The Ball Buster (round 2) and Columbia Crest Merlot

It snowed in Seattle yesterday. This is always a huge disaster, as it generally never snows here. The abundance of rear wheel drive cars where I work doesn't help either. Trying to leave campus yesterday was impossible until way into the evening. To pass the time, we started drinking the wines we could find.

My esteemed colleague (let's call him 'Clint') happened to have one of two bottles of the 2005 Ball Buster Shiraz in his car that he had bought on my advice. He had tried the other bottle previously and agreed it was a great wine for the price. So we drank it. I enjoyed it as much as the first time. Bold, fruity, smooth. Not a real big wine, not real mineral-ly. And at 15.5% it definitely livened things up.

Then another colleague of mine (let's call her 'Lum') procured a bottle of the 2002 Columbia Crest Merlot. And a corkscrew, which we didn't previously have (The Ball Buster is a screw-cap). It wasn't bad at all. It was smooth, and that bottle emptied just as quickly as the first one. I have no idea how much it cost, but I wouldn't pay more than $10 for it. Whoever donated that--thank you very much.