2005 Cor Cellars Momentum

Another entry from Washington, this time Horse Heaven Hills. And another Cab/Syrah blend. Only this time, it is a value wine which I picked up for $17. The 2005 Cor Cellars Momentum hits the sweet spot. It is a great, earthy, full bodied drinkin' wine at a reasonable price. It is a screw-cap, which means you can close it up and put it in the fridge easily to drink over a few days. I give it 3.5 out of 5.0.

Short digression: I am in favor of screw caps for the vary reason I mention above. Sometimes I like to have a glass by myself and don't want to have to finish the whole bottle. I like being able to throw it back in the fridge and not worry about pumping or where did I put the damn cork. It will also free up more cork for higher end wines. When I open an expensive wine, I like the way pulling a cork makes it feel like something special. I realize wine is to be drunk, not worshipped, but I enjoy some ritualization.

screw tops

Yesterday The Washington Post posted an article on screw tops. In summary it says that people think screw tops are for cheap wine because only cheap wines have screw tops; expensive wines are going to have screw tops because less wine will go bad due to cork issues; it's hard to change peoples minds once they associate cheap with something.

Most of this is obvious. Personally, I like the whole process of removing a cork. I don't mind buying wines with screw tops. What I hate is bringing a wine with a screw top to a resturaunt and then paying a corkage fee. I paid $20 for you to twist off the cap? Down with corkage fees.

There's also a bit about an expensive NZ Merlot going "pop." I'm not sure what that's all about. Maybe I just haven't been drinking enough expensive NZ wines, but I generally associate corks going "pop" with bubbly wine.