Vino-pinionated

Tablas Creek 2012 Dianthus Rose

2013-12-13T20:43:00.003-08:00

DATE CONSUMED

Friday, December 13, 2013

VINTAGE

2012

WINERY/PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

WINE NAME

Dianthus

TYPE OF WINE

Rose

COMPOSITION

60% Mourvedre, 25% Grenache, 15% Counoise

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Grown and bottled on the estate

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California (Central Coast)

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.5%

PRICE PAID

$25.72 (wine club member price with sales tax and shipping)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this wine in our March 2013 wine club shipment. The retail price for this wine is $27, but wine club members get this wine for $21.60 ($25.72 including sales tax and shipping).

BOUQUET

I couldn’t quite obtain much (if any) of a bouquet with this wine. Perhaps the glass/vessel wasn’t conducive to coaxing the aromas from the wine. I’ve never quite experienced this with any wine before; even bubbly expresses itself aromatically out of a flute (which isn’t conducive to expressing bouquets). Weird……….

TASTING NOTES

I was almost petrified opening this wine when I saw the alcohol content on the bottle’s label. I have NEVER seen a rose come anywhere close to having 14.5% alcohol. And since we’ve been wine club members with Tablas Creek for years, I’ve had several experiences with their rose in the past. I’ve generally found their rose to be heavy and somewhat leaden. Generally, I LOVE roses made from Pinot Noir, which are usually light-bodied, lightly-colored, and delicious.

This Southern-Rhone-styled rose is fairly dark and I assumed it would also be heavy and leaden. Surprisingly, despite the color and alcohol content, it’s actually quite light and delicious. As one would expect given its varietal content, there’s an abundance of red, tart fruits like raspberries and strawberries, along with an abundant wallop of spices, both savory and peppery (especially white pepper). Like any/all good wines, there’s also a wonderful earthiness that showcases Paso’s chalky/clay soils.

This is easily the best rose I’ve ever tasted from Tablas Creek. It’s funny/weird how previous versions always struck me as being too heavy, but with this (relatively) dark and high-alcohol version, it actually tastes lighter and tastier than other vintages. If you enjoy Rhone and/or Provence roses, this is one of the best non-Pinot roses I’ve ever had out of California. Tough to beat!!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

I paired this wine with a stir-fry made from leftover pork loin and sautéed green peppers and onions (done in a kind of Chinese style). The rose went beautifully with the stir-fry and would also pair gorgeously with my all-time favorite rose companion: grilled salmon steaks. I would imagine this wine would also pair nicely with just about any pork, chicken, and/or seafood dish (especially scallops). But if I had another bottle of this beauty, I would definitely pair it with salmon steaks spiced with freshly-cracked sea salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence.

AGING POTENTIAL

Like any/all roses, they are made/meant to be drunk young. But because of the age-friendly varietals used in this blend, I would actually imagine this wine would cellar well for another year or two (or three or four?!?!) and would probably be fine in a refrigerator for a decade or so (if you’re crazy enough to attempt that, I would recommend you seek immediate, intense counseling).

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.tablascreek.com/

Tablas Creek 2008 Grenache

2013-11-20T20:25:00.001-08:00

DATE CONSUMED

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Grenache

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Grown and bottled on the estate

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California (Central Coast)

ALCOHOL CONTENT

15.5%

PRICE PAID

$32.00

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle from Tablas Creek’s (TC) wine club in March, 2011.

BOUQUET

This wine has a red-fruited (especially raspberries and strawberries), floral, spicy, herbal bouquet. I’m also detecting quite a bit of earthiness as a recurring undertone, along with just a hint of a suggestion of a rumor of oak as well. Can’t wait to taste this wine!

TASTING NOTES

Wow, this is one YUMMY wine!! No doubt partially due to its high alcohol content (15.5%, the result of ripe fruit/grapes), there is a raspberry jam component up front, along with a red cherry and (some slight) plum and strawberry characteristics in the wine’s fruit profile. In addition to the fruit flavors, there is an abundance of savory spices and black pepper, all supported by zippy acidity and crisp, smooth, supple tannins.

This wine is fairly light-bodied but it packs quite a wallop of complexity and depth-of-flavor. It is very well-balanced, smooth, silky, and has quite a lingering, delicious finish. There’s also some subtle oak and Calineuf-du-Pape earthiness running through the wine’s core structure as well.

This is one of the best California Grenaches I’ve tasted in quite a while. It is deliciously fruity, spicy, earthy, and food-friendly beyond belief.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this beauty with racks of lamb that were cut into “chops” and seasoned with Kosher salt, a sprinkling of red chili powder, and freshly-ground cumin, grilled to medium-rare perfection on the grill. This wine paired perfectly with the lamb chops/racks and would equally pair well with just about any other red meat dish (prime rib, pot roast, grilled steaks, meat loaf, etc.).

Thanks to its light-bodiness, this wine would even pair well with salmon.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking very nicely right now, but thanks to its acidity and tannins and sugar/alcohol content, this wine should age gorgeously for another 5+ years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.tablascreek.com/

Siduri 2009 Chehalem Mountains Pinot Noir

2013-11-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, November 10, 2013

VINTAGE

2009

WINERY/PRODUCER

Siduri

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley, Oregon

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.1%

PRICE PAID

$20

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We visited Siduri’s winery/tasting room in October 2011 during one of our sojourns through the Russian River Valley. If I remember correctly, this wine was on sale, so we bought a couple of bottles as well as a bottle of their Novy Syrah (another one of Siduri’s labels).

BOUQUET

This wine has a classic Pinot Noir bouquet, exhibiting plenty of earth (and forest floor), red fruits, savory herbs, with suggestions/hints of oak as well. Hopefully the wine will taste as good as it smells.

TASTING NOTES

We had never visited Siduri before but I had read several glowing reviews of some of their wines and wanted to give them a try. Their winery and tasting room is in an industrial park in the Russian River Valley and their entire operation/business model reminds me of Loring Wine Company, another maker of fantastic Pinot Noirs that purchase their grapes from some of the best vineyards/viticulturists in California and Oregon.

This Pinot is beautifully well-balanced, with smooth, silky tannins, red fruits like Bing cherries and raspberries, along with TONS of earth and savory herbs like star anise, rosemary, and both white and black pepper. The wine is fairly light-bodied but packs quite a punch and possesses an abundance of depth-of-flavors and complexity, ending with a smooth, refined, lingering finish. It has the perfect amount of red fruit, spices, tannins, oak, and acidity. In the background is a sublime undercurrent of forest floor and sage brush, along with whispers and rumors of strawberry and raspberry jam.

This is a fantastic Burgundian-like Pinot Noir. It has a fantastic spicy, herbal, earthy bouquet and has depth-of-flavor and complexity that most $75+ Pinots would envy. At $20 a bottle, I am PISSED-OFF that we didn’t buy one or two cases of this gorgeous Pinot. At $20/bottle, this wine is/was the buy of the year. Nobody with an ounce of wine experience who would have blind-tasted this wine would have guessed that it cost only $20 a bottle. I think most winos would guess that this wine cost at least $50 a bottle.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this beauty with a spiced pork loin stew. It went quite well with the stew, but if we had another bottle (or case) of this wine, I would suggest pairing it with lamb shanks/chops/racks, duck confit, roasted chicken, salmon, a pork roast or chops, prime rib, or even a simply grilled steak. Thanks to the wine’s complexity and depth-of-flavors, this wine would just about be a perfect match with any/every/all proteins, with the exception of light white fish dishes. Want a great Pinot to go with that beef, lamb, pork, or chicken dish? Start with this wine!

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking gorgeously right now and has the “legs” and structure to age beautifully for another ten years or so.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD - EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://siduri.com/

Caparone 2008 Nebbiolo

2013-10-27T19:38:00.003-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, October 27, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Caparone

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Nebbiolo

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate Grown

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.2%

PRICE PAID

Caparone prices (actually, used to price) all their wines at $14 a bottle (their wines are now all priced at $16 a bottle; they were priced at $14 a bottle for YEARS and deservedly increased their prices recently). Because I buy cases and cases of their wine whenever we’re in Paso, they provide a 20% discount for volume buyers, resulting in a net price (including sales tax) of $12.04 a bottle, making their wines one of the best bargains on the planet!

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought a few cases of Caparone’s Zinfandel and Italian varietals on the way back from San Francisco this past May (2013).

BOUQUET

This wine has a very sharp, tart bouquet, exhibiting tons of savory herbs, earth, and red fruits like raspberries and cherries.

TASTING NOTES

First off: this wine is VERY light colored, almost like a dark rose. But despite the low alcohol level and light color, this wine packs a wallop of flavor. When I first tasted this wine about six years ago, I had no idea how to interpret it; if I remember correctly, my tasting note on Cellartracker.com started off with something like, “And now for something completely different.” This is indeed a “different” wine; most Americans who are used to only drinking Cabernets and other typical reds will probably be perplexed by this wine’s uniqueness and complexity.

As the bouquet suggested, this wine does indeed have a significant tartness, along with prominent tannins. There is an abundance of red fruits like tart/sour cherries and raspberries, along with acres of savory herbs. Like all of Caparone’s other wines, this wine reveals incredible earthiness and terrior. I’ve always believed that Pinot Noir exhibits its terrior (loosely translated as “a sense of place” (taking into account soil, weather (temperatures, rainfall, wind, degrees of slope of the vineyard, etc.)) better than practically any/every other varietal in the world. But Caparone’s red wines exhibit their terrior just as well as any/every other Pinot on the planet. In a discussion I had with Dave Caparone years ago (owner and winemaker), most of their vineyards are practically dry-farmed (or close to it; in drought years, they may irrigate their vineyards a few times a year). I’ve always found dry-farmed wines to be, generally speaking, very earthy and a fantastic reflection of their soil, geography, and topography. This wine is no exception!

Caparone’s wines are also unfined and unfiltered, which I LOVE. I believe that fining and filtering wine removes potentially significant flavors and elements. Due to mostly dry-farming, unfinning and unfiltering, and having planted their vineyards decades ago (the roots of the vines have probably probed dozens and dozens and dozens of feet below the soil’s surface, in search of moisture and extracting incredible amounts of minerals from that practically untouched and incredibly fertile subsoil), Caparone’s wines are always intriguing, always earthy, always complex, always delicious-beyond-belief, and always a great value. If you’re a typical American and love Paso Zin Fruit Bombs, look elsewhere. If you truly enjoy interesting, complex, not-your-ordinary Zin and red Italian varietals, Caparone should be at the top of your list of wineries to visit. I’m rather obsessed with their Zin and Italian varietals. They’re one of the wine world’s greatest bargains and if you enjoy rustic, earthy, spicy, low alcohol, light-bodied, complexly-flavored, and extraordinarily food-friendly red wines, they’re almost impossible to beat for the price.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

About three or four months ago, we went to my parent’s house and made lamb shanks and pasta (the sauce was pretty light with not much of a tomato presence). I brought along a bottle of this Nebbiolo thinking it would pair well with the lamb shank sauce, but it really didn’t pair that well. Because this wine is so tart, earthy, herbaceous, and tannic, it SCREAMS for pasta with a ragu-like tomato sauce. Arthur made traditional tomato sauce with his garlicky meatballs and spicy sausage and this wine went PREFECTLY with the pasta; the wine’s acidity matched beautifully with the acidity in the tomato sauce. Because this wine is light-bodied and somewhat Pinot-like, it would also pair well with salmon, duck, and like most red wines, almost any red meat dish. But I like to pair this wine with pasta and tomato sauces; it’s a match made in culinary heaven!

