Humphrey Wine Club

It's got a sweet nose. Are we able to point at the Muscat Blanc as being the cause of that? But not such a sweet palette. Definitely fruity, perhaps a very ripe plum?

We had this as a pre-diiner 'cocktail' while the oven was doing it's thing. It doesn't need food, certainly no more than a light seafood (sushi?), pasta or spring vegtable based dish.

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2008 Kennedy Shah "La Vie en Rouge" (August 2011)

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:05:00 -0800

A little nervous after a surprising start we recently had with one of it's brethren A Wine Club Wine, turned out to be totally unwarranted. The first sip was wonderful, and it really didn't change much as our dinner was consumed. Deep in color, at the purple end of the scale it's got a jammy nose. Big fruit flavors up front they soften at the back of the palette to a spicy(ish) chocolate(ish) finish.

Someone has thought long and hard about what to put in the bottle, and there's no doubt they've got this blend right. This may be a red happiest without food as the most enjoyable tastes were after our simple meal was all gone...

And, it helped us out on our quest for the Wine Century Club A Century Club Contributor...

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2008 Sirius Bordeaux Blanc Sauvignon et Muscadelle (Christmas 2010)

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:39:00 -0800

OK. Really quite pale, not a lot of nose, perhaps flowery if you have to have a description. Light and fresh with a pretty long finish, it worked ok with our meal of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and corn. It probably could just as easily be a sit in the sun wine, with or without snacks, as much as it could do the same in front of the TV - although I think we'd feel a bit better being in the sun.

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2007 Kennedy Shah Chardonnay (August 2011)

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:00:00 -0800

This might be the first white we've had where it didn't just benefit from time open and / or some time in the glass, but it really needed it. But, once we got passed the initial 'is this off?' phase it turned out to be quite pleasant so we're glad we didn't dump it based on first impressions.

The label says wooded, but didn't get much wood, if any. Definite citrus things going on both for the nose and palette and maybe some pineapple sort of thing going on towards the end of the bottle as it warmed up a little?

It joined us for a dinner of (admitedly as a random choice in a rush) Fritters A Daring Kitchen Article...

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2009 Chateau De Cugat - Entre-Deux-Mers [January, 2012]

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:16:00 -0800

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2010 - Parés Baltà "Ros de Pacs" (June 2011)

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:02:00 -0800

If there's any need to keep score of how 'pink' a rose is, this one is about as close to the red end of the scale you can get while still being able to be called pink, we think.

There's a lot of 'a little bit' going on. A little bit of sweet. A little bit of acid. A little bit of fruit, strawberry perhaps. A little bit of spice. But a good bit of refreshing!

We brough it out to share with some Tamales A Daring Kitchen Article that we had made, and we'll call it an ok match. It didn't do anything to make the food better, nor vice versa, but nothing was worse either. The tasting notes suggest chicken, so perhaps a simple roast? Definitely not a big rich caserole type thing.

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2010 St. Supéry Sauvignon Blanc [December, 2011]

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:11:00 -0800

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2007 Mankas Hills Vineyards "Amelie" (September 2011)

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:05:00 -0800

It's hard to figure out exactly what's going in the nose. Sort of fruity, but sort of like a garden too (in a good way) but not a rose garden, just a garden. Definitely got berries on the palette and a little bit of acid like things going on that were probably the tannins asking to be left in the cellar for a few more years.

We opened it up with a fairly rich Pork Dish A Daring Kitchen Article because the tasting notes suggested Korean BBQ. We'd call it a match where no one was unhappy but no one was any happier. It worked, and they didn't cause problems for each other, that's all.

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2009 Yalumba Viognier (November 2011)

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:29:40 -0800

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2008 Earthworks Shiraz (November 2011)

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:25:00 -0800

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2009 Terredora Di Paolo Aglianico (October 2011)

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:33:00 -0800

If we lived our lives solely on first impressions this wine wouldn't get far... Our first impression is that it was pretty rough.

Upon reflection, it still is pretty rough, but we see a grand future for it... We kind of feel we just go a mouthful of tannins, but as it got a little more air after sitting on the table for awhile they softened a bit, certainly enough to give some clues as to what's underneath. We're pretty certain we found cherries in there and probably the same on the nose. We really think this would benefit from spending some time in the back of the cellar, probably closer to 5 years. We don't really cellar for posterity, but we may tuck one of these away, especially since it's the first time (we're pretty certain, anyway) that we've had an Aglianico.

We did pair it up with a beef dinner A Daring Kitchen Article, and would do so again in 5 years time, we expect.

This also helped us on our quest A Century Project Qualifying Grape to join the Wine Century Club The Century Project Introduction.

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2004 Celler El Masroig "Castell de les Pinyeres" (June 2011)

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:02:00 -0700

This wine, for us, fits right in that comforting drinking zone. Basically we enjoyed it, pretty quickly actually, with a very simple dish of crostini and mushroom pâté and all was well in the world.

But nothing overly memorable in terms of specifics. So, we're assuming it was balanced because we don't remember it being unbalanced; we're assuming low in the tannin range because we don't remember thinking "ahh, there's the tannins"; we're assuming a gentle nose because we don't remember getting a big whiff of anything; we're assuming not a big palette because we don't remember any sort of flavor profile standing out. Sorry.

Having said that, we'd have the wine again. It seems to be perfect for when you feel like a glass of wine, but don't want to have to work at figuring it out.

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2010 Terredora Dipaolo Falanghina (October 2011)

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:33:00 -0700

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2009 Château Michel de Vert Lussac Saint-Emilion (December 2010)

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:23:00 -0700

We cracked this open to share with a Moo Shu A Daring Kitchen Article dish and although we enjoyed the wine, probably not the best match up we could have found - perhaps a slower cooked big hunk of pork better.

A really big nose straight off the bat (we kind of want to say earthy, but that's perhaps not quite right - what's earthy, but not so earthy?), but that mellowed the longer the cork was out of the bottle. Really well balanced, smooth even, with no change from start to finish in the mouth. A bit of those sweeter spices going on, cinnamon or clove, but not a lot.

If you really want a good Bordeaux this probably will get you there, but if you just want a good wine you'll definitely be happy with this.

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