a whole lot of Justin

I just got another shipment from Justin so I keep finding excuses to open them.



We start with the 2006 Justin Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a special one for me because I have never had it before. Indeed, this is the first time I have got a shipment of it. It was an inky purple wine (which I like), and full of oaky fruit (which I also like). This is a great wine, but at $45 it just is not as thrilling as some other California Cabs in that price range. The wine club price of $36, however, makes it a very reliable drinker, and a good deal.



Next we have the 2006 Justification, the 63% Cab, 37% Merlot blend. I used to say the Isosceles was my favorite wine, but now I just can not make up my mind between the Justification and the Isosceles. Really, these are where Justin earns all my respect. Their Cab, their Syrah, their whites--all good solid wines, and alone they would make a respectable line. But these blends! This is where Justin really shines. I opened this on election night to celebrate.



Third was the 2006 Justin Syrah. I could smell the pepper and taste the fruit, the cassis, and the oak. This is a great Syrah--not as good as the 2002 Reserve Syrah, but still a nice bottle. Certainly it impressed my guests who got to drink some.



Lastly we opened a bottle of the 2007 Viognier. Not a lot to say about it. If I have to drink white, I like to drink Viognier. I would drink this one again. It was light and crisp, not syrupy-sweet.

2006 Chateau Montelena Potter Valley Riesling

Sara's father bought this from the winery on our last Napa trip. I think it was around $14.



The wine was very yellow with fruit and floral notes. It was dry for a riesling, but still very nice to drink. Today it is supposed to top 100 degrees again here in the Bay Area, so if you have some in the fridge, now would be the time to pull it out and drink it.

2005 Chateau Boswell Chardonnay

Yes, I know. Another white wine. New job, new zip code... new taste in wine? Not really. I still like the reds. I got this for my wife for St. Valentine's day. Every time we go to napa, we drive by Boswell, since we really like the building. We've never made an appointment to go visit it, however, so we had never actually tasted the wines.

As I was shopping for gifts on the 13th, I wandered into the Oakville Grocery and discovered their wine sale. The 2005 Chateau Boswell Chardonnay was $72 but was on sale for 40% off. And it had a picture of the winery on the label.



This is my new favorite Chardonnay. Aside from the price, this wine was perfect. It was everything I want in a white wine. It had definite notes of pear and buttery-oak, but nothing was over powering. It did not taste like Welche's white grape juice--if it had I probably would have returned it. This wine was a very pleasant and bright wine, but subtle. It was not a sweet wine, but it was drinkable by both Sara and I. It is rare that we finish a bottle of anything these days, but we killed this one.

I should mention we had this with a Cassoulet that Sara made out of lentils, beans from Rancho Gordo and mild Italian sausage. You may not think it would be a white-wine dish, but it worked out surprisingly well.

1997 laurent-perrier champagne

I do not know much about Champagne. Usually I ask for Veuve Clicquot and everyone nods approvingly. I am also aware, thanks to popular culture, of Dom Perignon and Cristal. But I have never had either one.

So on New Years Day Sara's father popped the 1997 Laurent-Perrier Champagne and I drank it. It was good. I do not have the adjectives to describe it. Here is a picture though:



It was crisp. Not too sweet, not too dry. Not buttery, not white-grape juice tasting either. It was just a nice, well made, drinkable wine. Tiny bubbles.

australian tasting notes

The tasting at Nabil's was a lot of fun. Before I get to the notes, I wanted to mention the Distributor. The distributor doing the pouring was a good guy to talk with. He was not pretentious or stuffy in any way, and you could tell he had genuine love for the wines he was pouring. Ben and I were among the first people there at 1pm (sorry for the time change--it was snowing and all my plans were thrown off), and at one point I suggested he change the order of which he was tasting the wines. Some people doing tastings would have scoffed or been snooty about this. Having a friendly and approachable person doing the tastings is a big plus in my book. I wish I remembered his name so I could give a proper shout-out.

Anyway, on to what I thought:

2006 Black Chook VMR "White blend" - I didn't look too closely at the blend, but this is a decent white if you have to drink one. The price point was just right at about $12. Chook is Australian for Chicken, in case you were wondering.

2006 Catalina Sounds Pinot Noir - Ben refused to taste this one on principle. I tasted it solely on principle ("never turn down free wine"); it was fine. It was a pinot. If you like pinot, you'll probably like this. Not my thing. Also note, this one is from NZ, not AU.