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking very nicely right now, but because of its acidity and tannins, it should age gorgeously for another 20+ years. I would LOVE to try this wine in 2025; unfortunately, I don’t have the patience to let my other bottles sit in the cellar for another dozen years. Sadly, I just don’t have that kind of willpower. If you have some of these bottles in your cellar and have the willpower and patience to let them age and mature for another dozen years, let me know in 2025 and I’ll make you a deal: bring your 2008 Caparone Nebbiolos over to our house and we’ll make you a home-cooked meal to DIE FOR to pair with your bottle(s) of 2008 Caparone Nebbiolo.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

www.caparone.com

Fess Parker 2009 Clone 115 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir

2013-10-13T21:35:00.001-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, October 13, 2013

VINTAGE

2009

WINERY/PRODUCER

Fess Parker

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

Clone 115

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Santa Rita Hills, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.3%

PRICE PAID

$40 (Retail price: $50)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle from Fess’ wine club in June 2011

BOUQUET

This wine has a beautiful floral bouquet, exhibiting red fruit, oak, savory herbs, and black pepper. I detect a hint of a suggestion of a smidge of a note of that classic, gorgeous Santa Rita Hills (SRH) terrior that is unlike any other wine-growing region in California (if not the world). If you’ve experienced multiple Pinots from the SRH, the Russian River Valley (RRV) (the two best Pinot regions in California in my (not so humble) opinion), Santa Barbara County, and/or Napa and Sonoma Counties, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. The SRH has an incredibly unique sense of place as it pertains to Pinot Noir, in both bouquet and flavor profile. Let’s see if the wine tastes like it smells…….

TASTING NOTES

This is indeed a tasty SRH Pinot Noir, whose flavor profile closely follows the wine’s bouquet characteristics. Some SRH Pinots can be very light bodied and Burgundian, while others can be a bit richer, heavier, darker, and spicier in nature, such as this wine.

Up front is delicious red fruit like sour cherries, raspberries, and boysenberries, along with a touch of black fruit like plums and black cherries. The second most prominent characteristic is a fantastic quantity of savory herbs and black pepper. Next up is that wonderful SRH terrior. No other grape varietal in the world exhibits its sense of place better than Pinot Noir, and the soil, topography, geography, and weather in the SRH is incredibly unique and VERY identifiable for experienced wine drinkers. I can usually identify a SRH Pinot within nanoseconds of either smelling or tasting the wine because their bouquet and flavor identifiers are ridiculously obvious.

This wine is wonderfully well-balanced. The fruit, spice, unique earth/soil, creamy oak, tannins, acidity, and finish are all beautifully well-integrated and harmonize together so that all of the wine’s elements result in a delicious, versatile Pinot Noir.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

After a brutal week at work, Arthur and I needed an easy, simple-to-make Sunday night dinner since the soon-to-begin work week was just hours away. So I grilled ribeye steaks with my usual ribeye spices (Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence). This Pinot paired fantastically with the steaks and would just about pair perfectly with any other red meat dish, like lamb, pot roast, prime rib, etc. Pinot Noir often pairs well with duck, scallops, and salmon, but a Pinot that’s VERY Burgundian would be the one to pair with those dishes. This Pinot (thanks to its spiciness and medium body) should be paired with serious red meat dishes.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking beautifully right now and should continue to age nicely for another 10+ years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.fessparker.com/

Barrel 27 2008 Bull By The Horns

2013-10-06T19:59:00.001-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, October 6, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Barrel 27

WINE NAME

Bull By The Horns

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

55% Syrah, 31% Tempranillo, 14% Petite Verdot

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Central Coast (California)

ALCOHOL CONTENT

15.8%

PRICE PAID

$34.32 (includes sales tax)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought this bottle at Barrel 27’s tasting room in Paso Robles on the way back from visiting friends in Sacramento on Thanksgiving weekend last year. I had read several good reviews of Barrel 27 wines and wanted to give them a try. I can’t determine if Barrel 27 has their own vineyards and sells their wines via their non-winery tasting room in an industrial park off of Paso’s main road (Highway 46, east of the 101 freeway) or if they’re negociants and purchase their grapes from various vintners.

BOUQUET

This wine has a fantastically rich, creamy, spicy bouquet. There’s tons of black fruit and spices up front (especially black pepper and savory herbs), followed by a slight earthiness. Can’t wait to taste this Bad Boy!

TASTING NOTES

My previous tasting note covered a slightly unusual/interesting red blend that would have NOT been allowed in Europe (at least in Spain, France, and Italy). Here we are again with another VERY interesting California blend that would NOT be allowed in many, if not most/all, parts of Europe. And that’s what I LOVE about California blends; there are no written-in-stone rules and the sky’s the limit. This blend falls right in line with that last sentiment.

Who would even think about blending a Rhone varietal (55% Syrah) with Spain’s most famous varietal (31% Tempranillo), along with one of Bordeaux’s famous blending varietals (14% Petite Verdot)?!?! Certainly not me. But those divergent varietals work beautifully together, defying any/all expectations and/or preconceptions.

This is a gorgeously rich, creamy, complexly-flavored, slightly oaky, spicy, earthy blend that can stand-up to the best red blends that California has to offer (at least those under $100). The most prominent flavor characteristics are ripe dark fruits (plums especially), TONS of savory herbs and black pepper (especially rosemary and thyme), creamy oak and soft, sweet, velvety tannins, along with a certain “je ne sais quoi” that I will attribute to terrior (loosely translated as a “sense of place” as it refers to soil, weather, topography, etc.). Perhaps owing to its 55% Rhone varietal (Syrah), if I were to taste this wine completely blind, I would have guessed that this may/could have been a Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The wine exhibits that chalky soil essence and dark fruit and spicy characteristic, along with incredible complexity and depth-of-flavors.

Despite the rather elevated alcohol level, this wine is beautifully well-balanced and offers layer upon layer upon layer of nuanced flavors. Most red wines at this alcohol level are usually just big, brash Fruit Bombs; not this beauty! For the price, this is one difficult red blend to beat. Quite frankly, this is easily one of the best Cali red blends I’ve tasted all year. If I knew how well it would taste at home (I sometimes doubt my perceptions in tasting rooms on wine trips due to excessive samplings from excessive tasting rooms), we would have bought an entire case of this red beauty. It truly is that good/delicious!!!

To the guys at Barrel 27: please keep pushing that envelope! You guys OBVIOUSLY know what the heck you’re doing.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with Arthur’s famous lamb chops covered with a pesto of rosemary, roasted garlic, and parsley. It was a match made in heaven!!!! But thanks to the Rhone, Bordeaux, and Spanish grapes used, this wine would just about pair with any/all red meat dishes, especially grilled steaks, lamb shanks and racks, prime rib, and even pot roast and hamburgers. This wine is SO good it almost doesn’t matter what you would pair it with; the wine will, in essence, be the star of the show/dinner. But seriously; pair it with a quality red meat dish and you will NOT be disappointed.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking (obviously) fantastically right now and will probably continue to age, mature, develop, and evolve gorgeously for another 10+ years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.barrel27-mcpricemyers.com/

2008 Thacher Controlled Chaos

2013-09-29T21:24:00.001-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, September 29, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Thacher

WINE NAME

Controlled Chaos

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

42% Mourvedre, 35% Zinfandel, 23% Grenache

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

15.7%

PRICE PAID

$35

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought this bottle at the winery’s tasting room in June, 2011.

BOUQUET

The Mourvedre in this blend is mostly responsible for this wine’s meaty bouquet on the nose, along with some peppery spiciness and savory herbs that nicely complement the red fruit and earthy components.

TASTING NOTES

One of the best things about American wines is that winemakers and wineries don’t have to follow incredibly strict regional laws/rules/guidelines/regulations as far as what varietals they can/cannot use in their blends like they do throughout most of Europe (especially Italy and France (and extra especially Champagne, Bordeaux, and Chateauneuf-du-Pape)). In America, anything goes and anything is possible. You want to blend Pinot Noir with Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc (doesn’t that sound disgusting?), go right ahead (but only if you’re that dumb/stupid)!

Blending Mourvedre, Zinfandel, and Grenache would NOT be allowed in France but is practically encouraged in America. And if you’re the adventurous type, you will probably enjoy this blend.

Mourvedre and Grenache make for a CLASSIC match/pair/blend, but adding 35% Zinfandel to the mix makes this wine quite interesting. The Mourvedre and Grenache exhibit their usual (mostly) red fruit elements, along with savory herbs and black pepper. Where things get REAL interesting is when the Zin characteristics intermingle/contrast with the Mourvedre and Grenache (especially Zin’s almost all black fruity/jammy characteristics). Zinfandel doesn’t have the acidity and tannic structure that Mourvedre and Grenache exhibit, so the Zin’s soft, silky tannins play quid-pro-quo with the other varietal’s zippy acidity. I’m also detecting new American oak, which also adds a creamy, vanilla smoothness to the finish.

This is an extremely American red blend: plenty of red and dark fruit, lots of savory herbs and black pepper, oakiness that contributes to the wine’s creaminess, suggestions of earthiness, all bundled-up in rich, creamy deliciousness. Despite the elevated alcohol level, the wine maintains its balance and integrity (I’d imagine the jammy Zin is responsible for all that alcohol). Kind of wish we had this wine on the 4^th of July; that would have been extremely appropriate!!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with our go-to red blend pairing: ribeye steaks well-seasoned with Kosher salt and tons of black pepper, along with Arthur’s famous mushroom medley. The wine paired beautifully with the steaks and would go well with just about any/every other red meat dish (meatloaf, pot roast, lamb, etc.). Because this wine is so rich, creamy, and slightly jammy, I would stick to fatty red meats like well-marbled steaks so that the meat’s fattiness can counterbalance the wine’s alcohol.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking quite well right now and thanks to the Mourvedre and Grenache, it should continue to age, mature, and develop for another 10 years or so.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.thacherwinery.com/

2005 Chateau Doisy-Vedrines Sauternes

2013-09-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Thursday, September 19, 2013

VINTAGE

2005

WINERY/PRODUCER

Chateau Doisy-Vedrines

WINE NAME

Sauternes

TYPE OF WINE

Sauternes (Bordeaux dessert wine)

COMPOSITION

Unknown (most/all Sauternes are a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Muscadelle)

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Sauternes; Bordeaux, France

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14%

PRICE PAID

$25 for a 375ml bottle

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We exchanged a couple of over-priced Napa Cabs for a nice selection of different wines from all over the world about a year ago, including this wine as well as a 2009 vintage of the same wine.

