deeply perfumed aromas of ripe red and dark berries and pungent flowers pick up spice and woodsmoke nuances as the wine opens up. Juicy and seamless in the mouth, offering concentrated black raspberry, cherry preserve, spicecake and candied lavender flavors that slowly firm up on the back half. The floral and spice notes carry through an impressively long, sappy finish that's given shape by smooth, polished tannins. Drink 2022 through 2030.
93 points; Vinous December 2020
Vintage 2016 winemaker's notes
121 cases produced. 78% Grenache and 22% Syrah.
We farm both grapes at Terra Bella Vineyard, which at 1800 feet, is the highest Grenache and Syrah in the Paso Robles Adelaida District.
Co-fermented! (co-fermentation is creativity and the mother of surprises. And also the source of great integration between varietals).
The high elevation of our Terra Bella Vineyard Grenache is the defining factor in the creation of the delicate character of Touchy-Feely. Its texture is silk. Its color claret. Grenache, the dominant variety in this blend, has a bright vivid nose that is mirrored almost immediately in the first sip of the wine by an explosion of red and mineral flavors.
Syrah adds spice and roots. This is our lowest alcohol ever for Touchy-Feely, with a moderate 14% that rounds out the flavors with no heat whatsoever. The wine is held up by vibrant acidity with a moderate amount of tannin next to it.
There’s joy in the long finish! I normally don’t use fruit descriptors, but red cherries are so vivid here that I’m going with it! They stay as a strong memory in the empty mouth, calling for more wine.
Vintage 2016 reviews
The nose is sticky red raspberry and conifer needle with underlying smoky lavender, peppercorn and camphor. The palate entry is firm and bright leading to a saturated core of intensely-focused vine berry, graphite and strawberry finishing with lithe, cool acidity. Beautifully put together. Drink 2020 through 2028.
94 points; purely domestic wine report Volume 9.2 Summer 2020
Medium dark red in color, it offers a red-fruited nose with an elegant attack of fresh red berries and spice. The most elegant of the wines in The Farm Winery's 2016 line up, Touchy-Feely has tangy acidity on the palate, is full in the mouth and has a fine red fruited finish. A beautiful wine.
93 points; International Wine Review December 2020
Deep red. Spice-accented red berry and cherry scents are complemented by floral and mineral nuances that build in the glass. Appealingly sweet and seamless in texture, offering lively raspberry, cherry liqueur, licorice and exotic spice flavors braced by a spine of juicy acidity. Finishes supple, spicy and quite long, with lingering floral notes and subtle tannis that lend framework and gentle grip. Drink 2022 through 2030.
92 points; Vinous February 2020
Vintage 2015 winemaker's notes
94 cases produced. 77% Grenache and 23% Syrah.
We farm both grapes at Terra Bella Vineyard, which at 1800 feet, is the highest Grenache and Syrah in the Paso Robles Adelaida District.
There is a reason Touchy-Feely is one of our mainstay wines. A defined character. Noticeable attractiveness! Freshness, intensity, elegance and distinction. Marriage candidate? You bet! All humor aside, these traits show up year after year in Touchy-Feely. That’s why she’s a keeper. In 2015, she shows a coltish, vibrant, restless disposition. The nose and the initial palate is pure California spring! Or Virginia summer. There’s joy and inspiration. Freshness and red fruits. Jumping and dancing in green, sunlit meadows. There’s a tension there that screams of celebration of life. It keeps edgy and fresh as it goes to the palate’s end, and then resolves when the mineral aspect shows up and blends with the fruit and the brightness to make it even more memorable.
Vintage 2015 review
Elegant, with refined raspberry, savory garrigue and white pepper flavors that build richness toward polished tannins. Grenache and Syrah. Drink now through 2026.
93 points; Wine Spectator March 2019
Vintage 2014 winemaker's notes
231 cases produced. 82% Grenache and 18% Syrah.
We farm both grapes at Terra Bella Vineyard, which at 1800 feet, is the highest Grenache and Syrah in the Paso Robles Adelaida District.
Grenache gave us a surprise in 2014. 2014 is a rare year in which we found both abundant fruit (even after a severe and deliberate dropping of fruit at veraison) and high quality. You may remember our 2014 The Dish, a stand-alone Grenache that we offered last year as our first-ever varietal Grenache? Syrah was another surprise. Depth and character were superb! So much that this is the first year we’ve bottled a varietal Syrah! (stayed tuned for the Spring 2018 Club release) We are so happy with Terra Bella Vineyard!