2005 Kaesler Stonehorse Shriaz - A smooth and well-made wine. At about $20, this is a great wine to have and to drink. This isn't you classic ginormous, jammy, earthy, Aussie Shiraz. This is, as Ben said, "more like a French wine." It's incredibly approachable and anyone could enjoy this wine. I'd give it 3.5 / 5.

2004 Glen Eldon Dry Bore Shriaz - This is you classic Aussie Shiraz. This wine is dry as hell and gritty. I loved the dark, full-bodied taste. Again, at $20 you can't go wrong. For fun, get one of these and one of the Kaesler's and treat your guests. This is the wine that I suggested the order change for--he was originally tasting this before the Kaesler.

2005 Delisio Krystina - A classy wine. This is more like the Kaesler than the Glen Eldon: smooth and approachable. It's the best $30 Aussie I can think of right now. It's at least as good as some wines that are much more expensive (such as certain wines made by Sarah and Sparky). It actually reminded me of some Delille wines. I'm not sure I could pick this as an Aussie wine in a blind tasting.

2005 Amon Ra Godolphin - This is what brings the kids out to the tasting. This is, perhaps, a canonical example of a Shiraz. A great wine, but still young. If I was going to drink now, I'd pick any of the above three over this one.

Overall, a great tasting.

2006 Justin Chardonnay

It's rare that I drink or review a white wine, but I'm in Justin's wine club, and they keep sending them. The other day we drank the Chardonnay.

It was good. Crisp, no alcohol burn, decent flavor. There was no oak, no butter... just fruit.

And that's about all I really have to say about it. Justin does everything well (except that Rose that I had--that was utter crap, but... it was a Rose).

2006 Rochioli Sauvignon Blanc and the Wild Ginger Wine Celler

I took Sara to Wild Ginger last Friday, since she had never been. Finding a good red wine to go with Thai and other Asian food is hard. Experience has show it's better to just go with a nice white. So I asked Nabil to help me find a decent white. I asked for something that wasn't sweet, was a bit crisp and had some fruit to it. He brought me the 2006 Rochioli Sauvignon Blanc. At $30, I was a bit skeptical, but he assured me it would be wonderful.

It is always a good sign when the Sommelier looks at the bottle and says, "Ah, yes, we just got our allocation up in the cellar and I've been eyeing it in anticipation." It wasn't on the wine list yet, but it turns out they had cases of the stuff. I generally bring my own bottle when going out to the higher end restaurants, because I would rather pay the corkage fee than the markup. I sometimes feel bad if the wine I bring is actually on the list, though. Sometimes.

The wine itself was everything I asked for. It was very crisp, slightly dry wine with hints of apple and pear, and just a touch of oak. There was no alcohol burn. It was obviously a white wine made well. Usually I don't like Sauvignon Blancs at all.

Throughout the meal, the Sommelier kept returning to top off our glasses. After dinner, we still had close to half a bottle left, however (we're light weights). So I invited him to have a taste with us. He poured himself a glass and we spent about 10 minutes chatting about the various wines we like, and he told us about some of the rare one-off bottles they had upstairs. Then he offered to take us up to the cellar to have a look around. Of course we accepted.

Their cellar was certainly well-stocked. The front room consisted of boxes of wines on their main list. The next room consisted of wines on the full, expanded list which comes in a binder if you ask for it. The back room also contained the really old or rare bottles. He explained the acquire many through estate auctions or people selling their entire cellars. He let me hold a 1945 Haut-Brion. He also showed us some Latour bottles from the 50's and 60's. They had Grange going back to, oh, around the beginning of time as well as many other Aussie wines of all vintages.

Another interesting feature was the extensive collection of "send-backs." These are the bottles that are, ostensibly, corked and rejected by the consumer. It was an eclectic collection. He said they save them and return them to the distributor.

It was great experience and Wild Ginger now moves up my list of great Seattle restaurants quite a bit.

2005 Columbia Winery Cellar Master's Riesling

Got this for a guest. It was around $10. It's pure sweet, cheap crap.

why buy expensive wine?

Slate has an article today on one man's pursuit of a rare $700 wine. This is a good read for those of you who ask questions like, "is that $100 wine really that much better than this $10 wine?" This might give you some insight on why someone would be willing to spend so much money on a single bottle of wine.

The most expensive bottle I have ever bought has been the various vintages of Penfold's Grange at about $225.

What is the most expensive bottle you have ever bought?