BOUQUET

The nose on this wine has that classic Sauterne bouquet of tropical fruits (especially pineapple and mango, along with citrus peel), as well as honey elements, creamy earth, and suggestions/hints of spices.

TASTING NOTES

Make no mistake about it: this Sauterne is as Sauterne as a Sauterne can get! This is a fantastically rich, creamy, spicy, fruity, complexly-flavored dessert wine that’s tough to beat. I absolutely LOVE Port and could drink it all day long given the opportunity, but as far as chilled dessert beverages go, you CANNOT beat a well-made Sauterne.

As the bouquet suggested (actually, the bouquet completely foreshadowed almost EXACTLY how this beauty would taste), there is indeed an abundance of tropical fruits like pineapple and mango, along with some sub-flavors like citrus peel, peach, and apricot. After those fruit characteristics, the more savory/secondary elements become prominent, such as cream, honey, beeswax, mountains of minerals (think of granite from Yosemite), and especially a farm’s worth of savory herbs that I usually find in most red wines (oddly enough), such as rosemary. And of course, the finish is smooth and lingering and probably coats the throat just as thoroughly as the wine coats the wine bowl.

If you’ve never had a Sauterne before, here’s a very brief history. Sauternes are made in a region of Bordeaux (Sauternais) and is basically a late-harvest blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Muscadelle that has been purposely affected by noble rot (Botrytis cinerea), which causes the grapes to become partially “raisinized” and gives the wine that rich, creamy, deeply-flavored and distinctive profile.

Though a lot of Sauternes share a similar flavor profile, this version has more of a savory herb element that I absolutely adore. Yes, there’s the usual cream, honey, tropical fruits, and slightly earthy elements, but the savory herbs in the background really seal the deal for me. This wine is so good I would actually consider giving-up Port (not that I could afford to do that). It’s really THAT good!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We had this wine for dessert after having Korean BBQ for dinner and thought it would contrast nicely to the spicy Korean food. Sure enough, it was the perfect spoil. I’m not a big fan of drinking Ports or Sauternes with food/desserts (I prefer to enjoy these marvelous dessert wines all by themselves since they can be fulfilling to incredible depths of pleasure all by themselves), but I would imagine this wine would pair well with fruit tarts (especially those made with summer fruits like peaches and apricots) and cheeses (the more pungent the better, I would think).

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking beautifully right now but Sauternes are famous for aging nicely for decades. I’ve personally never had a 100-year-old Sauterne but with the level of alcohol, acids, sugar, and tannins in this wine I would imagine/guess that this wine would age well for at least fifty years. Personally, if I had another bottle of this 8-year-old wine in my cellar, it wouldn’t last much beyond the end of 2013.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

Unknown

2006 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel

2013-09-15T20:45:00.001-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, September 15, 2013

VINTAGE

2006

WINERY/PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

WINE NAME

Esprit de Beaucastel

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

45% Mourvedre, 28% Grenache, 22% Syrah, 5% Counoise

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California (Central Coast)

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.5%

PRICE PAID

Retail price: $45

Wine club member price: $36

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle from Tablas Creek’s (TC) wine club in November 2008. We’ve been sitting on this bottle for the past five-ish years because it’s been in a “closed” phase according to TC’s vintage chart. Their Esprit de Beaucastels are famous for being open and young and approachable for a couple of years after being released but then eventually “shut down” for a few years before opening back up. This particular vintage was in a closed phase for years and just recently reached peak maturity and is now in an open phase where it should continue to age beautifully for another five to ten years or so.

BOUQUET

The usual Southern Rhone qualities of red and black/dark fruits, along with pepper and savory herbs are prominent on the nose, along with hints/suggestions of oak and earth, though the fruit and spices are the real stars on this wine’s bouquet. Most of TC’s Esprit de Beaucastels exhibit classic Calineuf-du-Pape qualities but bouquet-wise this wine is more fruit and spices and less earth and terrior. Either way, it smells yummy. Let’s see…….

TASTING NOTES

Well, the bouquet wasn’t classic Chateauneuf-du-Pape (or it’s California cousin, Calineuf-du-Pape), but the flavor profile absolutely is!!

This wine is beautifully balanced, with the fruit, spices, earth, oak, tannins, acids, and terrior complementing each other and all the parts coming together to make the whole more than it normally could/should/would be.

This is a rich, creamy, spicy, delicious red blend that could easily pass for a Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The red and black fruits are most prominent (plums, blackberries, and sour cherries) but the abundance of black pepper and savory herbs are right behind the fruits (rosemary, sage, thyme, etc.). Next up to the plate is that certain je ne sais quoi, a.k.a. terrior from Chateauneuf-du-Pape (CdP). Finally, the perfect amount of earth and oak, along with silky, elegant tannins and zippy acidity all add-up to present a perfect, soft, smooth, lingering finish.

Paso Robles is famous for sharing many similar attributes with CdP, especially it’s soils, which is the main reason why TC partnered with CdP’s Chateau de Beaucastel to establish TC in Paso, where they excel at Southern Rhone varietals, in the form of both blends and single varietal bottlings. This particular bottle (which translates to “The Spirit of Chateau de Beaucastel) is perfectly named and appropriate beyond belief.

One final thought: there are many benefits to allowing Southern Rhone-styled red blends to properly age and mature before popping the cork. When this wine was released in (I’m guessing) 2008, it was probably very fruity, very spicy, very rambunctious, with strong, prominent tannins and acidity. Thanks to the majority of Mourvedre, this wine has aged gorgeously and has become more meaty, with the spiciness becoming more savory and less shrarp/peppery. And of course with proper aging, the tannins and acidity have mellowed a bit with the end result being a smooth, creamy, delicious red blend that, given its age, would probably be VERY difficult to find in a restaurant or wine shop. At seven years post-harvest, this is still a young, vibrant, delicious-beyond-belief fabulous red blend that is drinking fantastically right now and will probably only get better with time.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this beauty with our go-to red blend companion: CostCo ribeyes spiced with Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence. This wine paired perfectly with the steaks and would also pair well with most red meats, but I’d imagine it would drink

GORGEOUSLY with lamb, especially shanks, chops, and racks. Like most red blends, pair this wine with red meat; can’t go wrong there.

AGING POTENTIAL

As previously discussed, this wine just came-out of a closed phase and will continue to mature and develop for many years to come before fading away. It’s drinking GREAT right now and I’d imagine it will continue to drink well for at least another 10-ish years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.tablascreek.com/

2009 Melville Estate Pinot Noir

2013-09-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, September 8, 2013

VINTAGE

2009

WINERY/PRODUCER

Melville

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

Estate grown, produced, and bottled

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Santa Rita Hills, California (Central Coast)

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.1%

PRICE PAID

$32

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought this bottle at the winery’s tasting room in November, 2010

BOUQUET

No other grape varietal in the world conveys its terrior (loosely translated as “sense of place”) better than Pinot Noir, and there are few wine regions whose soil and terrior are more unique than the Santa Rita Hills on California’s Central Coast (roughly about 30 to 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara). This wine conveys that classic SRH terrior perfectly, which is difficult to describe/explain unless you’ve experienced many different versions of Pinot from the SRH as I have. And this wine does indeed translate its SRH heritage beautifully via its bouquet, with those classic SRH characteristics of peppery snappiness, an abundance of red and black fruit, along with those savory herbs running in the background. Best of all is that unique, gorgeous, delicious, mouth-watering SRH earthiness that runs through the core of most SRH Pinot Noirs. Can’t WAIT to taste this SRH Bad Boy!

TASTING NOTES

Some Pinots from the SRH are ridiculously/obviously from the SRH, such as Pinots from Brewer-Clifton. Though not as obvious as a Brewer-Clifton Pinot, this is still a fantastic SRH Pinot, displaying delicious red and black fruits like black and Bing cherries, sour plums, blackberries, boysenberries, and raspberries, along with TONS of black and white pepper and savory herbs like Thyme, sage, and rosemary. There’s the perfect amount of creamy oak playing a supporting role (not too much, not too little, just the PERFECT amount), along with that flawless SRH terrior (very unique soil/topography, with warm sunny days followed by cool, Pacific coastal influences at night during the growing season).

The tannins are still ever-present though beginning to mellow after four yeas and the just-right acidity adds a youthful vigor to the wine’s balance and finish, resulting in a smooth, food-friendly, lingering finish.

At almost four years post-harvest, this wine is still very young and vibrant, with fresh, fruity, spicy characteristics that exhibit its no-doubt-about-it origin. With wonderful depth-of-flavors, smooth, silky, creamy tannins, tart/zippy acidity, and gorgeous fruit and spices all over the palate, this is a wonderful SRH Pinot.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with a spiced pork loin from CostCo, which was a perfect match with the wine. This Pinot has so much going on that it would also pair well with lamb (racks, chops, shanks, etc.), just about any/all steaks, along with most/any red meat dish. Because this Pinot has slightly Sonoma Coast traits (dark, spicy, gripping tannins and acidity), I would recommend pairing this wine with red meats. Because it’s not very Burgundy-esque, I would refrain from pairing this Pinot with duck and other Burgundy-friendly proteins (not that it would exactly be criminal to drink this with duck and such; it’s just that this vibrant, spicy, earthy red would pair better with red meats).

AGING POTENTIAL

As previously-mentioned, this is still a young, vibrant, vigorous young wine that should continue to develop, age, and mature beautifully for another 10+ years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD-TO-ALMOST-EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.melvillevineyards.com/index2.html

2008 Brian Carter Cellars Abracadabra

2013-09-07T21:34:00.002-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Saturday, September 7, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Brian Carter Cellars

WINE NAME

Abracadabra

TYPE OF WINE

Red Blend

COMPOSITION

20% Merlot, 15% Syrah, 15% Sangiovese, 12% Grenache, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, 7% Mourvedre, 5% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot, 2% Cinsault

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Columbia Valley, Washington

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.8%

PRICE PAID

$21.99

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

Be exchanged a couple of over-priced, under-performing Napa Valley Cabs for a nice variety of other wines from around the world this past February at Total Wine & More. We did the same thing a short while ago and discovered a bottle of Brian Carter’s 2007 Byzance, a Southern Rhone-styled red blend that was FANTASTIC. While perusing the aisles at Total Wine & More, we came across this wine and having fallen in love with Byzance, we just HAD to try this one as well, especially considering the unbelievable variety of varietals used in the blend (49% Bordeaux, 36% Rhone, and 17% other).