At first glimpse, 2014 Touchy-Feely shows a more ruby color than other years. It’s a purer, more defined hue. Very attractive! Not the dark inky colors of Bordeaux varieties, but a color reflective of a high altitude Grenache. The nose is a bit less overt than that of 2013. But more complex, deeper. Added to the spices and red fruits of last year, nature gave us this year a savory note with hints of rosemary and lavender. In the palate I find the silky texture typical of Terra Bella Grenache. Also fresh, red fruits that provide vibrancy and up-rightness. And even more interestingly, the mineral note that we found in 2013 as a memory note, this year is a dominant component of the flavors. We’ve found a Chateauneuf note without losing New World fruit!
Vintage 2014 reviews
Supple and polished, with an elegantly complex core that offers raspberry, smoky cinnamon and spice flavors that glide along toward refined tannins. Grenache and Syrah. Drink now through 2026.
92 points; Wine Spectator January 2018
This is a bold flavored blend of 82% Grenache and 18% Syrah that exhibits purity and intensity of flavor. The Syrah slightly dominates the blend, but there are definite hints of red berry fruit on the palate. A full-bodied wine that will please fans of big and dark-fruited Grenache-based wines. Aged 24 months in used 500L puncheons and 225 L French barriques.
92 points; International Wine Review December 2017
"This is new world done right!" Video link
Wine Weirdos December 2017
Vintage 2013 winemaker's notes
241 cases produced. 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah.
We farm both grapes at Terra Bella Vineyard, which at 1800 feet, is the highest Grenache and Syrah in the Paso Robles Adelaida District.
Touchy-Feely wine - She’s not sixteen anymore. She’s nineteen. She’s in college, and the world is a bigger place. The nose slowly wakes up. First a note of spices. Then a freshness of red fruits. As the inhalation lengthens, layers of complexity slowly develop. Slowly. A very feminine note, but subtle. Slowly, a bit shy.
In the mouth, the immediate sensation is freshness. Vibration. Intensity. But the playfulness of other vintages has transmuted into more grown-up poise. Serenity. A texture of silk as the wine slides across the mouth. A tension of tannin that repeats the more serious notes that the 2013 vintage shows. After tasting, the empty palate remembers a note of vivacious and fresh fruit, held up by fine grained tannins and a suggestion of salinity.
Vintage 2013 reviews
The nose is fruit forward of ripe, soft raspberry and notes of crisp black currant purity. The palate is more of a brilliant ripe raspberry on entry with a beautiful core of precise red fruits finishing with an effortlessly integrated acidity. Drink 2017 - 2023.
94 points; Purely Domestic Wine Report March 2017
Produced from 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah, the 2013 Touchy Feely gives a medium garnet-purple color and fragrant rose hip tea, potpourri and dried lavender notes over a core of kirsch, red currant jelly, Chinese five spice and anise. Medium to full-bodied and packed with expressive berry preserves and spicy layers, it has a lovely velvety frame and bags of freshness lifting the long finish. Yum! Drink 2017 - 2028.
93+ points; Wine Advocate September 2017
Brilliant ruby-red. Vibrant, mineral-accented raspberry and cherry aromas, along with hints of candied flowers and cola. Seamless and focused on the palate, offering sappy cherry and red berry liqueur flavors that become deeper and spicier with air. Finishes smooth, sweet and impressively long, featuring a resonating raspberry note and fine-grained tannins that sneak in slowly. Drinking window: 2020 - 2026
93 points; Vinous November 2017
The 2013 Touchy-Feely is an attractive blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah also sourced from the Terra Bella vineyard. The addition of the Syrah gives this wine added depth and roundness while maintaining its elegance and overall silky texture. The aging of the wine in 500L puncheons and used barriques nicely moderates the oak influence on the wine.
93 points; International Wine Review December 2016
Vintage 2012 winemaker's notes
294 cases produced. 77% Grenache and 23% Syrah.
An intense, floral nose, deep and complex. In the first sip, fresh, red fruit. Deep and tightly woven fruit texture - closer to silk than to velvet - giving support to a bigger character than 2011 Touchy-Feely. Vibrant tones. Some dry herbs. A very attractive minerality merging with extremely fine grained tannin. The tannin is more an impression than a physical sensation.
And bringing everything together, a touch of warmth. A welcome smile! Demure but playful….. In the empty mouth, the mineral note persists…. I love how the Grenache character is so influenced by the elevation of the vineyard. Touchy-Feely shows a Grenache that has a more feminine character due to the altitude. Not burly, elegant. Not rustic, refined.
Touchy. And Feely.
Vintage 2012 reviews
Bright, very rich fruit but it remains fresh. Full body, velvety tannins. Loads of fruit. Tangy. Shows the limestone brightness here. Excitingly intense fruit and freshness. Drink or hold.
93 points; James Suckling October 2015
The nose is pure blue fruit with excellent weight and polish accented with lilting floral tones. The palate offers lush strawberry and blackberry with a supple core of bright extracted piquant red berry. Beautiful wine. Drink 2016 - 2023.
