Another Smörgåsbord of Wine Porn

In no particular order:



I found a bunch of this 2000 Rosemount Hill of Gold Shiraz in a local wine store. I'm not sure what the current release is, but this one is a few years old. If you have this wine, drink now. It will not be getting any better. It is brown around the edges and incredibly pungent. It is a decent wine, if you're feeling adventurous. I picked this up a few months ago for $20.



Next we have the 2004 Matthews Claret. A great Washington wine, good for all occasions. I enjoyed it quite a bit.



I have nothing good to say about the 2004 BV Napa Valley Merlot, so I will say nothing.



The 2004 PlumpJack St. Helena Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon is a great wine. Very different from the more recent PlumpJack vintages, but the oak has mellowed quite a bit and the flavors are much more integrated than when it was young. A great wine, but a bit on the expensive side at $50.



The 2005 Scabi, in addition to having one of the most visually appealing wine labels in my collection, is also a great drop! I've only found it through Garagiste the one time I got it, but I would recommend it to anyone if you can find it.



Last but not least in anyway is the 2006 Justin Savant, their Cab/Syrah blend. It's a great wine, but not as spectacular as I had hoped. Only available through their wine club (or the right local Bay area store, as I found), this wine is about $50. And because Justin always has lots of useful information on the back label, the back of the bottle:

Party Wine

A few weeks ago we had a sort of house-warming party. Sara BBQ'd some ribs, made some other dishes, and invited my new coworkers over for dinner. I ducked into the closet and came out with the following.



The 2004 Chester-Kidder, a merlot. A good merlot, but not really my style of wine. It's smooth and drinkable, but does not have the nice fruity flavor I tend to go for.

The 2005 Portteus Zinfandel, of which I can not say enough good things. Have you joined their wine club yet? Why not?! This is a Washington Zin that puts a lot of California wines in their place. Think of it as Turley that you can actually get a hold of. Though I hear the 2006 is a very different sort of Zin. I am looking forward to trying it.

The 2002 Moulin-St. Georges, my stand-by Bordeaux. I got a lot of this vintage from Garagiste at a ridiculously low price. I love to pull it out for guests.

The 2006 Mark Ryan The Dissident. There are two things I believe to be true about Mark Ryan. One, he is a great wine maker. Two, his wines are over-priced. This particular bottle was a gift, so the second theorem is rendered moot. The wine is billed as a "red table wine," which is about right. It was a decent enough drinker, though honestly I think I only had a small taste of it. It was a bright and fruity wine. If you like Mark Ryan's other wines, this one will please you. Though I think for the price, you can do better.



I will end this post with a picture of the awesome coconut cakes that Sara made, and a promise of more posts to follow soon.

2005 Justin Justification

Sara's parents came to visit us in Palo Alto. Sara made a cassoulet the first night they were here (which was excellent) and I wanted to open a nicer bottle to go along with it. You can see for yourself in the picture below that we enjoyed the wine.



The wine is a great blend of 64% Cabernet Franc and 36% Merlot. The wine was still young, with the some pretty recognizable vanilla flavors in it that will fade over time. The tannins were tame and it wasn't acidic at all; the wine was smooth and complex with a fairly short finish. It is a good drinking wine that goes great with home cooking. Now I can not decide if I like it or Isosceles better.

If that is the only difficult decision I have to make, I guess things are going pretty well.

2004 Plumpjack Merlot

My friend Ben is always going on and on about how terrible Merlot is, how nobody knows how to grow it or make wine from it, and how, in general, he thinks it is all a bunch of worthless, tannic piss. He might have a point, in the general case. However, I felt duty-bound to show him that at least one California wine maker knows what they are doing.

One of the best wines I have ever had is the Plumpjack Merlot. When it was young and just bottled it had intense notes of vanilla and was just a great, big, rich, earthy wine. Now that it has had a year in the bottle the vanilla has mellowed out quite a bit. It has become quite drinkable and classy. It's a damn good wine with a great taste and smell. Smooth, earthy, dark fruit. Mellow, supple tannins. There are few wines I would rather have than this one at this price point ($50).

1998 Beausejour

I picked up a half case of the 1998 Beausejour from Garagiste. This was a good move on my part. I began seriously collecting wine in 2002, so my oldest bottles are from 1999 and 2000. Well, I have a '97 Grange but I recently got that to fill out my vertical. Anyway, back the Bordeaux.

The Beausejour is a Pomerol, which means it's going to be a Merlot-based blend. The more time I spend drinking Shiraz, the more I am wary of Merlot, but this wine did not disappoint. It is a medium bodied wine and had nice, structured fruit in front and a very long finish. Parker said it had "remarkable symmetry." Which I agree with.

For me this is a food wine. On it's own it is drinkable, but seems a bit thing. With the right meats and cheeses this wine could be an exceptional experience.

2002 Chateau Moulin-St. Georges

Ah, Bordeaux. More specifically St. Emilion. My favorite french appellation (Pomerol comes in second). Moulin-St. Georges is one of my favorite bottles, and the 2002 Cheateau Moulin-St. Georges is drinking quite nicely. On release Parker rated it 89-91, but I believe it has improved in the bottle.

The wine had lost the intense St. Emilion sent that comes from the bottle when it is young, to be replaced by a lighter, but still earthy smell. The first few minutes were disappointing, but after a good swirl or four it opened up nicely. It had a nice subtle mineral taste. The fruit had a hint of cherry or raspberry. The tannins were completely mellow. It was noticebly thinner feeling, but still rather full bodied. It still has it's dark, inky color.

2004 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Merlot

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Rispoli Event. The event was the 2006-2007 UW PMP CS Masters Graduates Dinner at the Yarrow Bay Grill. I was a graduate. Mr. Rispoli was the organizer of said event. We all had a great time.

Now, Yarrow Bay Grill is a pretty decent resturaunt. Their wine list is mostly Washington and California, with a few other nations represented in small quantities. Their list is a pretty good indicator of who's who in Washington state. They have plenty of DeLille and one of my favorites, the Sequel Syrah. So I was excited to eat their.

Turns out the catered meal came with our choice of red or white. The red was the 2004 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Merlot. It seems these days Mondavi's name is all over the place in the grocery store. This is a $10 wine and I didn't expect much from it. However, as far as $10 Merlots go, you'd be hard pressed to find I better one I think. I'll open nominations now. The wine was completely inoffensive, with just a slight bit of alcohol burn on the back end. There wasn't especially anything complex or interesting going on, but for free I could drink it all night.

I'm just going to take time out and give props to Mondavi. Everything I've had from them has been a quality drop. I haven't ever been super-wowed, even by Opus One (before you jump on my case, realize I haven't tried every vintage ever made), but I've never been sorely disappointed... or mad.

There, glad I got that out of the way. I can't wait to see what I get to drink tonight.

1998 Behrens & Hitchcock Merlot

Sara's father brought a 1998 Behrens & Hitchcock Merlot over to help celebrate Sara's mother's birthday. Up front I have to say it's a great winery and an obviously well made wine. And I love a good Merlot. One of my favorite wine's is the PlumpJack Merlot and if I could afford it I would drink it every night. That said, the majority of Merlots (where the wine is overwhelmingly Merlot; I often love blends that involve Merlot) just do not do it for me and this was one of those wines. It was smooth--not too tannic--and the label is very pretty. But I can't really say much more for it.