BOUQUET

At almost half of the grapes used in this blend consisting of Bordeaux varietals, it’s not surprising that this wine conveys that classic Washington bouquet of earthy, creamy, oaky, spicy, red and black fruit aromas. Bouquet-wise, this wine could easily be mistaken for a Columbia Crest or Chateau St. Michelle blend consisting of Cab Sav, Merlot, and Syrah. But based on the ten varietals from all over the planet, I’m assuming the flavor profile will be quite a bit different from your typical Washington Bordeaux-ish blend.

TASTING NOTES

Sure enough, this wine does taste mostly like a Washington Bordeaux-esque blend, but there’s definitely something else going on in this wine (thanks, no doubt, to the Rhone and Italian varietals also used in the blend).

There is indeed plenty of earthy, oaky, and red- and black-fruited elements quite prominent up front, especially that fantastic Washington earth/dirt/terrior, along with dark fruits like plums, sour/black cherries, and blackberries, along with some red fruits like raspberries, not to mention the mountains of black pepper and savory herbs. In addition to the earthiness, fruit, spices, and sublime oak, there’s also an abundance of richness and creaminess, followed by sweet, soft, silky tannins.

It’s real obvious that half the grapes used in this blend are Washington Bordeaux varietals (Merlot, Cab Sav, Cab Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot), but those varietals from the Rhone (Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre), Languedoc-Roussillon (Cinsault), and Italy (Sangiovese) add such interesting depth-of-flavors and complexity that they make this wine MUCH more interesting than your typical Washington Bordeaux-esque blend. Up front is the usual earth, cream, oak, fruit, and spices (from the Bordeaux varietals), but running a close 2^nd place is this wine’s zippy minerality (thank you Syrah and Sangiovese!), meaty heft and acidity (thank you Mourvedre), along with a myriad of interesting 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th levels of flavors, acidity, tannins, along with a smooth, soft, elegant finish.

I fell in love with Brian Carter Cellars’ wines by accident/chance almost a year ago, and every single wine we’ve ever tried since then has been fabulous. I never knew Washington could be home to fantastic Southern Rhone blends (Byzance), and once I saw this bottle at Total Wine & More, I thought it was MORE than worth a gamble. Once I saw all the varietals that were used in this blend (from the winery’s website), I was actually quite skeptical of the wine’s potential. I’m pretty much always leery of blends that constitute varietals from all over the world (I’m petrified of any/all blends that use Pinot Noir; that’s just WRONG!!!). But this blend bucks any/all trends; the proof is in the bottle that real, quality, delicious, fantastic blends can indeed consist of grape varietals from all over the world.

Arthur and I will be semi-retiring in about ten years (when our townhouse in Southern California is paid-off) and I would LOVE to semi-retire in the Columbia Valley along the Washington and Oregon borders. With all those wonderful Pinots, Chardonnays, and Pinot Gris in the Willamette Valley and all those fantastic red ands whites in Washington, I would LOVE to live driving distance from Brian Carter Cellars. How dangerous would that be?!?!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this fabulous/delicious blend with rib eye steaks spiced with my usual spices (Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence). This wine was a PERFECT match with a well-spiced and perfectly-cooked rib eye. It would also pair well with lamb chops, rack of lamb, meat loaf, pot roast, and just about any other red beef dish.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking gorgeously right now and thanks to its acidity and tannins, I would imagine this wine would cellar fantastically for another ten years or so.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.briancartercellars.com/

2008 Zaca Mesa Z Cuvee

2013-08-04T20:47:00.002-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, August 04, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Zaca Mesa

WINE NAME

Z Cuvee

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

68% Grenache, 18% Mourvedre, 14% Syrah

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Santa Ynez Valley, California (Santa Barbara County)

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.5%

PRICE PAID

$21.50

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought this bottle from the winery’s tasting room in November 2012 when we stopped in Paso Robles on our way back to So Cal after visiting friends near Sacramento over Thanksgiving weekend.

BOUQUET

This wine has a sweet, jammy, spicy bouquet, with significant red fruit on the nose (perhaps the most prominent red fruit bouquet I’ve ever experienced with a Southern Rhone-styled red blend). There’s also subtle savory herbs, earth, and oak playing “peek-a-boo” in the background. But that jammy red fruit is like an extremely enthusiastic 10-year-old Sheldon Cooper (reference: “The Big Bang Theory”) sitting in the front row of class waving his hand wildly when the teacher asks, “Who wants to be first to read their science report aloud to the class?” That red fruit can’t WAIT to stand-up and be noticed.

TASTING NOTES

We discovered Zaca Mesa’s Z Cuvee for the first time in June, 2009 (that bottle was the 2006 vintage, which was also mostly Grenache). I absolutely fell in love with that affordable, delicious red blend. Let’s see how the 2008 fares.

Once again, for a Southern Rhone-styled blend for $20-ish, this is a difficult bottle to beat. Despite that aggressive jammy red-fruited bouquet, this wine is not a coyingly oversweet red. Zaca Mesa makes fantastic Grenache (when we bought this bottle, we also bought a bottle of their 2010 Grenache, which was amazing and I can’t wait to open that beauty in another couple of years), and with this being Grenache-based, it’s almost a given that this wine, at worst, would be good.

This is indeed a very nice red blend, especially considering the price. There is indeed plenty of red fruit on the palate, like raspberries and strawberries (thank you, Grenache!), along with a decent amount of darker fruit, like plums and blackberries (thank you, Mourvedre and Syrah!). Though there wasn’t a significant spice profile on the nose, there is indeed a significant amount of savory herbs flavor-wise, such as “Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme” (thank you, Simon and Garfunkel!!), along with plenty of black pepper. There’s also a tiny bit of oak and earth on the back-end, providing back-up for the wine’s structural integrity of perfect acidity, smooth, silky tannins, with a tart, zingy, lingering finish. This wine is a perfect accompaniment to food, especially since it’s medium-bodied, very flavorful, and VERY nicely well-balanced.

California’s Central Coast (from the Santa Barbara area in the south all the way up to Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in the north) is a haven for affordable and quality Southern Rhone-style wines (both single varietal bottlings as well as blends). Zaca Mesa is just around the corner from one of my favorite Santa Barbara area wineries (Fess Parker, who makes an extremely affordable semi/quasi Southern Rhone blend named Frontier Red, which sells for about $10 at BevMo! and Total Wine & More). So obviously the soil and microclimate in those rolling hills and valleys are ideal for Southern Rhone varietals, especially Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre (which I call “The Big Three”). The Paso Robles area makes even better Southern Rhone-style blends (generally speaking). Tablas Creek makes a couple of blends that have strikingly similar flavor profiles to actual Chateauneuf-du-Papes!!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

I paired this wine with a perfectly grilled rib eye, spiced with my Usual Suspects (Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence). This wine went PERFECTLY with the steak and would also pair well with just about any other red meat, especially lamb (chops, shanks, racks, etc.). This wine is ever-so-slightly Chateauneuf-du-Pape-esque, and it should age well and pair gorgeously with any red beef dish.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking very nicely right now and should continue to evolve and mature/develop for another 5 to 10 years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.zacamesa.com/

2010 Fess Parker Santa Barbara County Chardonnay

2013-07-28T18:50:00.002-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, July 28, 2013

VINTAGE

2010

WINERY/PRODUCER

Fess Parker

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

White

COMPOSITION

100% Chardonnay

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

The grapes for this wine were sourced from five different vineyards throughout Santa Barbara County (mostly)(I’m too tired and old to list them all, but they’re from the Santa Rita Hills, Santa Maria Valley, Santa Ynez Valley, and even Monterey County)

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Santa Barbara County, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.2%

PRICE PAID

Retail: $18

Wine club member price: $14.40

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle in June 2011 with our regular quarterly wine club shipment

BOUQUET

This wine has a very stony/minerally bouquet, along with some tropical and stone fruit elements such as pineapple, apricot, and peach. I also detected some earth and oak on the nose, which isn’t too surprising since Blair Fox (Fess’ head winemaker) likes to partially or fully ferment a lot of Fess’ white wines in oak barrels.

TASTING NOTES

After writing the above notes concerning this wine’s bouquet, I retrieved the newsletter that came with the shipment that included this wine and, sure enough, this wine was indeed 100% barrel fermented (30% of which were new barrels).

The second thing I did was scream when I noticed the alcohol level on the bottle label. I’ve had a lot of red wines with less than 14.2% alcohol, so I was petrified that this wine would be a somewhat typical Fess white where the grapes were picked VERY ripe (resulting in elevated alcohol levels) and that the oak that was apparent on the nose would be overwhelming on the palate. Luckily, neither concern came to fruition.

This is a good, decent Chardonnay, but sadly, I’ve had much better Chardonnays for a similar price (ranging from $8 to $40). Since the oak was not overwhelming and this wine carries its alcohol level very well, I was expecting a Chardonnay with more depth and complexity. Like a ripe, typical California Chardonnay, there’s plenty of tropical and stone fruit (which the bouquet foreshadowed), such as peach, apricot, mango, pineapple, pear, and apple. The barrel fermentation adds vanilla and richness; this is indeed a medium-to-full-bodied Chardonnay, with rich, creamy, oaky elements mid-palate. In addition to the oak and fruit characteristics, there’s also honeycomb and herbal elements as well. The finish is palate-clinging and lingering.

We’ve belonged to Fess’ wine club since 2007; they were the first wine club Arthur and I joined. Pretty much all of their wines are, at worst, good, going all the way up to fantastic (some of their Pinot Noirs and red blends). I do have one issue with Fess’ white wines: they tend to use VERY ripe grapes (with high alcohol levels) and the (partial or full) barrel fermentation can make their whites seem a bit heavy, leaden, overly-rich, and almost overbearing. Although I appreciate all kinds of wines made in all kinds of styles, I do prefer whites that are generally lean and lower in alcohol. If the wine has incredible depth-of-flavor with a complex flavor profile (along with fabulous balance and a gorgeous structure), I’d have no problems with a Cali Chardonnay with 20% alcohol. However, I’ve yet come across a fantastic Cali Chard above 14% alcohol with complexity, depth-of-flavor, balance, structure, and elegance that warranted all that alcohol.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

I paired this wine with scallops pan-seared in curried butter (about one or two tablespoons of butter with a light sprinkling of curry powder) and topped with freshly-cracked sea salt and black pepper. This wine paired beautifully with the scallops and because of its richness and fruitiness would also pair well with most rich/fatty fishes (like salmon), roasted chicken, lobster mac & cheese, and even pan-seared pork chops.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking well right now and will probably continue to age/mature well for another 5 to 10 years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

FAIR – GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.fessparker.com/

2012 Lynmar Rose of Pinot Noir

2013-07-21T20:20:00.001-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, July 21, 2013

VINTAGE

2012

WINERY/PRODUCER

Lynmar

WINE NAME

Rose of Pinot Noir

TYPE OF WINE

Rose

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Russian River Valley, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.2%

PRICE PAID

Retail: $25

Wine Club price: $20

Final price with sales tax and shipping: $25.54

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this wine with our quarterly wine club shipment in February, 2013

BOUQUET

This wine has a beautiful “strawberries & cream” aroma (along with cherry), which is probably exactly what it’s going to taste like based on my previous experience with Lynmar’s Rose of Pinot Noir. There’s also suggestions of savory herbs with just a hint of a rumor of a suggestion of RRV soil/earth as well.