92 points; purely domestic wine report December 2015
Plum and olallieberry fruits hit the nose quickly on this blend of 77% Grenache and 23% Syrah, followed by aromas of wet sagebrush, peppercorn, delicate potpourri and a hint of tar. Once sipped, boysenberry and black-plum flavors pick up cola, oregano and marjoram complexity.
92 points; Wine Enthusiast May 2016
Saturated ruby. Powerful, mineral-accented cherry and red berries on the highly perfumed nose. Supple and seamless in texture, offering deep black raspberry and cherry cola flavors enlivened by zesty acidity. Blends richness and vivacity with a deft hand and finishes with excellent clarity and strong, smoky persistence. 2017 - 2023
92 points; Vinous September 2016
Very much in the deep, extracted, concentrated fruit style of the winery, this rich, highly expressed bottling leads with suggestions of strawberries and blackberries and yet, for all of its palate weight and high ripeness, it retains its role as table wine for the way its fruit and lush yet balanced feel keeps it on track for uses with savory, long-cooked pork or lamb roasts over the next five years or so.
91 points; Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine March 2016
"A serious pedigree wine. The palate is incredibly luxurious. Nipping at the heels of Sin Qua Non." Video link
Wine Weirdos April 2016
Vintage 2011 winemaker's notes
2011 Touchy-Feely shows in first term, our love affair with the Grenache from Terra Bella Vineyard. As years go by, we’re finding increased levels of minerality, while keeping intact both the feminine side of dancing red fruits (freshness!!!! strawberries? some red cherries?), and the fine-grain tannin that gives it backbone. We’ve increased the percentage of Grenache to 81% of the blend! The balance is Syrah, also from Terra Bella. Syrah provides a bit more depth of color, some spicy notes, and a wildness that keeps this wine clearly away from the more civilized wines that are made with Bordeaux varieties instead of Rhône varieties.
Aromatics are complex and convincing as soon as you put your nose into the glass (remember: no civilized sniffing from afar! Glass touching your eyebrows, nose full in the glass, and after a while, a red smudge where your nose meets the glass.)
Mouthfeel is fresh, drinkable, with coherence between aromatic notes and flavors. And the length! I love how the memory of this wine in empty mouth reflects that space where tannin and minerality meet and form a bridge into the next sip.
Vintage 2011 reviews
Matched the highest score from Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine for any vintage 2011 Grenache-based wine.
This is really beautiful and refined with strawberry and cherry aromas and flavors. Medium body, delicate tannins and a fresh finish. Long and flavorful.
92 points; James Sucking October 2015
The nose is fragrant violet pastille, black rasberry and briar. Subtle notes of grapefruit skin and cherry. The palate has a lush fruit entry complemented by firm acidity and supple red fruit/spice in the core. Well put together. Drink 2015 - 2020.
92 points; purely domestic wine report April 2015
Fully ripened and so very nicely fruited, supple and even drifting a bit to the fleshy side in mouthfeel without going too far, this wine, like so much of what the winery produces, is both rich and hedonistically pleasing on the one hand and full of energy, longevity and promise on the other. Its high concentration may smack of the fruit-centric character that is decried in some circles, but this is California and we are going to make wines in that style some of the time. So, be forewarned. This is not a wine for the faint of heart, but, for the rest of us, it is one that will suit in any setting calling for depth and richness. And putting it in the cellar for a bit would not hurt.
90 points; Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine March 2015
Vintage 2010 reviews
Tied for the highest score given by Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine for any Grenache-based wine in the last 10 years.
This intense, impressively extracted wine is one of serious and obvious intent right from the start. Its compact, deeply filled nose of ripe berries, stones, dark soils and spice are followed up with lengthy, like-minded flavors, and, if a fairly potent and muscular wine, it is surprisingly well-structured and never become muscle bound. It's minor touch of finishing heat is a small price to pay for this kind of richness and depth, and there is little question that it will age famously and should improve for years to come.
91 points; Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine March 2014
Complex and vibrant, with juicy tart raspberry, wild berry and cranberry notes, gaining depth and ending with a long, lingering finish. Drink now through 2021.
91 points; WS 2013
It boasts very ripe aromas of huckleberry and plum with an earth/stem component. While full flavored it is still very young and tightly wound with high acidity and firm tannins on the palate with hints of loam and cocoa powder. Aged in new French oak for 24 months, the alcohol level (15.5%) is quite high compared to the other 2010s. A delicious Peter Pan-like wine that will hopefully age well.
91+ points; International Wine Review September 2013
A pretty, beautifully balanced effort that offers up notions of kirsch liqueur, black raspberry, toasted spice and licorice to go with a medium to full-bodied, supple and polished palate. Fresh, clean and elegant, with building richness that comes through with air, it should impress now through 2020.
90 points; WA August 2013