TASTING NOTES

I have read quite a few articles/stories about how fantastic the 2012 vintage was throughout most of California. Evidently, the 2012 vintage was wonderful in the Russian River Valley as well.

As usual, this is by far one of, if not thee, best rose I’ve tasted all year. Roses that are based on Pinot Noir are almost always my favorite and this beauty fits the bill. I enjoy roses from Provence and Southern Rhone-styled roses as well, but in my humble opinion, because the Pinot Noir grape possesses unparalleled depth-of-flavors, complexity, and elegance, when properly grown and vinified, it’s rare to surpass a superior rose based on the Pinot Noir grape.

The bouquet for this wine foreshadowed EXACTLY how it would taste. This wine does indeed taste like vinified strawberries and cream. In addition to that classic English staple, there are also elements of cherries and savory herbs like sage, along with a stony mineral component. Few grapes have the complexity and depth-of-flavor of Pinot Noir, and thanks to that heavenly grape, this rose does indeed show incredible depth-of-flavor and complexity (just like most of Lynmar’s Pinot Noirs). Like most Pinots, there’s black pepper running in the background as well, running side-by-side with all of those fabulous savory herbs.

Some roses from Provence and the Rhone can be bone dry (almost painfully), but this rose strikes the PERFECT balance between dryness, fruit, herbs, earth, minerality (I just made-up that word; it’s the adjective form of “mineral”), earthiness, alcohol, and a flavor profile that my description(s) does absolutely no justice to this fantastic rose!

One quick word about this wine’s 14.2% alcohol level: that is generally quite elevated for a rose. However, this wine doesn’t taste anywhere NEAR 14.2%. If I were to taste this wine blindly, I would have guessed around 13%. So if you’re one of those “Oh my God/Allah/Buddha; this wine’s alcohol is way too frickin’ high!!!!!” relax and enjoy this wine. That 14.2% alcohol level is as sly as a fox and won’t be noticed.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

I paired this wine with my favorite rose-pairing food: grilled salmon. I take a nice, thick salmon steak and generously spice it with sea salt, freshly-cracked black pepper, and Herbs de Provence. This gorgeous rose paired PERFECTLY with the salmon steak. About a year ago, Arthur made his fantastic duck confit salad when friends came over for dinner and the 2011 Lynmar Rose of Pinot Noir paired gorgeously with his duck confit salad. As we all know, Pinot (both red/still wine and rose) pairs fabulously with duck and salmon (along with practically every other protein on the planet). As I was drinking this wine, I kept thinking about how well this rose would pair with smoked salmon deviled eggs. I haven’t tried that particular pairing yet, but I would just about bet my life that this rose would go PERFECTLY with smoked salmon deviled eggs. I know it goes well with duck confit salad and grilled salmon, but I can’t WAIT to try one of our other bottles with those smoked salmon deviled eggs; I’d bet the house that that pairing will be beyond compare!

AGING POTENTIAL

Roses are meant to be drunk young and this beauty is drinking gorgeously right now. I’ve head years-old roses that were shockingly good and because this rose has a spicy, herbally structure, I would actually imagine that this rose would age well for another year or two or three. I don’t know about anybody else, but I wouldn’t bet that our other three bottles of this rose will still be “viable” in another year or two, so we’ll be finishing the other three bottles we have in the cellar before the end of the year. But if you discover a “lost” bottle in your cellar a couple of years from now, please let me know how it’s drinking in 2015 or 2016; I’d bet $100 that this wine will still drink well up to around 2016 or so.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.lynmarwinery.com/

2005 Caparone Zinfandel

2013-06-30T20:10:00.001-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, June 30, 2013

VINTAGE

2005

WINERY/PRODUCER

Caparone

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Zinfandel

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.3%

PRICE PAID

Retail price: $14; Price paid because I buy this wine by the case(s): $12.01

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought a case of this wine (I ALWAYS buy cases of Caparone wine whenever we’re in or driving by Paso) in November 2012

BOUQUET

This wine has a very earthy, acidic, spicy, red-fruited bouquet. This wine smells like it’s going to be a rustic, classic, austere Italian-styled red wine. And based on the fact that I’ve had several vintages of Caparone’s Zin, I would just about guarantee that that’s exactly what it’s going to taste like!

TASTING NOTES

We discovered Caparone in October 2007 when we went on a wine trip to the Paso and Santa Barbara wine countries with friends (we rented a beach house in Cambria for a week and went all OVER Paso Robles for 3 or 4 days).

Caparone is not your typical Paso winery. It is a father and son operation, very unassuming/not pretentious, and in addition to their fabulous Zin, they also make FANTASTC bottlings of three noble Italian varietals (Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, and Aglianico). Their wines are unfined and unfiltered (which I REALLY like/prefer) and all their wines are the same price ($14). In case you hadn’t noticed, their Zin is not your typical Paso Fruit Bomb; Caparone’s Zin has only 13.3% alcohol, is unbelievably well-balanced, and has a depth-of-flavor that most Cali Zins would envy. The tasting profile is also atypical of most Paso Zins.

Whereas most Cali Zins have a black fruit profile, Caparone’s Zin has mostly, if not all, red fruit in its flavor profile; there’s sour cherry, raspberry, and currant fruit, along with a MOUNTAIN of savory herbs (rosemary especially) and a universe-worth of black pepper as well on the palate. This wine is rich and viscous, exhibiting more terrior than 99.9% of any/all wines I’ve ever tasted. Also contributing to its fabulous earthy/terrior essence, Caparone’s wines are unfined and unfiltered, which, in my opinion, allows the vineyard’s soil and essence to shine brightly. I’ve always felt that fining and filtering wine extracts critical elements (both flavor-wise and terrior-wise) from its profile, and this Zin SCREAMS depth-of-flavor and terrior. I’ve used the term “dirty” wine many times before (wines that parlay their sense-of-place (terrior) as well as earthiness) and this is one dirty wine (in only the best of ways)!!

Once again, this is NOT your typical Paso Zin. Whereas most Paso Zins are high-octane fruit bombs with limited depth and soft, silky tannins, this wine is rich, creamy, earthy (“dirty”), spicy-beyond-belief, delicious-beyond-belief, viscous, slightly oaky, with a depth-of-flavor that never seems to cease and a finish that goes on for light years. It is also tannic and acidic, but in only the best of ways; this wine begs to be paired with good food, whereas a typical Cali Zin can be drunk on its own. If you’re adventurous and well-versed on what a good, interesting, not-your-father’s Zin should be like, you really owe it to yourself to give this Zin a try. If you prefer safe, fruity, high-alcohol Zins, look elsewhere. If you like to challenge your preconceptions of what a Zin can/should be, and you’ve had it up to HERE with typical Zins, you truly must give this Zin a spin. It’s fabulous.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with Arthur’s fantastic baked beans and BBQ’d pork ribs (baby backs) and this Zin could NOT have gone any better with this meal. Because this Zin is big, bold, and brash (yet well-balanced, different, and elegant in its own way), I would pair it with dishes that can handle that kind of character, such as a heavily-spiced grilled steak, curry dishes, just about any kind of red beef dish, and something as traditional as BBQ’d ribs or hamburgers (especially on the 4^th of July!!!).

AGING POTENTIAL

Most Zins are not known for their age-worthiness, but due to this beauty’s structure (acidity and tannins especially), I would imagine this wine would continue to evolve and mature beautifully for another 10 to 25 years. At close to eight years post-harvest, this wine is drinking fantastically right now. And like all of Caparone’s wines (especially their wonderful Italian reds), this wine will probably age perfectly for 20 to 30 years after bottling.

One side note: the 2005 Zin is Caparone’s current Zin release (this is not a wine I bought YEARS ago). I don’t know if Caparone makes a TON of Zin and it takes years to sell through their vintage(s) or if they purposely and slowly bottle-age their wine and slowly release it to the public. Either way, if you’re looking to pick-up a well-aged and unique Paso Zin for an incredible price, you only have one winery to visit: Caparone!

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.caparone.com/

N.V. Domaine Chandon etoile Rose

2013-06-30T18:02:00.001-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, June 30, 2013

VINTAGE

N.V. (non-vintage)

WINERY/PRODUCER

Domaine Chandon

WINE NAME

Etoile Rose

TYPE OF WINE

Sparkling wine (rose)

COMPOSITION

49% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir, 6% Pinot Meunier

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

59% of the fruit sourced from Sonoma County

41% of the fruit sourced from Napa County

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.0%

PRICE PAID

Retail price: $50; Wine Club price: $35, final price with sales tax and shipping: $42.77

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this wine with our usual wine club shipment in April, 2012

BOUQUET

It’s very difficult to properly/accurately judge the bouquet of bubbly because one can’t/shouldn’t swirl the hell out of their bubbly in a Champagne flute in order to oxygenate the wine. I did my best to put my big, fat, ugly Italian nose into the flute to gather some sort of impression upon this bubbly’s bouquet but just came-up with almost nothing worth mentioning. We’ll see how it tastes………

TASTING NOTES

This is a typically wonderful Chandon bubbly. We joined their wine club in September 2009 and have never regretted a single bottle from them (Domaine Chandon makes both still and sparkling wines, but we joined their “sparkling wine club” because any/every bubbly we’ve ever had of theirs has been fabulous).

You may have heard of both Dom Perignon and/or Moet & Chandon; Domaine Chandon is the American outpost of this world-class sparkling wine producer. In fact, several of France’s best Champagne houses have American outposts in the Napa Valley (Taittinger and Piper Heidsieck to name just a couple).

This bubbly has a gorgeous salmon-pink hue and being almost 50/50 Pinot/Chardonnay, it has a flavor profile that is complex, deep, and varied. There’s an abundance of creamy strawberry notes, yeasty brioche-like suggestions, along with plenty of minerally earthiness and crisp, clean, sharp acidity that allows this wine to pair PERFECTLY with rich, fatty foods (see below for paring suggestions).

In addition to the previously-mentioned strawberry notes, there’s also yummy cherry elements, along with savory herbs and spices (especially white pepper) running through the wine’s flavor profile/core. It’s tough to beat the depth-of-flavors that come with quality Pinot-based wines (both still and sparkling) and this bubbly is a great example of how Pinot can contribute to a wine’s complexity, depth, and even bouquet and color. The peppery/herbal undercurrent, creamy cherry/strawberry fruit, mountains of granite stoniness/minerality, and well-balanced acidity/alcohol/structure all add-up to this being a fantastic American rose bubbly.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this bubbly with a pork and chicken liver mousse with truffles that we picked-up at Sprouts. As previously mentioned above, this bubbly’s crisp acidity matched perfectly with the mousse’s creamy fattiness. We also like to pair bubbly with a chicken liver pate that we buy from Trader Joe’s often. And because this is a delicious, lively, well-balanced bubbly it would also pair well with just about any seafood (especially salmon!!), crackers with humus, Arthur’s world-famous smoked salmon deviled eggs, and practically any other appetizer that I can think of. This bubbly would make just about any dish better than it would have been if eaten on its own!

AGING POTENTIAL

Most bubbly will/can age for (practically) EVER if stored properly. Domaine Chandon ages this bubbly for at last five years on the lees (yeast) in bottle before releasing it to the public. That extended lees aging before disgorgement contributes to the wine’s depth, complexity, balance, elegance, and age-worthiness. This bubbly is fabulous right now and will continue to age gracefully and beautifully for another 10 to 10,000,000,000,000 years (especially if aged at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean).

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://chandon.com/

2007 Bodega del Abad Carracedo Tinto Mencia

2013-06-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, June 23, 2013

VINTAGE

2007

WINERY/PRODUCER

Bodega del Abad

WINE NAME

Carracedo

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Tinto Mencia

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Bierzo, Spain

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.0%

PRICE PAID

$22.49

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We got this wine from winestilsoldout.com, a fantastic clearinghouse that includes free shipping when a minimum number of bottles are purchased (four bottles in this instance). The original price for this wine at release was $90 (confirmed by Wine Spectator and Robert Parker).

BOUQUET

This wine has a fantastic, fruity, spicy bouquet, with subtle elements of earth and oak. There’s an abundance of dark fruit and savory herbs on the nose, along with an earthy oakiness.

TASTING NOTES

Holy Cow!! This is a fabulous Spanish red and, as far as I know/can remember, our first experience with a 100% Mencia wine.

The first impression this wine made upon my palate: this wine is very Chateauneuf-du-Pape-like. It shares many characteristics with the world’s greatest red blend (in my humble opinion; I’m sure Bordeaux lovers are rolling their eyes like crazy right now!), including gorgeous black and red fruit, tons of spices, and that lovely earth/terrior from the Southern Rhone.

This wine is fantastically rich and creamy, with mostly black fruit (plum, boysenberry, and blackberry) along with some red fruit (cherry and raspberry). There’s also a truckload of savory spices that compliment the MOUNTAIN of black pepper. The saline earthiness and creamy, sweet tannins from the oakiness contribute to the rich, smooth, elegant, lingering finish. This wine is fantastically well-balanced, deeply-flavored, smooth, rich, and creamy, and at $22.49 a bottle, one of the best reds we’ve drunk all year.

Once again, this wine shares almost EVERY aspect with a quality Chateauneuf-du-Pape. If tasted blind, I imagine that I would have guessed that this wine was indeed a CdP. At $22.49 a bottle, if I knew just how good this wine was going to be, I would have ordered at least a case of this Spanish beauty. Sadly, this bottle is the last one of the original four that I ordered from wtso.com. Looking forward to the 2008 vintage!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with a rack of lamb and the wine could NOT have paired better with any other protein! Arthur spices the lamb and sears it in a cast iron pan and then spreads a thin layer of Dijon mustard and panko breadcrumbs on the fatty side and finishes the rack in the oven. This big, bold, gorgeous wine begs to be paired with a big, bold, gorgeous main course. It paired perfectly with Arthur’s rack of lamb and would also pair well with curried lamb shanks, a ribeye smothered in Kosher salt and a ton of freshly-cracked black pepper, along with just about any red meat dish (prime rib, meatloaf, etc.)

AGING POTENTIAL

Based on a little bit of research regarding the Mencia grape, it is generally made to be drunk fairly young. At almost six years post-harvest, this wine is drinking beautifully right now and based on its structure (it’s still slightly tannic) I would imagine this wine would continue to develop and evolve gorgeously for another ten years or so.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

93 (after I tasted this wine and wrote all of these tasting notes, I checked to see what Wine Spectator and Robert Parker gave this wine (who tasted and scored this wine YEARS ago). WS gave this wine a 93 in November 2011 and Parker gave this wine a 90+ in April 2010).

I’m 100% confident that this wine does indeed deserve a 93-point rating. Wine Spectator scores/tastes/judges all of their wines blind, meaning that when they’re tasting a wine they don’t know who produced it and how much it cost. That’s why I consider Wine Spectator THEE most reliable source for wine ratings (after me, of course!). I love it when they give a grotesquely over-priced French wine (like $1,500 a bottle) 80 to 90 points. Either way, I feel pretty good about giving this fantastic wine 93 points.

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

Original release price of $90: FAIR

Wtso.com price of $22.49: EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.bodegadelabad.com/

2008 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel

2013-06-09T19:38:00.003-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, June 9, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

WINE NAME

Esprit de Beaucastel

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

38% Mourvedre, 30% Grenache, 26% Syrah, 6% Counoise

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.5%

PRICE PAID

$38 (excluding tax and shipping) ($50 full retail)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle directly from the winery with our regular wine club shipment in October, 2010

BOUQUET

This wine has a very nice, fruity, floral, spicy, earthy, ever-so-slightly oaky bouquet, with an emphasis on herbs and spices, dark fruit, violets, and that lovely Paso Robles earthiness/terrior.

TASTING NOTES

This is a fantastic Rhone-style G-S-M/Chateauneuf-du-Pape red blend. The first thing that impresses me the most about this wine is its chalky/clay/limestone earthiness that practically jumps out of the glass. After the fabulous soil/”dirty” characteristics, wonderful red and dark fruit elements shine brightly, especially the plum, blackberry, black cherry, and raspberry flavors, followed closely by gorgeous herbs and spices (TONS of black pepper and acres of savory herbs like thyme, rosemary, sage, and lavender).

This is a wonderfully well-balanced red blend, with smooth, sweet, silky tannins, the perfect amount of oak, acidity, and alcohol, along with a gorgeous, long, lingering finish. We actually drank a half bottle (375 ml.) of 2009 Domaine du Pere Caboche Chateauneuf du Pape before we drank this Tablas Creek bottle with dinner and it was VERY interesting how closely the earthiness, fruitiness, and spiciness paralleled each other. Paso Robles shares quite a few characteristics/elements with Chateauneuf du Pape, which is exactly why Robert Haas and the Perrin family founded Tablas Creek in Paso Robles, assuming/knowing/betting-on that Paso could produce world-class “New World” versions of Chateauneuf du Pape blends along with single-varietal bottlings. Boy-oh-boy, did their homework/assumptions/research pay dividends!!!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with Arthur’s fabulous rack-of-lamb, encrusted with panko bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, mustard, and spices. This wine paired PERFECTLY with the lamb and would also pair well with a well-seasoned ribeye, lamb chops, prime rib, and just about any red meat dish.

AGING POTENTIAL

Tablas Creek’s vintage chart on their website (where every wine they’ve EVER made is categorized by the wine’s drinkability (too young, early maturity, peak maturity, late maturity, closed phase (hold), and past its prime)) lists this wine as “early maturity,” meaning this wine is drinking well right now but will continue to age and mature beautifully for another 10 to 20 years (TC’s Esprit de Beaucastel and their flagship blend “Panoplie” are famous for drinking well for the first few years after bottling and then during the (in bottle) maturing process goes though a closed/shut-down phase about 3 or 4 (or more) years after bottling). This wine does indeed have the structure/backbone to age for decades, but at 5-years-old, it’s about to enter it’s “closed/hold” phase, so either drink this wine now or assume it will be in a “closed/hold” phase for a few years and won’t be ideally “drinkable” until 2016 or so.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.tablascreek.com/

2008 Windward Vineyard Monopole Pinot Noir

2013-06-02T20:01:00.003-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, June 2, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Windward Vineyard

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

Monopole

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.3%

PRICE PAID

$30.40 ($36.52 with sales tax and shipping; $38 full retail price)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We got this bottle from the winery’s wine club in March, 2013. Windward occasionally ships older, “library” wines to their wine club members, such as this bottle.

BOUQUET

Windward, by FAR the best Pinot maker in Paso Robles (not a typically ideal appellation for world-class Pinot Noir), makes consistently fantastic Pinots.

This wine has an earthy, mostly red-fruited bouquet that also exhibits spicy (black pepper and savory herbs), slightly oaky, and a couple of dark-fruited elements.

The 2006 Windward Pinot was a classic Burgundian, light-bodied, gorgeous Pinot. The 2007 Windward Pinot had an almost Northern Sonoma Coast, dark, rich, spicy profile that could not have been more different from the 2006 (2007 was an extremely dry year, resulting in wines that were uncommonly dark, rich, and spicy). This 2008 appears to be somewhere between the 2006 and the 2007 vintages. Let’s see how it tastes………

TASTING NOTES

Once again, Marc and Maggie (Windward’s proprietors) have made another delicious, elegant, deeply-flavored, complex, fantastic Pinot.

As the color and bouquet suggested, this wine is indeed somewhat of a cross between the 2006 and 2007 vintages, though much closer to the 2007 than the 2006 (the 2006 was opaquely red, whereas the 2007 (and the 2008) are much darker, bordering on VERY dark red, if not almost purple/black). This wine does have some red fruits in its flavor profile (sour cherries and raspberries), along with some dark/black fruits as well (plums and blackberries), in addition to a TON of savory herbs and a healthy dose of Paso earthiness. The barrels used in the winemaking process have added a bit of oak with just a hint of a rumor of a suggestion of some vanilla as an undercurrent.

This is a very well-balanced, smooth, delicious Pinot with the right amount of acidity and alcohol, along with a flavor profile that runs deep and complex. Again, this is a dark, rich, spicy, almost North Coast-esque Pinot Noir. And that is NOT a bad thing when it’s done properly/correctly. Not exactly Burgundian, but delicious and yummy in so many wonderful ways!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with Arthur’s homemade Duck Confit, along with a potato and mushroom stirfry utilizing some of the duck fat from the Duck Confit. As any/everybody knows, Pinot pairs beautifully with duck and mushrooms. The 2008 Windward Pinot was no exception.

Because this is a dark, rich, spicy Pinot, it would also pair well with grilled steaks smothered in a peppery mushroom medley, a beautifully-spiced rib roast, pot roast, and just about any other red meat dish. Because this Pinot is rich, dark, and spicy, do NOT pair this wine with salmon or other seafoods, which pair beautifully with truly light-bodied Burgundian Pinots (as in the 2006 Windward Pinot).

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking fantastically right now and thanks to it’s soft, elegant tannins and well-balanced acidity, it should continue to drink well for another 10+ years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.windwardvineyard.com/

2010 Villa Creek White

2013-05-05T18:53:00.003-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, May 5, 2013

VINTAGE

2010

WINERY/PRODUCER

Villa Creek

WINE NAME

White

TYPE OF WINE

White blend

COMPOSITION

65% Grenache Blanc, 30% Roussanne, 5% Picpoul Blanc

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.9%

PRICE PAID

$26

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought this bottle at the winery’s tasting room in June 2011 during a wine trip through Paso Robles to attend the Pinot & Paella Festival.

BOUQUET

This wine has a minerally and floral bouquet, like most Rhone white blends, with an emphasis on stony elements. There’s even a hint of a rumor of a suggestion of butterscotch on the nose as well. Based on the varietals used in the blend and the wine’s bouquet, I’m guessing this wine will taste mostly like tropical fruits and pears/apples that have commingled with tons of granite rocks and boulders for a while. Let’s see………

TASTING NOTES

I wasn’t too far off! This wine has a serious stony/minerally core running through its essence that’s impossible to ignore. The Grenache Blanc is mostly responsible for that stoniness and the Roussanne contributes a waxy, rich, creamy undertone as well. There are indeed some tropical fruits in the mix (especially pineapple), along with pears, apples, and quince as well.

This is a crisp, brisk, delicious white blend with fantastic acidity, meaning it will pair beautifully with food (see below). We’ve had quite a few white Southern Rhone blends out of Paso and this is easily one of the best. It’s terrifically well-balanced, has layers of delicious flavors, is crisp and clean almost to a fault (if that’s possible), has the perfect amount of alcohol, acidity, ripeness, earthiness, fruitiness, stoniness, and balance. Quite frankly, this is one of the best (if not THEE best) white blends we’ve had all year!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We had this wine before dinner with roasted pine nut hummus with seven grain and flax seed crackers. While the wine went well with the hummus, it was almost a waste of such a wonderful wine. This wine would pair brilliantly with real food, i.e. a slow-roasted pork roast smothered in sauerkraut, roasted/broiled/fried chicken, and practically ANY seafood dish (especially rich seafood like salmon or just about any shellfish like clams, oysters, or scallops). A seriously good wine like this should be paired with a seriously good food.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking beautifully right now and will probably continue to evolve and mature gorgeously for another five to ten years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD - EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.villacreekwine.com/

2005 Opus One

2013-04-01T19:19:00.003-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, March 31, 2013 (Easter)

VINTAGE

2005

WINERY/PRODUCER

Opus One

WINE NAME

Opus One

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, 1% Malbec

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Napa Valley, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.0%

PRICE PAID

N/A (this wine was a gift from my dad’s cousin)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

This wine was a gift for my dad from my dad’s cousin, who used to have a liquor store and bought all kinds of wines by the case(s). Since we have a wine cooler/fridge, we stored this wine for my dad until he was ready to open it.

BOUQUET

This wine explodes with black fruit and herbs, along with hints/suggestions/rumors of earth and oak. This wine smells like it’s going to be a rich, creamy, fruity, spicy, delicious Bordeaux blend. Let’s see if the bouquet properly foretells how the wine will taste………

TASTING NOTES

WOW, this wine is indeed a rich, creamy, silken, gorgeous blend with tons of black fruit (plums, black cherries, and blackberries), as well as secondary tones of red fruits like raspberries and cherries, along with savory herbs, creamy oak (which contributes a touch of vanilla in the background), and still-firm, ripe tannins supporting a rock-solid structure.

This Bordeaux blend’s elements are all beautifully integrated; the black/red fruit, spices, earth and oak, tannins and acidity, exceptional fruit and flavor extraction, with a beautiful, smooth, well-balanced and lingering finish.

My dad’s cousin gave Arthur and me a 1997 Opus One years ago and it was FANTASTIC. We had this 2005 Opus One for Easter dinner, along with a 1993 Opus One (see my notes on the 1993 as well; it was VERY different from this 2005 version). Of the three Opus Ones I’ve tasted over the years, I would have to say the 1997 was the best, followed by the 2005, and then the 1993. The 1993 Opus One was very Old School (austere, lower alcohol, etc.), while the 1997 was more “modern” while this 2005 is a VERY modern Napa Valley Cabernet/Bordeaux Blend. In other words, this blend is indeed extraordinarily rich, creamy, fruity, and delicious.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with lamb chops topped with a roasted garlic, rosemary, and parsley pesto-like sauce. The combination of the rich, creamy, ripe fruit and the wine’s savory spices paired gorgeously with the savory, spicy lamb.

This wine would also pair well with just about any other red meat dish, especially a thick ribeye, curried lamb shanks, or prime rib.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking GORGEOUSLY right now and has the structure to continue to mature and age beautifully for another 20+ years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

Unknown (don’t know what this wine cost years ago and I’m not sure you could even find this bottle anywhere anymore)

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.opusonewinery.com/

1993 Opus One

2013-04-01T18:39:00.003-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, March 31, 2013 (Easter)

VINTAGE

1993

WINERY/PRODUCER

Opus One

WINE NAME

Opus One

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 4% Merlot

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Napa Valley, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.5%

PRICE PAID

N/A (this wine was a gift from my dad’s cousin)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

This wine was a gift from my dad’s cousin, who used to have a liquor store and bought all kinds of wines by the case(s). We had Connie over for dinner one night and she graciously gave my parents and us a bottle of 1993 Opus One. How sweet was that?!?!

BOUQUET

The bouquet on this 20-year-old wine screams red fruits (as opposed to the more normal (nowadays, at least) black fruits), such as raspberries, sour cherries, and currants, along with suggestions of oak and earth. There’s also a touch of petrol on the nose; it’s not real obvious or overwhelming, but I detected a subtle hint of it in the background. Perhaps that’s a common trait of 20-year-old Napa blends? I don’t have enough experience with Napa blends that old to really know for sure.

TASTING NOTES

This wine, 19.5 years-ish after the grapes were harvested, is VERY interesting. We all know that Bordeaux varietals can age for decades, and I assumed this wine would have aged brilliantly. We cooled-down the wines and then decanted them (we also had a 2005 Opus One with Easter dinner, which I also wrote some notes on) for about two hours, which really helped with the bouquet as well as the sediment that had developed almost twenty years after harvest.

One major precaution: DO NOT expect a modern, fruity, rich, creamy Bordeaux blend out of this wine. Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild made wines much differently twenty years ago. Wines (in general) from twenty years ago were much more austere, had much lower alcohol levels, and were picked earlier during harvest (probably in September back in 1993, versus late November nowadays (ok, I’m exaggerating a bit there, but you get my point)).

This wine tastes VERY much like my favorite California Zinfandel: Caparone out of Paso Robles. They do not make typical Paso Fruit Bombs; they make a fascinating, spicy, interesting, unique Zin (in addition to their lovely Italian varietals) unlike any other Zin I’ve ever tasted. Their Zin is more like Grenache, and this Opus One tastes more like a Caparone Zin and/or a Grenache than a typical Napa Valley Bordeaux blend.

The wine is VERY bright and viscous with a mostly red fruit profile of raspberries and sour cherries (just like the Caparone Zin!). There’s also a generous helping of savory herbs (thyme, Herbs de Provence, white pepper, and rosemary) and gritty, mature tannins with earth and oak undercurrents. This wine has plenty of acidity and like most well-aged reds, the fruit has taken a backseat to the spices, oak, and earth elements. I was actually expecting some leathery undertones but couldn’t detect them.

This is a delicious, smooth, well-balanced, deeply complex wine with a fascinating flavor profile. It is past the classic Napa “fruity phase” and may be running out of steam. If anybody still has this wine in their cellar, I would recommend opening and finishing it soon. We have one more bottle and will definitely finish it this year. Again, do NOT expect a big, rich, creamy, fruity Napa Fruit Bomb. This wine is graceful, mature, delicate, and pretty (kind of like Meryl Streep). If you’re more into the big, brash, crude/rude, obnoxious, trashy reality T.V. show types (like the Cuntdashians), look elsewhere.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with lamb chops topped with a roasted garlic, rosemary, and parsley pesto-like sauce. The combination of the savory, spicy wine paired gorgeously with the savory, spicy lamb.

This wine would also pair well with just about any other red meat dish, as well as spiced/marinated pork and/or chicken dishes.

AGING POTENTIAL

As previously mentioned, this wine is drinking well right now, but I don’t believe it has much life left in it. If you have this wine, drink it now before it’s too late.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

Unknown (don’t know what this wine cost years ago and I’m not sure you could even find a bottle this old anywhere)

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.opusonewinery.com/

2009 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc

2013-03-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Friday, March 27, 2013

VINTAGE

2009

WINERY/PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

WINE NAME

Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc

TYPE OF WINE

White blend

COMPOSITION

62% Roussanne, 26% Grenache Blanc, 12% Picpoul Blanc

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.5%

PRICE PAID

Retail: $40.00

Wine Club Price $30.40

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle with our bi-annual Tablas Creek wine club shipment in October, 2010

BOUQUET

We decanted this wine about 15 minutes before drinking/serving with dinner to encourage the wine’s bouquet to blossom because Tablas Creek’s wine’s are famous for greatly benefiting from decanting, cellaring, and savoring over good food.

This wine has an almost Chablis-like nose, exhibiting an earthy chalkiness, along with tropical and Autumn fruits (like pears and apples), along with white flowers.

TASTING NOTES

This is a lovely Southern Rhone-style white blend. The almost 2/3-worth of Roussanne contributes to the wine’s medium-bodied heft, along with the wine’s creaminess, richness, tropical fruits, and waxiness. The Grenache Blanc and Picpoul Blanc contribute a zingy zippiness (aka acidity, stoniness, and minerality), along with added depth-of-flavors.

This is a wonderful summer/spring-time white blend. I enjoy a good Chardonnay, Riesling, and/or Sauvignon Blanc (to name just a few) as much as the next guy, but I absolutely LOVE a good, quality, well-made blend (bubbly, rose, white, and/or red). This is one of the best white blends I’ve had all year; it has a nice, floral, fruity nose, along with a creamy, stony, minerally, tropical and citrusy flavor profile. This wine would be very nice as an aperitif but it is SO food-friendly that I would stick to serving this wine with quality food.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with my world-famous salmon steaks spiced with freshly-cracked sea salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence. This wine paired beautifully with the salmon; the rich/creamy components of the Roussanne complemented the fish’s rich, creamy, fattiness while the Grenache and Picpoul Blancs’ zippy acidity complemented/counter-balanced the exact same qualities of the salmon (rich, creamy, fattiness).

This is a very food-friendly/versatile white blend. It paired perfectly with the salmon and would also pair equally well with other rich and/or lean seafoods like scallops, lobster, clams, oysters, crab, etc. I believe it would also pair well with linguine in clam sauce, as well as most chicken dishes (roast, fried, and/or broiled). Quite frankly, this wine is so versatile it would pair well with just about anything other than red meats and pastas with cream and/or tomato sauces.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking beautifully right now though I’m not sure it has the “legs” to last much longer. According to Tablas Creek’s vintage chart, this wine is in an “early maturity” stage, meaning it has years to go before reaching peak maturity. Frankly and honestly (do I speak/think/write any other way?!?!), I believe Tablas Creek is a bit optimistic about their white wine’s aging potential. We’ve had other white wines that they classified as “early maturity” that I felt were VERY near their peak maturity (and perhaps even a bit past). If you have this wine in your cellar, I would drink it before the end of the year. According to Tablas Creek, this wine should last another four or five years (or more). Since we all could die within the next moment or two, I would drink this wine quite soon. How tragic would it be to die with cases of fantastic, well-aged, ready-to-drink wines in your cellar that haven’t been drunk yet?!?! Exactly………..

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

91 Points

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.tablascreek.com/

2008 Windward Barrel Select Monopole Pinot Noir

2013-03-11T20:36:00.001-07:00

DATE CONSUMED

Monday, March 11, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Windward Vineyard

WINE NAME

Monopole Barrel Select

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Pinot Noir

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

See above

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.3%

PRICE PAID

$49.60 ($53.20 including sales tax and shipping) (full retail price is $62)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle from Windward’s wine club in November 2012

BOUQUET

This wine has a very earthy and slightly oaky/fruity/spicy nose. There are suggestions of savory herbs and black pepper, as well as red and black fruits and hints of floral elements (like violets). We’ve belonged to Windward’s wine club for years and know that this wine is going to be delicious. The bouquet doesn’t quite foretell the quality of this wine; most quality California Pinots have big, beautiful, floral qualities in addition to the classic earth, fruit, spice, and (to varying degrees) oaky elements. This wine falls a bit short on the bouquet front (though it IS there). We’ll see how it performs on the taste front.

Side note: after this wine had a chance to breathe for about an hour or so, the floral elements really rose to the occasion. So if you have this wine in your cellar, cool it down for a bit and decant it for at least an hour; you’ll clearly be rewarded.

TASTING NOTES

Oh yeah, I just KNEW this wine would be fabulous!

Windward sets aside their very best barrels for their Barrel Select program (similar to the “Private Reserve” system that a lot of wineries employ). I don’t know what percentage of Windward’s production becomes part of their elite barrel selection, but imagine Marc (Goldberg, winemaker and co-owner of Paso Robles’ best Pinot Noir producer, by FAR) barrel sampling their (for example) 100 barrels of the 2008 vintage and coming across ten barrels that are superior to the other 90 barrels from that same vintage. As we all know, every bottle, every barrel, and even every glass of the 2008 Windward Pinot Noir will be different from every other bottle, barrel, and glass because every single berry is slightly different from every other berry that is grown on Windward’s fifteen-acre estate. If a particular Windward vintage produces 15,000,000,000 Pinot Noir berries, the combination of those 15,000,000,000 different berries will produce similar but different-tasting barrels (as well as bottles and glasses). Marc goes through each barrel in the winery and picks the best of the best to bottle as their Monopole Barrel Select.

This is a spectacular Paso Robles Pinot Noir, a region that is not known for Pinot at all. Paso, generally speaking, does Zinfandel and Southern Rhone varietals very well. But Pinot Noir is generally done much better in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley, Napa Valley, and the Santa Barbara area (in general). Somehow/someway, due to Paso’s many varied microclimates, Marc and Maggie have come across the absolutely PERFECT spot to produce world-class Pinot Noir.

This is a rich, dark, spicy, beautifully well-balanced Pinot Noir. The usual red and black fruits are present (black berries, raspberries, sour/black cherries, plums, etc.), along with a significant amount of savory herbs and black pepper. There is touch of oak and a dollop of cream and vanilla as an undercurrent. The flavor profile for this wine goes long and deep, exhibiting complexity, subtlety, grace, balance, and refinement. This wine tastes like it came from the Northern Coast of Sonoma County, whose Pinots can be extraordinarily rich and complex due to the severe weather and complex terrior. As I’ve written several times before in reviewing Windward Pinot Noirs, it is absolutely amazing how Marc and Maggie can produce such extraordinary Pinot Noirs in Paso Robles. Their Pinots are BY FAR the best Pinots out of the Paso AVA. Quite frankly, their Pinots compare (and beat) the vast majority of Pinots that come out of Napa and the Russian River Valley. They truly are that good!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We opened this wine on a Monday because today is Arthur’s birthday. We only open Windward Barrel Select Pinots on special occasions because they truly are special.

We paired this wine with a simply-spiced rack of lamb (Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence, my favorite/go-to savory herb blend). To say that this wine was a PERFECT match with the rack of lamb would be the understatement of the century! Due to it’s spiciness, richness, and creaminess, this wine would also pair well with just about any other red meat, especially grilled steaks, lamb chops, and lamb shanks.

Pinot Noir generally pairs well with duck, but you really have to be careful when pairing Pinot with duck. Only light-bodied, feminine, elegant Pinot Noirs should be paired with duck (like Windward’s 2006 Pinot, my favorite Windward Pinot of all time!). A dark, rich, spicy, heavily-structured Pinot like Windward’s 2008 Pinot should be paired with beef. Just a suggestion……….

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking beautifully right now and due to its structure should continue to age and mature gracefully for another ten-plus years. If we had the patience, I would have loved to open this bottle in another five years or so. Sadly, we simply don’t have that kind of patience or the number of bottles in our inventory to last that long.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD - EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.windwardvineyard.com/

2006 Brian Carter Cellars Byzance

2013-03-03T19:50:00.001-08:00

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, March 3, 2013

VINTAGE

2006

WINERY/PRODUCER

Brian Carter Cellars

WINE NAME

Byzance

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

61% Grenache, 21% Syrah, 18% Mourvedre

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Columbia Valley, Washington

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.2%

PRICE PAID

$29.99

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought this bottle at Total Wine & More earlier this month after falling in love with the 2007 Byzance (also bought at TW&M). We buy very little wine from wine stores (except daily drinking affordable bubbles, whites, and reds from BevMo during their 5Cent Sale), but after being “wow’d” by the 2007 Byzance, we just HAD to try another Byzance (not sure why TW&M had the 2007 before offering the 2006, but that’s an irrelevant point).

BOUQUET

This is my kind of wine, based on the bouquet. I love earthy, “dirty” wines (my own term for earthy wines), and while most wines exhibit fruity and/or spicy bouquet elements, the most prevalent characteristic for this wine is its earthiness. The red/black fruit and spices reveal themselves as a subtle undercurrent on the nose, but this wine’s “dirtiness” is its most compelling bouquet factor.

TASTING NOTES

This is a delicious, rich, creamy Southern-Rhone blend. As previously-mentioned, I absolutely LOVED the 2007 Byzance, and though I really like this wine, I do indeed prefer the 2007. As best I can remember, the 2007 was a bit more spicy and fruity, whereas this wine is much creamier. Either way, this is a wonderful red blend.

The most noticeable trait of this wine is its rich, creamy, slightly oaky essence. Showing classic GSM traits, there’s also beautiful red and black fruits (plums, blackberries, and raspberries), in addition to savory herbs and black pepper. I believe a lot of the creaminess comes from the undercurrent of oak, which also lends the wine a slightly vanilla sub-current. I HATE comparing wines and/or vintages to others (which is usually very unfair and just not quite right, because the weather has a MAJOR influence/impact upon a wines essence), but because I absolutely loved the 2007 Byzance, I just had to go back to Total Wine & More and try another Brian Carter Cellars wine. When we bought this wine, we also bought a bottle of Brian’s 2008 Abracadabra, which we will probably try later this year, if not next.

No matter how you slice it, this is a very nice, creamy, spicy, earthy (“dirty”), delicious GSM. It’s possible I prefer the 2007 because that blend included Counoise and Cinsault, which, like any/all blends, every varietal brings something interesting and different to the party. I’ve been a HUGE fan of GSM blends for years. But in my humble opinion, “the more, the merrier.” Again, this wine is fabulous. If you enjoy rich, creamy, spicy, “dirty” Southern Rhone blends, this one’s difficult to beat. I cannot WAIT to try the 2008 Abracadabra.

In case you missed my musings about the 2007 Byzance, I had never even heard of Brian Carter Cellars before we exchanged a couple of over-priced/under-performing Napa Valley Cabernets for several highly-rated and nicely-priced alternate wines about six months ago. I am SO glad that we returned those over-priced Cabernets because that’s how we discovered the fabulous red wines of Brian Carter Cellars. Looking VERY forward to opening that 2008 Abrcadabra!

By the way, Byzance is French for “luxurious.” To quote Dumber-than-Dubya John McCain, “call it a banana if you want.” Call this luxurious, call it a banana, call it “rich, creamy, silky, “dirty,” delicious, yummy, and/or fabulous,” this is one fantastic GSM blend (Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre). Once again, Brian Carter Cellars steps up to the plate and hits one out of the park!

Arthur and I belong to five wine clubs. Living in California, there are obviously hundreds/thousands of wonderful wineries that we would love to belong to their wine clubs. Because The Golden State offers so many wonderful wines, we’ve never considered belonging to a non-California wine club (we prefer to eat and drink locally whenever possible). But Brian Carter Cellars is now at the top of our list of non-California wineries that we would very seriously consider joining. The 2008 Abracadabra just might be the deciding factor. Stay tuned……

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this beauty with simply-spiced lamb chops (Kosher salt and black pepper) and like most/any other GSM blend, this wine would just about pair beautifully with any red meat dish (meat loaf, pot roast, any/all steaks, lamb shanks/chops/racks, etc.).

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking beautifully right now and will probably continue to age, mature, and develop nicely for another 10 to 20 years.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.briancartercellars.com/